American Serial Killer Albert Fish: "An Angel Would Have Stopped Me"

Known variously as The Werewolf of Wisteria, The Grey Man, The Boogeyman and The Vampire of Brooklyn, Albert Fish was surely one of the most demented serial killers ever to stalk America. He was active in the New York area during the 1920s and 1930s and, although nearly a hundred years have passed since he was executed, his atrocious deeds will live on in society's collective unconscious forever.

Fish's close relatives are documented to have suffered from mental illness and to have exhibited religious mania and he himself was a masochist who insisted on being called by his dead brother's name, Albert, instead of by his given name, Hamilton. The bad genes certainly did not skip his generation as is evident from, among other things, the fact that he once wrapped himself up in a carpet and, when questioned, rationally explained that he was acting on the instructions of John the Apostle. As a masochist, he enjoyed deliberately harming himself and a set of x-rays once revealed that he had 29 needles lodged in his pelvic region, which, he had told the doctor proudly while he was being examined, had been self inflicted. He was also known for eating large amounts of raw meat when the moon was full...

The world would, no doubt, never have heard about him if he had just continued to harm himself but, unfortunately, his tastes soon turned to young boys and girls. He is suspected of, and has boasted of, killing or molesting upwards of 400 children in several states. It is, however, for the three murders in New York that he is most well known.

On June 3^rd 1928, he abducted, killed, cooked and ate ten year old Grace Budd and, six years later in 1934, he sent a letter to her mother describing in detail everything that he had done to her daughter. The letter was anonymous but the envelope contained sufficient information to lead the police to Fish who, when captured, did not deny that he had killed Grace and who, instead, calmly stated that his original target had been her brother, Edward. He said that he had changed his mind upon meeting Grace, however, and her fate had been sealed when her trusting parents had allowed him to take her to a fictitious birthday party. His trial for the murder of Grace Budd began in White Plains, New York, on March 11^th 1935 and he was found guilty - and sane - just ten days later and sentenced to die in the electric chair at Sing Sing.

While on death row, Fish confessed to two further murders: that of four year old Billy Gaffney committed on February 11^th 1924 and that of eight year old Francis X McDonnell committed on July 15^th 1924. In Gaffney's case, the confession was in writing and again included explicit details of how Fish had abused, cooked and eaten his victim. McDonnell had apparently been luckier, however, as he had just been kidnapped and killed and had not been eaten. Fish also told authorities that what he did must have been right or an angel would have stopped him "just as an angel stopped Abraham in the Bible."

January 16^th 1936 was the date upon which Fish was scheduled to be fried but all did not go smoothly at the execution as it allegedly took twice the usual amount of electricity to kill him. This, of course, gave rise to the urban legend that the first jolt had not worked as the chair had been short circuited by the 29 needles lodged in Fish's pelvic area...

Finally, in a classic example of how alien the mind of a serial killer really is, Fish's last words were "I don't even know why I'm here." He just could not understand what he had done to deserve execution.

Sources:

Schechter, Harold. The Serial Killer Files. New York: Ballantine Books (2003)
Albert Fish Wikipedia
Troy Taylor Albert Fish Dead Men Do Tell Tales
Heather Rawlins Albert Fish The Life of a Cannibal
Richard Arthur Norton Albert Fish Biography RA Norton
Marilyn Bardsley Albert Fish: Real Life Hannibal Lecter TruTV Crime Library
Billy Gaffney The Doe Network