Albert Fish

Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was born on May 19, 1870, in Washington, D.C., to Randall Fish and Ellen Francis Howell. His father, an American of English descent, was 75 years old at the time of Albert’s birth—43 years older than his mother, who was Scots-Irish. Albert was the youngest of four surviving siblings: Walter, Annie, and Edwin. He chose the name "Albert" after a deceased sibling and to shed the nickname "Ham and Eggs," which he got at an orphanage where he spent much of his childhood.

Mental illness ran in Fish’s family. An uncle had mania, a brother was committed to a state mental hospital, a paternal half-brother had schizophrenia, and a sister was described as having a "mental affliction." Three other relatives were diagnosed with mental disorders, and his mother experienced auditory or visual hallucinations. On October 16, 1875, Fish’s father—a fertilizer manufacturer and former riverboat captain—died of a heart attack at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. His mother then placed him in Saint John’s Orphanage in Washington, where he was frequently beaten. Over time, Fish began to enjoy the pain from these beatings. By 1880, his mother had secured a government job and removed him from the orphanage.

At age 12, in 1882, Fish began a relationship with a telegraph boy who introduced him to drinking urine and eating feces. He started spending weekends at public baths, watching other boys undress. Throughout his life, he wrote obscene letters to women whose names he found in classified ads and from matrimonial agencies.

By 1890, at age 20, Fish moved to New York City, where he worked as a male prostitute and began molesting and raping boys, most 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.

Fish later described an incident where a male lover took him to a wax museum; there, he became fascinated by a bisected human penis and grew obsessed 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—whether Bedden consented is unclear, 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 would cause a smell. Instead, he poured peroxide on the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-coated 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 then raised their children alone. After his arrest, he told a newspaper that his wife had taken nearly everything they owned. Around this time, Fish began having auditory hallucinations; he once wrapped himself in a carpet, claiming he was following instructions from John the Apostle. He also started embedding needles into his groin and abdomen. X-rays after his arrest showed at least 29 needles lodged in his pelvic region. He hit himself with a nail-studded paddle and inserted wool soaked in lighter fluid into his anus, then set it on fire. Though Fish 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. He claimed he sometimes paid boys to find other children for him. Fish tortured, mutilated, and murdered young children using what he called his "implements of Hell": a meat cleaver, a butcher knife, and a small handsaw. On July 11, 1924, he found 8-year-old Beatrice Kiel pl—[the source text cuts off here].

Fish was a suspect in at least ten murders, though he confessed to only three that police could link to a known homicide. He also admitted to stabbing at least two other people. He once boasted that he "had children in every state" and at one point claimed about 100 victims. It is unclear whether he meant rapes or cannibalizations, or whether the statement was true. Fish was arrested on December 13, 1934, and tried for the kidnapping and murder of Grace Budd. He was convicted and executed by electric chair on January 16, 1936, at age 65.