Jan. 18, 2026
"THE GRAY MAN: ALBERT FISH AND THE LETTER THAT CAUGHT A MONSTER"
Reid Carter examines America's most disturbing serial killer ninety years after his execution. Albert Fish, the "Gray Man," murdered at least three children between 1924-1928, though he claimed dozens more. In 1928, the 58-year-old lured 10-year-old Grace Budd from her family's Manhattan apartment, promising her a birthday party. Six years later, Fish sent Grace's mother an anonymous letter describing exactly what he did. That letter led detectives to his door. The trial featured an unprecedented insanity defense - psychiatrists identified 18 separate paraphilias. The jury acknowledged Fish was insane but convicted him anyway. They wanted him dead. January 16, 1936: Sing Sing's electric chair.
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Before we begin, a necessary warning. Today's episode covers the
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crimes of Albert Fish, arguably the most disturbing serial killer
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in American history. This material involves the murder of children,
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descriptions of extreme violence, and details that may be deeply upsetting,
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even by true crime standards. If you have children in
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the room, please use headphones. If this subject matter is
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too much for you, I understand completely skip this episode.
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Come back tomorrow For those continuing. This story matters because
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it exposes catastrophic failures and the systems meant to protect children.
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Albert Fish was arrested six times before killing Grace Bud.
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Six times. The system had him and let him go.
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Someone has to say Grace Bud's name. Someone has to
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remember she was a real child, not just a footnote
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in criminal history. This is celebrity trials. Kalaroga Shark Media.
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Good morning. I'm Reed Carter, Sunday, January eighteenth, twenty twenty six,
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ninety years ago. This week, on January sixteenth, nineteen thirty six,
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a sixty five year old man walked into the execution
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chamber at sing Singh Prison in Ossining, New York. Gray
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hair frail build looked like someone's grandfather could have been
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a retired shopkeeper or a Sunday school teacher. He wasn't.
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Albert Fish had murdered at least three children, confessed to
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killing many more. The number may never be known. Some
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investigators believe it was as high as fifteen. Fish himself
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claimed over one hundred, though that was likely exaggeration. What
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wasn't exaggeration was what he did to Grace Budd June third,
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nineteen twenty eight, Manhattan. The Bud family lived in a
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basement apartment on West fifteenth Street. Albert Bud's senior had
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placed an ad in the newspaper. His eighteen year old son,
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Edward wanted work. Young man eighteen wishes position in country.
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Simple classified ad looking for honest employment. Albert Fish answered
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that ad. Showed up at their apartment, calling himself Frank Howard,
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gray haired, soft spoken gentlemanly said he owned a farm
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on Long Island. Needed workers, would pay good wages. The
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Buds invited him in, offered him lunch. He was so polite,
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so kind, brought strawberries for the children. Seemed trustworthy. Ten
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year old Grace was there, brown hair, blue eyes, bright smile,
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fourth grade at p s sixty two. Fish noticed her immediately.
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He told the family he had to attend his niece's
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birthday party that afternoon, asked if Grace could come along.
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There would be other children, games, cake, he'd bring her
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home by nine. The parents hesitated, but mister Howard seemed
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so respectable, and Grace wanted to go. She put on
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her white confirmation dress, her best shoes, held the old
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man's hand as they walked out the door. Grace Bud
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was never seen alive again. Six years past, the case
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went cold. Police had no leads, no body, no suspect,
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just a missing girl and a fake name. Then, in
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November nineteen thirty four, Grace's mother, Delia, received an anonymous
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letter no return address. The handwriting was crude, the contents
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were unspeakable. The letter described exactly what Albert Fish had
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done to her daughter. That letter was Fish's undoing, his
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criminal stupidity, his compulsion to relive the crime by torturing
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the mother. Detectives traced the envelope to a flophouse in Manhattan,
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found Fish living in a rented room. When they arrested him,
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Fish confessed to everything, said he'd killed at least three children,
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described crimes spanning decades, showed no remorse, said he heard
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voice from God telling him to murder. The trial in
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nineteen thirty five was unprecedented. Fish's defense team called psychiatrist
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Frederick Wirtham, who identified eighteen separate paraphilias eighteen distinct sexual disorders,
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the most ever documented in a single individual. The jury
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deliberated for less than an hour. They acknowledged Fish was insane.
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They convicted him anyway because they wanted him dead. January sixteenth,
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nineteen thirty six, Albert Fish walked to the electric chair,
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reportedly said, it will be the supreme thrill, the only
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one I haven't tried. The executioner threw the switch. It
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took two jolts. The first shorted out because of the
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metal objects Fish had inserted into his own body over
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the years. X rays taken before the execution revealed twenty
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nine needles embedded in his pelvis. I'm Red Carter today,
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the gray man, the monster who fooled everyone, the systems
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that failed to stop him, and the ten year old
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girl who deserved so much better. This is celebrity trials.
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Where does evil like Albert Fish come from? That question
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haunted psychiatrists for decades. The answer, as much as there
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is one, lies in a childhood that reads like a
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catalog of horrors. Hamilton Howard Fish was born May nineteenth,
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eighteen seventy, in Washington, d c. His father was forty
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three years older than his mother, seventy five years old
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when Albert was born, died of a heart attack. When
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Albert was five. His mother couldn't care for him, placed
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him in Saint John's orphanage in Washington. The conditions there
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were brutal. Fish later said the caretakers beat the children regularly, whippings,
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paddles worse, and Fish discovered something terrible about himself. He
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enjoyed the pain, found pleasure in punishment. By age twelve,
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he'd begun a relationship with a telegraph boy who introduced
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him to practices I won't describe on this show, suffice
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to say Fish's sexual development was catastrophically warped from the beginning.
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His family history was equally disturbing. Fish told psychiatrists that
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his uncle suffered from religious mania, a brother was confined
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to a state mental hospital. Another brother died of hydrocephalus.
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His sister had a mental affliction. His mother experienced visual hallucinations.
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Fish left the orphanage at fifteen worked as an apprentice painter.
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Seemed functional on the surface. In eighteen ninety eight, at
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age twenty eight, he married, had six children, worked steadily.
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His wife later said he was a good provider, but strange, distant,
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would disappear for days without explanation. In nineteen seventeen, his
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wife left him for another man. Fish was forty seven.
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Whatever restraints had held him together snapped. He began acting
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on impulses he'd suppressed for decades. His children later described
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escalating bizarre behavior. Fish would take them to the family's
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summer home and make them participate in disturbing rituals. Would
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climb to the top of a hill during thunderstorms and
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scream at the sky, told them he was receiving messages
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from God. His youngest son told investigators, I was always
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afraid of my father. He was never like other fathers.
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Throughout the nineteen twenties, Fish drifted worked as a house painter,
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traveled constantly, left a trail of assaults and attempted abductions
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across multiple states. Was arrested six times six times for
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offenses ranging from petty theft to sending obscene letters to
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women he found through matrimonial agencies. Six times. The system
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had Albert Fish six times. They let him go. In
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nineteen thirty, Bellevue Hospital examined him after one arrest. Doctors
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noted he was quiet and cooperative, with no evidence of
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mental disease. They released him. Two years earlier, he had
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murdered Grace Budd. Here's the pattern that should terrify every parent.
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Fish specifically targeted children from poor families, families who were
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less likely to have resources to pursue investigations, families whose
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children might not be searched for as vigorously. He answered
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classified ads, just as he did with the Buds. Families
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seeking work, seeking, lodgers seeking help. Fish showed up as
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the answer to their prayers. Elderly, grandfatherly, respectable. The gray man,
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that's what they called him, because he was forgettable, unremarkable,
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could walk into any neighborhood and not be noticed, could
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gain trust because he looked harmless. Make it make sense.
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A man with six prior arrests, a man whose family
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history included mental illness, institutionalization, and religious mania. A man
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whose children were afraid of him, and not one system
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flagged him as dangerous. Welcome to Justice in America, nineteen
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twenties edition, Some Things Never Change. November nineteen thirty four,
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six years after Grace Bud vanished, Delia Bud, Grace's mother,
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received a letter. The envelope had no return address. The
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handwriting was uneven, almost childlike. Delia opened it expecting nothing.
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What she read destroyed her. I won't quote the letter.
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I refuse to give Albert Fish's words that platform, but
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I'll tell you what it contained. A detailed, matter of
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fact description of how Fish had murdered her daughter, where
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he took her, what he did, how long it took,
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written without remorse, without emotion, like a recipe or a
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set of instructions. Fish had kept this secret for six years.
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Why send the letter now? Why torture a grieving mother
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who had already suffered unimaginably? Psychiatrist Frederick Wirtham later explained
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that Fish was compulsively reliving his crimes. The letter was
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a form of gratification. By forcing Delia Budd to know
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the truth, Fish was experiencing the murder again. But that
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compulsion was also his undoing criminal stupidity, smart enough to
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evade capture for six years, too stupid to resist the
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urge to taunt his victim's mother. Detective William King of
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the Missing Persons Bureau caught the case. He examined the
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letter and envelope carefully. The paper had a small hexagonal
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emblem in the corner letters NYPCBA New York Private Chauffeur's
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Benevolent Association. King tracked down the association, learned their stationary
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had been stolen from an office on East fifty second Street.
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A janitor there had taken some envelopes to his rooming
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house at two hundred East fifty second. King went to
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the rooming house, showed the landlady a photograph of the
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man who had called himself Frank Howard six years earlier,
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the man who had taken Grace Budd. That's the man
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in room seven, she said, Albert Fish. Fish had moved out,
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but was expected to return for a check. King waited.
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On December thirteenth, nineteen thirty four, Fish walked into the building.
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King confronted him. Fish reached into his pocket, pulled out
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a straight razor, made a move toward King. King was faster,
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subdued him, arrested him, brought him to headquarters, and then
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Albert Fish began to talk. Once he started confessing, he
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couldn't stop. Grace Budd was just the beginning. Fish admitted
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to killing at least two other children, Billy Gaffney four
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years old, Brooklyn, nineteen twenty seven, Francis MacDonnell, eight years old,
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Staten Island nineteen twenty four, possibly many more. He described
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each murder in clinical detail, times, locations, methods, with the
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same flat effect he'd used in the letter to Delia Bud.
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No remorse, no emotion, just facts. Fish told investigators he
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believed God commanded him to kill children, that he was
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acting on divine instruction, that the voices told him which
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children to take and what to do. He also revealed
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something that explained the stories about his bizarre behavior. For decades,
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Fish had been practicing extreme self mortification, inserting needles into
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his body, burning himself. The X rays taken after his
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arrest showed twenty nine needles lodged in his pelvic region,
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some so deeply embedded they'd been there for years. The
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psychiatrists who examined him had never seen anything like it.
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Frederick Wirtham, who would later gain fame for his book
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on comic books and juvenile delinquency spent months evaluating Fish.
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Documented eighteen separate Parafehilias concluded Fish was legally insane, but
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the prosecution had a different view. If Fish was insane,
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he couldn't be executed, and they wanted him executed. The
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trial became a battle of psychiatrists Wertham versus experts who
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argued Fish was legally sane despite his mental illness. The
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question wasn't whether Fish was mentally disturbed, obviously he was.
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The question was whether he knew right from wrong. Fish's
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own words condemned him. He told investigators he knew what
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he was doing was wrong. That's why he hid his crimes.
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That's why he used fake names. That's why he waited
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six years before sending the letter. If he truly believed
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God commanded him to kill, why hide it? The jury
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saw through the divine instruction. Defense concluded Fish was a
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sadist who enjoyed killing children, not a madman. Following heavenly orders,
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March eleventh, nineteen thirty five, the jury turned a verdict
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guilty of first degree murder. March twenty fifth, nineteen thirty five,
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Judge Frederick Close sentenced Fish to death, your tax dollars
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at work. Finally, we'll be right back with the execution
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of Albert Fish, The jury's impossible choice, and the question
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that haunted psychiatrists for decades. Can someone be too evil
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to be called insane? January sixteenth, nineteen thirty six, Sing
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Sing Prison execution chamber. Albert Fish, sixty five years old,
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walked to the electric chair he'd spent ten months on
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death row. Shown no remorse, made no appeals for clemency,
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seemed almost eager. Witnesses said he helped the guards adjust
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the electrodes, sat down without assistance, made no final statement.
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The executioner threw the switch at a eleven o six pm.
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The first jolt failed to kill him. Some accounts claim
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the metal needles in his body caused a short circuit,
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though this has been disputed. A second jolt was required.
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At eleven h nine PM, Albert Fish was pronounced dead.
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His lawyer, James Dempsey, later said Fish had told him
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the execution would be the supreme thrill, the only one.
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I haven't tried whether Fish actually said this or whether
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it's apocryphal. It captured something essential about the man. Even
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his own death became a source of perverse pleasure. The
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case left psychiatry with an impossible question, what do you
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call someone like Albert Fish? Frederick Wortham believed Fish was
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genuinely insane, that no sane person could do what Fish did.
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That the religious delusions, the self mutilation, the complete absence
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of normal human emotion pointed to profound mental illness. But
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the prosecution's experts argued the opposite. Fish planned his crimes,
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carefully targetedvulnerable victims, used fake names, concealed evidence, evaded detection
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for years. These are the actions of a calculating predator,
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not a madman. The jury's verdict reflected this tension. When
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polled after the trial, several jurors admitted they believed Fish
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was insane, but they convicted him anyway because they wanted
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him dead, because they couldn't stomach the idea of Fish
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living out his years in a mental hospital. Was that
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jury nullification? Technically yes, the jury ignored the legal definition
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of insanity because they believed execution was the only appropriate outcome.
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Some people are just evil. Some people can't be rehabilitated.
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Albert Fish was both, and the twelve men and women
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in that jury box made a choice that the law
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didn't technically support, but that most Americans would understand. What's
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the legacy of Albert Fish Several things. First, the case
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