Albert Fish Personality Disorder

The serial sexual murderer of focus is Albert Fish. Albert Fish was known to many people as the Gray Man and the Werewolf of Wysteria. Albert Fish was an insane person, like no other. He was extensively perverted in so many ways, on one side, his personality comes off as caring about some things, but lacking any care towards others. The crimes he committed occurred in a period when people trusted their neighbors, not having many suspicions; he is one of many to open the eyes of these naive people. In exploring the fundamental elements of Albert's life, one must understand the breakdown of his life, his death, and try to understand the reasons behind what he did.

To study Albert Fish and understand what he did, I believe it is important to comprehend serial sexual murders. When reading the book Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides by Louis Schlesinger it explains how sexual serial murders enjoy inflicting pain upon

their victims, that they enjoy watching their victims struggle and cry for help. These types of murderers "get off" on the pain they inflict, but many times, just the act of the torture sexually arouses the killer. In some cases, the killer starts by molesting, raping, and then murdering their victims. Most of the time the killing itself is sexually gratifying (P. 210, Schlesinger, 2004).
Hamilton Howard Fish, in which he hated his first name and changed it to Albert, was born on May 19, 1870; his family has a long history of mental illness. His elderly father was 75 years of age, and his mother was 43 years younger than his father, who as crazy as it is both also had a history of having a mental illness. As he became older, as his mother did, Albert, started to have audible hallucinations. His mother gave up on him and placed him in an orphanage where he was treated roughly. Albert later admits while he was in the orphanage he received, regular beatings, which he began to enjoy, the older he got. When it comes to his education, and as he grew up, he had to teach himself how to work with his hands rather than needing to use his head. Murdering was not the only thing criminal action that Albert enjoyed. He also dabbled in areas of cannibalism, pedophilia, and masochism.
Learning more about Albert is critical since he started when he was quite young it only helps to determine exactly where it started. On the murderpedia website, it explains a lot about how his childhood was like. When he was growing up and was on his own Albert started having relationships with other boys. He met a boy that taught him that he could eat his feces and drink his urine. After that, his sexual exploration turned into watching boys undress in showers. Then he started to label himself as a male prostitute, and he became more interested in castrating things which then transformed into himself attempting to castrate the boy he was sexual exploring. Albert was very interested in young boys he never stopped exploring the male body and torturing them even though he got was married in the year of 1898.
In 1898, he became married and later fathered six children. Albert was a small 130 pound, 5 foot 5 inch, a gentle looking man who appeared to be kind and trusting, "yet once he was alone with his victims, turns into a horrible monster - a monster so perverse and cruel, his crimes seem unbelievable." (Bardsley, 2004.) His children were leading average lives up until the period of 1917, when his wife ran off with another man, leaving six kids with Albert. At this point of time, Albert's kids remember their him, on occasions asking to participate in sadomasochistic type games. One of the games Albert included a nail filled paddle, which he would use on victims. He would take the paddle and with his children use it until he started to bleed. The pressure of having failed at his marriage, leading into his wife forcing him to be a single parent, brought out his mental illnesses where he started to rape and mutilate himself and others. It all would increase in the time leading to the final step, murder. In several claims, it said that he first murdered in 1919, stabbing a mentally challenged boy.
When noting some of Albert's sexual acts, one would notice them growing from seemingly innocent personal ads to women, into letters which were graphic and full of details of the sexual acts he wanted to share with the women. Descriptions of what he wrote were so repulsive and unpalatable that it was never presented public even though it was accepted as evidence in court. There was not a single woman was interested in responding to back. What was noted and shared was that he not interested in marriage at all, all he wanted was to have them cater to his masochistic urges by having them to inflict pain on him and for him to be able to inflict pain on them.
Since Albert did not get an education, and he learned how to work with his hands, he was good at fixing and painting houses; that skill would bring him work all over the Country. Purposely selecting states that had more African Americans than others. With the urge to continue to murder he chose African American children because the belief at the time was that police did not care that much about them to look for their murderers. In these murders, he used what he would call his "instruments of hell" (Charles Montaldo, http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/albertfish.htm, 2014). These incorporated the famous paddle that he had applied to his kids earlier, a meat cleaver, and multiple knives.
Albert was growing farther in his mental illness and urges bringing him further into the realm of being a serial sexual murder. This would take him to one of his most famous crimes he perpetrated, was that of the grotesque murder of little Grace Budd. In the year of 1928, Albert tortured, murdered, and ate Grace Budd, the search of her disappearance went on for six years.
This story starts, around the year of 1928, Albert was still scanning newspaper ads when he saw and answered an ad for an 18-year-old Edward Budd, who was looking for work, helping out with his family's finances. Albert introduced himself as Frank Howard and discussed what their son's future position would be on his farm. Albert told them about himself stating that he was a farmer, looking for help. The Budd family was excited about Edward's luck in finding work, which brought them to pretty much, instantly trust this gentle and polite, Albert Fish.
Albert was supposed to take Edward to the farm to work; he tells the Budd family that he would arrive within the following week to get Edward and one of his friends, out to his farm to begin working. However, Albert fails to come on the day he agreed on. Although he does send the family a telegram to apologize, and tells them a new date that he would meet with the boys. This time, Albert shows up as he promised, he came with gifts for all of the Budd kids and talked to the family over lunch. The whole Budd family saw, Mr. Howard, as they knew him, and he came off as a typical loving grandfather.
During lunch, the Budd's little girl Grace sat on his lap. At this moment, he decided he wanted to eat her. When lunch was over, Albert revealed that he was going to a birthday party at his sister's home. He proposed that he take their daughter Grace, with him to the party. The plan he told them was that he would come back and pick up their son and his friend to take to his farm. The naive parents agreed and dressed in her Sunday best; she rarely got to go and spend time with other kids. Grace was very excited about going to party. After that, Grace Budd has never seen alive again.
The police investigated the disappearance of Grace for six years, but there was light at the end of the tunnel. Detectives finally receive a significant break on November 11, 1934; when Mrs. Budd received an anonymous letter. In this letter, she was given the grotesque details of the murder and cannibalism of her precious daughter, Grace. In this letter, Albert tells Mrs. Budd how he never took Grace to a party but to an empty house. He went into detail how he then stripped her of her clothing and then strangled her. When she was dead, he cut her into pieces and ate her. As if that was not bad enough Albert adds that Grace had not been sexually assaulted at any time.
From this letter, they can trace the paper from the letter to a flophouse where Albert was living. Albert was then arrested and almost immediately after being imprisoned he began confessing to having killed Grace Budd as well as the several hundred other children. Albert enjoyed being able to relive the murders as he confessed and gave the grizzly details of the tortures and murders.
In March of 1935, Albert goes to trial, where his council pleads innocent because of insanity. He described the reason for what he did, was because the voices, which goes back to his auditory hallucinations, told him to do it, all the horrendous acts. Regardless of the amount of psychiatrists who tried to declare Albert Fish as insane the jury still found him to be sane and guilty. The trail was pretty short for such a grotesque character as Albert Fish it was only a 10-day trial. The court sentenced him to die by electrocution. On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish was electrocuted at Sing prison; it is reported from other prisoners that Albert viewed the execution to be his "ultimate sexual thrill."
There is still one question that revolves in everyone's head, who or what was to blame for Albert Fish's and all other serial murders behavior? It is gathered that it may be genetics. However, is there a "kill gene"? Doctors will say that there is no such thing. If this were the case, there would be the whole ton of people that become serial killers, because of a flaw in their DNA.
On the site Jacana Great Lives, they talk about major criminals of our time. One killer on the site, by the name of Richard Speck shares, "I have an extra chromosome" type of defense. It was never proven at the time. It is also not enough evidence that can link any X or Y chromosome to murderers let alone serial killers. There have been some beliefs that high testosterone by itself is not dangerous, but when serotonin get too low, that it may give the right chemical levels to have a serial killer in the making. Testosterone is known to be associated with a need for dominance. So to break it down, when testosterone gets too high, and serotonin levels get too low; it makes a person become overly frustrated and aggressive person that feels the need to use violence.
Along with the studies of hormones, there are also studies that show that high levels of metal toxins, manganese, lead, cadmium, and copper resulted in aggressive behavior, and when you add alcohol, it only increases the response.
There are also thoughts that head traumas could cause people to become violent.

With that thought, there have only been, few known serial murders to have had some head trauma. These serial murders are Albert Fish, Leonard Lake, David Berkowitz, Kenneth Bianchi, John Wayne Gacy, and Carl Panzram. It does not think that there are different kinds of injuries as well as diseases that involve the brain that can cause people to have a lack of emotion, added aggressiveness, or even some violent tendencies, and sexual perversions. Individuals with these issues do not even realize they have a problem with the brain and that medication could fix their problems.

The last thought that could cause someone to become a murderer is sensory deprivation. It is believed that a lack of any physical touch is harmful to a child's development. Some known serial murderers are known to have been separated from their parents at an early age. It is even shared that some serial murders were also denied their mother's affection and were not given any physical

touch.
When we look at Albert Fish's life, it has already been noted he is a serial murderer and that he was probably destined to become a serial murderer. What is known about his life is that he fell out of a tree when he was a child resulting in a head injury and early in his childhood he was separated from his mother. These may not be the direct cause as to why he became a serial murderer, but it could have contributed.
When it came to Albert Fish, there was so much that went wrong in his life that made him into the murderer he was. His family was not healthy and to add to it his parents had mental issues as well. When it comes to defining Albert Fish the National Institute of Justice in 1988 quoted in the book The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers which describes Serial Murderers like, Albert Fish as,
A series of two or more murders committed as separate events, usually but not always, by one offender acting alone. The crimes may occur over a period ranging from hours to years. Quite often the motive is psychological, and the offender's behavior and the physical evidence observed at the crime scenes will reflect sadistic, sexual overtones. (p.238, Newton, 2006)
In reviewing Albert Fish and breaking down the type of murderer he was, in addition to breaking down why he was the way he was, there are still wonders. Albert Fish appeared to and seemed to be great father and husband, and no one ever suspected he could be a serial murderer. Where he started with the beatings in the orphanage to finding enjoyment from pushing needles deep into his skin. This man was so deranged there was no saving him and he needed to be put to death to protect others as well as himself.