Morbid - Episode 304: Albert Fish Part 3

Episode Date: March 7, 2022

Wel well well, you’ve made it to part three and are probably thinking, ok we’re almost done. We regret to inform you that you’re wrong. This just had to become 4 parts because THERE IS ...SO MUCH about this foul ghoulish man we just have to tell you or else Alaina would be kicking herself in the butt for years to come. Luckily, in this part we’re going to reach the point in time where Albert is apprehended by authorities, but somehow it only gets weirder. Are you holding on? To ya butts? A couple great and fascinating sources used for this episode! Deranged by Harold Shechter Confessions of a Cannibal by Robert Keller  As always, thank you to our sponsors: Peloton: Visit onepeloton.com to learn more Pretty Litter: Go to PrettyLitter.com and use code morbid to save twenty percent on your first order. Curology: Get started with Curology just like I did with a free 30-day trial at Curology.com/MORBID. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, Prime members, you can listen to morbid, early, and ad-free on Amazon music. Download the app today. You're listening to a morbid network podcast. Whether you're running errands on your daily commute, or even at home, you can enjoy all your audio entertainment in one app, the Audible app. As an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog. This includes the latest bestsellers and new releases. Plus get full access to a growing selection of included audiobooks, audible originals,
Starting point is 00:00:30 and more. If you've been wanting to form good habits, break bad ones, and improve motivation, atomic habits written and narrated by James Clear is a great lesson. It'll reshape your mindset on progress and success by helping you develop strategies to transform your habits. New members can try audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash wundery pod or text wundery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days.
Starting point is 00:00:52 That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wundery pod or text wundery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. You can host the best backyard barbecue. When you find a professional on Angie to make your backyard the best around. Connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. Inside to outside, repairs to renovations. Get started on the Angie app or visit Angie.com today. You can do this when you Angie that. Hey weirdos, I'm Usch and I'm Elena. And this is Yep, here we are.
Starting point is 00:02:04 And it only gets morbidder and morbidder. This is actually going to turn into like a month of Albert fish. Okay, so here's the thing, everybody. Well, not a month, but you know what I mean. Here's the thing. I literally never for one second intended this to be more than maybe two episodes. Yeah, that's what she said. That's what she tricked me into this. I tricked myself into this. I tricked myself into this, honestly.
Starting point is 00:02:27 You all tricked me into this because you requested this case so highly that I was like, all right, I gotta do it. Yeah. And then I was like, if I'm gonna do it, I gotta do it right. It's a lot of information. Here I thought I was gonna get into,
Starting point is 00:02:39 I was like, you know what, two episodes. I'm thinking we get through everything, we do the trial for the second episode, it's kind of wild, but here we are. We're at part three and we had to do this late because I just kept I couldn't stop because I can't stop like literally can't stop won't stop will stop need to stop get and stop and get the clock. Yeah, I got to stop because I was like, okay, I'm going to edit this down. I'm going too hard.
Starting point is 00:03:09 Yeah. I'm getting too crazy with it. I was at like 40 pages of notes. My God. And I was like, I got to stop. I got to, and this somewhere, I think I'm writing a dissertation. Like mental health. And I never meant to write a dissertation.
Starting point is 00:03:23 No. An Albert Fish. I never meant to get my PhD in health. And I never meant to write a dissertation on Albert Fish. I never meant to get my PhD in fish. I just never meant to do this. Nobody did. But here we are. So we pushed this to today to release, because I was like, OK, I got to end it this down.
Starting point is 00:03:35 I don't want to make it four parts. Guys, I'm sorry. It's going to be four parts. I can't edit it down. I can't do it. I feel like I'm going to be taking out things that are important or things that like shocked me or you just have to tell. You just have to think more about it.
Starting point is 00:03:49 I just have to talk to you about it. I'm sorry, but it looks like from the reactions, you guys want four parts. So everybody said yesterday, like I saw on Twitter and Instagram and I'm really like, oh my god, make it four parts. Like we want it. Which I appreciate. I appreciate you guys allowing me to like really go ham on this
Starting point is 00:04:06 because as much as I don't want to, I have to. It is going to end at four parts. Four parts is, it's already done. You got to do what you got to do. Yeah, it's already done. It's ended. I have vowed to my husband, to all of, you know, to every goddess that ever existed
Starting point is 00:04:25 that I am stopping. I am no longer looking through old newspapers. I have been banned from newspapers.com for a while, self-ban. Self-ban and my husband's like, please stop. He's like, stop it. I see the tabo. Stop it now.
Starting point is 00:04:40 Close it. Get rid of it. Get rid of this subscription to newspapers. I'll go through the whole computer away. But I have to stop. So we are done. Okay. But there is going to be four parts,
Starting point is 00:04:51 because otherwise this particular episode would end up being hours long. And I don't think anybody really has the time or patience to sit through that, so I'd like to break it up for you. But luckily, you're getting the fourth one tomorrow. Yay! You're only gonna have to wait like 12 hours, you're getting a 12-hour reprieve. Which you'll probably need. You definitely will. The fourth
Starting point is 00:05:13 episode is going to be mostly trial in his execution, everything that happened during that, because it is important. The trial was wild, so I feel like it's an important one to really take the time on. And I wanted to make sure that like I could talk about him, his confessions that he gave and things that he talked about, how we went back and forth, the psychiatrist's point of view and all this, they had tons of what they called alianists,
Starting point is 00:05:38 as I'm sure you've heard of. But yeah, this one's gonna be mainly talking about the lead up to the trial because holy shit. A lot led up to this trial. This was not just a rest. Put them on trial, put them in jail. Not just poopoo carrots, a rest trial. So no, not just poop carrots and jugs of teeth. It was so, oh, oh. But here we are, again, I'm sorry, but it seems like you're not upset about it. So, but I'm always apologizing
Starting point is 00:06:06 because I want to make sure that you guys are happy. So, four times, four episodes, and then we end, sorry, my brain is mush, your brain's like, and you're getting it tomorrow. So, that's the end of my rant. Here we are. So, when we left you at the last episode where we needed to pause, the buds have received a terrible letter.
Starting point is 00:06:32 And this is six years after Grace has gone missing. They have suffered through this. And it is now, now they're getting a letter that says, I'm not going to read you the whole letter. I did keep in the last episode,, I'm not gonna read you though, let our little thank you in the last episode, but I'm just gonna refresh you on what I did read. It says, and it said like my dearest Mrs. Bud, like get the fuck out of here, like fuck right off.
Starting point is 00:06:56 It says on Sunday, June the 3rd, 1928, I called on you at 406 West 15th Street, brought you pot cheese strawberries, we had lunch, gray sat in6 West 15th Street. Brought you potchies, 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.
Starting point is 00:07:16 I had already picked out. He then explained that he waited in a room naked while she picked wildflowers outside. He called her in, he attacked her when she can't try to run. She yelled at in, he attacked her when she tried to run. She yelled at him, I'm telling mama. He strangled her with his knee to her chest on the floor. He cut her to pieces according to him.
Starting point is 00:07:36 He cooked and ate the pieces for days. He also made sure to tell her mother that he never raped her. He stated she died of urgent. I don't understand why he's saying he like maybe that's true but why was he naked? Well that's a thing. Why are you standing naked in a room? Exactly. Like that's not the true. I don't believe it. As we're going to see, he's, I don't know what to believe when it comes to him. Right. He's a monster. He's a child torture, he's a child killer, he's a rapist, he's a weirdest fuck dude who has every kind of paraphernalia
Starting point is 00:08:11 you can ever even conceive of. Yeah. But I don't know what is true and what isn't when he goes into these graphic details. Right. Because I also think that he just, that's part of his thing. Part of his kinks are that he likes to write these letters.
Starting point is 00:08:28 Write these obscene letters. He gets things out of getting people like upset and shocked. It's written word. So I feel like some of it is just bullshit. Yeah. And some of it is just for him to get off on the idea that you think he did that. Yep.
Starting point is 00:08:41 Or that, and it's also what he wants to do, but he might just not have done it. I think who knows. I think he did. Because there's no way for us to know with her because there's nothing left. Oh, that's horrific. All we do know is that he did dismember her and we'll get into that afterwards. But again, I'm going to be as careful as I possibly can. I know this one is like a really hard one. And I know that it's being dragged out, but I'm trying to be as careful as I possibly can. I know this one is like a really hard one. And I know that it's being dragged out, but I'm trying to be as careful as possible. Cause I don't like talking about these things.
Starting point is 00:09:10 No. But this was definitely a real letter. Cause as we've said before, the buds had gotten a ton of like fake letters of shit heads that just decided that they wanted to fuck with a grieving family who lost their child. I don't really know who those people are, but like get fucked if you're that person. And we know this was a real thing.
Starting point is 00:09:30 And Detective King, who was the lead detective, detective William King, he was the lead detective on this. And he knew that this was real because he, like I said in the last episode, I put a bunch of fake details in the press to try to draw the real people out, like the strawberries and cheese bit. That was not in the press for him to mention that. That was a pretty big detail. So they knew it was. And so they took this handwritten note and they compared it to the handwritten telegram. That was sent the day that Grace was taken. And the handwriting match perfectly. So this was already like, okay, what the
Starting point is 00:10:05 fuck can we do? They knew this was the real quote unquote Frank Howard. Because remember, they think his name is Frank Howard at this point. Right. So let's get into it. I'm going to start off by giving you a couple of little quotes from Albert Fish himself because I want to start it off with me saying we were just talking about how we think he may have exaggerated some things and just wanted to do certain things but didn't actually. And I want to start it off with me saying we were just talking about how we think he may have exaggerated some things and just wanted to do certain things but didn't actually and he almost confirms that himself in a way. He at least makes us think about it with these. Okay. So this is a quote directly from him. He said, quote, what has Albert H. Fish done?
Starting point is 00:10:43 Sometimes I myself am not sure what is real and what is not. What I've really done and what are things I wanted to do and thought about doing, so long that it got to be as if I had done them so that I, quote, remember them, just as clearly as the real things. Just as clearly as that hot Sunday in June, when I went to the window and whistled
Starting point is 00:11:03 to that little girl gracebud, and she stopped picking daisies and came in. Oh, God. And then he said, but some of the other things are just as real, though I can see that people don't believe me when I tell them about them. That makes me mad. I mean, not being believed makes me mad. What's the matter with these people?
Starting point is 00:11:22 Don't they want to believe the truth about me? No. Do they want to just the truth about me? No. Do they want to just close their eyes and ears and make believe to themselves that this sort of thing I can tell about doesn't exist? Well, it does, and plenty. There are lots of us. We know how to find each other and get together and have fun.
Starting point is 00:11:38 We use the matrimonial agencies and the want ads, and there are hundreds of other ways. We have our own language, a sort of code. I'll tell you all about that when I get to it. No, thank you. Not only does this make me think that he doesn't even know what he's really done, right? Or he does, but he's also so delusional. He's so like intertwined with his fantasies that I think he can't tell what he's done and what he just wants to do. It's like when somebody lies so often
Starting point is 00:12:06 that they just start to believe in love. They start to like pathological liars and chronic liars, just start to believe they're like, wait, did I do that? Or did I just say that I did that? It's one of the scariest things on planet Earth. The mind is a crazy thing. And then on top of that, he's sitting there and saying, there are lots of us.
Starting point is 00:12:23 We know how to find each other. Fucker, I know you had help. Yeah. I'm telling, there are lots of us. We know how to find each other. Fucker, I know you had help. Yeah. I'm telling you. For him more people here. For him to say there's lots of us and we know how to find each other. We know how to find each other. We have fun.
Starting point is 00:12:34 We use these certain agencies and want ads to get victims. We have our own language, a sort of code. That's so fucked. To me, there's other people here that just haven't been involved in. Maybe those like two instances, two, were different. Like the person waiting in the car. Maybe that was one person that he was working with.
Starting point is 00:12:51 Yeah. And then I think it was like the same week that he was working along the road with an older woman and a younger gentleman. Totally different people. But maybe he could have been working with both of those people. That's just, to me, I cannot discount this idea that I'm not saying he definitely had help. He could have, who knows, maybe it was just him.
Starting point is 00:13:10 But I'm saying we just can't discount the idea that somebody else was involved here. I don't know why he wouldn't give this person up, but then again, he's a weird fuck. And I, who knows, he might have just taken the blame for it. Just cause. Maybe it's part of his whole thing that he gets to get all the credit for this and he doesn't want to give it to someone else.
Starting point is 00:13:32 Yeah, I don't know. It's so, this case is like, it's so much more bizarre than I ever realized. Me too, and that's why it's taken so long to get through it because I'm like so many things have popped out that just made me think too much. And I feel like if I just glossed over it or I didn't think it through or I didn't go down that avenue enough, I would be like I would finish this out and I would feel like I didn't
Starting point is 00:13:54 do the whole thing. So that it just needs to be at least looked at. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candice DeLong and on my podcast Killer Psychie Daily, which you can find exclusively on Amazon Music, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds you read about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious New York City drugings, Breaking Down Lori Vallow, a.k.a.
Starting point is 00:14:36 Mommy Doom stays motives, and what drove Caitlin Armstrong to murder? I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10 minutes to your morning routine. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast Killer Psychie Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Do it! So now it was pretty intricate how they were able to tie this letter that was sent to the Buds II fish.
Starting point is 00:15:10 On the envelope he used, so they had the handwriting, but of course they don't know who Albert fishes. No, in the calendar. They think it's Frank Howard. So on the envelope that was used to send this, on the back of it, there was this little like stamp thing and it had a bit of writing on this stamp. Oh, that's... That writing was scribbled over. Like he had a bit of writing on this stamp. But that writing was scribbled over. Like he had meant he tried to like conceal it.
Starting point is 00:15:29 Yeah, he didn't do a good job. Okay. So with very little effort, they could see that it's actually set under there NYPCBA, which stood for the New York Private Schofers Benevolent Association. So this is like a union of sorts of chauffeurs, okay? So of course, now King is ready to nail this guy
Starting point is 00:15:50 and he runs down there and he asks, do you have a Frank Howard who works for you? And the people working there look through all the files and they're like, no, we don't have any Frank Howard, we've never heard of a Frank Howard. So he was like, okay, so he was like, you know what, can I look through the files of these members and look at the handwriting
Starting point is 00:16:09 for anything they've signed or written? There was 400 members, he looked through every single one. Yeah. To see if he could match the handwriting anywhere, not one of them matched. Are you kidding? So not wanting to settle though, because he was like, there was a connection here
Starting point is 00:16:24 and I'm not just discounting this. So he's not going to be deterred at this. He begins setting out to investigate every single one of these members, because he was like, maybe they changed their hand writing. Right. We got to, we got to look through this. None of them were fitting the bill, and none of them were lacking alibis for that day. Like of them were none of them had, like, there was no records associated with them, it just didn't make sense. So it didn't. But, no. While he's doing this interviewing that isn't panning out the way he's thinking it's going
Starting point is 00:16:53 to, one member heard the story of Grace Bud, and he was like a lower member that was like kind of an assistant in a way. Like he wasn't one of the higher ranking members. And I think he also did like maintenance. And he had heard the story of Grace Bud and he heard Detective King talking about how this was his aim, like trying to find the guy who did this. So he was like, I got to come clean about something and I don't even know if it helps you. But he said this man, so this man was Lee Sakowski. And like I said, he was a maintenance guy,
Starting point is 00:17:25 did a little bit of like, you know, errand work for them. And he said, I took home some stationary from the, and why Bapadapada. And he said, I brought it home to the rooming house where I was staying. And he said, this rooming house was at 200 East 52nd Street, and I was in room seven.
Starting point is 00:17:44 And he said, I didn't end up using all of the stationery or envelopes in the remaining ones. I just put on a shelf in that room. And when I left, I vacated, I just left them there. Right. And he said, I never went back for them. And they probably were there when the next tenant moved in. Oh, shit.
Starting point is 00:18:00 So he said, I mean, you should look at the next tenant. What a spider web of. Yeah, way to get there. And he was like, I don't know if this helps, but I just got to tell you, I mean, you should look at the next tenant. What a spider web of. Yeah, way to get there. And he was like, I don't know if this helps, but I just got to tell you I can't. And they were like that. And they were like, all right. So Offking went to that building
Starting point is 00:18:13 and he talked to the land lady. And she said there's no Frank Howard who lived here ever. Yeah. It's not a Frank Howard living here now. But she was like, can you describe what this Frank Howard guy is supposed to look like? So he had the buds description of them. Right. So he was like, OK, here's what we're living here now, but she was like, can you describe what this, Frank Howard guy is supposed to look like? So he had the buds description of them. Right. So he was like, okay, here's what he looks like.
Starting point is 00:18:30 He's an older guy, he's frail, he's got a gray mustache, he's got like super sunken and cheeks. He looks like the boogie man. And she was like, actually, and she was like, that sounds exactly like someone who has had been roaming here in room seven. Yeah. And he was like, oh sounds exactly like someone who has had been rooming here in room seven. Yeah. And he was like, oh, what's his name? Yeah, he only left a couple of days ago. He had a gray mustache, thin, older. So yes,
Starting point is 00:18:54 he was like, can I see where he signed to rent this room? She shows them, and the name Albert H. Fish is written in script. That is the exact same as the letter to the bus. Stop! So King told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that quote, this was the first time that the suspect was identified by another name other than Frank Howard. Oh shit. So she said the landlady, she said this guy Albert Fish has been receiving checks from his son, John, who is actually working in North
Starting point is 00:19:26 Carolina right now. Every month, John sends his father a $25 paycheck that he's working for, but he's like supporting his father. And she told him there was one check that had not been collected yet. He said it's actually on the way. So she said, he hasn't collected that check, and he told me that I need to hold that check and tell him when it comes and he will come back and get it. So she was like, he's gonna be back. I can get him back here. Right.
Starting point is 00:19:54 Oh shit, this is like perfect. So they stake out the place like 24-7. Oh yeah. But days and days go by and nothing. He's not calling about the check. The check isn't coming yet. They were thinking he was kind of, he. They were bullshitter or he was aware the cops were surrounding the place. So they started dispersing. They were like,
Starting point is 00:20:12 we can't do this. That's obvious. But they kept an eye. And Mrs. Schneider, the land ladies, was like, I will call if something changed. I said, I promise you the second I find out. So they were disheartened. They were thinking the chance was gone. Like he's gone. I don't think he I find out. So they were disheartened. They were thinking the chance was gone. Like he's gone now. I don't think he's coming back. Maybe we went too hard. Maybe he saw.
Starting point is 00:20:30 And he's now who knows where. Oh shit. But then December 13th comes around. Yeah, it does. This was weeks after this whole thing. And Mrs. Schneider calls Detective King at the station and says, I have one Albert H fish here right now and he is asking about the check.
Starting point is 00:20:47 She must have been shitting herself. Oh yeah, and he's like, girl just vamp real quick for me. And I'm gonna be there right. Oh, you think no Albert, I'm gonna be there so soon, but just like, do a little soft shoe, keep them entertained.
Starting point is 00:20:59 I'm just like picturing this in my head as a scene in a movie and like she's like, quickly like in the back like like, I got him right here to go back and talk to him and she's probably sweating fucking bullets. And she's like, yeah, both that check. When he's like, you look a little pale. And he's like, you all right, Mrs. Schneider?
Starting point is 00:21:13 And she's like, oh, I'm totally fine. How are your kids? And the thing is this seems like it's gonna be so climatic and like, it's not. It's not. And it's like, King gets there. Detective King gets there. And she's like, he's in that room.
Starting point is 00:21:26 I had, I made him some tea. I told him I was gonna dig out the check like he's just in there sitting at a table. Uh huh. And so he walks in, Albert fish is sitting at a desk, drinking some tea. And when king comes in, he goes Albert fish and fish nods, stands up, reaches into his pocket, slowly takes out a razor,
Starting point is 00:21:49 and holds it in front of him. A-ha! Detective King literally walked up to him, grabbed his tiny little wrist, twisted it, the razor fell, and that's it. What? There was no like attack, there was no wrestling to the ground. He walked up to this little man, grabbed his wrist, and flicked it. He said, twisted it, razor falls,
Starting point is 00:22:19 but he looks him right in the eye and goes, I've got you now. Oh my God. That's it. He just said, look at the fliggy lyrus. He just, boom. Like, and I love the traithracing. Like Albert fish just, whoop.
Starting point is 00:22:32 Takes the razor out and is just like, I'ma get ya. And this guy literally doesn't run up to him, doesn't attack it, just walks up to him and goes like, who the fuck are you? No, you're not. And then just makes him drop. Just like, who are you?
Starting point is 00:22:44 You stupid guy. This is why I also think there were more people involved. This guy walked up to him and went, boom. And you dropped the razor. Yeah, no. He was also five foot six and 118 pounds when he was arrested. He's my height. He's, and he's 108 pounds.
Starting point is 00:22:58 Not my weight. Like, he's like, that's like very, that's a tiny, a tiny like body mass. That's very tiny. For sure. So Detective William King was actually credited by many sources as doing this almost single handedly.
Starting point is 00:23:15 Like he was promoted for this. Like everyone credits him as like the guy who wouldn't give up on this case and the one who was the one who caught him in the house. Right. But that's how we got him. It disarmed him even. who was the one who caught him in the case. Right. But that's how he got him. And disarmed him with a flick of the wrist.
Starting point is 00:23:28 No, off to the police station where they sit down, King shows him the letter and says, did you write this? And Fish looked at it and goes, yes I did. Wow, this is anti-climatic. So he had to climb out there. And he told to me, he had also sent the telegram that day. He was like, yeah, that's me too. Okay.
Starting point is 00:23:46 And so he's like, okay. And then he's like, so you're the man who kidnapped Grace Bud. And he goes, no, I'm not. What? And he goes, I've never been there. I've never met her. I've never met her parents.
Starting point is 00:23:57 Why are you lying about that? So King was over it at this point. Because it is. It's been close to a decade that this guy has been doing this. He's done. He's over it. You are Frank Howard. You are Albert Fish. Get the fuck out of here. So he goes, all right, well you're an asshole. And I'm just going to go get the people from Western Union to confirm you were the telegram writer. I'll also get every fucking person you talk to that day,
Starting point is 00:24:19 including Ruben Rousseff who sold you that cheese in the strawberries that day. I'm going to get the storekeeper who unknowingly held your torture strawberries that day. I'm gonna get the storekeeper who unknowingly held your torture tools for you. I'll also get every single land person in every single rooming house you've ever lived in, and I will also get the entire bud family down here if that helps jog anybody's memories. And so he's like, be our mother fucking bee.
Starting point is 00:24:41 His last name is King for a reason. He turns around to leave and fish goes, don't get any of those people. I'm lying. I'm the guy who kidnapped Grace Bud. Okay. And he goes, I took Grace Bud from her home on the third day of June and brought her to West Check Kestor and I killed her that same afternoon. Oh, I hate that. So he literally, I love that detective came and was like, all right, fucker. I'm just gonna literally get every single person you've ever met in your entire life down here. Just turn here for a quick second.
Starting point is 00:25:09 And they're all just gonna take a fucking look at you and tell me who you are as a person, like BRB. Right, if you wanna play that game. And others like, I don't wanna play. So, you know what, forget it, I get it. Like, really? So he has been taken down by a flick of the fucking wrist and a threat of getting people in there to look at his face.
Starting point is 00:25:29 Yeah, and he's like, you know, and he's like, oh, I'll never mind. I'm tired. I'm over it. So confession time. He just, whoop, I'm gonna let you know everything. And King wrote it all down as he spouted it out. And it was when it was time to take his mug shot because they had to pause to like take a mug shot of him.
Starting point is 00:25:44 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that he was very nervous and slouched over. He had to be pushed onto the lineup plate where, quote, under the bright lights there, he blinked, winced, and shook his head from side to side. Are you kidding me? And he had no real reasoning for why he did any of this,
Starting point is 00:26:01 aside from what he called blood thirst, that he started to get, according to him, the summer of 1928. Yeah, right, Albert. Yeah, fucking right. Now, he explained that he had originally intended to kill Edward, which was a shock to everyone, obviously. Imagine being Edward?
Starting point is 00:26:18 Uh, yeah. Because he was looking for a male, he said. And he said that when he saw him, he was not really happy because he did not look like a child, and he was looking for a male. He said, and he said that when he saw him, he was not really happy because he did not look like a child And he was looking for a man that looked like a child apparently. He looked like a strong young man, and that wasn't his thing. But he was like, all right, and he said his whole plan was to bring him to that same house where he killed Grace, but he was going to overpower him, he said, which I say, L-O, fucking L. And it makes you think, obviously, there was somebody there that was going to help. He, there's no way he looked at Edward Bud and thought he was going to overpower him.
Starting point is 00:26:54 There's no way. And his friend was supposed to go as well. And he was like, I figured I could just overpower them. Whatever. He's just not running. It wasn't happening. He was going to tie him up. This was his original plan and cut off his penis.
Starting point is 00:27:07 Oh my God. And then he said his plan was to leave town and leave Edward to bleed to death alone. What? No one knew where he was. Imagine Edward hearing that later. No. That he was this close to bleeding out,
Starting point is 00:27:24 to being left alone, castrated to bleed to death. And probably his friend, the dude, like the same thing. And then to know that that was the plan also and then your baby sister is taken instead, and like knowing that, like I can't imagine what he was thinking. No, and he probably felt like some kind of survivor guilt. And because like, I'm not saying like it's his fault but by any strategy imagination,
Starting point is 00:27:45 but he like put the ad in the paper. Of course. He probably feels this crazy survivor's guilt. He brought that this man came into their lives because of that. Well, Albert told King one detail that like really hurt my heart when I read it. No, thank you.
Starting point is 00:27:59 So he said that when he took grace, he took a train to this cottage, which locals called Wisteria cottage, and he had actually lived there at one point. He took the train with her and he said, like, she was looking out the window at like the country and she hadn't been there for very often and blah blah blah. And he said he had bought himself a ticket there and back, but only purchased her one way ticket. Uh-huh. So it's just like that was and back, but only purchased her one way ticket. So it's just like that was so chilling, but then there's another thing.
Starting point is 00:28:29 When they got off the train, he left the package, the one with his implements of hell and it was shit on the train. And Grace pulled on his pants and said, you left your package, ran on the train herself, grabbed it for him and gave it to him. Oh my God. She handed him the package containing the tools he would use to kill her. Oh my God. Do you think that's true?
Starting point is 00:28:53 I feel like it was, you think so? That one I feel like is true because it feels like grace was just that kind of a little girl. She was just a helpful trusting. Oh, yeah, we can't do one of these for a long time. No, we got to get out of kids and we we gotta get out of like these heavy ones for a little while. We're gonna take a little break. Not a break from recording, but like a break for these kind of cases for a little bit.
Starting point is 00:29:15 He told King that he killed her in the fashion he mentioned in the letter, which whatever. I don't want to go through it again. But what is weird is he didn't talk about cannibalism. Interesting. He explained everything, the whole thing, he's a sack of shit. I'm not going to go over it again. But the thing that was like 30% of that letter was cannibalism. He didn't bring it up. And King didn't ask about it. No one asked about it, which is weird to me. Right. Like, why didn't bring it up and King didn't ask about it. No one asked about it, which is weird to me. Right. Like, why didn't anyone be like,
Starting point is 00:29:48 oh, about that whole thing you said, can we talk about that? Yeah. That didn't come into way later. It's like, why didn't anyone ask him though? I'd be like, you need to explain this. Yeah, you would think so. He did, however, and this is pretty intense.
Starting point is 00:30:03 He did, however, tell them that he had dismembered her, and the first thing he did was decapitate her. He said he had taken her head and her shoes to an outhouse up the hill from the cottage, and he thought about dropping the head in the toilet but thought that was wrong to do to her. Oh, you thought that's where you drew the line. That's where you drew the line. That's where you drew the line.
Starting point is 00:30:25 Okay. You're such a great guy. Yeah. So he put it in the corner of the outhouse and covered it with old newspapers and leaves and he put the shoes in the toilet. He placed her other body parts in the bedroom in the cottage and then he left for the night. He returned the next day to place them outside and weirdly he put them all back together Like literally reassembled her dismembered body What and he had cut like dismembered her. Yeah, like completely He said he had come back a few more times with his son But not to see the body it was for different reasons because he had hidden her and the you obviously
Starting point is 00:31:02 He was thinking about it the whole time he was there. He liked knowing that she was back there. And probably liked knowing like, oh I'm here with my son. Like, fucked up. Like, this is so fucked up. And when they asked him, why did you do this? What was the reason for doing this? He answered, you know, I never could account for it. Are you kidding me?
Starting point is 00:31:19 And they asked him several times why the fuck did you do this? There's no reason for you to do this. Why not that you would give a valid reason, but we need to give us anything. And he said, quote, it occurred to me. That's all I have to say. It occurred to me that I should literally hunt down a 10 year old girl in her own house, a salt her.
Starting point is 00:31:41 God only knows how literally to capitate her, cut her into little pieces and discard her. Yeah. Like, just occurred to you. Yeah. You should just accept that. It just occurred to me. What do you need?
Starting point is 00:31:55 More information, I don't understand it. Yeah. Detective King was quoted as saying, quote, this is one of the most shocking crimes ever committed, one of the most shocking in the annals of the New York police department. Yeah, still to this day. Would say so. He was also thoroughly questioned about a ton of missing kids cases
Starting point is 00:32:12 and murdered kids cases that were unsolved because they were immediately like, well, you're a fucking monster. Right. He denied all of them. Included, these included, but were not limited to Billy Gaffney, Francis McDonnell, and the Lindbergh baby.
Starting point is 00:32:25 Oh, but I remember that. And then I forgot, and then I just remembered that. Which I was like, wow, I didn't even think of that at the same time period or anything. And he said, quote, I have nothing to do with those other murders. I am admitting to one murder. Why shouldn't I have admitted, I have admitted to more if I had done them?
Starting point is 00:32:43 You couldn't do any more to me? Oh my god fucking Crimey a river like oh, I'm sorry. He's like I'm admitting to one child's murder. Okay What did I back he's the worst the police also found out according to the Times Union that he had been arrested and in their custody No less than three times in the 12 weeks after in their custody, no less than three times in the 12 weeks after abducting and killing grace. So they had him in their custody to read different times. No, no idea.
Starting point is 00:33:10 Do you know for what? It was things like larceny or like excuse me petty theft, sending obscene letters. And I think that was mainly like song and scene letters. Yeah. But his M.O. His whole pastime. But they took him to the cottage that day because they were like, now you're going to show us where she is, fucker. Yeah. And he was asked to show them every single place where all of the horrific nightmares had occurred to poor Grace
Starting point is 00:33:36 six years before. He showed them everything. He even showed them where he stood in the bedroom, naked waiting for her. He showed them the outhouse and he made motions to show them exactly how he did things. I can imagine just standing witness to that. Yeah. He showed them the wild flower patch where she picked up okay. Oh my God. He told them how she dropped the bouquet when she went to run from him when he grabbed her. Then he took them outside and pointed up at a spot up a hill behind the house where a stone wall was lining the perimeter
Starting point is 00:34:08 and he said that's where she is. And they began digging where he showed them and he remembered burying her and it was Sargent Thomas J. Hamill who first struck something solid and pulled it from the earth and he held in his hands a child skull without a mandible, a lower jaw. They kept digging for more and soon more and more bones were exhumed, all disarticulated. They did find the mandible, it just had come off the skull. They were all very small and very delicate like a child. A couple of them had shown signs of being like there was clear cut marks in the bone like in the spine and stuff There was cut marks where clearly he had dismembered. Yeah The Westchester County Emmy Dr. Amos a O Squire was called to the scene to take a look at the skeleton and just like to confirm that this is a child He concluded at the scene that it was a child
Starting point is 00:35:05 and a pre-peabessent child at that. And she was brought back to the morgue in a cardboard box. Investigators took fish back to the station and they began another interrogation because they're like, whoa, that's cool. That's shit. He admitted the same confession, repeated the whole thing again. Apparently, he talked about how much work it was
Starting point is 00:35:24 to cut through the spine because his cleaver was dull. Oh, a real am I right moment, you know? Oh my god. Like, and that's how he was telling them, like, you know, like when you're cleaver is dull? Yeah, like relatable content. Excited. It's like, shut the fuck up Albert. And he said he did it again because of blood thirst in that he, and then he said, I immediately regretted it, which I don't believe. I also don't care, it's already done. It's done. And you immediately regretted it
Starting point is 00:35:52 after you went through all the trouble of like hacking her to peace for the media. Then you regretted it? Right. No, we're in there, did you regret it? No, I don't believe that for a second. Yeah, he said within a half an hour he would have given his own life to restore hers. Oh, boof, fuck it. Who would just like, I wouldn't believe that for a second. Yeah, he said within a half an hour, he would have given his own life to restore her.
Starting point is 00:36:05 Oh, boo, fuck it. Who would just like, who wouldn't? And you're more offensive than that. So it doesn't matter. So much more offensive to me, like for that poor family to hear that. It's like, get fucked, please.
Starting point is 00:36:14 I hate that, because people say all the time, like if I could give my own life, well guess what, you can't. It's nothing is gonna bring your back because you took her. You took it. That's the thing. It's like you took her life.
Starting point is 00:36:23 You could have, you could have not taken it. Yeah, that's the only remedy here. At took it. You took it. You took it. That's the thing. It's like you took her. You could have, you could have not taken it. Yeah. At any point. That's the only remedy here. At any point or you took, I can't. I can't. She took like a, like a 40 minute train ride with this little girl. Talking to her.
Starting point is 00:36:34 Because I don't know her. I didn't know her. You watched her pick wild flowers and bees. You watched her pick these. About flowers. She. She trustingly took your hand. He held her hand. I can't. At any, so for him to sit there and pretend and like he goes through this religious shit
Starting point is 00:36:50 because he's like a religious maniac. Like he takes it to a dark place. But he tries to use it to excuse his shit until I claim insanity and all that. And it's like no, no. And no point does a religious mania excuse you from sitting on a train. I think that's a little girl.
Starting point is 00:37:09 Talking to this 10 year old girl who's so excited to go to a birthday party. And hang out with other kids. Excited to see other kids, excited to go to the country. You take her hand and walk her up this lane to this path, watch her pick loud flowers. Fuck you using, like God told me to do, good, fuck dude, like no.
Starting point is 00:37:26 You don't get a pass. You don't get a pass. That didn't happen. Get outta here, you piece of shit. Like he's so horrible. Toslo just like, I don't know if we've even said it, but like the fact that this went down at like a little cottage with a wildflower patch
Starting point is 00:37:40 and it's easy, like just so fucking bleep. Oh yeah, and at one point when he walked up with her, he passed a neighbor who was out, like an elderly neighbor who was out fixing her fence. Oh my God. Tipped his hat to her. Of course, he loves to tip his down the other side. Holding this little girl's hand, and she had no idea.
Starting point is 00:37:58 Just like the most serene place you could probably go. And this is where you do there. Isn't thinking anything of it. Who would ever think this seemingly kindled gentleman is just walking in and of this happy little girl? Who would ever think that something monstrous was about to happen? No one would.
Starting point is 00:38:18 No one would. Of course, now we do, but it's like, even now, like that wouldn't be your first idea. No, of course not, it might be, but. After these episodes, it will be, but I'm gonna be like the village people. I mean, we had all the grandpa's. Well, and then he said all the grandpa's. He said that assaulting her or raping her had never entered his head.
Starting point is 00:38:38 Indooranged the book that I'll link again because again, it's so crazy. They talk about how strange it was that it seems that police never pushed those questions about cannibalism. It is weird. And they never even brought it up, and he never brought it up either, but it was, again, in the letter, and he said blood thirst. Right. But he kept saying blood thirst.
Starting point is 00:39:00 No one thought to be like, clarified that for me. What does that mean? Right. Blood thirst says, and you want to kill someone or blood thirst, and one thought to be like, clarify that for me. What does that mean? Right. Blood thirst says, and you want to kill someone or blood thirst says, and you want to kill someone and then drink their blood. Yeah. At least clarify it.
Starting point is 00:39:12 Do you think that at that point, they were like, we have him and the family has already gone through so much and they already think that that's what the case was? Well, and I wonder if they, if it's partially that, and then partially, they were worried that people would automatically take that as insane. Uh-huh. And maybe not like it is like you're just evil. Yeah. And like, because when had, when had anybody heard of that? Yeah,
Starting point is 00:39:37 I'm sure it wasn't a huge, you know, so I wonder if that was partially them being worried it was going to allow him to claim that insanity thing. A little bit easier. A little lesser sentence or even a hospital term instead of a term. Exactly. Because they do eventually his lawyer does say, like, how can you ever say that somebody would, that would cook and eat a child is sane.
Starting point is 00:39:56 And it's like, well, no one's saying it's like a normal thing to do. And no one's saying that, like, right. But it's clinically insane and criminally insane are two very different things. And that's when things get blurry and get hairy. And this is definitely a case of that. What if you were trafficked into a cult over shot nine times or fell in love with a vampire or went into a minor surgery and woke up one week later, paralyzed?
Starting point is 00:40:23 What would you do? I'm Whit Missildine, the creator of this is actually happening, a podcast from Wondry that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events, told by the people who lived them. From a young man that dooms his entire future with one choice, to a woman who survived a notorious serial killer, you'll hear their firstperson account of how they overcame remarkable circumstances. Each episode is an exploration of the human spirit and personal discovery. These haunting accounts sound like Hollywood movies, but I assure you this is actually happening.
Starting point is 00:40:59 Follow this is actually happening wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wonder app. But that evening reporters actually showed up at the bud home and broke the news to them about the man who stole Grace had been caught. Get out of there. And it was literally midnight when they knocked on the door. They used to be low. So they were woken out of sleep to hear this news.
Starting point is 00:41:29 Like they haven't gone through enough. They need to find this out at midnight. And they were just stunned into like complete numbness. Yeah. Especially daily a bud. She was just at that point just drained about her fingers. It's been 10 years. Her baby would have been 16 years old.
Starting point is 00:41:41 Yeah, she's like, this is just I had to move forward. Yeah. And at 1 a.m. detective king came and drove them to the station to identify him, which must have been truly surreal. So Deelia stayed home because like she had been through enough and she was also like not super reliable when it came to identifying. So they were like, let's let her stay. Yeah. And in Edward, so her brother Edward came and her father Albert, they came. So, and they walk and Albert fish is just sitting
Starting point is 00:42:13 at a desk in the interrogation room. And Edward, the brother walks in first and he takes one look at him and screams, it's him, you old bastard, you dirty son of a bitch, and then he jumps at him and she's like, lunge at him, kill him. And the police all had to wrestle him down. He almost made it to fish.
Starting point is 00:42:33 They then brought Mr. Bud in, and he walked right up to Albert Fish, right up to him, and he just stared him right in the eyes like silently. And he said, don't you know me? And fish said, yes. And he said, you're Mr. Bud. And they stayed that way for a bit, just staring at each other. And then Mr. Bud just exhausted in every way that one could be exhausted. And Albert fish just fucking checked out, just sitting there looking at him, like, I don't give a shit.
Starting point is 00:43:00 It's so wild that, because we talk about these drenched ass people all the time. But it's so wild that, because we talk about these drenched ass people all the time. But it's like in that moment, it's like you see two humans sitting there. You're like human to human, looking at each other in the eyes. And he says, your Mr. Bud and the Mr. Bud responds with, and you're the man who came to my home as a guest
Starting point is 00:43:22 and took my little girl away. Like, and then he just broke down, sobbing. Of course he didn't even try to attack him. He just broke down. He literally they said put his hands over his face and just wept in front of the man who had abducted and brutally murdered and dismembered and claimed to eat his baby girl, his little 10-year-old.
Starting point is 00:43:44 He had to be taken away from fish by Detective King who literally was like comforting him, like hugging him and he was just sobbing into him. Like just, how does one human do that to another human? Because I think he just had like nothing left at that point. No. I'm sure he didn't even have like the anger was there
Starting point is 00:44:00 but the exhaustion and the emotion, well, it's been 10 years, the anger might not even be there anymore. It was probably, it was just sorrow. Exactly. It was just sorrow. Like finally seeing the stages of grief. And seeing this guy again and being like, you came into my home. I had lunch with you. Well, to look at it, I watched you walk away with her six years ago and here you are sitting in front of me, a totally different man. And to look at the face that like your daughters, like the last face your daughter saw. It's disgusting, hollow, fucked up,
Starting point is 00:44:31 ghoul face is the last thing my kids saw. Right. Before having the life choked out of her at 10 years old. Like how do you, how do you come to terms with that? How do you do it? How do you move on? It's truly wild. And so after that
Starting point is 00:44:46 whole thing, after he was positively identified now, because Edward and Mr. Bud had never been that sure. Like they were like, this is, it was very, very common. They tracked down fish as kids because they were like, he has six kids. We should, and they're all adults. So we need to talk to them. First, they spoke to Albert Jr., who had actually been living with Albert Fish for months at a time. He was the one that was around him the most. And when he found out what happened,
Starting point is 00:45:12 his response was the old skunk. I knew something like this would happen sooner or later. Oh, and they were like, oh. Something like this. And he said he mentioned that they had been living together in recent months, but he said his behavior had always been pretty worrisome, but in recent months, or in recent years too,
Starting point is 00:45:29 he said it had really become worrisome, and he was beginning to get more and more bracing with his strangeness. He was like, he wasn't violent. He was just weird. And he was like, he was violent to himself, and it was getting weirder and weirder. He would openly whip himself in front of his child,
Starting point is 00:45:45 like a adult child, but still. Yeah. The nightmares, he said that Albert Fish was having for two. I forgot about that. He said they were getting crazy. And I was gonna say, we talked about it last episode. He would wake up screaming. And it was because Grace was not letting him fucking rise.
Starting point is 00:45:59 Apparently he asked reporters, Albert Jr. He said, what's the name of the girl he murdered? And he said, they said grace bud. And he literally stopped and they said, he gasped and said, my God, that's the name he used to scream in his sleep. Oh, that is bone chilling. He said he would scream grace in his sleep.
Starting point is 00:46:22 And he said, when I first heard it, I know I literally have goosebumps just saying it. I'm not even fucking with you. He said he would scream grace in his sleep and he said, when I first heard it, I know I literally have goosebumps just saying it. I'm not even fucking with you. He said he would scream grace and he said, at first I thought he was screaming it in a religious way. Oh, okay. He said he's a very religious man and he talks about it a lot
Starting point is 00:46:37 and he said, so I thought he was screaming grace in some way. To hear, I didn't know what that meant. For them to hear, he's a very religious man. Yeah, I would never stop laughing. I'd be like, no, I'd never stop laughing. What he thinks is a very religious man. But yeah, he would wake up in the middle
Starting point is 00:46:54 of the night screaming grace. Oh, yeah. I'd clutch you onto the shit out of him. And just like to, I hope it happened forever. And forever, that described it is like, that exact thing, that Albert Jr. likes gasped and then said, my God, it was taken aback.
Starting point is 00:47:10 Like it was literally like holy shit. It was like, in how I met your mother, like the glass shattering moment. And the glass shattering moment, it really was. Now his daughter, Gertrude, was, he was very, his daughters, they, nobody supported him. Like none of his kids were like, no, he didn't do that.
Starting point is 00:47:28 Yeah, they were like shocked, but they were also like, he was weird, and he did weird things to himself, but he was a good dad, and like, we loved him, and he supported us and comforted us, he never hit us, he never yelled at us, our mom left us, and he took care of us. Yeah, and they were like, and they all said he acted
Starting point is 00:47:46 as a mom and a dad to them. Like he took over the fucking bunkers. Yes, and Gertrude, his daughters, specifically, were very upset when this happened. Like his sons were upset, but a lot of them were like, this fuck like fuck him. Like they literally were like just outwardly, but the daughters really were like sobbing
Starting point is 00:48:05 throughout the trial and were like so upset. But they never once said he didn't do it or said, I support him. It was like they accepted it, but they also couldn't. But they could not reconcile it with who they knew as a new manager. I won't even try to. No.
Starting point is 00:48:20 Now Gertrude, who had a very close relationship with him, said when the Lindbergh baby kidnapping happened, he said she remembered that he specifically was reading it and said to her, anybody who harms a child deserves to be terribly punished. Yeah. And she was like, what the fuck? And she was like, I believe, no, he's never heard of child.
Starting point is 00:48:40 He's so good with the grandkids. He's like, oh my God. These were not grandkids at that point. Yeah, she was like nothing about him would ever. Like, he was so good with kids. No, no, no, no, no. Now meanwhile, they were able to gather the rest of Grace's skeleton from the crime scene.
Starting point is 00:48:56 And they also found in the mud the pearls that she had been wearing, the costume pearls. And it was her favorite necklace. Oh. They also found the shoes that he had thrown in the old outhouse. They found staining in the upstairs bedroom on the wood, and on the walls, which they scraped for testing, and it was later determined to match Grace's blood type.
Starting point is 00:49:16 The media went insane. As soon as this leaked, it was like everywhere. And of course, he got all the nicknames, the ogre of murder lodge, the vampire man, because he talked about bloodthirst, the fiend, the modern blue beard, the aged thrill killer, and the werewolf of Osteria. Wow. Which are all way too cool names for this fuck. Why do we do that? I know we've talked about it. It's like, why do we do that? Because it's his name's Hamilton, okay.
Starting point is 00:49:47 It's a Hamilton. His name is Hammenex. That's what it is. Hammenex. And yeah, I think it's just like, it sells papers, basically. It gets people that it's really gross when you break it down. Yeah, like giving them like cool, like, you know.
Starting point is 00:50:03 It's literally the kind of villain names. Yeah, and it's like cool, like, you know, it's literally the kind of villain, villain names. Yeah, and it's like, they're not cool. Just cut. We've said it before, call it like the Nightstalker, Stanky breath. Yeah. Stanky breath, yes, mother fucker, like BTK, like fucking Dennis. I would call it a hollowed grandpa. Just fucking Dennis, man.
Starting point is 00:50:22 And like, don't call them the hollowed grandpa. I like that. That's a good one. The hollowed grandpa. Hollowed grandpa. But yeah, so it was going crazy. Everybody was reading about this. Of course, there was a lot of rumors being spread.
Starting point is 00:50:38 And all this craziness. Now, and they would let things out into the press too quick. The press would jump with things. Like, they were, you know, they found some bones in that cottage, like under floorboards, and immediately the press was like, more bodies, like he's a mom. They ended up being like animal bones, of course.
Starting point is 00:50:55 But they just had to like collect them and test. Yeah. But he was interrogated again. And this time he went through, because every time they were finding new stuff and new stuff was coming out and new people were doing talked to they had to keep Talking about this story. So this time he went through the whole story again
Starting point is 00:51:11 But when he got to the part where he agreed that he was initially there to get Edward He said when Grace walked into the room everything changed which he had said before. Yeah, but he said it now He said I thought it was a boy for a moment. Uh-huh. And no one asked anything else about this. Like no one followed up on this and I'm like, way, way, way, way, way. No one was like, you thought this little girl
Starting point is 00:51:38 in full Sunday dress was a boy. Was a boy, what? Right. Explain. And you have said to us, you initially came there for Edward. You wanted a boy. Was a boy? What? Right. Explain. And you have said to us, you initially came there for Edward. You wanted a boy. You saw the girl and you're like, this little girl is who I want. You never once said you thought she was a boy. No, no, no. I was like, why would you say that? And there was this whole thing where, and I'll talk about it later, but he talks about like the Abraham
Starting point is 00:52:04 and Isaac's story from the Bible. And he's like, well, I had about it later, but he talks about the Abraham and Isaac story from the Bible, and he's like, well, I had to kill a little boy. And if the angel came to stop me, then it was divine intervention. And it's like, I see what you're doing now. You're gonna claim this whole story where you're like, oh, I thought she was a boy.
Starting point is 00:52:18 And that's why, you know, he's like, 12 feet in a dude's sanity. Oh, it's like 12 feet in a dude's sanity. So it starts helping him with that stupid fucking insanity that's gonna say, I don't know the Abraham story. It's like somebody intervened before, like God was like, hey, kill your kid, like your son and before he does it,
Starting point is 00:52:33 like an angel is gonna come and stop. I don't know, the whole thing, I'm gonna be honest with you. No, I know like pretty generally that it's something like that. Okay. And I know that he claimed something about that later, that he was just following that, the Bible. And that's why he killed Grace because he figured an angel would intervene
Starting point is 00:52:50 if it was not right. I'm leaving. But it's like to me, this shows me right there. Yeah. He's changing the story now because he knows. He's a smart guy. I feel like you'd be like a weirdly good detective. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:53:03 You'd be like, no, actually, this is what's going on here. Because I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, right? Like, you're like, that's what he's doing. That's what he's doing. Past tells me that he's a smart guy. And he's sitting there and he knows, he reveals several times, and we'll mention it a few more times. He reveals several times that he was aware
Starting point is 00:53:23 of the legal shit involved in this. He was aware that it was wrong. He was aware what he did. He was aware that he was trying to escape capture. He was aware of all of it. He was very cunning with it. He was very planned. He was very meticulous.
Starting point is 00:53:36 He points out that he could have gotten away with this for a long, longer, had something not happened. Thank God he didn't. None of that to me says insane. None of it. No. And it's like, no, that doesn't,
Starting point is 00:53:47 and you're not gonna sit here and claim some religious thing now to try to pretend that you're this maniac. No. Who is using religion as like a crutch here? Like that doesn't work. No. You did not think she was a boy.
Starting point is 00:53:59 You knew that girl in the white dress, white tights and white dress shoes with a little bonnet on a little flower in her hair, and a little bob haircut. You knew that was a girl. Right, get out of here. Right. Like don't even try, oh, I got so angry. That's unreal. But whatever. So while going through the, they had to go through arrangements and they were trying to figure out what he was going to be tried for and when. Yeah. Because he abducted Grace and Manhattan, but he killed her in Westchester.
Starting point is 00:54:29 Oh. So while he was waiting in jail for that whole thing to be organized, they were trying to figure out, do we try him for both at once? Do we try him for kidnapping in Manhattan? And then move him to Westchester and do the whole murder trial? What do we do? So while he is in jail waiting for that to be organized, investigators were questioning him about a ton of those other missing kids cases
Starting point is 00:54:51 and murdered kids. They just start talking about the Billy Gaffney case, the Francis O'Donnell case, but he's still denying, denying, denying at this point. And he wrote a letter to King while he was in jail because he was only allowed to write letters to his family, like his kids and the investigators on the case. And they would give him like a blunt pencil because they were worried he was going to show it up its ass or something
Starting point is 00:55:16 like that. He probably stood in anyway. And while he was in jail, he wrote King a letter and he outed himself again as knowing the difference between right and wrong. Like, he's outing himself left and right. That's like you're not criminally. The insanity defense doesn't work for him spoiler alert, but they tried to later and I'm like, honey's you did you thought it up from the beginning like no lawyer was going to be able to like talk over his bullshit. So he said quote, you know as well as I do that I had not if I had not written to Mrs. Bud I would not be in jail now and had I not led you to the spot no bones would have been ever found and I could have only been tried for kidnapping.
Starting point is 00:55:57 So this asshole is sitting there going you know as well as I do that if I didn't do any of this shit I could have still gotten away from it. And even if I had been caught, I led you to those bones. You never would have found those bones without me, and I would have just gone for kidnapping. I would have got out, and I would have done it again. So fuck off. And then he's going to sit there later and be like, I'm insane. What?
Starting point is 00:56:19 No, you're not. You're a cunning motherfucker. Exactly. And you're just further proving it. You're proving it left and right because you can't stop right. Like it's like in a pencil down. He's non-stop.
Starting point is 00:56:32 Why are you right? Like you're running out of time. Like what is your name? Like what? It just fits. It fits. Oh, it does. If the shoe fits.
Starting point is 00:56:41 I don't want to, I don't want to put in the same place. I know. I know. I'm just I don't want to put it into the same place. I know. I know. I'm just saying. He needs to put down the fucking pencil or actually keep writing because you're fucking yourself over. But it's like, dude, you like stop. Right.
Starting point is 00:56:55 Now, it was soon discovered, and this was wild, that he randomly, all of a sudden they're digging into his like background, they're seeing that he randomly and pretty secretly married three widowed women in one year. What? Between 1930 and 1931, he didn't even divorce these women. He would just marry them in sequence and leave them within weeks. Would he just do it like under different names? Yeah. And he was also still married to his original wife, Anna, who had left him.
Starting point is 00:57:23 Why was he married? He was literally married to four women when he was arrested. That's the same time. Four women. Why? He kept finding them because he was trying to use them, one for stepchildren, and two to see if he could go money and just for stepchildren to abuse. Stepchildren to either abuse or use as bait to abuse.
Starting point is 00:57:49 He would use these women. He would see if they were into some dark shit. Some dark shit a little bit. And then once he, they were like, yeah, sure, I'm until like, a light, something or other. I like but a little bit. Once he would get them in there,
Starting point is 00:58:03 he would try to get them into more and more. And then he figured he could use them to pick up kids. Kids will like trust a woman usually. Oh, and like if he had kids with him, if he had kids with him, it would be easy. Didn't work out for him at all because he's one where he was so ski-be-wild. So, but he was really weird as fuck to his stepkids as well.
Starting point is 00:58:27 I bet. And he was never blatantly incestuous with his biological children. Like I said, he never assaulted them in any way. He never did anything weird or incestuous with them or talked to them incestuously. He treated them as children, his biological kids. But those not related to him was a different story. So one of these stepchildren was a teenage stepdaughter named Mary Nichols, and he wrote her letter from prison.
Starting point is 00:58:56 I'm gonna read that letter. Well, I was able to write her a letter because she's technically one of his kids. Oh, fuck, okay. He never divorced her mother. Okay. Now, this is kids. Oh fuck, okay. Yeah, he never divorced her mother. Okay. Now, how's it?
Starting point is 00:59:07 This is weird. No, thank you. It's like rambling. It's weird, but I just want to read it because I want you to see that although he's talking to his own kids, like very fatherly and very normally, this is how he treats kids outside
Starting point is 00:59:21 and that she was a teenager at this point. So she's a child. I'm scared. Dearest, sweet that she was a teenager at this point. So she's a child. I'm scared. Dearest, sweetest Mary, daddy's stepkitty. I got your dear loving sweet letter. I would have answered you long before this, but between X-rays, doctors, and my lawyer, I've been busy. Then you know I am 65, and my eyes are not so good as they were when you last saw me.
Starting point is 00:59:42 So my sweet little big girl, you will be 18 on the 28th. I wish I could be there. You know what you would get from your daddy? I would wait until you're in bed, then give you 18 good, hard smacks on your bear behind. Now, dear Mary, I will get a check from the US government in a few days. As soon as it comes, I will send you $20. I'm not able to get you a watch, but you can get one that you like. I hope dear mama, who I loved and still love, and all of you are well. You speak, and then he goes into this whole thing, which I'm not gonna read, it's just weird,
Starting point is 01:00:14 where he talks about like, she should go to the YMCA because they have big swimming pools, and if boys go there, they get naked to swim and you can look at boys. And he like tells her the whole thing. So done with this case. Like I'm leaving. It's very important. It's very important. And then he says, so he goes through all that. And then he says, be careful, all of you, my sweet kitties. Don't go outdoors in the snow unless you have on rubber boots.
Starting point is 01:00:42 Now listen, my little miss. Don't you keep me waiting so long for another of your sweet dear letters. If you do someday I shall come out there again and give you another sound spanking. You know where? I'm vomiting everywhere profusely. So he is? What the? I need to be honest. Be honest. And he oscillates between heinous you know, and he oscillates between heinous, like, just so late assaults and then being like, don't go outside and that's snow without your rubber boots on. And it's like, what the fuck are you? It's so, that's his stepchild. Does it seem to you like they were like involved in some kind of strange relationship? But that's the thing. She testifies on the stand later and says,
Starting point is 01:01:26 yeah, and I'll get into it. Trust me in part four. No thanks. She says he never physically touched me in any inappropriate ways. He would speak weirdly sometimes, but she said she never felt like that. He would violently hurt her in any way.
Starting point is 01:01:45 And she said they were not in any kind of weird relationship. She was like, I didn't even see him that often. Like I saw him every once in a while. Like it wasn't even like we were. And she was like, and he really was my stepfather quote unquote for only like a few weeks. What? And she was like, and then he left my mom.
Starting point is 01:02:02 What did she say about receiving this letter? And she had written him a letter, I guess, and been like, because I think he had written her a letter, and she wrote them back, but it was like a normal one, and then it came to this. Like, he would, no. And she was like, yeah, it was weird. Like, he's a weird, and then she said also that she was like,
Starting point is 01:02:19 I am like, I don't get out often. I'm like a poor kid. Yeah. And she was like, and I don't see a lot of, she was like, I thought all men were like this. Like I thought all city men were like this. This is what I thought. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Starting point is 01:02:32 And that's even sadder. Oh. So like, you know, that was horrific and so heinous. And that's so like later when we discussed how nice he was to his kids and his kids try to say, you know, he never beat them. He never hurt them physically. Never even yelled at them. Did he talk to his kids and his kids try to say, you know, he never beat them, he never hurt them physically, never even yelled at them. Did he talk to you like this though? Remember that's only
Starting point is 01:02:49 because he had some kind of weird code that didn't allow him to commit that specific type of atrocity to his biological children? Right. But it was a thin line. One can tell you. Now, one of the widows that he had married in 1930, for only two months, was a woman named Estelle Wilcox. Estelle. Estelle, they met through a dating slash marriage agency, which was like big back then. Married, agent. This was the thing in the 30s.
Starting point is 01:03:17 It was like early dating sites, basically. It was like get married right now. This is where he was looking for his victims. Things got real weird, real fast with them. He was placing ads in the paper. She said for young girls to come and work for him. And she was like, what do you need young girls for? And that's when she was like, no.
Starting point is 01:03:35 And then he would just leave for weeks. And they basically, he left and just never came back one time. Bye. And she said they just never communicated. And like, that was it. And she said he never came back. And she said they just never communicated and like that was it. And she said he never came back and she said I was glad he was gone. What? It's just so bizarre. Yeah. And at this point, he did admit to the police finally once they were like really hammering him about the other kids' cases, he wouldn't admit anything. But he did admit that he was working as a painter at a real
Starting point is 01:04:03 estate law firm only a few miles away the day that Billy Gaffney was abducted. Oh no. But he's like, I didn't do it, but they're getting closer. Okay. Because as soon as he said that, they were like,
Starting point is 01:04:14 we're gonna getcha. Like you definitely did it. Now, once the news and his name and photo began to circulate, people came forward to say, I got something to say about him. Like I've met my butcher. There were a lot of people he had harmed, attempted to harm, or had just fucking traumatized. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:31 Now, the first of these people is a woman named Helen Carlson. She was a widow who in 1927 rented her upstairs rooms to Albert and two of his sons. She said he was so sweet, so kind, very attentive to her youngest son who was seven years old. He always wanted to take him to the movies, but she kept saying no because the Billy Gaffney disappearance had happened close by and like near that time and she said no she was too worried about any of that. Right. But she said it wasn't because she had any feelings that he was dangerous. It was literally just that case that scared her.
Starting point is 01:05:11 Okay. And she said she felt like fish was a grandfather type and she was like, nothing would have sent me anywhere with him, like that's very normal. But then one morning she woke up and there was a letter under her bedroom door. Yeah. Just thrown under her bedroom door. It was a letter under her bedroom door. Yeah. Just thrown under her bedroom door.
Starting point is 01:05:25 It was a letter written and signed by Albert Fish and she said it was the most vile shit she could have ever imagined on paper. I'm sure that I mean, yeah, like anything that I I've never heard anything as vile as no. And he loves to write vile shit down. That's for sure. She destroyed the letter and she was like, I don't know what this is, and I'm gonna pretend it didn't happen.
Starting point is 01:05:46 Yeah. And then he wrote two more, and she finally was like, listen, you sick little shit. And she told them up. She goes, I want you and your son's gone. Like, this is weird. You gotta get out.
Starting point is 01:05:59 And she said he got super angry, like super violent, and she said he shook his fist at me and shouted that he would put a curse on me for life. What? But then they left. So she was like, cool, bye. Curse, whatever. I'll deal with that. I'll deal with that. I just don't want you. And so she went up to clean the room for the next borders, and she found the paddle with nails in it, wrapped in a sheet, and it was covered in blood. Oh my God!
Starting point is 01:06:26 And she said she also found that he had left a pile of his own shit in the middle of the floor. Ew. Yep. So then, an 11-year-old girl named Mary Little came to the station with her mother and said she saw his picture in the paper. And she said when she was five years old, she was standing with her mother and said she saw his picture in the paper. And she said when she was five years old, she was standing with her mother outside of a candy store. An Albert fish had walked up to her and just taken her hand and started walking with her
Starting point is 01:06:55 because she was like a little bit away from her mom. Yeah. And he asked her if she was alone and she said she like wrestled her hand away and ran to her mother and grabbed her. And her mother was with her while she told this story to police. And she said she wrestled her hand away and ran to her mother and grabbed her. And her mother was with her while she told this story to police and she said that Mary kept looking at this man. And when she asked what happened, she was like what went down, she goes, Mary kept staring at him. And I asked her what was the matter, then I noticed him, all hunched up with his hands buried in his pockets, he was. He looked at us and started laughing. It was a horrible cackling sound. Oh! So he looked at this mother being like,
Starting point is 01:07:30 I almost just walked away with your kid. What the, ew! He's so creepy! Yup, and so scary! And she was 11 telling them this. Oh. Even though, even through all of this, he insisted he did not kill another child.
Starting point is 01:07:46 Holy grace. He was not going to cop to any other crimes but readily admitted to the Grace Bud story in all of its horror. He told reporters, quote, they've asked me about a lot of other crimes. I told Detective King and the others that I don't know anything about them. I can't tell what I don't know. I can't lie. My conscious is clear. And then they asked me, and then he went incanibalism. The very thought sickened me. Oh, that's so crazy though, because you wrote an entire fucking explicit letter about it. You piece of shit.
Starting point is 01:08:17 That's like, so why did you write, like, a full-ass novel about it, if the very thought sickened you? Like you wrote fanfiction about cannibalism. And why is no one asking him this? Like someone hold his fucking feet to the fire. I mean, I think you're right. I think you're right though. I think it was that they didn't want to get too far
Starting point is 01:08:37 into it with the insanity. But it's like killing me. And he also loved to make it seem like he was a sympathetic character because of his childhood. And he knew he looked like an old man. He looked like a little man. And he played that up. He had like the water re-eyes.
Starting point is 01:08:52 And he would just sit there like, I'm just going to spray him. And he also told the media, like I said before, he told Detective King you never would have found her if it wasn't for me. And he also told the media, the police never would have found her if it wasn't for me. And he also told the media, the police never would have found her if it wasn't for me. He said, I was kind enough to lead them to it. He literally said, like, basically, like, let's not forget, like, let us not forget who
Starting point is 01:09:15 did the right thing here. Yeah. Basically. And it's like, no, honey, you don't get pats on the back because you led police to the body of a ten-year-old that you butchered. You don't get theats on the back because you led police to the body of a ten-year-old that you butchered. You don't get the snaps. And the fact that you thought you were going to, he's a...
Starting point is 01:09:33 I genuinely can't. So as he's trying to get sympathy from the press, and to be honest, the press was describing him at some point says like, you know, this gentlemanly old man, or this frail old man. He was definitely giving that off and he, it was working. But as this is happening, another guy comes forward to the police
Starting point is 01:09:54 with a horrific tale. Jim. It's Benjamin Iseman and he came to the police and said in July 1924, he was 16 years old. He was sitting on a bench in a park and he was approached by Albert Fish. He said Fish offered him a job painting in Staten Island. He was like, we need workers over in Staten Island
Starting point is 01:10:17 on a job and he was like, cool. He said he had just gotten here from overseas and he was like, I needed a job. And I was like, wow, this is great. And he said this guy was so nice, so kind. He looks like this kind old man. And he's like, so I agreed. And he's like, cool, like, let's get on the ferry.
Starting point is 01:10:33 You can come over and meet the guys. So he's like, cool. He gets on the ferry to Staten Island with him and then fish took him to a shack that was run down. And he was like, okay. And he's like, just wait, wait here. I just have to go get my tools. And then we'll, okay. And he's like, just wait, wait here. I just have to go get my tools. And then we'll go meet up with everybody. No. So suddenly Benjamin says,
Starting point is 01:10:50 and I'm like, was this an angel? Benjamin says out of nowhere. He's standing next to this abandoned shack. Doesn't know where he is. And he goes an older black fellow came out of nowhere and said to him, listen listen son, you better get out of here. A lot of kids have gone in there and never come out. Oh, bro, who was that man? Whose man's is this? Whose man's is that? That's an angel.
Starting point is 01:11:23 I was just, that is a fucking angel. That's a straight up angel. And he said, he was like, you know what? I said, thank you, sir. And I ran the fuck out of there. He was like, I wasn't questioning. I wasn't gonna ask anything. I got out of there.
Starting point is 01:11:37 He goes, I got home. He had to like, bum money for the ferry fare and everything. He had to like, make his way back home. He home He got home told his parents they called the police the police actually wanted him to act as a decoy the next day and sit on that same bench And they said they were gonna give him money to do it and he was in desperate need of money But he wouldn't because he said he was so upset upset and traumatized by the whole thing He was like I can't do it. I don't wanna see him again.
Starting point is 01:12:05 I'm sorry, how old was he? 16. Wow. Now, one thing, can you imagine knowing what he knew then, like knowing now as like a 20 something, like a 26 year old man, or 24 year old man would have died that day? You're just like,
Starting point is 01:12:21 Roodle death. That man sang to him. A lot of kids go in there and then never come out. That also tells me who the fuck else is connected to him. And what other kids? And it's like, that's the thing. What other cases are connected? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:12:40 Here, now one thing almost every single person who saw him before could point to was that he walked like he had something in his pants, basically. Like he walked like really like wonky. We know a lot. And he also sat very slowly and deliberately like something was painful. And this wasn't lost on authorities either who had been monitoring it themselves, but weren't really sure how they could like approach this problem.
Starting point is 01:13:04 Yeah. And it was definitely a defining feature, though, because his penchant for harming himself was eventually going to be part of his undoing, because it connected a lot of the stories. A lot of people would say he walked with this weird gate. He had this weird, you know, he would sit very gingerly. And that's not everybody. So there are a lot of stories that he was so whatever about dying and he was so excited
Starting point is 01:13:27 about it. Like that's the thing with the lore with him was that he was like, I don't give a fuck, like kill me, like I love pain. He was scared shitless. Yeah. He was scared shitless. He asked all the time about whether he could get second degree murder. He was like, you think I can get second degree? Can I get the insanity? He didn't want to die. And although he was prepared to die for what he did, he said he didn't want to. He kept trying to get used as an experiment. And he said humanity will profit more by a study of my brain and body
Starting point is 01:13:55 than by sending me to the electric chair, which I, part of me believes. I was gonna say that is weirdly like true. But at the same time, I'm like, let's stop the war that he was like, I don't give a fuck, like this is gonna be, because he does say later something and it's like a famous quote by him
Starting point is 01:14:12 that it's gonna be like the most supreme thrill of dying and that, if he did say that, that is something he said. He's being fucking the out of control. But it was at the last fucking second and he had nothing else to say. He wasn't excited about it. Everybody who said they saw him in those last moments,
Starting point is 01:14:25 he was shitting his pants. Yeah. So I just don't want him to be this like, this like, you know, tail of like, I don't care. Like, I love pain. I'm not worried. No, he was shitting his pants. Exactly. Now, while gathering evidence for the trial of the murder,
Starting point is 01:14:39 for the murder of Grace Bud, Jimmy Mean, you might remember that name. I was gonna say that sounds familiar. The train conductor, one of the train conductors who saw a boy that looked like Billy Gaffney with an old man the day he went missing on that train. He saw Albert's face in the paper and he said, that's the guy.
Starting point is 01:14:59 So he called authorities who brought him and Anthony Barone, the other conductor. They brought him into the policeone, the other conductor, they brought him into the police station to look at fish. When me and saw him, he said, I am 100% sure that is the man that was with Billy Gaffney on that train. Dude.
Starting point is 01:15:14 And Anthony Barone said he thought it was him, but he said I'm not positive. Because he said he was wearing different clothes, he had an overcoat. He's a lot older by this point. He's older, he's like, I don't know, like a little bit, not sure. But Jimmy Mean was like that since him. That's him. 100%.
Starting point is 01:15:29 And again, fish denied it. But then he almost admitted it and then simultaneously tried to act like he was just being a decent person. He said, he didn't do it. He said, I didn't do it. But he said, I would have given myself up anyways because I feel my days are about over, but I would not have given myself up to police unless I learned that an innocent man was about to be convicted for my crime. Okay. And it's like, wait a second.
Starting point is 01:15:57 So you are not going to admit it unless somebody else is being put up for that. And why would somebody else be put up for that? So did you do it or not? Because it's like you're telling me, you're simultaneously saying, of course I wouldn't, why wouldn't I give myself up for it? Of course I would have, I would have said that I did it. Right.
Starting point is 01:16:17 But I wouldn't have done that unless somebody else was going up for it. And it's like, so you just told me you would have said it already. So like why is no one believing you? Yup. And you're also saying you wouldn't have said it already unless someone else was going up for that crime. And why would you say it if somebody else was going up for that crime unless you felt guilty about somebody else going up for a crime
Starting point is 01:16:33 that you committed? Thank you. And then... Because if somebody else is going up for that crime, didn't they do it? Right. Why would that bother you, unless you did it? Right.
Starting point is 01:16:42 Why would that even be a thing? Because you did it. I'm Why would that even be a thing? Because you did. I'm like, what? Survey says. So the indictment of Grace for Grace Buds murder began and ended very quickly with the Westchester Grand Jury coming back in only two hours to announce that they were indeed
Starting point is 01:16:57 inditing Albert Fish of Murder in the first degree with Malice of Fourth thought. Yeah. So before he went to Westchester County jail, he had another visitor. Oh my god. Somebody to come in. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:17:08 A man walked in, looked at him, didn't say anything except for, that's him. This man was Han's keel. Okay. It might sound familiar, it might not, because we've gone through a lot here. He was the father of Beatrice Keel,
Starting point is 01:17:24 who Albert fucking fish had approached 10 years prior and asked her while she was in her field outside of her house if she could help him find wild rhubarb. Oh my God! But her mother had chased him off. Yelp. And her father, Hans Keel, found him sleeping in their barn that night and almost fucking killed
Starting point is 01:17:45 him. The finds that I forgot about this and you told me days ago. It's and then Hans saw his paper in the newspaper with all of this and we're sure that's the guy. So fish said, I've never seen him in my life. Lies. Then said, well, yeah, I had this job painting in Staten Island at the time, but like, no, that wasn't me. So he's now being like, I guess I won't like in that. Yeah, I guess.
Starting point is 01:18:10 This was the worst. Because they were going to bring the mom and Beatrice Keel in to ID him too. And if they did, he was going to be indicted on the murder charges for Francis McDonald. Because Francis McDonald was found in the woods between the keelhouse and where he was abducted. Wow. Now, they came, be at risk in the mom, and fish literally wouldn't let them see his face.
Starting point is 01:18:36 What? He essentially did a physical comedy bit routine, covering his face with a newspaper. He would bend over his knees and hide his face and his knees. Why didn't they just like, we're straight away? Well, so they kept having them leave and then pretending for them to be gone
Starting point is 01:18:52 and having them like sneak back into look at him without him knowing. At one point, he knelt on the cot that he had in the room and just hid his face in the cot. Sir, but Beatrice caught his face one of those times because she snuck around and looked at him. So why is nobody just holding him fucking down? You think somebody literally just holds his head up
Starting point is 01:19:12 and be like, that's his face. Smack of a cross, a stupid face. Well, Beatrice saw him and said, that's 100% him. 100%. She probably was like, I will literally never forget the face until the day I die. Yeah, that was the man who would have killed me. Yeah, putting this together with the Benjamin Isman story,
Starting point is 01:19:28 which was confirmed by his mother and police reports at the time, they were going to attempt to indict fish for the murder of Francis MacDonald. Boom. Now, as this trial, this trial for Grace Bud became a certainty, fish decided he needed to have James Dempsey as his lawyer, who was one of the assistant district attorneys
Starting point is 01:19:49 of Westchester County at one point. He was widely regarded as an amazing defense lawyer by other inmates. He was able to get him as a lawyer through some kind of connection he had. I think it was through his kids somehow. And he seems like he was a very decent defense lawyer, but man, me and James Dempsey have different thoughts
Starting point is 01:20:09 on Albert Fish. We throw hands. We might throw hands. Now, this entire time, Fish has been trying to convince everybody that he is insane, obviously. He kept talking to reporters and authorities and saying things like, well, I must be insane, I suppose. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:20:25 Just planting that seed right in there. And you would make sure to at least say that. And he didn't want to die. I'm telling you. So he was trying to get out of that mandatory death sentence if he got this first degree murder charge. Yeah. So at the end of December, they had Dr. Charles Lambert
Starting point is 01:20:42 from Scarletdale, New York, and Dr. James Vava Sauer from Amityville, Long Island come in. They were two alianists, quote-unquote. They were going to observe his mental state. After observations and tests and interviews, all that stuff, they both came to the same conclusion that he was legally sane. They said he was weird as fuck, but sane. In fact, another alienist later said that his case was one of, quote, unparalleled perversity. Perversity. Now, another doctor, Dr. Frederick Wurtham was brought in. He had evaluated fish before all of this and had a trust thing with him, like, fish trusted him and would tell him things that he wouldn't tell other people. Right. So they brought him in and he was the only one that fish mentioned the
Starting point is 01:21:31 cannibalism to finally. He explained how he had, he had decapitated Gracebud and he had put a paint pan under her neck to catch the blood as he did it. He said he had tried to drink some of that blood once he had decapitated her, but he had gagged on it. He said, however, that he had cut pieces of meat from the body and wrapped them in paper, and he had ridden the train-ride home, holding those wrapped pieces of paper on his lap and no one knew. He also said the entire thing sexually aroused him. And he talked about cooking and eating it and how much he liked it.
Starting point is 01:22:08 He told her, him all of this. But with King and the authorities, he did not say he ate any of his victims. And he said he had thrown that blood in the paint bucket out the window. He never said he'd drink it. So he's just saying this to these people because he knows that he's a real. Yeah. One thing that was heavily concentrated on was the amount of pain that fish liked to inflict on himself. Never mind everybody else. It was a totally different thing that he wanted to inflict pain and suffering on children, but he told a psychologist while awaiting trial,
Starting point is 01:22:39 I always had a desire to inflict pain on others and to have others inflict pain on me. had a desire to inflict pain on others and have others inflict pain on me. And he told Dr. Worsum, I always seem to enjoy everything that hurt. The desire to inflict pain, that is all that is upmost. And at one point, he got, in prison, he got a, I think it was a chicken bone out of his meal and he kept it. And then he sharpened it on the floor of his cell. Ew. And he sharpened it to a fine point and started ripping the skin on his chest until he was, it was like, rustled away from him. What the fuck?
Starting point is 01:23:15 And another time he managed to get, I don't know if it was the same bone or different bone from a meal, but he was able to jam it into his pelvis and groin and they caught him. In according to the Kingston Daily Freeman paper, it reported that the warden said he thought he did this in an attempt to cut out some of the needles that he had shoved inside of his body. Oh. And they were giving,
Starting point is 01:23:40 because they were giving him trouble walking and sitting, which we're gonna get to the needles in a minute. Later, he also had his kids sneak rubbing alcohol into the cell. He must have told them it was for something else. He's like, no. And he stashed a rag and one day asked, so he would, like, at this point, especially, like,
Starting point is 01:24:00 in time inmates were like smoking cigarettes and the guards would like light their cigarette for a proof of in shit. And he asked the guards for a match to light a cigarette and one of the guards offhandedly just gave him the match to light a cigarette. And luckily they caught him but he had stuffed the reg with alcohol. So he was trying to light it on fire in his ass. Again, I don't understand how he didn't go blaze. Yep, don't know. It don't know.
Starting point is 01:24:27 Well, they caught him this time. What is that gonna do though? It just burns your bowel? I guess so. I'm not real sure the ins and outs of the whole thing, but it doesn't sound great. He was an ins and outs. But he told them and a few other people involved
Starting point is 01:24:39 in the investigation that because he felt guilt after killing Grace Bud, because remember, he's highly religious. He had decided to punish himself by pushing needles into the area between his anus and testicles. And he left them there. That's why he said he sat weird and walked really heated here. So, you know, December 28th rolls around,
Starting point is 01:25:02 Mubberstead. I'm very, very excited, indeed. December 28th rose around Mubberstead. A big girl, happy birthday. Very exciting day indeed. And they brought him to Grasslands Hospital to get some X-rays done, because they were like, we might as well see if he's still in the truth. Yeah. The chief radiologist, Dr. Roy D. Duckworth,
Starting point is 01:25:17 was the one to do it. And I can't imagine what he was thinking when he took a look at this film. He was thinking, I gotta get out of here. He was like, why am I doing this? Now, he looked at the film and what he saw was 27, which ended up being 29 altogether at Final Count, sewing needles, bloating around inside of fish's cell.
Starting point is 01:25:40 All different sizes, and they'd only gotten in there. He said the only way they could have gotten in there was by me, pushed in through the outside not swallowed Oh pushed in like you're not a push cushion. Yeah, some of them were like We're like corroded so they had been in there for years It's also like how did you not get like tetanus like in perforations and shit? I'm like damn. What are you doing dude? Yeah? Oh God once they had this, this was another thing that they were gonna end up using to try to do that
Starting point is 01:26:10 in Sanity Defense, because they were like, how is this scene? Right. And again, I don't know how to answer that. I really don't. But there's differences here in what they're looking at, like mentally and criminally and legally, and it becomes very blurry. but this man knew what he
Starting point is 01:26:27 was doing. Obviously. And I think this whole pushpin thing is a weird paraphernal thing he has but it doesn't make him insane. No. It doesn't make him insane to the point where he didn't know what what he was doing was wrong. Because people do things like that. Yeah. And they're sane. was doing was wrong. Because people do things like that. Yeah. And they're sane. And in some sense, they are. In some capacity. And they're looking at here.
Starting point is 01:26:50 Right. He was not out of his mind when he did all these things. He can recall them perfectly. He knows they were wrong. He talks about guilt. He writes letters afterwards to fuck with family members of people he cared about. Well, it's just like so. like I can't get past that.
Starting point is 01:27:07 Yeah, I don't think I will ever get past that. I never will. And you know what? This is where we're going to leave it. Okay, cool. At the X-rays of the of the pelvis. Because when we begin in a chapter four, in chapter four.
Starting point is 01:27:21 I'm writing a book with you. In episode four, we're going to talk about the trial and finally get to the end. Finally, get out of here. We will get out of here. Oh my God, get me out of here. So this is all just to the trial, which the trial started in March 1935. And that's where we are going to start. And that's when we end. Okay, well, that's where we start next time. That's where we start next time, and that's where we will end. Oh my Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.
Starting point is 01:27:49 Sorry, everybody. And again, this is releasing on Sunday, and you are going to be getting part four on Monday. It's coming right after. Coming right up after you. But because I think we're at like an hour and a half with this episode, if I went through what I have after this we would this wouldn't be like a three and a half hour episode or something So everybody needs a little reprieve
Starting point is 01:28:13 Um, and if you don't I do So you can blame it on ash. Yeah, I can feel free. Yeah, and I got to take a break too from talking I was gonna say you really do it's a long time to talk. So we'll see you tomorrow for the conclusion of this fucking nightmare. Yeah. Never to return to it again. Of course. Okay. Well, we hope you keep listening because you got it.
Starting point is 01:28:36 You got to get out of here. Yeah. And we hope you keep it. We... I'm not telling you. I'm not telling you not to keep it this way. No, you know. You already know. You know! You know! You're not yourself a poster if you don't already know. You already know! Oh wow, she's she's like Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music.
Starting point is 01:29:27 Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.