Lullacide

Albert looked like someone's kindly grandfather. He was small and gray and soft-spoken, with twinkling blue eyes. He told children to call him 'Grandpa.' Their parents thought he was sweet. He was, in fact, the worst person in New York City, which in the 1920s was saying quite a lot.

Fish was described as a meek, elderly man who easily gained the trust of families. He was active during the 1920s and 1930s.

Albert answered an advertisement in the newspaper. A young man named Edward wanted a job. Albert visited the family and offered Edward work on a farm. But it wasn't Edward he was interested in. It was Edward's little sister Grace. 'May I take Grace to a birthday party?' Albert asked. The parents said yes. There was no party.

In 1928, Fish lured 10-year-old Grace Budd from her family's home under the pretense of taking her to a birthday party.

Six years later, Grace's mother received a letter. It was from Albert. The letter described, in terrible detail, what Albert had done. We will not repeat what the letter said. Even the detectives who read it had nightmares. Albert signed the letter. He didn't use a return address, but the envelope had one: a boarding house in Manhattan.

Fish sent an anonymous letter to Grace Budd's mother in 1934 describing the murder. The envelope was traced to a flophouse where Fish was staying.

When they X-rayed Albert at the prison, the doctors found twenty-nine needles inside his body that he had put there himself. Albert's hobbies were even worse than his crimes, which is a sentence that should not be possible but somehow is. The jury deliberated for ten days. They agreed Albert was insane. They also agreed he should die anyway.

X-rays revealed 29 self-inserted needles in Fish's body. Despite being found insane, the jury voted for the death penalty.

Albert went to the electric chair at Sing Sing prison in 1936, at the age of sixty-five. He said he was looking forward to it. He may have been the only person in history who meant that. Some monsters don't look like monsters. Some monsters look like grandpa. Remember that, children. But not at bedtime.

Fish was executed on January 16, 1936. He reportedly said electrocution would be 'the supreme thrill of my life.' He confessed to at least five murders.