True Crime-Albert Fish

Albert Hamilton Fish who was also known as the Grey Man , the Brooklyn Vampire , the Werewolf of Wysteria , and most scary of all , the Boogeyman was born on May 19th , 1870. To many people who have studied serial killers he is considered one of the most evil men to have ever lived.

He was also a cannibal and a child molester and he often made the claim that he had had a child in every state. He was never clear if he had eaten a child in every state or if he had molested one in every state. He was finally put on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Grace Budd and he was executed in the New York state electric chair on January 16th, 1936.

Albert Fish arrived in New York City sometime in the summer of 1890. He later told many people that at first he worked as a male prostitute and he started at this same time to rape young boys. His mother hoped to change him and she arranged a marriage for Albert. In 1898 Albert married a woman nine years his junior and during that marriage they had five children. Three boys and two girls.

Throughout 1898 Albert worked as a house painter and he continued to molest young boys mostly under the age of six so he said they would be less likely to tell on him. It was also during this time that he developed a morbid fascination with castration. At about this same time Albert Fish had a sexual relationship with a man who was mentally handicapped and one day he attempted to castrate the man after tying him up. The mans horrible screams of pain scared Albert Fish so bad he ran from the scene throwing down a 10 dollar bill hoping it would help to silence the injured man.

In January 1917 his wife left Albert Fish for a handyman who had lived with the Fish Family and left the children with Albert to look after. It was following this rejection by his wife that Albert Fish began to hear voices and he believed that John the Apostle was talking to him telling him what to do. It was also at this same time that Albert Fish began to harm himself. At one point after his arrest for the murder of Grace Budd a X-ray was taken of his pelvic region and it revealed he had 29 needles that he had pushed into his flesh deep into his pubic region.

By the age of 55 Albert Fish was experiencing a severe break with reality. He claimed that God was telling him to molest and castrate young boys. Doctors later said he was suffering from a severe religious psychosis. Albert Fish was still smart enough though that most of his victims were either mentally handicapped or African American because he felt they would not be missed.

He was able to convince the Budd family that he wanted to hire Edward Budd and he went to the Budd House claiming to be a farmer named Frank Howard from Farmingdale New York. He told Edward Budd that he would hire him and he made the claim to the family that he wanted to take 10 year old Grace to his sisters home that evening for a birthday party. Someway he convinced them that he was perfectly legit and they allowed him to leave the house with 10 year old Grace.

He never returned with Grace and some time later he wrote a letter to Grace's mother in which he confessed that he killed and cooked and ate Grace but that she died a virgin. The police traced the letter back to a rooming house where Albert Fish had rented a room and there he was finally arrested. While being arrested he attempted to attack the police officer with a razor in each hand but the policeman was able to disarm him and take him into custody.

Albert Fish did not deny the letter or the abduction and murder of Grace Budd. But at his trial Fish pleaded insanity and said that God had ordered him to molest and kill children. The jury however found him to be both sane and guilty and the judge ordered Albert Fish to be executed in New York's Electric Chair.

Albert Fish was executed in the electric chair at New York's Sing SIng Prison on January 16th 1936. He was buried in the prison cemetery at Sing Sing Prison.

We may never know the answer to the question. Modern criminologists who have made extensive case studies of Albert Fish say that its likely he may have killed hundreds and most of them were children. He wrote to several other families besides the Budd family with detailed confessions of his murder of their loved ones. And he like Ted Bundy tried to trade his secrets for his life but the state of New York would not make the deal. 

The case of Albert Fish was reviewed and investigated by the FBI Behavioral Science Unit  in 1984 and they said he most likely was responsible for at least a hundred or more murders that they were able to trace him to. And that he quite possibly could have been responsible for many more. But however many murders Albert Fish committed I think we can all agree that he was one of the most evil men who ever lived.