The Horrific Crimes of Albert Fish
Albert Fish, born Hamilton Howard Fish on 19 May 1870 in Washington, D.C., is remembered as one of the most infamous and disturbing figures in American criminal history. While his crimes were heinous, understanding the circumstances of his life and the broader social context can shed light on the development of such a disturbed individual. This would in no way be an attempt to excuse his behaviour, merely a way of possibly understanding the 'why'.
Early Life and Troubled Beginnings
Albert Fish was born to Randall Fish, a 75-year-old former riverboat captain and fertiliser manufacturer, and Ellen Francis Howell, who was 43 years younger than her husband. Fish was the youngest of their four surviving children, with siblings Walter, Annie, and Edwin. He chose to go by “Albert” as a child to escape the nickname “Ham and Eggs,” which he was given at Saint John’s Orphanage in Washington, D.C., where he spent much of his early years after his father’s sudden death in 1875. Fish’s mother, unable to care for him following her husband’s demise, placed him in the orphanage. There, he was subjected to routine physical abuse, a traumatic experience that shaped his later life and, disturbingly, led him to associate pain with pleasure.
Mental illness was a recurring theme in Fish’s family. His uncle suffered from mania, a brother was institutionalised, and several other relatives were diagnosed with psychiatric conditions. Fish’s mother reportedly experienced auditory and visual hallucinations. This troubling genetic legacy and early trauma contributed significantly to his increasingly disturbed behaviour.
Albert Fish's Descent into Darkness: Early Adulthood
Fish’s descent into criminal and deviant behaviour began early. In 1882, at age 12, Fish began a relationship with a telegraph boy. The youth introduced Fish to such practices as drinking urine and eating feces. Fish began visiting public baths where he could watch other boys undress, spending a great portion of his weekends on these visits. Throughout his life, he would write obscene letters to women whose names he acquired from classified advertising and matrimonial agencies.
In 1890, Fish moved to New York City, where his crimes escalated. He became a male prostitute and began targeting young boys for molestation and rape, often those under six years old. Despite this, in 1898, his mother arranged his marriage to Anna Mary Hoffman, with whom he had six children: Albert Jr., Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, and Henry. While he never physically harmed his children, his behaviour was far from normal, and his perverse tendencies only grew.
Escalation of Violence and the Formation of a “Monster”
Fish later recounted an incident in which a male lover took him to a wax museum, where he was fascinated by a bisection of a human penis and subsequently became obsessed with sexual mutilation. Several years later, around 1910, Fish met a 19-year-old man named Thomas Bedden at work. He took Bedden to where he was staying and the two began a sadomasochistic relationship; it is unclear whether or not the sadomasochism was consensual on Bedden's part, but Fish's later confession implied that Bedden was intellectually disabled. After ten days, Fish took Bedden to "an old farm house", where he tortured him over two weeks. Fish eventually tied Bedden up and cut off half of his penis. "I shall never forget his scream or the look he gave me", Fish later recalled. He originally intended to kill Bedden, cut up his body, and take it home, but he feared the hot weather would draw attention; instead, Fish poured peroxide over the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-covered handkerchief, left a $10 bill, kissed Bedden goodbye and left. "Took first train I could get back home. Never heard what become of him, or tried to find out," Fish recalled.
After his wife left him in 1917 for another man, Fish’s mental health deteriorated further. He began hearing voices, self-mutilating, and engaging in grotesque acts such as embedding needles into his body and lighting wool soaked in lighter fluid inside his anus.
X-ray of Fish's pelvis and perineum, introduced as evidence at his trial, demonstrating more than two dozen self-embedded needles
By the 1920s, Fish was committing murders. He targeted children, often choosing those who were either mentally disabled or marginalised. He referred to his tools of torture as “implements of Hell,” and his acts were driven by delusions that God commanded him to harm others as penance for his sins.
The Murder of Grace Budd
The case that would lead to Fish’s capture was the abduction and murder of 10-year-old Grace Budd in 1928. On May 25 of that year, Fish saw a classified advertisement in the New York World that read, "Young man, 18, wishes position in country. Edward Budd, 406 West 15th Street." On May 28, Fish, then 58 years old, visited the Budd family under the pretence of hiring Edward; he later confessed that he planned to tie Edward up, mutilate him, and leave him to bleed to death. Fish introduced himself as "Frank Howard", a farmer. He promised to hire Budd and his friend and said he would send for them in a few days. Fish failed to show up, but he sent a telegram to the Budd family apologising and set a later date. When Fish returned, he met Edward's younger sister, 10-year-old Grace "Gracie" Budd. He apparently shifted his intentions toward Grace and quickly made up a story about having to attend his niece's birthday party.
He persuaded the parents, to let Grace accompany him to the party that evening. Fish subsequently took Grace to an abandoned house he had previously picked out to use for the murder of his next victim. There, Fish manually strangled her to death, then decapitated and dismembered her body, and ate most of the remains over the next several days.
Letter to the mother of Grace Budd
In November 1934, an anonymous letter sent to Grace's parents ultimately led the police to Fish. Budd's mother was illiterate and could not read the letter herself, so she had her son read it to her. The unaltered letter reads:
My dear Mrs. Budd,
In 1894 a friend of mine shipped as a deck hand on the Steamer Tacoma, Capt. 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 that time there was famine in China. Meat of any kind was from $1 to 3 Dollars a pound. So great was the suffering among the very poor that all children under 12 were sold for food in order to keep others from starving. A boy or girl under 14 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 brought out and just what you wanted cut from it. A boy or girls behind which is the sweetest part of the body and sold as veal cutlet brought the highest price.John staid [sic] there so long he acquired a taste for human flesh. On his return to N.Y. he stole two boys one 7 one 11. 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 11 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 E 100 st., 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 3—1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. 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 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 mamma.First I stripped her naked. How 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 9 days to eat her entire body. I did not fuck her tho I could of had I wished. She died a virgin.
Police investigated the letter and although the story concerning "Capt. Davis" and the famine in Hong Kong could not be verified, the part of the letter concerning the murder of Grace was found to be accurate in its description of the kidnapping and subsequent events, though it was impossible to confirm whether or not Fish had actually eaten parts of Grace's body.
Finally Captured
It was this letter that was Fish's undoing. The letter was delivered in an envelope that had a small logo with the letters "N.Y.P.C.B.A." representing "New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association". A cleaner at the company told the police he had taken some of the stationery home but left it at his rooming house at when he moved out. The landlady of the rooming house said that Fish checked out of that room a few days earlier. She said that Fish's son sent him money and he asked her to hold his next check for him. Detective William King, the chief investigator for the case, waited outside the room until Fish returned.
He agreed to go to headquarters for questioning, then attempted to attack King with a razor blade. King disarmed Fish and took him to police headquarters. Fish made no attempt to deny the murder of Grace Budd, saying that he meant to go to the house to kill her brother Edward. Fish said it "never even entered [his] head" to rape the girl, but he later claimed to his attorney that, while kneeling on Grace's chest and strangling her, he did have two involuntary ejaculations. This information was used at trial to make the claim the kidnapping was sexually motivated, thus avoiding any mention of cannibalism. When Fish's family learned that he was arrested for Grace's murder, they hardly reacted. His eldest son Albert Fish Jr. told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in December 1934,
"The old skunk, I knew something like this would happen sooner or later."
Trial and Execution
Fish’s trial in 1935 for the murder of Grace Budd was a media sensation. The trial lasted for ten days. Fish pleaded insanity, and claimed to have heard voices from God telling him to kill children. Several psychiatrists testified about Fish's sexual fetishes, which included sadism and masochism, flagellation, exhibitionism, voyeurism, piquerism, cannibalism, coprophagia, urophilia, hematolagnia, pedophilia, necrophilia, and infibulation. Fish's defence lawyer, James Dempsey in his summation noted that Fish was a "psychiatric phenomenon" and that nowhere in legal or medical records was there another individual who possessed so many sexual abnormalities.
The defense's chief expert witness was Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist with an emphasis on child development who conducted psychiatric examinations for the New York criminal courts. During two days of testimony, Wertham explained Fish's obsession with religion and specifically his preoccupation with the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. Wertham said that Fish believed that similarly "sacrificing" a boy would be penance for his own sins and that even if the act itself was wrong, angels would prevent it if God did not approve. Fish attempted the sacrifice once before but was thwarted when a car drove past. Edward Budd was the next intended victim, but he turned out to be larger than expected so he settled on Grace. Although he knew Grace was female, it is believed that Fish perceived her as a boy. Wertham then detailed Fish's cannibalism, which in his mind he associated with communion. The last question Dempsey asked Wertham was 15,000 words long, detailed Fish's life and ended with asking how the doctor considered his mental condition based on this life. Wertham simply answered "He is insane."
The prosecutor, Assistant D.A Elbert Gallagher cross-examined Wertham on whether Fish knew the difference between right and wrong. He responded that he did know but that it was a perverted knowledge based on his opinions of sin, atonement, and religion and thus was an "insane knowledge". The defense called two more psychiatrists to support Wertham's findings. The first of four rebuttal witnesses was Menas Gregory, the former manager of the Bellevue Hospital, where Fish was treated during 1930. He testified that Fish was abnormal but sane. Under cross-examination, Dempsey asked if coprophilia, urophilia, and pedophilia indicated a sane or insane person. Gregory replied that such a person was not "mentally sick" and that these were common perversions that were "socially perfectly alright" and that Fish was "no different from millions of other people", some very prominent and successful, who had the "very same" perversions.
Albert Fish's daughter meeting the brother of Grace Budd, Edward, from a 1935 newspaper.
The next witness was the resident physician at the Manhattan Detention Complex, Perry Lichtenstein. Dempsey objected to a doctor with no training in psychiatry testifying on the issue of sanity, but Justice Close overruled on the basis that the jury could decide what weight to give a prison doctor. When asked whether Fish's causing himself pain indicated a mental condition, Lichtenstein replied, "That is not masochism", as he was only "punishing himself to get sexual gratification". The next witness, Charles Lambert, testified that coprophilia was a common practice and that religious cannibalism may be psychopathic but "was a matter of taste" and not evidence of a psychosis. The last witness, James Vavasour, repeated Lambert's opinion. Another defense witness was Mary Nicholas, Fish's 17-year-old stepdaughter. She described how Fish taught her and her brothers and sisters several games involving overtones of masochism and child molestation.
Fish was executed on Jan. 16, 1936.
None of the jurors doubted that Fish was insane, but ultimately, as one later explained, they felt he should be executed anyway. They found him to be sane and guilty, and the judge sentenced the defendant to death. Fish arrived at prison in March 1935, and was executed on January 16, 1936, in the electric chair at Sing Sing. He entered the chamber at 11:06 p.m. and was pronounced dead three minutes later. He was buried in the Sing Sing Prison Cemetery. Fish is said to have helped the executioner position the electrodes on his body. His last words were reportedly, "I don't even know why I'm here." According to one witness present, it took two jolts before Fish died, creating the rumor that the apparatus was short-circuited by the needles that Fish had inserted into his body.
Despite the brutality of his actions, Fish showed no remorse. His final statement, described by his lawyer as “the most filthy string of obscenities,” remains unpublished.
Following his arrest, Fish was tied to the murders of Francis McDonnell and Billy Gaffney.
According to a report by the New York Daily News, a man saw 8-year-old Francis following an elderly man into the woods in July 1924. Francis was later found hanging by his own suspenders from a tree in Staten Island, badly beaten and mutilated. Fish denied involvement in the crime but a neighbor identified him as a man he had chased from his farm around the same time that McDonnell had disappeared, the New York Times reported in December 1934.
Francis' mother is credited with giving Fish the name "The Gray Man," according to the Toronto Sun. When speaking to police, Anna McDonnell gave this description of the attacker: "He came shuffling down the street mumbling to himself and making queer motions with his hands... I saw his thick grey hair and his drooping grey mustache. Everything about him seemed faded and grey," the Sun reported.
Fish was later identified as the man seen with missing 4-year-old Billy Gaffney, who had disappeared from his Brooklyn home in February 1927. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Dodd told the New York Daily News in March 1927 that he spoke with Billy's neighbors, who reported seeing the child moments before he was taken.
"Their most remarkable disclosure was that Billy Gaffney vanished within three minutes. Mrs. Cordovez saw him playing in the fourth floor of the building where he lived at 5:30 p.m.," Dodd told the newspaper. "Not more than three minutes later, Beaton looked there and the child was gone."
At this time, mothers were afraid for their children as young boys were being taken from their homes, only to be found dead days later. Schechter told WTOP News:
"He was really the living incarnation of every parent’s worst nightmare and every child’s worst nightmare. What the Boogeyman is,”
Of course, Fish wasn't responsible for every disappearance. Amid the search for Billy, a 5-year-old boy was nearly kidnapped by Louis Sandman, who was then attacked by a mob of angry mothers, the New York Daily News reported in a separate March 1927 article.
"The hunt for little Billy Gaffney took new life yesterday as a mob of screaming Brooklyn mothers, for the second time in five days, sought to beat down a suspected kidnaper. Less than a mile from the Gaffney home at 138 Warren St., the women clawed and spat at Louis Sandman, 42, caught in the act of dragging 5-year-old Frank Malerba into a dim hallway," the newspaper recalled.
Billy's body was never found, but Fish was identified as a suspect by a streetcar motorman who claimed to have seen an older man forcing the boy into a trolley the night the 4-year-old had disappeared, according to a December 1934 article by the Asbury Park Press.
Fish admitted to the kidnapping and murder of Billy in sickening detail:
I brought him to the Riker Ave. dumps. There is a house that stands alone, not far from where I took him ... I took the G 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 trolley to 59 St. at 2 A.M. and walked home from there. Next day about 2 P.M., I took tools, a good heavy cat-of-nine tails. Home made. Short handle. Cut one of my belts in half, slit these half in six strips about 8 in. long. I whipped his bare 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. Then 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. Then I cut him thru the middle of his body. Just below his belly button. Then thru his legs about 2 in. 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. This I put in sacks weighed 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. Water is 3 to 4 ft. deep. They sank at once.
I came home with my meat. I had the front of his body I liked best. His monkey and pee wees 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. Then I split the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and pee wees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put in the oven. Then I picked 4 onions and when meat had roasted about 1/4 hr., 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 2 hr., it was nice and brown, cooked thru. 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 pee-wees I could not chew. Threw them in the toilet.