Albert Hamilton Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American sadomasochistic serial killer, rapist, child molester, and cannibal. He was suspected of at least five murders in his lifetime and confessed to having killed three children from 1924 to 1928. He was given many nicknames, such as the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Grey Man, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and The Boogey Man. Fish was apprehended on December 13, 1934, and was put on trial for the murder and kidnapping of Grace Budd. He was eventually convicted and executed by an electric chair on January 16, 1936.
Early Life & Childhood:
Albert was born in Washington, DC, on May 19, 1870, to an English-American father, Randall, and a Scot-Irish American descent mother, Ellen. Fish was the youngest child and had three living siblings – Two brothers, Walter Fish and Edwin Fish, and a sister called Annie Fish. His father, a former riverboat captain, worked as a fertilizer manufacturer when Albert was born. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack in 1875 when Fish was only five years old.
Albert Fish’s childhood was disturbing. His father was 43 years older than his mother; when Albert was born, his mother was 32, and his father was 75. In addition, his family had a considerable history of mental illness, including his mother, who had visual hallucinations. In addition, his uncle and brother were sent to a psychiatric facility due to their mental illness. His sister also had a variety of mental disorders.
Due to his mother’s mental health and financial issues, he was sent to an orphanage in Washington (St. John’s Home for Boys). There, he was regularly tortured and brutalized. However, brutal and sadistic practices like harsh beatings and unmerciful flogging fascinated him. Fish’s experiences in the orphanage began his desire for the pain inflicted upon him and other people. By 1880, Fish’s mother got a stable government job and became mentally and financially stable; she brought Fish back home from the orphanage.
At the age of 12, he got involved in a homosexual relationship with a telegraph boy. He introduced Fish to various forms of paraphilic practices such as coprophagia (eating feces) and urolagnia(drinking urine). In addition, he would regularly visit public baths to watch the boys undress as a kid. He would also write sexually explicit letters to women in classified ads.
Early Adulthood and Crimes:
In 1890, then 20-year-old Fish moved to New York City. Soon after, he began to work as a male prostitute and started molesting young boys whom he’d lure from their homes. A nail-studded paddle was his weapon of choice to torture them before eventually raping them.
In 1898, Fish married a woman, Anna Mary Hoffman, to whom his mother had introduced him and fathered six children. While he never physically abused his own, he continued to molest other children, usually children under the age of six.
He admitted to being obsessed with mutilation after his male lover took him to a wax museum where he saw the bisection of a penis. Soon after, he became fascinated with castration. During a relationship with a mentally challenged boyfriend, Fish attempted to castrate him. However, the man managed to escape.
He also became involved in self-mutilation. He would often embed needles into his groin and abdomen and flog himself with a nail-studded paddle. (An X-ray taken later after his arrest revealed 27 needles in his pelvic region). He also intensified his visits to brothels, where he could be whipped and beaten more often.
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By 1903, Fish had begun to rack up a criminal record that included charges of grand larceny, petty theft, and the writing of obscene letters; however, he was only convicted for a single count of grand larceny and incarcerated in Sing Sing (New York State Prison). In jail, he had sexual relations with other inmates.
Divorce and Obcession with Sadomasochism:
In 1910, he met a young man named Thomas Kedden in Wilmington, Delaware. They started a sadomasochistic sexual relationship. While it’s unclear whether their relationship was consensual, Fish confessed that Kedden was mentally disabled.
Fish lured Kedden to an abandoned farmhouse only ten days after their initial meeting to torture him. Fish tortured Kedden for two weeks; he mutilated Kedden’s body parts and then cut half of his penis using a knife. He initially wanted to kill Kedden, but he decided against it because it could bring unwanted attention to him. So instead, he washed his wound, covered it with a handkerchief, left him a $10 bill, kissed him goodbye, and left. After that, he never saw Kedden again.
In January 1917, Fish became severely mentally ill – leading his wife to leave him and their six children under his care for another man.
He was already a masochistic addict by then. Fish’s self-harm grew after that, from pressing more and more needles into his groin to stuffing cotton balls covered in alcohol into his anus before setting them on fire.
He began having auditory hallucinations, as well. At one point, he recalled wrapping himself in a carpet on the instructions of John the Apostle.
Before he turned to cannibalism, Fish had been teaching his children strange and unsettling sadomasochistic games. He would also sometimes eat raw meat that he had often invited his kids to share.
By 1919, his obsession with cannibalism and torture had brought him to contemplate killing. He specifically targeted victims who are vulnerable children, such as homeless Black kids or mentally disabled orphans – that he assumed wouldn’t be missed.
Murder of Grace Budd:
Under the false name of Frank Howard, Albert Fish responded to an in the newspaper for work by Edward Budd. Budd, 18, was a young boy determined to make something out of himself. Upon reaching the young man’s door, Frank Howard said he would like to work with him on his farm. He also told the story of his six children and how his wife deserted them.
Edward was excited about having a job and providing for his family. Howard agreed to take him and his friend, Willie, and offered to pick them up to take them back to his farm to start working. However, he didn’t show up the next day and provided a handwritten note to Budd informing him that he would be in touch soon. The following morning, he visited the Budds family and was invited to lunch by them. There, he spotted Edward’s sister, Gracie, and asked her if she would like to go with him to attend a birthday party. The Budds gave her permission to attend the party. However, Howard never returned, and the family reported her disappearance to the police and began the investigation.
The police arrested Charles Edward Pope, a 66-year-old superintendent, on September 5, 1930, for the disappearance of Grace reported by his estranged wife. He was then found not guilty on December 22, 1930.
The investigation continued for six long years, but no concrete leads were discovered, especially since a person named Howard didn’t exist. Finally, however, in November 1934, the Budd family received a letter that detailed the murder and mutilation of their daughter, Gracie. The handwriting on the letter matched the writing on the note Howard sent them earlier.
The Letter and His Capture :
The unaltered letter (complete with Fish’s misspellings and grammatical errors) reads:
"My dear Mrs. Budd, In 1894 a friend of mine shipped as a deckhand on the steamer Tacoma, Capt John Davis. They sailed from San Francisco to 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 a 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 to the Butchers to be cut up and 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 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 yr 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 Head – bones and guts. He was roasted in the oven, (all of his ass) boiled, broiled, fried, stewed. The little boy was next, went the same way. At that time I was living at 409 E 100 St, rear – 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 wild flowers. 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 stairs. I grabbed her and she said she would tell her mama. 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, though, I could of had I wished. She died a virgin." The police were then able to investigate the letter, which they discovered to contain an emblem of the NYPCBA (New York Private Chauffeur’s Benevolent Association). The members were then required to take a handwriting test to compare the letters with those sent by Howard. A janitor came forward to confess that he had taken some sheets of paper and left them in his old rooming house. The landlady confirmed that an older man, Albert H. Fish, matching the police’s description, had lived there for two months but had checked out a few days earlier. Luckily, she was asked to secure a letter from his son, which would be delivered to her address. The police intercepted the letter at the post office and captured Mr.Fish.
Other victims:
However, during this investigation of Grace’s Murder, two more children became Fish’s victims.
Francis McDonnell, an eight-year-old boy, was on the porch with his mother when an older man suddenly appeared and started mumbling to himself. The mother did notice his awkward demeanor but did not report the incident. Later that day, on July 14, 1924, his friends saw him walking into the woods in a nearby park with an older man with a grey mustache. This description resulted in the mysterious stranger becoming known as “The Grey Man.” Francis was found under some branches in the woods near his house, badly beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled with his own suspenders. A few months later, another child also went missing.
On February 11, 1927, Billy Gaffney, a four-year-old boy, went missing while playing with his neighbor, also named Billy. Billy stated that the “boogie man” took him. Unfortunately, the police failed to take the statement seriously and ignored it, and Gaffney’s body was never recovered.
Fish was also tied to the 1932 murder of a fifteen-year-old girl named Mary O’Connor in Far Rockaway. The girl’s mauled body was found in some woods near a house that Fish had been painting.
Confession:
During his questioning, Fish confessed to the murder of Grace Budd, saying that he meant to go to the house to kill Grace’s brother Edward Budd and his friend Willie. However, once he laid eyes on Gracie, he changed his mind and desperately wanted to kill her. He took Gracie to the train station on false pretenses and purchased a one-way ticket for her. After the ride to the countryside, he took her to an abandoned two-story building called Wisteria Cottage amid a wooded area. While Gracie was entertaining herself by picking wildflowers from the yard, Fish went up to the second-floor bedroom, where he orchestrated her murder. He opened up his bundle of tools and took off his clothes.
Then Gracie was called upstairs; seeing the naked Fish, she screamed and called her mom for help. Mr. Fish confessed that he grabbed her and choked her to death. Following her death, he decapitated her and cut up her body. He took parts with him when he left, wrapped in newspaper. Police were able to locate the remains of Gracie based on his confession.
When several eyewitnesses positively identified Albert Fish as the odd stranger known as the Grey Man or Boogey Man, he was linked to the murders of McDonnell and Billy Gaffney. At first, though he confessed to the Killing of Billy Gaffney, Fish denied the charges of McDonnell’s Murder. However, it was only after the conclusion of his trial for the Budd murder, in March 1934, that Fish confirmed to investigators that he also raped and murdered McDonnell.
Trial and execution:
Albert Fish’s trial for the murder of Grace Budd began on March 11, 1935, in White Plains, New York. Several psychiatrists testified about Fish’s sexual fetishes, which included sadism, masochism, flagellation, exhibitionism, voyeurism, piquerism, cannibalism, coprophagia, urophilia, hematolagnia, pedophilia, necrophilia, and infibulation.
In the trial, Fish pleaded insanity and claimed to have heard voices from God telling him to kill children. His defense argued and used many descriptions and testimonies to prove to the jury that he was mentally ill. However, the jury didn’t believe this. Instead, he was considered a “psychopathic personality without a psychosis” and was found guilty after ten days of trial.
The judge sentenced him to death by electrocution, and he was taken to the Sing Sing prison in New York in March 1935. On January 16, 1936, at 11:06 p.m, he was taken to the electrocution chamber at Sing Sing prison and was executed in the electric chair. His body was buried in the Sing Sing Prison Cemetery. He was 65 at his death.
The “Moon Maniac” was one of America’s most notorious and disturbed killers. Authorities believe that Fish killed as many as ten children and ate their remains.
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