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Albert Fish

Albert Fish
Albert Fish 1903.JPG
Mugshot from 1903
Born Hamilton Howard Fish
(1870-05-19)May 19, 1870
Washington, D.C.
Died January 16, 1936(1936-01-16) (aged 65)
Ossining, New York
Cause of death Electrocuted
Other names Frank Howard, Thomas A. Sprague, Robert Hayden, John W. Pell
Criminal penalty Death
Motive Sexual gratification
Conviction(s)
Killings
Victims 3
Span of killings
1924–1932
Country United States
State(s) New York
Date apprehended
December 13, 1934

Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) 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 referring to rapes or cannibalization, nor is it known if the statement was truthful. 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.

Fish was born in Washington, D.C., on May 19, 1870, to Randall (1795 – October 16, 1875) and Ellen (née Howell; 1838–c. 1903) Fish. His father was American, of English ancestry, and his mother was Scots-Irish American. Fish said that he was named ive. His father was 43 years older than his mother and 75 years old at the time of his birth. Fish was the youngest child and had three living siblings: Walter, Annie, and Edwin. He wished to be known as "Albert" after a dead sibling and to escape the nickname "Ham & Eggs" that he was given at an orphanage in which he spent much of his childhood. Fish's family had a history of mental illness. His uncle suffered from mania. A brother was confined in a state mental hospital. His sister was diagnosed with a "mental affliction". Three other relatives were diagnosed with mental illnesses, and his mother had "aural and/or visual hallucinations".

His father was a river boat captain and, by 1870, was a fertilizer manufacturer. The elder Fish died in 1875 at the Sixth Street Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Washington, D.C. of a heart attack. The Congressional Cemetery records show that Randall died on October 16, 1875 and was buried on October 19, 1875 in grave R96/89. Fish's mother then put her son into Saint John's Orphanage in Washington, where he was frequently treated sadistically. He began to enjoy the physical pain that the beatings brought. Of his time at the orphanage, Fish remarked, "I was there 'til I was nearly nine, and that's where I got started wrong. We were unmercifully whipped. I saw boys doing many things they should not have done."


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