Albert Fish

Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish lived from May 19, 1870, to January 16, 1936. He was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester, and cannibal. Between July 1924 and June 1928, he committed at least three child murders. He went by several nicknames: the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and the Boogey Man. During his life, police suspected him in at least ten murders, but he confessed to only three that could be linked to known homicides. He also admitted to stabbing at least two other people. Fish once claimed he "had children in every state" and put his total victim count at about 100. It is unclear whether he meant rapes or acts of cannibalism, and whether the statement was true. He was caught on December 13, 1934, and tried for kidnapping and murdering Grace Budd. Found guilty, he was executed in the electric chair on January 16, 1936, at age 65.

Fish was born Hamilton Howard Fish in Washington, D.C., to Randall Fish and Ellen Francis Howell. His father, an American of English descent, was 43 years older than his mother, a Scots-Irish American, and was 75 when Fish was born. Fish was the youngest of four living siblings: Walter, Annie, and Edwin. He preferred the name "Albert" after a sibling who had died, and to shed the nickname "Ham and Eggs" given to him at an orphanage where he spent much of his childhood. Mental illness ran in his family: an uncle had mania, a brother was institutionalized, a half-brother had schizophrenia, and a sister was diagnosed with a "mental affliction." Three other relatives had mental illnesses, and his mother experienced "aural and/or visual hallucinations."

On October 16, 1875, Fish’s father—a fertilizer maker and former riverboat captain—died of a heart attack at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. His mother placed him in Saint John’s Orphanage in Washington, where he was frequently beaten. Over time, he began to enjoy the pain from these beatings. By 1880, his mother found a government job and removed him from the orphanage. In 1882, at age 12, Fish started a relationship with a telegraph boy who introduced him to drinking urine and eating feces. He began spending weekends at public baths watching boys undress. Throughout his life, he wrote obscene letters to women whose names he got from classified ads and matrimonial agencies.

Around 1890, at age 20, Fish moved to New York City. There he worked as a male prostitute and began molesting and raping boys, mostly under six years old. In 1898, his mother arranged his marriage to Anna Mary Hoffman, who was nine years younger. They had six children: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, and Henry. In 1903, Fish was arrested for embezzlement, convicted, and sent to Sing Sing Prison. He later told of a male lover taking him to a wax museum, where a bisected human penis fascinated him and sparked an obsession with sexual mutilation. Around 1910, while working in Wilmington, Delaware, he met 19-year-old Thomas Bedden. Fish took Bedden to his lodging, and they began a sadomasochistic relationship; it is unclear if Bedden consented, but Fish later implied Bedden was intellectually disabled. After ten days, Fish brought Bedden to an old farmhouse and tortured him for two weeks. He eventually tied Bedden up and cut off half his penis. "I shall never forget his scream or the look he gave me," Fish recalled. He had planned to kill Bedden, cut up the body, and take it home, but feared the hot weather and smell would attract attention. Instead, he poured peroxide on the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-covered handkerchief, left a $10 bill, kissed Bedden 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 January 1917, Fish’s wife left him for John Straube, a handyman who boarded with the family. Fish raised their children alone. After his arrest, he told a newspaper that his wife took nearly everything they owned. He began hearing voices; once he wrapped himself in a carpet, claiming he was following instructions from John the Apostle. Around this time, he started self-harming by embedding needles into his groin and abdomen. X-rays after his arrest showed at least 29 needles lodged in his pelvic region. He also hit himself with a nail-studded paddle and inserted wool soaked in lighter fluid into his anus, setting it on fire. Though he never physically attacked his own children, he encouraged them and their friends to paddle his buttocks with the same nail-studded paddle.

Around 1919, Fish stabbed an intellectually disabled boy in Georgetown. He often targeted people who were mentally disabled or African-American, later explaining he assumed they would not be missed.