Hans Schmidt’s Sanity Is To Be Left To The Jury

Judge Foster Finds Nothing to Justify Examination by Alienists Now.

Justice Warren W. Foster in General Sessions today denied the motion of Lawyer Terence J. McManus for the appointment of two alienists to examine Hans Schmidt, the confessed murderer of Anna Aumueller, before the beginning of the trial of Schmidt next Tuesday. Assistant District-Attorney Delehanty for the people promised that if anything occurred during the trial to indicate that Schmidt was insane the District-Attorney would ask that the trial be stopped and the question of Schmidt’s insanity be settled then and there.

Mr. McManus in support of his motion for alienists said that Schmidt had refused to talk with him or with former Judge Olcott in the Tombs in regard to his defense.

“But he talks with Mr. Koelble,” suggested Assistant District-Attorney Delehanty, Mr. Koelble being of counsel for the prisoner.

“About everything except his case,” explained Mr. Koelble.

“It may be that he has told all he cares to tell,” suggested Judge Foster, “and regards it as a needless strain and worry to repeat what he has already said.”

“It would seem,” said Mr. Delehanty, “that the attorneys for the defense think that this man is insane because he insists on telling the truth. He is guilty and knows he is guilty. His confession and his persistence in it are not evidence of insanity.”

Judge Foster said that in the report of the previous commission he could find nothing to convince him that Schmidt was insane and said that the issue of insanity could well be left to the jury at the trial.

Assistant District-Attorney Deacon Murphy arrived here today on the Majestic with testimony regarding Schmidt taken by him in Frankfort on Main, Germany, before United States Consul Heaton W. Harris. There are fifteen thousand words on the record. The inquiry lasted ten days. Many clergymen and all the available relatives of Schmidt were asked about his life in Germany. Mr. Murphy would not discuss the contents of the record except to say that it contained nothing detrimental to Schmidt.

Hans Schmidt’s Sanity Is To Be Left To The Jury, The Evening World, 21 November 1913, page 12, column 3.