Albert Fish was known as one of America’s most notorious and most disturbed serial killers. Known for preying on children and being into sadomasochism, Fish was also known to be a cannibal.
Let’s Just Start at the Beginning
Albert Fish was actually born Hamilton Howard Fish on May 19, 1870. His father Randall Fish was the captain of a riverboat and then a fertilizer manufacturer. Randall was 75-years-old and was 43 years older than his wife, Ellen. Hamilton Fish was the youngest of 4 living children (Annie, Walter, and Edwin) and because he was given the nickname “Ham and Eggs” he decided that he wanted to change his name. He chose to start going by Albert. This name wasn’t one that he’d picked out of thin air though; this was the name of one of his siblings that had passed away.
In 1875, Randall died of a heart attack at the 6th Street Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Washington, D.C. With the breadwinner in the family dead, Albert’s mom found that, after trying to make it work, she had no choice but to place Fish into an orphanage. At St. John’s Orphanage, Albert was beaten often. These beatings awakened something in Albert and he realized that being beaten kinda got him off. He would get erections during the beatings, and then when the other children in the orphanage saw, they teased him mercilessly.
Fortunately, in 1879, Albert’s mom got a government job that allowed her to get him out of the orphanage. He was about 9. When Fish was about 11-years-old, he said that he fell from a cherry tree and suffered a serious concussion which caused him to suffer constant headaches, dizzy spells and a significant stutter.
In 1882, 12-year-old Albert Fish began a relationship with the boy who delivered telegraphs. This boy opened Fish’s world to some extra nasty stuff. Telegraph boy introduced Fish to the wonderful world of drinking your own urine and coprophagia…or in layman’s terms…LITERALLY eating shit. Fish also began spending his weekends creeping around public baths and watching boys get undressed.
In 1890, Fish moved to NYC and reportedly became a male prostitute. There were mixed reports on this, but Fish claimed that he became a male prostitute. He also claimed to have been raping young boys. Then, his mom decided that she’d had enough of her son being a bachelor and decided that she’d just go ahead and cut to the chase and set up a bride for him. In 1898, he married the woman that his mom selected and they would go on to have 6 children together: Albert Jr. Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, and Henry. During this time, Fish was a house painter. Becoming a husband and father didn’t clean up Fish’s life. In 1903, he was arrested and put in Sing Sing prison for embezzlement. While in prison, he had sex with numerous other male inmates. When he wasn’t in prison, Fish also continued to assault little boys. He claimed that the boys he molested were typically under the age of 6, which was his preference.
At one point in his time outside of prison, Fish had young male lovers. One of whom took Fish to a waxworks museum. At this museum, Fish was particularly intrigued by a bisection of a penis and this sparked an almost instant obsession with castration. Fish later developed a relationship with a man with an intellectual disability who he tried to castrate, but was unsuccessful when the man escaped. Fish was also a frequent visitor to brothels where he would request to get beaten and whipped to get off.
In 1910, Albert met a 19-year-old man named Thomas Kedden. He ended up taking Kedden to what he called “an old farm house”, where he tortured him over the course of two weeks. He then tied Kedden up and cut off half of his penis. About this attack, Albert Fish said “I shall never forget his scream, or the look he gave me.” He had originally planned to kill Thomas Kedden, but it was warm outside and he was worried the hot weather would draw attention to a decomposing body. So he came up with an alternative solution. He poured peroxide over the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-covered handkerchief, left a $10 bill, kissed Kedden goodbye, and left. “Took first train I could get back home. Never heard what become of him, or tried to find out,” Fish said.
In 1917, Fish’s wife had had enough and left him for another man, John Straube. Straube was a handyman that rented a room at the Fish house. Fish’s wife took all the furniture from the house and reportedly didn’t even leave a mattress for the kids to sleep on. The youngest child was 5 when their mother left.
At first, I was like “good for her! She left his crazy ass!” And then I was like “YOU LEFT YOUR KIDS WITH A SERIAL KILLER AND WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A MATTRESS TO SLEEP ON??!?!”
Fish’s children remember that this was the time when their father started to report hearing voices and exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior. Albert Jr. told the story of a time when Albert Sr. was on a hill near the house with his arms outstretched claiming to be Jesus Christ. It was also around this time that Fish claimed to hear the voice of John the Apostle who directed him to do certain things.
Here is THE ONE GOOD THING we can say about Albert Fish- he didn’t beat his children. Never did it. HOWEVER- he did have his children beat him. Presumably for sexual gratification. He frequently asked his children to hit him on the ass with a paint-stirrer or a hairbrush. They also witnessed him hitting himself with a paddle that had nails in it. However, his children all said that he never abused them.
In 1919, Fish was in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. where he stabbed a boy who was reportedly of a lower intellectual ability. Fish would be very prone to choosing victims that were either mentally disabled in some way or African American because he felt like they wouldn’t be missed or wouldn’t be missed as quickly.
On July 11,1924, Fish saw 8-year-old Beatrice Kiel on her parents’ farm in Staten Island. She was playing outside when Fish approached her. He offered her money to help him pick rhubarb. Beatrice was ready to go with him, but fortunately her mom saw Fish and made him leave. Fish did leave, but not forever. He came back later that night to catch some z’s in the family’s barn. This time Beatrice’s father, Hans found him and, once again, shooed Fish away.
Francis McDonnell
When his attempt to lure Beatrice Kiel was unsuccessful, Albert Fish quickly found another child. On July 15, 1924, 8-year-old, Francis X. McDowell was playing on the porch while his mom nursed her infant daughter near Port Richmond, Staten Island. Both she and Francis saw a “gray-haired, frail old man” walking down the street. “The Gray Man” was mumbling to himself and clenching and unclenching his fists. Anna McDowell, Francis’s mother said, “He came shuffling down the street, mumbling to himself, making queer motions with his hands. I’ll never forget those hands. I shuddered when I looked at them…how they opened and shut, opened and shut, opened and shut. I saw him look toward Francis and the others. I saw his thick gray hair, his drooping gray moustache. Everything about him seemed faded and gray.”
Later that day, Francis was playing at the park when he disappeared. When he missed dinner, his family began looking and asking his friends. The friends saw him follow an elderly man with gray hair into the woods. The family, led by Francis’ father (a police officer who would later transfer to Staten Island so he could work his son’s case), organized a search party. They entered the woods and later found Francis’s body under branches. His clothes were ripped off and Francis had been horrifically beaten and then strangled with his own suspenders. The autopsy would show that Francis had eaten raisins before his death. It was thought that this is what Fish used to lure Francis.
The degree of physical assault led the coroner to believe it couldn’t have been an elderly man that killed Francis. This caused police to think maybe “The Gray Man” wouldn’t or couldn’t have done this. Possibly the old man was the one that lured him and someone else killed him? “The Gray Man” was still the only and prime suspect, but that’s all they had to go on. Well, police… I think we’re learning the hard way why they say “assuming makes an ass out of u and me.”
Billy Gaffney
On February 11th, 1927, 4-year-old, Billy Gaffney was playing in the hallway just outside of his apartment with his 3-year-old friend and neighbor, also named Billy. An older boy, 12-years old, came out to play as well. This boy was babysitting his baby sister who was inside napping and she began crying so he had to go back into his apartment. He came back out after a few minutes and both boys were gone. The police were contacted and they found and talked to 3-year-old Billy. He told the police that “the Boogie Man” took Billy, but because he’s 3 and blaming the Boogie Man, the police didn’t take anything he said seriously.
Police thought that maybe Billy fell into the Gowanus Canal so they thoroughly dredged it with no sign of the little boy. His body was never found.
Gracie Budd - the Impetus of his Downfall
Then on May 25th, 1928, 18-year-old Edward Budd placed a classified ad in the Sunday edition of New York World. “Young man, 18, wishes position in country. Edward Budd, 406 West 15th Street.”
Edward was from a desperately poor family in the crowded city with too many kids (Edward and his 4 younger siblings) in a dirty, cramped tenement apartment. He wanted to get out of this life and get out of the city and to better himself so he looked for work in the country where there was clean, fresh air . Unfortunately, Albert Fish was the man to answer the ad. 3-days later on the 28th, 58-year-old Fish came to the Budd apartment in Manhattan. He came under the guise of wanting to hire Edward.
He introduced himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale, NY. He charmed the parents, Delia (who said he had a kind face) and Albert Budd Sr., and other children into thinking that he was an honest farmer looking for farm hands. He wanted to hire Edward and also offered to hire his friend Willie. “Frank” told the Budd’s that he was a father of 6 whose wife had left him and taken the children over a decade earlier. He had farmhands, but one was leaving him and “Frank” needed to replace him. He offered Edward and Willie $15 a week each.
“Frank” told the boys that he’d come back in a few days to pick them up, but he didn’t show. Instead they got a handwritten telegram from Western Union stating that he got held up, and he’d be there by the next day. When he did show up on June 3rd, he came bearing gifts. He brought strawberries and “creamy pot cheese” that he told them came from his farm. The family invited him to stay for lunch. He did and he continued to charm the Budd family. 5-year-old, Beatrice was sent to retrieve Edward from his friend’s apartment, and Fish gave her a nickel for her help.
He told them that he had earned his fortune as an interior designer, and then in his retirement, bought a 20-acres farm with his savings. But then, 10-year-old Grace Budd entered. She was described as having huge brown eyes, dark hair, pale skin, and pink lips. Fish had come to the house with all intentions of taking and murdering Edward with the added bonus of Willie, but then he saw young Gracie. She was wearing her white silk confirmation dress, white silk stockings, and a pearl necklace having just come from church.
When Gracie came in, Fish went about charming her as well. He said to her that he bets she’s a pretty smart girl and a good counter. He pulled out a wad of money larger than the family had ever seen. He asked her to count the money (to prove her smarts). She did and told him that he had $92.50. He told her that she was a very good counter, gave her .50¢, and told her to buy her and her sister candy. He also gave the boys $2 for the movies.
Albert Fish thought for a second and then asked the parents if Gracie could join him for his niece’s birthday party at his sister’s house. There would be games and food and other girls about her age at the party. Delia Budd was hesitant, but Albert Budd, Sr. (the man of the house) said, aww Delia, let the girl go. He said she was never around other kids her age and it would be good for her. Plus, Fish had charmed them into thinking he was the reputable Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale who farms at his farm.
Delia asked where this sister lived to which “Frank” told her that she lived in an apartment at Columbus and 137th Street. Gracie threw on her good coat and a hat with gray streamers. Fish – aka “Frank Howard” – and Gracie left and he promised he’d have her back by 9 pm. They never came back. When the young girl wasn’t returned, the Budd family reported her missing and an investigation was launched. However, there was an immediate dead end. Frank Howard, not a real person. The police lieutenant informed the Budd’s that not only was “Frank Howard” not a real person, the address he gave for his sister was also phony. Columbus ended long before 137th Street.
The police continued to investigate the disappearance, but weren’t really getting anywhere. The Budds looked through photobooks of criminals and psychiatric patients to no avail and on June 7th, the police sent out thousands of fliers to police stations across the country. The fliers had a picture of Gracie and a description of “Frank Howard.” They got all sorts of tips and “sightings,” but nothing came of any of them despite being thoroughly investigated. Police did hunt down the Western Union where Fish had sent the handwritten letter saying he was running behind. They said that the writing and grammar suggested that this man was more educated than most people at this time. They also found the push cart that actually sold him the pot cheese he brought to the Budd home on June 3rd. Both the Western Union and the push cart were in East Harlem.
Fish - No Stranger to the Law
Fish’s arrest and incarceration for embezzlement in 1903 wasn’t his only run in with law enforcement. Fish re-married on February 6th, 1930 at Waterloo to Estella Wilcox. But they divorced after one week. Fish sent her obscene letters and was arrested for that and then in May of 1930 he was arrested for “sending an obscene letter to an African American woman who answered an advertisement for a maid.” He was sent to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in 1930 for observation after his arrest.
Back to the Budds
On September 5th, 1930, the police had arrested Charles Edward Pope in the disappearance of Gracie Budd. His estranged wife had accused the 66-year-old apartment superintendent, and he would spend months in jail. He was tried, found innocent, and released on December 22nd, 1930. By November of 1934, the Budd case was still unsolved and Detective William F. King was not giving up. He decided to leak false information to a newspaper reporter to try and get under “Frank Howard”s skin.
On November 2, 1934, an article ran that said, “I checked on the Grace Budd mystery. She was 8 when she was kidnapped about 6 years ago. And it is safe to tell you that the Dep’t of Missing Persons will break the case, or the expect to, in 4 weeks.” Then 10 days later, the Budd family received a letter. This letter provided a detailed and disturbing description of what happened to their daughter, Gracie years earlier. The handwriting on this letter matched the letter that they got from “Frank Howard” back in 1928 telling them he was running behind. Unfortunately, Mrs. Budd was illiterate and young Edward had to read the letter to her.
The letter started off seemingly nonsensically….
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 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 $1-3 per 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 girl’s 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 and 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.
But then, it went into information Gracie…..
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.
This letter the Budds now had to live with having read, contained an emblem. NYPCBA. This turned out to be an emblem for the New York Private Chauffeur’s Benevolent Association. This finally gave the police something to go on. They went to the NYPCBA and found that all members were required to take a handwriting test kept on file for comparison (for reasons unknown). When the police arrived and wanted answers for who could have sent the letter, a janitor came forward to admit that he had taken some of the stationery and left them in his room at the place where he’d been living.
He’d been in a rooming house at 200 East 52nd Street that was occupied by multiple people and the janitor had recently moved out of the rooming house and another man had moved in. The landlady confirmed that a man matching the description of “The Gray Man” had been living in that room for the past 2 months. She also provided them with a name; Albert H. Fish.
Fish had left the rooming house a few days before, but had asked the landlady to hold a letter that was supposed to be coming for him. See, old Mr. Fish was being almost solely supported by his son Albert Jr. Jr. worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps in North Carolina and regularly sent money to dad and this last check was the one that Albert Sr. asked his landlady to hold for him. Detectives intercepted the letter and the lead detective on the case, William F. King hung around the rooming house waiting for Albert Fish to return.
When Detective King encountered Fish, Fish tried to evade arrest by whipping out 2 razor blades to attack the detective. The detective grabbed Fish’s wrists and twisted them to subdue him. Albert H. Fish was arrested on December 13, 1934. Fish was 64-years-old and it had been 6 years since Gracie Budd disappeared. Fish was old and no longer gave any fucks so he told the detectives pretty much everything. He told the detectives that when he’d gone to the Budds’ he’s had every intent of taking Edward and Willie with him to his farm to murder them. When he saw Gracie Budd, he changed course. He knew he wanted her instead.
He took her to a train station and bought 1-way tickets for a ride through the countryside. Fish took Gracie to a cottage in Wysteria in Westchester County, NY and had her wait outside. She picked flowers while he went upstairs and got undressed. He called her up and she freaked out. He said that she called out for her mom and that he choked her to death. Then he told them how he decapitated her and cut up her body. Then he wrapped the parts he took with him in newspaper and headed out. He told the police that despite what he wrote in the letter to the Budds, he did rape Gracie, but it’s not known if this was a lie because he went back on this again when he told an officer that raping her “never entered his head.” When asked why he killed Gracie, Fish told detectives, “You know. I never could account for it.”
The police went to the house and found what was left of Gracie.
Fish wasn’t displaying characteristics of a psychosis (he was called a “psychopathic personality without a psychosis”), but was calm and composed. A psychiatrist involved with the case said, “There was no known perversion that he did not practice and practice frequently.”
In fact, Fish told the detectives that he enjoyed inflicting pain and feeling pain. Fish ate his own excrement and burned himself with hot pokers. He also told them that he had been sticking himself with needles in the…taint…for years and had…lost…several needles up there. An x-ray was done and upwards of 30 needles were found just floating around in his ass.
The night before Fish’s trial was to begin, he attempted to kill himself. He squirreled away a chicken bone from dinner and then sharpened it and stabbed himself. A guard heard him groaning and came to the rescue. It was thought that maybe he wasn’t trying to kill himself, but that maybe this had been some kind of sadomasochistic thing he was doing.
Albert Fish’s trial started March 11, 1935 in White Plains, New York and his defense team tried for an insanity defense as Fish claimed he heard the voice of God telling him to kill children, but the jury was not falling for that and after a 10-day trial, Fish was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Gracie Budd. Fish was sentenced to death and placed in Sing Sing Prison. At the time of his arrest and sentencing, Fish’s kids ranged in age from 21-35. He would express the only emotions he ever expressed saying, “I’m still worried about my children. You’d think they’d come visit their old dad in jail, but they haven’t.”
Fish actually bragged that he “had children in every state”; at least 100. However, he never clarified if this meant that he had fathered children or murdered them or molested them or…ate them…or if this was even true because he was known to lie. Albert Fish was never very emotive or remorseful about his murders. He told an author. “I have no particular desire to live. I have no particular desire to be killed. It is a matter of indifference to me. I do not think I am altogether right.” When the author asked him if he thought he was insane. Fish said, “Not exactly…I never could understand myself.”
Fish had a family history of religious manias and it was written in one article that, “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. A paternal aunt was considered ‘completely crazy.’ A brother suffered from chronic alcoholism. A sister had some sort of ‘mental affliction.’” While the police knew about Francis McDonnell’s kidnapping and murder, they had no viable suspects. Albert Fish confessed to the murder after he was sentenced.
When Billy Gaffney disappeared, the police had another suspect. However, when Albert Fish appeared in the newspaper, a man who runs a trolley in Brooklyn, Joseph Meehan recognized him as the man he had seen on the trolley with a young boy that matched Billy Gaffney’s description. Meehan said that he saw them on February 11th of 1927 and the man was trying to make the little boy with him stop crying. The trolley driver remembers this incident because it was February in the northern US and the boy didn’t have a jacket or coat and was crying for his mother. He said that the boy had to be dragged on and off the trolley by the old man. Because his body was never found, Billy’s mother visited Fish in Sing Sing to try and get more details about what happened to her son.
Fish confessed:
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 59 Street at 2 a.m. and walked from there home. Next day about 2 p.m., I took tools, a good heavy cat-o-nine tails. Home made. Short handle. Cut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches 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 through the middle of his body. Just below the belly button. Then through his legs about 2 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. 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. 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 them in the oven. Then I picked 4 onions and when the meat had roasted about 1/4 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 2 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 a sweet as a nut, but his pee-wees I could not chew. Threw them in the toilet.
On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish was taken to the electric chair. On his way to Old Sparky, Fish told the police officers that “It will be the supreme thrill, the only one I haven’t tried.” He entered the chamber and was strapped in. He reportedly said, “I don’t even know why I am here.” The switch was flipped at 11:06 pm. It became legend that it took him longer than usual to die because of the needles in his body conducting the electricity. The needley taint bitch was finally pronounced dead and later buried in the cemetery at Sing Sing.
Other Possible Victims
While Albert Fish denied responsibility for other deaths, detectives believed that he was the murderer of:
12-year-old, Yetta Abramowitz in 1927 in the Bronx. She was strangled and beaten on the roof of an apartment house at 1013 Simpson Street. She was alive when she was found but died soon after arriving at the hospital.
16-year-old, Mary Ellen O’Connor on February 15,1932 in Far Rockaway in Queens. She was mutilated and found in the woods close to a house that Albert Fish had been hired to paint.
And 17-year-old, Benjamin Collings in 1932.
