Barber Bonnie

On Friday, February 18,1916 Bonnie Elmore wrote: Cool-Pleasant. Walked up town with Minnie Sullivan. Received a letter and money order from Blaine. Wrote to Blaine. Mrs. Raines and Aunt Annah spent day with Funk's in Vinton. Schmidt electrocuted in New York for murder of Anna Amuller. Mrs. Raines up. I stayed in and read. On Saturday, February 19, 1916 Bonnie wrote: Very Cold. Loam called me up about money for Momma. Andrew Beaver is in the city. Went up home for lunch. Came back to the office in p.m. & wrote letter. Came home and shaved and took a bath. Cut Jake's hair with clippers and shaved his neck. Retired at 10 o'clock. This mention of the electrocution of a Schmidt fellow in New York for a murder intrigued me and so I did a little research on the Internet and wow, there is apparently all kinds of stuff out there. Most of my information came from wikipedia, but there are books and all kinds of other articles about this case. There was quite the media frenzy surrounding this case from 1913-1916 and newspapers went to even some sensationalism covering this story. Schmidt is Hans Schmidt and he was a Catholic priest who had a sexual affair with the cleaning lady at the rectory, her name was Anna Aumuller. When he discovered that she was pregnant, he killed her rather gruesomely. He was sentenced to death and was electrocuted on 2-18-1916. He is the only Catholic priest to ever be punished by death in the U.S. It is now thought that Schmidt may have been involved in at least 2 other murders, 1 in New York and 1 in Germany, his home land. Blaine and Jake are 2 of Bonnie's brothers and Loam is a sister. Jake had just recently landed a job at the N&W shops here in Roanoke and possibly that is why he needed a haircut! Sounds to me like they are trying to take care of their parents and each other. I am unsure who Andrew Beaver is and I am also unfamiliar with the Funks in Vinton. From the posts a couple of days ago, I thought it was neat the Grandaddy wrote in the Bible, I don't think that gets done much anymore. I also wondered about the Crumpacker fellow he mentioned, who obviously worked at the railroad. There were some Crumpackers from the area I live in now who owned a big orchard, I wonder if it is the same family? Also, that "Fall of a Nation" book must have been a loaner and Bonnie wanted his own copy. I have had some really good times in the Bible recently and probably more than I could write about here, but they have all been recorded in my personal spiritual journal. The Old Testament readings recently have been from Leviticus and with all the Old Testament law it is not the most exciting book to read. It seems outdated and even gross at times. But, it has shown me a little better the sacrificial system. It strikes me how often words like unblemished, spotless, atonement and sacrifice keep coming up in Leviticus and helped me realize how important this stuff was. The sacrifice was meant to be something of worth, something that cost you something, your best and it was used as a symbol I suppose of taking care of your sins. Showing that your sins are costly. So, that leads me to Jesus. He was spotless, blameless, the perfect sacrifice and very costly to the Father as well as to us. Our sins were and are very costly. We must be very valuable to God for Him to send His best to die for us. Makes one think about the sins you commit and also think about what you are sacrificing to God. Maybe we need some of that idea of sacrifice back into our lives.