The American Bluebeard Pt. 2

As suspicions around Helmuth Schmidt grow, neighbors, loved ones, and authorities begin to notice the cracks in his carefully constructed lies. Multiple identities, missing women, and chilling discoveries point to a pattern far more sinister than fraud alone. This episode follows the unraveling of Schmidt’s crimes as bystanders finally step in, leading to shocking revelations beneath the surface of his home. It’s a haunting look at how manipulation thrives on silence—and how even the most confident predators eventually lose control. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Serial Killers & Murderous Minds is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios 🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Murder True Crime Stories, Crime House 24/7, and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social Instagram: @Crimehouse https://www.instagram.com/crimehouse/ TikTok: @Crimehouse https://www.tiktok.com/@crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios https://www.facebook.com/crimehousestudios YouTube: @crimehousestudios https://www.youtube.com/@crimehousestudios

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Vanessa Richardson?

  Hi, everyone. Before today's episode, there's another show I want to tell you about. It's called What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Plus, Connor's infectious energy that'll make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on earth. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  This is Crime House.

• 0:41Vanessa Richardson?

  Have you ever heard of the bystander effect? It's the idea that people who witness a crime are more likely to turn away and do nothing to stop it, rather than step in and say something. But whether the bystander effect is totally real or not, some serial killers throughout history have certainly benefited from others' inaction. Helmuth Schmidt was one of them, a manipulative, overconfident misogynist who depended on the apathy of others in order to lure women into his web of lies and murder. But that apathy only lasted so long. Eventually, his victims' loved ones, and even his own neighbors, caught on to Helmut's game, and they would do anything

• 1:25Vanessa Richardson?

  they could to stop a vicious killer in his tracks.

• 1:44Vanessa Richardson?

  The human mind is powerful. It shapes how we think, feel, love, and hate. But sometimes it drives people to commit the unthinkable. This is Serial Killers and Murderous Minds, a Crime House original. I'm Vanessa Richardson.

• 2:00Tristin Engels?

  And I'm forensic psychologist Dr. Tristin Engels. Every Monday and Thursday, we uncover the darkest minds in history, analyzing what makes a killer.

• 2:10Vanessa Richardson?

  Crime House is made possible by you. Follow Serial Killers and Murderous Minds and subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free early access to each two-part series. Before we get started, you should know that this episode contains discussion of murder, dismemberment, and suicide. Listener discretion is advised. Today, we conclude our deep dive on Helmuth Schmidt, a serial killer who lured, trapped, and killed so many brides, he earned the nickname "The American Bluebeard" after the folk tale about a man who murders his wives.

• 2:46Tristin Engels?

  As Vanessa goes through the story, I'll be talking about things like the lengths some criminals would go to hide their guilt, how they manipulate others into silence or even lying on their behalf, and why, in the end, those same criminals might fight to protect those people's innocence.

• 3:05Vanessa Richardson?

  And as always, we'll be asking the question, what makes a killer?

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• 4:46Vanessa Richardson?

  By the spring of 1917, 41-year-old Helmuth Schmidt had left behind a trail of broken romances. But they were more than just failed relationships. Helmut had been luring, trapping, and even killing women for years. His first wife Anita, who was also the mother of his daughter Gertrude, had disappeared without a trace. So did his former mistress Margarita. Then Helmut abandoned his second and third wives Anna and Adele after stealing all their money. Then Helmut killed his fourth wife Irma shortly after they moved to Detroit. Finally, in March of 1917, Helmuth Schmidt claimed his latest

• 5:30Vanessa Richardson?

  victim, 38-year-old Augusta Steinbach. Like many of his previous victims, Augusta met Helmut through a marriage ad in the newspaper. After a quick and steamy courtship, Helmut asked Augusta to marry him. But shortly after she stepped across the threshold at 9 Oakdale Boulevard in Royal Oak, Michigan, he killed her and buried Augusta's body underneath the front porch. Afterward, Helmut was right back to his old tricks. He started placing new marriage ads in New York newspapers, looking for his next target. What he didn't realize was that people were catching on to his suspicious behavior, including his own neighbors.

• 6:13Vanessa Richardson?

  Jonathan and Lena Welsh lived next door to the Schmitz. The two families didn't really socialize, but the Welshes still noticed everyday things about the Schmitz, like Gertrude practicing her organ and Helen emptying fireplace ashes in the stream behind their house. However, there were also some unusual things that stood out, too. On March 11, 1917, the last day anyone saw Augusta, Lena claimed she saw Helmut pull into his driveway with a woman in the passenger seat who she didn't recognize. They went inside together, and moments later Lena apparently heard loud groaning coming from the house, then crying. She didn't see or hear anything for a while after that, but later that afternoon,

• 6:58Vanessa Richardson?

  Lena said someone covered up the windows of the Schmitz basement with newspaper.

• 7:04Tristin Engels?

  It feels like there's a massive contrast here. Helmut is typically very deliberate and meticulous about managing how he is perceived. He plants stories in advance, he's focused on narrative control, he worries about exposure, and he's strategic. But in this moment, it feels like he's rushed to cover up what he planned to do next in a very obvious and somewhat messy way with the newspaper over the windows and the yelling and the crying. So why is that? Well, I think that's urgency. When someone who is usually meticulous suddenly becomes sloppy like this, or appears to be sloppy like this, and that doesn't consider his neighbors the way that they once had,

• 7:46Tristin Engels?

  it often means the internal pressure has overridden the strategy. The mask is somewhat slipping here.

• 7:52Vanessa Richardson?

  What do you think it says about Helmut? That he waited until after going into his house with Augusta in broad daylight to cover up the basement windows?

• 8:01Tristin Engels?

  I think it suggests that he believed that once Augusta crossed the threshold into his home, the situation was already under his control. At that point, concealment was about cleanup. His house was his domain and his controlled environment, and anything that happened in there was beyond scrutiny. It also emphasizes how disturbingly severe his emotional detachment was. Covering the windows afterward implies he could move from violence to practical problem solving without any kind of hesitation or even consideration for how that might be perceived by anyone on the outside, or even maybe even on the inside, for that matter. He might even be trying to conceal from the inside, too, from Gertrude or Helen, thus

• 8:46Tristin Engels?

  the urgency. Either way, he's completely compartmentalized that.

• 8:51Vanessa Richardson?

  Despite the small measures Helmut took to hide what he was doing, Lena and Jonathan found more reasons to be suspicious of him. About two weeks later, a couple named the Heatheringtons came by looking for Augusta. They owned the boarding house in Detroit where she'd briefly stayed before moving to Royal Oak to be with Helmut. They'd come by a few times already, and this time, Jonathan stopped to talk to them. The Heatheringtons explained they were looking for a woman named Augusta. She'd been planning to marry a man named Herman Neugebauer, who they believed lived at 9 Oakdale Boulevard. But every time they'd knocked on the door to try and talk to Augusta, the people who lived there denied knowing her.

• 9:33Vanessa Richardson?

  Eventually, those same people drove to their boarding house to explain that Augusta had changed her mind about Herman and went back to New York. The Heatheringtons told the Welshes that they were suspicious of that story. And when they described Herman, Jonathan became suspicious too, because Herman sounded a lot like his neighbor, Helmut. Jonathan told the Heatheringtons he'd try to help out, and later that day, he and Lena racked their brains for possible explanations. Eventually, Jonathan landed on a frightening conclusion: he believed their neighbor, Helmut Schmidt, was a German spy. It wasn't a completely outlandish thought.

• 10:13Vanessa Richardson?

  At the time, the US was gearing up to fight Germany in World War I, and Helmut was from Germany after all. Jonathan thought that was why he'd used the fake name Herman Neugerbauer, and that Augusta wasn't his fiancée, but a possible accomplice. Jonathan and Lena thought this explained some of the Schmidt's behavior: they'd covered the basement windows for privacy, and maybe the ashes Helen was always dumping were from burned instructions and other spy correspondence. The Welshes thought they had it all figured out. But Jonathan didn't want to notify authorities until he was absolutely sure. So he went to the Ford plant, where Helmut said he'd worked, to see if that was really true.

• 10:56Vanessa Richardson?

  When he got there, he started asking around about a man named Helmuth Schmidt, or Herman Neugerbauer, and no one knew anyone by either name. However, when Jonathan provided a physical description of the man he was looking for, everyone did recognize him, except they knew him by the name Adolf Ulrich. Jonathan was floored. There was yet another alias his German neighbor was using. He felt that was enough to alert the Justice Department. In mid-April of 1917, about five weeks since Augusta disappeared, DOJ agents knocked on Helmut's door. They were accompanied by Oakland County Sheriff Oliver Green.

• 11:38Vanessa Richardson?

  When Helen opened the door and saw them there, she almost fainted, but Helmut rushed over and told her he would handle things. The officers told him they'd received an anonymous tip that he was an enemy agent, and asked to come inside. Helmut quickly gathered himself and let them in. He was actually relieved. Not only did he know they'd find no evidence of spy activity in his home, but letting them into the house was better than leaving them standing on the porch, right over the spot where he'd buried Augusta. Once they were inside, Helmut tried to earn their trust. He told them he did know some German spies, but he wasn't one of them. From there, the DOJ agents started looking

• 12:21Vanessa Richardson?

  around the house. Meanwhile, Sheriff Green asked Helmut about the names Herman Neugerbauer and Adolf Ulrich. Helmut admitted that he used a different name at work, but he didn't say why. As for Herman Neugerbauer, Helmut said that was a real person that he knew.

• 12:39Tristin Engels?

  Helmut is a master at narrative control, as you have really outlined for us, so it's no surprise that he seems to have all the answers to Sheriff Green's questions. If he answers quickly and confidently, he gets to set the frame. Investigators are forced to react to his version of events rather than build their own from scratch. It also exploits a very human bias. We tend to trust people who sound certain and consistent, and that's worked for him and all of his cons so far. Also, we have to consider his personality structure and his psychopathy traits. He's emotionally detached and he has a shallow affect. That allows him to think clearly under pressure, appear as if

• 13:22Tristin Engels?

  he's not panicked, and he's not likely to appear visibly distressed at all.

• 13:28Vanessa Richardson?

  What do you make of the fact that Helmut said he knew some spies? Do you think he was pretending to kind of admit some guilt as a way to seem more innocent?

• 13:37Tristin Engels?

  Yes. Partial admissions are a manipulation tactic that is commonly used because it disarms suspicion. When someone volunteers information that sounds damaging, even partially, it can create the assumption that they're being transparent. And then again, people are more inclined to believe someone that seems forthcoming than those that seem to be withholding. He's attempting to control perception, and it seems to be somewhat successful.

• 14:05Vanessa Richardson?

  Helmut's responses were a little too convenient, but before Sheriff Green could ask a follow-up, the agents called him down to the basement to check something out. Helmut followed Green down the creaky stairs. In the basement, the agents were standing next to three steamer trunks, bursting with jewelry and women's clothing, including a wedding dress. The men turned and looked at Helmut with suspicion. He stayed calm as he told the same story Helen had told the Heatheringtons. He said the luggage belonged to Augusta Steinbach. She'd been planning to marry his acquaintance, Herman Neugerbauer, but changed her mind at the last minute. She'd gone back to New York and asked Helmut to hang on to her things until she found a place to live.

• 14:50Vanessa Richardson?

  All three men were convinced. It explained why no one had heard from Augusta for a while and why Helmut had been acting so secretly. He'd been trying to protect Augusta and Herman's privacy during a sensitive time. The officers thanked him for his time and left. Helmut was relieved, but only for the time being. Now that he'd told the authorities the same story that he'd told the Heatheringtons, he needed to tie a bow on things. A few days after the agents visited Helmut, Thomas Heatherington received a postcard from New York that was postmarked April 14, 1917. It asked for Augusta's mail to be forwarded to Mr. Helmuth Schmidt.

• 15:33Vanessa Richardson?

  It was written in feminine-looking handwriting and signed Augusta Steinbach. The Heatheringtons were relieved. They felt this was clear proof that Augusta was okay and assumed she wanted her mail forwarded to Helmut while she and Herman were on their honeymoon. They didn't seem to question why Helmut and his family had denied knowing Augusta.

• 15:54Tristin Engels?

  So it's clear that the Heatheringtons and even the detectives want Augusta to be okay. So sending this postcard is exploiting confirmation bias and their need for closure. Sending it resolves their anxiety and confirms to them, through some perceived evidence, that Augusta is alive and well and makes Their future doubts in Helmut seem alarmist, or even overreactions, causing them to question their own reality. This makes them feel foolish or at fault for ever questioning him in the first place. So, we cover a lot of cases, but Helmut is one that I find particularly heinous, which I know is saying a lot.

• 16:36Tristin Engels?

  He stands out to me because of the sophistication of his manipulation. He used trust, hope, love, and social norms as tools. Many violent offenders act impulsively, explosively, or in moments of rage. Helmut didn't. He engineered entire realities. He created identities. He rewrote social narratives. He weaponized marriage. He manipulated not just victims, but neighbors, law enforcement, and entire communities. His abuse was systemic. He's the kind of offender that professionals like myself have to be very strategic and cautious

• 17:17Tristin Engels?

  with when evaluating, because his skill at deception and manipulation means he would try to dominate the assessment itself. He'd push boundaries. He'd steer the conversation, test limits, and attempt to control how he's perceived while meeting with us even. And many of the cases we cover would likely do that, but he's more extreme interpersonally. And with individuals like this, the evaluation would likely become an interactional test. How they respond to structure and limits, especially with a woman, often tells you more than their words or their performance ever could. And I've evaluated many people like him. In some cases, when an individual is not redirectable or fails to respect boundaries

• 18:00Tristin Engels?

  and the structure of the evaluation, it's appropriate to terminate and resume at a later time. That's clinically sound. Even in court-ordered evaluations, there are professional limits. An evaluation cannot proceed if it becomes disruptive or unsafe, and judges understand that. Helmut would be somebody that I think a lot of professionals would have a very difficult time with.

• 18:22Vanessa Richardson?

  Helmut's trick may have worked on the Heatheringtons, but there was one person who was still suspicious of him. Augusta's friend from New York, Agnes Dominyeki. Throughout March and April, Agnes had been sending Augusta letters to the Heatheringtons' boarding house address, but they'd all bounced back. So in early May, Agnes went to a storage warehouse on East 63rd Street, where she knew Augusta had kept some of her belongings while she got settled into her new life in Royal Oak. She wanted to confirm whether her luggage had actually been sent. When she got there, the clerk confirmed that Augusta's things had gone to Royal Oak, but they'd since been sent back. Agnes asked to see the trunks,

• 19:05Vanessa Richardson?

  but the clerk said it was against the rules to open them. So instead, Agnes asked for the address in Royal Oak where they'd gone, and the clerk gave it to her. 9 Oakdale Boulevard. Agnes was getting increasingly worried, but at least now she had an address. She contacted a friend who lived in Detroit and asked them to go there and check on Augusta. When the friend reported back, they told Agnes something disturbing. Augusta wasn't there. Only a man, his wife, and their teenage daughter. Agnes asked her friend to describe the man, and it sounded exactly like Augusta's fiance, Herman. Agnes knew something was wrong, but what she didn't know was that Helmuth Schmidt

• 19:50Vanessa Richardson?

  was one step ahead of her.

• 19:58Vanessa Richardson?

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• 21:17Speaker 05

  The police closed my sister's case in 2019. Last month, her killer commented on my post. On Reddit, true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. People post the things they'd never say out loud. Anonymous, unfiltered, and completely real.

• 21:37Speaker 06

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• 21:41Speaker 05

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• 21:46Speaker 05

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• 21:52Speaker 06

  And the other goes in completely blind. No prep, no spoilers, reacting in real time, same as you. And then we swap.

• 21:59Speaker 05

  And we pull every thread until the whole twisted picture comes into view.

• 22:03Speaker 06

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• 22:10Speaker 05

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• 22:18Speaker 01

  Hi, I'm Connor Tomlinson. You might know me from Love on the Spectrum. History is my thing, and I have been waiting my whole life for a show like this one. And I'm Carter Roy. And this is What the Fact. Every week, three facts, each one with a whole story behind it. The worst years anyone has ever lived through. The golden age of pirates. The movies that almost never got made. The discoveries that rewrote everything we thought we knew. Carter says-

• 22:46Speaker 07

  That's the scene.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  Connor brings the facts, the tangents, and the genuine belief that this is the most interesting subject in the world.

• 22:54Speaker 07

  It is. The wildest stuff is real.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  And the real stuff is wilder than you think.

• 23:00Speaker 07

  New episodes every Wednesday. Follow What the Fact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.

• 23:14Vanessa Richardson?

  In April of 1917, Agnes Dominyeki discovered that Augusta Steinbach's belongings had been returned to a storage warehouse in New York, sent by the man Augusta was supposed to marry. Now Agnes felt panicked. She found the contact information for Oakland County Sheriff Oliver Green and sent him a letter reporting that Augusta was missing. She explained what she discovered in the storage unit and that the man living at 9 Oakdale Boulevard sounded like Augusta's fiance, Herman. When Sheriff Green received the letter, he thought back to the three trunks he'd seen in Helmut's basement. He wondered if there was more to the story, so he went back to the house.

• 23:58Vanessa Richardson?

  Just like before, Helmut politely invited him inside. Green asked to see the trunks again, but Helmut said he didn't have them anymore. Instead, he showed Green a letter, which he claimed was from Augusta. The date at the top was April 25, 1917, which would have been about a week after Green and the DOJ agents had first come by. And in curly, feminine-looking handwriting, the letter said, "Dear Mr. Schmidt, sorry I did not write to you as I was sick. I'm staying with old friends. Will you kindly send my trunks to the enclosed address? Thank you again for your kindness. Yours, Augusta Steinbach."

• 24:40Vanessa Richardson?

  When Green finished reading, Helmut said that Augusta had also sent some money to cover the shipping cost. Notably, the address in the letter was East 63rd Street, which was two streets away from the storage warehouse Agnes had visited. But Green didn't know the warehouse's address. All he knew was that Augusta's trunks were back in storage, where she'd apparently asked Helmut to send them. As a final detail, Helmut also explained that Augusta was embarrassed about her failed engagement, which was why she'd been laying low. And Sheriff Green bought the whole thing. He had no further questions. However, he did keep the letter just in case.

• 25:22Vanessa Richardson?

  After he left, Helmut realized he wasn't out of the woods yet, because there was still one huge piece of evidence that could blow his entire story wide open: Augusta's body. Helmut waited until the next time Helen and Gertrude were out for the day. Then, he grabbed a meat cleaver from the kitchen and went down to the basement. He dug Augusta's body out from under the porch through the small basement window. Then, he dismembered her remains with the cleaver, burned them in the furnace, and buried a few bones in his backyard. Now, Helmut felt confident no one would ever discover the truth of what had happened to her.

• 26:02Tristin Engels?

  So let's talk about this, because how was he able to live with Augusta's body under his porch like that? And for him, I think it's because he didn't view women, or Augusta, as people with rights or dignity. He dehumanized them entirely. He valued women only for their utility, as sources of money, or status, labor, or even emotional supply in some cases. And once that utility was exhausted, tragically so were they. He also appeared emotionally shallow, which allowed him to live with her body without visible distress, or even any kind of disruption to his daily life. Even then, it took multiple visits from the Heatheringtons or detectives before he

• 26:46Tristin Engels?

  felt any feeling, and in this case, urgency being the feeling, to dispose of her remains. He simply wasn't psychologically affected by the harm he caused at all. And it's likely he didn't even register it as harm at all, because his sense of entitlement just completely overrode empathy. And, let's be honest, I don't think he had an ounce of that.

• 27:09Vanessa Richardson?

  While Helmut indulged his morbid tendencies, Sheriff Green was having a change of heart. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He didn't understand why Augusta would move halfway across the country to get married just to suddenly change her mind, but he had no evidence of wrongdoing. Plus, he was buried under a mountain of homicide cases, which meant he had to turn his attention away from Augusta. Agnes, for her part, was furious when Green wrote to her to say he believed Augusta was alive and well. She wanted more answers, and over the next few months, she wrote to Green begging him not to drop the investigation. She didn't hear back until September, when he said he had no updates, but asked for

• 27:54Vanessa Richardson?

  a sample of Augusta's handwriting. This only upset Agnes more, because she no longer had any of Augusta's letters. She couldn't understand why it took Green so long to consider that the letter he'd seen was fake. Frustrated by his poor effort, Agnes enlisted the help of a detective in New York City instead, Captain Cornelius Willem's. He agreed to help and started poring through marriage ads and back issues of the New York Herald. Through a few standout phrases, Willem's was able to determine that the same person had written several of them under different names. In mid-December of 1917, Willem's contacted law enforcement in Royal Oak to share his findings.

• 28:39Vanessa Richardson?

  However, knowing that Agnes had no luck with Sheriff Green, Willem's went over his head and reached out to the district attorney, Glenn Gillespie. Gillespie was aware of the Augusta Steinbach case, but it was just one of several that were now on his plate, because earlier that month, Sheriff Green had tragically taken his own life. So while Gillespie promised he'd get to Augusta's case, he told Willem's there were others that took priority. When Agnes heard this, she got fed up with the authorities in Royal Oak dragging their feet, so she took matters into her own hands. Agnes pored over recent marriage ads in the newspapers, trying to find one similar in tone to the one Augusta had answered.

• 29:24Vanessa Richardson?

  She found one, and the man who wrote it said he lived in Detroit. Agnes started writing to him. She pretended to be a lonely New York aristocrat who loved fine things like precious jewelry. After some flirtation, the man sent her a gift in the mail, an enameled pocket watch. When Agnes opened the package and saw it, her heart jumped into her throat. She recognized the watch because it had belonged to Augusta.

• 29:55Tristin Engels?

  The fact that Helmut would send a new woman, potential suitor for him, one of his victim's watches, right after a rather close call with authorities, is really the behavior of arrogance. He believes he's smarter than everyone else, and that consequences don't apply to him, which would make sense since he came so close to being caught and wasn't. His entitlement is likely so entrenched now. But this need to keep luring women on the surface might seem like greed alone, but it's deeper than that. It's compulsion now. His deception and his overall methods have been successful, and that's been reinforced to such a degree,

• 30:39Tristin Engels?

  he now needs to keep doing this for thrill, but also for a sense of mastery and for feelings of control, power, and superiority. And this is actually pretty typical psychologically for people like Helmut, especially after close calls like this. He's continuing a system that works for him.

• 30:59Vanessa Richardson?

  So, given everything we know about Helmut, do you think it's possible he actually forgot who the pocket watch belonged to?

• 31:05Tristin Engels?

  I actually don't think that's the case. I think he knew exactly who it belonged to. Retaining items from victims is like trophy-adjacent behavior. It's not classic trophy collecting, but repurposing a victim's belongings can reinforce feelings of dominance and mastery. And for someone like Helmut, it also carries a psychological thrill. He's sending these items while simultaneously holding a secret about where they came from that no one else knows. He didn't forget whose watch it was. I think he remembered. He just underestimated the person he sent it to, which I love that for him, quite honestly.

• 31:45Vanessa Richardson?

  Helmut might have been playing fast and loose, but by early March of 1918, D.A. Gillespie finally had the bandwidth to look into Augusta's case. He traveled to New York City with the acting sheriff to meet with Agnes and Captain Willem's, who showed them the trunks in storage in the warehouse. Now that the authorities were there, they could open the trunks. And that's when Agnes noticed that some of Augusta's things were missing, including her jewelry box. As Willem's looked closer, he spotted something else, a black high-heel shoe with a stain on it that looked a lot like dried blood. Gillespie now started to fear the worst, that Augusta was, in fact, dead,

• 32:27Vanessa Richardson?

  and that Helmut had been given ample time to conceal evidence. He rushed back to Royal Oak, where he questioned people who knew Helmut, including his neighbors, Jonathan and Lena Welch. The Welch's told Gillespie about all the strange things they'd seen. Plus, Lena had also witnessed something new. Apparently, a few months after Augusta disappeared, there was thick, black smoke coming from the Schmidt's chimney. Lena said the stench was unlike anything she'd ever smelled. And that wasn't all. Later that same day, she saw Helen dump a box of ashes into their backyard before rinsing out the box in the stream. When Gillespie heard this, a sudden realization dawned on him, but he needed one more piece of the puzzle

• 33:12Vanessa Richardson?

  before he could reveal his suspicions to anyone else. He went back to New York, where he managed to track down a sample of Augusta's handwriting. He then returned to Royal Oak and compared the sample to the letter Sheriff Green had taken from Helmut. Gillespie gave both letters to a handwriting specialist, who carefully looked them over and concluded that both letters were written by a woman, but not the same woman. Gillespie's suspicions were confirmed. Helmut had a female accomplice who'd helped him pose as Augusta, and maybe Helen was that accomplice.

• 33:51Tristin Engels?

  We touched on this a little already, but accomplice behavior in coercive relationships often emerges from pressure, dependency, and fear. Helen wasn't acting alongside him as an equal. She was likely acting for him. Remember, Helmut only cared about the usefulness of women. Helen was useful, which is why she is still around. And because he would have her lie, deliver messages, write deceptive letters, and deflect, it binds her to him for self-protection. It's a relationship that's shaped by coercion and manipulation. In these dynamics, participation isn't always consent. It's often survival. And throughout this story, I've actually been wondering and worrying about what,

• 34:36Tristin Engels?

  if anything, he had his daughter Gertrude do, or what she's seen and had to endure. She's been there from the start. But if I had to guess, it's unlikely that he included her or Helen in much more beyond this. Because historically, serial offenders, when they have a family, it's the mask of sanity. They have them to keep the status quo, to hold up appearances, and to establish a sense of normalcy.

• 35:06Vanessa Richardson?

  Gillespie still had no idea what Helen's true involvement could be. Plus, there was the possibility that Helmut's daughter Gertrude was involved too, potentially, as you said. Even though the Welshes never saw Gertrude doing anything suspicious, Gillespie knew he couldn't rule anything out. So he rounded up some officers, and on the morning of April 22, 1918, Helmut, Helen, and Gertrude were all arrested. The man Gillespie had been chasing and his possible accomplices were finally in custody. However, Helmuth Schmidt had one last trick up his sleeve, one that would help bury his secrets forever.

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• 37:54Speaker 01

  The moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking. Forty-eight hours. That's how long detectives have before the trail begins to go cold. From A and E and Crime House, this is the official podcast from the famous true crime series, The First Forty-Eight. Step inside the critical window, the interrogations, the dead ends, and the breakthroughs that crack a case wide open. I'm Carter Roy. Each week, I revisit a landmark homicide investigation with a depth you know and immersive long-form storytelling built for your ears. Real detectives, real cases, real stakes. This is The First Forty-Eight.

• 38:39Speaker 01

  New episodes every Thursday. Listen to and follow The First Forty-Eight on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

• 38:57Vanessa Richardson?

  On the morning of April 22, 1918, Helmut, Helen, and Gertrude were all placed under arrest. District Attorney Glenn Gillespie thought one or both women had helped Helmut murder Augusta and hide the evidence. With the family in custody, police were now free to search every inch of Nine Oakdale Boulevard. Inside, they found clues that shed light not just on Augusta's murder, but on a years-long con that Helmut used to target multiple women. First, they uncovered various marriage licenses and land deeds under different names, further proof that Helmut had been using aliases. Then they found piles of women's clothing and jewelry, including one piece in particular

• 39:42Vanessa Richardson?

  that caught Gillespie's attention. It was a gold pocket watch. When Gillespie opened it, he noticed scratch marks on the finish. When he looked closer, he realized the scrawls were actually a list of names and dates, the most recent one being Augusta Steinbach, March 11, 1917. That was the same day Augusta had disappeared. Above that were other names, including Helmut's first wife, Anita, Margarita Berch, and Irma Palatinas.

• 40:16Tristin Engels?

  And there it is. Helmut is someone driven by ownership, control, and mastery. And given that, it was hard to believe that he wouldn't keep some kind of record or keepsake of his victims. The trophy-adjacent behavior we discussed a few moments ago made sense, not just because it's sadistic, but because it was practical. He repurposed belongings from one victim to lure the next, which gave him psychological thrill and, in his mind, functioned as risk management by offloading evidence while simultaneously attracting new victims. But this goes beyond that, particularly when you consider where he chose to do this. Watches symbolize time and value and status.

• 41:01Tristin Engels?

  Using a valuable object to catalog his victims elevates the act, I think, in his mind, because it turns his harm into something curated and perhaps even ceremonial. I think this is ego-driven. He's recording his perceived accomplishments.

• 41:19Vanessa Richardson?

  Do you think Helmut was trying to remember his victims or keep track of his kills, something else? Why would he write all their names like that?

• 41:26Tristin Engels?

  I think he's doing that, but not in a human sense. I think he's doing it to assert ownership. He dehumanizes his victims, as he would have to in order to do what he does to them. And it's evident here. He reduced them to names and dates, etched onto a watch, and that strips them of their individuality and turns them into events that he controlled. It's horrible.

• 41:50Vanessa Richardson?

  Gillespie was floored. Not only did it seem like Helmut had killed multiple women, but he'd kept track of every single one. The only question now was, where were their bodies? Gillespie and his team thought that at least Augusta might be buried on his property, so they ventured into the basement. There, an investigator noticed a window that had been boarded up. The window was underneath the front porch. He pried the planks loose, then climbed outside. After digging around a little, the investigator spotted something: shreds of fabric from a woman's dress and a pile of rags that were covered in dried blood.

• 42:31Vanessa Richardson?

  They knew they were one step closer to finding Augusta. Finally, they moved their search into the backyard, where they found exactly the evidence they needed. First, investigators uncovered a partially burned bone fragment that looked like it was from a human hip bone. They kept digging, and soon, they uncovered a bloody cleaver with long auburn hair stuck to it. Gillespie realized that Helmut had used the cleaver to dismember Augusta, but where was the rest of her? That's when he remembered what Lena Welch said about the strong smell coming from Helmut's furnace. Gillespie rushed back down to the basement and examined the furnace.

• 43:13Vanessa Richardson?

  The front of it was covered in brown marks that had looked like rust, but he now realized it could be dried blood. Suddenly, it all clicked into place. Helmut had initially buried Augusta under the porch, but decided to destroy her body completely. When he realized her body wouldn't fit inside the furnace, he dismembered her, burnt most of her remains, and buried the pieces that wouldn't fully burn. But Gillespie knew he wouldn't have to theorize much longer. He had the killer in custody, and was determined to get the truth out of him however he could. The next day, Gillespie questioned Helmut in his cell, but he denied knowing anything about her death.

• 43:57Vanessa Richardson?

  Gillespie was tired of Helmut's games, so he calmly pulled out the cleaver and showed it to Helmut without saying anything. Helmut turned white as a sheet, but he still wouldn't admit to anything, so Gillespie tried shifting gears to focus on Irma instead. By that point, investigators had collected enough witness testimony to know that Irma had disappeared while living with Helmut at his last Detroit address, and that he'd told people she was his housekeeper. Now Gillespie asked Helmut what had really happened to her.

• 44:34Vanessa Richardson?

  Helmut swore that Irma left on her own and that he had nothing to do with her disappearance. Gillespie knew this was yet another dead end, but now that Helmut was finally talking, he turned the focus back to Augusta again. This time, Helmut said Augusta had fallen in love with him and wanted him to leave Helen, but he refused, so Augusta ingested a white powder, then dropped dead. Helmut said he got scared and disposed of Augusta's body before his wife and daughter came home. He buried her under the porch until later, when he felt it was safe to dismember and burn her. Gillespie didn't believe for a second that Augusta had died by suicide.

• 45:16Vanessa Richardson?

  He was starting to lose patience with the constant cover-ups and lies. He told Helmut he was gonna give him a break, but that he'd be back soon to keep talking. Then about 10 minutes later, he heard a thud from Helmut's cell. He ran over and came across a horrifying sight. Helmut lying face down in his cell in a pool of his own blood. The metal prison bed frame was lying on top of him. Helmut had apparently dropped it onto his own head. And there was something else, too. Etched on the wall, in the same scrawl Gillespie had found on the gold pocket watch, were the words "Wife and Child Innocent."

• 46:00Tristin Engels?

  Helmut's decision to take his own life while framing it as protecting his wife and child, I think, is about his final act of control. He knew that confession or exposure were the only options left, and either way, the truth was going to surface. No amount of manipulation or deception could stop that. For someone so driven by narrative control, losing the ability to shape his own story was intolerable. And incarceration would have meant an additional profound loss of control. And this wasn't about remorse either. There's no indication he was motivated by guilt or empathy for his victims, and that also includes Helen and his daughter Gertrude. They're victims too.

• 46:45Tristin Engels?

  Instead, this reflects an intolerance of shame and the loss of dominance. And when control was no longer possible externally, I think he chose to exert it internally over his own fate. So in that sense, suicide was an escape from accountability.

• 47:04Vanessa Richardson?

  In general, what effect can it have on people involved in a case when they don't get the closure they're hoping for?

• 47:11Tristin Engels?

  Closure helps the brain organize trauma into a coherent narrative, like this happened, it ended, and it got some kind of meaning from it, however small that might be. And when that doesn't happen, people are left with ambiguous loss. There's no clear endpoint, there's no accountability, or no sense of justice. So for families or loved ones, that can cause prolonged or complicated grief, which is a mix of sadness, anger, and rumination that doesn't resolve because the loss feels unfinished. And for witnesses or community members, it can lead to distrust and cynicism, or a sense that the system failed. And for investigators or professionals, there can be a moral injury.

• 47:55Tristin Engels?

  For example, in this case, they know the truth, but aren't able to see it through to the end. Either way you look at it, or from whatever lens we're looking at it through, it has a ripple effect that can run far and deep.

• 48:10Vanessa Richardson?

  Helmut made it so that he would never have to tell anyone the whole truth. Whatever else the police or the families of his victims wanted to know, they'd have to try and figure it out themselves. Fortunately, not all of Helmut's story died with him, because investigators still had Helen and Gertrude in custody. At first, Helen denied knowing anything about Augusta, and she insisted Helmut was a good man who would never harm anyone. But eventually, investigators wore her down, and she started admitting to small details. She confessed to being the one to bury the cleaver in the backyard, but only because Helmut had told her he'd used it to kill chickens. Helen also said she dumped Augusta's

• 48:53Vanessa Richardson?

  ashes in the stream, but that she didn't know what they actually were either. The more Helen opened up, the more police explained to her what she had unknowingly been a part of. Eventually, they were able to convince Helen that her husband was a monster, and she came to believe, possibly as self-preservation, that she would have been his next victim. That's when she admitted that she'd been afraid of him all along, and only followed his instructions because she was scared of what would happen if she didn't. Gertrude also claimed to know nothing about what happened to Augusta or any of her father's other wives, including Gertrude's mother, Anita. However, her stories kept changing, which made investigators think she may have had

• 49:38Vanessa Richardson?

  a larger role in helping her father than they'd initially thought. But just like with Helen, the more evidence Gertrude was presented with, the more she started to crack. Finally, she also admitted that she'd spent her entire life in fear of her father. In the end, Gillespie decided that neither Helen nor Gertrude were culpable in Helmut's crimes.

• 50:02Tristin Engels?

  Fear is a very powerful tool. It shifts the brain almost instantly into survival mode. And in situations like this, especially when the source of fear is also the person providing safety, or resources, or you're dependent on them, asking questions or speaking up can genuinely feel dangerous. Fear discourages exploration because people become more focused on avoiding harm than on seeking truth. If someone in power appears volatile, intimidating, or capable of retaliation, the safest option can feel like doing exactly what you're told and nothing more. And over time, this becomes self-reinforcing, similar to how phobias develop.

• 50:44Tristin Engels?

  Avoidance reduces anxiety, which teaches the brain that avoidance is protective. But in the long run, that avoidance strengthens the fear itself. The same mechanism happens here. Every time they avoid confronting their fear or their reality, and they remain safe, relatively speaking. They reinforce that avoidance works. What started as self-protection slowly becomes a habit until they're living inside a fear-based system for so long that questioning it no longer feels possible. The danger isn't just what they're afraid of in the beginning, it's how completely fear reshaped their behavior and their judgment and just their overall sense of agency over time.

• 51:28Vanessa Richardson?

  I wanted to piggyback on our discussion before about why Helmut wanted to clear Gertrude and Helen that they were innocent. What do you now make of the fact that he seemed to strategically hide things from both of them, even while acting in plain sight or getting Helen to unwittingly help him? Why would he do that?

• 51:46Tristin Engels?

  I think this is about containment. If Helen or Gertrude fully understood what they were complying with, his manipulation and gaslighting would stop working. Clear, undeniable evidence allows people to trust their own perceptions, but ambiguity preserves control. As long as there was plausible deniability, which we know how much Helmut uses that as a tool, he could continue to distort reality, gaslighting them, and keep them compliant. He needed to outsource risk to people who wouldn't or couldn't question it. Limiting what they knew was the most effective way he could do that while maintaining that

• 52:25Tristin Engels?

  mask of sanity, using them because utility was what mattered to him for a sense of normalcy, to keep appearances. Confusion kept them dependent and relatively trusting of him, at least to some degree, which I think is evident here. It took the detectives' time to get them to even admit any negative feelings toward him. That's evident that his control over them was very strong.

• 52:54Vanessa Richardson?

  Even though investigators couldn't learn the full truth from Helen and Gertrude, other witnesses soon came forward who could help them. After Helmut's death, the news of his marriage ads and murders, even ones that were still only suspected, made national headlines. The media dubbed him "America's Bluebeard," after the villain from a 17th-century fairy tale where a wealthy man repeatedly married women and killed them. As the salacious story spread, some of Helmut's surviving victims, like Anna Hocke and Adele Ulrich, contacted the police to share their stories. Helmut had married Anna and stolen all of her money before disappearing.

• 53:36Vanessa Richardson?

  He'd also married Adele and stolen all of her savings before putting her through severe emotional abuse and trying to kill her before leaving her at her brother's house. Based on their testimonies, investigators were able to piece together more of Helmut's life and possible crimes before he came to Royal Oak. They located the farm in New Jersey where he'd lived with Anita and his bookkeeper Margarita at the same time, and later Adele. Officers went there and dug up the floor of the house. While they didn't find any remains, they did find a layer of quicklime in a spot underneath the kitchen, where Helmut had once installed a new floor. This made them think he'd buried at least one body there before potentially moving

• 54:21Vanessa Richardson?

  it somewhere else. Then, in May 1918, investigators searched the property of Helmut's first address in Detroit on Glendale Avenue. They dug up the entire lawn before digging under the house's basement. In a corner, they finally made a breakthrough discovery: the body of Irma Palatinus, wrapped in a canvas tarp. Investigators now knew for sure that Helmuth Schmidt had killed Augusta Steinbach and Irma Palatines, and suspected that he was responsible for Anita and Margarita's sudden disappearances. However, based on the sheer volume of marriage ads Helmut placed, investigators believed

• 55:02Vanessa Richardson?

  he could have been responsible for many more murders. We may never know Helmuth Schmidt's full victim count, but we do know the truth about the kind of person he really was. And it's all thanks to the sheer determination of those who refused to give up. Without Agnes Domenechki and the Heatheringtons, Augusta's memory might have been completely lost, and all of the other women's stories would have been buried with it.

• 55:43Vanessa Richardson?

  Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time for a deep dive into the mind of another killer.

• 55:49Tristin Engels?

  Serial Killers and Murderous Minds is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on all social media at @CrimeHouse. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow Serial Killers and Murderous Minds wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.

• 56:11Vanessa Richardson?

  And to enhance your listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode of Serial Killers and Murderous Minds ad-free, along with early access to each thrilling two-part series.

• 56:26Vanessa Richardson?

  Serial Killers and Murderous Minds is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson, and forensic psychologist Dr. Tristin Engels, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Serial Killers and Murderous Minds team: Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Lori Marinelli, Natalie Pritzowski, Sarah Camp, Sarah Bachelor, Dana Rossi, Sarah Tardif, and Carrie Murphy. Thank you for listening.

• 57:02Vanessa Richardson?

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• 58:20Speaker 06

  podcasts.

• 58:24Vanessa Richardson?

  If you're looking for your next podcast, check out What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.