True Crime Friday: Albert Fish, the Gray Man Serial Killer
Albert Fish was born Hamilton Howard Fish on May 19, 1870. His reign of terror began July of 1924-June of 1928. His other monikers were the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and the Boogey Man. Fish was a serial killer, rapist, child molester and cannibal. Fish was a suspect in more than ten murders. He confessed too many more but we really only know of one of his victims which eventually led to capture, arrest and execution. Fish told police that he had killed at least one hundred people of which most were women and children. After he killed them he ate the bodies and drank their blood. He was known as the Gray Man because he had a gray beard and often wore gray suits.
The Early Childhood of Albert Fish
Albert Fish was born Hamilton Howard Fish to parents Ellen and Randall Fish. His father was forty-three years older than his mother. He was seventy five years old when Fish was born. Albert was the youngest of their three children. He changed his name to Albert after one of his dead siblings. Randall Fish died from a fatal heart attack at work. Albert’s mother then placed him in the Saint John’s Orphanage in Washington, D.C. Fish spent the majority of his childhood in the orphanages where he was physically abused. Albert Fish confessed that he really enjoyed the pain. When he was arrested he had hundreds of needles in his groin area and once set this manly region on fire. The Fish family had a history of mental illness from the uncles to his siblings. His mother eventually got a job with the government and she went back to reclaim Albert from the orphanage.When Fish was twelve years old he began a relationship with another boy. The youth had some strange fetishes and he introduced Fish to them. Fish began to visit public baths watching children undress. He was known to write disgusting letters to women that were in the classified ads. This practice of writing letters to his victims would be his downfall. I have added a link to the Albert Fish letter he sent to the mother of Grace Budd.
At age of twenty, Albert Fish moved to New York. He became engaged to a male sex worker. He also began working as a sex worker himself. As a hobby, he would find and rape boys who were less than six years old. Fish’s mother arranged a marriage for him with Anna Mary Hoffman, who was nine years his junior. They has six children together. Fish was arrested for grand larceny and was incarcerated in Sing Sing Prison. His wife left him and their six children. Albert Fish had a long rap sheet, he was a career criminal.
The Known Victims of Albert Fish
- Grace Budd
They had no idea that Fish was a murderer and conman. Grace Budd was ten years old when she left with Fish. It was six long years before the Budd Family heard anything about Grace. They had been searching for her for years with the help of the police. Then one day a letter arrived addressed to the Budd family which has to be one of the vilest letter in history!
The Known Survivors of Albert Fish
- The Other Members of the Budd Family
- One Hundred Unknown Victims
Lady Justice
Upon the arrival of the letter, it would be discovered Fish detailed Grace’s murder and gruesome cannibalization. The envelope in which the letter arrived would lead police to identify it’s sender as none other than Albert Fish. His letter described crimes and deeds that I will not add to this article.Albert Fish primarily sought out Black or disabled children, he tried many times to abduct young white girls. As luck or fate would have it, on May 25, 1928, he found a classified advertisement from eighteen year old Edward Budd. Fish was caught, arrested and convicted for the murder of ten year old Grace Budd. Albert Fish was executed via electrocution on January 16, 1936. He was sixty five years old.