When Killers Get Caught: A True Crime Podcast · Ransom Storytelling Studios LLC

The Only Priest Sent to the Electric Chair: The True Crimes of Hans Schmidt

January 1, 2026·14 min·1 clip

Hans Schmidt confessed to murder, telling police, 'I loved her. Sacrifices should be consummated in blood,' framing the act as a ritual.

This episode tells the story of Hans Schmidt, a Catholic priest who in 1913 murdered and dismembered a young woman, Anna Ameler, after secretly marrying her. Schmidt's disturbing childhood fascination with blood and ritual, his history of being transferred by the Church to avoid scandal, and his shocking justification of the murder as a 'sacrifice consummated in blood' are explored, culminating in his 1916 execution—making him the only Catholic priest ever executed in the United States.

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