Release Me - Albert Fish

†• Albert Fish •†

Who was Albert Fish? What did he do and why do we care? Albert Fish was sort of the insperation to Hannibal Lector. Many know of Albert Fish as the Brooklyn Vampire. But who was he really?

Albert Fish was born Hamilton Fish on May 19, 1870 in Washington, D.C. His father was Captain Randall Fish had died on October 15, 1875. He was burried in the Grand Lodge grounds of the Congressional cemetery. Fish was then placed in John's Orphanage in Washington. His mother placed him there while she worked to support herself. He was there until he was about 9 years old. Albert Fish had blaimed the orphanage for the bad behaviors he had later in life. He said they were whipped, "unmercifully whipped," as he put it. He said he saw boys doing things that they should have been doing. He sang soprano in St. Johns. Albert's family seemed to be a respected family, but there was a share of problems.

Two of Fish's family members had died in institutions. Fish was considered a troubled child while in the orphanage who was a constant run away and constant on wetting the bed until he was about eleven years old.

Soon Albert Fish found himself in New York. He moved his mom up from Washington. He then met his wife. Who would later leave him with their six children. She had left him for a man named John Straube in 1917. She came back now in then but with the new man with her. Fish then took her back if she would let go of Straube. She had done so or so Fish thought, though he came to discover his wish had been keeping her lover in the attic. She and Fish broke into argument and she left him again, this time to never return.

Fish's children think that his strange behavior started after his wife had left him but it probably went back much much farther than they realized. Soon after his wife left Fish started to act rather strange. He would start raising and shaking his fists at the sky yelling. "I am Christ! I am Christ!" Fish would have his children and their friends paddle his back side until it bled. A paddle that usually was studded with inch and a half nails. He also liked to push needles into his pelvic region. Mostly through the part between the his anus and his testicals. A prison X-Ray showed atleast 29 needles still inside his pelvis. (Picture to the left) Fish had even soaked cotton balls in alcohol and inserted them into his anus then set them on fire.

Fish started answering classified ads placed by widows seeking husbands. The letters he wrote, 46 of which were recovered and entered as evidence at his trial, were so obscene and vile that the prosecution not only wouldn't make them public but also made the women that were in the court that day, leave the room while he read them aloud.

His children said htat on full moons Fish would eat a large amount of meet. He also started researching cannibalism and he carried the most gruesome articles with him on his person at all times. Before he started to murder he was sent and checked out by psychiatrists at Bellevue who found him to be disturbed but sane.

Fish had never divorced from his first wife but he had married three more tims. He was enjoying a sex life which the court psychiatrists would call unparalleled perversity. Since the start of his problems such as relishing in bare bottomed paddlings in the orphanage, Fish's pain obsession focused mainly on children. He claimed he was ordered by God to castrate young boys, and molested children of both sexes as he traveled around the country. He was confidently linked with atleast 100 sexual attacks in 23 states. But he seemed insulted by their estimate, saying "I have had children in every state," claiming his tally closer to 400.

I don't think anyone but Albert Fish knows when or where he first became a murderer. But he has confessed to killing and referred to dozens more but the names and dates and victims were lost somewhere in his old mind. The murders he had confessed to were:

A man in Wilmington, Delaware
A mentaly disabled boy in New York in 1919
A African American boy in Washington also in 1919
Strangling 5 year old Francis McDonnell in Long Island in 1924
Molesting and killing 4 year old William Gaffney in 1927
The horrific murder of Grace Budd in 1928

Though the most known story of Albert Fish is of Grace Budd, there are stories of the two little boys that came around the time of Grace's dissapperance that are seldom heard.

The Boogey Man

February 11, 1927, four year old Billy Gaffney played in the hallways outside the apartment building in which he lived. He was there with is 3 year old neighbor who was also named Billy. A 12 year old neighbor who was babysitting his sleeping baby sister went to join the boys, but he had to go back insdie his apartment to soon after hearing his sister cry.

A few minutes later the older boy noticed that the two Billys were gone so he went and told the younger Billy's father. After a desperate search the father found his 3 year old son on the top floor of the apartment building. His son had been up on the roof.

He asked his son, "Where is Billy Gaffney?"

The little boy told his dad that the boogey man took him.

The dectives who then took the case to find the missing boy ignored the little boy on his simple explanation. In the start the police thought the boy had wandered outside into some of the factory buildings in the neighborhood or even fallen into the Gowanus canal a few blocks away. The people in the community had began to seach the canal but there was no sign of Billy.

Finally someon decided it was a good idea to listen to the little boy who was the only witness. He then gave them a description of the boogey man that took Billy. He was slender, an old man with gray hair and a gray moustache. But the police didn't listen and paid no attention that the description connected to a crime that had been committed by the "Gray Man" a few years earlier.

The Gray Man

July of 1924 an 8 year old boy named Fancis McDonnell played on the frount porch of his house in the pastoral Charlton Woods section of Staten Island. Hie mother sat near by nursing his infant sister. She noticed a elderly man with gray hair and moustache in the middle of the street. She watched the strange old man who had his fits clenching and unclenching mumbling to himself. He then tipped his hat at her and disappeared down the street.

Later that afternoon the old man was yet again seen watching Francis and 4 other boys playing ball. The old man called Francis over to him and the other boys kept plaing ball. Francis and the old man had disappeard a few minutes later. A neighbor noticed a boy that looked like Francis walking into the wooded aread with an elderly gray haired man behind him.

Francis wasn't noticed missing until he hadn't come home for dinner. His father was a policeman, he had organized the search for his own son. They found Francis in the woods under some branches. He had been assaulted/ His clothes were torn from his body and he had been strangled with his suspenders. He had been beaten so badly the police didn't think the old man could have really been the one to do it. The thought maybe he had an accomplice who had the strength to assult the child as he had been.

In a short time there was an empressive staff to help with the investigation which included Manhattan fingerprint expert, police photographers, and some 250 plainclothesman. There was several promising leads and suspects, but none of them looked like the gray haired man. His face was forever stuck in the head of Anna McDonnell, "He came shuffling down the street, mumbling to himself, making queer motions with his hands. I'll never forget those hands. I shuddered when I looked at them...how they opened and shut, opened and shut, opened and shut. I saw him look toward Francis and the others. I saw his thick gray hair, his drooping gray moustache. Everything about him seemed faded and gray

Despite the efforts of the police and communtil the gray man had vanished.

Grace Budd

The story that Fish is most known for is the sad murder of Grace Budd. It is a sad one, as the others. But the reason it is so special is because this is what got him cought.

Fish had found a wanted add in the May 27, 1928 issue of the New York World Telegram for a job. His ad read: "Young man, 18, wishes position in the country. Edward Budd, 406 West 15th Street."

He then went to the home of the boy. He had introduced himself to the Budd's in was that never made them think twice of their son going to work for this man. Albert Budd, Grace's father, was a doorman and worked hard and earned a modest living doing so. But sadly it still wasn't enough to take care of his family. Their family constisted of his wife Delia, 18 year old Edward, Albert Jr. Grace and the youngest 5 year old Beatrice. To help his father make ends meet Edward set out to get a job.

A nicely dressed Albert Fish came to the Budd family, calling himself Mr. Frank Howard, a farmer from Long Island. He told Mrs. Budd that he had earned his living for decadeds as an interior decorator in the ity and then with his savings after retirement he bought a farm. He said that with the help of his children, five farm hands and a Swedish cook the farm was so successful with several hundred chickend and half a dozen dairy cows. Now one of his farmhands was leaving and he needed someone to replace him.

Eward then walked in, he met Mr. Howard. The boy assured the old man he was a hard worker. Mr. Howard then offered him $15 a week, Edward gladly accepted. Mr. Howard even agreed to hire Willie, Edward's closest friend.

Mr. Howard had to leave for an appointment and promised to come back on Saturday to pick them up. The two boys were so excited and the Budds were very happy also.

Saturday June 2 Mr. Howard never showed. They did however get a hand written letter from Mr. Howard saying he had been delayed and would call in the morning.

Sunday morning the man known as Frank Howard came back to the Budd's apartment bringing gifts of strawberries and fresh and creamy pot cheese that he claimed were from his farm.

Mr. Howard had been invited to eat lunch with the family, he even spoke with Mr. Budd about the job that Edward would be taking, this conversation made Mr. Budd quite happy. At this lunch Mr. Howard met a 10 year old Grace Budd. She had big brown eyes, dark brown hair, lightly colored skin and pink lips. She was just returning from church wearing her silk confirmation dress, white stockings and perls around her neck, she didn't look 10.

Howard hadn't been able to take his eyes off her. He chatted with her a bit and then had given her some money and told the family he would be back later in the evening to pick up Edward and Willie. He stated that he had to go to a birthday party for one of his sister's children. He then gave the boys two dollars to go to the movies.

Just as Mr. Howard was to leave, he invited Gracie to go with him to the party. He would have her back before 9:00 that night. He said his sister lived in an apartment on Columbus and 137th Street.

Delia wasn't sure on letting Gracie go, but Mr. Budd talked her into it. Gracie dressed in her good coat and her gray hat with the streamers. She then left with Mr. Howard and disappeared down the street.

There was no sign of Mr. Howard or of Gracie that night. The family lay in wake that night in fear of where she was. The next morning Edward was sent to the police to tell of his sister's disapperance.

William King then took on the case of Gracie Budd. The dectives were worried about the story from the start, soon finding there was no Frank Howard with a farm in Long Island. The true identy of the man who came to know the Budd family was lost.

King and his other members of the Bureau started a long and hard search for Gracie Budd and any thing on the kidnapper. They started with Western Union for the copy of the telegram that Mr. Howard had sent to the Budd family. They did find where the telegram had been sent from, a office in east Harlem. They had thought of searching each and every home but soon realized it was impossible. King then thought of the other link Mr. Howard had left, the cheese and strawberries. They seached all of East Harlem until the found a peddler that sold him the goods. Though the case then ran cold when the peddler couldn't recall anyting thing else significant besdies a detailed description of the man.

Thousands of flyers were posted to let people know about Gracie. Her photo was on the front page of newpapers, people grew angry and paniced. Police in the U.S. and Canada were all given the flyers, still no results. A few months later, even the most dedicated investigators with the exception of King, had been giving up on the case.

King was so dedicated and had a reputation as such that he would follow every little lead he recieved. Once, he even thought he had his man when he got a file that was on a gray haired man named Albert Corthell. He was on the run for trying to kidnap a little girl from an adoption agency. He chased Corthell all over the country, and he finally cought him. He was very disappionted when he found that Corthell was in jain in Seattle when Grace was kidnapped.

There was another strong lead that King was given. Charles Edward Pope had also been arrested and actaully charged with Grace's kidnapping. Mr. Budd though, admitted in court that he had picked the wrong man. It had turned out that Pope had been turned in by his ex-wife looking to get him. He had been released

About that same time there was another gray haired man being arrested in New York for sending obsecene materials, mostly letters through the mail. The letter were sent by Albert Fish, who was pretending to be a famous Hollywood director promising women large sums of money if they would have sadomasochistic orgies with him. He was then convited and sent to Bellevue for 10 days on observation. He would go on to tell the people at the hospital, though his was known as Albert his real name was Hamilton Fish, and was related to a famous family in New York of the same name. He may have even been telling the truth, his real name was Hamilton, but he seemed to have a obsession with being famous or rich. Something "powerful." Fish stayed at Bellevue for about 30 days in the winter of 1930. The doctors had judged him as sane after he had shown a polite and cooperative way to him. Though they saied he had sexual problems that they attributed to dementia from his advancing of age. Then considered harmless, this man was released back to the public int he custody of his daughter Anna.

People started to give up hope that Grace's vanishment would never be solved. On November 11, 1934, this is six years after she was taken, Mrs. Budd recieved a letter in the mail that claimed to be from a friend of someone named "Captian John Davis." The letter said that the captain was a seaman who one of his trips to China, developed a taste for human flesh, mainly the flesh of children. All this was supposed to happen during a famine in China. The letter went on in graphic descriptions on how Davis had returned to New York and kidnapped and murdered two young boys. He had then cooked their flesh and eaten it. After learning from Davis that the taste of children flesh was "good and tender," then grousome letter writer said he had to try it himself. He had visited the Budd home for lunch and had taken the girl with him.

Mrs. Budd continued to read as she sobbed, she read in detail how he had taken Grace to an empty house in Westchester, New York. He let her pick flowers in the garden while he stripped naked. He then called her into the house, when she saw the naked man she began to scream, she had tried to run away, but he caught her. He then stripped her and choked her to death. He went on to tell how he had chopped her body up and cooked and ate the smaller parts. The writer was sure to discribe how she was killed and cut up but made sure he assured Mrs. Budd that Grace had not been molested in any way. He went on to assure the distrough mother by saying "She died a virgin."

After this sick chilling letter the police went too all that they could to find the monster who wrote it. Again the investigation was led by Dective King, who gave up his retirement two years earlier to keep on working on the Grace Budd case. King found "Mr. Howard's" original Western Unioin telefram blank and there was no doubt that was the same hand writing. King then using a microscope on the letter found the smalles design on the flap of the envelope, which turned out to be the letters N.Y.P.C.B.A. which the Manhattan phone book revealed the letters to stand for "New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association," headquartered at 627 Lexington Avenue.

The association had gladly opened their files to King. He had spent hours checking the backgrounds and handwritings of all their 400 employees. There was no match found. He then called all the employees together and questions them. He also offered immunity for the theft of the letter writing materials and envelopes. He just wanted to catch the killer.

After all this and appeals to the drivers, a man in a chauffeur's uniform named Lee Sicowski knocked at his door. He told King that he had a habbit of taking stationary of the association home with him and using it. Lee went on to explain that he had left some of the unused stationary and envelopes in a room that he had at 622 Lexington. The rom was searched but nothing was there. King then asked that Sicowski thought of anywhere else the stationary would have ended up. He then remembered that he has spent some time in a cheap boarding house at 200 East 52nd Street.

The ended up to be a flophouse but it is where the investigators were right on track. The landlady, Mrs. Frieda Schneider, stated that Sicowski's old room was recently used by a man who fit Mr. Howard's discription. His name was Albert Fish. King checked the handwriting and that was the same man who wrote the letter to Mrs. Budd. Fish had just checked out of the place but he was receiving monthly checks from one of his sons. It was always sent to 200 East 52nd Street. King then took a room at the flophouse where he was in view of the entrance and the upstairs and downstairs hallways.

He had waited for three days and on December 13, 1934, King got a call from the flophouse. He had left to file some paperwork back at the station. The landlady then called, Fish was back.

When he returned to the house Mrs. Schneider met him at the door. Fish had been back about a half hour earlier and to stall she had given him a cup of tea and invited him to sit down. King walked in trying to keep calm, he drew his revolver and walked into the to the room where Fish waited. What he found was a harmless looking, white haired old man with a white scraggly mustache and watery blue eyes. He was sipping at a cup of tea. King then identified himself and Fish made no effor to hide who he was. Then King asked Fish to come with him to police headquarters for questioning.

Amazingly Fish then reached into his pocket and lunged at King with a straight razor in his hand. Fish was no match for the solidly built officer though and King grabbed him by the wrist and twisted it until the razor fell to the floor. He then quickly cuffed Fish and searched his pockets. To his amazement and horror he found that Fish's pockets were crammed with all sorts of sharp knives and razors. He then turned the man to face him. "I've got you now," King said filled with triumph.

(King and Fish to the right)

At the police station, Fish had confessed to the murder in 1928. The ociginal vicitm he had explained, had been intended to be Edward Budd, who had placed the add in the paper. When he arrived and saw the built teen-aged boy, Fish then changed his mind to little Gracie. He freely confessed to kidnapping the girl and taking her to the Wisteria Cottage in a place called Worthington Woods, in Westchester County. Even after six years, he still remembered that day.

He had bought a round trip train ticket to Worthington Woods for himself and a one way ticket for Grace. He had decided her fate from the start of it all. He also remembered that when they were changing trains that he had left a bundle behind on the seat. Grace, trying to be helpful ran back and got it for him. Inside this bundle, sadly was Fish's tools for Grace's death. These were a cleaver, saw and a butcher's knife. And poor Grace happliy haded them over to him. Never knowing that this was what would end her life a short time later. After arriving at the cottage, Fish strangled the girl, beheaded her and disembered her body. Chopping her torso at the waist, then he cut up and ate her over nine days. Investigators later then said that Fish had grinned as he described draining her blood and drinking it.

(Wisteria Cottage to the left)

There was a seach party sent to the cottage and recovered the skeletal remains of Gracie Budd. She was buried in pieces beside a stone wall behind the cottage. King finally had his killer but Fish couldn't stop confessing. Was this a rambling of a mad-man or an emptying of a guilty concious? He described other murders that he had committed between 1910 and 1934. Many of the stories he told police were false or exaggerated but he still provided enough details to convince the investigators that he had killed before. Sadly enough Fish had been arrested in New York six times since the disappearance of Grace on charges that ranged from petty larceny to vagrancy, so sending obscene letters through the mail. Three of these were after Grace had been kidnapped with in three months. But each of the charges were dismissed.

Albert Fish Jr. wasn't surprised his dad was in jail for the murder of Grace Budd. He was quoted as saying "That old skunk, I always knew that he would get caught for something like this." He went on to tell about his father's liking for raw meat and how he had walked in on his father stripped naked beating himself with a heavy board that was studded with sharp nails. He then threw his father out of the house shortly after. At the end of the interview he said in disgust, "I've never wanted anything to do with him and I'll not lift a hand to help him."

Doctors and psychiatrists examined him. He told his fetishes to psychiatrists, telling of inserting needles into his pelvic area. Later X-Rays had proven it true, with atleast 29 needles showing. Many of the physicians found Fish to be insane. The man who was consided a kind manor who you think you would be able to trust your children with was a man who had psysicians saying they couldn't even begin to guess how many victims had been claimed by Fish. One got rather closed to him before and after his trial, Dr. Wertham who said, "but I believe to the best of my knowledge that he has raped one hundred children, at least."

James Dempsey had the unfortinate mess of being Fish's attorney. He had mentioned in trial the needles and nail-studded paddles, saying they were dealing with a tragic mental case. "We do not have to prove that he is insane," Dempsey told the jury. "Rather it is up to the state to prove that he is sane." When Dr. Wertham was on the stand, Dempsey only had one question for him, that one question about Fish's sanity took an hours and 15 minutes to read, it was over 15,000 words long and 45 type written pages, Dr. Wertham only used three words to reply to this, "He is insane."

This had done nothing to convince the jury about his sanity, they just wanted to see the killer punished. He was found guilty and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Fish's only responce to this verdict was, "Going to the electric chair will be the supreme thrill of my life."

In 1935 Fish was sent to Sing Sing carrying a bible and handcuffed to another murderer. There was many appeals to stop the death by electric chair but all failed. He was to die on January 16, 1936. His last meal was a steak, and after that he freely entered the death room giddy with excitement of the death and "thrill" he was about to recieve. He had even helped the guards fix the electrodes on his legs.

It has been said that his head wasn't quickly as others' or as Fish would have liked. There is a legend that says when the switch was pulled the first jolt of over 3,000 volts failed to kill him. Some said it was the needles in him that had created a short circuit. Then they had send a nother prolonged and massive charge through his body in order to kill him.

But in truth, he was killed like everyone else that was sent to the electic chair. Moments after the current raced through his body a doctor pronounced him dead. Fish was the oldest man to ever be executed at Sing Sing.

When his dead body was taken the the autopsy room, Dempsey had met with reporters. In his hadn he held Fish's final statement to the world. It was several pages of hand written notes written by him hours before his death. This statement has never been revealed. "I will never show it to anyone," Dempsey said. "it was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read." Now is that urban legend as well? We don't know.

Was this man insane? Is being insane just an excuse of some actions that people find spooky or morbid? Things like this have to make you think, what is truley insane? Murdering people and eating them, is that insane? Or is the insane thing that people try to get people like this locked up in a mental hospital and not thrown in jail? But that monster is now gone, he was a terrible man. The sad thing to say, his way, his thoughts, are not dead, they are well alive in others today.

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