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

0:00 You know those childhood nicknames that follow you around? Well, one kid got stuck with hamm and eggs at an orphanage in the 1870s. It sounds harmless enough, right? But that same kid were grow up to be the moon maniac, the boogie man, the Brooklyn vampire. His real name was Albert Fish. By the time he was done, he'd terrorized multiple generations with crimes so disturbing that his own lawyer refused to reveal his final written confession, calling it the most filthy string of obscenities he'd ever read. This is the story of how a troubled orphan became one of America's most notorious killers, and why every warning sign along the way was either missed or ignored.

0:43 . During the late 1800s and early 1900s, one man succeeded in haunting multiple generations. His actions were horrifying enough, but the names people gave him made it worse. The moon maniac, the boogie man, the werewolf of Wisteria, the Brooklyn vampire, each tidal carried its own brand of terror.

1:28 Albert Fish entered the world on May 19th, 1870, in Washington, D.C. His father had reached 75 years old when Albert was born, making him 43 years older than his mother. Even by Victorian standards, that age gap was unusual. Today, it would definitely turn heads. Albert was the youngest of four children who made it through childhood. His siblings were Walter, Annie, and Edwin. He chose to go by the name Albert to honor a deceased sibling. The name change also helped him escape the nickname that followed him from the orphanage. The man eggs, that moniker clung to him for years like a persistent shadow.

2:09 Fish inherited more than his father's name. Mental illness ran through his family like a genetic curse. His uncle received diagnosis of mania. One brother landed in a state hospital. His sister Annie carried the label of having a mental affliction. Three additional relatives were also deemed mentally ill. His mother experienced something even more troubling. He saw things that weren't there, and heard voices that didn't exist. Medical professionals called these "oral hallucinations." This was an era when doctors might diagnose you with ghosts in your blood and prescribe cocaine and treatment. Mental health understanding was practically non-existent, leaving children like Albert vulnerable from their very first breath.

2:54 Albert's father died in 1875 from a heart attack, because he was super old. At 80 years old, he had lived longer than most people could expect. Even by today's standards, that's a decent age. After his death, his mother placed young Albert in an orphanage, still carrying that ham and eggs nickname. Fish later described his time there with "disturbing clarity." "I was there till I was nearly nine, and that's where I got started wrong. We were unmercifully whipped. I saw boys doing many things they should not have." The abuse became routine, and Albert began developing a troubled response to the beatings. He started to "enjoy" them. For a child to find pleasure in pain represents a profound psychological break that should have raised immediate concern.

3:41 By 1880, Fish's mother had secured a government position that could finally remove her son from the orphanage, but the damage was already done. When Albert was twelve, he began a relationship with a telegraph boy. This older boy introduced Albert to "disturbing sexual practices," including "Camprofasia" and "Urolegnea." And if you don't know what those are, you can look them up, but I wouldn't suggest it. At this point, the warning signs were impossible to ignore. A twelve-year-old who had learned to enjoy physical abuse and was now engaging in extreme sexual behaviors needed immediate intervention. Instead, his behavior escalated.

4:23 Fish began frequenting public baths, spending entire weekends watching other boys on dress. This voyeuristic behavior became a regular pattern. He also started writing obscene letters to women whose names he found in classified advertisements and matrimonial agencies. This was essentially the Victorian equivalent of sending unsolicited, explicit messages to strangers online. These early behaviors established a pattern of predatory conduct that would only intensify with time. By 1890, Fish relocated to New York City. He later admitted that he'd turned to prostitution and began sexually assaulting young boys. The city provided him with both anonymity and access to vulnerable children.

5:07 Eight years later, his mother arranged a marriage between Albert's and Anna Mary Hoffman, a woman nine years his junior. This was a common practice in their social circle, where families often facilitated unions. The couple would go on to have six children, Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, and Henry Fish. Fish worked as a house painter, a profession that gave him access to different neighborhoods and homes. During this time, he continued molesting children, targeting boys younger than six years old. His family life provided the perfect cover for his criminal activities. Fish later recounted a pivotal moment when an adult partner took him to a wax museum.

5:49 There he encountered a display showing a bisected penis. This anatomical exhibit triggered something profoundly in his already disturbed mind. From that moment forward, he became fixated on sexual mutilation. This incident marked another escalation in his psychological deterioration. The fact that begun as inappropriate sexual behavior was now evolving into something far more dangerous and violent. Around 1910, Fish encountered Thomas Kedden, a 19-year-old intellectually disabled man. Fish brought Kedden to his residence, where they developed what appeared to be a sadomasochistic relationship. Whether Kedden consented to these activities remains unclear, given his mental capacity.

6:34 For ten days, Fish transported Kedden to an abandoned farmhouse, where he tortured him for two weeks. The violence culminated when Fish severed half of Kedden's penis. Fish later recalled, quote, "I shall never forget his scream or the look he gave me." Fish had originally planned to kill Kedden, dismember his body and transport it home. However, he worried that the summer heat would attract unwanted attention. Instead, he poured peroxide over the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-covered handkerchief, left a $10 bill, kissed Kedden goodbye, and departed. This incident represents Fish's first documented act of extreme physical mutilation against another person.

7:17 A 1917 Fish's wife left him for the handyman, who had been living with the family. She took most of their possessions, but abandoned the children, leaving Albert to raise six kids alone. This abandonment triggered a severe psychological decline. Like his mother before him, Fish began experiencing auditory hallucinations. He believed he was receiving direct instructions from John the Apostle. His self-harm escalated dramatically. He began inserting needles into his groin and abdomen, eventually collecting at least 29 needles embedded in his pelvic region. He also repeatedly struck himself with a nail-studded paddle, and once inserted lighter fluid soaked wool into his rectum and ignited it.

8:04 Despite his severe mental illness, Fish never physically harmed his own children. He did, however, encourage them and their friends to use his nail-studded paddle on him, which was deeply inappropriate and traumatic for young minds to witness, no doubt. Around this period, Fish began contemplating cannibalism. He started experimenting by consuming raw animal meat, sometimes serving it to his children for dinner. By 1919, Fish's behavior reached new levels of depravity. He deliberately targeted mentally handicapped individuals and African-Americans, believing these victims would not be missed. His hallucinations had evolved into what he perceived as divine commandments.

8:47 He now believed God was instructing him to torture and sexually mutilate children. Fish assembled what he called "the implements of hell," a meat cleaver, a butcher knife, and hand saw. These tools will become central to his most horrific crimes. In May 1928, 58-year-old Albert Fish responded to a newspaper advertisement placed by Edward Bud, who was seeking employment. Fish arranged to visit the Bud family, initially planning to murder Edward. However, when he met Edward's 10-year-old sister Grace during his second visit, his plans changed. Fish fabricated a story about attending his niece's birthday party and convinced the family to let Grace accompany him.

9:31 She left with Fish and never returned home. In a bizarre twist, authorities arrested another man for her disappearance, though he was later acquitted. Six years later, Fish sent an anonymous letter to the Bud family detailing Grace's fate. He described strangling her to death, dismembering her body and consuming parts of her remains over nine days. He emphasized that she had remained a virgin, as if this detail would somehow lessen his crime. Police traced the letter back to Fish through the distinctive stationery. Upon arrest, he immediately confessed to Grace's murder, claiming he had not sexually assaulted her, but he had experienced involuntary ejaculations during the strangulation.

10:14 During custody, Fish confessed to murdering nine-year-old Francis McDonald. In July 1924, Francis' body was discovered hanging from a tree by his suspenders. He had been sexually assaulted and partially mutilated. Fish later admitted that he had intended to castrate the boy, but fled when he'd heard people approaching. Fish also confessed to killing four-year-old Billy Gaffney and February 1927. Billy had been playing with a three-year-old neighbor in the apartment hallway when both children disappeared. The younger child was found on the roof, claiming the boogie man took Billy. In a letter to his attorney, Fish detailed how he tortured Billy, consumed his blood, and cooked portions of his body with vegetables and bacon, eating the remains over four days.

11:00 Fish's trial lasted ten days. He pleaded insanity, citing his auditory hallucinations and describing his cannibalism as a form of communion. The court determined that he was abnormally but legally sane. One witness made the disturbing claim that Fish was not mentally sick and that his perversions were socially perfect all right. Asserting that he was no different from millions of other people, including some prominent and successful individuals. This testimony remains deeply troubling. The jurors unanimously believed Fish was insane, but as one later explained, they felt he deserved conviction and execution regardless of his mental state.

11:41 Hamilton Howard, Hammond Eggs, Albert Fish, was executed on January 16, 1936 in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison. He entered the execution chamber at 11.06 pm and was pronounced dead three minutes later. Witnesses reported that Fish helped the executioner position the electrodes on his own body. His final words were reportedly, "I don't even know why I'm here." Before his death, Fish wrote a three-page final statement and gave it to his lawyer. His attorney refused to reveal its contents, stating, "I will never show it to anyone. It was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read." With his execution, one of America's most disturbing criminal cases came to a close, but the horror of his crimes would continue to haunt the families of the victims and the public consciousness for generations to come.

12:44 Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder. I'm Joe Behost and I really appreciate your listening. Especially if you're a new listener, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now. Don't do another thing. Let unless you're driving, then you do that thing. But once you get to wherever you're going, then after that, don't do another thing until you hit subscribe. If you're an OG listener, I love you to death. Please continue sharing this show with your friends and family. Give me ratings and reviews wherever you can do that. And sending me emails whenever you feel like it. Speaking of, here's one of those emails, hey Joe, I love the podcast. I listen when I do chores and somehow you've managed to make murder stories my cleaning soundtrack.

13:25 So thanks for that, I think. Anyway, random question that popped in my head while I was scrubbing a pan. Do you ever get creeped out reading these stories late at night? Like has there ever been one that got under your skin enough to make you double check your locks or sleep with a light on? So do you ever laugh at really dark stuff and then immediately feel like a terrible person? Appreciate what you do seriously. Keep them coming. Lindsay in Charlotte. Lindsay really appreciate the email and thank you for listening. And the answer is yes and yes. I do get creeped out by a lot of these stories. There's not one in particular that comes to mind. They're all, especially the ones today, by the way. Wow. But they all have that their own flavor of creepiness to them.

14:10 So it varies, but yes, I do double check my locks all the time. Even when the sun's out, I double check the locks because you never know. People be crazy. Also, do you laugh at dark stuff and immediately feel like a terrible person? Every day I do, my sense of humor is pretty dark as you have witnessed on this podcast, I'm sure. And I feel bad about it immediately after. But I do in the moment think something's funny and they're like, "Oh man, I shouldn't laugh at that." So yes, I'm both accounts. And alright, that's gonna do it. That is your episode for today. Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder. I'll see you next time. [Music]