The Shocking Story of Helmuth Schmidt, page 19
43. Willemse, Lemmer and Kofoed, Behind the Green Lights, 209.
44. Pontiac Press Gazette. March 21, 1918.
45. Hetherington told Gillespie, during two separate interviews, that Augusta left the boardinghouse just once. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 27, 1918, and Detroit Free Press, April 27, 1918. He later changed his story when he gave an interview to a Detroit Free Press correspondent that was published on April 28, 1917.
46. According to some news reports, Gertrude was seventeen in April 1918, but this is an error. Gertrude Schmidt was born on January 15, 1900, making her eighteen at the time of her arrest.
47. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 23, 1918.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. An article published in the April 28, 1918 edition of the Detroit News refers to this watch as the key clue in the investigation into Schmidt’s crimes. An article in the Detroit Free Press of April 27, 1918, describes some of the etchings. In addition to March 11, 1917, the watch contained the dates of July 17, 1916; October 23, 1913, with the letters “A.B.C.”; and November 6, 1913, with the inscription “A. Bremen.”
51. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 23, 1918.
52. Ibid. Schmidt apparently fulfilled the requirements of Ford’s Sociological Department and earned the full five-dollars-a-day wage, sometimes working six days a week.
53. There is no official transcript of Schmidt’s confession. Schmidt agreed to give a formal statement in front of stenographer if they gave him a lunch break. Gillespie agreed and sent for a stenographer, but Schmidt’s suicide prevented a formal record of his statements. Parts of Schmidt’s confession, albeit in fragments, made it into the newspapers through statements Gillespie gave to the press. According to an article in the Pontiac Press Gazette on April 24, 1918, Schmidt asked for a translator because he didn’t understand the questions, but they denied him this request.
54. Pontiac Press Gazette, May 2, 1918.
55. Detroit Free Press, April 24, 1918.
56. This portion of Schmidt’s confession was kept from the press at first, pending the discovery of “Emma’s” identity. Detectives later identified her as Emma Berchoffsky.
57. Detroit Free Press, April 24, 1918.
58. Detroit Free Press, April 22, 1918.
59. Detroit Free Press, April 25, 1918.
60. Detroit Free Press, April 24, 1918.
61. Ibid.
62. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 23, 1918.
63. Detroit News, April 24, 1918.
64. Twenty-four-year-old Helene Tietz arrived in the United States aboard the passenger ship Blucher on October 6, 1907. According to the ship’s passenger manifest (page 243, lines 1 and 2), Helene (later “Helen”) traveled with her sister, twenty-six-year-old Elise Tietz, who was a resident of New York and had lived in the United States since 1887. Helen’s entry is found on page 242, line 2 of the manifest. “Passenger and Crew Lists,” 105, lines 1–2.
65. According to her sister, Helen corresponded with “Herman Scharno.” When she and her sister visited Scharno in Detroit, they discovered his true identity and his alleged reason for adopting the name Ullrich. See statement of Mina Hofbauer, “Mina and the Letter.” A few days after her arrival in Detroit, Helen wed Schmidt. Marriage license record no. 125343, Wayne County Clerk, Wayne County, Michigan, contains the details of the marriage. Justice of the Peace Fred E. DeGaw presided over the marriage of Helen A. Tietz, thirty-five, and “Hellmuth” E. Schmidt, thirty-nine, on December 22, 1915. Under the column of previous marriages, Schmidt reported “one.” The document lists the witnesses as Henry A. Schiller and Schmidt’s daughter, Gertrude, and gives “engineer” as Schmidt’s profession.
66. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 25, 1918.
67. Detroit Free Press, April 26, 1918
68. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 23, 1918.
69. Minna Rederer’s statement is quoted from the Detroit Free Press of April 24, 1918. The Detroit City Guide of 1916 lists the resident of 418 Glendale Avenue as “Adolph Ullrich.”
70. Ibid.
71. Frederick De Planta worked as a machinist for the Ford Motor Company and probably first met Ullrich at the Highland Park factory.
72. Marriage license record no. 125343, Wayne County Clerk.
73. Detroit Free Press, May 3, 1918.
74. Detroit Free Press, April 24, 1918.
75. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 24, 1918.
76. Ibid.
77. New York Tribune, April 24, 1918.
78. New York Times, April 24, 1918.
79. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 25, 1918.
80. Ibid.
81. As early as August 1915, news accounts linked “Emil Braun” with Helmuth Schmidt. An item titled “Bride Plays the Spy on Husband: Mrs. Emil Braun Becomes Suspicious and Does Some Detective Work,” published on August 18, 1915, in the Clyde (NY) Herald, details Adele’s early investigation into her husband’s disappearance.
82. Carol Bird, “Bluebeard’s Daughter Now Glad He’s Dead,” Detroit Free Press, April 26, 1918. At the time, reporters were occasionally allowed to sit in on interviews, take notes and even pose questions to the accused. This wasn’t a common practice, but the news coverage of the Schmidt case indicates that members of the press were given access to the suspects during some of the interviews. For example, Bird later described Gertrude’s flirtatiousness with her interrogators. See “The Enigmatic Gertrude Schmidt.”
83. Ibid. Gertrude’s statement is quoted in Bird’s article.
84. Ibid.
85. Ibid.
86. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 25, 1918. Plummer probably sent the letter with the circular at the same time he sent the telegram.
87. Willemse described Agnes as extremely reticent, and his characterization is evident in the fact that detectives had to coax her out of her hotel room when she reached Detroit. He also noted that she shunned publicity. Like with Gertrude, then, many of her statements evaded print.
88. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 26, 1918.
89. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 27, 1918.
90. Detroit Free Press, April 28, 1918.
PART III
91. Carol Bird, “‘Emil Hypnotist and Actor; He Was Idolized by Women,’ Says Schmidt’s Second Wife,” Detroit Free Press, April 27, 1918. While other area newspapers invariably refer to Adele’s surname as “Braun,” the Detroit Free Press Anglicized her surname, calling her “Adele Ullrich-Brown.” This is consistent with the anti-German sentiment of the time. By the time the story of Bluebeard broke in April 1918, the United States had been at war with Germany for more than a year, and Germans across the county rechristened themselves with Anglicized versions of their surnames.
92. Schmidt sent Adele away for a day when Edward Rederer came to visit on behalf of Irma Pallatinus. See the statement of Minna Rederer.
93. Detroit Free Press, April 29, 1918.
94. Bird, “Emil Hypnotist and Actor.”
95. Detroit Free Press, April 29, 1918.
96. Bird, “Emil Hypnotist and Actor.”
97. Variations of this portion of Adele’s statement appeared in several area newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press, April 29, 1918, and the Pontiac Press Gazette, April 27, 1918.
98. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 27, 1918.
99. The Detroit Free Press, the Detroit Times, the Detroit News and the Pontiac Press Gazette all sent correspondents to cover this scene. Portions of Adele’s statement appear in Bird, “Emil Hypnotist and Actor.” A transcription of Adele’s complete statement appeared in the April 27, 1918 edition of the Pontiac Press Gazette. Most of the quotes in this chapter come from this transcription.
100. Gertrude emigrated from Germany with two women: a “friend” of Schmidt’s named Minna Baersch and a “sister” named Minna Gülzow. “Greta Braun” could have been either of them. According to Gertrude, Minna Baersch disappeared in late December just before Adele married her father, so Baersch probably played the role of “Greta Braun.”
101. Ellis Island records indicate that Schmidt arrived in New York on November 6, 1913, aboard the SS Bremen (passenger manifest, line 5). The timing is curious. He departed from Bremen and arrived in the United States just a week after Gertrude, who departed not from Bremen but Hamburg. The German immigration files from vessels departing from the port of Bremen were destroyed during World War II.
102. Ellis Island records indicate that fourteen-year-old “Gertrud” Schmidt (passenger manifest line 17) came through Ellis Island on the Amerika alongside twenty-six-year-old Minna Baerch (line 16) and thirty-three-year-old Minna Gülzow (line 15) on November 13, 1913. The passenger manifest lists “Helmuth Schmidt” as Gertrud’s father and Minna Baerch’s “friend.” According to the manifest, Minna Gülzow (line 15) was married. The notation “Aunt to No. 17” appears next to her name on the roster. “Helmuth Schmidt” is listed as her American connection, with the word “friend” crossed out and replaced (in parenthesis) by the word “brother.” The manifest indicates that the three were traveling together and clearly going to meet Schmidt, but Minna Gülzow’s relationship to Schmidt remains obscure. “Passenger and Crew Lists,” roll 2222, page 107, line 15–17.
103. Testimony of Adele Ullrich Braun, May 27, 1918, Probate Court for County of Oakland, Michigan, “In the Matter of the Estate of Helmuth Schmidt, Deceased,” case file 14376.
104. The article “Bride Plays the Spy on Husband” in the Clyde (NY) Herald hints that Braun was a spy with a not-so-subtle subtitle: “Fondness for Night Journeys, Views of American Forts and His Skill at Penning Code Letters, Had Military Significance.” Although the writer carefully avoided using the word “spy” to describe Braun, he characterizes him as deft in writing code “with the ease and rapidity of a stenographer. His code is practically undecipherable in that each character represents a word.” In referring to the “bride” playing “spy” on her husband in the article’s title, the writer also alluded to Braun’s alleged espionage.
105. Bird, “Emil Hypnotist and Actor.”
106. Criminal abandonment was vigorously prosecuted at the time.
107. Pontiac Press Gazette, May 3, 1918.
108. New York Times, April 27, 1918.
109. Detroit News, April 26, 1918.
110. Detroit News, April 28, 1918.
111. Detroit Times, April 26, 1918. The five women were Pallatinus, Steinbach, Berchoffsky, Murray and “Mrs. Helmuth Schmidt No. 1.”
112. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 29, 1918.
113. Ibid.
114. Quoted in Bird, “Chum of Slain Girl.”
115. Ibid.
116. Ibid.
117. Ibid. This letter apparently convinced Agnes that Augusta lived in Royal Oak for as long as two months, but the facts don’t support this idea. Lena Welch, who kept close tabs on her neighbor, saw Augusta just twice.
118. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 27, 1918.
119. According to the marriage certificate, Anna Hocke married John Swift on December 14, 1914, in the Bronx. The groom signed his name as “John Switt,” but official sources (including court documents) refer to “John Swift” as “John Switt,” and Anna Hocke signed her affidavit as Anna Hocke Switt, so the spelling on the marriage license is probably a clerical error.
120. The marriage certificate lists Switt’s father as “Joseph” and his mother’s maiden name as “Marie Hajda.” City of New York Municipal Archives, certificate and record of marriage, John Swift to Anna Hocke, certificate number 30961.
121. Marriage license record no. 125343, Wayne County Clerk. The marriage record lists only the first names of the bride and groom. On the passenger manifest from the SS Bremen, Schmidt’s nearest kin in Germany is listed as his father, “Julius Schmidt,” and fourteen-year-old “Elizabeth”—almost certainly a reference to Gertrude Schmidt, who would have been about that age.
122. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 26, 1918.
123. Statement of Adele M. Braun, May 27, 1918, “In the Matter of the Estate of Helmuth Schmidt, Deceased.”
124. Detroit Free Press, April 28, 1918.
125. New York Sun, April 29, 1918. This article provides an excellent example of how Schmidt’s multiple identities confounded journalists, leading to confused news reports about the case. The anonymous New York Sun correspondent reported that Schmidt had been arrested “alongside” George Roloff and his wife, but Helmuth Schmidt was George Roloff.
126. Royal Oak Tribune, May 3, 1918.
127. Carol Bird, “Gertrude Schmidt in Varying Moods, Smiles, Then Weeps Way out of Difficult Situations,” Detroit Free Press, April 28, 1918.
128. Ibid.
129. Ibid. While the other principals in the case—Adele Ullrich in particular—had no problem speaking in front of the press, Gertrude appears to have distrusted reporters. As a result, her off-the-record statements never made it to print.
130. Ibid.
131. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 27, 1918. Evidently, Gertrude didn’t tell the prosecutor “the real truth” at first. During his first exoneration of Gertrude, Gillespie stated that investigators had reason to believe that Schmidt “did away” with his first wife in Germany. See “Gertrude and Helen.”
132. Buda Stephens, “Daughter of Schmidt Victim of Prussianism,” Detroit News, April 27, 1918.
133. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 24, 1918.
134. In April 1918, A.E. Crosby’s “undertaking establishment” was located at 2873 Woodward Avenue.
135. Detroit News, April 28, 1918.
136. Ibid.
137. New York Times, April 29, 1918.
138. Detroit Free Press, April 28, 1918.
139. Detroit Free Press, April 30, 1918.
140. Schmidt may also have passed off Anita Schmidt as his sister, although the investigators were unaware of this at the time. See the “Unanswered Questions” chapter.
141. According to a Detroit Free Press item published on April 27—the day before Hetherington’s revelation—Gillespie believed that even if Helen and Gertrude were at home and played along as Neugebauer’s sisters, Michigan law would shield them from prosecution.
142. Detroit Free Press, April 30, 1918.
143. Ibid.
144. Schmidt, record number 3941, is buried in an unmarked grave in section 32, space 611.
145. Detroit Free Press, April 30, 1918.
146. Ibid.
147. It is conceivable that Gillespie’s praise of the Press Gazette was a veiled criticism of the page-one article from the Sunday, April 28 edition of the Detroit Free Press. The tone and content of this article, containing the statements of Domaniecki, Welch and Hetherington, hinted at complicity on the part of Helen and Gertrude, but Gillespie had publicly commented that even if they were home on March 4 when Schmidt brought Augusta Steinbach to Royal Oak, the law shielded them from prosecution. Gillespie also made this comment lauding the Press Gazette after he read the article containing Hetherington’s statement about Augusta’s sisters but before Cryderman verified it later that afternoon. Based on Hetherington’s earlier statements, Gillespie worked on the assumption that Augusta left the boardinghouse just once, so he may have considered the Free Press story unreliable and perhaps irresponsible.
148. Gillespie’s statement to the press quoted in the Pontiac Press Gazette, April 29, 1918. The Free Press also ran Gillespie’s statement, but it came one day later, in its April 30 story—the same edition that described Cryderman’s telephone call to Hetherington. The Press Gazette printed Gillespie’s statement in entirety, while the Free Press only printed a portion of it, omitting the paragraph praising the Press Gazette.
149. Pontiac Press Gazette, April 30, 1918.
150. Detroit Free Press, April 28, 1918.
151. News of Mrs. Welch’s statement appeared in a Detroit Free Press item printed on Saturday, April 27. It is possible that Hetherington read the report, which reminded him of the earlier visit that Augusta made to Royal Oak.
152. In a Detroit Free Press article published on May 1, 1918, Gillespie said that he didn’t know if he would call Gertrude to testify. It is probable that the new information from Hetherington prompted him to put the teenager on the stand.
153. According to an item in the May 1, 1918 Detroit Free Press, Prosecutor Gillespie “has apparently abandoned his intention of making the arraignment a mere formal dismissal of the charge and will have testimony taken, if for no other purpose, he says, than to make a record of it.” In light of Hetherington’s revised statement, Gillespie evidently wanted to question Gertrude Schmidt in an official venue. It is also possible that Gillespie wanted to answer criticism from Wayne County officers by having Gertrude’s story made official during a court proceeding.
PART IV
154. Deposition of Anna Hocke Switt, June 7, 1918, “In the Matter of the Estate of Helmuth Schmidt, Deceased.”
155. Pontiac Press Gazette, May 8, 1918.
156. Office of the Wayne County Medical Examiner, autopsy report for Irma Pallatinus, May 2, 1918. In his autopsy notes, Dr. French described the body as “decomposed.” Under favorable conditions, bodies may become mummified, but in this case, this characterization was probably an invention of reporters. The body remained wrapped in canvas until it reached the morgue, and the only witnesses present during the postmortem were Drs. Dick and French and Detectives Dibble and Reid, so reporters didn’t even see the body.
157. Ibid. The examination lasted thirty minutes.
158. This was the only identification of the remains done at the time.
159. Autopsy report for Irma Pallatinus. In 1918, Michigan employed coroners, who were elected officials but typically not physicians. The coroner would issue an official report after a county doctor conducted an autopsy and determined cause of death. In the Pallatinus case, Dr. Dick conducted the autopsy, and Wayne County coroner Morgan Parker signed Dick’s report and announced a cause of death.
160. Pontiac Press Gazette, May 3, 1918.
161. Pontiac Press Gazette, May 2, 1918.
162. Testimony of T.H. Hetherington, May 2, 1918, quoted in the Pontiac Press Gazette, May 3, 1918. The Press Gazette was the only area newspaper to provide a partial transcript of testimony at the hearing. The Detroit Free Press, in a page-one item on May 3, 1918, provided synopses.
