Hamilton Howard Fish, nicknamed 'Albert' after dead sibling, avoiding nickname Ham n Eggs
Father was 43 years older than mother
Family history of mental illness, uncle with mania, brother in state hospital, sister with 'mental affliction', mother had auditory and visual hallucinations, 3 other diagnosed relatives
Father died of a heart attack, was put in orphanage, subject to harsh treatment
Left at age 9 when mother got government job
Started first relationship at 12, kinky stuff
Went to New York and became a prostitute at age 20, began raping young boys
Mental Well-being
In 1898, married a woman arranged by his mother
Worked as a house painter, continued rape/molestation
Became obsessed with sexual mutilation
In 1903, arrested for grand larceny
In 1917, wife left him and he had to raise six children on his own
Began to have auditory hallucinations and hear religious messages
Self-harm with needles in groin, began eating/serving raw meat to his children
Raped and mutilated many
Murders and Execution
In 1919, stabbed intellectually disabled boy, first known technical murder
Chose mentally handicapped, black people, and children because they wouldn't be missed
Used 'implements of hell' - meat cleaver, butcher knife, small handsaw
In 1924, attempted to kidnap Beatrice Kiel, both mom and dad chased him away two different times
Felt that God was commanding him to torture and sexually mutilate children
Remarried in 1930, divorced after one week, arrested for writing obscene letters to maid advertisements in paper
In 1931, sent to psychiatric hospital for evaluation
Answered ad written by Edward Budd seeking employment
Visited the Budds to hire Edward but actually wanted to murder him
Met his 10-year-old daughter Grace and decided to kill her instead
Made up story about his niece's birthday party, brought Grace to it
Instead he took her to an abandoned house and killed and ate her
In 1934, he wrote a letter to her parents describing what he did to her (traced back to Fish)
Used stationary left in boarding house from someone who stayed before him, able to identify from guest list
2 new victims discovered after arrest
Francis McDonnell was found sexually assaulted and strangled with his suspenders, left hamstring stripped of flesh
Billy Gaffney there was nothing found but he was missing and Fish wrote letter to his lawyer about eating the boy
He was questioned by Billy's mother, wept and refused to answer, she never believed he was her son's killer
Trial began March 11, 1935
Found sane and guilty
Death sentence
Executed by electric chair Jan 16, 1936 at Sing Sing correctional in New York
