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I'm about to play a clip from

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from Kill. Follow Thou Shot Not Kill

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on Kill on the wherever you get your

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podcasts. you get your thought only God would

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hold them accountable for their crimes. But

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they were wrong. they were wrong. At the

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the heart of every major religion

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is a sense of unity, of oneness

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with your fellow fellow your spirit,

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and with your with your

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God. Thou shalt not kill one one

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of the Ten Commandments and for

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many forms the backbone of living

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a religious life, life. which makes it

0:30

all the more incomprehensible to us

0:32

when those who appear to live

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in the appear to out to have

0:36

sunk to the darkest depths, to the

0:38

spilling blood and hiding their crimes

0:40

behind their faith. their crimes

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behind nuns, rabbis, the list

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goes on. on. What drives

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a spiritual leader to

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commit such a mortal sin?

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sin? I'm going

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to find out. to Thou

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shalt Not Kill. A new Kill, a

0:57

new true crime podcast hosted

0:59

by me, I'm an actor, a I'm an

1:01

actor, a podcast presenter in my

1:03

as a woman in my a true

1:05

crime a true crime fanatic.

1:07

I'm So every episode, I'm going

1:09

to take you through all

1:11

the twists and turns of a

1:13

single case, and I'll be

1:15

checking in with some incredible experts

1:17

along the way. the way. Jennifer A. Hurt,

1:20

Professor of of Christian Ethics at

1:22

Yale, Crime and and religion expert Goldsmiths, Professor

1:24

Emeritus Abby Day, forensic psychologist Kerry

1:26

Danes will all be dropping

1:28

in to help unpick some

1:30

of the in psychology, sociology knotty

1:32

theology underpinning these crimes. underpinning

1:35

get into everything, from what might provoke

1:37

a bishop to go on a

1:39

crime spree a why a priest would

1:41

be obsessed with the idea of a

1:43

blood idea of a blood What happened

1:45

to the to nun who vanished

1:47

in who vanished was there really

1:50

a was there really a in plain

1:52

sight in a plain sight in

1:54

Ohio? hospital in Ohio?

1:56

Here's a preview of Episode

1:58

1. one. Thank

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you watching!

2:13

You It's perhaps

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the ultimate sin. Priests,

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nuns and nuns, and other

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spiritual leaders turn murderous, hiding

2:21

their evil deeds behind

2:23

their faith. They thought They thought

2:25

only God would hold them accountable for

2:28

their crimes, but they were wrong. wrong.

2:31

At the heart of every major

2:33

religion is a sense of unity,

2:35

of oneness with your fellow followers,

2:37

your your spirit, and your with your

2:40

This podcast's name, Thou shalt Not

2:42

Kill, one is one of

2:44

the Commandments, and for many forms

2:46

the backbone of living a

2:48

religious life. life. which makes

2:50

it all the more incomprehensible to

2:52

us when those who appear

2:54

to live in the to live in

2:56

out to have sunk to the

2:58

very darkest depths we as

3:00

humans can imagine, as spilling blood

3:02

and hiding their crimes behind their

3:04

faith. their crimes behind their nuns, rabbis,

3:06

the list goes on. on. What

3:08

drives these spiritual leaders to commit

3:10

such a mortal sin? a mortal sin?

3:13

Welcome to Thou shalt Not Kill, a true

3:15

a true crime podcast hosted

3:17

by me, Leon Brophy. I'm an I'm

3:19

an actor, podcast presenter and, as

3:21

as a woman in my

3:24

30s, surprise surprise, also a a true crime.

3:26

So, every episode, episode, to take going

3:28

to take you through all

3:30

the twists and turns of

3:32

a single case And I'll be I'll

3:34

be checking in with a

3:36

couple of experts along the

3:38

way. the way. Jennifer A. Hurt, professor of

3:40

Christian Ethics at Yale, crime and

3:43

and religion expert Goldsmiths Professor

3:45

Emeritus Abbey Abby Day, and consultant psychologist

3:47

Kerry Danes will be dropping

3:49

in to help unpick some

3:51

of the naughty psychology, some

3:53

sociology and theology underpinning these

3:55

crimes. these crimes. We'll get into everything what might

3:57

what might provoke a bishop to go

3:59

on a a crimes... why a Catholic priest

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would be obsessed with the idea

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of a blood sacrifice. And yes

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guys, the call is coming from

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inside the house, I was raised

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a Catholic. I was actually an

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altar server. Okay, I'm not going

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to lie, I was head altar

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server. So shout out to the

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Church of Transfiguration in Kenzel Rise.

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And yes, my relationship with organised

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religion may have shifted somewhat, but

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it's still within me, and I

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have the Catholic guilt to prove

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it. So our story today starts

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more than 100 years ago. It's

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the notorious case of Hans Schmidt,

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a man with the dubious distinction

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of being the only Catholic priest

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ever to be executed in the

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history of the USA. Father Schmidt

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was put to death by electric

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chair at Sing Sing Prison in

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New York on the 18th of

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February 1916. But there were so

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many red flags before we get

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to the gruesome crime he was

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finally convicted of. So,

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who was Hans Schmidt? What on

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earth did he do that convinced

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a court to put a priest

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to death? And tragically, what chances

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were missed to stop him before

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things went that far? Could lives

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have been saved? On

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September the 5th, 1913, two boys

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walking along the New Jersey shoreline

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of the Hudson River stumbled across

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a crudely wrapped package washed up

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on the sands. To their horror

5:26

when they unwrapped it, they discovered

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it contained part of the headless

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upper torso of a woman. The

5:33

next day, a few miles further

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down river, a second package was

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found. This was an equally grisly

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discovery, the lower torso of the

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same woman, in this case wrapped

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in newspaper and then in a

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pillow case, which was monogrammed with

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the letter A. The woman had

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been petite, maybe five foot four

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inches tall, and was likely in

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her 20s, but the police were

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unable to identify her. had

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been weighed down with large chunks

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of a particular greyish-green rock called

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Shist, which was very commonly found

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in Manhattan. This led detectives to

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believe that the crime must have

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taken place in New York, but

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where to start in a city

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of that size? Well, even though

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police couldn't identify the body, they

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could identify the pillow case. The

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monogrammed A was very distinctive, distinctive

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enough in fact, for the police

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to trace it to a specific

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company, Robinson Roaders, a bedding manufacturer

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in Newark. Robinson Roaders sold exclusively

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to a store in Manhattan, so

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the police dutifully headed over to

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8th Avenue to speak with the

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business owner, George Sachs. Fortunately enough,

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his company kept very detailed business

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records, and it was there that

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the pillow casing question was traced

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to a recent order for an

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address a short walk away. When

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the detectives arrived, the superintendent of

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the building told the officers that

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a German man named Mr Hans

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Schmidt had rented the apartment with

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his wife just a couple of

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weeks earlier. He confirmed that the

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woman he'd met matched the physical

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description of the body parts found

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and, worryingly, that he hadn't seen

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her for a few days. The

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police stayed out the apartment for

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several days, but after no one

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came or left, officers broke in.

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When they entered the third floor

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apartment, the small group of detectives

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was confronted by a grim scene.

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The walls and floor of the

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room had clearly been saturated in

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blood. A poor attempt had been

7:39

made to clean things up, but

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it was obvious that something terrible

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had happened here. Along

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with the evidence of a lot of blood, the

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police found a blood-stained butcher's knife and a handsaw,

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as well as a number of letters, all from

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women and all addressed to Hans Schmidt. The majority

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of them written by a

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woman called Anna Omla. Lead inspector Joseph Farrow set

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out set out to find

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Hans and to to question

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him about the bloodstained department

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he was renting. he was

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It was the early hours

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of September September the the

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inspector found Father Hans Schmidt

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at St. Joseph's at St

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When the priest found his

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visitors waiting for him

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in a small office and

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discovered who they were, and

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he collapsed into a

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weeping heap, confessing at once

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to both the marriage at

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the murder of marriage and the

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claiming both that I

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loved her that I more troublingly,

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that that should be consummated

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in blood. in blood. Hmm. Hans was

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arrested Hans was arrested immediately

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with charged with murder. And

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as you'd expect, circus the media

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circus erupted around the case, a

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with journalists on a mission

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to uncover everything they could about

8:53

the killer priest. to Thou shalt to

8:55

Thou Shalt Not Kill and and

8:57

now by now by joining Plus in the

8:59

the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.