Albert Fish - The Gray Man

Monsters have always existed - you just have to know where to look for them!

Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish

aka: The Gray Man

      He had been called the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and the Boogey Man. But most of all, he was and shall always be known as the Gray Man. A child rapist and cannibal, he boasted of having had children in every State, at one time saying that the number totaled around one hundred. However, it’s not known whether he was referring to rapes or to the cannibalization of his victims. Nor is it known if the statement was truthful. It is known that he was a suspect in five murders during his lifetime, confessing to three that the police were able to trace to a known homicide, and confessed to the stabbing of at least two other people. His arrest and conviction was for the kidnapping and murder of Grace Budd, for which he was executed by electric chair.

     This is his story ---

     He was born as Hamilton Fish in Washington D.C. on May 19, 1870, to Randall Fish and Ellen (nee Howell) Fish. Randall Fish was 75 years old at the time of his son’s birth, 43 years older than his wife and son’s mother. He was the youngest of four siblings (Walter, Annie and Edwin). Fish preferred to be called Albert after a dead sibling, chosen to escape the nickname “Ham & eggs” which had been given to him at the orphanage in which much of his early childhood years were spent. When Fish was five, his father had died of a heart attack leaving his mother no financial support to fall back on and was unable to afford to care for her youngest child so he was sent off to the Saint John orphanage to live, where the teachers regularly punished the boys living there by making them strip naked and then whip and beat them in front of the other boys. Because of this treatment, Fish developed a taste for sadomasochism and would get erections and even derive pleasure from the beatings. This only led to the other boys bullying him more. 

     By 1880, his mother had found a job working for the government and was able to remove Fish from the orphanage and in 1882, at the age of twelve, Fish began a relationship with a telegraph boy who introduced Fish to such perversions as urolagnia and coprophagia (the drinking of urine and eating of feces). Fish also began visiting public bath houses where he could watch other boys undress, spending a great portion of his weekends in this pursuit. At the age of 15, Fish had left school and became a painter and decorator, proving to be extremely skilled at it and it was at this profession he worked at for the rest of his life.

     By 1890, the Fish family had moved to New York City, where Albert claimed to become a male prostitute. He also claimed to have started raping young boys at that same time. In 1898, he entered into a marriage with a woman five years younger than he, a marriage arranged by his mother and which produced six children. Working as a house painter, Fish later claimed to have continued molesting young boys during his marriage and had admitted to committing his first murder in Delaware in 1910, fatally stabbing a young boy named Thomas Bedden. He also entered into a  sadomasochistic relationship with a 19-year-old man by the name of Thomas Kedden who was mentally retarded, whom he attempted to castrate. In 1917, his wife left him for another man - John Straube, who had worked briefly doing work at the family home, after which his behavior became increasingly irregular, claiming to hear voices and witnesses stated that he showed signs of religious delusions. When at the family’s summer house in Westchester, Fish would climb to the top of a nearby mountain, shake his fist at the sky and declare himself to be Christ before asking his children to hit his buttocks with a nail studded paddle until he bled. His growing obsession with pain manifested into self-harm, pushing needles into his groin, sometimes so deep that they couldn’t be retrieved.

     Fish’s eldest son had reached a breaking point when he was no longer able to put up with his father’s strange behavior any further and threw him out of the house. Fish became a drifter and was arrested several times for minor offenses such as vagrancy and petty theft. On Jukly 11, 1924, Fish attempted to abduct Beatrice Keil, age 8, from her parents farm on Staten Island but was chased off by her mother. Four days later Fish committed his first confirmed murder, abducting and murdering Francis McDonnell on Long Island. In October of 1926, Certain sources had stated that Fish killed a 5 year old girl named Emma Richardson (undocumented) and then in February of 1927, he abducted 4 year old Billy Gaffney while he was playing hide and seek with his three year old friend, Bill Beaton and Beaton’s 12 year old brother. When asked by the police what happened to Gaffney, Bill said that the “Boogeyman” had taken him. Fish took Gaffney to a house at the Riker Avenue dumps and held him there until the next day when he tortured him to death, dismembered the head, arms and legs below the knees, placed the body parts in weighted sacks and threw them in nearby ponds. He then cannibalized the thighs and torso over the next four days.

     When Fish spoke with police many months later regarding Gaffney, he said of his deed: “I brought him to the Riker Avenue dumps. There is a house that stands alone, not far from where I took him. I took the boy there. Stripped him naked and tied his hands and feet and gagged him with a piece of dirty rag I picked out of the dump. Then I burned his clothes. Threw his shoes in the dump. Then I walked back and took the trolley to 59 Street at 2 a.m. and walked from there home. Next day about 2 p.m., I took tools, a good heavy cat-o-nine tails. Home made. Short handle. Cut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches long. I whipped his bare behind till the blood ran from his legs. I cut off his ears, nose, slit his mouth from ear to ear. Gouged out his eyes. He was dead then. I stuck the knife in his belly and held my mouth to his body and drank his blood. I picked up four old potato sacks and gathered a pile of stones. Then I cut him up. I had a grip with me. I put his nose, ears and a few slices of his belly in the grip. Then I cut him through the middle of his body. Just below the belly button. Then through his legs about 2 inches below his behind. I put this in my grip with a lot of paper. I cut off the head, feet, arms, hands and the legs below the knee. This I put in sacks weighed with stones, tied the ends and threw them into the pools of slimy water you will see all along the road going to North Beach. I came home with my meat. I had the front of his body I liked best. His monkey and pee wees and a nice little fat behind to roast in the oven and eat. I made a stew out of his ears, nose, pieces of his face and belly. I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt and pepper. It was good. Then I split the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and pee wees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put them in the oven. Then I picked 4 onions and when the meat had roasted about 1/4 hour, I poured about a pint of water over it for gravy and put in the onions. At frequent intervals I basted his behind with a wooden spoon. So the meat would be nice and juicy. In about 2 hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did. I ate every bit of the meat in about four days. His little monkey was a sweet as a nut, but his pee-wees I could not chew. Threw them in the toilet.”

     In May of 1928, Edward Budd placed a classified ad into the Sunday edition of the New York World which read: ‘Young man, 18, wishes position in country. Edward Budd, 406 West 15th Street.” Three days later on May 28th, Fish, who was then 58 years old, visited the Budd family in Manhattan under the pretense of hiring Edward. He introduced himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale, New York. When he arrived, Fish met Budd’s youngest sister, 10 year old Grace. On his second visit, Fish said that he would hire bud and would be sending for him in a few days, then convinced Budd’s parents to allow Grace to accompany him to a birthday party that evening at his sister’s home. Fish left that day with Grace, and it would be the last time any of the family would ever see her alive.

     Seven years later in November of 1934, an anonymous letter was sent to Grace’s parents and it was that letter which led police to Albert Fish. It read:

     "My dear Mrs. Budd, In 1894 a friend of mine shipped as a deck hand on the Steamer Tacoma, Capt. John Davis. They sailed from San Francisco for Hong Kong China. On arriving there he and two others went ashore and got drunk. When they returned the boat was gone. At that time there was famine in China. Meat of any kind was from $1 to 3 Dollars a pound. So great was the suffering among the very poor that all children under 12 were sold for food in order to keep others from starving. A boy or girl under 14 was not safe in the street. You could go in any shop and ask for steak -- chops -- or stew meat. Part of the naked body of a boy or girl would be brought out and just what you wanted cut from it. A boy or girls behind which is the sweetest part of the body and sold as veal cutlet brought the highest price. John staid there so long he acquired a taste for human flesh. On his return to N.Y. he stole two boys one 7 one 11. Took them to his home stripped them naked tied them in a closet. Then burned everything they had on. Several times every day and night he spanked them -- tortured them -- to make their meat good and tender. First he killed the 11 year old boy, because he had the fattest ass and of course the most meat on it. Every part of his body was Cooked and eaten except the head -- bones and guts. He was Roasted in the oven (all of his ass), boiled, broiled, fried and stewed. The little boy was next, went the same way. At that time, I was living at 409 E 100 st., near -- right side. He told me so often how good Human flesh was I made up my mind to taste it. On Sunday June the 3 --1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. Brought you pot cheese -- strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind to eat her. On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said Yes she could go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked out. When we got there, I told her to remain outside. She picked wildflowers. I went upstairs and stripped all my clothes off. I knew if I did not I would get her blood on them. When all was ready I went to the window and called her. Then I hid in a closet until she was in the room. When she saw me all naked she began to cry and tried to run down the stairs. I grabbed her and she said she would tell her mamma. First I stripped her naked. How she did kick -- bite and scratch. I choked her to death, then cut her in small pieces so I could take my meat to my rooms. Cook and eat it. How sweet and tender her little ass was roasted in the oven. It took me 9 days to eat her entire body. I did not fuck her tho I could of had I wished. She died a virgin."

     The letter had been delivered in an envelope that had a small emblem upon it with the letters “N.Y.P.C.B.A.” standing for “New York Chauffer’s Benevolent Association.” A janitor at the company told police that he had taken some of the stationary home, but had left it at his rooming house on East 52nd Street when he moved out. The landlady said that Fish had checked out of that same room a few days earlier, but he’d requested that she hold a check that his son would be sending to him and he would return to pick it up. William King, the lead investigator of the case waited outside of the rooming house until Fish returned for the check. Fish first agreed to go with King downtown for questioning but then made an attempt just outside of the rooming house to escape, brandishing two straight razors, one in each hand - lunging at King. King was able to disarm Fish of his weapons and took him in. Fish made no attempt to deny killing Grace Budd, saying that his original plan had been to go to the Budd house and kill Edward, her brother.

     The confession of Albert Fish would be heard by many law enforcement officials and psychiatrists. A severely edited version of it would appear in the newspapers. It was an odyssey of perversion and unspeakable depravity which seemed unbelievable until detail after detail was corroborated. It was all the more amazing considering how decrepit and harmless Fish appeared. He was a stooped, frail-looking old man about 130 pounds and 5 feet 5 inches tall. Detective King took the initial confession. Fish told him that in the summer of 1928 he had been overcome by what he called his "blood thirst" -- his need to kill. When he answered Edward Budd's ad for employment, it was the young man, not his sister Gracie, that he intended to lure to a remote location, restrain him and cut off his penis, leaving him to bleed to death. Fish stated that it was only after seeing Grace that he had changed his mind and his plans and it was she that he desperately wanted to kill. Fish’s description of how he murdered and then cannibalized little Grace was truly gruesome and he left very little to the imagination. Detective King’s final question to Fish once he’d finished was how could he do such a horrible thing, to which Fish replied: “You know, I never could account for it.”

     That day, the police went to the place where he’d murdered Grace and recovered her remains. Albert Fish stood nearby watching without any sign of emotion.

     The trial of Albert Fish for the premeditated murder of Grace Budd began on Monday, March 11, 1935, in White Plains, New York with Frederick P. Close as judge, and Chief Assistant District Attorney, Elbert F. Gallagher, as the prosecuting attorney. James Dempsey was Fish's defense attorney. The trial lasted for ten days. Fish pleaded insanity, and claimed to have heard voices from God telling him to kill children. Several psychiatrists testified about Fish's sexual fetishes, including coprophilia, urophilia, pedophilia and masochism, but there was disagreement as to whether these activities meant he was insane. The defense's chief expert witness was Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist with a focus on child development who conducted psychiatric examinations for the New York criminal courts; Wertham stated that Fish was insane. Another defense witness was Mary Nicholas, Fish's 17-year-old stepdaughter. She described how Fish taught her and her brothers and sisters a "game" involving overtones of masochism and child molestation. The jury found him to be sane and guilty, and the judge ordered the death sentence. Fish was not happy with the verdict, but the prospect of being electrocuted had its appeal to him. A Daily News reporter wrote, "his watery eyes gleamed at the thought of being burned by a heat more intense than the flames with which he often seared his flesh to gratify his lust." Fish thanked the judge for his sentence of death by electrocution.

      Fish spent the next eight and a half months sitting on Death Row at Sing-Sing Prison. On January 16, 1936, he entered the chamber at 11:06 p.m. and was strapped tightly into the electric chair. He was pronounced dead three minutes later at 11:09 p.m. He was buried in the prison cemetery. He was recorded to have said that electrocution would be “the supreme thrill of my life.” Just before the switch was flipped, he stated “I don’t even know why I’m here.”

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