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Albert FishAmerican serial killer and cannibal.
Date of Birth: 19.05.1870
Country:  USA |
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Biography of Albert Fish
Albert Hamilton Fish (May 19, 1870 - January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer and cannibal. He was also known as the "Moon Maniac," "Gray Man," and the "Brooklyn Vampire." Fish was accused of over a hundred sexual assaults on children, although he claimed there were around four hundred. The exact number of his victims is unknown but ranges from seven to fifteen. He was charged with the murder of Grace Budd and was found guilty and executed by electric chair.
Early Life
Fish was born in Washington, D.C., in the Columbia District to Randall Fish (1795-1875) and was named Hamilton. His father was forty-three years older than his mother, and Hamilton was the youngest in the family. At the time of his birth, he had two brothers, Walter and Edwin, and a sister, Annie. He wanted to be called "Albert," but he received the nickname "Ham and Eggs" at the orphanage, which he couldn't shake off.
Many members of his family had mental disorders and suffered from religious mania. His father was a riverboat captain but became a fertilizer manufacturer in 1870. Randall Fish died of a heart attack at the Sixth Street Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1875, and Albert's mother placed him in an orphanage. He was often subjected to beatings and canings there. It was soon discovered that physical pain gave him pleasure, which, in turn, led to further abuse from other children. In 1879, his mother began working for the government, allowing her to care for him. However, the experiences at the orphanage left an indelible mark on him. At the age of twelve, in 1882, he engaged in homosexual relations with a boy who worked as a telegram messenger. Around the same time, he started drinking urine and practicing coprophagy. Fish began visiting public baths, where he could freely observe naked boys. This became his main pastime on weekends.
Adult Life
In 1890, Fish arrived in New York to engage in prostitution, as he confessed. He also admitted to sexually assaulting young boys, even after his mother arranged his marriage. In 1898, he married a woman nine years his junior. They had six children: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, and Henry. In 1903, he was arrested for theft and sentenced to Sing Sing Prison. During his time in prison, he engaged in sexual activities with other men.
Murderous Acts
Fish committed his first murder with Thomas Bedden (or Kedden) in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1910. Later, around 1919, he stabbed a mentally disabled boy in Georgetown, Virginia. On July 11, 1924, Fish noticed eight-year-old Beatrice Keel playing on her parents' farm on Staten Island. He promised to pay her if she went with him to the neighboring fields to search for rhubarb. However, Beatrice's mother intervened and prevented Fish from taking the child. He left but returned to the Keel's barn later to spend the night. Hans Keel found him and ordered him to leave.
On May 25, 1928, Edward Budd placed an advertisement in the Sunday edition of the "New York World": "Young man, 18, desires position in the country. Edward Budd, 406 West 15th Street." On May 28, 1928, Albert Fish, fifty-eight years old, visited the Budd family in Manhattan, New York, pretending to hire Edward and introducing himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale, New York. It was then that he met ten-year-old Grace. Fish promised to hire Edward and convinced the parents, Delia Flanagan and Albert Budd, to let Grace go with him to her sister's birthday celebration. Grace had a sister, Beatrice, and two brothers, Albert Jr. and George. Fish left with Grace that day and never returned.
On September 5, 1930, Charles Edward Pope was arrested by the police on suspicion of child abduction. This sixty-six-year-old caretaker was accused by his own wife, with whom he lived separately. He spent one hundred and eight days in custody before his trial on December 22, 1930.
