THE WEREWOLF OF WISTERIA

"Grace sat on my lap and kissed me.

I made up my mind to eat her".

- Albert Fish in confession letter to the victim's mother

There was something seriously wrong with Albert Fish. Murderer, pedophile, paraphiliac, cannibal, sadist and masochist all wrapped up into one disturbed and depraved mind, Fish stands out as one of the sickest serial killers in history. He also has the dubious distinction of having more sobriquets than most other serial killers (Brooklyn Vampire, Gray Man, et al.). Included among them was "The Werewolf of Wisteria", so-named because of the killing and devouring of his victim, 12 year-old Grace Budd. That he was allowed to take Grace away from his mother to a "party" after just meeting him was extraordinary, but he was entirely convincing in his request with his "grandfatherly" demeanor. Where he took her instead was an abandoned and dilapidated house called Wisteria Cottage, where he performed his heinous deed.

While he was in custody, Fish was diagnosed with an “abnormal” and “psychopathic” personality, as well as a mental disorder named "religious psychosis", which manifested as auditory hallucinations where he believed God told him to hurt children. This explains some of the reason he felt no remorse for his actions (see the full text of the letter he wrote to Grace Budd's mother below).

Among his long list of aberrations was a condition called piquerism, the sadistic practice of inflicting pain on others with sharp implements such as needles. Fish inverted this condition and performed the technique on himself by inserting needles into his groin area. When X-rayed, doctors saw no less than 29 needles near his testicles, some having been there so long that they had begun to rust.

Other details of the hideous story behind this monster's crimes has been discussed here before (see below). Following is yet another article of the story that still fascinates and repels readers at the same time, even today, decades later.

More about Albert Fish HERE.

More True Crime posts HERE.

"LITTLE GIRLS HAVE MORE FLAVOR"

Violent crimes in and of themselves are horrible enough, but violent -- and depraved -- crimes against children are unimaginable to the rational person. In 1938, just such a crime occurred, but it wouldn't be until years later that the case was solved.

When the elderly man named Albert Fish was finally apprehended, the gruesome murder and dismemberment of 12 year-old Grace Budd was only the beginning; along with committing other acts of cannibalism, he confessed to over 100 more abductions, mostly of poor, young black boys who he forced into a myriad of perverse sexual acts, then beat them.

Fish came from a family where many members were psychotic, insane or otherwise mentally imbalanced. He became intrigued with cannibalism after hearing from a seaman that in China, children were killed and eaten during times of famine. The young Grace Budd had been killed at an abandoned house and Fish began to dismember her a little at a time, consuming her remains piece by piece. This act had been repeated with other victims, as he developed a taste for human meat, which he described as like veal or chicken, "only better".

Ironically, Dr. Frederic Wertham, the child psychiatrist who would later write Seduction of the Innocent, the infamous book that would lead to the Comics Code Authority, acted in Fish's defense at the trial. He declared Fish insane saying that "he was suffering from paranoid psychosis", and that "he plays with humans as a child plays with flies." He added that Fish was a sadomasochist and addicted to no less than 19 other sexual perversions, including the discovery of 29 needles inserted in the flesh around his testicles.

The heinousness of his crimes overshadowed any consideration for a medical incarceration and he was handed the death penalty. Fish was strapped into "Old Sparky" on January 16, 1936, and, in a bit of poetic justice, his own flesh was fried.