His known victims were eight-year-old Francis X. I always seemed to enjoy everything that hurt.”įish preyed on small children. Fish said, “I always had a desire to inflict pain on others and to have others inflict pain on me. In court, psychiatrists testified that Fish’s sexual fetishes included sadism, masochism, exhibitionism, cannibalism, coprophagia, urophilia, pedophilia, and infibulation.
#Albert fish serial killer images skin
An X-ray of Fish’s groin with 12 needles embedded deep under his skin was shown during his trial. Notoriously, Fish was known for pushing needles so deep into his groin that they could not be removed. He asked his own children to repeatedly hit his behind with various objects. Later in life, his fetishes became more powerful as he turned to self-mutilation. Fish had also begun to frequent public bathrooms where he would watch the younger boys undress in front of him. When Fish was just 12 years old, he met a boy who introduced him to coprophagia (consuming feces) and urolagnia (drinking urine). I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good.” This chilling account is why he is still known as the “real-life Hannibal Lecter.” Then he added, “In about two hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt, and pepper. In interviews with the police, Fish confessed, “I made a stew out of (a victim’s) ears-nose-pieces of his face and belly. Bloody meals were just the start as he later turned to cannibalism to feed his thirst for gore. He began to self-harm and developed a taste for raw meat. It was this rejection and betrayal that seemingly triggered a much darker side in Fish. During their 19 years of married life, they had six children together. In 1898, Fish’s mother arranged a marriage between him and Anna Mary Hoffman, a young lady nine years his junior. In his later teenage years, he changed his name from Hamilton to Albert so that he was no longer mocked by his school friends as “Ham and Eggs.” But the psychological damage had already been done, and he continued with bed-wetting until age 11. When his mother was finally able to hold down a steady job, she sent for him. Psychologists believe that his later behavior-torturing his victims to death-was his way of forcing the same pain he had endured onto others. They would rip off his clothes and whip him while the other students watched. John’s Orphanage, Fish was punished severely by his teachers. At least two of his family members died in asylums. His mother suffered from hallucinations, and other members of his family struggled with severe mental illnesses. However, the reality was more terrifying than any work of fiction.Īlbert Fish was born Hamilton Howard Fish on May 19, 1870, in Washington, DC. After he murdered three children in the early 1900s, the New York Daily Mirror wrote that he had a reputation as “the most vicious child slayer in criminal history.” The sinister serial killer could easily have been a believable villain in a horror movie.
#Albert fish serial killer images full
Even if you think you already know the full story, watching a documentary can help you better understand and sympathize with victims' families and survivors.*~ Serial Killer Albert Fish ~* Albert Fish became known by many names, including the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Boogey Man, and the Gray Man. Whether you want to learn more about serial killers to understand the dark side of human nature, or curiosity is just too hard to resist, these 15 serial killer documentaries offer diverse and intriguing perspectives on some of history's most infamous crimes. They are heavy and disturbing, so you might want to take it slow. With that said, watching these docs isn’t like bingeing Mindhunter, or even like listening to a true crime podcast. These aren’t fictional villains they are real people who terrorized others. That's why it's essential to remember how many lives were changed forever by the actions of these individuals. It’s important to understand the circumstances of these tragic occurrences, but it is also important to recognize that every documentary is filmed and edited from one perspective. (Case in point: The time period from 1970 to 1999 was deemed "The Golden Age of Serial Murder.") Hearing their stories satisfies the most intense curiosity, but focusing exclusively on these notorious serial killers fails to honor the lives of their victims and potentially glamorizes the murderers themselves. So many are intrigued by the minds of those who commit horrendous crimes, trying to figure out the motives behind their turn to violence. For the true crime-obsessed, serial killer documentaries probably make up most of their recently-watched list across streaming platforms.