Albert Fish
Albert Fish, born Hamilton Fish in 1870, was an American serial killer and cannibal whose life and crimes have become infamous in criminal history. After a troubled childhood marked by the death of his father and time spent in an orphanage, Fish exhibited troubling behaviors that escalated over the years. He is suspected of murdering multiple children, with estimates varying widely from eight to as many as fifteen, often targeting those from marginalized backgrounds. His most notorious crime involved the abduction and murder of eleven-year-old Grace Budd, whose remains were found years later, leading to Fish's arrest.
Fish’s criminal activities were characterized by sadomasochistic tendencies and a disturbing obsession with inflicting pain rather than purely sexual gratification. Despite his heinous acts, he was able to evade significant legal repercussions for many years, facing arrests primarily for less serious offenses. His trial in 1935 concluded with a conviction for murder, and he was executed in the electric chair. Fish's case highlighted the societal fears of the time, particularly surrounding child safety and the trust placed in strangers, marking a significant shift in public perception regarding crime and safety.
Albert Fish
- Born: May 19, 1870
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
- Died: January 16, 1936
- Place of death: Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York
American child molester, serial killer, and cannibal
Major offenses: Murder of eleven-year-old Grace Budd; additional child kidnappings and murders
Active: June 3, 1928-February 11, 1927
Locale: New York City; claimed to have attacked children in twenty-three states
Sentence: Death by electrocution for first-degree murder
Early Life
The father of Hamilton Fish (fihsh), who claimed descent from “Revolutionary stock,” was seventy-five years old at Hamilton’s birth. When the boy was five, his father died, and his mother sent Albert to St. John’s Orphanage, Washington, D.C. There Fish changed his name to Albert; he also began stammering and wetting the bed. Worse, his sadomasochism flowered: “I saw so many boys whipped,” he said, “it ruined my mind.”
Fish may have been a homosexual prostitute in his teens. At fifteen, he left school to work in a grocery store; soon after, he was apprenticed to a painter and decorator. Fish married an eighteen-year-old woman, Anna, when he was twenty-eight. They had six children, but his wife left him after almost twenty years of marriage in 1917. They were never divorced; Fish raised the children and was a good father. He had three subsequent marriages, short and bigamous, and played quasi-sexual games with a stepdaughter, Mary.
Criminal Career
The entirety of Fish’s crimes may never be known. Detective William King, who tirelessly tracked down Fish, suspected Fish murdered four children in New York City alone; psychiatrist Frederic Wertham believed Fish killed at least five, and the police estimated he killed between eight and fifteen children.
However, Fish attacked perhaps hundreds of children. After Anna left him, he worked around the country; he was never arrested but often driven off by close calls or attention by police or locals. Many of his victims were poor, including African Americans, about whom he said the police were less apt to care. His activities with them, as with himself, involved inflicting pain more than sexual acts, though Fish’s gratification was clearly sexual. Influenced by a religious mania, he became obsessed with castrating boys; in St. Louis in 1911, he left one boy bleeding and fled the city. However, Fish’s six arrests by 1930, resulting in one prison term and two mental-hospital stays, were for passing a bad check, embezzling, and continually writing graphic, sadomasochistic letters to women.
His most famous victim was eleven-year-old Grace Budd. Fish presented himself as a wealthy farmer named Frank Howard and received permission to take Grace to a birthday party. When she did not return, all the papers covered her kidnapping. Years later, Fish was caught after he sent a repulsive, detailed letter to Grace’s parents, mailed November 11, 1934, and King traced the stationery. Grace’s bones were found behind Wisteria Cottage, an abandoned house in Westchester County. Fish then confessed to eating parts of Budd’s body as well as to beating, killing, and cannibalizing Billy Gaffney, age four, and to killing Francis McDonnell, age eight.
Legal Action and Outcome
After his arrest, Fish said he no longer cared for life yet subtly appealed to officials and reporters for sympathy. Tried in March, 1935, Fish pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He was convicted; some jurors thought Fish was insane but should be executed anyway. An appeals trial and plea to the governor both failed, and Fish was electrocuted.
Impact
Albert Fish is known primarily for his bizarre and extreme sexual appetite and for breaking the primal taboo against cannibalism. He also represents the transition of American society from one of trust to one in which strangers became feared. His missing victims, who disappeared around the time aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby was kidnapped, fueled widespread fear of kidnapping and hence promoted changes in law enforcement.
Bibliography
“Albert Fish”World of Criminal Justice. 2 vols. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale Group, 2002. Short, accurate summary of names, dates, and impact of Fish’s crimes.
Brottman, Nikita. Meat Is Murder! An Illustrated Guide to Cannibal Culture. New York: Creation, 2001. Good exploration of motives for quasi-sexual cannibalism; erroneously implies that Fish had intercourse with Grace Budd.
Martingale, Moira. Cannibal Killers. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1994. Slightly inaccurate but provides insight into Fish’s crimes and mental abnormalities.
Schechter, Harold. Deranged. New York: Pocket Books, 1990. Well-researched coverage of the acts, police investigation, trial, and social context.
Wertham, Frederic. The Show of Violence. New York: Doubleday, 1949. A source from which many writers draw, based on interviews with Fish.