Renowned serial killer Albert Fish, alias “The Werewolf,” allegedly abducted, killed, and disfigured more than a hundred children throughout the United States. He stabbed at least two additional individuals, and he admitted to at least ten deaths. As a cannibal and child molester, Fish preyed on children and would often consume their flesh after torturing them. The 1934 abduction and murder of Grace Budd, a 10-year-old girl, was his most infamous case.
Randall Fish and Ellen Francis Howell welcomed their son, Fish, into the world in 1870 at the nation’s capital. His father passed away when he was five years old, and his mother, who was left a widow, placed him and his siblings in a state orphanage because of their family’s history of mental illness. Fish endured frequent beatings while incarcerated at St. John’s Home for Boys in Brooklyn, New York. Fish eventually began looking forward to the beatings, and his mind warped the events into a form of gratifying sadomasochism.
When he got older, he frequented public baths where he would stare at unclothed little boys.
Fish married and fathered six children whom he never harmed. In 1917, Fish’s wife left him for another guy because of his mounting mental problems.
The psychopath started looking for disadvantaged kids to molest, particularly Black teenagers without homes and orphans with intellectual disabilities. By perusing the classifieds of nearby newspapers where people looked for household help, Fish found his most prominent victim, Grace Budd.
Fish roped Grace into an imaginary birthday party he was throwing for his niece. After her parents agreed to let her attend, she was never seen again.
Albert detailed the horrific murder of Grace in a letter he sent to her parents. He said that he stripped Grace nude, choked her to death, and then chopped her into little bits to consume.
The Budd family discovered an emblem of the New York Private Chauffeur’s Benevolent Association (NYPCBA) in the letter they received, which the police could connect to the stationary left at a boarding house Fish stayed in.
Fish shocked the authorities by confessing to everything and detailing his crimes against his victims in great detail.
The jury identified Fish as having a “psychopathic personality without a psychosis,” notwithstanding the defense’s claims that Fish had a legally mad condition.
After a ten-day trial, Fish was found guilty and put to death the following year by electrocution.
