Ex-wife of serial killer ‘Pied Piper of Tucson’ reveals all in first interview

TUCSON, AZ (AZFamily) — For decades, fanfare has surrounded one of Arizona’s most infamous serial killers, known as the Pied Piper of Tucson.

Three girls disappeared in the 1960s, only found dead after a confession.

But what many don’t know, is that that serial killer had a wife who never said a word to the media about how this unfolded in front of her.

She’s still alive, and for the first time, revealed how this killer stole her heart and never let it go, and why the Mafia may have a hand in this case.

A chance encounter

“It was described as a very ugly city of rock and chrome,” said author Marshall Terrill, referring to Tucson in 1964.

“It was nothing but hamburger joints and billboards and people cruising on the avenue,” Terrill added.

One memory deeply engrained for the people living there at the time was about a man who shot the small town onto the national stage.

“Creepy, manipulative and bright,” Terrill recalled. “I truly believe that this crime shattered the innocence of Tucson.”

But it wasn’t black and white for those who lived it.

“Loyal, loving and thoughtful,” said Diane Schmid.

This was the story of a two-faced man and three girls who vanished into thin air.

“It shocked everybody,” said Schmid. “It was the first serial killer case in the history of Tucson.”

60 years later, it’s Schmid’s story to tell.

“I’m the ex-wife of Charles Schmid, known as the Pied Piper of Tucson,” she said.

“You have not done media interviews before. Why now?” asked True Crime Arizona correspondent Briana Whitney.

“I have been writing down stuff for probably about seven or eight years now,” Diane Schmid said. “I would have never guessed it turned out like it did.”

At just 15 years old, Diane Schmid skipped class, and instead, she sat at the hamburger stand reading a book.

That’s when a boy caught her eye.

“Next thing I know, he comes over and introduces himself. Charles Schmid. And I tell him my name, Diane. And he says, ‘Can I join you?‘” she recalled.

He went by Smitty. And boy, was Smitty something.

“To me, he was, an outrageous character,” said Terrill.

Small in stature, he’d stuff his cowboy boots with rags for extra height.

“The bandage on his nose, the dyed hair,” Terrill said. “And would sing these Elvis love songs to these women.”

“He put white on his lips to make them lighter. And I have no idea what the beauty mark was all about, but it just kept getting bigger,” laughed Diane Schmid, remembering the mark Smitty would draw on his face.

“He said that he knew 100 different ways to make love to women,” Terrill said.

In just months, that worked on a young and impressionable teenage Diane Schmid.It was October 1965.

“This is our wedding picture. One of them,” Diane Schmid said as she held up a black and white picture.

She thought this was marital bliss, but then, something a little strange.

“We were married for about a week, and I heard him talking in the middle of the night. And then I woke up and he’s sitting at the foot of our bed with a butcher knife, stark ass naked. And he’s saying, ‘God’s gonna punish us. God is going to punish us for what we’ve done,‘” Diane Schmid remembered.

She brushed it off, but just weeks later, the couple received an unexpected visit.

The disappearances and arrest

“There’s a knock at the door,” Diane Schmid remembered. “I open the door and there’s five detectives standing there, and they just showed me a warrant and walked right along past me. They took the phone from Smitty and hung it up and told him he was under arrest for the murder of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz.”

One month before Diane and Smitty’s chance encounter, the Fritz sisters had disappeared.

Daughters of a prominent heart doctor in town, 16-year-old Gretchen was in a tumultuous relationship with Charles Schmid, and her little sister Wendy, just 13 years old, often would tag along.

“People knew what he did, but they just kept quiet about it,” Terrill said.

But Smitty’s friend would confess what he knew.

“He tells his grandmother, and then she in turn encourages him to call Tucson Police. That’s how Smitty really gets turned in,” Terrill said.

And that broke the case wide open.

Charles Schmid was charged with another murder, too. A year earlier, 15-year-old Alleen Rowe had gone missing. His other friends told police they were there that night, and watched Charles Schmid kill the girl he wanted romantically, who wanted nothing to do with him.

Charles Schmid’s trial would become a show in and of itself.

The trial

“It was a big media affair because Life magazine covered the story. It gave it a 16-page spread,” Terrill said.

That’s where Charles Schmid is dubbed the “Pied Piper of Tucson.”

“Playboy, Los Angeles Times, of course, Arizona Republic covered it, but every major outlet covered it and some even international,” Terrill said.

Famed attorney F. Lee Bailey flew into town to defend him, which became the start of the illustrious career for Bailey, who’d go on to defend Patty Hearst and O.J. Simpson.

“F. Lee Bailey didn’t do much to endear himself to the Tucson and Phoenix media. He would say very arrogant things. He would fly in on his private plane,” said Terrill. “He was trying to throw his weight around in the courtroom, and the judge didn’t have any of it.”

Charles Schmid decided to come clean about Rowe mid-trial and took detectives to her remains.

It’s an image Diane Schmid could never shake.

“Out in the middle of the desert, digging with his hands, he came up with Alleen’s skull, holding it in his hand, and it looked like he was admiring it. I couldn’t get over the look and the skull,” she said.

“He wanted to kill Alleen Rowe just for the thrill of it. Just to see what it felt like because he was just a guy that pushed himself to all these sorts of limits,” Terrill said.

Charles Schmid was sentenced to death for the Fritz sisters and 50 years for Alleen Rowe.

But when the U.S. Supreme Court got rid of the death penalty, his sentence changed to life behind bars.

A Mafia hit?

Diane Schmid believed Charles Schmid would get out on parole and stuck by him even after he had her divorce him, so her name wouldn’t be tarnished too.

“Had he not asked you to get the divorce to protect you, would you have done it?” asked Briana.

“I wouldn’t have gotten it,” said Diane Schmid.

She said she would have stayed with him after the convictions if he would have asked.

“I was just that attracted to him,” Diane Schmid said.

The Pied Piper became a published poet in prison.

“It was mostly about love. Almost every poem that he sent me was,” said Diane Schmid.

He escaped twice, caught both times, but Diane Schmid was ready to help him flee to Mexico but that never came to fruition.

In March 1975, two inmates took down Charles Schmid.

“There are many, many theories as to why he was killed by these two men,” Marshall said.

Some said these inmates got in a fight with Charles Schmid after they denied a prison break with him.

Others said he was saying nice things about the warden and was considered a snitch.

But Terrill and Diane Schmid believe one theory above the rest.

“I think it was a Mafia killing and I think the Fritz father had something to do with it,” said Diane Schmid. “He was a heart doctor. And he was Joe Bonanno’s doctor. So, he knew (crime boss) Joe Bonanno personally. They were friends.”

The Italian-American mob boss had retired in Tucson not long before.

“I’m not saying that Fritz put out the order, but I’ve talked to five individual people who all don’t know each other, who all told me the same story, that it was Bonanno who put out the hit on them. He gave each man $10,000, said Terrill.

“They literally took one of Smitty’s eyes out. The Mafia believes in an eye for an eye,” said Diane, in a haunting tone.

The Fritz family told Arizona’s Family while James Fritz was Bonanno’s heart surgeon and did have a relationship with him, he had no affiliation with the mob and said Charles Schmid was killed after inmates found out what he did to the three girls.

A story untold and unfinished

Terrill has helped Diane Schmid process her past by writing a new book together, which means he knows every intimate part of her story.

Some question whether she knew anything about the murders.

“Oh, I believe she had no idea. And here’s the reason why. She was 16 years old. She couldn’t possibly comprehend the things that he did,” said Terrill. “I always said there were there were really four victims in this. There were three girls that got murdered. And there’s Diane who had to live with all this.”

To Diane Schmid, it’s as if the evil never existed. She’s been trapped in a whirlwind of teenage love with rose-colored glasses she refused to take off.

Life moved on but she never did as Charles Schmid was the love of her life.

“I’ve been married five more times. The feelings weren’t there for any of them. I never found that love again,” Diane Schmid said. “If you love somebody unconditionally, you will stand by them.”

Diane and Marshall’s new book “Smitty: My Marriage to Serial Killer Charles Schmid, the Pied Piper of Tucson” is out on Saturday.

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