In 1870, Hamilton Fish is born in Washington, D.C, a normal child, yet several years later he is known to be one of the most horrific serial killers of the 1920s. It is not known how many total victims Fish had during the 1920s, yet some of his most well-known victims include Grace Budd, Billy Gaffney, and Francis X. McDonnell. His murders were very horrific, yet what made Fish the most well-known serial killer of the 1920s was the letters he wrote about how he killed, raped, and ate the children he abducted (youtube.com).
Throughout his childhood, Fish experienced severe abuse, trauma, and loss that were key factors in what would later develop into paranoid and religious psychosis including a mixture of other mental illnesses (creativescapism.com).
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Psychosis is a loss of contact with reality including delusions and hallucinations (about.com). He grew up in a home where mental illness was very prevalent and was abandoned at an orphanage by his mother after his father died of a heart attack. Fish was frequently beaten and severely abused at this orphanage to the point where he started to find pleasure in the pain. This is when sexual masochism began to emerge within his mind (psychologytoday.com). Four years later, Fish’s mother takes him back home to live, but the orphanage had already negatively impacted his mental health. After leaving the orphanage, Fish becomes involved with a telegraph boy who introduces him to consuming human waste and voyeurism. This later influenced Fish to spy on and rape young boys even after being put into an arranged marriage by his mother. During his marriage, he had six children and worked as a house painter. Fish and his wife are together for fourteen years until his wife leaves him for another man after Fish is arrested for raping a mentally disabled man (creativescapism.com). This causes Fish to self harm and become interested in inflicting pain upon himself. Fish already had masochistic tendencies back at the orphanage when he was younger, but this is when his past fetish begins to develop into more of an addiction. After the separation, his children claim that he had made them beat him with a paddle edged with metal nails claiming that, “"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] (murderpedia.org)." He later confesses to inserting twenty-nine rusty needles into his lower body for pleasure (dailynews.com). Fish was mainly active in murdering and raping children during the 1920s, yet he had been committing crimes since around 1910.
He was known to attack mentally challenged or African American children, because he believed that they would not be as missed or publicized. It is not known how many victims there were, but Fish has admitted to at least three specific murders. The first known victim of Fish was Francis X. McDonnell, an eight year old boy, who had been playing a game of ball with his four other friends when he was abducted in 1924. Interesting enough, Francis McDonnell did not fit the criteria or Fish’s usual victims. He was not African American, mentally challenged, or disabled …show more content…
(youtube.com). Earlier that day whilst Francis was playing on his front porch, his mother noticed a “grey-haired, frail, old man” walking down the street and staring at Francis while muttering to himself. Later in the afternoon, his friends and a neighbor reported seeing Francis walk into the woods with the old man and disappear. Francis was later found beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled by his own suspenders. Fish later states that he had planned to cut his body into pieces, but had heard someone coming and fled (youtube.com). Another one of Fish’s victims included Billy Gaffney, a four-year old boy, who at the time of his abduction was playing with another boy outside of his apartment in 1927. When searching for the two boys, neither could be found, yet the other child Billy was playing with was later found on the roof of the apartment home. When asked what had happened to Billy, the child claimed, “The boogey man took him.” Fish was first suspected to have been involved in the murder when a man identified Fish’s picture in the newspaper as the man who had been seen forcing a small child off and on the trolley, as the child cried for his mother. The child’s description was later matched to four year old, Billy Gaffney. His body was never found (murderpedia.org). Billy’s mother visited Fish years late in prison, asking for details of her son’s murder. Fish wrote a very graphic letter of what he had done to Billy Gaffney. In this letter he writes, “I brought him to the Riker Avenue dumps. There is a house that stands alone, not far from where I took him. I took the boy there (murderpedia.org).” He then goes into detail about how he ties the boy up and brutally mutilates him. Fish writes about how he takes the boy’s body parts home, cooks, and eats them. “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. (murderpedia.org)” The last known victim of Albert Fish was Grace Budd, a ten year old girl, whose murder would lead the police to Fish and end his killing spree for good. In 1928, Edward Budd, eighteen at the time, puts an ad in the newspaper looking for work in order to help get his family out of poverty. Fish sees this ad and visits the Budd family under the name Frank Howard, a farmer from New York, with the intention of hiring Edward and later killing him. Fish quickly changes his mind about his soon to be victim after meeting Edward’s younger sister, Grace. In a letter Fish later writes to the Budd family concerning Grace’s murder, Fish states the following: “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. (nndb.com)” In order to get Grace away from the rest of the Budd family, Fish convinces her parents to allow her to accompany him to his sister’s birthday party. Grace leaves her home that day with Fish, but she never does return home. In the morning, Edward Budd reports his sister’s disappearance to the police. At first, the police arrest Charles Edward Pope, an apartment house superintendent, who was accused by his hostile ex-wife. He spends one hundred and eight days in jail before he is released. The other suspect was known as Albert Corthell, a con man and forger, who famous investigator, Will King, spent six years tracking down just to find out he had been spending time in prison when Grace was abducted (crimemuseum.org). During this time, police and investigators desperately searched for any clues as to who Frank Howard truly was. Fish had told the Budd family he had a farm on Long Island, yet there was no sign of any farm, and the address Fish had gave the Budd family where the supposed birthday was taking place did not exist. After six years of coming to dead ends, Mrs. Budd receives a letter in the mail concerning the murder of her daughter. It very graphically describes how Fish takes Grace to an abandoned house, mutilates her, and eats her body. “It took me 9 days to eat her entire body,” Fish writes (nndb.com). Detective King uses this letter as a clue to try to help track down whoever Frank Howard truly was. The envelope had a small emblem on it with letters that stood for the New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association. A meeting was called for all the members of the association to do a handwriting test, while the police looked at the handwritten membership forms to see if any of them matched up to the letter written by Frank Howard. A young janitor finally came forth and admitted to taking a few sheets of paper and envelopes to his old rooming house. The police rush to the rooming house’s address and questioned the landlady who shockingly states that an old man who matched “Frank Howard’s” description had lived there for about two months (murderpedia.org). In 1934, the landlady calls Detective King and reports that Fish is in his room, looking for an expected letter from his son that was intercepted by the police. King rushes to the rooming house and confronts Fish, who attempts to attack the detective with a hidden razor blade, but fails and is immediately handcuffed. Millions of sharp razors and knifes are also found inside of Fish’s pockets. He is taken to the police station and confesses to his murders without difficulty. He refers to the motivation for his crimes as a “blood thirst” and freely confesses how he killed Grace Budd and the location of her death, Wisteria Cottage (crimemuseum.org). Albert Fish’s trail began in March of 1935 and lasted for less than an hour.
By the end of it, Fish was found guilty and sane. Although there was plenty proof that Fish suffered from psychosis and was insane, the jury wanted to see him punished. He was sentenced to death by electrocution and was scheduled to die in January of 1936. Fish arrived at Sing Sing Prison after being found guilty carrying a bible, and when questioned by reporters stated that, “What a thrill that will be if I have to die in the electric chair. It will be the supreme thrill. The only one I haven’t tried.” The first giant jolt of electricity failed to kill Fish due to the needles inside his body creating a short circuit. The second jolt did kill him though, and Fish remains to be one of the oldest men to ever die in the electric chair. His final statements have never been revealed and have been referred to as “the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read” by Fish’s defense attorney
(crimemuseum.org).
...derer himself, he compares the guilt of his son’s death to that of fishes incident and how terrible he treated himself because of it.
Sean Vincent Gills was born June 24, 1962, in Baton Rouge, LA to Norman and Yvonne Gillis. His father died of acholism when Gills was just a young boy. His mom working a full time job at a local television station struggled to take care of Gills. Her parents often looked at after him. As a child Gills was thought to be normal. His mother was quoted saying that “I used to call him my little blue-eyed angel. This is the person I loved most in this world.” It wasn’t until his teenage years when others began to see a different side of him. As a teenager he had minor infraction but none to alarm others to think he would become a killer. He was arrested for traffic citations, DUI, possession of marijuana, and contempt of court through tout the years.
David Berkowitz unleashed his random malicious scats during the summer of 1976. He is known today as one of New York’s most notorious serial killers. Berkowitz was born on June 1st, 1953 in New York, New York. He was adopted by the Berkowitz couple a few days after his birth. When Berkowitz was 18 the joined the U.S. Army. After the army, he got a job as a security officer and moved into an apartment in New York. No one even noticed the danger that slept next door.
He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but some thought he might actually be suffering from drug-induced toxic psychosis. He visited the emergency room for testimonials that bones were coming out the back of his head, someone stole his pulmonary arteries, his stomach was backwards, and his heart stopped beating sometimes. He was also diagnosed with hypochondria, where he believed his heart was in danger of shrinking until disappearance. He then came to the solution that drinking blood of animals or humans would stop the shrinking. He was also interviewed and said that he killed to stay alive. He was admitted to a mental institution and was prescribed antidepressants. He was allowed to leave anytime he wanted. He was left unsupervised and his mother told him that he did not need the
Throughout history, America has been the home of serial killers, with more than 2,000 throughout history. In this country, America has encountered many different kinds of these sick people. One of the most infamous serial killers throughout American History was Theodore Robert Bundy, also known as Ted Bundy. On November 24, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont, Theodore Robert Bundy was born. When people think of serial killers, they usually see a dirty, insane looking person that would stand out from the average person. In Bundy’s case it was very different. Ted was a very smart individual who had attended 5 different colleges throughout the United States, studying law and eventually getting his degree in psychology at the University of Washington. Bundy was a very handsome and charming man, unlike most other serial killers. Looking helpless and using his good looks, Bundy was able to lure his victims and would knock them unconscious with an object such as a crowbar or a pipe, then would handcuff them inside his car. Once the victims were under his control he would then proceed in kidnapping, raping, sodomizing, and eventually killing them in very harsh ways. Throughout the 70’s, he raped and murdered young women all across the country. Bundy was said to be connected to at least 36 murders, and suspected to have committed one hundred or more.
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theaters, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Nobles Booksellers” (Brown). When people think of serial killers, names such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein are cited. During the time Jack the Ripper was executing his victims in London, Holmes began his gruesome career in Chicago (America’s Serial Killers). “Despite being America’s first serial killer, Holmes is hardly a familiar name and until now we haven’t had any popular visual record of his crimes: (Spikol). Why is it that people only think of the more popular killers with higher known profiles? They are all very similar to one another because they share characteristics. H.H. Holmes was a successful serial killer because he was well educated, cunning and charming. Those are just a few traits Holmes ...
Albert Fish is the man who some believe to be the "most deranged killer in American history" (Rampo Catskill Library system, Biography resource center, Albert Fish ). So much so, that the character, Hannibal Lector in the movie Silence of the Lambs is partially based on him. Murder was not the only thing that Albert Fish indulged in. He also dabbed in cannibalism, fetishism, pedophilia, voyeurism, exhibitionism, and masochism.
Upon his arrest he had confessed to 5 burglaries and several violent sexual assaults, including the two unsolved murders and sexual assaults of Barbara Krlik, 15 and Annie Mae Johnson, 24. He had also admitted to have attempted sexual assaults on more than 4 women, all of which failed because he preferred to be a necrophilia stating that “He got no thrill with the living women he raped” (Gado, 2004).
Some of the traits most male serial killers have as a child include killing animals, auto-erotic activities, physical head injuries, and even bed wetting. The reason why killing animals is very common among serial killers is because it gives young killers great pleasure in knowing they have control over someone’s or something’s life.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Attention Getter: Jeffrey Dahmer, The Zodiac Killer, Donald Henry Gaskins, Tsutomu Miyazaki, Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper, Amelia Dyer, Jane Toppan, these are the names of some of the most notorious serial killers the world has ever come to see, and there are many more where that came from.
“My consuming lust was to experience their bodies. I viewed them as objects, as strangers. It is hard for me to believe a human being could have done what I've done”(Dahmer). Jeffrey Dahmer is notably one of the most infamous serial killers in the United States. Along with seventeen murders under his belt, he was also a pedophile, cannibal and necrophiliac.
By 1978, roughly thirty women were dead and mutilated by the same man with little explanation as to why. Ted Bundy, one of the most infamous serial killers in history brutally took the lives of numerous women for seemingly no reason at all. His justification for these murders was simply that he felt like committing them. A serial killer is defined as someone who has killed more than three people over a period of a month or more for seemingly no reason at all. Most serial killers have no real motive for killing; for them it is an urge that they must satisfy. Was Ted Bundy and others like him always a violent psychopath or did certain events cause him to behave this way? One common belief is that abusive childhoods and other environmental factors are the main reason serial killers develop the way they do. The other belief is that serial killers are born with an innate desire to kill. The answer to this question lies within both arguments and there is no secret serial killer formula. Serial Killers are neither born nor made; instead many factors, both biological and psychological, contribute to the making of these destructive monsters.
In Green River, Running Red, author Ann Rule describes a killer without remorse, who is the product of both personal and social influences, in effect forcing him to murder women and to continue to do so for over a decade as a fulfillment of his fantasies. When endeavoring to rationalize the causes of such a mind, theories of deviance, when separated into two distinct categories, positivist and constructionism. Positivist theories, such as the general theory of crime, allows for individual's to piece together events in the life of Gary Ridgway, the Green River killer which would undeniably lead him to a twisted sense of reality, combined with sexual fantasies and a tendency to justify perverted acts of murder. Constructionist theories, specifically conflict theory, are able to shed light on the lives and decisions made by the victims, who were all led to such lifestyles through outward sources. In determining the causes and motivations behind both the offender and the victims, theories of deviance leave little to be speculated on when placing blame on either psychological or social factors.
Gary Ridgway normal serial killer or psycho serial killer? That question is asked among many people still to this day and considered a catastrophe for Seattle’s reputation. Gary Ridgway currently 63 years old, was born on February 18th, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah then moved to Washington in 1958. Gary had been married three times, producing one child from his second marriage. Gary told many he was religious, and would go around preaching about god, yet he was discriminating because, most of his victims were prostitutes that he had slept with dead or alive. For thirty years, Gary worked as a competent truck painter to support himself and his families. Beginning in July 1982, Ridgway began killing young girls, the youngest being 12, and the
Serial killers have been around for decades but According To Jack Levin, 'seven of the ten largest mass killings in American history have taken place in the last decade (Douglas, p. 137). One of the most popular and well-known serial killers in history was Ted Bundy. He was convicted of killing three women but is suspected of killing thirty-six other women (Douglas, p. 137).