Albert Fish: The Werewolf Of Wysteria
“I made up my mind to eat her”
Early Life
Albert Fish was born Hamilton Howard Fish in Washington, D.C. on May 19th, 1870. And like many other serial killers, he had a very rough childhood.
When he was only 5-years-old his father passed away, and his mother sent him to a reform school becoming overwhelmed as a newly single mother.
His mother was a whopping 43 years younger than Fish’s father who was already 75 years old when he was born.
Fish was considered extremely mentally ill and it is interesting that many other members of the Fish family were also mentally ill as well. Including his mother, two of his uncles, a brother, a sister, and a different brother.
While at the reform school Fish’s life only got worse and he started to suffer abuse and was neglected by other students and staff members. But Fish later claimed to have enjoyed the abuse he endured. And later said he even began to enjoy the beatings he would receive. But said we would insist he be tied up during the beatings.
Fish claimed that one of the older boys in the school soaked a horse's tail in gasoline and lit it on fire. And that the horse suffering made him extremely aroused. He eventually realized he was a masochist, meaning he derives pleasure from inflicting pain on himself. And as he grew older, realized he was a sadist as well, and derived pleasure from inflicting pain on others as well. Making him a sadomasochist.
When he was 9 years old, his mother took him back after finally getting her act together and getting a well-paying job to be able to talk care of her son. But by that point, the damage had already been done and Fish was already on his way to becoming extremely disturbed.
At the age of 12, he got into a relationship with a newspaper boy who showed him his interest in drinking his own urine and eating his own feces. And apparently, Fish really liked doing so as well and continued to do so all throughout his life.
He would also often visit bathhouses to watch the other boys dress and would write obscene and sexually explicit letters to women. Getting himself in trouble a number of different times.
In 1890, Fish moved to New York and made a living through prostitution. Shortly after the move, however, he began to rape and molest young children.
His mother introduced him to a woman, and the two got married in 1898. And for the first time in his life, things finally started to look up for Fish. He and his wife had 6 children together and he finally was able to find steady work as a painter. And managed to provide a decent living for his family.
But over time as his mental state worsened, his behavior got more disturbed and erratic. He would eat raw meat and encourage his children to do the same. One night his son claimed he came home and found his father laying on the floor of the living room rolled up in the carpet. His children also later recalled playing in the field with their friends one day when they saw their dad standing on top of a hill, naked, with his arms raised shouting “I am Christ!”
His children emphasized that Fish was a good father and never abused them. And stated he did the best he could to care for his family. But that he would always be doing some weird shit. When his children were little Fish would make them spank him with a needle-spiked paddle, and even made a game out of it. And one time his son claimed he came home and found his father was naked and had painted his entire body gold.
Despite everything though, life for Albert Fish seemed normal to outsiders looking in. But, Fish continued to abuse young boys throughout his marriage and his odd behaviors continued to escalate. He had also begun to develop a fascination for sexual mutilation during this time period as well.
This fascination turned into a reality when in 1910, Fish lured a mentally handicapped man to an old farmhouse where he tortured him for over 2 weeks. It was initially consensual but Fish’s methods of torture became too much for the boy. But Fish refused to let him go. He testified that he initially intended on killing the boy but decided instead to slash his penis, leave him tied up and give him a few bucks. And to this day it is still unclear what happened to this man.
Over the years Fish’s mental state began to get worse, and when his wife left him and their 6 children in 1917 things only got worse. He began to suffer from auditory hallucinations and began inflicting increasingly severe injuries on himself for pleasure.
He would soak cotton wool in a flammable liquid and then stick it in his anus and light it on fire. And would hit himself with a needle-spiked paddle until he bled. He also would stick needles into his perineum. Leading to this infamous x-ray which was taken after he was caught, to prove that he actually stuck the needles in himself, since nobody believed him.
The Murders
His first known attempted murder was committed in 1919 when he stabbed a mentally handicapped boy. He later explained he targeted the handicapped and African-Americans since he assumed their deaths would not be looked into nearly as hard.
In 1924 he attempted to get a little girl who he spotted playing alone to come with him. But fortunately, he was spotted by the girl's mother and ran off. He later attempted to return but was this time spotted by the girl's father who drove him off again.
And one more failed attempt followed shortly after when 2 boys came across Fish’s “torture tools” in his apartment, got scared, and ran off.
By this point, he was already in the midst of a complete psychotic break. And believed that God had ordered him to torture and sexually mutilate children. And even though the last few attempts had failed, Fish was hellbent on making sure his next attempt was a success.
And decided to kill an 18-year-old boy who has answered his ad in the local newspaper looking for a job. Fish met with the boy and his family under an alias for dinner at their house to discuss the boy's new job at Fish’s “farm.” But while at this meeting, he met the boy's 10-year-old sister Grace Budd and decided to change his plans.
Before leaving the dinner he offered to take Grace to his niece’s birthday party. And the parents agreed thinking nothing of the friendly-looking man. After saying goodbye to her that evening, they never saw their daughter again.
Fish took the girl to this abandoned home in the woods:
And tortured, mutilated, killed, dismembered, and then drank her blood and ate her flesh over the course of the next few days.
Arrest & Conviction
After the murder of Grace Budd, an innocent man was arrested and jailed for 108 days before finally being acquitted in court. The real killer, however, was busy writing the mother of Grace Budd a letter in which he described how he killed the young girl. And went on to explain how he cooked her and ate her.
The family quickly realized the letter had to have been written by the man who visited their farm that day. But didn’t know his real name or anything else identifiable about him.
The only clue left was on the envelope the letter came in. It had a small emblem of a company that the sender seemingly ignored. Police went to the company whose emblem was on the envelope and took samples from over 400 employees but got no matches.
But after performing countless interviews, the companies manager remembered once taking home the company’s stationery with him and leaving it behind in his old apartment when he moved out. Police then went to the manager's old address and found and arrested Albert Fish for the murder of Grace Budd.
He fit the description given by the family and also matched the countless other witness reports of a “gray man” stalking multiple children throughout the community.
Upon his arrest it became clear he was more than a murderer, he was a serial killer. And was linked to at least 2 additional murders. Though he is believed to be responsible for at least 3–5 more. He claimed to have abused thousands of children and at one point even claimed to have killed over 100.
Albert Fish was found guilty after a long trial and was ultimately sentenced to death.
On January 16th, 1935, Albert Fish was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison, and his last words were reportedly “I don’t even know why I’m here.”
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