Facts about Albert Fish - the most brutal American maniac. However, a little later, the "Brooklyn vampire" was recognized as absolutely sane, after which he was sentenced to death by Albert Fishche for a joke

Albert (Hamilton) Fish is one of the most famous American maniacs and serial killers. The offender suffered from sexual and mental disorders. Fish killed his first victim on his fortieth birthday. According to his own statements, the maniac killed almost five hundred children.

Fish family

Maniac Albert Fish was born in 1870 to a noble American family in Washington, DC. His father, Randall Fish, was 43 years older than his mother. At the time of his son's birth, he was 75 years old.

The boy was named Hamilton. He was the youngest in a family, each of whose members suffered from some kind of mental illness and religious mania. Albert Fish's uncles died in a psychiatric hospital, one of the brothers died of dropsy of the brain, another was addicted to alcohol, his mother had painful visions, and his sister suffered from insanity. The boy's father was the captain of the ship, but then engaged in the production of fertilizers.

Difficult childhood

After the death of Randall Fish from a heart attack on the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1875, the mother had nothing to feed her children. She sent her youngest son to a boarding house at the age of five. The boy wanted to be called "Albert", but got the nickname "Ham and Eggs".

It was in the orphanage that Albert Fish first experienced sexual arousal from beatings and watching them. This gave other children a reason to mock him. The beating caused him to have an erection, because of which the children who lived in the orphanage only mocked him more.

Unhealthy tendencies

When Albert was nine, his mother began working in a government position and was given the opportunity to look after her son. But the experience in the boarding house greatly influenced the boy's psyche.

At twelve he had sexual intercourse with a postman. Then he began to practice coprophagy and urophagy. Fish frequented public baths where he could watch naked boys. This is how he spent his leisure time on weekends.

Rapist from New York

After reaching adulthood, Fish moved to New York City, where he made a living as a prostitute for a while. Then he began to rape little boys. The maniac lured victims to deserted places, seduced, persuaded or took away by deceit.

Fish liked this practice so much that he later boasted that he had raped at least one child in every state. During this period, more than a hundred boys and young men became victims of his abnormal sexual inclinations. This is confirmed by the testimony of Albert Fish himself and circumstantial evidence.

unhappy family

Despite his frightening inclinations, Fish married a girl. The marriage was organized by the mother. At the age of eighteen, he married a woman who bore him six children. After being accused of theft, Fish ended up in jail. At this time, the young wife ran away, leaving him with young children. The children later admitted that their father played games with them with sexual overtones, forced them to drive needles and nails into his body, and whip himself with whips.

First casualties

The criminal history of Albert Fish began very early. He was engaged in prostitution illegally, then was accused of theft, and committed the first murder in 1910. In the state of Delaware (city of Wilmington), he killed Thomas Bedden. In those years, racism was quite common, and the mentally ill were treated far from being politically correct. So Fish most often chose black or mentally unhealthy children as his victims, considering himself a "community orderly."

The next victim of Albert Fish was a mentally handicapped boy, whom the maniac stabbed to death in Georgetown (Virginia). In 1924, the killer targeted eight-year-old Beatrice Keel as a victim. She was walking on her parents' farm in Staten Island. The maniac promised to pay the girl if she went with him to look for rhubarb in the fields nearby. Beatrice's mother prevented "Brooklyn Vampire" Albert Fish from taking her daughter away, but he kidnapped the child that same night.

Grace's murder

In May 1928, the maniac Albert Fish (photo of the criminal in the article) responded to an ad in a local newspaper. Maniac came to the Budd family for the alleged hiring of Edward (a young man who advertised for a job in the countryside). Albert Fish himself introduced himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale. There, a fifty-eight-year-old maniac spotted nine-year-old Grace Budd. He promised to hire the young man in a few days. When Albert returned to the Budd house again, he convinced his parents to let Grace go to his niece's birthday party at his sister's house that evening. The girl never returned. The maniac killed her and ate her. Grace Budd was an accidental victim because Fish originally intended to kill Edward.

On suspicion of kidnapping a girl in September 1930 (an investigation over two years did not lead to unequivocal conclusions about the identity of the perpetrator), Charles Edward Pope was arrested. The house manager, who at that time was sixty, was accused by his own wife, with whom he had long lived separately. Charles Pope spent more than three months in prison, but his guilt was never proven at trial.

Letter from the mother of the victim

In the history of the maniac Albert Fish, there are moments that are no less horrifying than his crimes themselves. Seven years after the murder of Grace Budd, her parents received an anonymous letter that subsequently led the police to the perpetrator. In this message, he described in detail the process of killing a little girl. Grace's mother was illiterate, so the elder brother of the murdered girl had to read Albert Fish's letter to her aloud. This is the same Edward who escaped death because the maniac chose his sister.

The letter tells how a friend of Fish, traveling to China, tasted human meat. On his return to New York, the man caught two boys and hid them in a remote house. He spanked them several times a day to make the meat as tasty as possible. Then a friend of Albert Fish killed the children and ate their meat. Since then, the maniac himself, who was told a lot about the taste of human flesh, wanted to try something similar himself. Albert Fish then went into detail about how he killed Grace.

In the letter, the maniac claimed that he did not rape the girl, because he did not want to stain her with blood, although he killed her naked. Albert Fish later confessed to his lawyer that he had raped Grace Budd. He told the police that it would never have occurred to him to rape the girl. The forensic examination recognized Albert Fish as a pathological liar, so all these confessions could be lies. It is not known what actually happened in the abandoned house on the outskirts of the city.

Catching a maniac

The letter was delivered in an envelope with a small emblem for letters. The doorman of the company that owned the emblem told police that he took the paper home but left it in a rented apartment when he moved out. The landlady said that Albert Fish had vacated the place a few days earlier.

Fish's son sent him money, so the maniac asked the landlady to leave the next check. The police waited for Albert Fish to return for the check. The maniac agreed to proceed to the interrogation department, but at the exit of the building he attacked the investigator with razors in each hand.

The investigator managed to disarm the offender and deliver him to the police station. Fish did not deny that he killed Grace Budd and even stated that he originally came to the house to kill her brother Edward.

Fish was later declared insane by a forensic psychiatrist, but he was not sent for compulsory treatment. In the future, the maniac's crimes were considered so terrible that the court found him sane so that Albert Fish could not escape punishment.

Progress of the investigation

In February 1927, Bill Gaffney was playing with his friend Billy Beaton in the hallway of his family's home. The boys went missing, but Beaton was later found on the roof. He said Bill Gaffney had been taken away by the Boogie Man. The main suspect in this case was at first Peter Kudzinovsky. Then a trolleybus depot worker saw a photo of the detained Albert Fish in the newspaper and identified him as an old man whom he had seen with the boy on the day Gaffney disappeared. According to the depot worker, the old man tried to calm the boy, who was not wearing a jacket. The child was clearly excited. The police concluded that the boy was Bill Gaffney.

The child's mother visited Albert Fish while he was in prison. The offender confessed that he brought the boy to Riker Avenue, told in detail how he mocked Bill. The maniac drank the boy's blood, cut off body parts, which he then threw into the nearest muddy ponds. Albert Fish did not forget to mention that he ate the child in four days.

Fish's conclusion

Albert Fish remarried "Mrs. Estela Wilcox" and divorced a week later. He was arrested for sending an "obscene letter" to a woman who advertised in a newspaper. The offender was sent to the Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital for examination in 1930.

Nicknames of a maniac

The biography of Albert Fish is still considered the story of one of the most terrible maniacs in America, so it is not surprising that journalists and ordinary people gave him many nicknames. Fish was called "Boogie Man", "Brooklyn Vampire" (the killer drank the blood of his victims), "Wisteria Werewolf", "Moon Maniac", "Gray Ghost". The horrifying story of a maniac has become the basis of many fiction books and films. It is mentioned in the novels of Stephen King and Peter Straub.

Fish's trial

The trial for the premeditated murder of Grace Budd began on March 11, 1935, in New York. The process took ten days. The accused referred to his unsatisfactory state of health and mentioned that he heard the voice of God, which ordered him to do such terrible things with children.

Fish's sexual fetishes have been studied by several psychologists but have not been able to reach a consensus. The chief defense expert said the detainee was insane. The seventeen-year-old stepdaughter of the maniac turned out to be almost the main witness. The girl described how Fish taught the siblings a "game" involving sexual harassment of minors.

Execution of a maniac

The court found Fish guilty and sane, sentencing him to death. After the announcement of the death sentence, the maniac confessed to another murder, which he committed in the summer of 1924. The boy was raped and strangled with suspenders. After the trial, Albert Fish was transferred to death row, where he was held for more than a year. The killer was executed on January 16, 1936 in the electric chair. Fish is buried in the prison cemetery.

After the verdict was passed, the maniac declared that such an execution would be the highest vibration of his life. According to the recollections of one of the witnesses, Albert Fish died after the second start of the current. This gave rise to a legend that the maniac had previously introduced several needles into his body, which caused the device to short-circuit.

Fish in his youth.

In principle, Fish's sexual preferences would have excited few people, except, perhaps, his wife. However, from harassment and rape of boys, Hamilton, who changed his name to Albert, moves on to murders. According to Fish, the first of them happened back in 1910, but it was not possible to find the body of the murdered Thomas Bedden.

Fish after his arrest.

And the first documented incident was the kidnapping of Francis McDonell. An 8-year-old boy was playing in the playground on July 14, 1924. Witnesses saw him leave with an elderly grey-whiskered man.
A few hours later, the body of a boy was found in the forest - raped, brutally beaten, strangled with suspenders. They searched for the killer, but to no avail.
In 1927, Billy Gafney becomes a victim of a maniac. Two children were playing near the house. They went missing, but the neighbor's boy, Billy Beaton, was found on the roof of the house. Beaton and said that his four-year-old friend was taken away by "Boogie Man" - an elderly gray-whiskered man in gray.

The events of 1928 brought Fish new "names". Under the name of Frank Howard, he met 17-year-old Edward, who was looking for work. "Howard" met the boy's family and made a wonderful impression on them as a respectable elderly gentleman. During a recent visit, Fish offered to take Edward's younger sister to the party. After that, no one saw the ten-year-old Grace Budd.
The police were looking for the girl. Pretty quickly, they managed to establish that Howard does not exist in nature. The investigation went on for several months, but even the girl's body was not found.

Dressed in her best evening dress, the gullible little girl went with Fish to the northern suburbs of New York, to an abandoned secluded house. There he strangled her, cut the body and cut several pieces out of it.
Back at home, Fish cooked this "tender meat" (as he called it) into a cannibal stew seasoned with carrots, onions, and bits of bacon. He spent the next nine days locked in his room, devouring this terrible food and masturbating.

And after 7 years, the Budd family received a letter. The mother was not strong in literacy and gave the anonymous message to her son Edward to read, who immediately turned to the police. The letter was written on behalf of the same Howard, who told how he took the girl away, recalled the details of that day, how he brought her to an empty house, strangled, butchered and ate.
It was all spelled out in sickening detail. In particular, it was indicated that it took the killer 9 days to eat all the prepared meat. That's how the maniac turned into the "Brooklyn Vampire".
It was this letter that led to the killer of Detective William King. According to a specific stamp on paper, it was possible to calculate the place of his residence, where the criminal was caught.

During the investigation, the murder of three children was proved, although it is assumed that there were 15 of them. Fish willingly shared his memories of the process, how he cut the bodies of children, how he cooked and what pleasure he received from food.
The famous New York psychiatrist Dr. Frederick Wertham, whom the defense called in to examine Fish, said that the old man engaged in "every known sexual perversion", as well as some others that no one had ever even heard of (thus, Fish took special pleasure inserting a rose cutting into your urethra).
An X-ray of Fish's pelvis in prison showed twenty-nine needles stuck around his bladder, which he inserted into himself.

Needles in Fish's crotch.

Although at the trial in 1935 the jury found Fish mentally ill, their verdict was unanimous - the highest measure. After the death sentence was passed, this crazy old man exclaimed: "What a delight to die in the electric chair! It will be the highest pleasure - the only one that I have not yet experienced!"
On January 16, 1936, the sixty-five-year-old Fish sat in the electric chair - he was the oldest person ever executed in Sing Sing prison.

The "Hanoverian Vampire" Fritz Harmann, one of the world's most notorious sex killers, was born into a working-class family in Hannover, Germany, in 1879. As a child, he was sullen, withdrawn and retarded; his favorite pastime is dressing up in women's clothes.
At the age of seventeen, he ended up in a psychiatric hospital after trying to seduce children. Six months later he fled to Switzerland and then returned to Hanover.

For some time, Haarmann tried to lead a respectable life. He got a job at a tobacco factory and wooed a young girl. But this relatively normal period was short-lived. Haarmann left his fiancée and enlisted in the army.
Serve in the 10th Jaeger Battalion, based in Colmar (Alsace). There is no evidence that Haarmann took part in the fighting in the First World War, but after Haarmann's dismissal from the army in 1918, he received a good pension, which allowed Fritz to open a candy store in Hannover. In his shop, Haarmann sold not only cakes, but also meat, which was not unusual in those hungry times.

According to other sources, Haarmann returned to his hometown and became a member of a group of smugglers who traded, among other things, selling beef on the black market.
In addition, he worked for the police as a decoy duck and a snitch, which for some time provided him with protection from possible arrest. However, in 1919, Haarmann was caught in bed with a boy, and he ended up in prison.
And nine months later, after his release, his truly bloody path began. Settling in a Hanoverian slum, he fell under the influence of a homosexual Hans Grans, who was engaged in prostitution.
Together, Haarmann and Grans began to hunt down, rape and kill young male refugees, who were very numerous in the post-war city.

Hatmann and Grans.

Although Haarmann was charged with twenty-seven murders, in reality he committed, most likely, at least fifty. He always used the same method. Having lured the hungry young man into his room, Haarmann first fed him, and then beat and twisted him (often with the help of Grans), after which the victim was raped, and then Hartman dug his teeth into the unfortunate throat and pulled out the larynx. This brought him great sexual pleasure.
Haarmann and Grans then dismembered the body and sold it to buyers under the guise of beef on the black market. The clothes of the victim were also sold, and inedible bones and offal were thrown into the canal.
As the number of disappearances of young people grew, the police became suspicious of Haarmann. One woman who bought "beef" from him realized that it was human meat and contacted the police. However, for a long time, Hartmann was saved by his handler from the police.

In the summer of 1924, several skulls and a pile of bones were found on the banks of the canal. On June 22, 1924, Haarmann tried to force a young man named Fromm, who was sleeping at the station, to go with him to "eat meat."
The guy did not want to, he heard about the murders of tramps from the Hannover station and refused. Haarmann tried to take the young man away by force. Fromm resisted, the police arrived at the station and detained both. In the precinct, Fromm confidently stated that Haarmann had dirtyly pestered him. And also reminded of the rumors about the killing of people from the station.
The police listened to Fromm's words. Haarmann, despite his belonging to the police, was left in the cell. His shop was searched. They found the remains of human bodies, and Grans was found in the shop at the moment when he butchered the body of a guy who disappeared from the station a few days ago.

Eventually Haarmann confessed to his crimes. In 1924 he was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. At the trial, Fritz Haarmann admitted that he had killed 24 boys between 1918 and 1924. However, the number of corpses, according to the investigation, was 27. All the victims were between the ages of 10 and 22 years.
Hans Grans was charged with complicity in crimes and sentenced to death. The sentence was later reviewed and changed to 12 years in prison. After hearing the verdict, Haarmann first fell into a stupor, and then laughed. - I'll be back anyway! he shouted. "You know that vampires are immortal!"

While awaiting execution, the "Hanoverian Vampire" (as the newspapermen dubbed him) composed a whole report in which he described without remorse what joy the committed atrocities brought him.
In the early morning of April 15, 1925, in the courtyard of the Hannover prison, the sentence was carried out. The head was made available to research scientists. For a long time she was in Goetingen, and the four parts of the brain - in Munich. Researchers have not been able to explain Haarman's passion for drinking other people's blood.

Hatman head.

Many media of the time claimed that Haarmann's head was cut off with a sword, which was consecrated in the church. After the arrest of the maniac, the relatives of the alleged victims of Haarmann studied his wardrobe, and it turned out that absolutely all the clothes of the Hanoverian vampire and his lover consisted of the things of their victims. Relatives of the victims argued with each other about who owns the most expensive clothes, trying to take someone else's.
Haarmann did not kill a single woman. He considered them "repositories of vice and distributors of venereal diseases." That is why he disdained their blood. The Hanoverian maniac did not want to kill just like that. And the Bible doesn't allow it. He was generally quite a religious person.

Monument to the victims of Khatman. The collected bones and fragments were buried in a mass grave.

Albert Fish is a criminal whose deeds are scary just to think about. Everything he did (and this is a whole bunch of all kinds of perversions) makes any healthy person shudder. There can be only one explanation for his behavior: Albert Fish was abnormal, and “abnormal” is the mildest definition ...

Albert, named Hamilton at birth, was born in 1870 into a noble American family. However, his family was rather dysfunctional: almost all of his relatives suffered from psychological disorders of various types, which, of course, could not but affect the formation of his personality. Hamilton spent his childhood and youth in the St. John", where Fish began to experience arousal from receiving or seeing corporal punishment. After reaching adulthood, he moved to New York and changed the hated name Hamilton, because of which he was teased all the time in college, to Albert.

Fish soon marries a young girl who bears him six children. It is worth noting that Albert was a rather caring father, albeit with oddities: for example, once, for no reason, he drove a large nail into his hand.

Fish's first arrest took place in 1903, he robbed the shop where he worked. For this crime, Fish was imprisoned for 2 years in Sing Sing prison. In the same place, by the way, he will end his days, but more on that below.

On July 14, 1924, eight-year-old Francis McDonnell goes missing. His friends say that the boy left the playground, accompanied by an elderly thin man with a gray mustache. In the middle of the day, the boy was found in a nearby forest. He was strangled with his own suspenders and severely beaten. The police launched a search for an elderly man, who was given the name "Grey Man". Unfortunately, the investigation initially went the wrong way - after all, in the 20s, crimes of this kind were rare. By the beginning of the 25th year, the investigation had reached a dead end.

On February 11, 1927, another child went missing, Billy Gafney, 4 years old. The only witness to the kidnapping was another Billy, a year younger. He described the man who stole Gafni. It was a kind of "boogie man", not at all scary, on the contrary, fabulous and interesting. He was a thin old man with thick hair. He even allowed to touch his gray mustache ... Billy's corpse was never found.

Perhaps modern investigators would have found similarities between the "Gray" and the "boogie man". But, as already mentioned, the police had little experience in this matter, and therefore no one thought to compare the cases. In the end, the case was never solved.

On June 3, 1925, that is, more than a year later, the most notorious kidnapping took place. True, it was somewhat different from the previous ones. Seventeen-year-old Edward Budd posted a job ad in the newspaper. He was answered by a certain Frank Howard, a slender old man with a gray mustache (a familiar description, isn't it?). He came to the Baddam's house, where he made an excellent impression on the head of the family. Howard was pleasant in communication, kind to children, generous, neat and polite. When Howard visited the Baddams for the last time, he met one of their daughters, ten-year-old Grace. He invites the girl's parents to take her to a holiday where he is going, and where there will be many children. At first, the parents hesitate, but then they agree - Grace has so few holidays in her life. And they make the most, perhaps, the biggest mistake of their entire life. Needless to say, Grace, who left on June 3 with Frank Howard, whose real name was, of course, Albert Fish, never saw her parents again.

The police did not wait for the prescribed two days to start searching for the missing. Almost immediately after the start of the investigation, it became known that no Howard existed at all. The search begins, but after a few months they stop - there is no reason to consider Grace Budd killed; the case should be closed.

It probably would have ended there, but Fish gives himself away. Unable to cope with his sick mind, he, almost 10 years after Grace's abduction, sends a letter to her parents. In order to imagine how terrible this man was, the text of the letter is given in full:

"My dear Mrs. Budd!
In 1894 a friend of mine sailed as a deckhand on the steamer Tacoma under the command of Captain John Davis. From San Francisco they sailed to Hong Kong, China. Upon arrival, my friend and two other sailors went ashore and got drunk. When they returned, the ship had already left.
At that time there was a famine in China. Meat of any kind cost between $1 and $3 per pound. Since the poor suffered the most, all children under 12 were sold for food in order to save their elders from starvation. A boy or girl under 14 was not safe on the street. You could go to any store and ask for a steak - and they would have prepared meat for you. You would be provided with pieces of the bodies of a boy or a girl, if you would only wish for a tenderloin from such meat. The bottom of a boy or girl is the most delicious part of the body, it was sold at the highest price.
The friend who lingered there acquired a taste for human flesh. When returning to New York, he captured two boys - 7 and 11 years old. Hiding them in his remote home, he kept them bound in the closet. He spanked them several times a day to make the meat tastier. He first killed an 11-year-old boy because he was fatter and had more meat. Every part of the body was butchered except for the head, bones, and intestines. His backside he roasted in the oven, and the rest of the parts were boiled, fried and stewed. The smaller boy repeated this path. At the time, I lived at 409 East 100th Street. A friend told me so often about the taste of human flesh that I decided to try it to form my own opinion.
On Sunday, June 3, 1928, I addressed you at 406 West 15th Street. Brought you a basket of strawberries. We had breakfast. Grace sat on my lap and kissed me. I decided to eat it. I offered to take her to the party. You said, "Yes, she can go." I took her to an empty house in Westchester that I had chosen ahead of time.
When we got there, I told her to stay outside. She collected wild flowers. I went upstairs and took off all my clothes. I knew that if I started to do what I intended, I would stain her with blood. When everything was ready, I went to the window and called her. I then hid in the closet until she entered the room. When she saw me naked, she screamed and tried to run up the stairs. I grabbed her, and she said that she would tell her mother about everything. First I stripped her naked. How she kicked, bit and tore! I strangled her and then cut out the soft parts to take to my rooms. Cook and eat.
How sweet and cuddly her little ass is roasted in the oven! It took me 9 days to completely eat her meat. I didn't copulate with her, although I could if I wanted to. She died a virgin."

Naturally, the parents were shocked. However, they did not believe what was written in the letter - some details were indicated inaccurately. (Here it is worth noting that Fish generally remembered the events of his life, the places he visited, the people he knew, vaguely, superficially). The Budds thought that some scoundrel had cruelly played a trick on them.

However, Detective William King, who took up the investigation of this case, was of a different opinion. He began a serious investigation, many options were checked, but, as is often the case with serial killers (just remember Theodore Bundy), the criminal was found almost by accident. Through simple research, King caught him on the hook. However, when trying to arrest Fish, he rushed at the detective with a knife, which greatly aggravated his already deplorable situation.

After Albert Fish was detained by law enforcement agencies, he was charged with more than 100 child molestations. Fish himself stated that there were about 400 of them. Thus, he tried to imitate madness. The exact number of children who died at the hands of Albert Fish is unknown, it ranges from 7 to 15.

Fish also described the actions he performed with little Billy Gafney:
“I cut his cheeks, cut out his tongue, tonsils and washed them. Put everything on a baking sheet, turned on the stove. Then I laid strips of bacon on each of his cheeks and put everything on the stove. Then he cut four onions, after the meat was fried for a quarter of an hour, poured it with a liter of water to make juice, and put onions. Therefore, it had to turn out beautiful and juicy. After about two hours it was ready - beautiful in appearance, with a brown crust. I have never tasted a turkey that was even half as tasty as its sweet meat. I ate every last crumb of meat in four days. His little tongue was sweet as a nut, but I couldn't chew his tonsils. I threw them in the toilet."

During a medical examination, 27 needles were found in Fish's groin, which were inserted there by the criminal himself. It became known that once Albert, who did not allow himself irony in relation to religion, climbed a hill and, spreading his arms, shouted: “I am Jesus! Look people, I'm Jesus!" Fish said that he flogged himself with a whip, set fire to it, beat him on the chest and legs with a stick.

Despite all of the above, Albert Fish was declared sane and sentenced to the electric chair. He himself noticed that the execution in the electric chair seemed entertaining to him, although the sentence did not suit him.

In the early morning of January 16, 1936, the oldest prisoner in Sing Sing prison and, perhaps, one of the most terrible, was executed.

Albert Fish

His name was Albert Fish. As victims, he chose only children, whom he killed and ate. The perversions of this man were so terrible that no one ever doubted that he was mentally ill. Despite this, Fish was declared sane and was sentenced to death.

At birth, Albert was named Hamilton. Hamilton Fish was born in 1870 in Washington in a very respectable family. However, many of his relatives suffered from various mental illnesses. Hamilton spent his high school years at a boarding school, where he first began receiving corporal punishment, as well as watching other students receive it. It was during this period that his first homosexual contacts began. Upon reaching adulthood, he moved to New York City, where he changed his name to Albert because he was teased at school with "ham and eggs."

Soon his mother insisted that he marry. His wife bore him six children. Later, she assured that Fish was a good family man, although at times his behavior was very strange. For example, once he deliberately severely injured his hand with a nail.

Fish was arrested for the first time in 1903 for robbing a shop where he worked. He was sent to prison, where Fish spent two years. But he was destined to enter the history of forensics not as a robber.

Fish only became a serial killer in the 1920s, when he was about 50 years old. However, the investigation showed that he committed the first murder of a child in 1910 in the city of Wilmington. Fish also raped the boys on numerous occasions, but he managed to get away with it every time.

On the morning of July 14, 1924, 8-year-old Francis McDonell disappeared. He was last seen leaving the playground, accompanied by a thin, middle-aged man with a gray mustache, dressed in gray clothes. A few hours later, Francis' body was found in the woods. The child was severely beaten, raped and strangled with his own suspenders. The police launched a search for the "gray man", as the killer was named. However, the investigation yielded no results.

On February 11, 1927, 4-year-old Billy Gafney went missing near his home. The neighbor boy Billy was playing with said that a thin old man with a bushy mustache came up to them and took Billy away. The child's body was never found. Another incident occurred on June 3, 1928. This time the crime was somewhat different from the previous two. 17-year-old Eduard, who was looking for a job, posted an ad in the newspaper. He was answered by a man who introduced himself as Frank Howard. Soon Howard came to Edward's house, he was old, thin and with a thick gray mustache. He made a good impression on the family.

"Howard" visited them again, ostensibly to finalize the agreement to hire the young man. On his last visit, he offered to take one of Edward's younger sisters, ten-year-old Grace, to a children's party. After some hesitation, her parents agreed to let her go with a respectable and charming gentleman. Needless to say, they never saw their daughter again.

The police immediately launched a search for the missing girl. It soon became clear that there was no such person as Frank Howard. No trace of the child was found, and the case was dropped a few months later due to lack of evidence that Grace Budd had been murdered.

Ten years later, Fish, whose mind seemed to have become even more hazy, wrote the girl's mother a letter detailing what he had done to her daughter. He wrote that he took Grace to an empty house that he had previously rented, undressed the child, strangled it, and then cut up the soft parts of the body and roasted them in the oven. He ate the girl for nine days.

The investigation into the case was reopened. This time it was led by Detective William King, who worked through all the options very carefully. After some time, Albert Fish was in the hands of the police.

The exact number of victims of the serial killer remains unknown. He is believed to have killed 7–15 people. Some of them Fish raped. During the investigation, he described in detail how he killed children, cooked them and ate them. In addition, he was prone to self-torture: he flogged himself with a whip, burned, beat with a stick. During the medical examination of the accused, 27 needles were found, which he had driven into his groin.

Psychiatrists recognized the criminal as sane. When Fish found out that he was going to be executed in the electric chair, he said that the punishment seemed extremely interesting to him. On January 16, 1936, the killer was executed.

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Albert Fish

His name was Albert Fish. As victims, he chose only children, whom he killed and ate. The perversions of this man were so terrible that no one ever doubted that he was mentally ill. Despite this, Fish was declared sane and was sentenced to death.

At birth, Albert was named Hamilton. Hamilton Fish was born in 1870 in Washington in a very respectable family. However, many of his relatives suffered from various mental illnesses. Hamilton spent his high school years at a boarding school, where he first began receiving corporal punishment, as well as watching other students receive it. It was during this period that his first homosexual contacts began. Upon reaching adulthood, he moved to New York City, where he changed his name to Albert because he was teased at school with "ham and eggs."

Soon his mother insisted that he marry. His wife bore him six children. Later, she assured that Fish was a good family man, although at times his behavior was very strange. For example, once he deliberately severely injured his hand with a nail.

Fish was arrested for the first time in 1903 for robbing a shop where he worked. He was sent to prison, where Fish spent two years. But he was destined to enter the history of forensics not as a robber.

Fish only became a serial killer in the 1920s, when he was about 50 years old. However, the investigation showed that he committed the first murder of a child in 1910 in the city of Wilmington. Fish also raped the boys on numerous occasions, but he managed to get away with it every time.

On the morning of July 14, 1924, 8-year-old Francis McDonell disappeared. He was last seen leaving the playground, accompanied by a thin, middle-aged man with a gray mustache, dressed in gray clothes. A few hours later, Francis' body was found in the woods. The child was severely beaten, raped and strangled with his own suspenders. The police launched a search for the "gray man", as the killer was named. However, the investigation yielded no results.

On February 11, 1927, 4-year-old Billy Gafney went missing near his home. The neighbor boy Billy was playing with said that a thin old man with a bushy mustache came up to them and took Billy away. The child's body was never found. Another incident occurred on June 3, 1928. This time the crime was somewhat different from the previous two. 17-year-old Eduard, who was looking for a job, posted an ad in the newspaper. He was answered by a man who introduced himself as Frank Howard. Soon Howard came to Edward's house, he was old, thin and with a thick gray mustache. He made a good impression on the family.

"Howard" visited them again, ostensibly to finalize the agreement to hire the young man. On his last visit, he offered to take one of Edward's younger sisters, ten-year-old Grace, to a children's party. After some hesitation, her parents agreed to let her go with a respectable and charming gentleman. Needless to say, they never saw their daughter again.

The police immediately launched a search for the missing girl. It soon became clear that there was no such person as Frank Howard. No trace of the child was found, and the case was dropped a few months later due to lack of evidence that Grace Budd had been murdered.

Ten years later, Fish, whose mind seemed to have become even more hazy, wrote the girl's mother a letter detailing what he had done to her daughter. He wrote that he took Grace to an empty house that he had previously rented, undressed the child, strangled it, and then cut up the soft parts of the body and roasted them in the oven. He ate the girl for nine days.

The investigation into the case was reopened. This time it was led by Detective William King, who worked through all the options very carefully. After some time, Albert Fish was in the hands of the police.

The exact number of victims of the serial killer remains unknown. He is believed to have killed 7–15 people. Some of them Fish raped. During the investigation, he described in detail how he killed children, cooked them and ate them. In addition, he was prone to self-torture: he flogged himself with a whip, burned, beat with a stick. During the medical examination of the accused, 27 needles were found, which he had driven into his groin.

Psychiatrists recognized the criminal as sane. When Fish found out that he was going to be executed in the electric chair, he said that the punishment seemed extremely interesting to him. On January 16, 1936, the killer was executed.

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