Name of chosen criminal: Hamilton Howard (Gray Man) Albert Fish
Background:
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Born in Washington D.C. on May 19, 1870.
His father was 43 years older than his mother and 75 at the time Albert was
born.
Albert was the youngest and had three living siblings.
He spent most of his childhood in an orphanage and was called “Eggs and
Cheese”.
Family had a history of mental illness. Father had religious mania, his sister has
mental affliction, and his mother had aural and/or visual hallucinations.
Age 12 he was introduced to practices like urolagnia (drinking urine) and
coprophagia (eating feces).
Crimes Accused of Committing:
 By 1890 he became a prostitute and started raping young boys.
 In 1903 he was arrested for grand larceny and was sentenced to incarceration in
Sing Sing.
 In 1919 he stabbed a mentally handicapped boy in Georgetown, Washington
D.C.
 He was arrested in 1930 for sending an obscene letter for a woman who
answered an advertisement for a maid.
Most recent crime: The murder of Grace Budd- they found him to be sane and guilty, and the
judge ordered the death sentence. He arrived at prison in March 1935, and was executed by
the electric chair on January 16, 1936.
Evidence Brought Against Criminal:
Fish visited the Budd family under the pretense of hiring Edward Budd. Fish hired Budd and his
friend Willie. His plan was to mutilate him, and leave him to bleed to death. A few days later he
met Grace Budd and decided to use her as his victim instead. He made up a story about having
to attend a niece’s birthday party and convinced graces parents to let her accompany him.
Grace went with him but did not return. Four years later he sent a letter to the Budd family
explaining the cruel and awful things he did to their daughter, Grace. He said that he cut her up
into pieces and cooked her. He then said it took him 9 days to eat the body.
Sentence: He was given the death penalty. He died in the electric chair on January 16 th, 1936.
Quotes: “None of us are saints.”
“I always seemed to enjoy everything that hurt. The desire to inflict pain, that is all that
is uppermost.”
Nickname: Gray man, Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, Moon Maniac, Boogey
Man
The Sociological Theory of Deviance that best explains Albert Fish is DifferentialAssociation Theory. Albert’s family had a history of mental illness. His mother was known for
hallucinating, so he grew up watching the things she did. Then he was put in an orphanage
where he was treated brutal and aggressive behavior. Fisher started to enjoy the pain that the
beatings brought. Fish said “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
done." When he was taken out of the orphanage he became friends with a telegraph boy. He
was introduced to things like drinking pee and eating feces. He also started visiting public baths
where he could watch boys undress.
I picked this theory because it explains that criminal behaviors are learned in interaction
with others. People’s behavior is largely determined by the company they keep and the
company that Albert had most of his life was not good. Fish had some pretty big influences in
his life that weren’t exactly good. Being brought into family with a history of mental illness and
living in an orphanage most of his life definitely did not help keep his mind off criminal acts. He
learned a lot of his sickening thoughts from the orphanage or from the telegraph boy. Those
are just what he was raised around and he couldn’t help that. Being influenced by these things
growing up is why Differential Association Theory explains Albert Fish.