Albert Fish (May 19, 1870- January 16,1936)

Early Life Born on May 19, 1870 in Washington D.C. Named Hamilton originally, but requested to be called Albert after a dead sibling to escape his nickname “Ham and Eggs” He had three siblings : Walter, Annie, and Edwin In 1875 his father died of a heart attack and his mother put him in an orphanage He was frequently whipped and beaten at the orphanage and he discovered he enjoyed physical pain His mother got a job and took him back in 1879 By 1890 he had moved to new York city, become a male prostitute, and started raping young boys In 1898 his mother arranged for him to marry a woman and they had six children Then He started working as a painter In 1917 His wife left him for their border, John Straube

Warning Signs In 1875 fish was placed in an orphanage and was frequently whipped and beaten At the age of 12 he started a homosexual relationship with a telegraph boy His boyfriend introduced him to practices like drinking urine and coprophagia (eating feces) Fish started visiting public baths so he could watch boys undress In 1890 he moved to new York and became a male prostitute and started raping young boys, which continued even after his marriage He was arrested in1903 for grand larceny After 1903 he was arrested six more times for sending obscene letters and petty theft He established a relationship with a mentally disabled man and attempted to tie him up and castrate him but the man got scared and ran After this fish began frequenting brothels so he could be whipped and beaten He played a “game” with his children where they would spank him with a wooden plank After his wife left he started hearing voices – ex. He would wrap himself in a carpet and say he was following the instructions of John the Apostle

Crimes Committed Billy Gaffney Grace Budd Fish pretended he had a farm and hired Edward Budd and took his 10-year- old little sister to a party She was never seen again Seven years later he sent a letter to the Budds describing how he murdered and ate her Fish later took the police to her body Billy Gaffney 4-year-old Billy and a friend were playing in the hallway outside of his apartment when they disappeared The friend was found alive on the roof When asked where Billy was he said, “ The Boogey Man took him.” A Motorman came forward and identified Fish The body was never recovered

Grace Budd

Capture In November 1934, seven years after Grace Budd’s disappearance a letter was delivered to the Budd household It included every detail of Grace’s murder The letter came in an Envelope that had a small hexagonal emblem accompanied by the letters N.Y.P.C.B.A The Police tracked this to the “New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association” A janitor that worked there said he had left some of their stationary at a boarding house he used to live at The lead investigator waited outside the house until he returned and asked him to go in for questioning Fish pulled razor blades on him and was arrested

Evidence The letter sent to The Bud Family led back to Fish’s residence Billy’s friend provided a description of Fish Joseph Meehan, a motorman on a Brooklyn trolley, saw a picture of Fish in the newspaper and identified him as the old man that he saw February 11, 1927 struggling to control Billy Fish took the police to the remains of Grace Budd Fish’s confession after sentencing to the murders of Grace, Billy, and Francis

Convictions Crime Date Victim(s) Punishment 1st Degree Murder in White Plains, New York March 21st 1935 Grace Budd Death by Electrocution

Confessions After receiving the death sentence, Albert Fish confessed the following things when he answered Mr. Budd’s add for employment Mr. Budd was his original target and he was going to lure him somewhere remote, castrate him, and let him bleed to death. But after he saw Grace he was overcome by his “blood Thirst” and had to kill her He also raped and killed 8-year-old Francis X. McDonnell However, he didn’t confess to killing Billy Gaffney until his mother pleaded with him to tell her what happened to him… He told her that he whipped him until the blood ran down his legs, cut off his ears and nose, gouged out his eyes, and slit his mouth ear to ear before Billy finally died Then he cut him into small pieces and threw those into small pools of water beside the road so no one could ever find him After he finished telling Billy’s mother what he did to him, Fish told her that he was the tastiest Jerky he’d ever had

Quotes

Nicknames The Gray Man The Brooklyn Vampire The Boogeyman The Werewolf of Wysteria

Cultural References Movies: Songs: “Fish” – by Tyler, The Creator “27 Needles” – By John 5 “Smell The Children” – By Evil Anger “Human Consumption” – By Necro: “Albert Fish his fetish for individual mastarcation was his equivilant to masturbation they're looking for people to kill essentially for drills” Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJa_yYyAlQM&edufilter=Gok853RWqg5yFHnNrsiVAg Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation (2007)

Theory Of Deviance Albert Fish follows the Differential-Association Theory of Deviance. This Theory states that people’s behavior is largely determined by the company they keep. This means that the illegal behavior they are practicing was learned from interaction with others. Although Albert Fish is an inhumane, cruel man, his behavior was learned from others. Fish began learning criminal behavior in the orphanage. He was regularly beat at the orphanage, which taught him it was okay to abuse children. Later in Life, this theory continues when Fish had a boyfriend that encouraged him to practice Coprophagia and drinking urine. This ultimately proved to him that food can be derived from the human body. However, one of the greatest influences on him was shown to us in a letter he wrote to Mrs. Budd. He says he has a friend who went to China in 1894. Food was scarce over there so people started selling and eating children under fourteen years old. Fish continues on to say that his friend stayed so long in China that he developed a taste for human flesh. His friend kept saying hoe good it was so Fish decided to go out and try it. Overall, All these influences on Fish helped mold him into one of the most horrible criminals in history.