ALBERT FISH in the Serial Killer Calendar

Albert Hamilton Fish (May 19, 1870 - January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer and cannibal. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria and the Brooklyn Vampire.

Early Life and Crimes

He was born in Washington, District of Columbia as Hamilton Fish, to Randall Fish (1795-1875) of Kennebec, Maine and his wife, Ellen (1838-?), of Ireland. His father was 43 years older than his mother. Albert Fish later stated that his family had an extensive history of mental illness. He was the youngest of four, accompanying siblings Walter, Annie and Edwin. Randall Fish died in 1875 in Washington D.C. Albert claimed much later that his mother, unable to care for him, put him into an orphanage where he was ruthlessly whipped and beaten. He said that he was the only child who looked forward to the beatings. By 1890, Albert had arrived in New York City as a house painter. In 1898, he was married to Anna, nine years his junior, with whom he had six children: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John and Henry. He also, bigamously, married on February 6, 1930 at Waterloo, New York to "Mrs. Estella Wilcox" and divorced after one week. Fish had been arrested in May 1930 for "sending an obscene letter to an Negro woman who answered an advertisement for a maid." He had been sent to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in 1930 and 1931 for observation, following his arrests.

Fish, a painter, claimed to have drifted across the United States, murdering at least one person in each of the twenty-three states he had visited as well as various other victims along the way, although this claim is not supported by any of the known documents on his life. Doctors examining him for his later trial claimed that he was a sadomasochist, indulging in self-mutilation, driving needles into his body, mostly around his genitals. He said he tried sticking a needle in his scrotum but it was too painful, and there were needles in his pelvis that were permanently embedded. He would stuff cotton balls soaked with lighter fluid into his rectum and set fire to them. He is said to have consumed not only the flesh of his victims but also their urine, blood, and excrement. He attributed these tendencies to the abuse he suffered in childhood. He also claimed God sent him on "missions" to kill. His murders often involved slow torture. He would tie children up and whip them with a belt cut in half with nails sticking through to tenderize the flesh for cooking. Fish called his weapons "implements of hell." The term boogeyman was at the time in reference to him.

Grace Budd

On May 28, 1928, Fish, then 58 years old, visited the Budd family in Manhattan, New York City. He was responding to a work wanted ad placed by 18-year-old Edward Budd. At the Budd's apartment, Fish met Edward's younger sister, ten-year-old Grace. Fish promised to hire Edward and send for him in a few days, and in the meantime he convinced Mr. and Mrs. Budd to let Grace accompany him to a party that evening at his home. Fish left with Grace Budd that day, but never came back.

The letter from Albert Fish

In November of 1934, an anonymous letter was sent to the girl's parents which led the police to Albert Fish. The letter is reprinted here, with all of Fish's misspellings and grammatical errors:

Dear Mrs. Budd. In 1894 a friend of mine shipped as a deck hand on the Steamer Tacoma, Capt. John Davis. They sailed from San Francisco for Hong Kong, China. On arriving there he and two others went ashore and got drunk. When they returned the boat was gone. At that time there was famine in China. Meat of any kind was from $1-3 per pound. So great was the suffering among the very poor that all children under 12 were sold for food in order to keep others from starving. A boy or girl under 14 was not safe in the street. You could go in any shop and ask for steak-chops-or stew meat. Part of the naked body of a boy or girl would be brought out and just what you wanted cut from it. A boy or girl's behind which is the sweetest part of the body and sold as veal cutlet brought the highest price. John staid there so long he acquired a taste for human flesh. On his return to N.Y. he stole two boys, one 7 and one 11. Took them to his home stripped them naked tied them in a closet. Then burned everything they had on. Several times every day and night he spanked them-tortured them-to make their meat good and tender. First he killed the 11 year old boy, because he had the fattest ass and of course the most meat on it. Every part of his body was cooked and eaten except the head-bones and guts. He was roasted in the oven (all of his ass), boiled, broiled, fried and stewed. The little boy was next, went the same way. At that time, I was living at 409 E 100 St. near-right side. He told me so often how good human flesh was I made up my mind to taste it. On Sunday June the 3, 1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. Brought you pot cheese-strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind to eat her. On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said yes she could go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked out. When we got there, I told her to remain outside. She picked wildflowers. I went upstairs and stripped all my clothes off. I knew if I did not I would get her blood on them. When all was ready I went to the window and called her. Then I hid in a closet until she was in the room. When she saw me all naked she began to cry and tried to run down the stairs. I grabbed her and she said she would tell her mamma. First I stripped her naked. How she did kick-bite and scratch. 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. It took me 9 days to eat her entire body. I did not fuck her though I could of had I wished. She died a virgin.

Trial of Albert Fish

At his trial, which opened on March 11, 1935, Fish pleaded insanity. He claimed to have heard voices from God telling him to kill children. Several psychiatrists took the stand to talk of Fish's many sexual fetishes, including coprophilia, urophilia, pedophilia and masochism, but there was disagreement as to whether these activities necessarily meant someone was insane. The defense's chief expert witness was Frederic Wertham, a psychiatrist with a focus on child development who conducted psychiatric examinations for the New York criminal courts; Wertham stated flatly that Fish was insane. The trial lasted for ten days. The jury found him to be sane and guilty, and the judge ordered the death sentence.

Execution of Albert Fish

Fish was executed on January 16, 1936, in the electric chair at Sing Sing. It is believed by some that he spoke of the prospect of electrocution as the "supreme thrill" and even helped the executioners fasten the straps that held his body in place. A Daily News reporter who covered the trial wrote that Fish's "watery eyes gleamed at the thought of being burned by a heat more intense than the flames with which he often seared his flesh to gratify his lust," though others thought that Fish did not want to die.

His last words are said to have been "I don't know why I'm here". It was reported that the first jolt of electricity did not kill him, and that a second jolt was needed. A few wrote, facetiously, that the twenty-nine needles Fish had inserted into his body over the years, including his scrotal area, had caused a short circuit, causing him to remark, "Is that all you've got?" However, this is generally considered to be erroneous, as guards insist that the first jolt did indeed kill him and that all executed prisoners receive a second jolt as a precaution.

Paraphilias

Paraphilia - which literally means "abnormal love" - is the technical term for sexual deviation. According to the psychiatric experts who examined him, Albert Fish had spent his life indulging in every known form of paraphilia, plus a few aberrations that were unknown at the time. For example, he would insert a long-stemmed rose into his penis and look at himself in the mirror, then he would remove the rose and eat it. His other sexual deviations included sadism and masochism, flagellation, exhibitionism, voyeurism, piquerism, pedophilia, coprophagia, fetishism, urolagnia, and cannibalism.

Legacy of Albert Fish

* Fish's crimes are recounted in Harold Schecter's Deranged and The Serial Killer Files.

* He is mentioned in Stephen King and Peter Straub's novel Black House, and some of his letters are quoted.

* Marilyn Manson drummer Ginger Fish's stage name was derived in part from Albert Fish.

* The Weasels (who have recorded a series of songs over the past two decades about various notorious killers) memorialized Fish in their song titled "A Fish."

* 'Murder metal' band Macabre have written three songs about him, namely "Albert was Worse than any Fish in the Sea", "Mr. Albert Fish Was Children Your Favorite Dish" and "Fishtales".

* The lyrics for the song "Document. Grace Budd" by The Number Twelve Looks Like You are the last lines from the letter to Grace Budd's parents.

Albert Hamilton Fish
By Chris Bartholomew

May 19, 1870 - January 16, 1936
The Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, and the Boogeyman.
He used what are called 'Instruments of hell' -- a meat cleaver, a butcher knife and a saw.
Here we have a man who had a truly horrible childhood. If anyone wanted to blame their childhood for madness, this is one who should have been able to pull off the insanity plea, but alas, the court didn't buy it and he was executed - some say twice.
Fish was arrested several times throughout his life, and was often interviewed by psychiatrists who often deemed him deeply troubled but effectively harmless. As his mania progressed, Fish took to more and more disturbing practices such as paddling himself with a nail-spiked board, or inserting needles into his pelvic region. An x-ray taken before his execution in 1936 discovered over twenty-five rusty nails still located inside his body.

His birth name was Hamy Fish. His father was 43 years older than his mother. Fish was the youngest child and had three siblings: Walter, Annie, and Edwin Fish. He wanted to be called "Albert" after a dead sibling, and to escape the nickname 'Ham and Eggs' that he was given at an orphanage in which he spent five years of his childhood. His family had a long history of mental illness, and one suffered from religious mania.

His father was a river boat captain, but by 1870 he was a fertilizer manufacturer. Fish's father died in 1875 of a heart attack at the age of eighty. Until she could support the family alone, his thirty-seven-year-old mother sent him to an orphanage where he was frequently whipped and beaten, and eventually discovered that he enjoyed physical pain. During those five years spent at the orphanage, Fish came to associate sexual stimulation and satisfaction with physical pain. The beatings would often give him erections, for which the other orphans teased him.

By 1880, his mother got a government job and was able to look after him.
In 1882, at age 12, he began a relationship with a telegraph boy. Fish also began visiting public baths where he could watch other boys undress, and spent a great portion of his weekends on these visits.

Fish claims to have been a male prostitute in New York City at the age of fifteen, and it is suspected that his first forays into homosexual rape and pedophialism began around this time, as well as his increased interest in self-mutilation.

In 1898, at the age of twenty-three, Fish was married to a sixteen-year-old through his mother's arrangement. Through 1917, when she left him for another man, both Fish's wife and eventual six children believed him to be a perfectly normal father. He worked primarily as a house painter, traveling broadly through neighboring states. During this time he claims to have targeted mentally-challenged and African-American children to sate his perverse fantasies, believing they would not be missed.

After Fish's wife left him in 1917, his children noticed a change in his demeanor. He encouraged his own and neighbor children to paddle his buttocks until they bled, often using a paddle that was studded with inch-and-a-half nails. He also inserted a large number of needles into his body, mostly in the genital region, and burned himself constantly with hot irons and pokers. Soon after leaving, his wife returned, and he allowed her to remain in the house until he found out she'd hidden her lover in the attic and was sneaking food to him after meals. After an argument he threw them both out of the house.

One night of the full moon, his children later testified, Fish would consume huge quantities of raw meat. Over the years, he collected a great amount of published material on cannibalism and he carried the most gruesome articles with him on his person at all times. Before he ever turned to murder, Fish was examined several times by psychiatrists at Bellevue but he was always released and judged "disturbed but sane."

Fish earned a multitude of nicknames during his lifetime, such as The Boogeyman - from a three-year-old's account of a neighbor boy's abduction - the Gray Man, and the Werewolf of Wysteria. Many of these names were fueled by his increased cannibalistic tendencies and increasingly perverse tortures of his victims. Fish was also suspected of being the Brooklyn Vampire, a serial killer who preyed on children in New York City between 1927 and 1932. It is believed that most of Fish's victims were male, and between the ages of four and ten.

Fish carried himself outwardly as a kindly, grandfather figure. Few people besides his children had any idea of his mutilating tendencies, and none of them wished to have anything to do with him by the time they'd reached adulthood. He entertained himself by writing numerous anonymous letters in response to newspaper advertisements to women searching for husbands. Although forty-six of these letters were submitted as evidence during his trial in 1935, they were never made public due to their disgusting and perverse nature.

When and where Fish first became a murderer is unknown. He confessed to six killings and referred vaguely to dozens more, although the victims, dates and places were lost to his hazy memory. He did confess to murdering a man in Wilmington, Delaware; mutilating and torturing to death a mentally retarded boy in New York in 1910; killing a Negro boy in Washington in 1919; molesting and killing four year-old William Gaffney in 1929; and strangling to death five year-old Francis McDonnell on Long Island in 1934. The most sensational murder carried out by Fish was the abduction and horrific slaughter of Grace Budd in 1928.

In 1928, Fish responded to an advertisement posted by an Edward Budd looking for work in the country. Albert Budd, Grace's father, earned a modest living as a doorman but it never seemed to be enough to adequately take care of the family, which consisted of his wife, Delia, eighteen year-old Edward, Albert Jr., Grace and the youngest child, five year-old Beatrice. To help his father make ends meet, Edward advertised in the May 27, 1928 issue of the New York World Telegram for a job. His ad read: "Young man, 18, wishes position in the country," followed by his name and address.

That same afternoon, a nicely dressed Albert Fish answered the ad and showed up at the Budd home in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. He introduced himself as Mr. Frank Howard, a farmer from Long Island who was willing to pay $15 per week to a willing young worker. The family could scarcely believe Edward's luck and good fortune and quickly invited Mr. Howard into the house. After hearing Fish's description of the farm, Edward readily accepted the position. Mr. Howard promised to return the next week and take not only Edward out to the farm, but his friend Willie as well. Howard stressed that he had enough work for both of the young men.

Fish did not return as promised on June 2, the following Saturday, but he did send an apologetic telegram, and arrived on Monday instead. Impressed by his manners, the Budd's greeted him warmly and invited him to stay for lunch. Fish behaved just like a visiting grandfather and passed out treats and dollar bills to the children. He presented two of the bills to Eddie and Willie and while he had a prior engagement, he promised to return that evening to pick them up and take them to his farm. However, he had a special treat for the oldest daughter, Grace, he told her trusting parents. If they were agreeable to the idea, he wanted to take her to a children's birthday party at the home of his married sister at 137th Street and Columbus Avenue. The Budd's readily agreed and Grace left with Fish, holding onto his hand, still wearing the pure, white dress that she had worn to church that morning. The two of them walked off down the street together. The Budd's waved goodbye to their little girl -- and never saw her alive again.

When Grace did not return home that night with Mr. Howard, the Budd's were concerned but not overly worried. They assumed that the party has lasted late and that she had likely spent the night with Mr. Howard's sister. They tried hard to convince themselves of this, even into the following morning, when there was still no sign of Grace. Finally, Albert Budd decided to go to the address himself and inquire after his daughter. He soon found that the address where Howard's sister supposedly lived did not exist -- Columbus only went as far as 109th. This made his next stop the closest police station, where he was referred to the Missing Persons Bureau and eventually to veteran detective, William King. The detectives were suspicious of the situation right from the start. It did not take them long to find that there was no Frank Howard with a farm on Long Island. This also meant that there was no real clue to the abductor's true identity. The man had covered his tracks well, even going as far as to retrieve the telegram that he had sent to the Budd's. He claimed that he was going to complain to Western Union because it had been addressed incorrectly.

Regardless, King and other members of the Bureau started a long and arduous search for the Western Union copy of the telegram. It was the only link that he had with Grace's kidnapper and three postal clerks spent more than 15 hours sifting though tens of thousands of duplicates with King before they found the one that Howard had sent. The only clue it provided was that it had been sent from an office in East Harlem. The idea of searching every home in that part of the city was first considered and then abandoned as a physical impossibility. King then focused on another slim link -- a small pail of cheese and a carton of strawberries that Howard had purchased for Mrs. Budd. He told her that they were fresh from the farm. Investigators scoured the East Harlem area until they found the delicatessen where Howard had bought the cheese and they also found the street peddler who had sold him the strawberries. The peddler described the man in detail but couldn't recall anything significant about him.

The investigation into Grace Budd's disappearance was extensive, and lasted for six years. The lead detective, William King, refused to retire in 1932 for the soul purpose of continuing the investigation. Very little physical evidence was uncovered, however, and Fish's involvement with the Budd family was bulletproof. All of the addresses he supplied them with were fictitious, and he easily escaped suspicion, residing quietly in New York City while the manhunt spread from the United States into Canada.

At one point, King was sure that he was onto his man when he received a file on a gray-haired con man and forger named Albert Corthell, who was on the run for trying to abduct a little girl from an adoption agency. King tracked Corthell for months, chasing him from city to city across the country. He finally caught up with him and was crushed when he found out that Corthell had been in prison in Seattle when Grace was taken.

Corthell turned out to be one of two strong leads that King pursued over six long years. Another suspect, Charles Edward Pope, was also arrested and actually charged in Grace's kidnapping. However, Mrs. Budd, the principal witness in the case, admitted in court that she had picked out the wrong man. It turned out that Pope had been blamed for the kidnapping by his vindictive ex-wife. He was subsequently released.

Around the same time that Corthell and Pope were being exhaustively investigated by the police, another gray-haired old man was arrested in New York and was charged with sending obscene materials, mostly letters, through the mail. The letters were sent with Fish pretending to be a well-known Hollywood movie producer and in them, he offered large sums of money to women who might engage in sadomasochistic orgies with him. After his arrest, he was committed to the psychiatric ward at Bellevue for a ten-day observation. While there, the letter writer claimed that, although his friends knew him as Albert, his real name was Hamilton Fish and he was a relative of the famous New York family of the same name. He would tell the same story again when arrested for Grace Budd's murder four years later. Strangely, there has never been any reason to doubt that he may have actually hailed from this prestigious family stock. Fish remained in Bellevue for nearly 30 days in the winter of 1930. He was polite and cooperative and the doctors judged him sane, although with sexual problems that they attributed to dementia caused by his advancing age. He was thought harmless and was released from the hospital into the custody of his daughter Anna.

Meanwhile, years were passing in the Grace Budd case and despite Detective King's ongoing efforts; it appeared that her vanishing would never be solved.

Then on November 11, 1934 -- six years after she had been kidnapped -- Mrs. Budd received an unsigned and anonymous letter in the mail. The letter claimed to be from a friend of someone named "Captain John Davis". According to the letter writer, Captain Davis was a seafaring man who, on one of his trips to China, developed a taste for human flesh, namely the flesh of children, during a famine in the Far East. The letter then described in graphic terms how Captain Davis, after returning to New York, had kidnapped and murdered two young boys, had cooked their flesh and had eaten it. After learning from Davis that the flesh of children was "good and tender", the deranged letter writer decided to try it for himself. He had visited the Budd home for lunch and had taken the girl away with him.
Mrs. Budd sobbed hysterically as the letter went on to detail how he had taken Grace to an empty house in Westchester, New York. He let her pick flowers in the garden while he stripped himself naked. He called her into the house and when she saw the grizzled and naked old man, she began to scream. She tried to run away, he wrote, but he caught her, stripped her and then choked her to death. Then, he dismembered her body and cooked and ate the smaller pieces. Bizarrely, the letter described how Grace had been killed and cut up but went to extremes to assure Mrs. Budd that she had not been sexually molested in any way. "She died a virgin", the writer assured the anguished mother.

After the horrific letter, investigators went into action, pulling out all stops to find the monster who had written it. The investigation was again led by Detective King, who had deferred his retirement two years earlier so that he could continue to work on the Grace Budd case. King immediately found "Mr. Howard's" original Western Union telegram blank and there was no doubt about it -- the handwriting was the same. "Howard" and the letter writer was one and the same person. King used a microscope on the letter and discovered an almost indiscernible design on the flap of the envelope. It turned out to be the letters N.Y.P.C.B.A. and a quick search through the Manhattan telephone directory revealed the letters to stand for the New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association, headquartered at 627 Lexington Avenue. The association gladly opened its files to Detective King and he spent hours checking the backgrounds and handwriting of their 400 employees. Sadly though, he did not come up with a match. Undaunted, he called all of the employees together and questioned them rigorously. He also added an appeal for any information the drivers might have that could help him with the case. He offered immunity for theft of the letter writing materials and envelopes --- all he wanted was to catch the sadistic child killer.

After his appeal to the drivers, King retreated to a private office in the association's headquarters and hoped that his assurances would pay off. A few minutes later, a nondescript man in a chauffeur's uniform named Lee Sicowski knocked on the door. He told Detective King that he had a habit of taking the association's stationary home with him and using it. In fact, Sicowski explained, he had left some of the unused notepaper and envelopes in a room that he had occupied at 622 Lexington. Detectives raced to the rooming house but there was nothing there. King then urged Sicowski to think of anywhere else the stationary could have been. Sicowski then remembered that he had also spent some time in a cheap boarding house at 200 East 52nd Street. He might have left some of it there.
This address turned out to be a flophouse but it was here that investigators struck gold. The landlady, Mrs. Frieda Schneider, stated that Sicowski's old room was recently occupied by a man who fit Frank Howard's description. His name was actually Albert Fish. Carefully, checked the signature in the room register and he was convinced that the handwriting was the same as that of the letter writer. However, Fish had recently checked out of the place but he was in the habit of receiving a monthly check from one his sons. It was always sent to the 200 East 52nd Street address. King was prepared to invest a few more weeks in the hunt for the killer and so he took a room at the flophouse at the top of the stairs, which gave him a view of the entrance and the upstairs and downstairs hallways.

He waited for three days and then on December 13, 1934, King received an urgent call from the flophouse. He had left to return to the station and file some paperwork when the landlady called -- Fish was back! When he returned to the house, Mrs. Schneider met him at the door. Fish had come back a half hour earlier and to stall until the detective could get there, she had given him a cup of tea and invited him to sit down.

Trying to remain clam, King drew his revolver and walked into the room where Fish waited. What he found was a harmless-looking, white-haired old man with a scraggly mustache and watery blue eyes. He was sipping at a cup of tea. Detective King identified himself and the Fish made no effort to conceal his own identity. Then, the detective asked Fish to accompany him to police headquarters for questioning; King momentarily dropped his guard, until Fish jumped up and attacked him with razorblades drawn from his pockets. King disarmed and restrained him, eventually finding Fish's pockets to be loaded with an assortment of razorblades and knives.

At the police station, Fish became more resigned to his arrest and confessed to succumbing to his "blood thirst" in the summer of 1928. His original victim, he explained, had been intended to be Edward Budd, who had placed the classified ad. However, when he got to the Budd house and saw the size of the stocky teenager, he changed his mind and set his sights on the more vulnerable Grace. He freely confessed to kidnapping the girl and taking her to Wisteria Cottage in a place called Worthington Woods, in Westchester County. His recall of the day when he kidnapped the girl was clear after six years, as the old man had probably relived it in his mind over and over again. He had bought a round trip train ticket to Worthington Woods for himself and a one-way ticket for Grace. And he also remembered that when they were changing trains, he had left a bundle behind on the seat. Grace, trying to be helpful, ran back and retrieved it for him. Inside of the bundle were Fish's grisly tools of death -- a cleaver, saw and butcher's knife -- and Grace happily handed them over, never knowing that they would taste her flesh a short time later. After arriving at Wisteria Cottage, Fish systematically strangled the girl, beheaded her and dismembered her body, dissecting her torso at the waist, and then he cut her up and ate her over a nine-day period. Investigators later reported that Fish grinned as he described draining her blood and drinking it.

The horrified detectives then made their own trip to Wisteria Cottage and recovered the skeletal remains of Grace Budd, buried in pieces beside a stone wall behind the cottage. Detective King finally had his killer -- but Fish couldn't stop confessing. He described other murders that he had committed between 1910 and 1934. Much of what he told police turned out to be false or exaggerated but he still provided enough details to convince the investigators that he had killed before. Some have even suggested that he may have killed dozens of people. The detectives were chilled to discover that Fish had been arrested in the New York area six times since the disappearance of Grace Budd on charges that ranged from petty larceny, to vagrancy, to sending obscene letters through the post office. Three of the arrests occurred in the three-month period after Grace had been kidnapped but each time the charges against him were dismissed. As for the other arrests, he walked free each time with either a short period of incarceration or a fine. No one ever guessed that the old man was a depraved killer.

One of the few people not surprised at the arrest of Fish was his son, Albert Fish Jr. "That old skunk," he said in a newspaper interview, "I always knew that he would get caught for something like this." He went on to tell of his father's penchant for raw meat and how he had come home one day to find his father stripped naked and beating himself with a heavy board that was studded with sharp nails. He threw the old man out of his house shortly after. He concluded his interview in disgust. "I've never wanted anything to do with him and I'll not lift a hand to help him."

Fish was examined by teams of doctors and he relished the notoriety. He described his fetishes and perversions to the fascinated psychiatrists, telling of inserting needles into his scrotum and inserting wool that was doused with lighter fluid into his anus and setting it on fire. One psychiatrist in particular, Dr. Frederic Wertham, got remarkably close to Fish before and after his trial. He later wrote that Fish "looked like a meek and innocuous little old man, gentle and benevolent, friendly and polite. If you wanted someone to entrust your children to, he would be the one you would choose." However, he then went on to describe Fish as the most complex example of a "polymorphous pervert" he had ever known --- someone who had practiced every perversion and deviation known to man, from sodomy to sadism, eating excrement and self mutilation. He even confessed to Wertham that he had carried Grace's ears and nose back to New York with him, wrapped in newspaper. He placed the bundle on his lap as he traveled by train and quivered with excitement as he thought about what was inside.

Like the other examining physicians, Wertham judged Fish to be insane. He said that Fish was a sadist of incredible cruelty, a homosexual and a pedophile with a penchant for young children. As a self-employed painter, Fish had skulked around basements and cellars for 50 years and preyed on scores of innocent children. He could not begin to guess how many victims the man had claimed "but I believe to the best of my knowledge," Wertham concluded, "that he has raped one hundred children, at least."

Fish's attorney, James Dempsey, told the jury at trial, mentioning the needles and the nail-studded paddles that they were dealing with a tragic mental case. "We do not have to prove that he is insane," Dempsey told the jury. "Rather it is up to the state to prove that he is sane." Dempsey only had one question for the lead psychiatrist for the defense, Dr. Wertham, but that one question about Fish's sanity took an hour and fifteen minutes to read. It was 15,000 words long and covered 45 type-written pages. Wertham only used three words to reply: "He is insane."

This did nothing to convince the jury though and whether they believed he was insane or not, they wanted to see the killer punished. He was found guilty and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Fish had only one response to this verdict: "Going to the electric chair will be the supreme thrill of my life."

He came to Sing Sing prison in 1935 carrying a Bible and handcuffed to another murderer, named Stone.

Dozens of appeals to save Fish were rejected and he was scheduled to die on January 16, 1936. As his appointment with the electric chair grew closer, Fish told reporters that he was looking forward to his execution. "It will be the only thrill I have not tried," he reportedly said. On January 16, Fish ate his last meal (a steak) and without aid, entered the death room and walked briskly to the electric chair. He climbed into the seat and readily helped the guards fix the electrodes to his legs. The reporters and witnesses who were present were aghast at his behavior. He could barely manage to contain his joy at going to a violent death.

Legend has it that death did not come as quickly as Fish might have liked. When the switch was pulled, according to the story, the first massive jolt of over 3,000 volts failed to kill him. Blue smoke appeared around him but that was all and it has been surmised that the needles that he had put into his body actually created a short circuit. Another, prolonged and massive charge had to be sent through his body in order to execute him -- or so the story that circulated went. In truth, Fish died just like anyone else. When the current raced through him, his body surged and his fists clenched. Moments later, the doctor on duty pronounced that Fish, the oldest man ever executed at Sing Sing, was dead.
While the old man's corpse was being taken out to the autopsy room, his defense attorney met with reporters. In his hand, he held Albert Fish's final statement, several pages of hand-written notes that he had penned in the hours before his death. To this day, the statement has never been revealed. "I will never show it to anyone," Dempsey said. "it was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read."

Victims
Francis X. McDonnell, age 8, July 15, 1924
Billy Gaffney, age 8, February 11, 1927
Grace Budd, age 10, June 3, 1928

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

Albert Fish letter to Mrs. Budd: (unedited)
My Dear Mrs. Budd,

In 1894 a friend of mine shipped as a deck hand on the Steamer Tacoma, Capt. John Davis. They sailed from San Francisco for Hong Kong China. On arriving there he and two others went ashore and got drunk. When they returned the boat was gone. At that time there was a famine in China. Meat of any kind was from $1-3 Dollars a pound. So great was the suffering among the very poor that all children under 12 were sold to the Butchers to be cut up and used for food in order to keep others from starving. A boy or girl under 14 was not safe in the street. You could go in any shop and ask for steak-chops-or stew meat. Part of the naked body of a boy or a girl would be brought out and just what you wanted cut from it. A boy or girls behind which is the sweetest part of the body and sold as veal cutlet brought the highest price. John staid there so long he acquired a taste for human flesh. On his return to N.Y. he stole two boys one 7 one 11. Took them to his home stripped them naked tied them in a closet. Then burned everything they had on. Several times every day and night he spanked them-tortured them-to make their meat good and tender. First he killed the 11 yr old boy, because he had the fattest ass and of course the most meat on it. Every part of his body was Cooked and eaten except head-bones and guts. He was Roasted in the oven (all of his ass), boiled, broiled, fried, stewed. The little boy was next, went the same way. At that time, I was living at 409 E 100 st., near-right side. He told me so often how good Human flesh was I made up my mind to taste it. On Sunday June the 3-1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. Brought you pot cheese- strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind to eat her. On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said Yes she could go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked out. When we got there,I told her to remain outside. She picked wildflowers. I went upstairs and stripped all my clothes off. I knew if I did not I would get her blood on them. When all was ready I went to the window and Called her. Then I hid in a closet until she was in the room. When she saw me all naked she began to cry and tried to run downstairs. I grabbed her and she said she would tell her mamma. First I stripped her naked. How she did kick-bite and scratch. 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. It took me 9 days to eat her entire body. I did not fuck her tho I could of had I wished. She died a virgin.

Albert Fish confession about killing Billy Gaffney: (unedited)

I brought him to the Riker Ave. dumps. There is a house that stands alone, not far from where I took him. I took the boy there. Stripped him naked and tied his hands and feet and gagged him with a piece of dirty rag I picked out of the dump. Then I burned his clothes. Threw his shoes in the dump. Then I walked back and took the trolley to 59 St. at 2 A.M. and walked from there home. Next day about 2 P.M., I took tools, a good heavy cat-of-nine tails. Home made. Short handle. Cut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches long. I whipped his bare behind till the blood ran from his legs. I cut off his ears - nose - slit his mouth from ear to ear. Gouged out his eyes. He was dead then. I stuck the knife in his belly and held my mouth to his body and drank his blood. I picked up four old potato sacks and gathered a pile of stones. Then I cut him up. I had a grip with me. I put his nose, ears and a few slices of his belly in the grip. Then I cut him through the middle of his body. Just below the belly button. Then through his legs about 2 inches below his behind. I put this in my grip with a lot of paper. I cut off the head - feet - arms - hands and the legs below the knee. This I put in sacks weighed with stones, tied the ends and threw them into the pools of slimy water you will see all along the road going to North Beach. I came home with my meat. I had the front of his body I liked best. His monkey and pee wees and a nice little fat behind to roast in the oven and eat. I made a stew out of his ears -- nose -- pieces of his face and belly. I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt and pepper. It was good. Then I split the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and pee wees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put them in the oven. Then I picked 4 onions and when the meat had roasted about 1/4 hour, I poured about a pint of water over it for gravy and put in the onions. At frequent intervals I basted his behind with a wooden spoon. So the meat would be nice and juicy. In about 2 hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did. I ate every bit of the meat in about four days. His little monkey was as sweet as a nut, but his pee-wees I could not chew. Threw them in the toilet.

A history of cannibalism
By Frederick W. Cook
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

A cannibal, one might say, is the extreme opposite of a vegetarian. Though for a cannibal, vegetarians might be on the menu. Cannibalism is the act of eating ones own species, generally “human eating human.” The act of cannibalizing has been around since man first walked upright. There are two classifications of cannibalism that have been practiced; endocannibalism and exocannibalism.

Endocannibalism is the act of eating another human from within ones own tribe, group or culture and generally serves a variety of purposes or reasons, usually involving ritual. Exocannibalism is the act of eating humans from outside of ones culture, tribe etc…and also includes those who eat corpses of the already deceased. Most commonly in both forms of cannibalism, eating the same species was not done for nutrition (puuuuuuure protein) and instead held some ritual significance.

A third classification of cannibalism occurs only under extreme circumstances, famine, survival or mental illness, but has no real title. This third classification is described by Wikipedia.com, as cannibalism sanctioned by “cultural norm.” It is easiest to find evidence of the third classification of cannibalism throughout history, generally due to famine and food shortages.

Historically, calling ones neighbor a cannibal was used to almost remove their humanity and allow the accuser the right to kill or enslave the populace. It has been proven that many of the claims of cannibalism throughout history, have been false and were used for personal gain. This does not in any way mean that reports of cannibalism were all merely fabricated, as proof has also been found to substantiate cannibalisms practice.

In Germany along the Hönne, where many of Europe’s largest caves were built, 1,891 signs of cannibalism were found, especially in Karhofhöhle cave from around 1000BC – 700AD. In the years BC 1073-1064 in ancient Egypt, the mighty Nile River didn’t flood and the people were made to resort to cannibalism or starvation to survive. It was widely stated and speculated that during the first crusades cannibalism and crusaders feasting on the flesh of the conquered, occurred numerous times.

From the spring of 1315 until 1322, Europe was wracked with what is known as the “Great Famine.” Innumerable cases of cannibalism sprang throughout Europe, as millions of people died of starvation and extreme famine. Many cultures over the millennia have practiced cannibalism; the Aztecs, the Anasazi Indians, 1920’s Soviet Russian’s, Chinese, early American settlers and serial killers the world over.

There are few cultures that exist that do not have at least speculative or incidental (Spurts) accounts of cannibalism in their history. In 1884 some of the first catholic missionaries formed the first Roman Catholic Church in the Solomon Island’s and were soon after eaten by the natives there. (Tastes like HOLY!)

In 1552, Hans Staden was shipwrecked with his small crew of survivors and consequently captured by natives for nine months in Brazil. Staden’s crew was killed and eaten. However, Staden managed to survive to tell the tale. Whangaroa in 1809 was the largest mass killing and episode of cannibalism in New Zealand’s history, when the Maori took revenge for the whipping of a Maori chief’s son aboard a slave ship. Sixty-six men, women and children were killed and then eaten by the Maori tribes in what’s known as the “Boyd Massacre.”

In 1816 a French Frigate called “The Medusa,” found itself crashing off the coast of Senegal. 140 members of the Medusa’s party (crew and passengers) were stranded on a raft for four days at sea, living off of the remains of those who died. The Medusa crash and following (monstrous Tom Sawyer-esk) raft excursion have been the topic of numerous paintings, poems, plays and movies.

In the winter of 1846-1847 a group of individuals left independence, Missouri bound for California, but became snow-blind along the Sierra Nevada. The emigrants in the party resorted to cannibalism to survive. Those individuals became known as the “Donner party,” after the brothers George and Jacob Donner, who alongside their friend James Reed, formed the party with their crew of around thirty hands.

In February of 1945 the Japanese soldiers Maj. Matoba, Gen. Tachibana, Adm. Mori, Capt. Yoshii, and Dr. Teraki were found guilty and hanged of killing and eating five American airmen. This was one of the most horrific (and well documented) atrocities against American captive soldiers committed during World War two.

Another account of cannibalism during WWII comes during the siege of Leningrad. It’s been stated that after consuming all of the pets around them, people began killing other humans for their flesh. This became such a problem that the Leningrad police formed a special anti-cannibalism division. (Think Soilent green…)

New York Times reporter William Buehler Seabrook, after a trip to West Africa and meeting with the Guere tribe, became fascinated with cannibalism. An intern at the Sorbonne procured some meat from a man who was killed in an accident and Seabrook soon got his wish to understand cannibalism a little bit better, he said;

“It was like good, fully developed veal, not young, but not yet beef. It was very definitely like that, and it was not like any other meat I had ever tasted. It was so nearly like good, fully developed veal that I think no person with a palate of ordinary, normal sensitiveness could distinguish it from veal. It was mild, good meat with no other sharply defined or highly characteristic taste such as for instance, goat, high game, and pork have. The steak was slightly tougher than prime veal, a little stringy, but not too tough or stringy to be agreeably edible. The roast, from which I cut and ate a central slice, was tender, and in color, texture, smell as well as taste, strengthened my certainty that of all the meats we habitually know, veal is the one meat to which this meat is accurately comparable.”

Journalist Neil Davis reported on cannibalism in the nineteen-sixties and seventies during the South East Asian wars. Cambodian troops ate the livers of those they’d kill or capture as well as those under the Khmer Rouge were forced to cannibalize others out of food rationing and starvation.

For the sake of space (I could write a book on all of the cases of cannibalism due to famine or by tribes), we’ll begin to focus on people and their illegal appetite for you and I.

Armin Meiwes also known as the "Rotenburg Cannibal" or "Metzgermeister" (The Master Butcher) used the Internet to find and eat a willing victim named Bernd Jürgen Brandes. Before killing Brandes, Meiwes and his willing body donor attempted to eat Brandes own penis together. Meiwes then stabbed Brandes several times in the throat, hung him on a meat hook and for ten months kept parts in his freezer and ate upwards of 20kg of Brandes a day!

Danijel Jakupek Zak a twenty-six year old was arrested and charged with murder and cannibalizing of a five-year-old boy (His fellow schoolmate) and his uncle. Day’s later police arrested Özgür Dengiz (also known as the “Cannibal of Ankara”) A Turkish serial killer and cannibal who killed two men, planned to kill another and ate one of his victims. Cafer Er, one of Dengiz’ victims went missing for several days before police found his body at the Mamak dump. Police said that it was apparent that Er was murdered; mutilated and large chunks of flesh had been removed.

A Danish artist named Marco Evaristti held a diner party and fed his guests agnolotti pasta topped with a meatball made from his own fat, from a liposuction operation held previously. (Art with a message…and taste.)

Between 1978 and 1991 Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer murdered and ate 17 men and boys in and around the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. It was stated that Dahmer was involved in cannibalism, necrophilia and rape and was in the process of setting up a makeshift altar out of skulls and candles. The single survivor to escape Dahmer’s clutches, Tracy Edwards, managed to alert police to Dahmer’s apartment, number 213 where they made the grisly findings.

Inside of Dahmer’s apartment they found photographs of murder victims, human remains stored in acid vats, severed heads in his refrigerator and at least three human skulls for use in an altar. Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered alongside another inmate Jesse Anderson, by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver on November 28th, 1994.

Otis Toole was yet another reputed serial killer cannibal, made famous by his confession in the July 1991 murder of Adam Walsh, son of John Walsh, the child victim advocate and host of the America’s most wanted television program. Of Toole’s many claims, beside that his grandmother was a Satanist and his mother a religious fanatic, was that his first murder occurred when he was fourteen years old. Another popular claim by Toole was that he’d killed hundreds of people for some cult known as “the hand of death,” with a friend of his Henry Lee Lucas.

Toole confessed to the kidnapping, rape, murder and dismemberment of Adam Walsh, stating that he’d cut him up and fed him to alligators in a nearby swamp. Though Toole confessed to the crime, police no longer considered him a suspect after preliminary investigations, John Walsh however still believes that Toole murdered his son. In all, Toole was charged with two murders and later confessed to four more before cirrhosis of the liver claimed him while serving his sentence.

Another modern cannibal is Issei Sagawa, who was convicted of killing (Via a gunshot to the neck) and eating Renée Hartevelt. Mr. Sagawa ate the woman because he wanted her energy, beauty and health, as he described himself as a “weak, ugly and small man.” After a hearty bout of necrophilia with the woman’s corpse, Issei Sagawa proceeded to eat her hips and was surprised at the "corn-colored" human fat.

Mr. Sagawa described his less then mundane meal, as “odorless and soft like tuna.” After his arrest and following deportation from Paris back to Japan, Issei Sagawa served fifteen month’s in a mental institution and was then checked out and has been a free man since. Now living in Tokyo, Japan, Issei Sagawa is a minor celebrity, writing books, appearing on various television and film programs and even working as a restaurant reviewer.

Edmund Emil Kemper III also known as the “co-ed killer,” is another fine example of modern cannibalism by a serial killer. He was known to have tortured and killed animals and enacted sexual perversions with his sister’s dolls all at a very young age. Kemper’s mother locked him in the basement at nights for fear he would rape his sisters and she’d often abuse and berate him due to her suffering from borderline personality disorder.

In August of 1964, Kemper murdered his grandparents and when asked why, he’d replied, "just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma," he knew his grandfather would be angry and so he killed him as well, all at only fifteen years old. After his release from Atascadero State Hospital and after several jobs, Kemper was at it again starting in May of 1972.

From May 72, until February 73, Kemper picked up several female hitchhikers, murdered them, brought them back to his apartment, then after a little necrophilia, dumped or buried the bodies in ravines. In April 1973 he murdered and mutilated his mother and her best friend, throwing his mothers vocals chords into the garbage disposal. The disposal couldn’t penetrate the thick tissues and the vocals chords ended up back in the sink.

After turning himself in to authorities, Kemper said, “That seemed appropriate…as much as she'd bitched and screamed and yelled at me over so many years." In all Edmund Kemper III claimed ten lives and confessed unrepentantly to murder, necrophilia and cannibalism to the courts and still serves a life sentence in Vacaville state prison.

South Korean Yoo Young-Chul, murdered, mutilated and burned twenty-one people, mainly prostitutes and wealthy elderly individuals. Yoo Young-Chul admitted to eating the livers of several of his victims. When asked why he killed, he replied, "Women shouldn't be sluts, and the rich should know what they've done." Yoo Young-Chul was sentenced and put to death on June 19th 2005.

José Luis Calva Zepeda was an author, a confessed serial killer and cannibal in up to eight separate cases of murder. Under suspicion for disappearance of his girlfriend Alejandra Galeana, the Federal Preventative Police stormed Calva’s house and found him eating human flesh. Upon further inspection of Calva’s home, investigators found a myriad of the macabre ranging from his girlfriends mutilated corpse, man beef in the fridge and a box of cereal with bones in it.

Mexico was forced to take down the sign “500 years without cannibalism and counting,” and had to start all over. December 11th 2007, Calva hung himself in his cell with a belt (possibly old Navy?) between 6:00am and 6:30am.

Convicted of eight murders, confessed to thirteen including cannibalization and mutilation, the “Ruhr Cannibal,” “The Duisberg man-eater,”…Joachim Kroll. Kroll’s spree began in 1955 and ended in 1976, throughout Kroll favoring the rape and strangulation method (in no particular order). When Joachim Kroll was arrested on July 3rd, 1976, police found the body of a four-year old girl cut into parts, parts of the girl were in the refrigerator, her hand in a pot of boiling water and intestines were in a waste pipe.

When Kroll was asked why he’d eaten his victims, he’d replied to save on grocery bills (Option for the economy and food shortages?). After a 151-day trial, Kroll was given nine life sentences and in 1991, he’d died of a massive heart attack while serving his time in prison of Rheinbach.

Richard Chase is another noted cannibal serial killer, who in the span of one month, killed and ate six Californian’s. Sometimes known as “The vampire of Sacramento” because he drank his victim’s blood and ate their remains, Chase was a delusional being. Chase was fond of torturing and disemboweling animals, as well as eating them sushi style a.k.a raw.

Chase was referred to as “Dracula” by the staff of a mental institution that he’d been involuntarily committed to. A healthy dose of the woo woo juice in the mental hospital and Chase was released to his then divorced parents, who got him his own apartment. Chase rampaged through California killing and cannibalizing along the way and both humans and animals were on the menu. Chase was convicted on six counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to die in the gas chamber.

Richard Chase committed suicide on December 26, 1980 in his cell, with an overdose of prescription antidepressants. Before killing himself, Chase granted a series of entertaining interviews with Robert Ressler, talking about Nazi’s, UFO’s and radar guns…oh my.

Marc Sappington killed four people and ate a part of one of his victim’s leg. A known schizophrenic and under the influence of PCP, Sappington said voices told him to kill, eat flesh and drink blood or he’d die. Sappington killed two of his four victims in the same day and soon became known as the “Kansas City vampire.” It was said that blood and gore was everywhere in Sappington’s mother’s basement, imagine having to clean that mess. Sappington is currently serving four consecutive life sentences for his crimes.

The list goes on and on of cannibals past and present, and cannibals in popular media are just reaching their height of popularity. Everything from “Silence of the lambs” and “Ravenous,” to the highly successful “Sweeney Todd” shows that cannibals are the new proverbial “vampire” of pop culture.

Humans have been eating humans since…well humans have been around! A mild form of cannibalism is practiced during mass, in love bites with a girl or boyfriend, in French kissing, in bloodletting and sharing etc. For good or for bad, for terror, lust, study or entertainment, cannibals and cannibalism has and will continue to be a part of humanity.

The Fuss about Cannibalism
By Keimi Yamagata
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec asked, “Can the cannibal speak in the name of those he ate?” The answer is up to speculation, but undeniable are the new perspectives given by the cannibal. From Hannibal’s Chianti and fava beans to celestially-named families of hill people, cannibals have integrated themselves into cinema, literature, and newspaper headlines for centuries. But just what is the appeal? What is the fuss the all about?

Where better to start searching for answers than with the self-proclaimed “Godfather of Cannibals” himself, Issei Sagawa. Not only is Sagawa one of the most unashamed and brazen of all real life cannibals throughout history, he is one who went through the legal system to only get away with, quite literally, murder. Years before the sleazy talk show and soft-core porn magazine celebrity he’s known for today, his singular account of cannibalism was about to be committed.

While studying in France at the Sorbonne in 1981, a young woman by the name of Renee Hartevelt had the misfortune of Sagawa’s obsession falling on her. It was one evening when Hartevelt had come over to his apartment to read poetry as they sat on the bed that Sagawa realized his wants. In his now out of print bestselling novel, In The Fog, he wrote of his thoughts as he sat next to her, “My passion is so great. I want to eat her. If I do she will be mine forever. There is no escape from this desire.” The next evening when she returned, Sagawa let her seat herself and as she was to begin reading the poetry, he shot her with a rifle in the back of her neck and she died instantly. Sagawa now had his meal ready to be prepared. But his own lack of preparedness on the subject emerged when he realized he had no idea how to prepare human flesh. So, like any other person, Sagawa grabs a knife and decides to start with the buttocks. He describes the experience by saying, “Suddenly a lot of sallow fat oozes from the wound. It reminds me of Indian corn. It continues to ooze. It is strange. Finally I find the red meat under the sallow fat. I scoop it out and put it in my mouth. I chew. It has no smell and no taste. It melts in my mouth like a perfect piece of tuna. I look in her eyes and say: 'You are delicious.'”

Enjoying the experience so immensely, the entire night he sampled various other body parts, all while using her underwear as a napkin. He mentions that her breast was disappointing because it was “too greasy.” He took many photos of her, indulged in some necrophiliac pleasures, and then went to sleep. The following days he picked his favorite delectables, including Hartevelt’s lips and buttocks, and then disposed of the rest in two suitcases. Not the smartest of criminals, he was soon caught, his apartment raided. Psychiatric evaluations followed and he was declared “incurable,” but then, because of the high cost of asylums, Sagawa was deported back to Japan where his wealthy industrialist father eventually got him cleared. It was then that his fame began, TV interviews, the aforementioned best selling book, being the inspiration behind The Rolling Stones song, “Too Much Blood,” and now in his later years, taking up painting. His art consists mainly of women and mostly centers on, none other than, the buttocks.

Moving on to many years before Issei Sagawa’s fascination, the curiosity of one Mr. William Buehler Seabrook, a reporter in 1931, was sparked as to what human meat tasted like after a trip to West Africa. His dissatisfaction lingered after the trip where he had asked the tribe leader of the Guere people he stayed with what humans tasted like and the answer wasn’t good enough for him. So upon his return, he sought the aid of a hospital worker who gave him a piece of a body of a healthy cadaver who had died in an accident. With rice and stew, he prepared what he called a “sizeable rump steak” and ate the meal. This is description of the taste, “It was like good, fully developed veal, not young, but not yet beef. It was very definitely like that, and it was not like any other meat I had ever tasted. It was so nearly like good, fully developed veal that I think no person with a palate of ordinary, normal sensitiveness could distinguish it from veal. It was mild, good meat with no other sharply defined or highly characteristic taste such as for instance, goat, high game, and pork have. The steak was slightly tougher than prime veal, a little stringy, but not too tough or stringy to be agreeably edible. The roast, from which I cut and ate a central slice, was tender, and in color, texture, smell as well as taste, strengthened my certainty that of all the meats we habitually know, veal is the one meat to which this meat is accurately comparable.”

The eccentric life of Seabrook had begun far before his delving into cannibalism and would continue throughout his life. Aleister Crowley himself had stayed at Seabrook’s farm in 1920, Seabrook had traveled across the world to research his lifelong interest in Satanism and voodoo and in 1933 he committed himself to sanitarium for his alcoholism. Before dying of suicide by drug overdose in 1945, he had written over 10 books on all his experiences.
Globally speaking, we’ve covered the USA, France, and Japan. The next stop on our cannibalism caravan: Germany with the one & only “Butcher of Hanover.” From 1919 to 1924, Fritz Haarman began to satisfy his appetite via biting the necks out of young boys he lured back to his apartment with a total of at least 24 victims before he was done. The answer to what we all look like sliced up might lie in the fact that Haarman, to dispose of the remains, sold the human meat as pork. During his spree, he was not alone however, his partner Hans Grans, whom he lived with, would sell the clothes for him, however Grans would later claim that he had no involvement even though he was urged by Haarman to be a part of the killings. As would be expected, Haarman was finally caught when some of the skeletons from the parts he had kept and disposed of, washed up from a local river and was eventually connected to him. This was one of the first big murder trials in Germany and the media coverage was unimaginable. Although there was major speculation over the mental capacity and sanity of Haarman, he was put to death and was beheaded in 1925.
Considering the consequences of cannibalism, the pull to take that first bite must truly be a strong one, so strong in fact, that our own bodies can’t sometimes resist. Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome is a disorder that causes auto-cannibalism and other self-mutilating behaviors. Finger and lip biting are common side effects and 60% of those afflicted, have to have all their teeth removed so that they do not bite off their lips, cheeks, tongues, or other parts. Another disease called acute pancreatitis can sometimes result in the auto-digestion of the pancreas. Yes, this is a stretch, but how can we know if a subconscious cannibal is inside of us?

To avoid being deemed pessimistic is there hope for the cannibals of the world? Well, Mark Nuckols certainly tried to create some with is 2005 invention of “Hufu.” In Nuckols own words its, “the healthy human flesh alternative for cannibals who want to quit.” Starting the website advertising the product in May of 2005, Nuckols never quite stated whether it was all meant as a farce or not, letting the public decide. When asked how he could have ever thought up the idea, he said that it just came to him one night as he ate a Tofurky sandwich and read “Good To Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture” by anthropologist Marvin Harris on the topic of cannibalism. Despite the obvious appeal of the product, the website itself admitting it was, “a great convenience food for cannibals. No more Friday night hunting raids!” Nuckols closed the site in 2006 because of rising costs to keep it running.
At the end of the day, cannibals are still and, for all intensive purposes, will always be, enigmas in our societies and of those around the world. Also, the true taste of human flesh itself seems to not be so clear or universal. Whether tuna, pork, veal, or tasteless, it’s apparent that not everything tastes like chicken in the realm of human carcass. But perhaps it’s the experience, not the flavor…the sight of a human torso next to the ice cube tray in the freezer. Who knows. But it seems America will continue to try and find out why as fascination and stigma run parallel into the future. Who will the next cannibal be to rear his or her head? What will the delicacy taste like to them? What name will they be branded with by the papers? Again, who knows. But, I ask, if we are what we eat, then, aren’t cannibals just human after all?

Pleading Insanity? – You Must be Crazy
By Brad Barrett
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, there's nothing better than taking some time for you. You might want to while away the hours cramming long needles in the space between your anus and scrotum. Or, if that doesn't tempt you, you might want a mouthful of your own crap, washed down with hot, salty urine. Still no takers? Anybody even hear voices? Anybody?

If there's one thing about Albert Fish that seems painfully obvious, it's this: He was nuttier than squirrel shit. What else can you say about a man who was a pedophile, a sadist, and a masochist? What other conclusion can you draw about a man whose obsessions included castration, cannibalism, coprophillia, urophillia and piquerism?

I'll save you the trouble of going to Wikipedia to find out what those last three mean. In short, Albert was obsessed with feces, urine, and stabbing (both himself and others). His favorite method of flagellating his own body involved a paddle filled with nails. He would often beat himself into a bloody mess.

He is well deserving of his nickname. He is the real, honest to goodness Boogeyman.

He first realized he was a few rounds short of a clip when he was still a child. After his father died, his mother put him in an orphanage where he was beaten unmercifully. So were all the other children. The difference was Albert liked the beatings. He enjoyed them so much they gave him erections. This gave the other children hours of entertainment at Albert's expense. It probably did wonders for his self esteem in the process.

It was much later, after his wife had left him, when Albert began to hear "angels" telling him to dash out the brains of children. That would have been cruel enough. Crueler still was what he actually did to them. He beat them for hours. He cut off ears. He extended smiles up the sides of faces. He removed noses, heads, limbs and anything else that would come off. He sucked the blood from their punctured stomachs. Then, he feasted on them for days, taking great pains to make the preparation process long and involved, lengthening the experience.

Once, for good measure, he wrote a letter to the family of one of his victims. Grace Budd's mother couldn't read, so her son had to read the letter detailing the awful things Albert had done. This ultimately proved to be his downfall.

When Albert Fish had his day in court, Captain John Stein asked why he had written the letter. Albert didn't know. He supposed he "just had a mania for writing."

When asked why he had done such a horrible thing to young Grace, Albert said, "You know, I never could account for it."

His legal defense entered an insanity plea. It seemed like a sure fire way to keep him from being executed. Most normal people wouldn't mind seeing Albert take a nice long dirt nap, but doctors and psychiatrists would likely have wanted the chance to examine him further. He was, after all, a perfect storm of mental illness. A run-of-the-mill psychopath is just plain boring in comparison.

If you raised your hand, you are of the same opinion as the United States government. That's right, folks. Legally, Albert Fish is perfectly sane and completely responsible for the atrocities he committed.

You see, in order to be criminally insane in the U.S.A., you must be unable to distinguish between right and wrong. Note that it doesn't say you have to care. It doesn't say you have to feel guilty about it afterwards. To be sane, you merely need enough competence to know, deep down inside somewhere, that what you're doing will be frowned upon by others, if not yourself. It doesn't matter if your mother abandoned you. It doesn't matter if you were abused. It doesn't matter if the ghost of Adolf Hitler possessed you. It doesn't even matter if the fabric of time tore in half and you were kidnapped by ray gun-wielding slime creatures that hypnotized you and sent you back.

By its very nature, the legal definition of insanity will exclude nearly every serial killer in history. If you have no idea what you're doing is wrong, you won't take steps to cover it up. Therefore, you won't ever get the chance to become a serial killer.

Allow me to make a few clarifications. Technically, a serial killer has killed more than one victim. Those killings must have occurred at more than one time. A spree killer might have a shot at the insanity plea because their crimes take place all at once. Any sort of premeditation, however, will likely prove their sanity. Their sanity, in turn, will prove their guilt in the eyes of the law.

Upon learning of his verdict and his sentence, a Daily News reporter wrote that Albert's "…watery eyes gleamed at the thought of being burned by a heat more intense than the flames with which he often seared his flesh to gratify his lust." He supposedly thanked the judge for that method of execution. On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish was executed. His final words were, "I don't even know why I'm here."

Crazy as he was, it took the jury less than an hour to determine Albert was sane and guilty. If this man was judged to be sane, there seems to be little hope for anyone relying on an insanity defense. To plead insanity… well, that's just plain crazy.

In Search of America’s Most Evil Serial Killer
By Rhiannon Edwards
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Throughout history, millions have killed. From that we determine categories of killers, there are some who kill at war, and some who kill at random. It is true that killers take on all shapes and sizes, many different demeanors, and have an array of different methods. When you pinpoint serial killers, it’s simple to see all of them the same. We separate them according to their motives but often think that all were equally brutal in their crimes. However, this is not the case. It can be said that there are some killers, who take that extra step… committing acts that bring them from man, to monster. Some killers bring a style to the table that others can’t ignore, that leaves a mark and places them aside from the rest. Some killers are far from troubled or apathetic, looking at what they have managed to do we can say that they are evil incarnate. With that said, who then crosses this line into such depths the farthest? Who can we peg, as the most evil?

There has been interest in the topic recently, of just how we can determine the most evil serial killer and why they earn their placement.

There are killers I have discovered throughout the world who deserve a placement on this list. However this in particular is a compilation of those few serial killers who; through specific acts of torture, unique hedonistic methods, and brutal reasoning, we can come to the conclusion might just be the most evil serial killers in American History thus far.

It's evil enough to kill another human being, But to kill your loved ones is an incomprehensible act that can't be ignored.

With this, Belle Sorenson Gunness is added to the list at number 5. Mother, lover, and serial killer.

Known as "one of America's most profligate known female serial killers,"
it is said that Belle is estimated to have killed both of her husbands and all of her children. She is known to have killed most of the men she has been involved with, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. Her apparent motives involved collecting life insurance benefits. This is one of the killers that hit close to home, for the fact that considering your family…it is difficult to think that you might sacrifice them for money in such a way. Belle cared very little for who she killed, regardless of their status in her life. To her, the children and the lovers were worthless unless they could bring her profit.

Reports estimate that she killed more than twenty people over several decades and got away with it, many people claim that her body count may have reached over one hundred. She makes this list for key reasons; One of those reasons being her targets – all supposed “loved ones” who she shamelessly slaughtered for some extra cash, another being the fact that like most serial killers she did not feel any remorse…this presents the fact that her killing was mainly for money and out of annoyance, she also grew to care nothing about what she had to do in order to keep herself content. This of course is only one example of cases where mothers have killed those closest to them, and fathers as well. It is a longstanding trend. What is unique about this case in comparison to the others is that Belle was not mentally unstable, just plain ruthless. In many situations where the mother has killed, it was out of instants of delusion and misguided thinking. Belle’s murders were a landmark concerning one who would be so bold as to willfully and proudly make family just for the chance to kill them off.

Topping the brutality of Belle, we come to our number 4 placement, filled by none other than the infamous Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK strangler.

Bind, torture, kill. With torture in his name you couldn’t have expected him not to be on this list. Dennis Rader is well known for his acts of torture on his victims, and one serial killer who enjoyed this method to an extreme, making it one of the pillars of what he stood for. Rader bound, tortured, and killed his victims, making sure to cover all aspects of his art. He would strangle his victims until they lost consciousness, but it never ended there. Rader would then let them revive, and promptly strangle them again. He would repeat this pattern many times, forcing them into a near-death state all the while becoming sexually aroused at the visual created of their struggles. Often the final step of his killings would include Rader strangling them to death, which would be followed with masturbation where he would ejaculate into an article of their clothing to end things off, usually their underwear. BTK’s idea of a step by step process to putting his victims through hell before he finally ended their lives is something that was an influence to many killers later on, being something he prided himself on and something that set him apart from other murderers of the time. Aside from being influential, his methods were extremely sadistic and applied to a hedonistic mindset. All of this was very much a game, some work involved of course, but resulting ultimately in enjoyment and successful completion of his desires which he would blatantly throw in the faces of law enforcement. When you look at it that way, you can see that Rader went a step further in his indifference towards human beings and chose to deal with ending their lives in a lighthearted and so, grizzly fashion.

“[I c]ut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches long. I whipped his bare behind till the blood ran from his legs. I cut off his ears, nose, slit his mouth from ear to ear. Gouged out his eyes. He was dead then.” The words of number 3 on the list, Albert Fish. What else did he do to this victim? He engaged in continuing the knifing of this boy, and ultimately “made a stew out of his ears, nose, pieces of his face and belly.” Albert Fish is best known for the intricate and unbelievable murders of children. Just how many children he had killed, no one can know for sure. He was quite literally a stereotype of the “boogeyman”. For quite a long time he got away with it, due to his silent and gentle exterior to people around him. Who would ever think that this man was capable of so nonchalantly killing two birds with one stone, play time and dinner. His acts have been heavily publicized since the day he was found to have murdered, and for good reason. Fish, through his psychotic religious delusions, took hold of his human ability to kill and used it on one of the more innocent creatures on this earth, children. Unlike Belle Gunness who took the number 5 spot, these were not his own kin. That however, does not make the killings at hand any less gruesome. What stands out about his crimes is the way he killed, the disturbing reasons behind the killings, and also what he did with the bodies. The astonishing revelations we make about him can turn up from reading or hearing his descriptions of the murders and how he reacted towards them. He salivated with the thought of his actions, no true remorse found, and despite what he claimed to have forced him to commit these acts – the glory was often in what he was able to make of young bodies.

“At frequent intervals I basted his behind with a wooden spoon. So the meat would be nice and juicy. In about 2 hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did.”

What do we make of this? When one not only enjoys the torture of fellow human beings, but the torture of children, and then not only that aspect, but the ability to physically consume those he has tortured – cooking them proudly as if he had discovered the most expensive of roasts on sale. To most cannibals, human meat makes an increasingly better meal than that of what you can purchase at the store.

Albert Fish enjoyed his work, he would never regret one moment of it. Making a sadistic lifestyle look easy to incorporate into his daily schedule, he is by far one of the most evil serial killers in America for blatantly ruling out of his mind what makes his acts so cruel and unusual to us, allowing a mindset that sees the torture of an innocent as a necessity in order to satisfy his common needs.

As we reach the penultimate spot on the list, number 2, we must now really consider aspects of all prior killers mentioned on this list and somehow come up with who can possibly top all of them as well as accommodate all of their methods in one. Who could get away with killing more people than the others mentioned? Who could possess the ability to find even more unique ways of torture and murder…and therefore the charm to lure victims into such a trap?

The answer is in who is depicted to be the first true serial killer in American History, Herman Mudgett, better known under the alias of “Dr. Henry Howard Holmes”.

Very rarely would his lovers and hotel guests leave his presence alive, and if they ever had they would leave seriously and indefinitely scarred for life. Holmes would torture, and kill his victims. One way of doing this would be to lock them in soundproof bedrooms which were fitted with gas lines that allowed him the luxury of asphyxiating them at any given time. Others were locked in a huge bank vault which was near his office, where he could sit back comfortably and listen as they screamed, panicked, and then eventually suffocated from their struggles. His killing extended to “patients” who died as a result of his abortion procedures, no doubt intended to lead them to their demise. The whimsy of his obscure and indecent methods do not end there. With little respect for the lives of the humans he was able to take without much trouble, he used their dead bodies to strange extents not often dealt with by many other killers you will have heard of. These bodies went by a secret chute to the basement, and afterwards some were meticulously dissected, stripped of flesh, crafted into skeleton models, and then actually sold to medical schools – this includes the corpses of the women dying of their abortions, which were processed and also sold. There were some bodies cremated, and some placed in lime pits for destruction. Holmes also possessed two giant furnaces, as well as pits of acid, and various poisons to use at his leisure. One of the most alarming gadgets of torture and death which he owned was a stretching rack, allegedly in order to create a race of “giants” and other such experimentation. Medical school proved beneficial to him, allowing him to sell off his left over skeletons and the organs of victims with minimal difficulty. The existence of Holmes and his slayings is a mysterious one, we can estimate the number of his victims to be between 20 to 100, and some say even higher, which can only be based upon missing persons reports of the time and testimony of neighbors who reported seeing unusual events as well as young women accompanying Holmes into his hotel who never exited. The single verified number is 27, which is still an amazing amount to get away with – police however, had commented that “some of the bodies in the basement were so badly dismembered and decomposed, that it was difficult to tell how many bodies there actually were”. Again, counting the charm of this man, women were easiest to bring in, but this never stopped him from getting his hands on men and also children. What is so significant of these murders may not even be the ways in which they were tortured, or how their bodies were disposed of, but perhaps how dignified Holmes was able to act…and the composure kept during the entire process. This can signify that potentially, Holmes could have continued with his ways for years with ease. It is a disturbing thought that he had medical connections, and also that due to this it made killing and getting rid of bodies all the more simpler. These days although creative minds like that of his exist, they can never truly amount to the extent that brought all of this to be. It is obvious that, realizing what this man was capable of including the nature of his simply activity seeking induced crimes, he is a true candidate for one whom we may always see as one of the most evil human beings from the start that could be dealt with…

But not quite the most evil, not on this list anyway, because there is one more spot to be filled which is the number 1 placement.

The serial killer most intensely bonded with his torture seeking methods and body count, is none other than one that to this day surprisingly not a lot of people are familiar with. His crimes are questionable, and often debated over in terms of accuracy and capability. What this man is proven to have done reveals a depravity so potent that it would be difficult to keep him off of this list from any angle you approach. This man is Donald "Pee wee" Gaskins, said to be the most prolific serial killer in South Carolina history.

Donald’s victims were both male and female, child and adult. His acts included cannibalism, various acts of torture, and ultimately killing of these victims. Anyone could have been a potential target for his brutalities. Saying this seems a vague and average thing amongst the ranks of serial killers, unless you know the details.

As a child Gaskins was treated with disdain by his family, and not well liked by his peers as he grew older. Often teased and punished, he quickly developed an intense hatred towards those around him and battled this on a daily basis. As time passed and the hatred stayed with him, Gaskins took part in criminal activities and as a result was punished in many ways including jail time and reform school. However, punishment could not control what had been unleashed within Gaskins so long ago. Something had been deeply rooted within him and could easily be provoked at any given time, which became most apparent when he was confronted on an undesirable subject and acted out by taking a hammer to the head of a girl, which split her skull. For this he was charged for attempted murder. If he was capable of this, what else could he wind up involved in?

Donald Gaskins was just beginning his reign of terror. To build a persona that others would fear, he shed the face value of his small stature and learned to intimidate through his actions, which started violent and increased in violence as time went on. Although he had followed through with an array of disturbing acts, there were specific instances that pegged him as infamous for the monster he was.

His “vision” into “bothersome feelings” as he described it, led him to his most well known crimes. One instance of these inclusions can be noted as his tendency to keep his mutilated victims alive for days. Perfecting his torture methods, he would sometimes also cannibalize their severed parts as they watched, or were forced to participate in the consumption of their own flesh. This rarity and horrific experiment in torture was committed without a second thought on Gaskins’ part, as he allowed himself the luxury to do whatever was necessary in order to satisfy his visions of cruelty.

Continuing with his sadistic rampage, he identified his highway murders as recreational killings whereas his serious murders were reserved for those he knew personally. A chilling look into how he dissected his habit of homicide. Although his acquaintances often found him to be mentally disturbed and so distanced themselves from him, there were those who were friendlier to Gaskins – which sadly did not protect them from meeting the fate he had conducted. A prime example of this being that of Doreen Dempsey, who was pregnant at the time. Accepting a ride from Gaskins, he had taken her on an unexpected route to an isolated area of the woods in order to inflict his plans upon her. After raping and killing Dempsey, he also managed to sodomize her baby which Gaskins would later sickeningly describe as the best sex of his life.

His massacre truly did not stop at merely women and men, as he had not only violated and taken the life of this child, but many others; crushing their necks, cutting their throats, stabbing them, poisoning, drowning, beating them to death and even shooting them execution style. All of this a picture of how worthless and objectified he was able to render an innocent soul in his mind.

Gaskins had absolutely no regard and no consideration for any human life, other than his own, inflating his status in order to appreciate himself and committing acts which made him feel more powerful in his individual view. Having been possibly connected to over 100 murders, the few we have detailed stories on are enough to reveal this man’s nature and so enough to have him perceived as intensely evil in the eyes of those who see through his crimes. There’s a reason that Gaskins is sometimes referred to as the “Meanest Man in America”, from what I can see, he certainly fits the position. His unfathomable crimes stand notorious amongst serial killings due to their highly violent and unrelenting status, proving surreal and shocking to those who take the time to immerse themselves momentarily in his existence. Donald Gaskins is more than a maniac, and more than a sadist, he is America’s most evil serial killer.

Hiding Bodies
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

The FBI estimates that there are currently 500 serial killers at large. Other estimates are much lower, around 35 - 100 serial killers currently committing crimes. In 1983, they estimated that 5000 Americans or 15 people a day were killed by strangers. Every year, between 3500 - 5000 people in America are the victims of serial killers. In the past 20 years, 160 serial killers have been identified or captured, and 120 of them were in the United States.

Sometimes in the profile of a serial killer, authorities will use the dump sites as a guide in that profile, an example would be that if the body is dumped in a wooded area, the killer might be a hunter or fisherman who is comfortable in the woods. Studies have been done showing that in most cases where the serial killer wasn't traveling, such as a truck driver covering a lot of territory, serial killers go a certain distance within a triangle space when dumping the body.

Sometimes the serial killer will go back to the dumping grounds to spend more time with the victim, or to relive the experience. Sometimes they will go back to make sure they didn't leave any evidence behind, or in some cases, when they've integrated themselves to the local police, to help in the investigation, or to taunt the police and leave clues. Gary Ridgway didn't chew gum or smoke, but he did leave chewing gum and cigarette butts at dump sites. Once he even scattered airport motel pamphlets and car rental papers to imply that the killer was a traveling salesman. Sometimes (also Ridgway) they go back to the dump site to have sex with the remains.

There are studies which suggest that the average serial killer travels about a half an hour from home to dispose of a body. Unless work or some other activity puts them further away, they likely live more or less than thirty minutes from the site.

Maurice Godwin, a former police officer from North Carolina, conducted research into geographical profiling involving 54 American serial killers. An analysis of the crimes of the 54 killers, who had each murdered at least ten victims, disclosed that the average distance between the killers' home and his chosen dumping ground was 14.3 miles while the abduction area was only 1.4 miles away.

Put in Trash Bags (along highways):
Patrick Kearney and David Douglas Hill (The trash bag murders), Belgium's Butcher of Mons, Bob Berdella (Put remains in can for collection by trash collectors), Jeffery Dahmer, Richard W. Rogers, Grim Sleeper (victims covered by trash bags, found near dumpsters), Bruce Mendenhall, Larry Eyler (The Interstate Killer), Jefferson Davis Parish Louisiana serial killings (unsolved), Robert Pickton, Unknown serial killer in Seoul, The Family murders (Adelaide, Australia), Jeffrey S. Mailho, Vlado Tanevski, Jeffrey S. Mailhot,

Fed them to Animals
Joe Ball - The Alligator Man, Ottis Toole, Robert Pickton, Belle Gunness, Carl Panzram

Under houses, crawlspaces, basements
John Wayne Gacy, Kendall Francois, Jesse Harding Pomeroy, David Maust, Jeffery Dahmer

Rivers or other bodies of water
John Wayne Gacy, California Astrology Murderer, Gary Ridgeway, Sean Vincent Gillis, Lewiston Valley Killer, Amelia “The Baby Farmer” Dyer, Fritz Haarmann, The Atlanta Child Killer,

In or around Dumpsters in Alleyways
Daytona Beach SK (unsolved), George Russell, Eight Street Killer (Miami unsolved, 31 victims),

In the woods or fields
Gary Ridgeway, Ted Bundy, The I-45 Killer or Killer(s),east Texas and Montrose Killer(s), "killing fields" murders, Fort Myers killer, Gary G. Grant, James Edward Ruzicka, Gary A. Shaw, The 1969 Parkway Murders (Both Gerald Eugene Stano and Ted Bundy claimed credit for the Parkway Murders but were cleared), Ted Bundy (ditches and parks)

Didn't bother
Dennis Radar, Angel Maturino Reséndiz, Zodiac Killer, Richard Ramirez, Jack the Ripper, Jesse Harding Pomeroy, Herbert Mullin, Aileen Wuornos

Left them 'posed'
Albert Desalvo, Danny Rolling, the Grim Sleeper, George Russell

Dismemberment, cannibalism, hid some remains
Albert Fish, Jeffery Dahmer, Joachim Kroll, Arthur Shawcross, Henry Lee Lucas & Ottis Toole, Bob Berdella, Edmund Kemper III, Richard Trenton Chase, Douglas Clark & Carol Bundy, Andrei Chikatilo, Alfred Packer, Mark Sappington, Surender Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher

In house or apartment
Fritz Honka, Jose Luis Calva, John Christie, Charles Albright, Harrison Graham, Yang Xinhai, Moses Sithole, Tommy Lynn Sells, Dennis Radar, Richard Ramirez

Burried them
Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo, Juan Corona, Gilles de Rais, The Bloody Benders, Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzales, Pedro Alonso Lopez, Dorothea Puente, Reginald Christie, Fred West and Rosemary West, Gordon Northcott

Burned
Gilles de Rais, Steven Avery, Sudhakar Gajare, Uresh Warik, Ravi Poojary, Charles Sobhraj, Nicolae Bonner, Thomas Svekla, Jeremy Bryan Jones, John Childs, Ohio Cincinnati killer (unsolved), Dr. Marcel Petiot, Herman Webster Mudgett (H. H. Holms), Countess Erszebet Bathory, Gilles de Rais, The Alberta Serial Killer, Larry Bright

Dissolved in acid (or kept hidden in vats or drums)
John George Haigh, Javed Iqbal Mughal, Nuevo Laredo, Santiago Meza López, Jeffery Dahmer

Dumped near highways (and deserted roads – vacant lots)
Rory Conde, Last Call Killer, Robert Lee Yates, Jr., James Ruzicka, Randy Kraft, The I-5 Killer: Randy Woodfield, Dewayne Lee Harris, California Occult Murders (unsolved), Gary Michael Hilton, Donald E. Younge Jr, Edmund Kemper, Derrick Todd Lee, Highway of Tears Killer (unsolved), Ortega Highway, (The 44-mile stretch of highway, officially part of California Route 74, where many bodies have been found, William Bonin threw one here, so did Randy Kraft, Patrick Kearney did too), Mack Ray Edwards, Clifford Olson, Larry Eyler, New Bedford Highway killer (unsolved)

SERIAL KILLERS AND INSANITY
By: Jessica Robinson
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

In a perfect world, serial killers would be insane. This would allow the public to understand why they did what they did, and it would give them the chance to be treated. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and most serial killers are not insane. What does it mean to be insane? Surely anyone who kills another, eats their body parts, or has sex with a headless corpse can’t be in their right mind. Insanity, as defined by the Law Dictionary, reads as follows: “mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.” The definition continues for criminal insanity:
In criminal cases, a plea of ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ will require a trial on the issue of the defendant’s insanity (or sanity) at the time the crime was committed. In these cases the defendant usually claims ‘temporary insanity’ (crazy then, but okay now). The traditional test of insanity in criminal cases is whether the accused knew ‘the difference between right and wrong,’ following the ‘M’Naughten rule’ from 19th century England. Most states require more sophisticated tests based on psychiatric and/or psychological testimony evaluated by a jury of laypersons or a judge without psychiatric training. A claim by a criminal defendant of his/her insanity at the time of trial requires a separate hearing to determine if a defendant is sufficiently sane to understand the nature of a trial and participate in his/her own defense. If found to be insane, the defendant will be ordered to a mental facility, and the trial will be held only if sanity returns.1

The M’Naghten Rule, which was the earliest and most common test for criminal insanity, was based on a man named Daniel M’Naghten. He believed that he was personally being threatened by Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. He went to defend himself, and accidentally shot and killed Peel’s private secretary. He was acquitted on the grounds of insanity because he was not aware of his actions or the difference between right and wrong.

The only serial killer who has used the insanity plea successfully was Ed Gein. At the time of his arrest, he was found to be mentally incompetent, so he was considered unfit to stand trial. Instead of prison, he was sent to Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin. When this hospital was converted into a prison, Gein was sent to Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. His doctors determined he was sane enough to stand trial in 1968. He was found guilty of first-degree murder, but since he was already declared legally insane, he spent the remainder of his life in a mental institution.

Several other serial killers have attempted to convince the courts and the public that they are insane, but usually to no avail. One of the most common ruses is to create an alter ego. The hope here is that the killer will appear to have multiple personalities, making them less culpable for their actions. Multiple personality disorder, now referred to as dissociative identity disorder (DID), is defined as:
a mental illness that involves the sufferer experiencing at least two clear identities or personality states, each of which has a fairly consistent way of viewing and relating to the world...This disorder was formerly called multiple personality disorder (MPD) and is often referred to as split personality disorder. Although statistics regarding this disorder indicate that the incidence of DID is about 3% of patients in psychiatric hospitals and is described as occurring in females nine times more often than in males, this may be due to difficulty identifying the disorder in males. Also, disagreement among mental-health professionals about how this illness appears clinically, and if DID even exists, adds to the difficulty of estimating how often it occurs.

Some professionals continue to be of the opinion that DID does not exist...[A] concern about the diagnosis of DID involves having to rely on the traumatic memories of those who suffer from this disorder. That DID is significantly more often assessed in individuals in North America compared to the rest of the world, for the most part, leads some practitioners to believe that DID is a culture-based myth rather than a true disorder...Research on individuals with DID that have little to no media exposure to information on the illness lends further credibility to the reliability of this diagnosis.

If professionals can’t agree on how to diagnose it or if it even exists, then it must be easy to fake. H.H. Holmes created “Edward Hatch,” who he claimed was the evil mastermind behind the Pietzel children murder. (It should be noted that this in itself is an interesting defense considering “H.H. Holmes” was an alias created by Herman Webster Mudgett.) William Heirens created “George Murman,” John Gacy created “Jack Hanley,” and Kenneth Bianchi created “Steve Walker.” These alter egos fall apart under scrutiny because actual cases of DID are extremely rare. In the case of Kenneth Bianchi’s Steve, it was discovered that Bianchi had seen the movie “Sybil” days before his psychiatric evaluation.

These men tried to manipulate the system into thinking they were insane. One of the reasons they might have done it was so they wouldn’t get the death penalty, but then again, they might have just done it because it is their nature (I will expand upon this idea later). Serial killers aren’t stupid. That is evident in the fact that they can get away with multiple murders before finally being caught. Some of them are even able to hold together families. They know how to appear “normal.” So why would it be so hard to believe that they would want to appear insane? One of the most famous cases of attempting to be insane is Edmund Kemper.

After Kemper murdered his grandparents, he was sent to the criminally insane unit at Atascadero State Hospital. Kemper learned to manipulate the system. He “was such an endearing model prisoner and so intelligent that the staff trained him to administer psychiatric tests to other prisoners. Kemper later admitted that being able to understand how these test functioned allowed him to manipulate his psychiatrists.” He stayed in the hospital for 5 years before he was declared cured; he was no longer a danger to the public. He continued to see his probation psychiatrist, all the while fantasizing about murdering women. On one occasion, he even went to his session with a victim’s head in the trunk of his car. Because of his ability to appear “normal,” his psychiatrists believed that he was a well-adjusted individual.

But that is not to say that there are no instances of insanity among serial killers. One of the most common diagnoses for serial killers is schizophrenia, which is defined as:
A psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Distortions in perception affect all five senses, including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but most commonly manifest as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction. Onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood, with approximately 0.4-0.6% of the population affected…Studies suggest that genetics, early environment, neurobiology, psychological and social processes are important contributory factors; some recreational and prescription drugs appear to cause or worsen symptoms.

During Albert Fish’s trial, he claimed that he heard voices from God telling him to kill children. His family had a history of mental illness, including a family member who suffered from religious mania. Several experts took the stand, including several psychiatrists and his own 17-year old step-daughter. Nevertheless, he was found sane, and sentenced to death.

Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper, pleaded not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility at his trail, but he was found sane and found guilty of murder on all counts. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Later, he was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. In March 1984, he was sent to Broadmoor Hospital.

Herbert Mullin murdered thirteen people because voices in his head told him to do it to prevent an earthquake. He confessed to his crimes, so his trial focused on whether or not he was culpable for his actions. Despite the fact that he was in and out of mental institutions since the age of 21, he burned himself with cigarettes, and was evicted from an apartment because he repeatedly pounded on the floor and shouted at people who weren’t there, he was found guilty of first-degree murder for two of his victims and second-degree murder for eight. It was FBI profiler Robert K. Ressler who asserted that Mullin was schizophrenic. He claimed that it manifested as early as his senior year of high school and was accelerated by the use of marijuana, LSD, or amphetamines.

It is interesting to note that Mullin was claiming victims at the same time as Kemper, and they spent some time in the same prison. According to Peter Vronsky:
Kemper and Mullin were incarcerated in the same prison block, and Kemper tormented Mullin by calling him ‘Herbie,’ a diminutive Mullin hated. ‘He had a habit of singing and bothering people when somebody tried to watch TV. So I threw water on him to shut him up. Then, when he was a good boy, I’d give him peanuts. Herbie liked peanuts. That was effective, because pretty soon he asked permission to sing. That’s called behavior modification treatment.’

Asked if Kemper thought Mullin was insane, he replied, ‘Yes, judging from my years in Atascadero, I would say he is mentally ill.’3

Just because a serial killer is diagnosed as schizophrenic, that does not mean the disease was the cause of their murders. Whether or not violence is a symptom of schizophrenia is a very contentious issue. “Studies have indicated that 5% to 10% of those charged with murder in Western countries have a schizophrenia spectrum disorder.”4 Yet, there are also statistics that claim “Individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia are often the victims of violent crime—at least 14 times more often than they are perpetrators.”4
Most individuals who are diagnosed with schizophrenia tend to shy away from social situations because of their hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized and unusual thinking and speech. Since the disease usually manifests in late adolescence or early adulthood, the person’s social and vocational development can be severely disrupted. According to Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, a well known researcher, psychiatrist, and author in the field of schizophrenia:

There appear to be three primary predictors of violence and three other less well-defined predictors. The most important one is a history of past violence; this is the most significant predictor of violence no matter whether a person is mentally ill or not. In trying to predict future violent behavior, the person’s history is the single most critical piece of information.

The second important predictor is drug and alcohol abuse, and this is also valid whether the person is mentally ill or not. In 1994, Jeanette Smith and Stephen Hucker reviewed studies of substance abuse in persons with schizophrenia and noted ‘a growing body of research suggesting a significant link between schizophrenia, substance abuse, and violence.’

The third important predictor is the failure to take medication...Those who do not take prescribed medication appear to be much more likely to commit violent acts.

Albert Fish was born on May 19, 1870, in Washington D.C. His father was 43 years older than his mother and worked as a river boat captain and a fertilizer manufacturer. Fish’s father died of a heart attack, and his mother was forced to find work. She was unable to care for her son, so she placed him in an orphanage where he was frequently whipped and beaten. He discovered that he enjoyed the physical pain, and would get an erection from the abuse, which led the other kids to tease him. His mother eventually got a job with the government and was able to take him back. In 1882, Fish began a relationship with a telegraph boy who introduced him to drinking urine and coprophagia (which in itself might seem crazy, but the court did not find that his fetishes were caused by insanity). Perhaps if Fish had not been subjected to this abuse, he wouldn’t have murdered kids. Since violence was enacted on him, he felt he needed to enact it on others, which is very common in the cycle of abuse.

Herbert Mullin decided to stop taking drugs in January 1973, after he had murdered three people. He blamed his friend Jim Gianera from high school, who had sold him marijuana. But his spree did not end after he stopped taking drugs. He went on to murder ten more people.

The only known treatment for schizophrenia is antipsychotic medication. But, like all medications, they are only effective if taken regularly. It is unknown if any serial killers were prescribed antipsychotics or if they took them on a regular basis.

Schizophrenia describes the actions of some serial killers. Most experts (Peter Vronsky [an investigative journalist and author] and Dr. J. Reid Meloy [author of The Psychopathic Mind: Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment]) agree that serial killers can be classified as psychopathic, which is commonly known as antisocial personality disorder. As I mentioned earlier, serial killers may do what they do because it is in their nature. Vronsky claims:

Psychologists theorize that psychopaths have a diminished capacity to experience fear and anxiety, which are the roots to the normal development of conscience. Psychopaths are often very charismatic and very able at manipulating people. They are highly talented in feigning emotions while inside feeling nothing. They have no remorse for their victims and have highly developed psychological defense mechanisms such as rationalization (‘She should have known better than to hitchike’), projection (‘She was a heartless manipulating slut’), and disassociation (‘I don’t remember killing her’). They have a very weak realization of self and compensate for that with grandiosity and an inflated notion of entitlement—meaning that they feel that they are special and ‘entitled’ to act above the law or morality. Most notable, psychopaths lack any sense of empathy with the feeling of others.3

The list of serial killers who fit this profile seems endless. Ted Bundy calls himself the “most cold-blooded sonofabitch you’ll every meet. I just like to kill, I wanted to kill.” John Gacy never showed remorse, and called his victims “worthless little queers and punks.” Sutcliffe believed he was “cleaning up the streets.”

Dr. Meloy asserts that the psychopath’s relationships are based on power, not attachment. He believes that it starts in early childhood development. There is a split between the “soft me,” which is the vulnerable inside, and the “hard not-me,” which is the punishing outside. The child goes through neglectful or painful experiences, and expects that all outside experiences are going to be painful, so he turns inward. He distrusts everything and everyone outside, and refuses to allow anyone in. Because of this distrust, the child cannot identify with the parents, and soon, the child has no empathy for anyone.
The majority of serial killers came from rough childhoods. Many of them grew up with abusive parents and suffered horrible forms of torture. It’s possible that the reason Fish murdered children was because he held animosity toward those who made fun of him in the orphanage. He could exert his power over those who were younger and weaker than he was.

Kemper murdered women he believed he could never possess. His mother was overbearing and abusive. She constantly blamed her troubles on her son. She constantly belittled him and made him feel worthless. Kemper mainly murdered coeds because they were easy prey. Kemper’s mother worked at the University of California in Santa Cruz, so she gave him a parking sticker so he could pick her up from work. Even though students were warned not to take rides from strangers, the sticker in the window made them feel more at ease. He had power over the women, which was more than he could say with his mother.

The pattern continues with other serial killers. Those who suffered abuse from the hands of their mothers generally wound up killing women. Gacy, who suffered abuse from his father, wound up killing adolescent boys and men. The killers feel a sense of helplessness, a sense of worthlessness, so they kill those who are weaker to provide themselves with power and meaning.

Not every psychopath becomes a serial killer. Vronsky explains:
While not all psychopaths are violent, they are prone to violence more than average. It is estimated that 20 to 30 percent of prison populations consist of psychopaths. But the same might be said for the populations of corporate CEOs, performing artists, and certainly for politicians. Being a psychopath alone does not make one a serial killer.3

Kemper’s first profession of choice was to be a cop. At 6 feet 9 inches and weighing 280 pounds, Kemper tried out for the California Highway Patrol, but he was rejected because of his size. That did not stop him from hanging out with the police and becoming friends with them. After he started killing, he received inside information on the course of the investigation. He was so liked by the Santa Cruz police that when he called to confess to the murders of eight women, no one believed him.

There is no indication why Kemper went from wanting to be a cop to killing women. Perhaps it is because he wanted to be in a position where his lack of fear and anxiety would be put to good use, but since he couldn’t use that to help people, he used it to harm. There is a clear distinction between cops and criminals, between good and bad, and since Kemper couldn’t be good, his only other option was to be bad.

No one really knows why some psychopaths become violent and others don’t. It is theorized that the violence emerges out of personal social conditions and biological and genetic factors. There also seems to be an imbalance of chemicals that are linked to depression and compulsive behavior. There are a myriad of theories out there. But the truth is: no one really knows why serial killers kill.

The prevailing theory is that there is a delicate balance between a chaotic or abusive childhood and biochemical factors that can trigger murderous psychopathic behavior. Healthy social factors can prevent a biochemically unstable individual from committing criminal acts; healthy biochemistry can protect a person with a turbulent childhood from growing up to be a killer. Violent offenders emerge when both elements are out of balance. This theory goes a long way to explain why some children with difficult childhoods do not become serial killers and not everyone with a head injury behave criminally.3

Unfortunately, there is no treatment or cure for psychopaths. It cannot be traced to a single chemical, viral, or organic agent. Psychiatric facilities have no influence on a psychopath, with the exception of giving them more ways to manipulate the populace (see Edmund Kemper). Fortunately, it seems that psychopaths cure themselves as they age. For whatever reason, “Starting from age twenty-one, approximately 2 percent of all psychopaths go into remission every year. The older the psychopath becomes, the more likely that he will become adjusted to society—especially in his midforties.”3 This may explain why most serial killers kill in their mid-20s, and perhaps why Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer disappeared without being apprehended.

While it is possible for a serial killer to have a serious mental illness, most of them are diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. They are not legally insane because they know the difference between right and wrong; why else would they try to hide their actions from the public? On the one hand, this can be comforting. If serial killers are declared criminally insane, they cannot be given the death penalty. On the other hand, it is very frightening. If there is no treatment or cure, there is no way to stop it from occurring in future generations.

How Serial Killers are Caught
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

It is said that most Serial Killers are caught while being arrested for other things, traffic stops, speeding, stealing, etc. Here is a list of how some were caught.

Albert Desalvo - In 1960 De Salvo was arrested by police responding to a breaking and entering call. He was arrested him after a short foot pursuit in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Albert Fish – He wrote a letter about a murder to the victim's parents in which the paper was able to be traced back to him.

Andrei Chikatilo - The Butcher of Rostov - caught when trying to approach young children while under police surveillance.

Angel Resendiz - The Railroad Killer – turned himself in after relatives, who had knowledge of his whereabouts, contacted authorities who then began secret negotiations to win the suspect's surrender.

Angelo Buono Jr. Kenneth Bianchi - the Hillside Stranglers - an eyewitness caught sight of two men forcing a young woman into their car.

Anna Maria Zwanziger - At the urging of his servants (who had survived poisoning) Judge Gebhard (her former employer) had their food analyzed. Traces of arsenic were found after Anna had already escaped. Before her getaway she filled every salt shaker and sugar container in the household with generous doses of arsenic. On October 18, 1809 Anna was arrested after she had sent several letters to the Gebhard household extolling her love for the dead baby and saying the she was willing to forget the wrongs she had suffered and was ready to resume her duties. After six months of questioning, Anna finally broke down confessed.

Anthony Hardy - "trail of blood" led the police to Hardy's flat located a short distance from where the bodies were discovered. They promptly obtained a warrant and searched his ground floor apartment, where they found a great deal of incriminating evidence. At the time of the search Hardy was nowhere to be found. CCTV video surveillance camera caught him on tape on January 1 trying to fill a prescription for his diabetic medication at a London hospital.

Arthur Gary Bishop - He was caught in July of 1983 after killing a 13 year old who he was scheduled to chaperone on a camping trip.

Author Shawcross - caught in 1990 when police intentionally left the body of this final victim where they found it with the idea that a criminal will always return the scene of the crime. The police were right and serial killer Arthur Shawcross was caught

Beverly Allitt - When deaths were so common police saw the pattern, she was the nurse in every death.

Bruce Lee – (Peter Dinsdale) –arrested for arson, he confessed to other fatal fires.

Bruce Mendenhall – Police found his truck, followed it to where the last woman Nicole Hulbert was killed (his truck description being given as being seen around the victim), when police opened his door, they saw blood stains and at that point police said they apprehended Mendenhall and transported him to police headquarters, where he admitted to being responsible for Hulbert’s death, police said.

Bruno Ludke - on January 29, 1943, the cops, while doing routine investigating stumbled upon Bruno, who went crazy on them, assaulting them, before being arrested.

Carl Panzram - In 1928, Panzram was arrested for burglary and held in Washington, D.C.. During his interrogation and jail time he voluntarily confessed to killing two boys.

Carl Stayner - When a fourth body was found in the park (Yosemite National Park) in July, he was questioned and arrested by the FBI. His truck yielded evidence linking him to the victim. He eventually confessed to all four murders.

Charles Cullen - Somerset Medical Center fired Cullen on October 31, 2003, for lying on his job application. Police kept him under surveillance for several weeks until they had finished their investigation.

Coral Eugene Watts – The Sunday Morning Slasher - Watts was picked out in a line-up and arrested on assault and battery charges. He admitted to attacking 15 females.

David Berkowitz - eventually caught after receiving a parking ticket at the time and near the place of the Moskowitz murder.

David Gore - On July 26, 1983, Vero Beach authorities received an emergency report of a nude man firing shots at a naked girl on a residential street. Surrounding the suspect house, owned by relatives of Gore, officers found a car in the driveway with fresh blood dripping from its trunk. Inside, the body of 17-year-old Lynn Elliott lay dead with a bullet in her skull. Outnumbered by the police, Gore surrendered, directing officers to the attic where a naked 14-year-old girl was tied to the rafters.

Dennis Nilsen - a neighbor arranged to have the drains unblocked -and the remains of the victims were discovered.

Dorothea Puente - On November 11, 1988, police found a body buried in the lawn at 1426 F Street. Seven bodies were eventually found, and Puente was charged with a total of nine murders, convicted of three, and is now serving two life sentences. She came under suspicion when neighbors noticed people went missing.

Earle Nelson - When Nelson stopped in a general store to buy food, he was recognized by the storeowner and a patron who knew of the $1,500 reward and notified the law.

Ed Gein – arrested when there were so many clues to who killed his last victim.

Eddie Leonski - Confessed to three murders after being picked out of a line of American servicemen by witnesses.

Efren Saldivar - In March 1997, about a year before Michael Swango was arrested on federal charges pertaining to his forged medical credentials, a hospital worker at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, California, told a supervisor that a respiratory therapist named Efren Saldivar had killed an elderly patient by injecting a muscle relaxing drug called Pavulon into the patient’s I.V. This one was ignored, but evidentially, others reported leading authorities to arrest.

Elizabeth Bathory - The King of Hungary ordered her arrest when she began murdering nobels instead of peasant girls.

Eric Edgar Cooke - He was caught when the gun used to murder one of his victims, Shirley McLeod, was found, and police waited for Cooke to collect it.

Emile Louis - caught almost two decades later when his daughter found items in his house belonging to several of the victims.

Fritz Haarmann - A woman who had purchased one of his black-market "steaks" became convinced it was human flesh and turned it over to the police. In the summer of 1924, several skulls and a sackful of bones were found on the banks of the canal. Searching Haarmann's rooms, detectives found bundles of boys' clothing. The landlady's son was wearing a coat--given to him by Haarmann--that belonged to one of the missing boys.

Fritz Honka - In January 1975, he torched his flat, but firemen noticed mummified remains among the ashes and police were called.

Gary M. Heidnik - On March 24 Heidnik loosened the reins on Rivera (he kept his victims in the basement) a bit too much and the woman fled while on an unsupervised trip outside of the house. She notified police who apprehended Heidnik and searched the house, discovering the remaining women huddled in the dank basement.

Gary Ridgeway - On September 10, 2001, almost twenty years after the first known Green River murder, there was a match found between semen samples taken from the victims and Ridgway.
Gerald Schaefer – On July 21, 1972, Schaefer, while on patrol, picked up two teenage girls who were hitchhiking. He abducted them, took them to some remote woods and tied them to trees where he threatened to kill them or sell them into prostitution. However, when he got a call on his police radio, Schaefer had to go, leaving the girls tied up. He vowed that he would return. The two girls, who were aged 18 and 17, escaped their bonds and went to the nearest police station, which was actually their kidnapper's own station.
Harvey Glatman - Lorraine Vigil, a first time model, agreed to pose for him at a studio. He claimed that Lorraine was getting on his nerves, so he tried to tie her up, but she fought. She finally kicked the door of his car open. She ran to the light and much to her
relief, two police officers were found. They began questioning him about the other victims. They insisted that he was the one who killed the other girls. Harvey finally confessed that he had indeed killed them.

Henri Desire Landru - In 1919, the sister of one of Landru's victims, Madame Buisson, attempted to track down her missing sibling. She did not know Landru's real name but she knew his appearance and where he lived, and she eventually persuaded the police to arrest him.

Henry Lee Lucas - Lucas was desperate for money and called an ex-employer named Ruben Moore who lured Lucas with $100.00 to work on the Moore Ranch. The police arrived the next morning. They could only hold him for left of a vehicle in Maryland. He was released again but later came back into the authorities hands to be captured for the final time.
H. H. Holmes - there are three different versions as to how the police caught up with Holmes. The first is that detectives traced Mudgett through his mother who told them the whereabouts of her son, the second is that while Jailed in Missouri, Holmes shared a cell with the infamous train robber Marion C. Hedgepeth, "The Handsome Bandit", perhaps wanting to brag about his own criminal prowess, Dr. Holmes told Mr. Hedgepeth about the Pitezel scam,and Hedgepeth squealed. And the third is that, aided by Mrs. Pitezel, the police captured Holmes.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - Myra's brother-in-law phoned police, directing them to Brady's address. The raiders caught Ian and Myra at home, retrieving a fresh corpse from the bedroom, along with the bloody hatchet and Brady's library of volumes on perversion and sadism.
Irene Leidolf (with Maria Gruber, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Meyer, and Waltraud Wagner) They were caught after they were overheard bragging about their latest murder at a local tavern. They confessed to 49 murders, but may have been responsible for as many as 200.

Jeffery Dahmer - caught on 22nd July 1991, when 31 year old Tracy Edwards managed to escape from him. He found two policemen sitting in a police car and explained how he had been assaulted by Dahmer.

Jesse Pomeroy - When Pomeroy's mother moved out of her house , laborers working on the flooring found the decomposing remains of Katie Curran buried in the basement's floor.

Joe Ball - A joke circulated around that Joe Ball must have fed a missing waitresses to his pet alligators. The police took this joke seriously enough to investigate, especially when a neighbor of Ball's complained about a foul-smelling barrel that he had dumped nearby. On September 24, 1938, the deputies came to arrest Joe Ball, who took a swig of beer, hit the NO SALE button on his cash register, grabbed a .45 from the drawer, and shot himself through the heart.

Joel Rifkin - caught after a high-speed police chase, police inspected Rifkin's truck and discovered the corpse of his seventeenth and last victim.
John George Haigh - a jeweler from nearby Horsham called to say that a man had pawned a victim's jewelry the day after she went missing. He identified Haigh and that was enough for police to arrest him.
John Wayne Gacy - Robert Piest was the last boy to be killed by Gacy. Piest had been at work at the local pharmacy and Gacy had offered him a construction job, as he ran his own construction business. At the end of his shift, Piest was picked up by his mother, and told her he was just popping back inside to speak to a man about a job. He never returned and she left to go home. When he didn't return home at all that night the family contacted the police and started to search for him. They discovered that the construction man was John Wayne Gacy.

Joseph Duncan II – caught when he walked with victim Shasta Groene into a Denny's.

Joseph Paul Franklin - a nurse in Florida taking the blood he was selling recognized a bald eagle tattoo on his arm.

Juan Corona – A neighboring farmer noticed a fresh grave and called the police.

Jurgen Bartsch - was arrested after an unsuccessful attempt to torture, kill and dismember a young boy.

Kenneth Erskine - police found a handprint at the scene of one of the crimes, and it matched one on their files.

Larry Eyler - On September 30, 1983, an Indiana highway patrolman spotted a pickup truck parked along Interstate 65, with two men moving toward a nearby stand of trees. One appeared to be bound, and the officer went to investigate, identifying Larry Eyler as the owner of the truck.

Leonard Lake - When the vise Leonard Lake and Charles Ng had been using in their victims' torture broke, they needed a new one. A clerk spotted Ng hiding the vise under his coat and called the police. Ng fled the scene, but Lake was arrested when police saw that he had a gun in his car, was using false license plates and had identification that seemed to belong to someone else. Lake gave up his partner's name and his own, announced that he was running from the FBI—then swallowed two cyanide capsules and passed out, dying a short time later.

Mack Ray Edwards - walked into the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill station on March 6, 1970, and said he wanted to clear his conscience.

Marc Dutroux - an eyewitness remembered part of a license plate which matched Dutroux's.

Marcel Petiot - He was recognized and arrested at a Paris metro station. He carried a pistol, F31,700 in cash, and 50 documents in six different names.

Mary Ann Cotton – caught when a post mortem examination on one of her children revealed arsenic poisoning as the cause of death.

Marywbeth Tinning - Tami Lynne was Marybeth's ninth and last child. She was born in August 1985 but lived only four months. She was found dead in her cot and blood was spotted on her pillow. This aroused suspicion and an investigation was carried out. An autopsy revealed that Tami Lynne had died from suffocation.

Michael Ross - witnesses recalled seeing a blue sub-compact car near a murder scene.
Police began working their way through a computer listing of 2,000 sub-compact drivers, and they caught up with Ross.

Michael Swango - rrested and convicted of falsifying statements and documents related to a previous application for a position at a Veterans Administration hospital in New York.

Michel Fourniret - caught in 2003, when a Belgian would-be victim, 13, broke free after being kidnapped.

Patrick Kearney – (and David Hill) - July 5, 1977 the couple walked into the Sheriff's In formation Center in Riverside, saw a wanted poster of themselves and surrendered.

Paul Denyer - A piece of skin, possibly from a finger, was found on the neck of a dead girl. And the sighting of a yellow Toyota Corona on a road near the bike track at 3 p.m., the time the coroner estimated that the vicitm had been murdered. The observant police officer had written down its number from its registration label because the car had no plates.

Randall Woodfield - In March 1981, police investigating a shooting death in Beaverton, Oregon encountered Woodfield, who was a casual acquaintance of the victim. Citing his history of sexual assault, police searched his home and found evidence linking him to the murder, as well as the attempted murders of two young women.

Randy Steven Kraft - Arrested by Sterling for driving while intoxicated, the patrolman found the strangled body of a boy in the car.

Richard Angelo - One patient, Gerolamo Kucich, caught him. Kucich saw a bearded man put something into his IV, and he managed to reach for his call button before he succumbed.

Richard Chase – After his final kill, he left perfect hand prints and foot prints in blood and was apprehended.

Richard Ramirez – After a his mug shots were broadcast on national television and printed on the cover of every major newspaper in California he was caught by angry residents and the police were called.

Robert Berdella - April 2, 1988, a man jumped from the second floor window of Berdella's house wearing nothing but a dog collar. Police were called, the house searched, he was arrested.

Robert Black - caught July 1990, after he abducted a six-year-old girl. A man recognized the van and called police. The girl was found bound and gagged in the back of the van.

Robert Hansen – was caught when a woman he was trying to capture ran right into the police.

Robert Lee Yates - Caught after he tried to abduct a boy from a Camas movie theater.

Robert Picton - On February 5, 2002, the police executed a search warrant for illegal firearms at the property owned by Robert Pickton and his two siblings. He was taken into custody, and the police then obtained a second court order to search the farm once they discovered personal items belonging to one of the missing women.

Sante Kimes – (and her son Kenney) Kimes and her son, Kenneth, were arrested on a warrant for using a bad check to buy a car.

Ted Bundy - Bundy's Volkswagen car aroused suspicion in Salt Lake City and on August 16, 1976 a police stop found a number of suspect items in the vehicle's trunk. Among the things found were an ice-pick, ski mask, crowbar and a large number of tools. At first, investigators believed they had captured a burglar, but a subsequent search of Bundy's apartment found brochures and maps for places in Colorado where victims had been murdered. A test revealed a match between hairs in Bundy's apartment and hairs found at the murder scene of Melissa Smith. A witness who saw Bundy's photograph then came forward to put him near the scene of a crime in Snowmass, Colorado the previous year.

Thomas Neill Cream – A doctor, he was caught when he tried to frame innocent doctors for his crimes.

Vaclav Mrazek – Caught in March 1957 during a house inspection following a theft in the Libusin mine, where he was working as a spa staff attendant.

Vincent Johnson - fingered by another homeless man who was suspected of being the killer. The man was cleared because his DNA did not match, but he identified Johnson as a possible suspect and called officers when he saw him crossing the Williamsburg bridge.

Westley Allan Dodd - the law finally caught up with him after he botched an attempt to abduct another unnamed boy.

William Bonin - a young man in custody for car theft told the police he would give them the Freeway Killer if they would give him a break on the car theft.

Serial killers in Pop culture
by Stephen W. Roberts
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Serial killers in contemporary American culture is namely inspired by the convergence of two basic desires, that being violence and stardom. We as people desire notoriety, though most often this concept is unattainable. There lies a certain need within all of us to be noticed; be it by those whom we love and admire or by the world as a whole. This is a concept that every successful actor, musician, novelist, artist and serial killer have in common. They all longed to smile for the camera.

The elusive creature known as the serial killer has captured the attention of American culture. With the popular press churning out dozens of books and movies centered around the serial killer each year, the term has almost become a catch-phrase, replacing earlier terms such as 'homicidal maniac.' Fiction writers and the movie industry use 'serial killer' in such casual manners that it’s almost as if serial killers were either foreign to the American lifestyle or in fact fictitious themselves.

Serial killers do exist and Americans have perfected the art.
It cannot be denied that the serial killer kills. Killing, however, integrates a variety of meanings. A mere slip of the hand on the steering wheel can turn a normal person into a killer. And it is conceivable that a second such happening could turn an otherwise normal person into a serial killer of sorts.

I, for one do not recommend becoming a serial killer as to obtain some sort of celebrity status, but is it unconceivable that some may have already done this in history?
Perhaps it wasn’t forethought, but did most of them not bask in the glory of the hunt; knowing that the news would report on them, knowing cops could come for them and knowing reporters would take their pictures upon capture?

Just think of the book deals, movie deals and admiration from your peers and fans alike as you become the next flavor of the month in Hollywood. It’s enough to make a person sick, though perhaps it’s also enough to make a person kill.

If you’re a fan of pop culture then you’ll likely believe these all to be true or at least have heard of these clichés from time to time:
·    Most Serial killers are white males in their late 20s to early 30s.
·    Serial killers are always sexually motivated and always hunt the same kind of victim and murder them symbolically in the same fashion.
·    All serial killers are methodical outside-of-the-box thinkers and require a special kind of person to track them.
·    Serial killers are immoral and often are loners.
·    Serial killers like to torture animals in their young age as they fantasize about the acts they’ll commit later in life.
·    All serial killers wet the bed as children.
·    Serial killers are pyromaniacs.
·    They always follow the investigation and even taunt the police.
·    Serial killers target veteran detectives to play cat and mouse with throughout the investigation.
·    They always leave a signature
·    Serial killers kill alone
·    They prefer to kill up close and personal
·    There are less active today than in the 80s and 90s
·    Jack the ripper is the oldest documented serial killer
·    Aileen Wuornos is the first female serial killer
·    The green river killer holds the record for most slain by one individual
·    The zodiac killer was never identified
·    Movies like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre are based ENTIRELY on actual events.
·    All serial killers are psychopaths
·    They all possess some deep seeded motive linked to their unhappy childhoods
·    All serial killers want to be caught for publicity, though never feel remorse

Now though some of this may be true some of the time, none of it is factually flawless 100% of the time. Serial killers come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. They make birth on every continent and can even be children.
Regarding motives, they can be placed into five different categories, although there may be some serial killers that seem to have characteristics of more than one type.

Visionary
Contrary to popular opinion, serial killers are rarely insane or motivated by hallucinations and/or voices in their heads. Many claim to be, usually as a way of trying to get acquitted by reason of insanity. There are, however, a few genuine cases of serial killers who were compelled by such delusions.

Herbert Mullin killed 13 people after voices told him that murder was necessary to prevent California from suffering an earthquake. Mullin went to great pains to point out that California did indeed avoid an earthquake during his murder spree.

Ed Gein claimed that by eating the corpses of women who looked like his deceased mother, he could preserve his mother's soul inside his body. He killed two women who bore passing resemblances to his mother, eating one and being apprehended while in the process of preparing the second woman's body for consumption. He also used the flesh of exhumed female corpses to fashion a "woman suit" (as well as various other household adornments, such as curtains and lamp shades) for himself so that he could "become" his mother. After his arrest he was placed in a mental facility for the remainder of his life.

Missionary
So-called missionary killers believe that their acts are justified on the basis that they are getting rid of a certain type of person (often prostitutes or members of a certain ethnicity), and thus doing society a favor. Gary Ridgway and Aileen Wuornos are often described as missionary killers. In Wuornos' case, the victims were not prostitutes, but their patrons. Missionary killers differ from other types of serial killer in that their motive is generally non-sexual.

Hedonistic
This type kills for the sheer pleasure of it, although what aspect they enjoy varies. Yang Xinhai's post-capture statement is typical of such killers' attitudes: "When I killed people I had a desire sexual excitement. This inspired me to kill more. I don't care whether they deserve to live or not. It is none of my concern"
Some killers may enjoy the actual "chase" of hunting down a victim more than anything, while others may be primarily motivated by the act of torturing and abusing the victim while they are alive. Yet others, like Jeffrey Dahmer, may kill the victim quickly, almost as if it were a chore, and then indulge in necrophilia or cannibalism with the body. Usually there is a strong sexual aspect to the crimes, even if it may not be immediately obvious, but some killers obtain a surge of excitement that is not necessarily sexual, such as David Berkowitz, who got a thrill out of shooting young couples in cars at random and then running away without ever physically touching the victims.

Gain motivated
Most criminals who commit multiple murders for material ends (such as mob hit men) are not classed as serial killers, because they are motivated by economic gain rather than psychopathological compulsion. There is a fine line separating such killers, however. For example, Marcel Petiot, who operated in Nazi-occupied France, could be classified as a serial killer. He posed as a member of the French Resistance and lured wealthy Jewish people to his home, claiming he could smuggle them out of the country. Instead he murdered them and stole their belongings, killing 63 people before he was finally caught. Although Petiot's primary motivation was materialistic, few would deny that a man willing to kill so many people simply to acquire a few dozen suitcases of clothes and jewelry was a compulsive killer and psychopath.

Power and control
This is the most common serial killer. Their main objective for killing is to gain and exert power over their victim. Such killers are sometimes abused as children, which means they feel powerless and inadequate, and often they indulge in rituals that are linked, often very specifically, to forms of abuse they suffered themselves. Many power/control-motivated killers sexually abuse their victims, but they differ from hedonistic killers in that rape is not motivated by lust but as simply another form of dominating the victim.
The above seems to cover the basics of motives for a serial killer, though it’s important for one to recognize that the fantasies involved could call for one or many variations of the above options.

No researcher, or writer, or even the FBI, however, has managed to make what now seems like a simple connection in the serial killer. It is well known that fantasy plays a large role in the life and motivation of the serial killer. And it is also widely accepted that the serial killer uses fantasy as a crutch, as a coping mechanism for day-to-day life. No researcher, however, has synthesized these two facts into a far more intriguing thesis. The serial killer, much like the chronic gambler and problem drinker, is addicted to the use of fantasy. So strong is this compulsion that the serial killer murders to preserve the addiction, in essence preserving his only remaining coping mechanism.

If being a serial killer is an addiction to fantasy, then what sets them apart from actors and fiction writers?

If this simplistic addiction is the cause of a serial killer, then why is one person able to pursue a live of addiction and gain fame and fortune, when others falls victim to their victims and go to prison…the answer is a choice. Serial killers may be compelled to act upon their addiction, but they alone make the choice to commit murder. Murderers decide to commit murder. So then, if by this recognition of a serial killer could we not be reading the next best seller written by Theodore Bundy about a serial killer named Stephen King?

Every living being possesses the ability to commit evil acts and even though some of us are addicts, not all of us decide to commit murder to secure the continual existence of our fantasies.

In closing, I’d like to add that I DO NOT advocate any actions neither by or in interest of serial killers, nor do I suggest that anybody reading this should go out and become a serial killer for the fame, though I’m also not suggesting you become an actor or a novelist to maintain an addiction. Take from this what you will, acknowledge that the media has built up the serial killer as high as they have the rock star to sell merchandise and know that your life is solely in your hands…at least most of the time.

Why Serial Killers Kill – Some Theories
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

When considering the question of why, we have to consider that some serial killers do kill just because they want to. In most cases, there isn't a clear cut reason, and so I haven't delved into the reasons of, wanting to kill, power and thrill as a motivation, criminal enterprise, ideology (one who would kill to further the goals and ideas of an individual or group, terrorist groups).

From the Behavioral Analysis Unit-2, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, Critical Incident Response Group, Federal Bureau of Investigation:Serial Murder — Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators:

• Predisposition to serial killing, much like other violent offenses, is biological, social, and psychological in nature, and it is not limited to any specific characteristic or trait.

• The development of a serial killer involves a combination of these factors, which exist together in a rare confluence in certain individuals. They have the appropriate biological predisposition, molded by their psychological makeup, which is present at a critical time in their social development.

• There are no specific combinations of traits or characteristics shown to differentiate serial killers from other violent offenders.

• Serial killers are not limited to any specific demographic group, such as their sex,
age, race, or religion.

• The majority of serial killers who are sexually motivated erotized violence during development. For them, violence and sexual gratification are inexplicably intertwined
in their psyche.

• More research is needed to identify specific pathways of development that produce serial killers.

Attendees at the Serial Murder Symposium agreed that there is no generic profile of a serial murderer. Serial killers differ in many ways, including their motivations for killing and their behavior at the crime scene. However, attendees did identify certain traits common to some serial murderers, including sensation seeking, a lack of remorse or guilt, impulsivity, the need for control, and predatory behavior. These traits and behaviors are consistent with the psychopathic personality disorder. Attendees felt it was very important for law enforcement and other professionals in the criminal justice system to understand psychopathy and its relationship to serial murder.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation, and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs. Although the concept of psychopathy has been known for centuries, Dr. Robert Hare led the modern research effort to develop a series of assessment tools, to evaluate the personality traits and behaviors attributable to psychopaths.

Why Serial killers kill is the question most people want to know, and it's also the reason that there are so many theories. We want a logical explanation of a thing that is completely illogical. Add to that the fact that we use actual serial killer interviews to try and get the answer, and well, you get the point, we don't know why but, as I pointed out, there are theories.

If you have read a lot of serial killer bios, then these terms have to be very familiar to you. This tells us that the FBI is right about childhood, and something lacking there very well may be most of the 'why' answer. Many children grow up neglected and abused, but do not become violent criminals or serial killers. Many serial killers came from normal families. Not everyone will fall under this umbrella.

I could say the above and leave it at that, because I know everyone reading this knows what a 'normal' childhood is, right? Probably not. From the list below, you can see what abnormal is:

Gary Heidnik, 3 years old, didn't clean his room properly; Father hung him by his feet out of a 3rd story window

7 years old Henry Lee Lucas, mother made him go to school dressed like a girl. Mother's lover beat him when his teacher gave him a pair of shoes and at 10 years old showed him how to kill animals and then have sex with them

Danny Rolling was 6 months old when his father kicked him into a wall, 1 year old when his father beat him when he crawled funny, 6-8 years old father beat him twice a week, 13 years old; father handcuffed him to his brother, beat them and left them outside.

1 year old Robert Garrow's father made him kneel for hours in the corner, 2 years old his mother split his head open with a crowbar during a beating, 5 years old he was knocked unconscious when mother hit him in the head with a piece of wood. 6 years old when he was beaten unconscious by his father, and made to wear his sister's bloomers out to play.

Joel Rifkin's father committed suicide in 1987 and the killing spree started two years after that.

Bobby Jo Long's mother had frequent sex with men in the same room that Bobby Jo slept in and then the men were abusive to him.

Gary Ridgway had a domineering mother who constantly yelled at their father and controlled Ted completely, and was never pleased with what he did.

Albert Fish - several of his family members had mental health problems. After his father’s death, he was put in an orphanage by his mother and he was whipped at the orphanage frequently

Herman Webster Mudgett – Dr. H. H. Holmes father was very strict and often bullied his son. He had a well-known fear of the local doctor’s office and due to this; other students in his school would often force him to touch human skeletons. What was meant to be a scare turned out to be a fascination, which led to him stealing corpses while in medical school.

Andrei Chikatilo He shared a bed with his mother and Chikatilo and often wet said bed, for which he was beaten. His mother told her children that his brother was eaten by starving villagers.

Bruce George Peter Lee - The son of a prostitute, Lee was brought up in children’s homes and suffered from congenital spastic disabilities in his right limbs, which left him with a limp in his right leg and a compulsion to hold his right arm across his chest.

Ted Bundy - born to an unwed mother, who later moved in with her parents, and assumed the role of sister to her son.

Michael Wayne McGray's father was a violent alcoholic and used to beat animals and encourage his son to do the same.

Peter Kurten, when his father was drunk used to force his wife to have sex in front of their children.

Cary Stayner - his younger brother, Steven, was kidnapped by a child molester Kenneth Parnell in 1972 and held captive for more than seven years before escaping and being reunited with his family. Stayner would later say he felt neglected as his parents grieved over the loss of Steven.

Cayetano Santos Godino's father was an alcoholic physical abuser who suffered from syphilis. Cayetano attended several child-care organizations when he was between five and ten but always ended up ousted.

Charles Ng as a child was harshly disciplined by his father at every opportunity.

Danny Rolling - father, a police officer, was abusive to both him and his mother, and later his brother, Kevin. Claudia Rolling made repeated attempts to leave her husband, but always returned.

David Koresh described his early childhood as lonely, saying that the other kids teased him and called him "Vernie". As a young boy, he was abused by his stepfather. A poor student because of dyslexia, Koresh dropped out of high school.

Dennis Nilsen father was an alcoholic and his parents divorced when he was four years old. His mother remarried and sent her son to his grandparents, but after a couple of years he was sent back to his mother again.

Dorothea Puente - both parents abused her, and she often had to scavenge for food. Puente's father died when she was four.

Ed Gein's father was a violent alcoholic who was frequently unemployed. His mother blocked any attempt he made to pursue friendships. Besides school, he spent most of his time doing chores on the farm. Augusta, who was fanatically religious, drummed into her boys the innate immorality of the world, the evil of drink, and the belief that all women (herself excluded) were whores. According to Augusta, the only acceptable form of sex was solely for procreation.

Gerald Eugene Stano - His natural mother neglected him to such an extent that when she finally gave him up for adoption when he was six months old, county doctors declared him unadoptable because he was functioning at what they described as "an animalistic level". He was eventually adopted, however, by Norma Stano, a nurse, who renamed him Gerald Eugene Stano.

Henry Lee Lucas described his mother, Viola Lucas, as a violent prostitute. His father, Anderson Lucas, was an alcoholic and former railroad employee who had lost his legs in a train accident, and who suffered from Viola's wrath as often as his son. She regularly beat him and his half-brother. He once spent three days in a coma when his mother hit his head with a plank of wood, and on many occasions he was forced by his mother to watch her have sex with men. Lucas described an incident when he was given a mule as a gift by his father's friends, only to see his mother shoot and kill it.

Jerry Brudos - His mother had wanted a girl, and often ignored and belittled him.

Jesse Pomeroy, his father was extremely abusive to him and his brother, often taking them to their wood shed where he stripped them naked and beat them severely.

John Reginald Halliday Christie was abused by his father and dominated by his mother and sisters.

John George Haigh parents, John and Emily, were members of the Plymouth Brethren. He was confined to living within a 10ft fence that his father put up around their garden to lock out the outside world. Haigh would later claim he suffered from recurring religious nightmares in his childhood.

John Wayne Gacy - His father was an alcoholic who described Gacy as a "sissy" and who physically abused Gacy's mother.

Joseph Paul Franklin is believed to have suffered an abusive childhood at the hands of both his violent parents.

Jurgen Bartsch's adoptive mother, who suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, was fixated on cleanliness. He was not permitted to play with other children, lest he became dirty. This continued into adulthood - his mother personally bathed him until he was 19.

Mary Bell's mother Betty was a prostitute who was often absent from the family home, traveling to Glasgow to work. Accounts from family members suggest strongly that Betty had attempted to kill Mary and make her death look accidental more than once during the first few years of her life. Mary herself says she was subject to repeated sexual abuse, her mother forcing her to engage in sex acts with men from the age of five.

Michael Ross - his mother, who had abandoned the family at least once and had been institutionalized, beat all four of her children, saving the worst for him. Some family and friends have suggested that he was also molested by his teenaged uncle, who committed suicide when Ross was six.

Myra Hindley - She was believed to have been beaten by her alcoholic father, Bob Hindley, a paratrooper in the RAF during World War II, who was also alleged to have been violent towards her mother Nellie.

Ottis Elwood Toole - his father left the family when Toole was young. He claimed his mother was a religious fanatic, and that his sister dressed him in girl's clothes. Toole also claimed his grandmother was a Satanist who exposed him to various practices and rituals in his youth.

Patrick Kearney, a thin and sickly child, became a target for bullies at school. In his teens, he became withdrawn and fantasized about killing people. His mother, a prostitute with 13 children, caught him fondling his younger sister in 1957 when he was eight years old.

Richard Chase - An apparent victim of abuse at the hands of his mother, Chase exhibited by the age of 10 what is known in psychiatric circles as the "triad" of the early signs of a serial killer: He wet the bed, he started fires, and he tortured animals.

Richard Ramirez - his father, Julian, brought his children up with strict Catholic beliefs. Not shy of physical punishment, Julian Ramirez would beat his kids if they got into trouble as a way of discipline. Richard usually escaped, spending nights at a nearby cemetery. His father's temper was so bad that he once hit himself over the head with a hammer until he bled.

Robert Hansen as a child was small and sickly with perpetual acne and a severe stutter and spent much of his early life as a loner and a target for bullying from his peers and his strict, domineering father.

Robert Lee Yates - As a six-year old boy, Yates was allegedly molested repeatedly by an older neighbor boy. His father later described him as being "moody and violent" as a teenager.

Rod Ferrell - his grandfather raped him when he was 5. Rod also claimed that as a young child, he was exposed to occult rituals and human sacrifices, and was introduced to the "Dungeons & Dragons" role-playing game.

Robert Black - Locals and neighbors report that Black was often frequently and heavily bruised during his childhood, and acquaintances from primary school say he was "a bit of a loner but with a tendency to be bullied".

William Bonin - His father was a compulsive gambler and alcoholic, and his mother frequently left Bonin and his brother in the care of their grandfather, a convicted child molester.

Stewart Wilken alias ‘Boetie Boer'. He had been sexually abused during his childhood.
Henry Louis Wallace – They forced him and his sister to beat each other with a switch. His mother and sister would parade him around the neighborhood dressed as a girl. He witnessed a gang rape at the age of seven.

Joseph Kallinger was adopted by sadistic parents, who disciplined the young boy with hammers and cat-o'-nine tails. After a hernia operation his stepmother told the 6-year-old that the surgery was to keep his penis from growing. She would also hold his open hand over a flame until his skin began to smolder.

Jeffery Dahmers mother was a hysterical hypochondriac who spent most of her life in bed popping pills.

The prefrontal cortex is 29% of the brain and acts as a controlling mechanism for anger and aggression. The trademark of all social primates is a highly developed frontal brain, and human beings have the largest one of all. Damage causes this to stop working, perhaps allowing people to become murderers and cannibals.

Paul Charles Denyer
Bobby Joe Long
Leonard Lake
David Berkowitz
Kenneth Bianchi
John Gacy
Carl Panzram
Earle Leonard Nelson
Arthur Shawcross
Fred West
Gary Heidnik
Henry Lee Lucas
Albert Fish
William Burke and William Hare

The Motives of Female Serial Killers
Money (74%)
Control (13%)
Enjoyment (11%)
Sex (10%)
Drugs, cult involvement, cover up, or feelings of inadequacy (24%)
Belle Sorenson Gunness
Elfriede Blauensteiner
K D Kempamma alias Mallika
Aileen Carol Wuornos
Mary Ann Cotton
Dorothea Puente
Dr. Harold Shipman
Maria Catherina Swanenburg
Blanche Taylor Moore
Margie Velma Barfield
Waneta Hoyt
Belle Gunness
Sue Basso
Lydia Trueblood
Henry Louis Wallace

Although it's hard to put everyone who had a domineering mother into a category that says they killed because of the relationship that they had with the mother, there are a lot of them that did have strange relationships with that parent. Many of the mothers of serial killers were highly controlling, overbearing or overprotective of their sons. Since some serial killers kill women who have more than just a passing resemblance to their mother, this theory is very popular.

In the 1980's, a study was done of convicted sex-murderers by the FBI. In that study they found that 47% didn't have a father present throughout most or all of their childhood, and of those that did have fathers present, 71% reported that their mother was the dominant parent.

Ed Gein – he might have actually killed his brother to be more alone with his mother.
Edmund Kemper – mother was domineering, he preyed on women who looked like her. He killed his mother.
Henry Lee Lucas killed his mother.
Joseph Kallinger (he's in the abuse list above)
Kenneth Bianchi (he's in the abuse list above)
Peter Sutcliffe
Jerry Brudos
Arthur Shawcross was obsessed with pleasing his critical mother
Jeffery Dahmers mother was a hysterical hypochondriac who spent most of her life in bed popping pills.
Bobby Jo Long (he's in the abuse list above)
Gary Ridgway (he's in the abuse list above)
Andrei Chikatilo
Ted Bundy
Dorothea Puente
Gerald Eugene Stano
Jerry Brudos
John Reginald Halliday Christie
Joseph Paul Franklin
Jurgen Bartsch
Mary Bell
Michael Ross
Ottis Elwood Toole
Patrick Kearney
Richard Chase
William Bonin
Henry Louis
Wallace Joseph Kallinger

A list of names that fall into this category of theory isn't' even required for this theory, just saying that all serial killers have fantasies that they are trying to fulfill when they kill will suffice. In a study of 36 serial killers, 28 of them started daydreaming in early childhood. While daydreaming in itself isn't a harmful thing as everyone has done it, cultivating those dreams and fantasies and reliving them over and over again before going out and murdering people is. For a serial killer in the making, it is often like an addiction. He fantasizes his crimes over and over before he actually commits it. Those fantasies are also used as a coping mechanism for a day-to-day-life. As soon as they are no any longer sufficient to satisfy his needs, he will start living them out.

Albert Hamilton Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer and cannibal. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria and the Brooklyn Vampire.

A Knock at the Door

Edward Budd was an enterprising eighteen-year-old. He was determined to make something of himself and escape the desperate poverty of his parents. On May 25, 1928, he put a classified ad in the Sunday edition of the New York World: "Young man, 18, wishes position in country. Edward Budd, 406 West 15th Street." He was a strapping young fellow who was eager to work and contribute to the well-being of his family. Trapped in the dirty, stinking, crowded city in a miserable tenement with his father, mother and four younger siblings, he longed to work in the country where the air was fresh and clean. On the following Monday, May 28, Edward's mother, Delia, a huge mountain of a woman, answered the door to an elderly man. He introduced himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale, Long Island, who wanted to interview Edward about a job. Delia told her five-year-old Beatrice to get her brother at his friend's apartment. The old man beamed at her and gave her a nickel. While they waited for Edward, Delia had a chance to get a better look at the old man. He had a very kindly face, framed by gray hair and accented by a large droopy gray moustache. He explained to Mrs. Budd that he had earned his living for decades as an interior decorator in the city and then retired to a farm he had bought with his savings. He had six children that he raised by himself since his wife had abandoned them all over a decade ago.

Albert Fish and New Recruits

With the help of his children, five farmhands and a Swedish cook, he had made the farm into a successful one with several hundred chickens and a half-dozen dairy cows. Now, one of his farmhands was moving on and he needed someone to replace him.

At that moment, Edward came in and met Mr. Howard, who remarked at the boy's size and strength. Edward assured the old man he was a hard worker. Mr. Howard offered him fifteen dollars a week, which Edward accepted joyfully. Howard even agreed to hire Willie, Edward's closest friend.

Mr. Howard had to leave for an appointment and promised to come back on Saturday to pick them up. The boys were thrilled and the Budds were happy that a good position with the kindly old gentleman had come so quickly from Edward's modest ad.

Saturday, June 2, was the supposed to be the big day, but Mr. Howard didn't show up. Instead they got a hand-written note from Mr. Howard saying that he had been delayed and would call in the morning.

The next morning around eleven, Frank Howard came to the Budds' apartment bringing gifts of strawberries and fresh creamy pot cheese. "These products come direct from my farm," he explained.

Delia persuaded the old man to stay for lunch. For the first time, Albert Budd, Sr. had an opportunity to talk with his son's new employer. It was the kind of talk that makes a father very happy. Here was this kindly, polite old gentleman rapturously describing his twenty acres of farmland, his friendly crew of farmhands and a simple, hearty country life. He knew it was what his son wanted.

Albert Fish and Gracie

Albert, Sr. was a porter for the Equitable Life Assurance Company and had the air of a man perpetually submissive. He was not very impressed with the way this Frank Howard looked in his rumpled blue suit, but the old man was credible and genteel.

Once they sat down to lunch, the door opened and a lovely ten-year-old girl appeared. Gracie was humming a song. Her huge brown eyes and dark brown hair contrasted with her very pale skin and pink lips. She would be a real heart breaker someday.

Coming right from church, she still wore her Sunday clothes: white silk confirmation dress, white silk stockings, and string of creamy pearls made her look older than her 10 years.

Frank Howard, like most men who came face to face with the radiant Gracie, couldn't take his eyes off the beautiful girl. "Let's see how good a counter you are," he said as he handed her a huge wad of bills to count. The impoverished Budds were flabbergasted by the money the old man was carrying around with him.

"What a bright little girl," Mr. Howard said, giving her fifty cents to buy candy for herself and her little sister Beatrice.

Howard said that he would come back later in the evening to pick up Edward and Willie, but first he had to go to a birthday party that his sister was throwing for one of her children. He gave the boys two dollars to go to the movies.

Vanished

Just as he was about to leave, he invited Gracie to go with him to his niece's birthday party. He would take good care of her and make sure that Gracie was home before nine o'clock that evening.

Delia asked where Mr. Howard's sister lived and he replied that she lived in an apartment house at Columbus and 137th Street.

Delia wasn't sure that she should let her go, but Albert Sr. convinced her that it would be good for Gracie. "Let the poor kid go. She don't see much good times."

So Delia helped Gracie on with her good coat and her gray hat with the streamers. She followed Gracie and Mr. Howard outside and watched them disappear down the street.

That evening there was no word from Mr. Howard and no sign of Gracie. A terrible sleepless night with no message from their beautiful daughter. The next morning, young Edward was sent down to the police station to report his sister's disappearance.

Without A Trace

The worst thing that Police Lieutenant Samuel Dribben said to the Budds was that the address that "Frank Howard" had given them for his sister's apartment was fictitious. The kindly old man was a fraud. There was no Frank Howard, no farm in Farmingdale, Long Island. None of it was true.

Police began the normal investigative activities. They checked out everything "Frank Howard" had told the Budds. They also had the Budds go through their "rogue's gallery" of photos and checked on all the known child molesters, mental patients, etc. It came to nothing. No trace of Gracie.

On June 7, New York police mailed out 1,000 fliers to police stations throughout the country with a photo of Gracie and a description of Mr. "Howard." This activity, along with all the local publicity, guaranteed an epidemic of Gracie sightings and crank letters, each of which had to be thoroughly investigated by the 20 plus detectives who had been assigned to the case.

There were a couple of solid clues. Police found the Western Union office in Manhattan from which "Frank Howard" had sent his message to the Budds, plus the original handwritten message. From the writing and grammar, it was clear that "Howard" had some education and refinement. Police also located the pushcart where "Howard" had bought the pot cheese that he had given to the Budds. Both addresses were in East Harlem, which then became a focal point of intense search and investigation.

Where Have You Gone Billy Boy?

The New York police were not strangers to child kidnapping. In fact, there was an oddly similar case just the year before. On February 11, 1927, four-year-old Billy Gaffney played in the hallway outside his apartment with his three-year-old neighbor who was also named Billy. A twelve-year-old neighbor who was babysitting his sleeping baby sister went to join the boys, but went back to his apartment quickly after hearing his sister cry.

A few minutes later, the older boy noticed that the two Billys were gone and told the younger Billy's father. After a desperate search, the father found his three-year-old son alone on the top floor of the building. His son had been up on the roof.

The next day when a platoon of detectives came to investigate the disappearance of the Gaffney boy, they ignored the three-year-old witness, who stuck to his simple explanation. At first the police thought the boy had wandered outside into some of the factory buildings in the neighborhood or, worse, had fallen into the Gowanus canal a few blocks away. People in the community organized a search and the canal was dredged, but there was no sign of little Billy.

Albert Fish (The Boogey Man)

Eventually, someone listened to the three-year-old witness who gave them a description of the "boogey man." He was a slender old man with gray hair and a gray moustache. The police paid no attention to the description and did not connect it to a crime that had been committed by the "Gray Man" a few years earlier.

In July of 1924, eight-year-old Francis McDonnell played on the front porch of his home in the pastoral Charlton Woods section of Staten Island. His mother sat nearby, nursing her infant daughter when she saw a gaunt elderly man with gray hair and moustache in the middle of the street. She stared at the strange shabby old man who constantly clenched and unclenched his fists and mumbled to himself. The man tipped his dusty hat to her and disappeared down the street.

Later that afternoon, the old man was seen again watching Francis and four other boys play ball. The old man called Francis over to him. The other boys continued to play ball. A few minutes later, both the old man and Francis had disappeared. A neighbor noticed a boy that looked like Francis walking that afternoon into a wooded area with an elderly gray-haired tramp behind him.

The disappearance of Francis was not noticed until he missed dinner. His father, a policeman, organized a search. They found the boy in the woods under some branches. He had been horribly assaulted. His clothes had been torn from his body and he had been strangled with his suspenders. Francis had been beaten so badly that police doubted that the "old" tramp could have really been as old and frail as he looked. The beating was so severe that perhaps the old tramp had an accomplice who had the strength to maul the child.

The Manhunt for Albert Fish

In a short period of time, Manhattan fingerprint experts and police photographers were enlisted in the case as well as some two hundred and fifty plainclothesman. The huge manhunt yielded several promising suspects, except that none of them looked like the gray-haired, moustached old tramp. His face was burned forever in the memory of Anna McDonnell: "He came shuffling down the street, mumbling to himself, making queer motions with his hands. I'll never forget those hands. I shuddered when I looked at them...how they opened and shut, opened and shut, opened and shut. I saw him look toward Francis and the others. I saw his thick gray hair, his drooping gray moustache. Everything about him seemed faded and gray."

Despite the massive efforts of the police and the community, the "Gray Man" had vanished into thin air.

In November of 1934, the Budd case was officially still open although nobody ever expected it to be solved. Only one man, William F. King, continued to pursue the case. Every once in awhile, King would plant a phony item about a break in the case with Walter Winchell. On November 2, 1934, Winchell took the bait once again:

"I checked on the Grace Budd mystery," Winchell wrote in his column. "She was eight when she was kidnapped about six years ago. And it is safe to tell you that the Dep't of Missing Persons will break the case, or they expect to, in four weeks."

Ten days later, Delia Budd received a letter that her lack of education fortunately prevented her from reading. Her son Edward read it instead and ran out the door to get Detective King. The letter was singularly barbarous:

A Letter From Hell

"My dear Mrs. Budd, In 1894 a friend of mine shipped as a deck hand on the Steamer Tacoma, Capt. John Davis. They sailed from San Francisco for Hong Kong China. On arriving there he and two others went ashore and got drunk. When they returned the boat was gone. At that time there was famine in China. Meat of any kind was from $1 to 3 Dollars a pound. So great was the suffering among the very poor that all children under 12 were sold for food in order to keep others from starving. A boy or girl under 14 was not safe in the street. You could go in any shop and ask for steak -- chops -- or stew meat. Part of the naked body of a boy or girl would be brought out and just what you wanted cut from it. A boy or girls behind which is the sweetest part of the body and sold as veal cutlet brought the highest price. John staid there so long he acquired a taste for human flesh. On his return to N.Y. he stole two boys one 7 one 11. Took them to his home stripped them naked tied them in a closet. Then burned everything they had on. Several times every day and night he spanked them -- tortured them -- to make their meat good and tender. First he killed the 11 year old boy, because he had the fattest ass and of course the most meat on it. Every part of his body was Cooked and eaten except the head -- bones and guts. He was Roasted in the oven (all of his ass), boiled, broiled, fried and stewed. The little boy was next, went the same way. At that time, I was living at 409 E 100 st., near -- right side. He told me so often how good Human flesh was I made up my mind to taste it. On Sunday June the 3 --1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. Brought you pot cheese -- strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind to eat her. On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said Yes she could go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked out. When we got there, I told her to remain outside. She picked wildflowers. I went upstairs and stripped all my clothes off. I knew if I did not I would get her blood on them. When all was ready I went to the window and called her. Then I hid in a closet until she was in the room. When she saw me all naked she began to cry and tried to run down the stairs. I grabbed her and she said she would tell her mamma. First I stripped her naked. How she did kick -- bite and scratch. 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. It took me 9 days to eat her entire body. I did not fuck her tho I could of had I wished. She died a virgin."

A Clue in the Albert Fish Case

Nobody wanted to believe that this letter was true. It had to be the ravings of some perverted, sadistic crank. But, Detective King realized that the details of his meeting with the Budds and Grace were accurate. Also, the handwriting on this horrible letter was identical to the letter the elderly kidnapper had written for the Western Union messenger six years earlier.

The envelope had an important clue: a small hexagonal emblem had the letters N.Y.P.C.B.A. which stood for the New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association. With the cooperation of the president of the association, an emergency meeting of the members was held. In the meantime, police checked out the handwritten membership forms looking for handwriting similar to "Frank Howard's." Detective King then asked the members -- all of whom had passed the handwriting test -- to report anybody who had taken the association's stationery.

A young janitor came forward, admitting that he had taken a couple of sheets of paper and a few envelopes. He had left the stationery in his old rooming house at 200 East 52nd Street. The landlady was shocked when she was given "Frank Howard's" description. He sounded just like the old man who had lived there for two months.

The old man who had checked out of her rooming house just a couple of days earlier.

Albert H. Fish

The former tenant had called himself Albert H. Fish. The landlady mentioned that Fish had told her to hold a letter that he was expecting from his son who worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps in North Carolina. The son regularly sent money to his old dad.

Finally, the post office told Detective King that it had intercepted a letter for Albert Fish. Detective King was becoming worried that Fish had not contacted his former landlady. The police worried that something had scared him away.

On December 13, 1934, the landlady called Detective King. Albert Fish was at the rooming house looking for his letter. The old man was sitting with a teacup when King opened the door. Fish stood up and nodded when King asked him if he was Albert Fish. go

Suddenly, Fish reached into his pocket and produced a razor blade which he held in front of him. Infuriated, King grabbed the old man's hand and twisted it sharply. "I've got you now," he said triumphantly.

Confession of Albert Fish

The confession of Albert Fish would be heard by many law enforcement officials and psychiatrists. A severely edited version of it would appear in the newspapers. It was an odyssey of perversion and unspeakable depravity which seemed unbelievable until detail after detail was corroborated. It was all the more amazing considering how decrepit and harmless Fish appeared. He was a stooped, frail-looking old man about 130 pounds and 5 feet 5 inches tall.

Detective King took the initial confession. Fish told him that in the summer of 1928 he had been overcome by what he called his "blood thirst" -- his need to kill. When he answered Edward Budd's ad for employment, it was the young man, not his sister Gracie, that he intended to lure to a remote location, restrain him and cut off his penis, leaving him to bleed to death.

After he left the Budd house the first time, Fish had purchased the tools he would need to murder and mutilate the boys: a cleaver, saw and butcher knife. He wrapped up these implements of destruction into a bundle which he left at a newsstand before he went to the the Budd home for the second and last time.

When Fish saw the strapping young Edward, the size of a full-grown man, and his friend Willie, he convinced himself he could overpower the two of them. But then Fish had a lot of experience in that regard.

It was only after seeing Gracie that he changed his mind and his plans. It was she he desperately wanted to kill.

One-Way Ticket

With the unsuspecting Gracie in tow, he stopped back at the newsstand to pick up his bundle before taking a train to the Bronx and then to the village of Worthington in Westchester. For Grace, he only bought a one-way ticket.

Grace was enthralled with the forty-minute ride into the countryside. Only twice in her life had she been out of the city. This was a wonderful treat for her.

At the station in Worthington, Fish was so absorbed in his monstrous plan that he left his bundle of tools on the train. Ironically, Grace noticed and reminded him to bring his package.

They walked along a remote road until they reached an abandoned two-story building called Wisteria Cottage in the midst of a wooded area. While Grace entertained herself outside with the various wildflowers, Fish went up to the second floor bedroom, opened up his bundle of tools, and took off his clothes.

The Savagery of Albert Fish

With the wildflowers she had gathered arranged in a bouquet, Gracie came into the house and up to the bedroom. When she saw the old man naked, she screamed for her mother and tried to escape. But Fish had grabbed her by her throat and choked her to death. He was sexually aroused by the act of strangling her.

He propped up her head on an old paint can and decapitated her, catching most of the blood in the paint can. Afterwards he threw the bucket of blood out into the yard. He undressed the headless child, then he went back to her body and cut it in two with the butcher knife and cleaver.

Parts of her body he took with him wrapped in newspaper. The rest he left there until he returned several days later when he threw the portions of her body over a stone wall in the back of the house. He disposed of his tools in the same fashion. After his confession, Detective King had a final question: What caused him to do this horrible thing?

Captain John Stein asked him why he had written the letter to the Budds and Fish responded that he didn't know why. "I just had a mania for writing."

Finding Gracie

That day, the police went to Wisteria Cottage and recovered the remains of Gracie. Albert Fish stood nearby, completely without emotion of any kind.

That night at 10 P.M. Fish was interrogated by Assistant District Attorney P. Francis Marro. When Marro asked Fish why he had murdered Gracie, he explained that "a sort of blood thirst" had overwhelmed him. Once it was done, he was overcome with sorrow. "I would have given my life within a half-hour after I done it to restore it to her."

Marro asked if he had raped Gracie and Fish was adamant: "It never entered my head."

Nothing was asked at that time nor was anything volunteered about the cannibalism mentioned in Fish's letter to the Budds. The police may have considered it too insane to be true. Or, perhaps, they were already thinking that including horrible details about cannibalism would bolster the inevitable defense case for insanity.

That night the capture of Albert Fish had leaked to the newspapers and reporters descended on the Budd apartment with the news. Shortly afterwards, Detective King drove Mr. Budd and his son Edward to the police station to identify Fish.

Edward did more than identify Fish. He threw himself at the old man. "You old bastard! Dirty son of a bitch!"

Mr. Budd was surprised at Fish's lack of emotion. "Don't you know me?" he asked the old man.

"And you're the man who came to my home as a guest and took my little girl away," he said in tears.

The Criminal History of Albert Fish

Albert Fish, not surprisingly, was no stranger to police. His record stretched back to 1903 when he had been jailed for grand larceny. Since then, he had been arrested six times for various petty crimes, such as sending obscene letters and petty theft. Half of those arrests occurred around the time of Gracie's abduction. Each time, the charges were dismissed. He had been in mental institutions more than once.

When asked about his background, Fish said: "I was born May 19, 1870, in Washington, D.C. We lived on B Street, N.E., between Second and Third. My father was Captain Randall Fish, 32nd-degree Mason, and he is buried in the Grand Lodge grounds of the Congressional cemetery. He was a Potomac River boat captain, running from D.C. to Marshall Hall, Virginia.

"My father dropped dead October 15, 1875, in the old Pennsylvania Station where President Garfield was shot, and I was placed in St. John's Orphanage in Washington. I was there till I was nearly nine, and that's where I got started wrong. We were unmercifully whipped. I saw boys doing many things they should not have done. I sang in the choir from 1880 to 1884 -- soprano, at St. John's. I came to New York. I was a good painter -- interiors or anything.

"I got an apartment and brought my mother up from Washington. We lived at 76 West 101st Street, and that's where I met my wife. After our six children were born, she left me. She took all the furniture and didn't even leave a mattress for the children to sleep on.

"I'm still worried about my children," he sniffled. His six children ranged from age 21 to 35. "You'd think they'd come to visit their old dad in jail, but they haven't."

The Unspeakable

Albert Fish was facing indictments in Manhattan and Westchester County. First Westchester County indicted him on a charge of first degree murder, while Manhattan was preparing an indictment for kidnapping.

Meanwhile police got a really major break. The motorman on the Brooklyn trolley line saw a picture of Fish in the newspaper and came forward to identify Fish as the nervous old man that he saw February 11, 1927, who was trying to quiet the little boy sitting with him on the trolley. Joseph Meehan, the retired motorman, watched the two carefully. The little boy, who didn't have a jacket or coat, was crying for his mother continuously and had to be dragged by the old man on and off the trolley. The little boy, as it turned out, was the kidnapped Billy Gaffney.

Ultimately, Fish did confess the unspeakable things he did to Billy Gaffney: "I brought him to the Riker Ave. dumps. There is a house that stands alone, not far from where I took himI took the boy there. Stripped him naked and tied his hands and feet and gagged him with a piece of dirty rag I picked out of the dump. Then I burned his clothes. Threw his shoes in the dump. Then I walked back and took the trolley to 59 St. at 2 A.M. and walked from there home.

"Next day about 2 P.M., I took tools, a good heavy cat-of-nine tails. Home made. Short handle. Cut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches long. I whipped his bare behind till the blood ran from his legs. I cut off his ears -- nose --slit his mouth from ear to ear. Gouged out his eyes. He was dead then. I stuck the knife in his belly and held my mouth to his body and drank his blood.

"I picked up four old potato sacks and gathered a pile of stones. Then I cut him up. I had a grip with me. I put his nose, ears and a few slices of his belly in the grip. Then I cut him through the middle of his body. Just below the belly button. Then through his legs about 2 inches below his behind. I put this in my grip with a lot of paper. I cut off the head -- feet -- arms-- hands and the legs below the knee. This I put in sacks weighed with stones, tied the ends and threw them into the pools of slimy water you will see all along the road going to North Beach.

Cannibalistic Cravings

During his interviews with police Fish further confessed, "I came home with my meat. I had the front of his body I liked best. His monkey and pee wees and a nice little fat behind to roast in the oven and eat. I made a stew out of his ears -- nose -- pieces of his face and belly. I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt and pepper. It was good.

"Then I split the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and pee wees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put them in the oven. Then I picked 4 onions and when the meat had roasted about 1/4 hour, I poured about a pint of water over it for gravy and put in the onions. At frequent intervals I basted his behind with a wooden spoon. So the meat would be nice and juicy.

"In about 2 hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did. I ate every bit of the meat in about four days. His little monkey was a sweet as a nut, but his pee-wees I could not chew. Threw them in the toilet."

Days later, a man from Staten Island came forward to identify Fish as the man who had tried to lure his then eight-year-old daughter into the woods not far from where Francis O'Donnell was murdered three days later in 1924. The girl, in her late teens, saw him in his cell and recognized him. The "Gray Man" was found.

Fish was also tied to the 1932 murder of a fifteen-year-old girl named Mary O'Connor in Far Rockaway. The girl's mauled body was found in some woods close to a house that Fish had been painting.

With all of those indictments in different counties. There was very little chance that Albert Fish was going to be acquitted. His only opportunity to beat the death penalty was to have the alienists or forensic psychiatrists declare him insane.

The Alienists

Dr. Fredric Wertham in his book The Show of Violence describes his first meeting with Albert Fish in his jail cell. He was shocked at how "meek, gentle, benevolent and polite" Fish was. "If you wanted someone to entrust your children to, he would be the one you would choose."

Fish's attitude towards his situation was one of complete detachment. "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."

When Dr. Wertham asked if he meant that he was insane. Fish answered, "Not exactly...I never could understand myself."

Psychosis seemed to have galloped through Fish's family history from what Dr. Wertham could ascertain: "One paternal uncle suffered from a religious psychosis and died in a state hospital. A half brother also died in a state hospital. A younger brother was feeble-minded and died of hydrocephalus. His mother was held to be 'very queer' and was said to hear and see things. A paternal aunt was considered 'completely crazy.' A brother suffered from chronic alcoholism. A sister had some sort of 'mental affliction.'

He claimed that his real name was Hamilton Fish, named after a distant relative who was President Grant's Secretary of State. Tired of being teased about that name, he took the name of Albert instead.

When he was twenty-six, he married a young woman of nineteen and had six children. When the youngest was three, she ran off with another man, leaving Fish to raise the children. Subsequently, he "married" three other times, although they were not legal since he had never been divorced from his first wife.

A True Sadist

Dr. Wertham considered Fish's unparalleled perversity unique in the annals of psychiatric and criminal literature. "Sado-masochism directed against children, particularly boys, took the lead in his sexually regressive development."

Fish told him: "I always had a desire to inflict pain on others and to have others inflict pain on me. I always seemed to enjoy everything that hurt."

Wertham told "experiences with excreta of every imaginable kind were practiced by him, actively and passively. He took bits of cotton, saturated them with alcohol, inserted them into his rectum, and set fire to them. He also did that with his child victims."

Fish confided in Dr. Wertham a long history of preying on children -- "at least a hundred." Fish would bribe them with money or candy. He usually chose African-American children because he believed that the police did not pay much attention when they were hurt or missing.

He never went back to the same neighborhood. He said that he had lived in at least 23 states and in each one he had killed at least one child. Sometimes, he lost his job as a painter because he was suspiciously connected to these dead or mutilated children.

He had a compulsion to write obscene letters and did so frequently. According to Dr. Wertham," they were not the typical obscene letters based on fantasies and daydreams to supply a vicarious thrill. They were offers to practice his inclinations with the people he wrote his graphic suggestions to."

Pins and Needles

Initially, Dr. Wertham had some concerns about whether Fish was lying to him, especially when he told the psychiatrist that he had been sticking needles into his body for years in the area between the rectum and the scrotum: "He told of doing it to other people too, especially children. At first, he said, he had only stuck these needles in and pulled them out again. Then he had stuck others in so far that he was unable to get them out, and they stayed there." The doctor had him X-rayed and sure enough, there were at least twenty-nine needles in his pelvic region.

About the age of fifty-five, Fish started to experience hallucinations and delusions. "He had visions of Christ and His angels....he began to be engrossed in religious speculations about purging himself of iniquities and sins, atonement by physical suffering and self-torture, human sacrifices....He would go on endlessly with quotations from the Bible all mixed up with his own sentences, such as 'Happy is he that taketh Thy little ones and dasheth their heads against the stones."

Fish believed that God had ordered him to torment and castrate little boys. He had actually done so a number of times.

Wertham was amazed as Fish described the horrible cannibalism of Billy Gaffney's body. "His state of mind while he described these things in minute detail was a peculiar mixture. He spoke in a matter-of-fact way, like a housewife describing her favorite methods of cooking....But at times his voice and facial expression indicated a kind of satisfaction and ecstatic thrill. I said to myself: However you define the medical and legal borders of sanity, this certainly is beyond that border."

Was Albert Fish Legally Insane?

That Fish was suffering from some religious psychosis was a given as far as Dr. Wertham was concerned. Fish's children had seen him "hitting himself on his nude body with a nail-studded paddle until he was covered with blood. They also saw him stand alone on a hill with his hands raised, shouting: 'I am Christ.'"

Fish told him: "What I did must have been right or an angel would have stopped me, just as an angel stopped Abraham in the Bible [from sacrificing his son]."

Dr. Wertham, the defense alienist, believed that Fish was legally insane: "I characterized his personality as introverted and extremely infantilistic...I outlined his abnormal mental make-up, and his mental disease, which I diagnosed as paranoid psychosis....Because Fish suffered from delusions and particularly was so mixed up about the questions of punishment, sin, atonement, religion, torture, self-punishment, he had a perverted, a distorted -- if you want, an insane -- knowledge of right and wrong. His test was that if it had been wrong he would have been stopped, as Abraham was stopped, by an angel."

Wertham believed that Fish had actually killed fifteen children and mutilated about a hundred others. "That figure was verified many times to me by police officials in later years."

Two other defense alienists testified that Fish was insane. The four alienists who were called by the prosecution testified that Fish was sane. One of those prosecution alienists was the head of the psychiatric hospital where Fish had been detailed for observation a couple of years after the Budd and other murders and where he had been judged "both harmless and sane."

The Trial of Albert Fish

The trial of Albert Fish for the premeditated murder of Grace Budd began on Monday, March 11, 1935, in White Plains, N.Y. in Justice Frederick P. Close's court. Chief Assistant District Attorney Elbert F. Gallagher was in charge of the prosecution and James Dempsey was the defense attorney.

Dempsey planned to attack the competence of the Bellevue Hospital alienists who had observed Fish in 1930 and declared him sane. He also planned to establish that Fish was suffering from "lead colic," a dementia often suffered by house painters.

Gallagher's key strategy was summarized early in the trial: "Now in this case, there is a presumption of sanity. The proof, briefly, will be that this defendant is legally sane and that he knows the difference between right and wrong and the nature and quality of his acts, that he is not defective mentally, that he had a wonderful memory for a man of his age, that he has complete orientation as to his immediate surroundings, that there is no mental deterioration, but that he is sexually abnormal, that he is known medically as a sex pervert or a sex psychopath, that his acts were abnormal, but that when he took this girl from her home on the third day of June, 1928, and in doing that act and in procuring the tools with which he killed her, bringing her up here to Westchester County, and taking her into this empty house surrounded by woods in the back of it, he knew it was wrong to do that, and that he is legally sane and should answer for his acts."

Defense attorney Dempsey focused on Fish's strange life and the self-flagellation with nail-studded paddles and needles. Then he brought up Fish's competence as a father and his love for his children: "In spite of all these brutal, criminal and vicious proclivities, there is another side to this defendant. He has been a very fine father. He never once in his life laid a hand on one of his children. He says grace at every meal in his house. In 1917, when the youngest one of his six children was three, his wife left him. And from that time down until shortly before the Grace Budd murder in 1928 he was a mother and father to those children." He closed his remarks by reminding the jury that it was up to the prosecution to prove that a man who killed and ate children was sane.

Testimonies Against Albert Fish

Grace's parents and brother Albert, Jr., testified. Dempsey seemed determined to make the point that both Delia and Albert, Sr., gave their consent to Grace going to a birthday party with Fish. When it came time for Grace's father to testify, he was overcome with emotion and began to weep loudly.

On the third day of the trial, over the strenuous objections of the defense attorney, a box of Grace Budd's remains was brought into the courtroom as evidence, while Detective King recreated from Fish's confession how the girl was killed. Then Gallagher reached into the box and held out the small skull of the dead girl. It was a very dramatic moment. Dempsey sought a mistrial.

Dempsey focused on the cannibalism issue as a central part of the insanity defense. It was clear that he was trying to establish that Fish had eaten parts of the girl's body -- something that no sane person would do. But he was unsuccessful in establishing and proving that Fish actually did what he said he did with her body.

Fish appeared to be completely indifferent throughout the trial. Although, at one point, he expressed to his attorney that he had a desire to life because "God still has work for me to do."

Dempsey put several of Fish's children on the stand to testify to his bizarre behavior -- self-flagellation and sticking needles in his body, as well as his religious delusions. They also testified that he was a good father who always provided for them and never physically abused them.

On Hands and Knees

To further demonstrate Fish's strange behavior, Dempsey called to the stand a woman who had received several obscene letters from Albert Fish. The courtroom was cleared of women as Dempsey read the obscene correspondence.

Another defense witness was Mary Nicholas, Fish's 17-year-old stepdaughter. She described how Fish taught her and her brothers and sisters a game. "He went into his room and he had a little pair of trunks, brown trunks, that he put on. He put those on and came out into the front room, and he got down on his hands and knees, and he had a paint stick that he stirred paint with."

"He would give the stick to one of us, and then he would get down on his hands and knees and we would sit on his back, one at a time, with our back facing him, and then we would put up so many fingers, and he was to tell how many fingers we had up, and if he guessed right, which he never did, why, we weren't supposed to hit him. Sometimes, he would even say more fingers than we really had. And if he never guessed right, why, we would hit him as many fingers as we would have up."

Sometimes a hairbrush was used instead of the paint stick. He also stuck pins under his fingernails in front of the children.

Signs of Psychosis

Eventually, Dempsey had a chance to attack the prosecution alienists. Dr. Charles Lambert, after a three-hour interview with Fish," pronounced him a "psychopathic personality without a psychosis."

Dempsey asked Lambert, "Assume that this man not only killed this girl but took her flesh to eat it. Will you state that that man could for nine days eat that flesh and still not have a psychosis?"

Dempsey persisted: "Tell me how many cases in your experience you have seen people who actually ate human feces."

"Oh, I know individuals prominent in society...one in particular that we all know who used it as a side dish in his salad," Lambert remarked casually.

Dempsey had better luck with one of the other defense alienists, who could see signs of psychosis in Fish's behavior.

From the Frying Pan into the Fire

The trial lasted ten days and the jury took less than an hour to reach its verdict.

Fish was not happy with the verdict, but the prospect of being electrocuted had its appeal to him. A Daily News reporter wrote, "his watery eyes gleamed at the thought of being burned by a heat more intense than the flames with which he often seared his flesh to gratify his lust."

Fish thanked the judge for his sentence of death by electrocution. On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish was executed.

Inspiration for Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter’s gruesome habits are hard to break. Watching the fictional character on screen, we safely conclude: "Well, it’s only a movie. It’s not like it’s real or anything."

Except that Hannibal Lecter is loosely based on a real man. A man so fiendish that his story makes Hannibal’s exploits seem tame by comparison. At least Hannibal Lecter didn’t harm children.

Hamilton Albert Fish - the real-life cannibal - was tried and electrocuted for doing unspeakable things to innocent children. What he did in real life would never be part of a movie script. No reasonable person would take fiction that far.

For some time the old man had harmed himself. A painter by trade, living in Manhattan, Albert Fish and his first wife Anna had six children. By all accounts he was a good dad, although his children knew he had strange habits. Those habits got especially weird after Anna Fish left her family for another man.

A paddle, hidden in the kitchen cupboard, wasn’t used to discipline misbehaving children in the Fish household. It was kept by the father to discipline himself. The nails embedded in the paddle must have caused excruciating pain whenever Fish struck himself with it.

But it was the needles that really defy belief. Later, after Fish was arrested for his unspeakable crimes, even the detectives and psychiatrists disbelieved his story. Who would actually stick needles so far into his body that he couldn’t get them out? Even an insane person wouldn’t do such a thing. Yes, Fish walked with a strange gait. Yes, when he sat down he sometimes seemed to wince in pain. But self-inflicted needles shoved into his peritoneum? No way!

Turns out an x-ray verified the old man’s story. The radiologist had never seen anything like it. Twenty-nine needles were permanent fixtures inside the body of Albert Fish. It was something he did to atone for his sins. And, as he later told Dr. Wertham:
I always seemed to enjoy everything that hurt.

How did this man who looked like a grandfather end up hurting others more than he hurt himself? The doctors could not be sure, but they had a few clues from Fish’s twisted, early childhood.

Albert Fish was born in Washington, D.C. on May 19, 1870. After his arrest 65 years later, the soon-to-be-convicted killer described his early life to the New York City press.

My father dropped dead October 15, 1875, in the old Pennsylvania Station where President Garfield was shot, and I was placed in St. John’s Orphanage in Washington. I was there till I was nearly nine, and that’s where I got started wrong. We were unmercifully whipped. I saw boys doing many things they should not have done.

Granted, Albert Fish had a tough break when his elderly father died and his mother placed him in the orphanage at 20th and F Street (not far from the White House). But many children have tough starts in life, and they do not end up on death row. What made Albert Fish different?

His defense lawyer later argued that all his years as a painter caused Fish to develop "lead colic." That hardly explains his dastardly, criminal deeds. Even if he had that illness, it doesn’t excuse the horror he inflicted on beautiful little Grace Budd.

It was June 3, 1928. Albert Fish had a plan. It wasn’t the first plan he had to harm a child.

Fish, however, knew how to take care of himself. He knew when he was in over his head. His intended victim, Edward Budd, was an 18-year-old who could defend himself. Better to choose someone who couldn’t fight back.

During Fish’s trial, Elbert F. Gallagher (Chief Assistant District Attorney and later State Supreme Court Justice) told the jury what happened that Sunday morning.

In 1928, the People will prove, there lived in the city of New York the Budd family. They lived at 406 West 15th Street. They lived in a small apartment in the rear of the apartment house. There was the father Albert, the mother Delia, there was Grace, there was Edward, and several other members of the family.

Edward Budd was looking for a job. And so he made application to the New York World to have them put an ad in their newspaper. That ad appeared on Sunday, May 27, 1928, under the classified ad section, situations wanted, and it read as follows in substance: ‘Youth 18 wishes position in country. Signed, Edward A. Budd, 406 West 15th Street.’

Today, people usually keep their address out of the classifieds. What happened to the Budd family explains why. Albert Fish, calling himself Frank Howard, showed up at the family’s apartment the day the ad ran. He offered Edward a job on his non-existent "farm".

On June 3, "Frank Howard" returned to the Budd apartment. His plan was "to take Edward to the farm." Instead, he met Edward’s little sister, Gracie. She was nearly 11 years old. By the end of the day, she would be dead.

Everyone who knew Gracie said she was a sweet, well-behaved child. When she returned from church that Sunday morning, there was a visitor at her home. The man, "Frank Howard," had called on the family a week before. He was to be Edward’s new employer. "Frank" invited Gracie to sit on his lap where she played with his money.

...While she was sitting there, he said to the Budd parents that his sister was giving a birthday party for her children, up at 135th Street in the city of New York, and he thought it would be nice if Grace would go along with him. He said he loved children, he would return early that night, they need not worry, it would be all right. They hesitated to let her go, but finally consented.

It was a decision Gracie’s parents would regret the rest of their lives. She never came home. Many years passed before her family knew where she had gone and what had happened to her. But as the defense psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham wrote in his book, The Show of Violence:

He looked like a meek and innocuous little old man, gentle and benevolent, friendly and polite. If you wanted someone to entrust your children to, he would be the one you would choose.

One New York City detective, William F. King, never gave up on the case. Periodically he would ask one of the popular media personalities to run a story on Grace Budd’s disappearance. His hope was to draw out the criminal. In 1934, his patience finally paid off.

Walter Winchell, the popular newspaper journalist, was Detective King’s biggest ally in 1934. Just about everyone (including Albert Fish) read his column, "On Broadway," published in the New York Daily Mirror. Here’s an excerpt from Winchell’s November 2, 1934 column:

I checked on the Grace Budd mystery. She was eight when she was kidnapped about six years ago. And it is safe to tell you that the Dep’t of Missing Persons will break the case, or they expect to, in four weeks. They are holding a "cokie" [a cocaine addict] now at Randall’s Island, who is said to know most about the crime. Grace is supposed to have been done away with in lime, but another legend is that her skeleton is buried in a local spot.

Winchell, of course, made up the story to help Detective King. But as events transpired over the next few weeks, his column proved to be amazingly prescient.

On November 12, Gracie’s mother received a letter that would crack the case. Functionally illiterate, Delia gave the letter to her son. Edward’s face turned white as he read:

On Sunday June the 3 - 1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. Brought you pot cheese - strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind to eat her. On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said Yes she could go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked out. When we got there, I told her to remain outside. She picked wildflowers.

The letter went on. It described what had happened to Grace. Only someone with a deranged mind could have written it. But was the letter true? Was Gracie the victim of a crime so heinous it would make the final kitchen scenes in Hannibal seem mild by comparison?

Detective King was soon to learn the truth. The answer to the question is "yes." Hannibal Lecter, the fictional character, would have been shocked by Hamilton Albert Fish, his real-life model. And members of the New York City Police Department were about to learn how totally depraved a man can be.

Using stationery left by someone else at Frieda Schneider’s New York City boarding house, Albert Fish obliterated the return address on the pre-printed envelope. But he failed to obscure the emblem with its initials "NYPCBA" (New York Private Chauffeur’s Benevolent Association). Detective King wanted to know: Was the writer of the perverse letter part of that group?

Detective King tried to match the handwriting of the letter with the handwriting on 400 NYPCBA membership forms. None matched. Had someone removed association stationery from the office? Yes, the janitor had. He had taken it to his prior boarding house at 200 East 52nd Street - room 7.

Frieda Schneider was shocked when Detective King questioned her about her current tenants. The description of the man King was looking for sounded just like the man who had moved out of room 7 on November 11. Undaunted, King examined the boarding house sign-in log. The register handwriting matched the letter handwriting with one major difference. The register bore a signature: "Albert H. Fish."

Fortunately for the police, Fish had a reason to return to the boarding house. Every month Fish received his son’s paycheck from the North Carolina Civilian Conservation Corps. Fish would be back for that $25 check. And when he came by for the money, Detective King would come by for the arrest.

It wasn’t the first time Albert Fish had been arrested by the New York Police. In 1931, he had been picked up and institutionalized at Bellevue Hospital. His crime? Writing obscene letters to women. His penalty? A few months in Bellevue where he was examined by psychiatrists, including Dr. Menas Gregory. His treatment? Nothing much, since Dr. Gregory let him go.

Although Gregory determined Fish "has manifested sex perversion from early life," he did not exhibit "mental deterioration or dementia." In short, Fish was a pervert who knew what he was doing. According to Gregory’s report:

As a result of our psychiatric examination we are of the opinion that this man at the present time is not insane.

Four years later the prosecution would advocate his sanity throughout the trial. So would Dr. Gregory. But as the police first listened to Fish tell his tale of horrifying proportions, no one believed he was telling the truth. No one wanted to believe a man (sane or insane) could kill a child and then commit further atrocities so ghastly as to make the act of murder less heinous than its aftermath.

Fish admitted to killing Grace Budd at Wisteria cottage in Westchester. He showed the police where to recover her remains, including her little skull. Gathering those remains in a basket, the police kept them as evidence. That evidence would later be used as a trial exhibit, despite the strong objections of Fish’s lawyer, James Dempsey.

But what of the claims of cannibalism? Initially, he denied it to reporters just as he denied involvement in the deaths of other children:

I don’t know anything about those other bones they say they’ve found. And cannibalism! The very thought sickens me.

The act should have sickened him as much as the thought. Instead, Hamilton Albert Fish will be forever remembered as the real-life model for Hannibal Lecter. It was up to Dr. Wertham to tell the jury what Fish had told him. After the testimony was over, no one doubted Fish had done what he had denied to reporters.

Trial for the kidnap and murder of Grace Budd took place in White Plains, New York. There could be only one defense: Insanity.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution fought that theory. Staying away from facts about the ultimate outrage, Gallagher tried to convince the jury Fish was sane. He knew right from wrong. He murdered Gracie in cold blood. He planned it. He pre-selected the place where he would do it. He had flat-out lied to her parents. He was evil, but he was sane.

Dempsey had one issue that MIGHT convince the jury his client was utterly and hopelessly insane. To make his case, he HAD to talk about the ultimate outrage. Only an insane person would engage in acts of cannibalism.

Dr. Wertham, who had spent more time with Fish than anyone else, was Dempsey’s only hope. If convicted, Fish would be given the mandatory sentence: Death in Sing Sing’s electric chair. Dr. Wertham testified:

This defendant is suffering from a mental disease. He is so mixed up about the question of punishment, of sin, of atonement, of religion, of torture that he is in a particularly bad state to know the difference between right and wrong. He is even worse off than that, because he actually has a perverted, a distorted, if you will, an insane, knowledge of right and wrong.

James Dempsey knew he had little chance to save his client’s life. His final argument was filled with passion:

In the course of human nature ten of you twelve men will die in full possession of your reason and memory. When that hour comes, when the blood begins to congeal and the breath to fail, when death snaps one by one the strings of life, when you look back to the past and forward to judgment, remember Albert Fish, that when he was helpless and defenseless and pleaded with you for his life, that you said, ‘Let him live,’ or ‘Let him die,’ and if you said ‘Let him die,’ may He who breathed into your nostrils the breath of life judge you more mercifully than you judged this maniac.

It wasn’t enough to save Fish. John Partelow, the jury foreman, read the verdict:

One juror told news reporters most of the panel thought Fish was insane. Even so, they thought he should meet his end in the electric chair.
Sing Sing prison was Albert Fish’s next stop. He wouldn’t be there long.

The "death house" was the place where hundreds of people met their end in Sing Sing’s electric chair. Death in the chair (invented in 1887 by an employee of Thomas Edison) was particularly gruesome. Although he was in charge of at least 300 Sing Sing executions, Warden Lewis Lawes did not support the death penalty. That is easy to understand, given how many deaths he oversaw.

Legend has it that Albert Fish looked forward to this "supreme thrill." Other reports depict a man who didn’t want to die.

It didn’t take long for the Court of Appeals to turn down Dempsey’s request to spare his client’s life. The Governor of New York, Herbert Lehman, went through the motions of listening to a plea for clemency. It, too, was denied.

Less than a year after his trial, Hamilton Albert Fish ate his last meal. Shortly after 11 p.m. on January 16, 1936 Fish was strapped into the chair. Harold Schechter, in Deranged, describes the end:

At the sight of the electric chair, Fish did not quail, as even the hardest men often did, though he did not seem like someone who was looking forward to the "supreme thrill" of his life, either. Hands clasped in prayer, he lowered himself into the chair and allowed the straps to be adjusted around his arms, legs and torso.
His face looked very pale in the instant before Robert Elliott, the gaunt, gray-haired executioner, slipped the black death mask over it. The leather cap with its electrode was fitted to the old man’s close-shaven head. After fastening the chin-strap, Elliott stooped to secure the second electrode to Fish’s right leg beneath the trouser slit. Then he stepped to the control panel.

Part of the legend surrounding the demise of the real-life model for Hannibal Lecter happened at the moment of his death. The needles that were part of his body were claimed to have short-circuited the first effort to end his life. But Schechter disputes that:

Afterward, stories circulated that the needles in the old man’s body had produced a burst of blue sparks when the electricity was activated. But this was simply part of the folklore that grew up around Fish in the following years. There were no pyrotechnics. Fish died like other men.

By 11:09 p.m. Fish was dead. Nothing Hannibal Lecter could ever do on screen would be as bad as Hamilton Albert Fish did in real life.

NOTE: If you would like more details about the life of Hamilton Albert Fish, you can visit the Crime Library’s story about him. Keep in mind this WARNING: That site contains explicit details about his crimes.

A FINAL THOUGHT. Have you ever wondered how Thomas Harris came up with the name "Hannibal Lecter?" He's not telling, of course, but here's an educated guess. Check out this medieval medical text by Alexander Achillinus. There's Latin written under the picture. Note the first word - Hannibal - which refers to a person. Look at the next line - Lectori - which refers to the reader. Since Hannibal Lecter is a doctor who reads medical texts, is it too far a stretch to think THIS was the inspiration for his name?

RARE DVD FOOTAGE OF KILLERS AND CULT LEADERS

Ted Bundys Last Interview and More on DVD



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	THE SON OF SAM - RARE FOOTAGE OF DAVID BERKOWITZ This DVD includes hours of rare and lost footage of the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz (including the rare interview where David Berkowitz admits that he was not alone in the killings and his connection to a satanic cult)! PRICE : $10



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the capture of richard the nightstalker ramirez on dvd



	THE CAPTURE OF RICHARD RAMIREZ - THE NIGHTSTALKER This is a rare collection of local news report when Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez was captured by an angry mob wanting justice, Richard was one of the most violent serial killers that ever lived and left many people dead or severely impared from his violent killing spree. PRICE : $10



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	JEFFREY DAHMER : CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL KILLER This is the full 90 minute interview between Stone Philips and Jeffery Dahmer. Pretty wild stuff. PRICE : $10

rare jeffrey dahmer tv appearances on dvd



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Horror In Milwaukee Rare Jeffrey Dahmer Footage On DVD



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	BIZARRE RARE HOME MADE INTERVIEW WITH OJ SIMPSON Produced in 1996, this rare home video marks one of the most bizarre points of athlete, actor and suspected murderer OJ Simpson’s life. Apparently OJ was frustrated that everybody thought he was guilty, so he produced this video in order to clear his name, reputation…and to find the real killer of Ron and Nicole. That being said, here’s the setup--the majority of the video consists of a one-on-one, no holds barred interview between OJ Simpson and a journalist named Ross Becker. He was allowed to ask any question he wanted (excluding questions about his kids, personal finances, or post trial legal matters) directly to OJ and demand a full response. This interview was billed was “the questions and answers you would have heard if OJ had taken the stand”…After that grilling, OJ personally takes you on the tour of his estate…the scene of the murders…inside his home, and around his yard. He tries to work through bits of incriminating evidence during this tour, hoping that he can be vindicated in the public arena….but he only seems to dig himself deeper. Watch in amazement as this weird spectacle unfolds before your eyes….He definitely should not have made this video. PRICE : $10



	RARE CONFESSION FOOTAGE OF GERALD PARKER PART 1 Known as the "Bedroom Basher," serial rapist Gerald Parker thought he had gotten away with murder until DNA testing linked him to the murder of five women and an unborn child in Orange County, California. Police and Navy officials believe Gerald might be responsible for even more killings, specifically three other dead women in Orange County. PRICE : $10



	RARE CONFESSION FOOTAGE OF GERALD PARKER PART 2 Known as the "Bedroom Basher," serial rapist Gerald Parker thought he had gotten away with murder until DNA testing linked him to the murder of five women and an unborn child in Orange County, California. Police and Navy officials believe Gerald might be responsible for even more killings, specifically three other dead women in Orange County. PRICE : $10



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Rare Heavens Gate Initiation Footage on DVD



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OVER 100 RARE AND COMPLETE FBI FILES ON ONE DVD



	OVER 100 RARE AND COMPLETE FBI FILES ON ONE DATA DVD This is the very rare FBI Files DVD. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we are proud to present you with this amazing Data DVD which includes over 100 rare and newly declassified FBI Files on some of the most interesting people, groups and events in world history. The files on this DVD are in PDF format and can be viewed on any computer.For your convience, this DVD is seperated in to folders (based on theme and person). Each of these folders contains the complete FBI file for that individual (most of which are well over 200 pages long)! These files can be viewed on any computer and are perfect for printing. PRICE : $10

{ RARE DVD FOOTAGE OF MANSON AND THE MANSON FAMILY }

Rare Footage of The Manson Family Women on DVD



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	CHARLES MANSON VS BILL STOUT : RARE INTERVIEW Rare Charles Manson Interview PRICE : $10

charles manson vs geraldo rivera prison interview



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	CHARLES MANSON VS ED SANDERS: RARE INTERVIEW Rare Charles Manson Interview PRICE : $10



	CHARLES MANSON VS BILL MURPHY: RARE PRISON INTERVIEW This is the very in depth BBC interview with Charles Manson. PRICE : $10



	CHARLES MANSON VS PENNY DANIELS : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW Female Tabloid reporter Penny Daniels interviews Manson. PRICE : $10



	CHARLES MANSON VS RON REAGAN JR : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW Ron Reagan interviews Charles Manson PRICE : $10



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	UNCUT CHARLES MANSON SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW This is the complete uncut interview shown in Charles Manson Superstar. PRICE : $10



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	THE BEST OF CHARLES MANSONS 1980 INTERVIEWS ON DVD Charles Manson 1980's Interviews With Tom Snyder, Penny Daniels, Charlie Rose, Nuel Emmons, Geraldo Rivera. This DVD is approx. 4 hr 20 mins Interesting, Great Research Material. PRICE : $10



	RARE LESLIE VAN HOUTEN 1977 INTERVIEW Unedited footage of the entire interview Leslie Van Houten gave in 1977 after she was granted a re-trial (she eventually was convicted after a third trial in 1978: 7 years to life.) conducted inside the prison. Unique material. PRICE : $10



	RARE 1993 INTERVIEW WITH MANSON FAMILY MEMBER PATRICIA KRENWINKEL PRICE : $10



	RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME ONE This DVD contains the first 2 hours of 4 hours of raw footage of KTLA from the UCLA archives. Contents (both discs): News footage shot during the Tate-Labianca trial. News footage shot during the Hinman & Shea trials News footage shot during the trial following the Hawthorne gun store robbery. News footage shot during the Leslie Van Houten re-trials in 1977 & 1978. Footage of an interview with Bernard Crow (a.k.a. Lotsapoppa). Footage of interviews with prosecutors Vincent Bugliosi and Stephen Kay. Footage of interviews with Manson Family members Bruce Davis, Sandra Good. Nancy Pitman, and Leslie Van Houten. Footage of the arraignment of Kenneth Como, Catherine Share, Mary Brunner. Footage of Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan and others. PRICE : $10



	RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME TWO This DVD contains the second 2 hours of 4 hours of raw footage of KTLA from the UCLA archives. Contents (both discs): News footage shot during the Tate-Labianca trial. News footage shot during the Hinman & Shea trials News footage shot during the trial following the Hawthorne gun store robbery. News footage shot during the Leslie Van Houten re-trials in 1977 & 1978. Footage of an interview with Bernard Crow (a.k.a. Lotsapoppa). Footage of interviews with prosecutors Vincent Bugliosi and Stephen Kay. Footage of interviews with Manson Family members Bruce Davis, Sandra Good. Nancy Pitman, and Leslie Van Houten. Footage of the arraignment of Kenneth Como, Catherine Share, Mary Brunner. Footage of Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan and others. PRICE : $10



	RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME THREE This DVD contains the first 2 hours of 4 hours of footage from the NBC 2 archives. This volume contains raw footage of newscasts throughout the 1970s up to 1994. PRICE : $10



	RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME FOUR This DVD contains the second 2 hours of 4 hours of footage from the NBC 2 archives. This volume contains raw footage of newscasts throughout the 1970s up to 1994. PRICE : $10



	RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME FIVE This DVD contains raw footage from the CNN archives. Contents: Coverage of the press conference at the California Institution for Women following the parole hearing of Leslie Van Houten in 2002. Raw footage shot outside of the San Bernardino County courthouse of Van Houten's appearance before Judge Bob Krug with reactions of two lawyers for the Board of Parole Hearings, Van Houten's father Paul and Van Houten's attorney Christie Webb. Segments of several parole hearings over the years, among others Krenwinkel's 1985 hearing, Van Houten's 1987 hearing, Manson's 1989 hearing, Bruce Davis' 2000 hearing. PRICE : $10

Rare Footage of Charles Manson Parole Hearings on DVD



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	CHARLES MANSON 1992 PAROLE HEARING This is the 1992 Parole Hearing of Charles Manson. PRICE : $10



	CHARLES MANSON 1997 PAROLE HEARING This is the 1997 Parole Hearing of Charles Manson. PRICE : $10



	2007 PAROLE HEARING OF CHARLES MANSON SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California denied parole on Wednesday to Charles Manson, one of America's most notorious mass murderers, in his 11th bid for release. California's Board of Parole Hearings said in a statement that Manson, 72, "continues to pose an unreasonable danger to others and may still bring harm to anyone he would come in contact with." PRICE : $10



	ALL IN THE (MANSON) FAMILY - RARE FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY ON DVD This DVD includes hours of rare and lost footage of the Manson family. On this DVD you will find an amazing collection of parole hearings, home videos, interviews, news clips and hard to find raw footage not found anywhere else! PRICE : $10

Rare 1990 Parole Hearing of Manson Family Member Patricia Krenwinkel



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Rare 1997 Parole Hearing of Manson Family Member Patricia Krenwinkel



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Rare 1991 Parole Hearing of Manson Family Member Leslie Van Houten



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Rare 1999 Parole Hearing of Manson Family Member Leslie Van Houten



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Rare 2000 Parole Hearing of Manson Family Member Leslie Van Houten



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$Charles Tex Watson 1990 Parole Hearing on DVD$



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Rare 1993 Parole Hearing of Manson Family Member Susan Atkins



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Rare 2000 Parole Hearing of Manson Family Member Susan Atkins



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	CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME ONE THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING MIX OF RAW FOOTAGE, HOME VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS, PAROLE HEARINGS AND MUCH MUCH MORE! PRICE : $10



	CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME TWO THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE BIG BAD WOLF OF AMERICAN CRIME, CHARLES MANSON. PRICE : $10



	CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME THREE THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE BIG BAD WOLF OF AMERICAN CRIME, CHARLES MANSON. PRICE : $10



	CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME FOUR Starts off with a Hardcore copy exclusive with a pirated video from his jail cell and a segment on women who write him love letters, Some Christian Show with Tex Waston's born again wife and a long discussion about their marriage in prison, Another Christian show called "Pardoned From Above" also about Tex Watson's marriage and possible parole, Another Hardcopy Clip. Runs about 2 hours PRICE : $10



	CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME FIVE The first hour is Manson on Geraldo (The broadcast version, not the uncut version sold on this site), Then it has Maury Povich on a current affair talking about Manson, A clip of one of the Manson family talking collage classes in jail, Squeaky escaping prison, then a bunch of misc clips, runs about 2 hours PRICE : $10



	CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME SIX More random Charles Manson clips mostly from 1992. Runs about 2 hours PRICE : $10



	CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME SEVEN More Charles Manson clips from our massive collection. PRICE : $10



	WHITE RABBIT (RARE INTERROGATION OF MANSON FAMILY CONFIDANT) ON DVD Interrogation by Inyo Co. Sheriffs and the Dig for Bodies at Barker Ranch. PRICE : $10

SERIAL KILLER & CULT LEADER DVD MEGA SETS



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	COMPLETE JEFFREY DAHMER DVD SET This 4 DVD collectors set includes: 1. Jeffrey Dahmer - Confessions of a Serial Killer 2. Rare Jeffrey Dahmer Television Appearances, 3. Horror in Milwaukee (hours of rare Jeffrey Dahmer footage and original news clips), and 4. Rare Footage of the Jeffrey Dahmer Trial. PRICE : $35



	COMPLETE CHARLES MANSON INTERVIEW DVD SET This 10 DVD collectors set includes: 1. THE BEST OF CHARLES MANSONS 1980 INTERVIEWS, 2. Manson Interview with GERALDO RIVERA (RARE UNCUT PRISON INTERVIEW TAKEN BY GUARDS) , 3. Manson Interview with ED SANDERS, 4. Manson Interview with BILL MURPHY, 5. Manson Interview with PENNY DANIELS , 6. Manson Interview with RON REAGAN JR, 7. Manson Interview with CHARLIE ROSE, 8. Manson Interview with TOM SNYDER, 9. Manson Interview with BILL STOUT, and 10. The UNCUT CHARLES MANSON SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW. PRICE : $75



	COMPLETE CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD SET This 7 DVD collectors set includes: 1. Charles (Manson) In Charge Volume One, 2. Charles (Manson) In Charge Volume Two, 3. Charles (Manson) In Charge Volume Three, 4.Charles (Manson) In Charge Volume One, 6. Manson Interview with RON REAGAN JR, 5. Manson Interview with CHARLIE ROSE, 8. Manson Interview with TOM SNYDER, 9. Manson Interview with BILL STOUT, and 10. The UNCUT CHARLES MANSON SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW. PRICE : $55

ALBERT FISH