Hamilton Howard Albert Fish: Butcher, Cannibal, and Zealot - Essay Example

? Hamilton Howard “Albert” Fish: Butcher, Cannibal, and Zealot Hamilton Howard “Albert” Fish: Butcher, Cannibal, and Zealot In absolute silence, I stared unblinkingly at the evidence spread about the table before me. It was one week after his execution and the prosecution had won. Really, the people had won. It was over. For years, I had helped gather testimonies, physical evidence, and more questions than I could answer for my boss, Chief Assistant District Attorney, Elbert F. Gallagher. Albert Fish was guilty, absolutely, and without a doubt. Convicted, almost with minimal effort once the evidence had emerged. His testimony and entirely uncaring attitude had sealed his fate. It was over--so then what was it that I needed from this man? I sighed, shoving some of the papers aside so I could view his image unobstructed. Long of face, mustached, graying, penetrating, yet somehow kind, eyes. His name was Hamilton Howard Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936), more commonly known as Albert Fish, and he was arguably the most depraved child serial killer in history. In the shadows, numerous sources cited him as the Boogey Man, Moon Maniac, the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, and the Brooklyn Vampire. Names all founded in myth, but enhanced by the darker truths of his deeds. This man wasn’t just interested in murder; he enjoyed the taste of innocent flesh and relished his kills as though he had just received a fine meal at a five-star restaurant. Albert Fish, born the youngest child of three siblings, spent most of his childhood in an orphanage. Little is known about the intricate details of his early life; however, he was later married twice, was the father of six children, and engaged in questionable sexual behaviors with both men and women. In fact, his criminal history “stretched back to 1903 when he had been jailed for grand larceny.  Since then, he had been arrested six times for various petty crimes, such as sending obscene letters and petty theft.  Half of those arrests occurred around the time of Gracie's abduction.  Each time, the charges were dismissed1.” For his first official (on-record) crime, Fish chose his victim by answering a newspaper ad. Going by the alias Frank Howard, Fish answered an ad from a “strapping young fellow2” named Edward Budd who was looking for work. Everything about Fish seemed legit. Fish, posing as Mr. Howard, spoke of a farm large enough to hold hundreds of animals in Farmingdale, Long Island, where he had retired and, after his six children had all grown up, now lived alone3. He needed a farm hand to help out around the place and Edward seemed just the man for the job. After some discussion, it came up that Willie, Edward’s best friend, needed a job as well and was willing to work hard4. Fish explained the job to Edward and then left, to return the next day to pick up his new workers. The story progresses to a meet up several days later between Edward’s younger sister and Fish, who is instantly enamored with the young Gracie Budd. She was ten years old. At her first meeting with the counterfeit farm owner, she wore a “white silk confirmation dress, white silk stockings, and string of creamy pearls made her look older than her 10 years5.” And Fish had met his first victim. The Budd family reported their precious daughter missing that evening and the New York police, though the pieces fit together slowly at first, began to see a pattern emerging. Hardly one year previously, on “February 11, 1927, four-year-old Billy Gaffney [was playing] in the hallway outside his apartment with his three-year-old neighbor who was also named Billy6.”   Both children went missing. Later, upon searching everywhere in the building, the three year old Billy was found alone on the roof and reported that “the Boogey Man7” had taken the missing child. The three year old was so matter-of-fact in his explanation that little credence was given to his story. It’s saddening that the child was not taken seriously. Despite his young age, he clearly had insight into the events of the kidnapping and perhaps, steps could have been taken into saving the lives of the missing child. However, as with the child who cried ‘wolf,’ the child who cries ‘Boogey Man’ gets only indifference and agitation at his apparent fantasies. Though two children had now gone missing within the last year, the kidnapper had not left any signatures or Modus Operandi for the police to piece together. Three years prior, in July of 1924, an old and frail-looking man, later to be called the “Gray Man,” had been seen eyeing a young group of boys including an eight year old named Francis McDonnell, who later went missing. When Francis was officially pronounced missing, a search quickly discovered him in a nearby woods. He was naked and “had been strangled with his suspenders.  Francis had been beaten so badly that police doubted that the ‘old’ tramp could have really been as old and frail as he looked.  The beating was so severe that perhaps the old tramp had an accomplice who had the strength to maul the child8.” While he was the last person to have seen Francis, Fish was almost immediately discounted for his frail appearance. It was frustrating, to say the least. And detectives were running out of time and ideas. In an attempt to fool the kidnapper / murderer into making another move, or at the very least, would make him anxious enough to cause mistakes, lead detective William F. King took to leaking information, most of it misleading, to the press. It had been six years since the disappearance of Gracie Budd, but within days of the journalistic misinformation, the Budd family received a letter from Albert Fish singularly recounting his crime against their daughter. His letter, probably one of the most perverse writings in history, demonstrates his calm demeanor and complete disregard for his actions. In his letter, he recounts a story of a friend named John, who, in 1894, had lived for a spell in China. He writes that “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 twelve were sold for food in order to keep others from starving9.”  China, throughout history, has not been the safest place to raise a child. Over-population and the grinding poverty of most communities led to the enactment of laws banning the birth of more than one child per family, especially if they had given birth to a daughter. It was something little talked about in the United States; however, this is a culture that values the youths in society and views them as the future of our civilization. In this, his words, candid though they are, are not entirely surprising. He continues that “you could go in any shop and ask for steak…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 girl’s behind[,] which is the sweetest part of the body and sold as veal cutlet[,] brought the highest price.” A reader hardly has to continue his letter to understand the direction Fish seems to be taking. But his reasoning for the butcher and consumption of Gracie stems from a discordant notion that he does the same things his friend does. Fish describes that his friend John had “acquired a taste for human flesh.  On his return to [New York] he stole two boys[,] one seven[,] one eleven10.” The boys were tortured and beaten, “to make their meat good and tender11.” Fish goes on to describe the details of creating the meal, including heating instructions and seasoning. He was so enchanted by his friend’s recounting of his human dinner that he was resolved to try it for himself. Moreover, as if to give the Budd family peace of mind, he writes about “how sweet and tender her little [rump] was roasted in the oven.  It took me nine days to eat her entire body.  I did not [defile] her [though] I could of had I wished.  She died a virgin12.” Instead of being appalled, like the average human being, when presented with cannibalism, he set out to give it a try. He was methodical, clever, and ultimately successful, with little recourse. For years, Fish was safe, with literally nothing left as evidence from which police could make the link to his crimes. He seems incapable of sympathy, only focusing on describing in truthful detail, his last moments with the young Gracie Budd. It was well-known that her mother was unable to read, and though her son Edward later read her the contents of the letter, it might have been a blessing to her that she was unable to dwell upon the discordant words. As it stands, it’s hard to remove the images painted in his letter from the reality of this moment. To see him cavalierly murdering a child to serve as his meal is more savage than normal human beings can understand. To go there is a dark place; yet still that place is nowhere near as dark as the place in which Fish resides. A true killer, a man without a soul, can look upon his victims in this way—to see them as little more than animals, available for his pleasure. Worse, Fish saw literally nothing wrong with his actions. Like his friend in China, he figured that the consumption of human flesh was as normal as ordering steaks at a market. Sure, he had to select his victim personally and lure them under false pretenses into a concealed location, but it was nothing more than a pre-game to his dinner. Something to be planned and executed, but nothing to be concerned about. In fact, the only thing he seemed to be concerned about was getting the young girl’s blood upon his clothes. Fish was described as “credible and genteel13,” and though he had the appearance of a homeless tramp, he was beguiling and trustworthy enough to fool nearly everyone he came into contact with. It wasn’t until his letter to the Budd family that police had written evidence that eventually connected them to Albert Fish. Finally in custody for his crimes, police gained a confession from Fish. How he intended to murder Edward Budd and his friend Willy and had even meditated his crime by purchasing weapons for which to mutilate and torture the boys. Even though they were larger than him, he knew he could overpower and subdue them without too much difficulty. Everything was in place, that is, until he met delicate, young Gracie. So enamored was he with Gracie that he threw his plans out and improvised a new plan to capture her. When directly questioned about the reasoning behind his crimes, he said with a frown that “I could never account for it14.” To say he was insane hardly gives true meaning to the man behind the killings—but everyone wanted to know why he did what he did. Why was he so intent on eating the young Gracie, why continue his crimes of cannibalism? However, “nothing was asked at that time nor was anything volunteered about the cannibalism mentioned in Fish's letter to the Budd’s.  The police may have considered it too insane to be true.  Or, perhaps, they were already thinking that including horrible details about cannibalism would bolster the inevitable defense case for insanity15.” In many ways, even though it was true, adding the element of cannibalism into the case would have made it almost impossible for the prosecution to win; especially with a sworn confession to the murder of Gracie Budd. Convicting a man for murder upon obtaining his confession was far preferable to a long legal battle in which psychiatrists would be summoned to detail whether or not Albert Fish was mentally insane. It didn’t take long to get his full confession on the murder of Billy Gaffney and Francis McDonnell as well. It soon became clear that the evidence was stacking up against Fish. So much so that his only option was to be declared mentally insane or get the death penalty. The trial of Albert Fish began on March 11, 1935 and lasted ten short days. The jury took less than an hour to make their final decision. The most important aspects had psychiatrists coming forward to ascertain his true mental faculties. One Dr. Frederic Wertham attempted to demonstrate how Fish’s rough upbringing and family connection to insanity would result in his own mental weaknesses. Wertham uncovered that “one paternal uncle suffered from a religious psychosis and died in a state hospital. A half brother also died in a state hospital.  A younger brother was feeble-minded and died of hydrocephalus16.”  On his maternal side of the family, Fish’s “mother was held to be 'very queer' and was said to hear and see things.  A paternal aunt was considered 'completely crazy.'  A brother suffered from chronic alcoholism.  A sister had some sort of 'mental affliction17.'” The list went on and on. Mental illness to criminal activity—clearly there was a connection to the actions of Albert Fish and his family tree. It was also discovered that Fish had a long history in practicing pedophilia. In court he confessed to assaulting more than a hundred children. He seemed proud of the fact that he had been with a child from every single state, though this has never been confirmed. When asked why he chose his victims, he confessed that he often “chose African-American children because he believed that the police did not pay much attention when they were hurt or missing18.” It was, he believed, the recipe for perfect crime. And in all honesty, he probably would have gotten away with everything had he not made the mistake of responding to the news in his local journal that police almost had a suspect in custody. Throughout the trial, evidence emerged that demonstrated how Albert Fish believed reign of terror was divinely confirmed. He had been called upon by God to commit the acts of torture, rape, and castration. That Fish was suffering from some religious psychosis was a given as far as Dr. Wertham was concerned.  Fish’s children had seen him ‘hitting himself on his nude body with a nail-studded paddle until he was covered with blood.  They also saw him stand alone on a hill with his hands raised, shouting:  ‘I am Christ.’19” Fish later confessed with true zealot conviction, “what I did must have been right or an angel would have stopped me, just as an angel stopped Abraham in the Bible [from sacrificing his son]20.” A higher power called to him, summoning command of his mind, getting him to do things normal mortals believed to be inherently wrong. To say the letter to Grace Budd’s family is sickening pales in comparison to the actuality. Convinced he wanted to taste human flesh, he picked a victim, convinced her parents to let him take her to a party, and proceeded to kill and eat her. Dr. Wertham described Fish as a “mass murderer21;” however, that term is hardly accurate in describing the true atrocities preformed by Fish. Powered by divine right, Fish almost transcends the typical motif of a regular (if that is even an accurate term) serial killer. He was a true “psychotic whose acts [were] commanded by an unseen force22.” He was a twisted man, and though he ultimately believed he was acting by the command of a divine voice, he “[attempted] to atone for his sins and free himself of obsessive guilt feelings, he had eaten his own excrement; he had inserted cotton soaked with alcohol up his rectum, and then set fire to it; and he inserted needles beneath his fingernails, causing intense pain23.” Many of these actions led psychiatrists to believe that though sounded capable of mind, his actions were clearly insane. To mutilate and torture young children, and then to mutilate and torture himself was not among the norm, even in obscure and disturbing religious circles. It also became known that Fish was “so enthralled with sexual sadism and masochism that he regularly inserted needles in his groin, along with engaging in various other forms of self-mutilation. He looked forward to the electric chair as the ‘supreme thrill, the only one I haven't tried’24.” This perversion almost became problematic during his electric chair execution, as Fish had left numerous needles embedded within his skin. Ultimately, when the jury declared his guilt, Albert Fish took in the verdict with alacrity. In fact, “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.’25” It was frightening, the conviction in his words. The lack of humanity upon realizing that his future wouldn’t hold many more days. Even after re-evaluating the evidence of his case, I remained confounded by Fish’s assertion of right. It’s said that the greatest evil is the evil who believes their motives are just and righteous. That sort of evil cannot be swayed back to the realm of reality; they remain forever in their twisted dimension of godliness. Albert Fish was this sort of man. An evil soul among the human race, taking victims like a butcher would cows for slaughter. A weak stomach could not handle the true violence this man achieved. At least it was over. Like the psychiatrists who attempted to understand Fish by studying his life and trying to draw perilous parallels, I might never truly understand his motives either. He was a man intent on killing and he backed his motives by a divine power. I carefully placed all the papers within the manila folders on the desk, gave a final sigh—for what, I did not know. Only that it was finally over. My hand lingered above the light switch as I prepared to exit the room. It would be a long day tomorrow; finally shedding this incident from my mind, but justice was served. Bibliography. Bardsley, M. (2008). Albert Fish. truTV Crime Library, Serial Killers: Most Notorious. Retrieved from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/ notorious/fish/index.html Egger, S. A., Doney, R.H., Ford, D.A., Hickey, E. W., Kiger, K., Vetter, H. (1990). Serial Murder: An Elusive Phenomenon. Westport, CT: Praeger. Feinberg, J. (2003). Problems at the Roots of Law: Essays in Legal and Political Theory. New York: Oxford UP. Giannangelo, S. J. (1996). The Psychopathology of Serial Murder: A Theory of Violence. Westport, CT: Praeger. Schmind, D. (2006). Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Read More