Albert Fish

Personal Rationale + Reflection

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:30:22 -0400

Why did you pick this?

I picked this sick and twisted true life story, of famous serial killer Albert Fish,

because it really gives you an inside look, it allows you to look inside the mind of a killer.

And as morbid as it all is, its also very interesting, aswell as shocking.

The best horror stories, are tragically based upon real life experiences.

Why are you interested in it?

One of my “hobbies”/interests, is observing, and learning, human behaviour.

Why do people do the things they do in certain situations? say the things that they say?

think the things that they do? And what is more interesting than learning about someone who can do horrible, unthinkable, questionable things to people, with no thoughts of remourse or sorrow?., People who do such things, and are proud of their actions, dignified by them even!

Making a connection!

The book ‘Acceleration’ that was read in Literacy, was about a serial killer.

A boy finds this anonymous serial killer’s journal, in the lost and found where he works. This journal is filled with horrific experiments, ideas, and thoughts written down. The boy feels obligated to hunt down this twisted killer and put an end to him, himself. It’s about a man hunt. Albert Fish was a famous killer, a rapist, and a cannibal. Who openely admitted to his crimes, proudly. He also endured a man hunt, only he didn’t exactly know it. Nobody knew who he was, he went by many names, still no one knew his true identity. Until he unvailed himself, by sending a letter to the family of a young girl who he had murdered a few years earlier. He gave himself away. He was finally caught, locked away, and eventually executed, death by electricution.

Making a personal connection.

The Fish family was a family of mental illness, I also come from a family of mental illness. The Fish’s family reputation of mental illness could have been one of the reasons Albert Fish turned out the way he did. It could explain his strange behaviour, and revolting thoughts. His actions throughout the years could have been absent, with the help of proffesionals.., or maybe not? Nobody will ever know why he did the things he did, mental illness or not, it shall remain a mystery.

Information retrieved, thanks to Wikipedia.

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:18:00 -0400

Information retrieved, thanks to Wikipedia.:

This is a link. (click it)

Photo

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:14:16 -0400

Photo

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:13:57 -0400

ramirezdahmerbundy: Piquerism or picquerism (from the French...

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:13:43 -0400

ramirezdahmerbundy:

Piquerism or picquerism (from the French piquer - “to prick”) is a paraphilia in which one finds pleasure in stabbing or cutting bodies with sharp objects. It is a form of sadism. The most frequently targeted areas of the body are the breasts, buttocks, or groin.

criminalprofiler: Albert Fish Though never divorced from his...

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:13:28 -0400

criminalprofiler:

Albert Fish

Though never divorced from his first wife, Fish married three more times, enjoying a sex life which court psychiatrists would describe as one of “unparalleled perversity.” (In jail, authorities compiled a list of eighteen sexual perversions practiced by Fish, including coprophagia - consumption of human excrement.) Tracing his sadomasochism back to the age of five of six, when he began to relish bare-bottom paddlings in the orphanage, Fish’s obsession with pain was focused primarily on children. Ordered “by God” to castrate young boys, he impartially molested children of both sexes as he traveled around the country. Prosecutors confidently linked him with “at least 100” sexual attacks in 23 states, from New York to Wyoming, but Fish felt slighted by their estimate. “I have had children in every state,” he declared, placing his own tally of victims closer to 400.

For all that, Fish was careless in his crimes, frequently losing jobs “because things about these children came out.” Arrested eight times over the years, he served time for grand larceny, passing bad checks and violating parole or probation. Obscene letters were another of his passions, and Fish mailed of countless examples to strangers, their addresses obtained from matrimonial agencies or newspaper “lonely-hearts” columns.

Photo

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:13:03 -0400

Photo

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:12:34 -0400

Photo

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:12:09 -0400

"I have no particular desire to live. I have no particular desire to be killed. It is a matter of..."

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:11:28 -0400

“I have no particular desire to live. I have no particular desire to be killed. It is a matter of indifference to me. I do not think I am altogether right.”

- Albert Fish (via serialkillerfix)

Fish among others, tattooed on peoples bodies.

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:11:08 -0400

Fish among others, tattooed on peoples bodies.

himynameisrobtee: WDGVA Exhibition @ The Square /Geneva ALBERT...

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:10:36 -0400

himynameisrobtee:

WDGVA Exhibition @ The Square /Geneva

ALBERT FISH

« I choked her to death, then cut her in small pieces

so I could take my meat to my rooms. Cook and eat it.

How sweet and tender her little ass was roasted in the oven. » (text from his letter to the family of one of his victim)

series based on the cannibalism culture

Illustration

Personal work

Photo

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:10:22 -0400

samythekay: Albert Fish was a cannibal, child rapist,...

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:09:35 -0400

samythekay:

Albert Fish was a cannibal, child rapist, sado-masochist serial killer.
He used to eat children and write letters to their parents about how good his meal was. His own body appeared to be filled with nails due to his masochists activities.

Albert Fish would've won the hunger games.

Mon, 07 May 2012 12:09:19 -0400

Video.

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:56:00 -0400

Video.

Albert Fish, Movie trailer.

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:54:00 -0400

Albert Fish, Movie trailer.

Video about Albert Fish & Cannibalism

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:52:00 -0400

Video about Albert Fish & Cannibalism:

Link.

Victims

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:50:02 -0400

Known

Francis X. McDonnell, age 8, July 15, 1924
Emma Richardson, age 5, October 3, 1926
Billy Gaffney, age 4, February 11, 1927
Grace Budd, age 10, June 3, 1928

Suspected

Yetta Abramowitz, age 12, 1927
Mary Ellen O’Connor, age 16, February 15, 1932
Benjamin Collings, age 17, December 15, 1932

Trial & Execution

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:49:15 -0400

The trial of Albert Fish for the murder of Grace Budd began on March 11, 1935, in White Plains, New York with Frederick P. Close presiding as judge, and Westchester County Chief Assistant District Attorney, Elbert F. Gallagher, as prosecuting attorney. Fish’s defense counsel would be James Dempsey, a former prosecutor and the one-time Mayor of Peekskill, New York (1932–1933). The trial lasted for 10 days. Fish pleaded insanity, and claimed to have heard voices from God telling him to kill children. Several psychiatrists testified about Fish’s sexual fetishes, which included sadism, masochism, cunnilingus, anilingus, fellatio, flagellation, exhibitionism, voyeurism, piquerism, cannibalism, coprophagia, urophilia, pedophilia and infibulation. Dempsey in his summation noted that Fish was a “psychiatric phenomenon” and that nowhere in legal or medical records was there another individual who possessed so many sexual abnormalities.

The defense’s chief expert witness was Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist with a focus on child development who conducted psychiatric examinations for the New York criminal courts. Over two days of testimony, Wertham explained Fish’s obsession with religion and specifically his preoccupation with the story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22:1-24). Wertham said that Fish believed that similarly “sacrificing” a boy would be penance for his own sins and that even if the act itself was wrong, angels would prevent it if God did not approve. Fish had already attempted the sacrifice once before but had been thwarted when a car drove past. Edward Budd had been the next intended victim, but he turned out to be larger than expected so he settled on Grace. Although he knew Grace was female, it is known that Fish perceived her as a boy. Wertham then detailed Fish’s cannibalism, which in his mind he associated with communion. The last question Dempsey asked Wertham was 15,000 words long, detailed Fish’s life and ended with asking how the doctor considered his mental condition based on this life. Wertham answered “He is insane”. Gallagher cross-examined Wertham on whether Fish knew the difference between right and wrong. He responded that he did know but that it was a perverted knowledge based on his views of sin, atonement and religion and thus was an “insane knowledge”. The defense then called two more psychiatrists, who supported Wertham’s findings.

The first of four rebuttal witnesses was Menas Gregory, the former head of the Bellevue psychiatric hospital, where Fish had been treated in 1930. He testified that Fish was abnormal but sane. Under cross examination, Dempsey asked if coprophilia, urophilia and pedophilia indicated a sane or insane person. Gregory replied that such a person was not “mentally sick” and that these were common perversions that were “socially perfectly alright” and that Fish was “no different from millions of other people”, some very prominent and successful, who suffered from the “very same” perversions. The next witness was the resident physician at The Tombs, Perry Lichtenstein. Dempsey objected to a doctor with no training in psychiatry testifying on the issue of sanity, but Justice Close overruled on the grounds that the jury could decide what weight to give a prison doctor. When asked whether Fish’s causing himself pain indicated a mental condition, Lichtenstein replied, “That is not masochism”, as he was only “punishing himself to get sexual gratification”. The next witness, Charles Lambert, testified that coprophilia was a common practice and that religious cannibalism may be psychopathic but “was a matter of taste” and not evidence of a psychosis. The last witness, James Vavasour, repeated Lambert’s opinion.^[9]

Another defense witness was Mary Nicholas, Fish’s 17-year-old stepdaughter. She described how Fish taught her and her brothers and sisters several games involving overtones of masochism and child molestation.^[10]

None of the jurors doubted that Fish was insane. But ultimately, as one later explained, they felt he should be executed anyway.^[9] They found him to be sane and guilty, and the judge ordered the death sentence. Fish arrived at prison in March 1935, and was executed on January 16, 1936, in the electric chair at Sing Sing. He entered the chamber at 11:06 p.m. and was pronounced dead three minutes later.^[5] He was buried in the Sing Sing Prison Cemetery. Fish is said to have helped the executioner position the electrodes on his body. His last words were reportedly:^[17]

I don’t even know why I’m here.

According to one witness present, it took two jolts before Fish died, creating the rumor that the apparatus was short-circuited by the needles that Fish had inserted into his body.^[25] These rumors were later regarded as untrue, as Fish reportedly had died in the same fashion and time frame others do in the electric chair.^[17]

At a meeting with reporters following the execution, Fish’s lawyer, James Dempsey, revealed that he was in possession of his now deceased client’s “final statement”. This amounted to several pages of hand-written notes that Fish had apparently penned in the hours just prior to his death. When pressed by the assembled journalists to reveal the document’s contents, Dempsey refused, stating:^[17]

I will never show it to anyone, it was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read.