Albert Fish
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I am your host, Thomas Weyborg Thun, and in tonight's episode we travel back in time to take a closer look at a somewhat unknown string of murders committed by an elderly gentleman by the name of Albert Fish. The Grey Man, the Werewolf of Wisteria, and the Brooklyn Vampire.

Names that brought the stuff of nightmare to life among parents and children alike, living in the roaring twenties in the Big Apple, New York, New York. Although Albert Fish was never convicted of murdering more than three children, he is suspected, much due to his own confessions, of ending the life of at least ten young children.

He was a self-admitted molester of more than 400 children during a span of 20 years, and in the words of one of the shocked psychiatrists who examined him, he lived a life of unparalleled perversity. In an era when serial murder was almost unheard of, with only a few notable exceptions such as Jack the Ripper and Bell Gunness,

Fish's crimes became a 1920s media sensation. Fish was never ashamed of his actions and willingly told of his exploits to anyone who would listen before his death. So, let's look closer at this enigmatic elderly gentleman preying on innocent victims living in an innocent time.

Hamilton, later in life called Albert, Fish was born on May 19th, 1870, in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., in a family that had a long history of mental illness. His parents abandoned him at a young age, and he was sent to the St. John's Orphanage. The orphanage was, in Fish's memory, a place of brutality where he was exposed to regular beatings and sadistics,

Acts of brutality. There he observed and experienced numerous acts of perversions, including forced masturbation in front of other children and brutal beatings. Fish would become sexually aroused by these acts, which helped to further his obsession with sadomasochism, and Fish would later say, "...that place ruined my mind."

Researchers have noted Fisher's treatment at the orphanage as a severe form of shame punishing. These experiences influenced Fisher's later claims to have always desired to inflict pain onto others, such as watching the brutal beatings of other young boys, and in return to have pain inflicted on him.

Later in life, the latter would manifest, as Fish would indulge in the act known as picarism, in which one shoves needles into the body around the area between the scrotum and the anus. In 1880, Fish's mother obtained a job with the government, which enabled her to retrieve Fish from the St. John's orphanage

So by this time Fish was already known for running away from home most Saturdays, and in addition he was frequently wetting his bed until the age of eleven. At some point in his early life, a fall from a cherry tree gave Fish a concussion that led to subsequent headaches, disease bells and a severe stutter.

and by 1882 Fish formed a relationship with a telegraph boy who introduced him to urolagnia, i.e. the drinking of urine, and to coprophagia, i.e. the consumption of feces. As a youth, Fish also began visiting public bathrooms in order to watch other boys undress for sexual gratification, a behavior known as scoptophilia.

When Fish turned 15, he graduated from public school, and in order to rid himself of some of the extreme mockery he was subjected to by his classmates, including being called ham and eggs, he changed his name from Hamilton to Albert, which was the former name of one of his younger brothers that had died. By the age of 17, Fish was thought to be working as a house painter.

By 1890, Fish arrived in New York City, and he said at that point he became a prostitute and began raping young boys. In 1898, his mother arranged a marriage for him with a woman nine years his junior, a woman whose name I have not been able to procure.

The couple had six children, Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John and Henry Fish. Throughout 1898, he worked as a house painter. He said he continued molesting children, mostly boys younger than age six. He later recounted an incident in which a male lover took him to a waxworks museum where Fish was fascinated by a bisection of a penis.

After that, he became obsessed with sexual mutilation. In 1903, he was arrested for grand larceny and was sentenced to incarceration in Sing Sing Prison. Around 1910, while he was working in Wilmington, Delaware, Fish met a 19-year-old man named Thomas Kedden. He took Kedden to where he was staying, and the two began a sadomasochistic relationship.

It is unclear whether or not Fish forced Kedden to do these things, but in his later confession he implies that the man was intellectually disabled. After ten days, Fish took Kedden to an old farmhouse, where he began to torture him. The torture took place over two weeks.

Fish eventually tied Kedden up and cut off half his penis. Fish is quoted as saying, I shall never forget his scream or the look he gave me. He originally intended to kill Kedden, cut up his body and take his home, but he feared the hot weather would draw attention to him. So instead, Fish poured peroxide over the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-covered handkerchief,

left a ten-dollar bill kissed kedden good-bye and left as he said he took the first train i could get back home never heard of what became of him or even tried to find out in january of nineteen seventeen fish's wife left him for john straube a handyman who boarded with the fish family fish then had to raise his children as a single parent from there on out

After his arrest, Fish told a newspaper that when his wife left him, she took nearly every possession the family owned. He began to have auditory hallucinations and once wrapped himself in a carpet, saying that he was following the instructions of John the Apostle. It was about this time that Fish began to indulge in self-harm. He would embed needles into his groin and abdomen.

After his arrest, X-rays revealed that Fish had at least 29 needles lodged in his pelvic region. He had also hit himself repeatedly with a nail-studded paddle and inserted wool doused with lighter fluid into his anus and set it alight.

While he was never thought to have physically attacked or abused his children, he did encourage them and their friends to paddle his buttocks with the same nail-studded paddle he used to abuse himself. Although few sources confirm this, Fish told investigators he had his children insert needles into his scrotum in addition to the paddling.

He soon developed a growing obsession with cannibalism, often preparing himself a dinner consisting solely of raw meat and sometimes serving it to his children. In about 1919, Fish escalated his depravity to attempted murder and stabbed an intellectually disabled boy in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Fish chose people who were either mentally handicapped

or African American as his victims, explaining that he assumed these people would not be missed when killed. On July 11th, 1924, Fish found eight-year-old Beatrice Keel playing alone on her parents' Staten Island farm. He offered her money to come and help him look for rhubarb. She was about to leave the farm when her mother chased Fish away.

Fish left but returned later to the keel's barn, where he tried to sleep but was discovered by Hans Keel and forced to leave. During 1924, the now 54-year-old Fish, suffering from psychosis, felt that God was commanding him to torture and sexually mutilate children.

Shortly before his famous abduction of Grace Budd, Fish attempted to test his implements of hell on a child he had been molesting named Cyril Quinn. Quinn and his friend were playing boxball on a sidewalk when Fish asked them if they had eaten lunch. When they said they had not, he invited them into his apartment for sandwiches.

While the two boys were wrestling on Fisher's bed, they dislodged his mattress. Underneath was a knife, a small handsaw, and a meat cleaver. They became frightened and ran out of the apartment, thus probably saving themselves from certain torture and death. And so, dear listener, as we venture from the Belle Epoque,

of America's 1890s and 1910s, into the roaring 20s, we find ourselves witness to young Edward Budd, an enterprising 18-year-old. He was determined to make something of himself and escape the desperate poverty of his parents. On May 25th, 1928, he put a classified ad in the Sunday edition of the New York World.

Young man, 18, wishes position in country. Edward Budd, 406 West 15th Street. He was a strapping young fellow who was eager to work and contribute to the well-being of his family. Trapped in the dirty, stinking, crowded city in a miserable tenement with his father, mother and four younger siblings, he longed to work in the country where the air was fresh and clean. On the following Monday, May 28th,

Edward's mother, Delia, a huge mountain of a woman, answered the door to an elderly man. He introduced himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale, Long Island, wanted to interview Edward about a job. Delia told her five-year-old Beatrice to get her brother at his friend's apartment. The old man beamed at her and gave her a nickel.

"'While they waited for Edward, Delia had a chance to get a better look at the old man. "'He had a very kindly face, framed by grey hair and accented by a large droopy grey moustache. "'He explained to Mrs. Budd that he had earned his living for decades as an interior decorator in the city, "'and then retired to a farm he had bought with his savings.'

He had six children that he raised by himself since his wife had abandoned them all over a decade ago. At that moment, Edward came in and met Mr. Howard, who remarked at the boy's size and strength. Edward assured the old man he was a hard worker. Mr. Howard then offered him $15 a week, which Edward accepted joyfully. Howard even agreed to hire Willie, Edward's closest friend.

"'Mr. Howard had to leave for an appointment "'and promised to come back on Saturday to pick them up. "'The boys were thrilled, and the buds were happy "'that a good position with the kindly old gentleman "'had come so quickly from Edward's modest ad. "'Saturday, June 2nd, was supposed to be the big day, "'but Mr. Howard didn't show up. "'Instead they got a handwritten note from Mr. Howard "'saying he had been delayed and would call in the morning.'

The morning around eleven, Frank Howard came to the Budds' apartment, bringing gifts of strawberries and fresh, creamy pot cheese. "'These products come direct from my farm,' he explained. Delia persuaded the old man to stay for lunch. For the first time, Albert Budd Sr. had an opportunity to talk with his son's new employer. It was the kind of talk that makes a father very happy.'

Here was this kindly, polite old gentleman, rapturously describing his twenty acres of farmland, his friendly crew of farmhands, and a simple, hearty country life. Once they sat down to lunch, the door opened, and a lovely ten-year-old girl appeared. Gracie was humming a song. Her huge brown eyes and dark brown hair contrasted with her very pale skin and pink lips.

"'She would be a real heartbreaker someday. "'Coming right from church, she still wore her Sunday clothes. "'White silk confirmation dress, white silk stockings, "'and a string of creamy pearls made her look older than her ten years. "'Let's see how good a counter you are,' the elderly gentleman said "'as he handed Gracie a huge wad of bills to count.'

The impoverished Bert's family were flabbergasted by the money the old man was carrying around with him. "'Ninety-two dollars and fifty cents,' Gracie told him in short order, saying, "'What a bright little girl!' Mr. Howard gave the little girl fifty cents to buy candy for herself and her little sister Beatrice. The man then said he would come back later in the evening to pick up Edward and Willie for work.'

But first he had to go to a birthday party that his sister was throwing for one of her children. He gave the boys two dollars to go to the movies. Just as he was about to leave, he invited Gracie to go with him to his niece's birthday party. He would take good care of her and make sure that Gracie was home before nine o'clock that evening.

Delia asked where Mr. Howard's sister lived, and he replied that she lived in an apartment house at Columbus and 137th Street. Delia wasn't sure that she should let her go, but her husband convinced her that it would be good for Gracie. He said, let the poor kid go. She don't see much good times. Little did he know that good times was not what little Gracie had in store.

"'So Delia helped Gracie on with her good coat "'and her grey hat with the streamers. "'She followed Gracie and Mr. Howard outside "'and watched them disappear down the street. "'That evening there was no word from Mr. Howard "'and no sign of Gracie. "'After a terrible sleepless night "'with no message from their beautiful daughter, "'the next morning young Edward was sent down to the police station "'to report his sister's disappearance.'

The worst thing that Police Lieutenant Samuel Dribben said to the Buds was that the address that Frank Howard had given them for his sister's apartment was fictitious. The kindly old man was a fraud. There was no Frank Howard, no Farmingdale, Long Island. None of it was true. Police began the normal investigative activities. They checked out everything the so-called Frank Howard had told the Buds,

They also had the Buds go through their rogues gallery of photos and checked on all the known child molesters, mental patients, etc. It came to nothing. No trace of Gracie. On June 7th, New York police mailed out 1,000 flyers to police stations throughout the country with a photo of Gracie and a description of Mr. Howard.

This activity, along with all the local publicity, guaranteed an epidemic of crazy sightings and crank letters, each of which had to be thoroughly investigated by the 20-plus detectives who had been assigned to the case. There were a couple of solid clues. Police found the Western Union office in Manhattan from which the mysterious Frank Howard had sent his message to the Buds, plus the original handwritten message.

From the writing and grammar, it was clear that Howard had some education and refinement. Police also located the vendor where Howard had bought the pot cheese that he had given to the Buds. Both addresses were in East Harlem, which then became a focal point of intense search and investigation. As it were, the New York police were not strangers to child kidnapping.

In fact, there was an oddly similar case just a year before. On February 11th, 1927, four-year-old Billy Gaffney played in the hallway outside his apartment with his three-year-old neighbor who was also named Billy. A twelve-year-old neighbor who was babysitting his sleeping baby sister went to join the boys, but went back to his apartment quickly after hearing his sister cry.

A few minutes later, the older boy noticed that the two Billys were gone and told the younger Billy's father. After a desperate search, the father found his three-year-old son alone on the top floor of the building. His son had been up on the roof. "'Where's Billy Gaffney?' the man asked his son. "'The boogeyman took him,' the little boy replied."

The next day, when a platoon of detectives came to investigate the disappearance of the Gaffney boy, they ignored the three-year-old witness, who stuck to his simple explanation. At first, the police thought the boy had wandered outside into some of the factory buildings in the neighborhood, or, worse, had fallen into the Gowanus Canal a few blocks away. People in the community organized a search, and the canal was dredged.

But there was no sign of little Billy. Eventually, someone listened to the three-year-old witness who gave them a description of the boogeyman. He was a slender old man with grey hair and a grey moustache. The police paid no attention to this description and did not connect it to a crime that had been committed by the grey man a few years earlier in July of 1924.

Eight-year-old Francis MacDonald had played on the front porch of his home in the pastoral Charlton Woods section of Staten Island. His mother sat nearby, nursing her infant daughter when she saw a gaunt elderly man with grey hair and moustache in the middle of the street. She stared at the strange shabby old man who constantly clenched and unclenched his fists and mumbled to himself.

The man tipped his dusty hat to her and disappeared down the street. Later that afternoon, the old man was seen again, watching Francis and four other boys play ball. The old man called Francis over to him. The other boys continued to play ball. A few minutes later, both the old man and Francis had disappeared.

"'A neighbor noticed a boy that looked like Francis, "'walking that afternoon into a wooded area "'with an elderly gray-haired man behind him. "'The disappearance of Francis was not noticed until he missed dinner. "'His father and a policeman organized a search. "'They found the boy, in the woods under some branches. "'He had been horribly assaulted. "'His clothes had been torn from his body "'and he had been strangled with his suspenders.'

Francis had been beaten so badly that police doubted that the old tramp could have really been as old and frail as he looked. The beatings were so severe that perhaps the old tramp had an accomplice who had the strength to maul the child. Had the police been faster to connect these two child abductions with the abduction of little Gracie they now was faced with, her fate might not have been sealed.

But, as was the practice in this time, different police districts did not really cooperate. There were no centralized registry of missing children as we have today with Amber Alerts. And, of course, the FBI did not exist yet. And so, despite massive efforts of the police and the community, the Gray Man had vanished into thin air. Years later, in November of 1934...

The Grace Budd case was officially still open, although nobody ever expected it to be solved. Only one man, William F. King, continued to pursue the case. Every once in a while, King would plant a phony item about a break in the case with newspaper man Walter Winchell. On November 2nd, 1934, Winchell took the bait and published the following...

"'I checked on the Grace Budd mystery,' Winchell wrote in his column. "'She was eight when she was kidnapped about six years ago, "'and it is safe to tell you that the Department of Missing Persons "'will break the case all they expect to in four weeks.' "'Ten days later, Delia Budd received a letter "'that her lack of education fortunately prevented her from reading.'

Her son, Edward, read it instead and ran out the door to get Detective King. The letter was singularly barbarous and is still probably the most famous letter from a serial killer, except a notorious from-hell letter Jack the Ripper had sent police in Victorian-era London. The letter sent to Buds reads as follows...

Whoa, easy there. Yeah.

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Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. My dear Mrs. Budd, in 1894, a friend of mine shipped as a deckhand on the steamer Tacoma, Captain John Davis.

they sailed from san francisco for hong kong china on arriving there he and two others went ashore and got drunk when they returned the boat was gone at the time there was a famine in china meat of any kind was from one dollar to three dollars a pound

So great was the suffering among the very poor that all children under twelve were sold for food in order to keep others from starving. A boy or girl under fourteen was not safe in the street. You could go in any shop and ask for steak, chops or stew meat.

"'Part of the naked body of a boy or girl would be bought out "'and just what you wanted cut from it. "'Boy or girls behind, which is the sweetest part of the body "'and sold as veal cutlet, brought the highest price. "'John stayed there so long he acquired a taste for human flesh. "'On his return to New York, he stole two boys, one seven, one eleven.'

took them to his home, stripped them naked, tied them in a closet, then burned everything they had on. Several times every day and night he spanked them, tortured them, to make their meat good and tender. First he killed the eleven-year-old boy because he had the fattest ass and, of course, the most meat on it. Every part of his body was cooked and eaten, except the head, bones and guts.

He was roasted in the oven, all of his ass. Boiled, broiled, fried and stewed. The little boy was next, went the same way. At that time, I was living at 409 East 100th Street, near Right Side. He told me so often how good human flesh was, I made up my mind to taste it. On Sunday, June the 3rd, 1928, I called on you...

"'At 406 West, 15th Street. "'Brought you pot cheese, strawberries. "'We had lunch. "'Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. "'I made up my mind to eat her. "'On the pretense of taking her to a party, "'you said yes, she could go. "'I took her to an empty house in Westchester "'I had already picked out. "'When we got there, I told her to remain outside.'

She picked wildflowers. I went upstairs and stripped all of my clothes off. I knew if I did not, I would get her blood on them. When all was ready, I went to the window and called her. Then I hid in a closet until she was in the room. When she saw me all naked, she began to cry and tried to run down the stairs. I grabbed her and she said she would tell her mama.

"'First I stripped her naked. "'Oh, she did kick, bite and scratch. "'I choked her to death, then cut her in small pieces "'so I could take my meat to my rooms, cook and eat it. "'How sweet and tender her little ass was roasted in the oven. "'It took me nine days to eat her entire body. "'I did not fuck her, though. "'I could have had I wished. "'She died a virgin.'

The last sentence of the letter is impossible to verify, but considering Albert Fish's extreme depravity, pedophilia and sadomasochism, it is probable he was lying. As we know from other serial killer cases, killers often lie about aspects of their crimes they deem shameful, while bragging openly about other aspects they themselves are not ashamed of.

Fish was, as stated earlier, in the belief he was on a mission from God to murder and eat children. To him it was thus not a problem to admit to murder, but his pedophilic tendencies was something he was more reluctant to fess up to. Nobody at the time wanted to believe that the letter was true. It had to be the ravings of some perverted sadistic crank.

But Detective King realized that the details of his meeting with the Buds and Greys were accurate. Also, the handwriting on it was identical to the letter the elderly kidnapper had written to the Bud family, telling them he couldn't visit until the day after, all those years earlier. The envelope had an important clue. A small hexagonal emblem had the letters NYPCBA, which stood for...

the New York Private Chauffeurs Benevolent Association. With the cooperation of the president of the association, an emergency meeting of the members was held. In the meantime, police checked out the handwritten membership forms looking for handwriting similar to Frank Howard's. Detective King then asked the members, all of whom had passed the handwriting test, to report anybody who had taken the association's stationery.

A young janitor came forward, admitting that he had taken a couple of sheets of paper and a few envelopes. He had left the stationery in his old rooming house at 200 East 52nd Street. The landlady was shocked when she was given Frank Howard's description. He sounded just like the old man who had lived there for two months. The old man who had checked out of her rooming house just a couple of days earlier.

The former tenant, who had not called himself Frank Howard, but referred to himself as none other than Albert H. Fish. The landlady mentioned that Fish had told her to hold a letter that he was expecting from his son, who worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps in North Carolina. The son regularly sent money to his old dad.

Finally, the post office told Detective King that it had intercepted a letter for Albert Fish. Detective King was becoming worried that Fish had not contacted his former landlady. The police worried that something had scared him away. But on December 13th, 1934, the landlady called Detective King. Albert Fish was at the rooming house looking for his letter. King wasted no time.

and found the old man sitting with a teacup when King opened the door. Fish stood up and nodded when King asked him if he was Albert Fish. Suddenly, Fish reached into his pocket and produced a razor blade, which he held in front of him. Infuriated, King grabbed the old man's hand and twisted it sharply. "'I've got you now,' he said triumphantly. "'The Confession!'

of albert fish would be heard by many law enforcement officials and psychiatrists a severely edited version of it would appear in the newspapers it was an odyssey of perversion and unspeakable depravity which seemed unbelievable until detail after detail was corroborated it was all the more amazing considering how decrepit and harmless fish appeared

He was a stooped, frail-looking old man, about 130 pounds and 5 feet 5 inches tall. Detective King took the initial confession. Fish told him that in the summer of 1928 he had been overcome by what he called his bloodthirst, his need to kill.

When he answered Edward Budd's ad for employment, it was a young man, not his sister Gracie, that he intended to lure to a remote location, restrain him, and cut off his penis, leaving him to bleed to death. After he left the Budd house the first time, Fish had purchased the tools he would need to murder and mutilate the boys, a cleaver, saw, and butcher knife.

He wrapped up these implements of destruction into a bundle which he left at a newsstand before he went to the Bud home for the second and last time. When Fish saw the strapping young Edward, the size of a full-grown man, and his friend Willie, he convinced himself he could overpower the two of them. It was only after seeing Gracie that he changed his mind and his plans. It was she he desperately wanted to kill.

With the unsuspecting Gracie in tow, he stopped back at a new stand to pick up his murder kit, wrapped in a bundle, before taking a train to the Bronx, and then to the village of Worthington in Westchester. For Grace, he only bought a one-way ticket. Grace was enthralled with the forty-minute ride into the countryside. Only twice in her life had she been out of the city. This was a wonderful treat for her.

At the station in Worthington, Fish was so absorbed in his monstrous plan that he left his bundle of tools on the train. Ironically, Grace noticed and reminded him to bring his package. They walked along a remote road until they reached an abandoned two-story building called Wisteria Cottage in the midst of a wooded area.

"'What happened next was already known "'since Fish had written about it in detail "'in his letter to little Gracie's mother. "'After his confession, Detective King had a final question. "'What caused you to do so horrible a thing?' "'You know,' Fish answered, "'I never really could account for it. "'That day the police went to Wisteria Cottage "'and recovered the remains of Gracie. "'Abbott Fish stood nearby, "'completely without emotion of any kind.'

Nothing was asked at the time, nor was anything volunteered about the cannibalism mentioned in Fisher's letter to the Buds. The police may have considered it too insane to be true, or, perhaps, they were already thinking that including horrible details about cannibalism would bolster the inevitable defense case for insanity.

"'That night the capture of Albert Fish had leaked to the newspapers, "'and reporters descended on the Bud apartment with the news. "'Shortly afterwards, Detective King drove Mr. Bud and his son Edward "'to the police station to identify Fish. "'Edward did more than identify Fish. "'He threw himself at the old man. "'You old bastard! Dirty son of a bitch!' "'Mr. Bud was surprised at Fish's lack of emotion.'

"'Don't you know me?' he asked the old man. "'Yes,' Fish answered politely. "'You're Mr. Bird, and you're the man who came to my home as a guest and took my little girl away,' he said in tears. Albert Fish was facing indictments in Manhattan and Westchester County. First, Westchester County indicted him on a charge of first-degree murder, while Manhattan was preparing an indictment for kidnapping.'

Meanwhile, police got a major break. The motorman on the Brooklyn trolley line saw a picture of Fish in the newspaper and came forward to identify Fish as the nervous old man that he saw February 11th, 1927, was trying to quiet a little boy sitting with him on the trolley. Joseph Meehan, the retired motorman, watched the two carefully. The little boy, who didn't have a jacket or coat,

was crying for his mother continuously and had to be dragged by the old man on and off the trolley. The little boy, as it turned out, was the kidnapped Billy Gaffney. Ultimately, Fish did confess to the things he did to Billy Gaffney. I brought him to the Riker Avenue dumps. There is a house that stands alone not far from where I took him. I took the boy there, stripped him naked and tied his hands and feet

and gagged him with a piece of dirty rag I picked out of the dump. Then I burned his clothes, threw his shoes in the dump. Then I walked back and took the trolley to 59th Street at 2 a.m. and walked from there home. Next day, about 2 p.m., I took tools. A good heavy cat-of-nine-tails. Homemade, short handle. Cut one of my belts in half. Slit these halves in six strips about eight inches long.

"'I whipped his bear behind "'till the blood ran from his legs. "'I cut off his ears, nose, "'slit his mouth from ear to ear, "'gouged out his eyes. "'He was dead then. "'I stuck the knife in his belly "'and held my mouth to his body "'and drank his blood. "'I picked up four old potato sacks "'and gathered a pile of stones. "'And I cut him up. "'I had a grip with me. "'I put his nose, ears, "'and a few slices of his belly in the grip.'

and I cut him through the middle of his body, just below the belly button. Then through his legs about two inches below his behind. I put this in my grip with a lot of paper. I cut off the head, feet, arms, hands, and the legs below the knee. Then I put in sacks weighted with stones, tied the ends and threw them into the pools of slimy water you will see all along the road going to North Beach.

As with many serial killers with a need for attention, during his extensive interviews with police, Fish confessed what he did next, and I quote, I came home with my meat. I had the front of his body I liked best, his monkey and peewees, and a nice little fat behind to roast in the oven and eat. I made a stew out of his ears, nose, pieces of his face and belly.

I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt and pepper. It was good. I split the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and peewees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put them in the oven. Then I picked four onions and when the meat had roasted about a quarter of an hour, I poured about a pint of water over it for gravy and put in the onions.

At frequent intervals I basted his behind with a wooden spoon, so the meat would be nice and juicy. In about two hours it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did. I ate every bit of the meat in about four days. His little monkey was as sweet as a nut, but his peewees I could not chew, threw them in the toilet.

Days later, a man from Staten Island came forward to identify Fish as the man who had tried to lure his then eight-year-old daughter into the woods not far from where Francis O'Donnell was murdered three days later, in 1924. The girl, in her late teens, saw him in his cell and recognized him. The Grey Man was finally found.

Fish was also tied to the 1932 murder of a 15-year-old girl named Mary O'Connor in Far Rockaway. The girl's mauled body was found in some woods close to a house that Fish had been painting. With all of those indictments in different counties, there was very little chance that Albert Fish was going to be acquitted.

His only opportunity to beat the death penalty was to have the then-called alienists, today's forensic psychiatrists, declare him insane. Dr. Frederick Wertham, in his book The Show of Violence, describes his first meeting with Albert Fish in his jail cell. He was shocked at how meek, gentle, benevolent and polite Fish was.

If you wanted someone to entrust your children to, he would be the one you would choose. Fish's attitude towards his situation was one of complete detachment. As he said, I have no particular desire to live. I have no particular desire to be killed. It's a matter of indifference to me. I do not think I am altogether right. When Dr. Wortham asked if he meant that he was insane, Fish answered...

Not exactly. I could never understand myself. Psychosis seems to have galloped through Fischer's family history from what Dr. Burdum could ascertain. One paternal uncle suffered from a religious psychosis and died in a state hospital. A half-brother also died in a state hospital. A younger brother was feeble-minded and died of hydrocephalus.

His mother was held to be very queer and was said to hear and see things. Her paternal aunt was considered completely crazy. Her brother suffered from chronic alcoholism. Her sister had some sort of mental affliction. Dr. Wortham considered Fish's unparalleled perversity unique in the annals of psychiatric and criminal literature.

Sato masochism directed against children, particularly boys, took the lead in his sexually regressive development. Fish told him, I always had a desire to inflict pain on others and to have others inflict pain on me. I always seemed to enjoy everything that hurt.

Wertham told, Experiences with excreta of every imaginable kind were practiced by him, actively and passively. He took bits of cotton, saturated them with alcohol, inserted them into his rectum, and set fire to them. He also did that with his child victims. Fish confided in Dr. Wertham a long history of preying on children, at least a hundred,

"'Fish would bribe them with money or candy. "'He usually chose African-American children "'because he believed that the police did not pay much attention "'when they were hurt or missing. "'He never went back to the same neighborhood. "'He said that he had lived in at least 23 states, "'and in each one he had killed at least one child. "'Sometimes he lost his job as a painter "'because he was suspiciously connected to these dead or mutilated children.'

He had a compulsion to write obscene letters, and did so frequently. According to Dr. Wortham, they were not the typical obscene letters based on fantasies and daydreams to supply a vicarious thrill. They were offers to practice his inclinations with the people he wrote his graphic suggestions to. Initially, Dr. Wortham had some concerns about whether Fish was lying to him.

especially when he told the psychiatrist that he had been sticking needles into his body for years, in the area between his rectum and the scrotum. He told of doing it to other people too, especially children. At first he said he had only stuck these needles in and pulled them out again. Then he had stuck others in so far that he was unable to get them out, and they stayed there.

The doctor had him x-rayed and, sure enough, there were at least 29 needles in his pelvic region. Dr. Wortham, the defense alienist, believed that Fish was legally insane. I characterized his personality as introverted and extremely infantilistic. I outlined his abnormal mental makeup and his mental disease, which I diagnosed as paranoid psychosis.

Because Fish suffered from delusions, and particularly was so mixed up about the questions of punishment, sin, atonement, religion, torture, self-punishment, he had a perverted, a distorted, if you want, an insane knowledge of right and wrong. His test was that if it had been wrong, he would have been stopped, as Abraham was stopped by an angel.

Wortham believed that Fish had actually killed 15 children and mutilated about 100 others, and later claimed that the figure was verified many times by police officials. Two other defense alienists testified that Fish was insane. The four alienists who were called by the prosecution testified that Fish was sane.

One of the prosecution's alienists was the head of the psychiatric hospital where Fish had been detained for observation a couple of years after the Budd and other murders and where he had been judged both harmless and sane. The trial of Albert Fish for the premeditated murder of Grace Budd began on Monday, March 11th, 1935 in White Plains, New York

Injustice Frederick P. closes court. Chief Assistant District Attorney Albert F. Gallagher was in charge of the prosecution, and James Dempsey was the defense attorney. Dempsey planned to attack the competence of the Bellevue Hospital alienists, who had observed Fish in 1930 and declared him sane.

He also planned to establish that fish were suffering from lead colic, a dementia often suffered by house painters. Gallagher's chief strategy was summarized early in the trial, and I quote, Now, in this case, there is a presumption of sanity.

The proof, briefly, will be that this defendant is legally sane, and that he knows the difference between right and wrong, and the nature and quality of his acts, that he is not defective mentally, that he had a wonderful memory for a man of his age, that he has complete orientation as to his immediate surroundings,

that there is no mental deterioration, but that he is sexually abnormal, that he is known medically as a sex pervert or a sex psychopath, that his acts were abnormal, but that when he took this girl from her home on the third day of June, 1928,

and in doing the act, and in procuring the tools with which he killed her, bringing her up here to Westchester County, and taking her into this empty house surrounded by woods in the back of it, he knew it was wrong to do that, and that he is legally sane, and should answer for his acts.

Defense attorney Dempsey focused on Fisher's strange life and the self-flagellation with nail-studded paddles and needles. Then he brought up Fisher's competence as a father and his love for his children. In spite of all these brutal, criminal, and vicious proclivities, there is another side to this defendant.

"'He has been a very fine father. "'He never once in his life laid a hand on one of his children,' "'he says Grace, at every meal in his house. "'In 1917, when the youngest one of his six children was three, "'his wife left him, and from that time down until shortly "'before the Grace Budd murder in 1928, "'he was a mother and a father to those children.'

Dempsey closed his remarks by reminding the jury that it was up to the prosecution to prove that a man who killed and ate children was sane. The trial lasted ten days, and the jury took less than an hour to reach its verdict. "'We find the defendant guilty as charged,' the foreman said. Fish was not happy with the verdict, but the prospect of being electrocuted had its appeal to him."

A Daily News reporter wrote, Fish thanked the judge for his sentence of death by electrocution. Less than a year after his trial, Hamilton Albert Fish ate his last meal.

Shortly after 11 p.m., on January 16th, 1936, Fish was strapped into the chair. Harold Schechter, in his book Deranged, describes the end. At the sight of the electric chair, Fish did not quail, as even the hardest men often did, though he did not seem like someone who was looking forward to the supreme thrill of his life, either.

Hands clasped in prayer, he lowered himself into the chair and allowed the straps to be adjusted around his arms, legs and torso. His face looked very pale in the instant before Robert Elliot, the gaunt, grey-haired executioner, slipped the black death mask over it. The leather cap with its electrode was fitted to the old man's close-shaven head.

After fastening the chin strap, Elliot stooped to secure the second electrode to Fisher's right leg beneath the trouser slit. Then he stepped to the control panel. Part of the legend surrounding the demise of the real live model for Hannibal Lecter happened at the moment of his death. The needles that were part of his body were claimed to have short-circuited the first effort to end his life. But Schecter disputes that, and I quote...

Afterwards, stories circulated that the needles in the old man's body had procured a burst of blue sparks when the electricity was activated. But this was simply part of the folklore that grew up around fish in the following years. There were no pyrotechnics. Fish died like other men. Discover Hydro, the best-kept secret in fitness. Hydro is the state-of-the-art at-home rower that engages 86% of your muscles, delivers

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