Hamilton Howard Fish (1870 - 1936)

Legacy

He was an American serial killer. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac and The Boogey Man. A child rapist and cannibal, he boasted that he "had children in every state", and at one time, stated the number was about 100. However, it is not known whether he was talking about rapes or cannibalization, less still whether he was telling the truth. He was a suspect in at least five murders during his lifetime. Fish confessed to three murders that police were able to trace to a known homicide, and he confessed to stabbing at least two other people. He was put on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Grace Budd, and was convicted and executed by electric chair.^[1]

Life

Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was born May 19, 1870 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States.^[2] His parents were Randall Fish and Ellen Frances Howell.^[3][4]

After his father died, his mother placed him into Saint John's Orphanage in Washington, where he was frequently abused. Fish began to enjoy the physical pain that the beatings brought.^[1]

By 1880, Fish's mother had a government job and was able to remove Fish from the orphanage. In 1882, at age 12, he began a relationship with a telegraph boy. The youth introduced Fish to such practices as urolagnia (drinking urine) and coprophagia (eating feces).^[1]

By 1890, at age 20, Fish arrived in New York City, and he said at that point he became a prostitute and began raping young boys. In 1898, his mother arranged a marriage for him with Anna Mary Hoffman. They were married on February 5, 1898 in Manhattan, New York, New York, United States.^[4] They had six children: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, and Henry Fish.^[5][6][7]

Throughout 1898, Fish worked as a house painter.^[2] He said he continued molesting children, mostly boys younger than age six.^[1]

In 1903, he was arrested for grand larceny, convicted, and incarcerated in Sing Sing Prison.^[1]

Around 1910, while he was working in Wilmington, Delaware, Fish met a 19-year-old man named Thomas Kedden. He took Kedden to where he was staying, and the two began a sadomasochistic relationship. After ten days, Fish took Kedden to "an old farm house", where he began to torture him. Fish eventually tied Kedden up and cut off half of his penis.^[1]

In January 1917, Fish's wife left him. Fish then had to raise his children as a single parent. After his arrest, he began to have auditory hallucinations.^[1] It was about this time that Fish began to indulge in self-harm. He soon developed a growing obsession with cannibalism.^[1]

In about 1919, Fish stabbed an intellectually disabled boy in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. He chose people who were either mentally handicapped or African-American as his victims.^[1]

On July 11, 1924, Fish found eight-year-old Beatrice Kiel playing alone on her parents' farm on Staten Island, New York. He offered her money to come and help him look for rhubarb. She was about to leave the farm when her mother chased Fish away. Fish left but returned later to the Kiels' barn, where he tried to sleep but was discovered by Beatrice's father and forced to leave. Three days later, Fish killed Francis McDonnell, also on Staten Island. During 1924, the 54-year-old Fish, suffering from psychosis, felt that God was commanding him to torture and sexually mutilate children.^[1]

He married Myrta Luella McGrew on January 14, 1930 in Washington County, Ohio.^[8]

Fish remarried on February 5, 1930, in Waterloo, New York, to Phebe Estella Baker but divorced after only one week.^[9]

Fish was arrested in May 1930 for "sending an obscene letter to a woman who answered an advertisement for a maid." Following that arrest and one in 1931, he was sent to the Bellevue psychiatric hospital for observation.^[1]

Albert Fish's trial for the murder of Grace Budd began on March 11, 1935, in White Plains, New York. The trial lasted for 10 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.^[1] He was admitted to Sing Sing Prison on March 25, 1935 for 1st degree murder.^[2]

They found him to be sane and guilty, and the judge ordered the death sentence. Fish was executed on January 16, 1936 in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, Westchester, New York aged 65.^[10] He was buried with an unmarked grave in Flushing Cemetery in Flushing, Queens County, New York, United States.^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11} Wikipedia Albert Fish
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} New York, U.S., Sing Sing Prison Admission Registers, 1865-1939 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
3. ↑ United States Census, 1870, Hamilton Fish in entry for Randall Fish, 1870; Washington, District of Columbia, United States.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} New York Marriages, 1686-1980, Albert A. Fish and Annie Mary Hoffman, 5 Feb 1898; Manhattan, New York, New York, United States.
5. ↑ United States Census, 1900, Albert Fish in household of Elizabeth Toal, Borough of Brooklyn, Election District 3 New York City Ward 4, Kings, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 31, sheet 7B, family 25.
6. ↑ United States Census, 1910, Alfred H Fish, Queens Ward 4, Queens, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1271, sheet 18A, family 383.
7. ↑ United States Census, 1920, Albert H Fish, 1920; New York City, New York, United States.
8. ↑ Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2016, Albert H. Fish and Myrta L. Nicholas, 14 Jan 1930; citing Marriage, Washington, Ohio, United States, p 66, Franklin County Genealogical & Historical Society, Columbus.
9. ↑ Iowa, U.S., Marriage Records, 1880-1951 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
10. ↑ New York, State Death Index, 1880-1956 Albert H Fish, 1936; Ossining, Westchester, New York, United States.
11. ↑ Find A Grave, memorial page for Albert Fish (19 May 1870–16 Jan 1936), Find a Grave Memorial ID 11342, citing Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, Queens County, New York, USA.