Muret Decides to be a Witness Against Schmidt
Fear of Transfer to Custody of Secret Service Makes Him Weaken.
Schmidt Identified.
Parents of Accused Priest, Slayer of Girl, Remove All Doubt.
It was announced at the District Attorney’s office today that friends of Dr. Ernest Muret, the bogus dentist, who was arrested with Hans Schmidt, the murderer of Anna Aumueller, had made representations which will lead to Muret turning State’s evidence against Schmidt. Muret wants the District Attorney, in return for evidence against Schmidt, to use his influence with the Federal authorities in the way of releasing the pressure of prosecution on the counterfeiting indictments found against Muret and Schmidt.
Muret had denied all knowledge of the Aumueller murder until yesterday when he found that he was about to be transferred to the custody of the Federal authorities and placed on trial for counterfeiting. Then his memory was aroused and he sent word to Assistant District Attorney Delehanty that he had something to say.
In consequence the deal by which Muret was to have been handed over to the Federal authorities today was revised. He was arraigned in the Court of Special Sessions for sentence on his plea of guilty of violation of the Sullivan law. The plan had been to suspend sentence and give him into the custody of Secret Service agents.
Instead, on motion of the District Attorney, sentence was postponed for two weeks. Muret was taken to the office of Assistant District Attorney Delehanty, where he was questioned at length by Delehanty and Assistant District Attorney Murphy.
Dr. George H. Kirby, Clinical Director of the Manhattan States Hospital for the Insane on Ward’s Island, was selected today as the third alienist to pass upon the mental condition of Hans Schmidt for the information of the District Attorney. The others are Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald and Dr. William Mabon.
Schmidt was taken from his cell in the Tombs to the private office of District Attorney Whitman in the Criminal Courts Building this afternoon. The three alienists were awaiting his arrival and proceeded to put him through a series of tests.
Parents Identify Photos As Schmidt’s.
All doubt at [sic] to whether the man charged with the murder of Anna Aumueller is Hans Schmidt, the priest, seemed dispelled today by dispatches from Germany that his parents and relatives in Aschaffenburg have positively identified the photographs sent them by the New York police. The police in some of the German cities where Schmidt is well known doubted he and the slayer were the same, from the pictures they saw, but the photographs from the New York police left no doubt in the minds of his family.
Coroner Feinberg is summoning prominent men to sit on the inquest jury Oct. 3, but he declines to give out any of the names.
While Schmidt is not allowed to receive visitors except by consent of counsel, everybody who visits the Tombs wants to see him.
Muret Decides to be a Witness Against Schmidt, The Evening Word, 26 September 1913, page 3, column 6.