Muret on Trial as Counterfeiter; Schmidt Listens

Litter of Photographic Apparatus for Exhibits Against Dentist.

Woman is Witness

Mrs. Bowie, Who Rented Flat to Slayer and Friend, Goes on Stand.

With two tables and a work bench with photographic printing and retouching materials spread before them as prospective exhibits, Assistant United States District-Attorneys Wood and Osborne today begin to present the Government’s case against the friend and associate of Hans Schmidt, the slayer priest, Dr. Ernest A. Muret on trial before Judge Hunt in the Federal District Court, charged with having in his possession a counterfeit plate of a twenty-dollar bill.

The great mass of apparatus and supplies taken from the apartment rented jointly by Schmidt and Muret at No.516 West One Hundred and __ -fourth street was brought to court to be offered as evidence of Muret’s intention to go into counterfeiting on a large scale. It is the contention of the defense, represented by Attorney Augustine Derby, that Muret and Schmidt intended to go into the picture postal card business, and that the materials found in the room are as adaptable to postal card manufacture as any other purpose.

Attorney Derby made a vigorous attempt to have the accumulation of future exhibits removed from the sight of the jurors until the time comes for its introduction as evidence, Judge Hunt, however, ruled with the District-Attorneys, and the courtroom continued to look like a cyclone-swept photographic laboratory.

Slayer Schmidt, Wearing Beard, Is A Listener.

Hans Schmidt, the confessed slayer of Anna Aumueller, was an attentive listener to the opening statements of the prosecution. He was accompanied from the Tombs by Keeper Carroll. Since his incarceration Schmidt has permitted his beard to grow until today it is a full and neatly trimmed Van Dyke. From the close shaven priest who murdered his sweetheart and threw portions of her body in the Hudson River Schmidt has transformed his appearance to that of a dignified, serious doctor of science.

District-Attorney Wood in his opening address told of the finding of the counterfeit plate in Hans Schmidt’s trunk in his room at the rectory of his church. He contended that the Government would show that Muret helped make the plate and that the two were planning to begin counterfeiting on an extensive scale.

The first witness was Mrs. Margaret Bowie, agent for the apartment house where Schmidt and Muret, the latter calling himself George Miller, took the flat in which they established the photographic apparatus last June.

The identification of the exhibit offered by the Government by the tradesmen who sold the materials to Muret and Schmidt took several hours. The prosecution laid emphasis on the introduction of a ream of strong white paper which the Government contends could be used for counterfeiting.

Some of this paper had been cut to the size of paper money.

Muret on Trial as Counterfeiter; Schmidt Listens, The Evening World, 24 October 1913, page 28, column 1.