Albert Fish: The Sadistic Child Slayer

Albert Fish came from a family with a long history of mental illness. He was born Hamilton Fish in 1870 and was put up for adoption at the age of five, as his parents were not financially capable of taking care of him. He frequently ran away from the orphanage, but always ended up back there. His teacher used to force her students to undress in front of the class, at which point she would beat them. It was around this time that Albert became a sadomasochist, a person who derives pleasure from inflicting and enduring great amounts of pain.

At the age of twenty-eight, Albert got married to a woman with whom he subsequently had six children. He was perfectly normal until his wife abandoned him in 1917. This is said to be the event that caused Fish's eccentricities to no longer remain dormant. He soon began responding to lonely-hearts ads with vulgar letters. He spent several short stays in prison for swindling and was institutionalized for a while. He was a painter and met many children in his line of work. He would often bring those children down to the basement or cellar of the work-site, where he would torture and molest them. He was always nude under his overalls, which served two purposes: he could be naked instantly and he was only seen in his work attire and would not be easily recognized in his regular clothes.

Ironically, Albert Fish was a very religious man. He often practiced corporal mortification, the act of atoning for one's sins through self-flagellation and punishment. He hit himself with a nail-studded paddle and shoved sewing needles into his groin. A subsequent X-ray revealed twenty-seven needles embedded in his pelvis. Albert believed that God would grant him absolution for his sins if he sacrificed a child. He felt, in his disturbed mind, that he would be considered pure in the eyes of God after committing this deed. He experienced hallucinations during which he claimed that God had instructed him to castrate young boys.

Edward Budd was an eighteen-year-old boy, searching for a job. He placed an ad in a newspaper in hopes of finding work and helping his poverty-stricken family. A few days later, Albert Fish arrived at the Budd's apartment and introduced himself as Frank Howard. He claimed to be there to interview Edward for a position. He examined Edward and offered him a job on his non-existent farm in Long Island. He said he would be back in a couple of days to drive the young boy to the farm.

Fish returned on June 3, 1928. Edward was not home at the moment and his mother invited "Frank Howard" inside to have lunch with her and her family. It was at this lunch that he met Grace, an adorable little girl who would become the next victim of Fish's depravity. He fabricated and impromptu story about his niece having a birthday party that day and asked if he could bring Grace along with him. Mrs. Budd was uncomfortable with her daughter being in the care of a stranger, but agreed after the seemingly harmless old man's charm got the best of her. Little did she know that she was releasing her daughter into the care of a man who would soon become her murderer. After that day, she never saw her daughter again. He took the unsuspecting little girl to a nearby train station. Before getting on the train, the elderly man retrieved a bundle that he had hidden on his way to the Budd's residence. The bundle contained a knife, cleaver and a saw.

Over the next six years, Detective William King led the New York Police Department in a search for Grace Budd and the elderly man who kidnapped her. In November of 1934, Mrs. Budd received and anonymous letter. The letter began with the author recounting a story about a famine in China. The author claimed that his friend, a sea captain who resided in Honk Kong, had told him that young children were killed in China and their meat was sold. The author then went on to recollect the visit he made to the Budd's apartment six years earlier. He remembered meeting Grace and making up a tale of a niece's birthday party. He then went on to tell the poor woman exactly what became of her daughter.

Lucky for the Budds and the Police Department, the return address on the envelope in which the letter arrived was poorly erased. Detective William King traced the letter to its origin and arrested Fish. Upon his arrest, Fish confessed his grisly deeds. He admitted that his original plan was to castrate and kill Edward Budd. When he met Grace, his plans changed. He then decided that he was going to kill and eat her. He led her to an abandoned cottage and left her to play in the front yard while he undressed in an upstairs bedroom. He then called to Grace to come up to the room that he was in. He killed her by means of strangulation and cut her body into pieces, which he scattered around the house. He admitted to using parts of her body to make a human stew.

Throughout his life, Albert Fish had molested over one hundred young girls and murdered twelve of them. He mainly targeted poor children to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Albert Fish was obsessed with Fritz Haarmann, the infamous "Vampire of Hanover." He saved newspaper clippings and articles about Haarmann's ghoulish deeds. Fish soon became as notorious as the man he so admired.

On January 16,1936, Albert Fish was executed. He was sentenced to the electric chair and was the oldest man to ever be executed at Sing Sing Prison. The jurors sincerely believed that Fish was insane, but felt that he deserved to die despite his insanity. Fish's arrest happened to coincide with the start of the four year murder spree of the "Cleveland Torso Killer."