The Brooklyn Vampire: How Albert Fish Became America's Boogeyman

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You know those childhood nicknames that follow you around?

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Well, one kid got stuck with hamm and eggs at an orphanage in the 1870s.

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It sounds harmless enough, right?

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But that same kid were grow up to be the moon maniac, the boogie man, the Brooklyn vampire.

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His real name was Albert Fish.

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By the time he was done, he'd terrorized multiple generations with crimes so disturbing

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that his own lawyer refused to reveal his final written confession,

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calling it the most filthy string of obscenities he'd ever read.

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This is the story of how a troubled orphan became one of America's most notorious killers,

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and why every warning sign along the way was either missed or ignored.

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.

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During the late 1800s and early 1900s, one man succeeded in haunting multiple generations.

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His actions were horrifying enough, but the names people gave him made it worse.

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The moon maniac, the boogie man, the werewolf of Wisteria, the Brooklyn vampire, each tidal

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carried its own brand of terror.

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Albert Fish entered the world on May 19th, 1870, in Washington, D.C.

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His father had reached 75 years old when Albert was born, making him 43 years older than his

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mother.

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Even by Victorian standards, that age gap was unusual.

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Today, it would definitely turn heads.

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Albert was the youngest of four children who made it through childhood.

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His siblings were Walter, Annie, and Edwin.

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He chose to go by the name Albert to honor a deceased sibling.

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The name change also helped him escape the nickname that followed him from the orphanage.

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The man eggs, that moniker clung to him for years like a persistent shadow.

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Fish inherited more than his father's name.

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Mental illness ran through his family like a genetic curse.

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His uncle received diagnosis of mania.

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One brother landed in a state hospital.

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His sister Annie carried the label of having a mental affliction.

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Three additional relatives were also deemed mentally ill.

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His mother experienced something even more troubling.

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He saw things that weren't there, and heard voices that didn't exist.

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Medical professionals called these "oral hallucinations."

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This was an era when doctors might diagnose you with ghosts in your blood and prescribe

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cocaine and treatment.

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Mental health understanding was practically non-existent, leaving children like Albert

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vulnerable from their very first breath.

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Albert's father died in 1875 from a heart attack, because he was super old.

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At 80 years old, he had lived longer than most people could expect.

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Even by today's standards, that's a decent age.

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After his death, his mother placed young Albert in an orphanage, still carrying that

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ham and eggs nickname.

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Fish later described his time there with "disturbing clarity."

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"I was there till I was nearly nine, and that's where I got started wrong.

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We were unmercifully whipped.

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I saw boys doing many things they should not have."

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The abuse became routine, and Albert began developing a troubled response to the beatings.

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He started to "enjoy" them.

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For a child to find pleasure in pain represents a profound psychological break that should have

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raised immediate concern.

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By 1880, Fish's mother had secured a government position that could finally remove her son from

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the orphanage, but the damage was already done.

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When Albert was twelve, he began a relationship with a telegraph boy.

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This older boy introduced Albert to "disturbing sexual practices," including "Camprofasia"

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and "Urolegnea."

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And if you don't know what those are, you can look them up, but I wouldn't suggest it.

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At this point, the warning signs were impossible to ignore.

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A twelve-year-old who had learned to enjoy physical abuse and was now engaging in extreme

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sexual behaviors needed immediate intervention.

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Instead, his behavior escalated.

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Fish began frequenting public baths, spending entire weekends watching other boys on dress.

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This voyeuristic behavior became a regular pattern.

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He also started writing obscene letters to women whose names he found in classified advertisements

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and matrimonial agencies.

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This was essentially the Victorian equivalent of sending unsolicited, explicit messages

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to strangers online.

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These early behaviors established a pattern of predatory conduct that would only intensify

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with time.

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By 1890, Fish relocated to New York City.

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He later admitted that he'd turned to prostitution and began sexually assaulting young boys.

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The city provided him with both anonymity and access to vulnerable children.

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Eight years later, his mother arranged a marriage between Albert's and Anna Mary Hoffman,

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a woman nine years his junior.

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This was a common practice in their social circle, where families often facilitated unions.

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The couple would go on to have six children, Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, and

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Henry Fish.

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Fish worked as a house painter, a profession that gave him access to different neighborhoods

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and homes.

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During this time, he continued molesting children, targeting boys younger than six years old.

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His family life provided the perfect cover for his criminal activities.

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Fish later recounted a pivotal moment when an adult partner took him to a wax museum.

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There he encountered a display showing a bisected penis.

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This anatomical exhibit triggered something profoundly in his already disturbed mind.

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From that moment forward, he became fixated on sexual mutilation.

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This incident marked another escalation in his psychological deterioration.

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The fact that begun as inappropriate sexual behavior was now evolving into something far more

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dangerous and violent.

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Around 1910, Fish encountered Thomas Kedden, a 19-year-old intellectually disabled man.

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Fish brought Kedden to his residence, where they developed what appeared to be a sadomasochistic

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relationship.

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Whether Kedden consented to these activities remains unclear, given his mental capacity.

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For ten days, Fish transported Kedden to an abandoned farmhouse, where he tortured him

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for two weeks.

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The violence culminated when Fish severed half of Kedden's penis.

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Fish later recalled, quote, "I shall never forget his scream or the look he gave me."

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Fish had originally planned to kill Kedden, dismember his body and transport it home.

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However, he worried that the summer heat would attract unwanted attention.

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Instead, he poured peroxide over the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-covered handkerchief,

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left a $10 bill, kissed Kedden goodbye, and departed.

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This incident represents Fish's first documented act of extreme physical mutilation against

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another person.

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A 1917 Fish's wife left him for the handyman, who had been living with the family.

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She took most of their possessions, but abandoned the children, leaving Albert to raise six

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kids alone.

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This abandonment triggered a severe psychological decline.

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Like his mother before him, Fish began experiencing auditory hallucinations.

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He believed he was receiving direct instructions from John the Apostle.

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His self-harm escalated dramatically.

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He began inserting needles into his groin and abdomen, eventually collecting at least

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29 needles embedded in his pelvic region.

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He also repeatedly struck himself with a nail-studded paddle, and once inserted lighter fluid

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soaked wool into his rectum and ignited it.

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Despite his severe mental illness, Fish never physically harmed his own children.

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He did, however, encourage them and their friends to use his nail-studded paddle on him,

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which was deeply inappropriate and traumatic for young minds to witness, no doubt.

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Around this period, Fish began contemplating cannibalism.

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He started experimenting by consuming raw animal meat, sometimes serving it to his children

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for dinner.

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By 1919, Fish's behavior reached new levels of depravity.

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He deliberately targeted mentally handicapped individuals and African-Americans, believing

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these victims would not be missed.

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His hallucinations had evolved into what he perceived as divine commandments.

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He now believed God was instructing him to torture and sexually mutilate children.

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Fish assembled what he called "the implements of hell," a meat cleaver, a butcher knife,

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and hand saw.

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These tools will become central to his most horrific crimes.

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In May 1928, 58-year-old Albert Fish responded to a newspaper advertisement placed by Edward

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Bud, who was seeking employment.

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Fish arranged to visit the Bud family, initially planning to murder Edward.

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However, when he met Edward's 10-year-old sister Grace during his second visit, his plans

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changed.

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Fish fabricated a story about attending his niece's birthday party and convinced the

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family to let Grace accompany him.

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She left with Fish and never returned home.

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In a bizarre twist, authorities arrested another man for her disappearance, though he was

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later acquitted.

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Six years later, Fish sent an anonymous letter to the Bud family detailing Grace's fate.

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He described strangling her to death, dismembering her body and consuming parts of her remains

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over nine days.

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He emphasized that she had remained a virgin, as if this detail would somehow lessen

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his crime.

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Police traced the letter back to Fish through the distinctive stationery.

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Upon arrest, he immediately confessed to Grace's murder, claiming he had not sexually

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assaulted her, but he had experienced involuntary ejaculations during the strangulation.

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During custody, Fish confessed to murdering nine-year-old Francis McDonald.

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In July 1924, Francis' body was discovered hanging from a tree by his suspenders.

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He had been sexually assaulted and partially mutilated.

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Fish later admitted that he had intended to castrate the boy, but fled when he'd heard

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people approaching.

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Fish also confessed to killing four-year-old Billy Gaffney and February 1927.

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Billy had been playing with a three-year-old neighbor in the apartment hallway when both

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children disappeared.

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The younger child was found on the roof, claiming the boogie man took Billy.

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In a letter to his attorney, Fish detailed how he tortured Billy, consumed his blood,

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and cooked portions of his body with vegetables and bacon, eating the remains over four days.

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Fish's trial lasted ten days.

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He pleaded insanity, citing his auditory hallucinations and describing his cannibalism

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as a form of communion.

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The court determined that he was abnormally but legally sane.

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One witness made the disturbing claim that Fish was not mentally sick and that his perversions

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were socially perfect all right.

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Asserting that he was no different from millions of other people, including some prominent and

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successful individuals.

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This testimony remains deeply troubling.

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The jurors unanimously believed Fish was insane, but as one later explained, they felt

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he deserved conviction and execution regardless of his mental state.

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Hamilton Howard, Hammond Eggs, Albert Fish, was executed on January 16, 1936 in the electric

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chair at Sing Sing Prison.

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He entered the execution chamber at 11.06 pm and was pronounced dead three minutes later.

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Witnesses reported that Fish helped the executioner position the electrodes on his own body.

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His final words were reportedly, "I don't even know why I'm here."

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Before his death, Fish wrote a three-page final statement and gave it to his lawyer.

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His attorney refused to reveal its contents, stating, "I will never show it to anyone.

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It was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read."

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With his execution, one of America's most disturbing criminal cases came to a close, but

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the horror of his crimes would continue to haunt the families of the victims and the public

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consciousness for generations to come.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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I'm Joe Behost and I really appreciate your listening.

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Especially if you're a new listener, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening

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right now.

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Don't do another thing.

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Let unless you're driving, then you do that thing.

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But once you get to wherever you're going, then after that, don't do another thing until

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you hit subscribe.

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If you're an OG listener, I love you to death.

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Please continue sharing this show with your friends and family.

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Give me ratings and reviews wherever you can do that.

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And sending me emails whenever you feel like it.

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Speaking of, here's one of those emails, hey Joe, I love the podcast.

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I listen when I do chores and somehow you've managed to make murder stories my cleaning soundtrack.

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So thanks for that, I think.

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Anyway, random question that popped in my head while I was scrubbing a pan.

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Do you ever get creeped out reading these stories late at night?

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Like has there ever been one that got under your skin enough to make you double check

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your locks or sleep with a light on?

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So do you ever laugh at really dark stuff and then immediately feel like a terrible person?

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Appreciate what you do seriously.

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Keep them coming.

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Lindsay in Charlotte.

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Lindsay really appreciate the email and thank you for listening.

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And the answer is yes and yes.

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I do get creeped out by a lot of these stories.

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There's not one in particular that comes to mind.

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They're all, especially the ones today, by the way.

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Wow.

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But they all have that their own flavor of creepiness to them.

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So it varies, but yes, I do double check my locks all the time.

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Even when the sun's out, I double check the locks because you never know.

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People be crazy.

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Also, do you laugh at dark stuff and immediately feel like a terrible person?

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Every day I do, my sense of humor is pretty dark as you have witnessed on this podcast, I'm

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sure.

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And I feel bad about it immediately after.

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But I do in the moment think something's funny and they're like, "Oh man, I shouldn't

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laugh at that."

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So yes, I'm both accounts.

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And alright, that's gonna do it.

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That is your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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I'll see you next time.

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[Music]