Albert Fish aka The Brooklyn Vampire, The Grey Man, and a real life model for Hannibal Lecter.
Albert Fish was born in Washington DC in 1870. At the age of 5 he was placed into an orphanage by his mother who was alone and out of work. At the orphanage, there was documentation that he took sexual excitement in being abused which fuelled his mind for his fascination with sado-masochism.
At age 7 his mother took him out of the orphanage because she had obtained a job. Shortly after he had a severe fall off a cherry tree which caused a head injury from which he would have permanent problems with such as headaches and dizzy spells. Could this head injury have caused his radical, bizarre behavior? Possibly, there is a theory that many serial killers began stalking and murdering their victims after trauma to the head.
At the age of twenty he moved to New York, by then he had been involved in numerous masochistic-homosexual relationships. He began raping children and particapated in bizarre sexual acts.
In 1910, he commited his first murder and act of cannibalism. From then on he indulged in torturing and killing children. In the 1920's Fish travelled across 23 states posing as a house painter.This was a perfect opportunity to commit his perverted acts on children.
Fish also frequently read the bible and said that god-like voices had told him to kill. He also liked inserting needles into his body near the genitals, acts of pain sexually excited him.
On 28 May 1928 a man calling himself Frank Howard made acquantices with the Budd family. One day Mr Howard asked if he could take Grace, their 10-year-old daughter, to a party. The Budds allowed him and they never saw their daughter or the old man ever again. The elusive Mr Howard was in fact the 58-year-old Albert Fish, who formulated the idea to kill Grace Budd so he could use her body for acts of cannibalism.
Six years after the disappearance of young Grace, the Budd's received an anonymous letter from the murderer who admitted to killing Grace and afterwards cooked and ate her body. The police tracked the letter back to some apartments where they matched the writing of the letter to Albert Fish who was a tenant.
Albert Fish was also the 'Brooklyn Vampire' because in his confession he claimed to be overcome by blood lust and a need to kill. He claimed the lives of four children in 1932-34 and was sent to trial for the murder of Grace Budd. His defense was insanity. Even though the gray haired, gray bearded man looked like he could not hurt a fly, the jury found him guilty and Fish was sentenced to death.
At Sing Sing Prison on 16 January, 1936 Albert Fish, who described the death sentence as 'the supreme thrill of my life,' was electrocuted. The first electrical charge failed as it was short circuited by all the needles Fish had inserted in his body over the years. Albert Fish had committed hundreds of sexual assaults and 16 or more murders and an indeterminable amount of cannibalistic acts.
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Researched/Written by Absinthe. Originally published at Horror-Web, on the Serial Killer page.
Albert Fish was born in Washington DC in 1870. At the age of 5 he was placed into an orphanage by his mother who was alone and out of work. At the orphanage, there was documentation that he took sexual excitement in being abused which fuelled his mind for his fascination with sado-masochism.
At age 7 his mother took him out of the orphanage because she had obtained a job. Shortly after he had a severe fall off a cherry tree which caused a head injury from which he would have permanent problems with such as headaches and dizzy spells. Could this head injury have caused his radical, bizarre behavior? Possibly, there is a theory that many serial killers began stalking and murdering their victims after trauma to the head.
At the age of twenty he moved to New York, by then he had been involved in numerous masochistic-homosexual relationships. He began raping children and particapated in bizarre sexual acts.
In 1910, he commited his first murder and act of cannibalism. From then on he indulged in torturing and killing children. In the 1920's Fish travelled across 23 states posing as a house painter.This was a perfect opportunity to commit his perverted acts on children.
Fish also frequently read the bible and said that god-like voices had told him to kill. He also liked inserting needles into his body near the genitals, acts of pain sexually excited him.
On 28 May 1928 a man calling himself Frank Howard made acquantices with the Budd family. One day Mr Howard asked if he could take Grace, their 10-year-old daughter, to a party. The Budds allowed him and they never saw their daughter or the old man ever again. The elusive Mr Howard was in fact the 58-year-old Albert Fish, who formulated the idea to kill Grace Budd so he could use her body for acts of cannibalism.
Six years after the disappearance of young Grace, the Budd's received an anonymous letter from the murderer who admitted to killing Grace and afterwards cooked and ate her body. The police tracked the letter back to some apartments where they matched the writing of the letter to Albert Fish who was a tenant.
Albert Fish was also the 'Brooklyn Vampire' because in his confession he claimed to be overcome by blood lust and a need to kill. He claimed the lives of four children in 1932-34 and was sent to trial for the murder of Grace Budd. His defense was insanity. Even though the gray haired, gray bearded man looked like he could not hurt a fly, the jury found him guilty and Fish was sentenced to death.
At Sing Sing Prison on 16 January, 1936 Albert Fish, who described the death sentence as 'the supreme thrill of my life,' was electrocuted. The first electrical charge failed as it was short circuited by all the needles Fish had inserted in his body over the years. Albert Fish had committed hundreds of sexual assaults and 16 or more murders and an indeterminable amount of cannibalistic acts.
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Researched/Written by Absinthe. Originally published at Horror-Web, on the Serial Killer page.
