Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester, and cannibal who committed at least three child murders from July 1924 to June 1928. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and The Boogey Man.
Fish was a suspect in at least five murders during his lifetime. He confessed to three murders that police were able to trace to a known homicide, and he confessed to stabbing at least two other people. Fish once boasted that he "had children in every state", and at one time stated his number of victims was about 100. However, it is not known whether he was referring to rapes or cannibalization, nor is it known if the statement was truthful.
Fish was apprehended on December 13, 1934, and put on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Grace Budd. He was convicted and executed by electric chair on January 16, 1936, at the age of 65.
CANNIBAL and serial child killer Albert Fish chose the house for one of his most infamous crimes, the murder and consumption of 10-year-old Grace Budd.
Called Wisteria Cottage, it was empty when Fish picked it out ahead of selecting his next victim.
Pretty little Gracie sat on Fish’s knee in her parents’ home and, posing as a harmless old man, history’s most vile child predator decided to kill her in the abandoned house and eat her.Back in 1928, the house was in an area described as East Irvington, in Westchester County, upstate New York.
In the crime scene photographs, the house looks as if it is set in woodlands.
Today, surrounded by houses, 379 Mountain Rd in Irvington, an affluent suburban village in the town of Greenburgh, is just a 45-minute drive north of New York City.
Clad in modern siding and backed by remaining woodland, the house was advertised for sale this year for $1 million.
When real estate agents declined to reveal the property’s history, Westchester County Historical Society librarian Patrick Raftery confirmed the house’s grisly past.
Wisteria Cottage in Westechester County, New York, where cannibal and serial child killer Albert Fish murdered Grace Budd in 1928 and then ate her.
Detectives swarm over the property at Wisteria Cottage in 1934 after Albert Fish confessed to murdering Grace Budd there and eating her.
Fish committed what may have been his first attack on a child named Thomas Bedden in Wilmington, Delaware in 1910. Afterward, he stabbed a mentally retarded boy around 1919 in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.. Consistently, many of his intended victims would be either mentally retarded or African-American, because, he believed, these would not be missed.
On July 11, 1924 Fish found eight-year-old Beatrice Kiel playing alone on her parents' Staten Island farm. He offered her money to come and help him look for rhubarb in the neighboring fields. She was about to leave the farm when her mother chased Fish away. Fish left, but returned later to the Kiels' barn where he tried to sleep for the night before being discovered by Hans Kiel and told to leave.
Grace Budd (sitting right) is seen here with her sister and brother. Albert Fish befriended the Budd family after answering an ad placed by Grace's brother requesting work on a farm. After showing up to finalize the work agreement and showering the Budd children with gifts, Fish convinced Budd's parents to allow Grace to come with him to a birthday party. That was the last time the family would see their daughter.
On May 25, 1928 Edward Budd put a classified ad in the Sunday edition of the New York World that read: "Young man, 18, wishes position in country. Edward Budd, 406 West 15th Street." On May 28, 1928, Fish, then 58 years old, visited the Budd family in Manhattan, New York City under the pretense of hiring Edward. He introduced himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale, New York. When he arrived, Fish met Budd's younger sister, 10-year-old Grace. Fish promised to hire Budd and said he would send for him in a few days. On his second visit he agreed to hire Budd, then convinced the parents, Delia Flanagan and Albert Budd I, to let Grace accompany him to a birthday party that evening at his sister's home. Albert senior was a porter for the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Grace had a sister, Beatrice; and two other brothers, Albert Budd II; and George Budd. Fish left with Grace that day, but never came back.
The police arrested Charles Edward Pope on September 5, 1930 as a suspect of the kidnapping. He was a 66-year-old apartment house superintendent, and he was accused by his estranged wife. He spent 108 days in jail between his arrest and trial on December 22, 1930.
Seven years later, in November 1934, an anonymous letter was sent to the girl's parents which led the police to Albert Fish. Mrs. Budd was illiterate and could not read the letter herself, so she had her son read it instead. Fish later admitted to his attorney that he did indeed rape Grace. Fish was a compulsive liar, however, so this may be untrue. He had told the police, when asked, that it "never even entered his head" to rape the girl. The letter was delivered in an envelope that had a small hexagonal emblem with the letters "N.Y.P.C.B.A." representing "New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association". A janitor at the company told the police he had taken some of the stationery home but left it at his rooming house at 200 East 52nd Street when he moved out. The landlady of the rooming house said that Fish checked out of that room a few days earlier. She said that Fish's son sent him money and he asked her to hold his next check for him. William F. King, the chief investigator for the case, waited outside the room until Fish returned. He agreed to go to headquarters for questioning, then brandished a razor blade. King disarmed Fish and took him to police headquarters.
Fish made no attempt to deny the murder of Grace Budd, saying that he meant to go to the house to kill her brother Edward. Fish said it "never even entered my head" to rape the girl, but he later claimed to his attorney that, while kneeling on Grace's chest and strangling her, he did have two involuntary ejaculations. This information was used at trial to make the claim the kidnapping was sexually motivated, thus avoiding any mention of cannibalism.
He had a record! A profile and front view shows a young Albert Fish in 1905. He was previously arrested for stealing. Throughout 1898 he worked as a house painter, and he said he continued molesting children, mostly boys under six. He later recounted an incident in which a male lover took him to a waxworks museum, where Fish was fascinated by a bisection of a penis; soon after, he developed a morbid interest in castration. During a relationship with a mentally retarded man, Fish attempted to castrate him after tying him up. The man became frightened and fled. Fish then began intensifying his visits to brothels where he could be whipped and beaten more often. In January 1917, his wife left him for John Straube, a handyman who boarded with the Fish family. Following this rejection, Fish began to hear voices; for example, he once wrapped himself up in a carpet, explaining that he was following the instructions of John the Apostle.
On December 13, 1934, the landlady called Detective King. Albert Fish was at the rooming house looking for his letter. The old man was sitting with a teacup when King opened the door. Fish stood up and nodded when King asked him if he was Albert Fish.
Suddenly, Fish reached into his pocket and produced a razor blade which he held in front of him. Infuriated, King grabbed the old man's hand and twisted it sharply. "I've got you now," he said triumphantly. he confession of Albert Fish would be heard by many law enforcement officials and psychiatrists. A severely edited version of it would appear in the newspapers. It was an odyssey of perversion and unspeakable depravity which seemed unbelievable until detail after detail was corroborated. It was all the more amazing considering how decrepit and harmless Fish appeared. He was a stooped, frail-looking old man about 130 pounds and 5 feet 5 inches tall.
Detective King took the initial confession. Fish told him that in the summer of 1928 he had been overcome by what he called his "blood thirst" -- his need to kill. When he answered Edward Budd's ad for employment, it was the young man, not his sister Gracie, that he intended to lure to a remote location, restrain him and cut off his penis, leaving him to bleed to death.
After he left the Budd house the first time, Fish had purchased the tools he would need to murder and mutilate the boys: a cleaver, saw and butcher knife. He wrapped up these implements of destruction into a bundle which he left at a newsstand before he went to the the Budd home for the second and last time.
When Fish saw the strapping young Edward, the size of a full-grown man, and his friend Willie, he convinced himself he could overpower the two of them. But then Fish had a lot of experience in that regard.
It was only after seeing Gracie that he changed his mind and his plans. It was she he desperately wanted to kill.
More than fifty fingers, legs and other bones were found near the house where Albert Fish murdered Grace Budd.
Police inspect a shed that stands in the back of the house in Westchester County after Albert Fish confessed in homicide court.
Investigators check over a doll's wig, women's shoes and a man's suit and ties found near the deserted Westchester home where Albert Fish murdered Grace Budd. Detectives at the crime scene outside the cottage in 1934 as the hunt for Grace Budd’s remains continued. Detectives swarm over the property at Wisteria Cottage in 1934 after Albert Fish confessed to murdering Grace Budd there and eating her. The distinctive chimneys, ornate eaves and windows of the spruced-up modern dwelling match the house seen in the background as detectives swarm the property, digging for Grace Budd’s bones and those of Fish’s other victims.
It was 1934 when Westchester Police discovered the girl’s skull and finally brought an end to Fish’s reign of terror, skull was discovered buried with other pieces of her skeleton beside a wall behind the cottage.
Detectives uncovered the murders of at least two of Fish’s other victims, and five probable others of four girls and one boy aged between five and 17 years old. Fish murdered four-year-old Billy Gaffney in 1927 after abducting him and torturing him with a homemade cat o’ nine tails. Fish later dismembered and ate the body. Three years earlier, he kidnapped and sexually assaulted Francis McDonnell, 9, and hung him from a tree before lacerating his legs and abdomen. Wertham believed that Fish had actually killed 15 children and mutilated a hundred others.
A saw was found around the crime scene. Fish was dubbed "The Gray Man," "The Werewolf of Wysteria" and even the "Brooklyn Vampire" after the murder.
Fish marked with an X the spot where he killed Grace Budd in the rear bedroom in a deserted home in Westchester County. Fish allegedly choked the girl and dismembered her body.
Discovering a ramshackle cottage in the glades behind Wisteria House, where Albert Fish, confessed to murdering Grace Budd, police are dismantling the old structure, and digging methodically the ground surrounding it in a search for bones of possible other victims. The house are at Greenberg, N.Y. Photo shows the small cottage also occupied by Albert Fish.
December 17, 1934.
Fish confessed his self mutilation and an X-ray of his pelvic region showed up at least 29 embedded needles.
He was 47 when his wife left him, and he began having auditory hallucinations and satisfying his masochistic desires by inserting needles into his groin and abdomen and hitting himself with a nail-studded paddle.
Fish developed an obsession with cannibalism and began eating raw meat. He began molesting and torturing children and disabled young people.
Under his bed he kept a meat cleaver, a butcher knife, and a small handsaw. He later said he “had a child in every state” of the USA, but it is unclear whether this meant murder or just torture and molestation.
Victims
Known
Francis X. McDonnell, age 8, July 15, 1924
Billy Gaffney, age 4, February 11, 1927
Grace Budd, age 10, June 3, 1928
Suspected
Emma Richardson, age 5, October 3, 1926
Yetta Abramowitz, age 12, 1927
Robin Jane Liu, age 6, May 2, 1931
Mary Ellen O'Connor, age 16, February 15, 1932
Benjamin Collings, age 17, December 15, 1932
Francis McDonnell
During the night of July 14, 1924, nine-year-old Francis McDonnell was reported missing after he failed to return home after playing catch with friends in Port Richmond, Staten Island. A search was organized and his body was found hanging by a tree in a wooded area near his home. He had been sexually assaulted, and then strangled with his suspenders. According to an autopsy, McDonnell had also suffered extensive lacerations to his legs and abdomen, and his left hamstring had almost entirely been stripped of its flesh. Fish refused to claim responsibility for this, although he later stated that he intended to castrate the boy but fled when he heard someone approaching the area. McDonnell's friends told the police that he was taken by an elderly man with a grey mustache. A neighbor also told the police he observed the boy with a similar-looking man walking along a grassy path into the nearby woods. Francis' mother, Anna McDonnell, said she saw the same man earlier that day, telling reporters, "He came shuffling down the street mumbling to himself and making queer motions with his hands ... I saw his thick grey hair and his drooping grey mustache. Everything about him seemed faded and grey.
This description resulted in the mysterious stranger becoming known as "The Grey Man". The McDonnell murder remained unsolved until the murder of Grace Budd. When several eyewitnesses, among them the Staten Island farmer Hans Kiel, positively identified Fish as the odd stranger seen around Port Richmond on the day of McDonnell's disappearance, Richmond County District Attorney Thomas J. Walsh announced his intention to seek an indictment against Fish for the boy's murder. At first, Fish denied the charges. It was only in March 1935, after the conclusion of his trial for the Budd murder and his confession to the killing of Billy Gaffney, that he confirmed to investigators that he also raped and murdered McDonnell. When the McDonnell confession was made public, the New York Daily Mirror wrote that the disclosure solidified Fish's reputation as "the most vicious child-slayer in criminal history".
Billy Gaffney
On February 11, 1927, 3-year-old Billy Beaton and his 12-year-old brother were playing in the apartment hallway in Brooklyn with 4-year-old Billy Gaffney. When the 12-year-old left for his apartment, both younger boys disappeared; Beaton was found later on the roof of the apartments. When asked what happened to Gaffney, Beaton said "the bogeyman took him." Gaffney's body was never recovered.
Initially, serial killer Peter Kudzinowski was a suspect in Gaffney's murder. Then, Joseph Meehan, a motorman on a Brooklyn trolley, saw a picture of Fish in a newspaper and identified him as the old man whom he saw February 11, 1927; the old man had been trying to quiet a little boy sitting with him on the trolley. The boy was not wearing a jacket, was crying for his mother, and was dragged by the man on and off the trolley. Beaton's description of the "bogeyman" matched Fish. Police matched the description of the child to Gaffney.
Detectives of the Manhattan Missing Persons Bureau were able to establish that Fish was employed as a house painter by a Brooklyn real estate company during February 1927, and that on the day of Gaffney's disappearance he was working at a location a few miles from where the boy was abducted. Fish claimed the following in a letter to his attorney:
I brought him to the Riker Ave. dumps. There is a house that stands alone, not far from where I took him ... I took the G 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 trolley to 59 St. at 2 A.M. and walked home from there. Next day about 2 P.M., I took tools, a good heavy cat-of-nine tails. Home made. Short handle. Cut one of my belts in half, slit these half in six strips about 8 in. 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 thru the middle of his body. Just below his belly button. Then thru his legs about 2 in. 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. Water is 3 to 4 ft. deep. They sank at once. 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 in the oven. Then I picked 4 onions and when meat had roasted about 1/4 hr., 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 hr., it was nice and brown, cooked thru. 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 as sweet as a nut, but his pee-wees I could not chew. Threw them in the toilet.
Gaffney's mother Elizabeth visited Fish in Sing Sing, accompanied by Detective King and two other men. She wanted to ask him about her son's death, but Fish refused to speak to her. Fish began to weep and asked to be left alone. After two hours of asking him questions through his lawyer, James Dempsey, Mrs. Gaffney gave up. She was still unconvinced that Fish was her son's killer.
He was buried in the Sing Sing Prison Cemetery. Fish is said to have helped the executioner position the electrodes on his body. His last words were reportedly, "I don't even know why I'm here." According to one witness present, it took two jolts before Fish died, creating the rumor that the apparatus was short-circuited by the needles that Fish inserted into his body. These rumors were later regarded as untrue, as Fish reportedly died in the same fashion and time frame as others in the electric chair.
At a meeting with reporters after the execution, Fish's lawyer James Dempsey revealed that he was in possession of his client's "final statement". This amounted to several pages of hand-written notes that Fish apparently penned in the hours just prior to his death. When pressed by the assembled journalists to reveal the document's contents, Dempsey refused, stating, "I will never show it to anyone. It was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read."
During the 10-day hearing, Fish shrank in his seat the afternoon when Grace Budd’s mother pointed at him, crying “That’s Howard, I’ll know him anywhere”. One witness was Fish’s 17-year-old stepdaughter who described the games involving masochism and child molestation he taught his children. The jury found him both sane and guilty and at 11.06pm on January 16, 1936, Fish was taken to the death chamber at Sing Sing prison and strapped into the electric chair.
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