Morbid - Episode 305: Albert Fish Part 4
Episode Date: March 8, 2022The end is here! Alaina’s psyche shall repair over the course of the next week and so will yours. The final installment of this series will cover Albert’s trial and ultimately his own dea...th. See you later this week with some light Listener Tales! Deranged by Harold Shechter Confessions of a Cannibal by Robert Keller As always, thank you to our sponsors: BestFiends: Shop now and get up to 30% off fire pits all month long, AND use promo code MORBID at checkout to get an extra $20 off. Prose: Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today! Go to Prose.com/morbid Daily Harvest: Go to DAILYHARVEST.com/morbid to get up to forty dollars off your first box! MVMT: Join the MVMT and get 15% off today — with FREE SHIPPING and FREE RETURNS — by going to MVMT.COM/MORBID See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Angie's list is now Angie, and we've heard a lot of theories about why.
I thought it was an eco-move.
For your worst, guess paper.
It was so you could say it faster.
No way.
It's to be more iconic.
Must be a tech thing.
But those aren't quite right.
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Sounds easy.
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Get started at Angie.com.
That's ANGI, or download the app today.
Hey, weirdos, I'm Alina.
I'm Ash, and this is morbid. It's more bad.
Here we are.
We're at part four, guys.
We are.
I want to just say sorry to you, especially if it didn't sound
like I was interested yesterday.
Who me?
Yeah, because I saw a couple of guests to me.
Well, I saw a couple of people say it didn't sound
like I was interested.
And I was like, oh no, I'm literally just very sick.
I was going to say Ash has had a gnarly cold for kids.
But I am very much interested.
Like I, in this case, it's just like mind ball nothing.
But I don't want you to think that I'm not interested.
No, I would never think that.
No, I knew you were interested.
Like, hey you, listeners.
Hey you.
I'm interested.
And I hope that you guys didn't feel like I wasn't.
I'm just sick.
She's just super sick.
And you know, it's the monotone like day quill voice. Yeah, like I wasn't. I'm just sick. She's just super sick. And, you know, it's the monotone, like, dayquil voice.
Yeah, like, I was hopped up on the dayquil.
The dayquil.
The dayquil.
And I also was trying, like, if anytime you made a joke,
I was like, don't laugh, because then it would send me
into a coughing fit.
So I was like,
like, cough, cough.
Very, like, subdued laughter.
Well, you know, on that same vein, I think we had said, like, Ha, Ha, Ha, like subdued laughter. Well, you know what, on that same vein,
I think we had said, like, you know,
this guy got naked before calling Grace into the house.
Like, it was clearly sexually motivated,
like, whether he says it or not.
Yeah.
There's one thing that I didn't say
just because it's so foul that I didn't want to say it,
that we'll kind of dispute this.
Okay. Because a lot of people were like,
well, he said in the letter that he got naked
because he didn't want blood on him.
That was in the means in which he killed her.
Well, there's a few things that I can tell you that is wrong.
Yes, he did say that.
One, I don't believe anything.
Albert Fish says are his motivations
because he's a lying sack of shits.
He also said he only killed one kid. Well, too
He got naked before calling her in so that she had to see him standing there naked before she ran away
And he choked her which doesn't involve blood. So he didn't need to get naked before killing her
He could have done it after that was definitely his own
Sexual thing and the thing that I wasn't gonna say but now I'm gonna say it just to make sure that it's very clear that he could have done it after. That was definitely his own sexual thing.
And the thing that I wasn't going to say, but now I'm going to say it just to make
sure that it's very clear that he did this on purpose and that this wasn't just
to make sure he didn't get blood on his clothes.
He said to several the investigators that he got intense sexual pleasure out of choking her.
I will end it at that, but the most you can get.
That's why he was naked.
That's why he was naked.
This wasn't a case of him being like,
well, I don't wanna get blood on my clothes.
He wrote that in the letter,
but he wrote a lot of shit in the letter.
They probably didn't do it.
Exactly.
And I just wanted to clear it up that like,
he is a sexual pervert.
He did that because he wanted to scare
this 10 yearyear-old girl
with his dick.
That's why he did it.
100%.
He's a vulgar, crude, disgusting, depraved individual.
He am claiming this whole thing of like,
it never entered my mind to, like, sure,
maybe he didn't like, physically rape her,
but he absolutely assaulted her in a different way,
sexually.
And he definitely used her in that way.
So he's disgusting.
He's a perverted
rapist. And I know like people were just trying to point it out, but like I just wanted to
be clear that like he's a lying sack of shit. We shouldn't believe what he says. He exaggerates.
He lies. He tries to make himself look like a kind of a gentleman. Right. I took my clothes
off because I didn't want blood on them. Like he didn't give a shit. It's like, no, you
were choking. He literally covered himself in blood on the regular.
Like, he was beating himself with a paddle with nails on it
and then you just put a shirt on.
Like, he didn't give shit back.
And there's also like, like, many, many numerous ways
where he couldn't have gotten blood on him afterwards.
Like, he could have put like a sheet over himself.
Like, yeah, they got naked to be disgusting.
If he had killed her in a different way,
if he had mentioned that he was gonna kill her,
you know, he killed her by stabbing her,
or bludgeoning her even,
and he didn't wanna get blood spat around his clothes.
Sure, like I can believe that,
but he knew he was gonna choke her.
That doesn't involve blood.
He just wanted to scare a little girl.
He's fucking monster.
He's the literal buggy man.
So I just wanted to,
I wasn't gonna let that one,
cause it's like real foul,
but I feel like it's important
to know at this point that he's a lying sack of shit
and that letter really doesn't mean shit.
Because honestly, we don't even know
if that's how he killed her.
So we honestly don't know him, we'll never know.
Cause he made sure of it, cause he's an asshole.
But yeah, so I just wanted to point that out.
And I also, I found out something really interesting.
One of our patrons, Felix, I want to thank him for putting this little thing out there.
Dr. Wartham, the defense's expert witness, the psychologist, who he really told a lot
to.
He actually went on to publish a book called Seduction of the Innocent.
And it was apparently all about how comic books and movies and television create criminals.
So he's the defense's expert witness for this whole thing.
So I wish you could see my face right now.
Like, you're like, ah, not argument.
Yeah, he went on to create a couple of more books too. He really devoted his life and his professional life
into saying that entertainment created criminals.
The movies made me do it pretty much.
So thank you Felix for pointing that out,
which allowed me to go deeper into that
because when I found it out, I was like, what?
We were like, let's go.
It made a lot of sense.
So yeah, that's crazy.
But I think when we left off yesterday, we
had just found out that he had shoved what ended up being about 29 needles into his groin
and pelvis. Oh yeah, that's where we left off. And that the chief radiologist, Dr. Roy D.
Duckworth, was the one who got the distinct pleasure of taking that X-ray.
And that they were different sizes.
They were different time periods being in there.
Some of them were fresh, like rusty, like only from a couple of weeks ago.
Some of them were so old, they were like corroding inside of him.
And they didn't take the amount.
I think somebody asked us like, did they take those out?
Because couldn't they be like weapons?
Yeah.
But, and that's a very good point.
They were so far inside of him.
He couldn't get to them.
He couldn't even remove them.
Like, he'd have to have like, actually,
he'd have to have like, legit.
And some of them were like embedded into his system.
So it's like, they literally couldn't.
Oh.
But don't worry, they were definitely not reachable
to be weapons for sure.
Gotcha.
Which is horrifying.
But now we are getting to the trial.
So March 1935 was the trial for Albert Fish
for murdering Grace Bud.
And not Grace Bud.
Grace Bud.
Bud.
Not a gray potato.
I know.
I've seen a lot of that.
So many people were like, which I get it
because when I say it fast, go like gray,
but it sounds like gray, spud.
But it's like, was to share sauce all over again.
It really is.
And I'm also like, she's 10 years old
and she got murdered.
So let's make sure her name is Grace Bud.
I didn't realize, like I said before,
that the Lindbergh baby trial
was at the same time that this was going on. I didn't know idea that I just didn't realize, like I said before, that the Lindbergh baby trial was at the same time
that this was going on.
I didn't know idea that I just didn't, I didn't put it together in my brain.
I don't know why.
Same time period.
I don't know why I didn't think of it.
But that's why Albert, while he got a ton of attention in the press, it was a little
shoved off to the side because obviously the Lindbergh baby trial was like I was going to say the thing. But while this was going on, he corresponded like I said last
episode with his children via letters. They're very interesting to see and deranged the book has a
lot of these letters, and I again implore you to read that book if you want to know more about this
case, because he got like a lot of access to different documents.
So at this point, he had decided that his son Albert Jr. was just his anemosis at this point.
Because remember Albert Jr. was the one who had denounced him publicly.
Was like that old skunk. I knew something like that would happen. He was the one that said my God
graces the name that he was screaming asleep for months. But he spoke to that would happen. He was the one that said, my God, graces the name that he was screaming as sleep for months.
But he spoke to his other children.
He would not speak to Albert Jr.
And he would only call him A when referring to him in letters to his kids.
Oh my God.
Dude, you're the fucking murderer here.
It's wild.
In fact, in January of that year,
he wrote to his daughter, Gertrude,
and he said, what A does, I don't care.
He is no son of mine.
Now, dear Gerti, if you never do anything else for me,
I want you to do this.
Don't you ever call him your brother again.
Never allow him inside your home.
Teach your little ones to despise him.
Why?
What the fuck?
It's like, because he thinks you're an old creep,
because you are an old creep,
murdered a little girl and admitted it. Like, you murdered? You murdered multiple little children. And it's like, Gert because he thinks you're an old creep. Because you are an old creep, murdered a little girl and admitted it.
Like, you murdered really?
Really?
Multiple little children.
And it's like, Gertrude thinks you're an old creep too.
She just doesn't know how to handle it.
Right.
That's all, because you've messed them up in many ways.
It's like, you think you can control us from prison too.
And like, you get to decide what's gonna happen
to my children, you child murdered her.
Like, really?
Are we really gonna go here?
No, he also wrote to his son, John. John is the one that was working in North Carolina,
and he was the one sending them up those $25 checks.
Oh, you're gonna say gift cards.
I almost said gift cards.
Those $25 target gift cards.
You know, that every single but, like, at that point,
was it Radio Shack?
I don't know.
But John was working in North Carolina as part of the
civilian conservation corpse.
And he was, again, sending him those monthly checks.
He wrote him, so fish wrote John, that although he didn't blame him, it was definitely his
fucking fault for joining the CCC and getting him caught.
Because if he wasn't going to get that check,
that he was sending him every month,
then he never would have been found out.
How dare you send me money, son?
So he's literally saying, and it's not even,
like that's even crazy to be like,
you sending me those checks, Scott McCott,
he's like, you never should have got a job
in North Carolina at the CCC,
and then sent me those checks every month. Because if you didn't got a job in North Carolina at the CCC, and then sent me those
checks every month.
Because if you didn't join that job in North Carolina, I never would have got caught.
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You wrote him and said, I don't blame you my son for my trouble, but if you had not
joined the CCC, I would not be in here.
I waited for the check until December 13th
when I went to 200 East 52 and then I got caught.
So he's literally like, bitch, you sent me a check late
and that's how I got caught.
If I was John, I would literally be like,
I'm glad that I sent you the check late
because it got a child murderer off the street.
It's also don't fucking write me again.
It's outrageous.
Yes. It is outrageous.
PSU fucking suck. And he also, he was telling his other children the same thing that it was the
check that ruined him. No, it actually was the murder of children. It was I got caught
and my life is ruined because John sent me those checks. If he had never joined the CCC, I never would have been caught.
That way of thinking is so scary.
It's so funny.
That people can just turn things around and make it not.
Like, make things that are their fault, not their fault.
It's the craziest thing to me.
It's outrageous.
I think that is like gaslighting to the highest degree.
Oh yeah.
And then he would write to his daughters like that he was worried about them
and that he wanted them to save their money,
especially his daughters.
His sons, he was definitely like
trying to take care of, quote unquote, through letters,
but his daughters, he was like,
seems genuinely worried for their well-being.
Okay.
And he wanted to make sure they had money and food
and he actually told Annie at one point his daughter.
He said, don't come visit me. He was like, and it's not because I don't want to see you.
I just want you to save your money. I don't want you to use it. Weird dichotomy. Weird.
Now, it's weird because it's like he's acting like this, like a father.
Right. Like don't waste your money to come see me. I would love to see you, but you need to feed
your family. But then also, his kids knew that he had been shoving needles in his body. Some of them had seen them. Like the needles were the thing.
I think at this point only a couple of them knew had seen it like without and without his knowledge,
but they knew about the beatings he inflicted on himself and how he was like
manically religious and eccentric as they called him, but they all again said he was a father and a mother to them and
They loved him
Regardless like they didn't want to but they did yeah, and his daughter grew up
Gertrude actually had a heart issue that she had been in the hospital for and she was okay
But she was like had to be careful and he wrote her quote now Gertie don't
Now Gertie dear don't you come up here to see me.
I'm afraid of your heart.
And besides, I really believe I would go all to pieces
when I see you.
Hmm.
Which is like a father.
Absolutely.
Like, what the fuck?
Like, how are you able to do that,
but not look at a 10-year-old child?
A 10-year-old little girl,
and like, not think of your own children?
It's just, that's the thing.
How do you not compare?
Right. And how do you not compare?
And how do you take that child from their parents?
They're friends.
After spending time with her parents,
and not think about it,
that what if somebody did that to you?
But I don't think it would be empathy.
Right, and that is sorely lacking in anything.
And he does have empathy because he has empathy
for his daughter.
Yeah, but I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know.
I think it's that he can't see outside of his wants.
Exactly, like he's so narcissistic.
It really is, it's truly narcissistic,
but Gertrude was the one who had a daughter, Gloria.
His granddaughter and Gloria was the one
that he was just like in love with.
I would hate that.
And Gloria was 11 years old,
and he claimed to adore her.
And he wrote her, this is the letter
that is such a stark contrast to Mary Nichols,
his stepdaughter's letter.
Yup, that one is like beyond.
That would appropriate and so uncomfortable.
This one says, my dear little Gloria,
your poor old grandpa got your sweet note
you sent to in Mama's letter.
I'm so glad to hear you still love me and always will.
You know as a baby and at all times, I loved you.
There have been times when I was at Mama's that I was cross and cranky, but I had much
on my mind.
Since this has happened, Mama can tell you what that was.
I'm so happy to know that you are doing so well at school.
Stick to it and learn all you can.
Some day before long now, you will be able to go to work
and help poor mama and papa.
They have struggled hard for each of you,
as I have also struggled hard for each of them
in the years that have passed.
I am well.
Trust in God and have no fear as to what the result will be.
You know, I love each of you dearly and always will.
Pray every night for your poor old grandpa right soon again.
If you read that non-knowledge, who that person is, you'd be like, oh man, this sweet old grandpa. Yeah.
Like that's how you talk to your grandchild, right?
Like love you so glad, so sad that I was, sometimes I was cranky and I'm sorry for that.
And your mom will explain it to you.
And you know, I love you. I've loved you since you were a baby.
I always will.
So glad you're doing great in school.
And it's so crazy.
Right, it's 2-11 year old and never uses the word kitty.
No, that's exactly.
Because it's like he's in, how do you say that?
We're like infant, infantilizing.
Yeah, it's like, that's exactly,
it's like, he's fetishizing his 18 year old step daughter.
His 18 year old step daughter, but then like,
which I'm glad he's not doing that to this 11 year old,
but it's like, what the fuck?
Just to see the stark, different.
And it's like my step kitty kind of thing.
And then with Gloria, he says, my dear little Gloria,
which is so much more appropriate and adorable
and like wholesome sounding.
Yeah.
And like, there's, I don't know, it's just so weird to me.
And he's like, do you have my brain around it?
And he's like, I'm proud of you.
He's saying like, your parents have struggled hard
to make sure you're okay.
I struggled hard for them.
Someday you're gonna be able to help them.
Right.
Like a very innocuous letter.
It's so weird to me.
I like could not, I could not like just like wrestle with it.
I'm just, I, he will never be understood.
I will.
I will.
Yeah.
And unfortunately it's one of those things
like he was right when he said,
I think like what did he say?
Society could benefit from studying my brain and body.
He truly was. Yeah. Yeah. I think we could what did he say, society could benefit from studying my brain and body? Yeah, I think we could.
I agree.
But then again, it's like the same thing.
I go back to the like, I don't want to get blood
on my clothing thing.
It makes sense that everybody's like, yeah,
I said that in the letter.
Uh-huh.
We, I mean, what do we, we can't believe anything, he says.
No.
I mean, look at him talking to his granddaughter, Gloria,
and he's sitting there saying I love kids, and anybody who hurts a kid should be horribly punished.
And then he's, I mean, a 10-year-old.
Right.
A year younger than his granddaughter.
It's so weird.
If we could study his, like, I don't even know how it works, but if you could study his,
like, brain responses and stuff like that versus things that he was saying, it's interesting.
Yeah, I would be, I think, I I think it sucks that it was at the time.
Right.
Because it was not a lot of technology or tools.
But now you're just like, what the fuck was going on in there?
Right.
It's like, I wish that you could have shown him something
and had his brain hooked up and seen the different parts of the trigger.
It's true.
It would have been very, very fascinating
to just really use him, honestly,
as a straight up guinea pig.
Yeah.
Just a strap of men.
Also, I feel like he would have gotten sick.
He would have loved it.
I wish you're out of that.
He would have, for sure.
So it really, you can't win here.
No, it's a catch-22.
You really can't.
Now, he, again, he went really deep,
like he immediately fell back into like religion
in the Bible.
Again, he was reading it every day, he was quoting the scriptures.
Because what the fuck else is he going to do?
But then, and here's the thing, another perfect example of him being a bullshit in son
of a bitch.
He, I'm obsessed with religion, I'm reading the Bible, like blah, blah, blah.
But then they would do Catholic masses at the prison
for some of the Catholic prisoners.
Yeah.
And he would strip naked during these masses,
stand in his cell and jerk off to the sounds of them praying.
What?
Guards always stopped him in the middle of it,
but this is what I'm saying.
There's no logic happening here.
None whatsoever.
So this, you can't connect any kind of logic with him.
Like, it doesn't, nothing connects.
It's a total, it's like one of those huge rubber balls,
rubber band balls, where all the rubber bands
are all like corroded on the inside.
And when you peel them off, they're all stuck on each other
and they make no sense and you can't unravel it at all. You're in stress. And when you open it up,
you just end up seeing this nasty rotten ball of corroded rubber bands. So that's literally
him. None of it makes sense. There's no finding that end and unraveling it. It's just a mess.
That was a beautiful metaphor. Thank you. I just came up with a beautifully random metaphor,
beautifully rancid metaphor.
So during the trial, his lawyer, Dempsey,
tried to claim that maybe he suffered
from like lead poisoning.
Like why?
So apparently lead colloc was a common thing
that house painters dealt with at the time because
of the lead point, lead paint would poison them essentially.
Okay, I see.
And it was part of the insanity defense they were desperately trying to get.
But and that's all well and fine.
I understand why they were trying to get an insanity defense.
And honestly, it's like not that far fetch.
But then you think about it and he had
already fucked his own defense like several times like one doctors already declared him
sane several times.
Two, he had said a million times that he knew killing was wrong. He felt guilty after
killing Grace Bud. The prosecution mentioned this in trial saying quote, he said that he
knew what he was doing. He said that he knew it was wrong to kill and that after he had done so, he felt guilty.
He knew it was a commandment that thou shall not kill. That is what it says.
He also had written and admonished his son for what he believed was the reason he got caught.
So he admitted to actively avoiding police capture.
Boom, roasted. He's not insane. He knows what's going on. He's insane to actively avoiding police capture. Boom, roasted.
He's not insane. He knows what's going on. He's insane in a totally different way.
Sure.
criminally.
No.
He knows what's happening here.
Legally, he's very aware of what he's done.
He's aware of the law.
He was not out of his senses when he was doing this or afterwards or before.
He was just, he's just gross and sick.
Now, he also would not
off during the trial. Are you kidding me? Yeah, he was like bored. And most of the time,
he sat there and just covered his face with his hand and just like stared off into the
distance. And he would only get when his lawyer would talk, he would sometimes like not
along with him, like, yeah, like hell yeah. But he would just nod off.
He had no reaction to any of like the horrifying things they talked about.
He would just sit there like, yeah, whatever.
And the bud family was actually on the stand at one point.
All of them came on the stand like separately.
And they were all asked one by one to identify Frank Howard,
essentially.
And Albert Bud, who had a glass eye
and a cataract in the other eye.
Oh man.
God off the stand, walked right up to fish,
sitting at the table, pointed at him in the face
and said, this is the man.
This is the man who took my child.
Oh.
Then he started sobbing.
No. And they literally had
to help him back on the stand and they had to take a recess shortly so that he could like
get together.
Heather herself.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, the confessions he had given the several confessions where they were essentially all the same, but once in a while he would add another layer to it, they were all red.
And sometimes he laughed while they were red.
Are you kidding me? Yeah, like you would chuckle to himself about like certain parts.
And while all this horrific stuff was being read or discussed whenever they talked about the confessions or anything,
the judge would order all the women out of the courtroom.
Oh wow, because they said it was like not for women's ears, it was so horrifying.
Which is crazy to think of now.
Which is like weirdly like a no-ing.
Well, it's like it's just funny to think of now
when you're like, we are two women
who are literally doing the entire podcast about this.
Yeah.
Okay.
Delegate sensibilities, you know?
Ooh, my pearls.
All of his kids were on the stand at one corner or another.
They brought them all on.
And more or less said the same thing.
He was a great father. Just a really eccentric
There were definitely some weird things
Then they would all relay some traumatic story of seeing him do weird shit
Uh-huh, and I think they would all slowly like they get on that stand. They'd start talking
They'd say, you know, he was a mother. He was a father. He'd never beat us. He never hurt us
He never yelled at us. He never did anything bad. He always had food on the table, we'd always had things,
the basic necessities we needed.
But then they'd be like, yeah, like, yeah, like I walked in once and, you know, like he
was sticking needles in his grind, but like, that's fine.
And then you could see that they all were at one point being like, oh shit.
Oh, like, yeah, he didn't beat us or yell at us
or like neglect us in any way.
But like, he was definitely abusive and some weird.
We just didn't realize it, because that was.
Off-brand way, because that's normal to them.
Or not normal.
Like, as they got older, they knew it was wrong,
but they probably wouldn't have if they hadn't grown up
going to their friends' houses
where their dads were not snicking needles
and their worries. Well, that's the thing. And I think it's like they were suddenly on the stand in real time,
discovering, which is really sad, like because they're going through this, going through this,
and all of them at one point were like, oh yeah, like I guess it is weird that he would
like once in a while allow himself to be seen doing the things that he would do to himself.
Right.
Which is so sad.
It's just like a whole other crop of victims that didn't even know they were victims.
It is.
And now it's just like the glass shatter moment that they're all just discovering that they
are trauma victims.
And it's like all.
And it's like, like, and it's like,
and it's like,
and it's like,
and it's like,
and it's like,
and it's like,
and it's like,
and it's like, and it's like,
and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, and it's like, kind of losing your father in a weird way. Because you are. You're losing who you thought he was.
I was just gonna say.
You know, like actually.
I imagine it's the same with like BTK's daughter,
like son, you know?
I imagine that it's one of those things
where you know they're a terrible person now,
but like you are losing someone who you thought
was your father.
Because then you know that person.
Yeah, exactly.
Because then it's like, you probably look back
on your happy memories and you think,
what did he kill someone that day?
Like, exactly.
How do you kill somebody the day before that?
Was he trolling for a victim?
Yeah, it's, I can't imagine.
And you probably look back on it and feel weird about yourself
like for loving them, even though you're supposed to.
Exactly.
Because they love you in a weird way.
It's a very strange.
I just, I can't imagine what that must feel like.
It's a whole different kind of victimization, you know.
And I don't think they get enough credit for being recognition as well.
You know, like they don't get enough, like, like somebody's got to take care of them too.
Absolutely.
That really stinks.
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But Albert Jr. was brought up by that by actually the defense to try to do like the insanity defense more because they thought Albert
Albert had spent a lot of time with his father and are like when they were adults. So I think they thought he would have a better outlook on like, yeah, he's definitely insane. So he was asked about the paddles and the needles,
and he said that one day he had asked,
he asked because several of the kids had noticed needles around.
So he had asked his father, you know, we saw needles around,
we saw this paddle, what's this about.
He's so he said, quote, I asked my father who used the needles,
and he said, I did.
And I said, are they your needles? And he said, yes, I asked my father who used the needles, and he said, I did. And I said, are they your needles?
And he said, yes, they are.
And I asked him what he used them for, and he told me he got certain feelings that came
over him.
And every time he did that, he would have to go into the bedroom or someplace and stick
those needles into his body.
So do you think that was sexual or do you think that was a punishment?
I think it was all wrapped into one.
I think it was sex and punishment.
I think to him we're hand in hand.
I think that was like one didn't happen without the other I think.
In his mind.
To me, that's what it looks like to me.
Yeah.
I by no means can like diagnose him with anything.
To me, it looks like he is so...
He has interlocked sex pleasure, pain,
and punishment. All in one box. And in not a normal, like, kinkway. Like, you know what I mean?
Like, he's not just like, what, I like pain, and I like pleasure, and I like to like intertwine
them sometimes. Right. That's like a whole different thing. He brings it to like a religious punishment place
and like a dark punishment place and then like he and on the stand Albert Jr. was asked,
did your father say anything about sticking those needles in other people? And he said, quote, yes
sir, he told me, yes sir, he did, told me, when I can't stick them in myself,
I like to torture other people with them.
Oh, and I'm like, did anyone say Albert, Jr.
Uh, what?
Well, maybe that was one of you.
The times when he got admitted to a hospital or sent to prison.
Yeah, I wonder if something happened after that,
but they didn't really push for it there.
So I imagine something must have come out of that.
Because he did. He spent time in hospitals and everything like that.
Oh, for sure. He was in Bellevue at least twice. And he admitted it.
And they, because the doctors and the staff at Bellevue got a lot of shit in
this trial. Like they got put on the stand. They got it
managed for you. Let him back out on the streets. And you know, like at
one point, they were yelling at like the, were yelling at the head of Bellevue,
the head of psychiatry there.
They were like, you know,
so you just let him back out on the streets
and the guy from Bellevue was like,
we are a city hospital.
We can only do so much.
And they were like, so what you can do is not the best.
Like you're not doing your best for these patients.
And the person got mad and was like,
we are doing our best, but like,
what do you want from me?
Like I can't.
Like I have so many resources.
Yeah, and they were like, we can't,
like we can't predict that he's gonna go out
and murder people, if it doesn't look like he's going to,
we can't pretend that he is.
Well, we're not law enforcement.
That's the, yeah, and it's like,
and we can only work with what we got,
if he's gonna fool everybody,
there's only so much we can do.
And unfortunately, some people are able to fool everybody.
And it looks to me like, it's a guys,
can we please just at least entertain the idea
that he is just an evil son of a bitch?
Can we just entertain that idea?
That it's not about full on like,
he doesn't know what he's doing and it's about insanity.
He is insane in some sense, but it seems he's evil.
He's an evil person.
Yeah.
And it sounds like he was created.
So it's like, we got at least talk about this idea and I think he just wasn't happening.
I think it was the fact that it was like the 30s at this point or the 40s.
Yeah. The 30s. And I think they just were like, couldn't grasp it was like the 30s at this point, or in the 40s. The 30s.
The 30s.
And I think they just were like,
couldn't grasp it.
What the fuck?
Like we've never had anything like this before.
I mean, to check if King and the prosecution were definitely,
like he is an evil son of a bitch.
Like, can we just all agree on that?
But the defense was doing their job.
They were just trying to go the other way.
But Albert Jr. also went into,
which I found strange, he said that it happened on full moons a lot, that Albert fish,
his father would turn red face, like very red in the face, like he had been out in the sun all day.
And he said, and he would like crave red meat.
And he said, he said he would like, sometimes eat raw meat on those nights
and say like, I just need to have raw meat.
Well, do you think he was just so weird?
Well, we're fucking bit that he was doing.
He was almost insinuating that his father was a werewolf.
Okay, yeah.
I was getting that vibe.
And I was like, where were you going with that?
Like, do you really think he was a werewolf?
Like, did that, I'm, now I'm just,
I hate that we'll never know.
Like, I'm like, was he, was it every full moon?
Like, he said, most of the times on full moons,
I would look outside and the moon would be full.
And that's the days that he would be the strangest
and be like red faced and craving red meat,
like acting, like up on the religious stuff.
And I'm like, so like, was he wear wolf?
Is that what like is happening here?
Or do you think that maybe even unknowingly somehow
his son was trying to kind of play
into the insanity defense?
Oh, I definitely wonder that.
I hope that helping his dad would go to a prison,
or excuse me, a hospital versus a prison.
I think that was definitely all of his kids.
Definitely their hopes because that was their goals because none of his kids wanted him
back out on the streets.
None of them.
None of them were like he is innocent.
None of them said he needs to.
You don't know him.
None of them did that.
They all were very much like, I'm going to give you what we knew about him, but I believe
you.
I believe what happened because he was, there was a lot of weird children.
He was a child.
And also they were like, I'm not going to pretend that he didn't do this if he admitted
to doing it.
But they all wanted him in a hospital.
They all were like, we don't want him to die.
Yeah. Because no matter what, if he was found guilty here,
first-degree murder, the mandatory sentence was death.
Right.
So they were like, we don't want him to die, regardless
of what is happening here.
Yes.
So I do wonder if that was partially.
I think he might have leaned into it a bit.
And maybe also, he knew that he pissed off his father
by denouncing him.
And maybe he was trying to make up
for it a little bit while, like,
I wonder if he was looking at him in the courtroom
being like, see, like, I gotta do something.
Like, I still care about you.
Like, I'm still trying to like help you in some way,
which is just sad.
It's so sad.
It's so tragic for these kids.
Like, I feel horrible for them.
It feel horrible for everybody that Albert's life touched.
Yeah, it's like, they had to be raised by Albert Fish, which, like regardless of what kind
of father he was, like they saw some weird shit.
And it's like their mother abandoned them after handing them, I guess what she did is like
the day she left, she handed them all money to go see a movie.
Oh, and then she, when they came back, she was gone.
And it took them all their beds.
Yeah. And it's like, so they've just been like the
amount of trauma that they have is like outrageous. But after
this particular testimony where he was insinuating he was
pretty much aware. Well, I was like, is that what we're getting
at right now? Yeah. The the press went wild. It was like does he
also bark at the moon? Yeah. That was when the press really
gobbled this one up
because you know they love to especially
they need a headline.
They love to give him a nickname too.
I'm like just call him Albert Fish, right?
But they love to give him a nickname.
So he was called the thrill vulture,
the ogre of old wisteria,
oh, the vampire man,
and my favorite, the Moon Maniac.
The Moon Maniac.
All those way too cool names.
Me cleansing my crystals, the Moon Maniac.
The Moon Maniac.
Just like there she goes again, the Moon Maniac.
Me running out back.
Me, I'm the ogre of old Westeria.
You are absolutely not an ogre.
I'm just kidding.
That's why I feel sometimes when I wake up in the morning.
That's how I think everybody feels
when they wake up in the morning,
like an ogre, a bold mysterious.
But you know what, way too cool of names again for this guy,
his name is Albert Fish, his name is Hamilton,
Hammond eggs, that's his name.
So Gertrude had nothing but good things to say on the stand,
but she cried her eyes out on the stand,
like she weaped the whole entire time.
She even walked up, in fact, after her testimony, she walked up to Edward Bud, Grace's brother,
in the hallway outside of the courtroom, and personally apologized for what her father
had done.
So, these kids are like good kids.
Good kids.
Like, they're good humans.
And they're just, like, thrust into this.
And they, like, that's a big person to walk up to, like, because it's scary. You don't know how they're just like thrust into this and they like that's a big person to walk up just like because it's scary
You don't know how they're going to react. I mean that person has every right to tell you to get fucked like
She walked right up to him was like I personally am apologizing for my father and I could never bring your sister back
And I'm sorry, right like that's big. You know what the thing is to it It's like, so obviously, like we've sat here
and said he was created.
Yeah.
But then how can we not sit there and say
the same thing about these children?
They saw.
Because he didn't abuse them.
No, no, no, he, and I know he was abused, obviously.
But they also saw the most fucked up shit one could see
and turned out fine.
But they, it's a different kind of trauma.
They also all said that they mostly saw this stuff,
not all of them saw it.
And then the ones that did see it
saw it when they were a little older.
But even when they were kids,
he was having them beat him with a paddle.
But he was doing it under the guise of a game,
which we'll get to.
And I'll talk about that game.
He made it a game.
So he made it seem like, now for sure, trauma. Right, right.
Back then, they didn't know anybody. They didn't realize it. They thought it was a fun game.
My dad's fun. He lets us hit him with a paddle. Well, it's funny. That's the thing. So they were never
they were never really aware of the like abuse that was like lingering, like right behind the veil of decency kind of thing,
because they were never hit, they were never shown violence, like as a way, like towards them.
Right. So he, on the other hand, that orphanage taught him, I mean, like beyond, beyond,
because those orphanages definitely put pain and punishment
and sexual abuse all in the same pot all the time.
Oh yeah.
So it's like that was just gonna create.
But again, not everybody who came out of that orphanage
turned into Albert Fish.
Right.
I think obviously it had a hand, but I also think
something's going on.
Albert Fish is who he is.
Yeah, he's just an evil son of a bit.
Or maybe it's paired with like, you know,
didn't he have had trauma?
He did have that trauma.
He felt a trauma tree.
So maybe it's paired with that.
It's I think it's, it's got to be a perfect mix.
It's like in his perfect storm.
It really does.
Now on the stand, Gertrude actually even said,
because I think they asked him about animals.
Like did he ever hurt animals? And she said,
no. And they said, you know, what did your father say to children? Would he say anything to children
if they struck animals? Like, if they hurt animals, or were rough with animals. And she said,
because they always had a dog. I guess. So they were like, you had a dog. Like,
kids can be rough with dogs when they're younger. Like, what would he say? And she said, oh, he would always say, don't do that. You'll hurt the poor little dog. And then she
said, he never smoked and he never drank. Like, he was never impaired in any way. And which again,
it's just like wild. Now, his daughter Anna says she remembers something very specific about his religious mania.
One night she came down and he was rolled up in a carpet.
Yeah, you mentioned that.
With his head sticking out.
But she told him to go to bed.
And the next morning he was still in the carpet.
He had been there all night.
And then she asked him why.
And he said, because John the Apostle told him to.
Right. He was in a carpet.
He was in a carpet. He was like, so he told you to roll yourself up in a carpet for eight hours?
Like, why would why? But another child, Eugene, said, he once walked in and he found him naked
and just standing at a window, like with a paintbrush, like a dry paintbrush with
no paint on it.
And he was just brushing the side of a window like pretending to paint just like vibing
with a just naked.
Do you think that I'm like, do you think every five minutes?
Do you think that he, John the Apostle maybe in his mind told him to do that because he
had already hurt somebody and like that was the punishment for doing that. Maybe, you know, maybe in his mind, told him to do that because he had already hurt somebody and that was the punishment for doing that.
Maybe, maybe.
Maybe that was some kind of religious solution
because he did know that killing was wrong.
That's true.
And then it was like, he was punishing himself somehow
for that by making himself set in a rug for eight hours.
It's highly possible because she never gave a time frame
for it, so it could have been who knows.
But Eugene also said he did walk into him
and he was sticking needles in himself at one point
and he told him that Christ told him to.
Okay.
And Eugene like sobbed on the stand
when he told this story
because it was a glass shatter moment for a lot of it.
Now Mary Nichols, the stepdaughter,
yeah, she got on the stand.
What the hell did she have to say?
And they were like, okay, and she said,
he never physically sexually abused me.
He was never physically outwardly and appropriate to me.
Did they ask her about the letter?
But they said, they didn't ask her about the letter,
but they did ask her,
because it wasn't entered into evidence.
But they did ask her, did you ever see him hit himself?
Did you ever see it?
And she was like,
well, we used to play this game that like,
now I'm seeing as something different.
And they said, okay, what was that game?
And she said it was called Buck Buck, how many hands up?
And they were like, okay,
you're gonna have to explain that to me.
No, no, no, no, it's familiar.
So she said on the stand, we went into his room
and he had a little pair of trunks, brown trunks, that he put on.
He took everything else off but those.
And he put those on and came out into the front room and he got down on his hands and knees and he had a paint stick that he stirred paint with.
He would give the stick to one of us and then he would get down on his hands and knees and we would sit on his back one at a time
with our back facing him.
And then we would put up so many fingers
and he was to tell us how many fingers we had up.
So like he can't see their fingers
and he has to guess how many fingers they have up.
And if he guessed right, which he never did,
we weren't supposed to hit him.
Sometimes he would even say more fingers
than we even had on our hands.
And if he never guessed right, why we would hit him
as many fingers as we would have up.
So they would sit on his back,
and he'd be like, for me, he said that.
He'd put their hands up with however many fingers.
He guesses, because he can't see.
And if he gets it right, then you know, hit, then we're good.
But if he gets it wrong, however many fingers
you're holding up, that's how many times
you get to whack him with the paintbrush.
And it's weird too, because obviously hearing that
as an adelier, like what the actual,
yeah, hearing that as a kid,
that does sound like a silly game.
Collarious, like it's just like what?
Okay, I'm gonna whack you with this paint thing.
Like, as a kid, you're like, this is hilarious, right? Okay, and so they were like what? Okay, I'm going to whack you with this paint thing. Like, this is hilarious.
Right.
Okay.
And so they were like, all right, well, yeah, there you go.
And the other one they would play is called sack of potatoes over.
And he said, he put on those little trunks, and then he would throw us up on his shoulder,
and we would slide down his back.
And we would scratch him with our nails as we went down his back. And we would scratch him with our nails
as we went down his back.
By the time we would get through playing,
why his back would be red.
And again, your grandpa's tossing you over a shoulder
like a sack of potatoes and letting you just slide down the
right.
And he's like, just scratch as you go down.
When you're a kid, you're like,
ha ha, this is funny.
But it's when you put it in the context. And also it's like
Why were you in little trunks when you said that? I was like, I gotta go. That's the thing. But again when you're a kid
It's your grandfather your father your stepfather, right?
Who's you're not gonna be like I I bet he's getting off on this. No, I'm trying to know.
I'm trying to know, or even consider.
And so he must have been married to her mom
for like a little bit longer if she knew him as a kid.
Yeah, I think, no, this was when she was like,
because I think it must have been,
I think is what was she was like 18 at this point.
When he wrote the letter, yeah.
They were married, I'm trying to think of, or she must have been 17 because she had just
turned 18.
Yep.
And then she, so she must have been like an early teen or maybe like, preteen or something
like that, which is still like a kid.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
But no matter what, he, it was, all those marriages happened within a year or so.
So crazy.
So it could have been that long.
But she also said that he got a package of needles once and stuck them under his fingernails. Oh my god. Oh. And then told them they could stick them under his fingernails too.
No, no, no, no. And they all said they didn't want to I hate fingernails. Yeah. Yeah
I've never broken in a acrylic nail like your actual nail comes off. No
I'm like feeling that right now. I'm like feeling it
I don't know. I'm like literally like putting pressure on my nails so they don't come off
I don't like nails or like teeth coming out.
Like when teeth are ripped out or nails are ripped out,
if teeth are like violently ripped out, I can't handle it.
But like one of your kids has a loose tooth
or like, I'll help you gotta call.
No, I can't.
It freaks me out.
I used to love having loose teeth when I was little.
I'm not a psyched about that.
But nails get out of here.
Get out of here.
Get out of here.
Get out of here, kid.
Especially, oh my god, a hang nail.
Sorry, okay.
I was like, we're just gonna go deep into this.
Oh, go ahead.
Pathology of what you hate now.
Yeah, we all are.
After all the kids, they brought Dr. Werson out,
but he explained that Fish's job as a painter,
and I do agree with this thing that he said.
He said Fish's job as a painter was essential
to his horror show of a personality.
He said, this job was one where he could be around kids
in homes, in apartment buildings and things like it.
He worked in places with basements
where he took kids often.
He would lure them in there.
And he said he was almost always naked
under his painter's coveralls.
And he said, for reasons, I'm sure you can deduce
for yourself.
Of course.
He said it was all part of his predatory life.
He worked to find victims,
and his ideal victims were kids.
He had it down to a science
and only fell out of his pattern
in ways when he started killing kids.
Because at first he was just raping them
and like hurting them.
He would just lure poor kids down to a basement with candy
and she was like an escalation.
Yeah, he was a literal boogie man.
And he said on the stand, quote,
now this man has roamed around in basements
and sellers for 50 years.
There were so many innumerable instances
that I can't even begin to give you how many there are.
But I believe to the best of my knowledge
that he has raped 100 children at least.
Holy God.
And here is where things got really scary because Dr. Worsum revealed that he believed this
pattern that fish basically admitted himself was way more far-reaching than people were
really understanding.
He said whenever he would rape or torture or hurt a child, he would just move on to another city, another neighborhood, or another state to work.
And he said he had lived or worked, quote, in no less than 23 states from New York to Montana.
And in every state, he has had something to do with children.
And this to me says a lot.
There are a lot more victims of Albert fish.
And there could be accomplices that were dropped along the way.
One used in this state, one used in this state.
Like he said, we know how to find each other.
We have a code.
And who knows if he even had teen accomplices or some shit
and he ended up using them too?
Well, it's like, remember the kid who,
he was like an angel came to me.
Yeah.
The man was like, you don't wanna go in there.
Yeah.
People go in there and they don't,
children go in there and they don't come out.
How many children were in there?
Exactly.
You know?
And where are they?
Exactly.
Like, what is going on?
So they don't come out.
I feel like there's so many missing kid cases
and so many unsolved murders of children
and other states that around this time period,
you got to look into it. Absolutely. I swear I want to like go look at all these and see if I can
connect any other ones I want to connect more to him because I know he did more. Of course he did.
There's no doubt in my mind. Yeah. You don't start the way he started. No. There had to have been some before that.
Now, he explained that he had gathered a long
and very sorted list of sexual perversions
from the orphanage and from living on the streets
as a young teen, and he had traveled overseas
at some time or another.
He had visited underground brothels
that specialized in Sadomasticism.
And he then came back and he did all those things to kids. he had visited underground brothels that specialized in sadomasochism.
And he then came back and he did all those things to kids.
And he said he is certainly a sexual sadist and a pervert, but he wasn't looking so much
to rape in the sense that we think of it.
He was looking to inflict as much pain as possible to elicit as many sounds and as much evidence
as of pain as possible.
On children.
Oh, that's so twisted.
That was the goal.
Pain and suffering was the goal.
That is the end game here.
He said, quote, he has on a number of occasions taken flowers, taken roses, and inserted
those roses into his penis.
Then he would stand before the mirror and look at himself.
He would get a sexual gratification from that.
In the end, he would eat the roses.
What?
This is who we're talking about.
What?
Yeah.
He had told the doctor worth of this.
He would eat them.
Now, he also went into the whole religion thing
where fish claimed he was a religious man and it was the thing he was most proud whole religion thing where fish claimed he was a religious man
and it was the thing he was most proud of and all that that he was a religious man.
Yeah.
I don't buy it.
Like I said before, he claimed part of the urge to kill was the story of Abraham and Isaac
like I talked about.
And he figured if it wasn't right, then God or an angel would stop him before he finished
it.
That's a bullshit excuse, just like this insanity thing. Fish is an evil
fuck and he knows what he wanted to do. He wanted to get off on causing pain to children.
And, period. Fuck the religion angle. It's a cop out, in my opinion.
Wortham believed Fish's religious mania also made him eat grace buds flesh and drink her blood because it was like communion.
What?
Personally?
No.
I don't buy that.
No.
If you do that as your prerogative, I do not agree with that.
No, I think that was again to get the insanity.
I think he was fucked up.
And I have no, I do not think he saw any of this as any kind of religious experience.
I think he uses that.
And he said the reason why he wanted to try her flesh before.
He had met somebody who had done an experience.
Exactly. He set a bright in the letter.
And it's like, again, who are we to believe here?
But Wortham believed he was insane.
And he said that on the stand.
Yeah.
But a professor of neurology, Dr. Henry Riley, said he also believed that he
was insane. In that religious mania was the main component, he also agreed. Again, I
disagree. He said, quote, that he had received a direct command, or he had done this to grace
into the other children. He said, because he had received a direct command that he should take a virgin
and sacrifice her so she shouldn't become a harlot. So wait, was it a command to abduct
and murder grace? Was it a spontaneous change of plans when he saw her? Was it he thought she was
a boy initially? Because he has now claimed all of those things. So forgive me for now really what excuse.
So now this new virgin Trump's harlot defense is happening.
Right.
I thought he thought that she was a boy when she saw it.
Like, I thought we don't want this little girl to become a harlot.
So I have to so I was commanded by God to kill her.
But wait, you just said that you thought she was a boy.
And what about the whole Abraham and Isaac thing with the son?
It isn't that the one? Are we confusing our Bible passages here?
It's just a desperate plea.
Get fucked, my dude.
Yeah.
Like get fucked, sorry.
You're really going to sit here and try to claim every single religious
Bible passage is why you did this.
Stop.
Stop.
It's just a way.
It's just a way.
It's just a way. It's just a way to...
A way to...
A way to stop time.
And it just doesn't, I'm like, you have claimed
16 different things.
And it's insulting to actual religious people.
That's what I mean.
Like incredibly insulting.
You are making it seem like this is normal.
Right.
But this is what is meant out of those patterns.
Like, no.
Like, what are you talking about?
And just to be okay I was
commanded to do this so that's why I did it oh oh wait no no when I saw her I spontaneously had
to change my plans I came he said I came up with that party idea while she was going to get candy
with her sister so wait was it spontaneous or a command ahead of time and then wait so you wanted
to change this little girl
from a, from a harlot to a virgin,
you want to make sure she stayed a virgin,
but you just said that you thought she was a boy.
So it's, no, no.
So that was annoying.
And I imagine anybody in that courtroom
that felt the same way I did,
probably wanted to like explode through the ceiling.
Yeah.
Now, fish told his lawyer in a written note
during the trial. He handed him a little note. And it said, before you sum up, read to the
jury Jeremiah chapter 19, ninth verse. Okay, do you have it? And he did not read it, but that verse
reads, and I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters.
And they shall eat every one of the flesh of his friend in the siege and
straightness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives shall straighten them.
It says that in the Bible.
I don't understand these kind of verses.
I don't get what they are, what this is in reference to, but, uh, yeah, I guess.
So he didn't read it.
His learned to not read it.
But he was like, I don't know if that was to like,
really try to hammer in the religious thing,
which I'd probably be doing.
I think it is like see the Bible said it.
And it's like, okay, shut up.
Also, your notes will take things literally.
Sometimes I think things start just interpretation.
I'm not concerned about, but again, I have not read the Bible. I don't know a lot about the Bible interpretation. I'm not when I'm concerned about but I
again I have not read the Bible. I don't know a lot about the Bible so I'm not gonna sit here and
claim to have some kind of authority on it. It's that's in there. I feel like we need a little bit
of a copy yet. I'm intrigued by that. I don't know what that means but then his lawyer,
Demsi there, he gave his closing argument. In it he kind of blamed the buds.
He gave his closing argument, and in it, he kind of blamed the buds. Are you shitting me?
So he said, no.
And I quote, I would have fucking flipped a table.
Yeah.
I would have Theresa Judeist it.
There you go.
In case you don't know what that's a reference to.
Real Housewives of New Jersey.
There you go.
This is what he said.
He didn't.
But I honestly do believe, gentlemen,
that one of the reasons why Mr. and Mrs. Bud feel so badly
is because they permitted that little child,
whom God had given to them for protection and care
during her infancy in childhood.
They permitted that little girl to be taken off
by this defendant.
This is not a case, gentlemen, where the man takes the little girl off the street or by
force.
This is a case where the man took the child with the consent and permission of the parents.
Now whether they appreciated it or not, the fiend that this man was, he was after all
a total stranger to them.
And I say to you advisedly that there is no feeling of protection in the animal sphere
or in the human sphere, no feeling of protection such as a mother gives to her child.
I submit that some of the responsibility must go to that family for permitting that little
girl to go with an absolute stranger on that particular Sunday.
Yeah, it's Grace Bud's mom's fault that a sick depraved man who tricked them and literally thought like she thought
that he was giving her her son a job.
That's the thing.
It's like we're talking like post depression era like right as the Great Depression happened.
Like people were desperate of course.
People were putting ads in the paper.
Her son was an 18 year old man.
She was going to go work for this man.
And help his family.
Who they met, I do, I agree with allowing your child
to walk off with this man.
No, I don't.
I'm not gonna sit here and say that I would do anything
like the buds did, but I'm also not gonna
admonish them.
I was not, I don't know.
It's not a fall.
Well, this is also,
a monster came into their house.
This is also one of those examples where it's a man in a position of power
Using said power to manipulate people and then we go and blame the people who were manipulated
She probably didn't want to jeopardize her son's job and she said that hadn't yet started. She literally said that
She said she sat there for a second when he asked her to go and said like,
I don't want to make him feel weird.
You know, my son's going to be working for him.
I don't want to jeopardize this job and like make him feel insulted.
Right.
And she said she questioned herself and she did it anyway
and she's living with that every day.
And you're going to just double down on that.
And also,
it entire family was in on this decision,
but we're gonna only focus on the mother.
It's the mother's job, of course.
Okay, she's a woman.
So of course they're going to do that.
I'm like, you're an asshole.
Also, what the hell?
Everybody, like I'm not a parent,
but every parent has made some mistake
in their parenting that they're not proud of.
And it's like this is something
that these people are living with.
For the rest of her life.
Like you do not, and also you do not need to take the responsibility of the man who murdered,
like, and I'm sorry, so are we like sentencing her to prison time too,
is that why you're bringing that up?
Because realistically, that has nothing to do with the fucking sentencing here.
For real, it's like what are you doing?
Being a dick.
She's not being put on trial.
Leave them out of it.
Precisely.
Oh, it just, it made me, that's a dick move.
It's insane.
That's a dick move.
Well, in the prosecution and their closing arguments,
they said, quote,
Mr. Dempsey and his closing remarks
asked you to remember certain things
about the defenseless Mr. Fish.
Gentlemen, I want you to remember the defenseless little innocent gracebud, as she kicked and
scream in the springtime of her life, and said she would tell her mama.
Oh, I hate that.
He also agreed with me about the religious bullshit.
He said, quote, there was no divine hallucination or divine command when he purchased that pot cheese,
or those tools with which to carry out his nefarious plan.
And when he sent the telegram, there was not a divine command.
And when he went there that day, there was no divine command
to go to that house.
Don't put any stock gentleman in this divine command,
business, that is merely a smoke screen again.
Every step of fish's crimes spoke of premeditation and design
directed towards the fulfillment of a clear cut goal
to satisfy his own sexual gratification.
That is exactly it.
I'm 100% on his side.
Me too.
That divine command bullshit,
because when you look at it, it's exactly that.
Was it a divine command for you to buy strawberries and cheese with which to apply this family to take their children
away? Yup. Was that part of it? To God say, buy those strawberries and tell them that
you grew them on your farm and have lunch with them? Unreal. And give little grace candy
money and go, like, no, I don't think that was part of it. I don't, I don't really see God
telling you to do that.
No.
But it took the jury less than an hour to decide that Albert Fish was guilty of first-degree murder.
I'm sure.
I'm sure.
He would be going to the electric chair at Sing Sing.
Bye!
So, only it had been there before.
Edward Budd told reporter, this Grace Buds brother.
He said, I'm glad of the verdict. It won't bring Gracie back, but it was what he deserved.
Oh, and then Albert Bud the father said, I had a funny feeling when I heard it. It hit the top of
my head when I realized he would go to the electric chair. He'd put a tremor through me, but he deserves it.
Now after the trial, he was put in front of a judge to formally hear his death sentence. And when it was read to him, he just smiled, waved,
and said, thank you, judge.
I would have kicked her in teeth.
Later in the media, he said that famous quote,
what a thrill it will be to die in the electric chair.
It will be the supreme thrill,
the only one I haven't tried.
He just wants to say that.
She'd be like, kick at me.
Oh yeah, he's just saying it to everybody to be like,
like, thanks for the gift. But then he goes back into
Selany Piez's pants and in fear. Exactly. Now, only a few days after the trial
in sentencing because you're probably sitting here going,
what about Billy Gaffney and Francis McDonald? I would, that was my next question.
I was like, are we going to end without finding out what happens there?
Only a few days after the trial and sentencing, he suddenly said, I have more to tell you.
No.
And he admitted completely to murdering Billy Gaffney.
The letter is the one I mentioned, I think, in part one,
the one that I'm like, don't know.
Oh, no, no.
And also, I'm so sorry.
A lot of you went and read it,
and I know that's like partially, but you said not to.
You know, telling a little kid not to touch the red button
and it's like, it's really hard to.
Like, I feel you, when somebody tells me not to,
I immediately want to.
I can't stress this enough that this is not one of those situations
where I'm like, don't do it.
It's like, don't do it.
Literally don't.
Like, it's not worth it.
You're not gonna get anything out of it.
It's a hard letter.
No.
Somebody said that they got physically sick after reading it.
I, I, I felt physically sick after reading it. I'll read you just like a little snippet
that has nothing to do with the actual like act. The letter said there is a public dumping
ground in Riker Avenue, Astoria. All kinds of junk has been thrown there for years. I will
admit the motorman, which is the, the train conductor guy, a motor man,
who positively identified me as getting off his car with a small boy was correct. I can tell you
that that time, that at that time I was looking for a suitable place to do the job. Wow. He then
described in horrid detail that he had tied up tortured, murdered, and dismembered
four-year-old Billy Gaffney before bringing pieces of him home and eating him for days
is what he said.
Now, I also saw in one of the old articles that Dempsey claimed that fish had admitted to
killing Billy Gaffney the February before he was convicted, and it was just never followed
up on. What?
That's wild.
I guess he had said it to some psychologist and he could have never got...
Could have gone to trial.
Yeah.
So December 21st, he was December 21st, 1934.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle talked about how the Gaffney's refused to believe that Albert
Fish had stolen and killed their boy.
Really? I don't blame them. Maybe because they knew of the horrific detailsney's refused to believe that Albert Fish had stolen and killed their boy. Really?
And I don't blame them.
Maybe because they knew of the horrific details
of what happened to Grace Bud.
Well, they just were like, nope.
And I guess the mom, Mrs. Gaffney said,
no, he had nothing to do with Billy.
I never saw a man around these parts
that looked anything like him.
If he had taken Billy away, he'd have admitted it
just as he did about Grace Bud.
No, nothing like that ever happened to Billy. Billy still lives, I'll see him again someday.
Oh.
And then Mrs. Gaffney told the Times Union in December after this, like this whole letter came out.
She said, if Fish can identify the clue, or excuse me, this wasn't Mrs. Gaffney, it was Mr. Gaffney.
Okay.
He said, quote, if fish can identify the clothing, Billy War the day he disappeared, then I'll
believe he took our boy, but not otherwise.
Did he?
So March 25th, he was transferred, I mean, he got a, he was given a chance to, when he
never did, but I'll tell you.
Okay.
March 25th, he was transferred to sing-sing prison finally.
And that day, he finally admitted to abducting
and killing Francis MacDonald.
He said he strangled him with his own suspenders,
so hard that he bled, and that he only stopped there
because he heard someone coming, he thought,
and he just ran away after kicking some leaves
onto the dead boy.
He had intended to dismember him, he said.
That was his intent, but he just didn't get to.
So three days later, he kept a bone from a pork chop dinner he had at Sing Sing,
sharpened it again, and carved an 8-inch cross into his torso.
Dude. A show, in my opinion, that really was like sea, religious.
Yeah.
It's him trying to get, because he tried to get reprieve, he tried to get stays, so this
was all part of the thing.
Yeah.
Now, not long after this, Mrs. Gaffney traveled to Sing Sing to talk to him.
Wow.
And Mrs. Gaffney?
Mrs. Gaffney.
So Billy Gaffney's mom.
And she was the one who said, like, I'm not gonna believe it,
unless he can give me like real details about
fish refused to speak to her or see her.
What an asshole.
Pretended to cry and hid.
She asked him questions.
So he was trying to hide and like,
they were trying to pull him in.
And as this is happening,
she's yelling questions to him
because she's like, you're in a fucking answer me.
So she asked him questions about the clothing that Billy was wearing in details, and he
wouldn't say it.
He just wouldn't answer her.
He wouldn't answer her.
And after literal hours, like I think like two full hours of her trying to get him to
talk to her, she was just still nothing happened.
So she just left.
And she left saying he didn't do it.
Wow.
I'm not convinced.
And honestly, good for her.
She doesn't need to.
Good for her.
Yeah, she doesn't need to think about this man doing what
he did to other children to her child.
Because she said all she wants to believe
is that it was a grieving mother who lost a child
and have been bringing Billy up in a happy home.
Okay. That's what she's like, that's what I believe.
And it's like, then she believes that.
That's what she needed to believe.
Because he's going to the chair anyways for something else.
So like, yep.
If she wants to believe that, like, that's better for her.
Now, January 16th, 1936, he had a tea-bone steak for lunch
with the bone taken out.
Who gives him a fucking steak?
This was his last meal.
I hate that.
A roasted chicken with no bones for dinner.
In 11.06 pm, he was brought to the, quote-unquote, dance hall.
The day the prisoner's called the death chamber.
And he was dead in the electric chair by 11.09 pm.
I also...
Sorry, go ahead.
He was the oldest man to ever be executed at Sing Sing Prison.
Wow.
I also love that the day they're gonna kill him,
they're like, oh, take the bones out.
Yeah, but like, we don't want him to hurt himself.
That's great.
It literally doesn't matter.
But honestly, it gives him pleasure to hurt himself,
so I think that we don't want you to have that last pleasure.
But I love that it took that long to realize,
like, the bones, don't give them bones.
We should remove those.
Now, apparently people were talking and authorities were actually concerned that the
needles he had inside of him might interfere with the electric.
Yeah.
But it didn't.
There were rumors that that said it did and there's like lore that's like, oh, it's
sparked and it was crazy.
Robert Elliott, who was the official executioner for the state of New York, LOL, imagine getting
that title.
Like, imagine just being like, what do you do for work?
I'm the official executioner of the state of New York.
You would never be fucked with.
That's horrifying.
You're basically the enforcer.
You're frank, the enforcer.
Then there you go.
He had said all along that he was confident it was not going to interfere with the process.
And afterwards, he was like,
it did not interfere with the process.
Like, well, you have to think too.
They were like, so like, if you see the X-rays,
they're thin.
Yeah, and they were deeply in there,
a lot of them were corroded.
And it's just like, in their covered in like tissue.
I was gonna say, and it's just one of those muscles
that everyone's like, he has metal inside him.
It's gonna go crazy.
Right.
Now, I just wanna end on this one little quick thing that he said.
He told a story, Albert Fish, about when he was in the orphanage, he remembered a bunch
of boys tying this horse they had found a wild horse to offense.
Jesus Christ.
And he said they, and like just a quick little trigger warning, this This is probably a fake story, but it's a it's a it's a hurting an animal situation.
So skip.
But he and it's quick, but he said that they lit the horse's tail on fire and then cut the rope so
that the horse ran away. And he said, so the horse ran, but like they can never, we can never run away from
the fire. It was on his tail. And he said, quote, that horse, that's me. That's the man
of passion. The fire chases you and catches you. And then it's in your blood. And after
that, it's the fire that has control, not the man, blame the fire of passion for what Albert H. Fish has done. No. That's what he thought about himself. And also, we'd have thought it was
religion. Yeah. Wait, it's the fire of passion now? Well, is the fire of passion
like almost kind of like also a religious thing? Well, that's something like what
is it? Explain. I think he just wanted to be like one more bullshit before I go.
Yeah. It's just a wild... it's also such a sad tale.
So that is the story of Hamilton Fish, dude.
And I'm done.
Dude, never to return.
Should we go like, until I start looking into who else
he killed in other states,
because I think I'm gonna do that.
But, oh my God.
I'm done.
What do we do next?
What is life?
We need to do, we're gonna do a listener tails next, I think.
Oh, fuck yeah, we don't.
We're gonna do a listener tails next, and then me personally,
I'm doing some fucking spooky phenomenon
or some haunted castle somewhere.
That's where I'm going.
I have a rough one that I
have ready for probably next week. Maybe yeah we'll probably do listener tails maybe a
little more clean than maybe. And then we'll get to ashes. We can be a little bit of a little
reprieve there. I started my research on this before you started Albert Fish. Yeah. And I was like,
oh, I got to finish this case because it's really intriguing, but we might need
to delay that.
Yeah, it's going to, don't worry, we're just going to give you a little bit of a palette
cleanser in between.
But if you, I mean, if this story was something you were like, holy shit, I definitely recommend
you read, especially deranged.
But also, I know that I didn't really listen to any other podcast about Albert Fish because
I never wanted to.
The only one I did listen to a long time ago was Albert Fish when last podcast on the left
of it.
A lot of people were mentioning their theories on some stuff, so I really highly recommend
going and listening to their series because I'm sure they have a different theory on certain things and Marcus is just such a good
fucking researcher, sorry teller,
that I think you should definitely go listen to them,
not that they need my leg.
Not that they're like dying for me to be like,
go listen to them,
go listen to them, go about.
We really like them.
But we just really like them.
They were like one of my first podcasts.
Like true crime podcasts that I listened to.
You showed them to me and you brought me to the live show.
I did, I brought you to the live show.
Was that up in the nosebleeds? It was fun.
I got vertigo.
You did, you got vertigo from being so high.
Yeah. But we love them.
And we just wanted to shout them out.
Yeah, we do.
We think they're awesome, but I really,
they're the ones that I would point to
because I've never listened to anyone else on this.
And they just do like such a fucking deep dive
in their cases.
They did a great job.
So definitely go do that, read the book.
But thank you for hanging in.
And then sage yourself.
Yeah, and thank you for hanging in for four parts
because I know I originally was like,
this is gonna be like two parts.
You're welcome.
It's gonna be three parts.
So no, it's gonna be four parts.
I just couldn't stop, can't stop.
Well, stop.
Well, stop.
But thank you for being here with us and
thank you for being here today.
Thank you.
And we hope you keep listening.
We hope you.
Keep it.
Sweet.
I'm not gonna tell you not to get anywhere.
Yeah, no, we're good.
No, did you did a really good job?
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