Albert Fish was convicted of strangling to death 10-year-old Grace Budd on 3 June 1928. He may have killed as many as 14 additional victims. After his arrest, he gave a detailed and hair-raising confession, admitting that he choked the child to death, cut her body into three sectrions, and ate part of each. The confession detailed nine days of constant sexual excitement while he cooked Grace’s body with carrots, onions, and strips of bacon, and then ate it. Fish had several relatives who suffered from mental problems: a patrernal uncle and a half brother (both of whom died in state hospital for the insane); a paternal aunt, two brothers, a sister, and his mother. According to Dr. Fredric Wertham-one of the country’s foremost forensic psychiatrists in the century- Fish’s mother and six other relatives ‘suffered from psychosis or were severely psychopathic personalities.’ Dr Wertham, who examined Fish, described Fish’s sexual life as one of ‘unparalleled perversity….There as no known perversion that he did not practice and practice frequently.’ In addition to being a killer, cannibal, and sexual pervert, Fish was also a sado-masochist. He enjoyed taking bits of cotton, saturating them with alcohol, inserting them into his rectum, and setting them on fire. He also did that to some of the children he victimized. Dr. Wertham estimated that Fish had assaulted at least 100 children in 23 different states (Fish preferred African-American children because the authorities did not pay much attention if they disappeared or were assaulted.) For years Fish enjoyed sticking needles into his body; he preferred the area between his scrotum and rectum. Some of the needles were as big as sail needles, and, while Fish usually removed them, some were pushed in too far to be removed. At the time of his arrest, X-rays revealed that 29 needles remained inside his body. Fish was also coprophagic-he ate human feces.
Dr. Wertman testified at Fish’s trial on behalf of the defence. In his words, ‘In response to a hypothetical question that was fifteen thousand words long, covered forty-five typewritten pages, and took an hour and a half to read, I declared that in my opinion Fish was legally insane.’ Nonetheless, it was not difficult for the state to find physicians who would testify that Fish was completely sane. Four psychiatrists testified for the state, and their statements are revealing: ‘Well, a man might for nine days eat that human flesh and still not have a psychosis. Coprophagia is a common sort of thing. We don’t call people who do that mentally sick. A man who does that is socially perfectly all right. They (people with coprophagia) are very successful people, successful artists, successful teachers, successful financiers.’ Post-trial interviews with jurors revealed that most agreed that Fish was insane, but they felt given his crimes, his mental state was irrelevant. Upon being found guilty, Fish’s response was, ‘What a thrill that will be, if I have to die in the electric chair. It will be a supreme thrill-the only one I haven’t tried.’
On January 1936, Fish sat in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison. More that two dozen needles still remaining in his body allegedly caused a minor short circuit in the execution apparatus; a second jolt of electricity was necessary to finish the job.
(Source: ramirezdahmerbundy, via dirtyheroin)
