“Serial Killers”
Desorae Olsen
CJ 2420 Anatomy of a Homicide Investigation
Instructor: Michael Renckert
12/12/2011
The topic I chose to write about for my field experience research project is when
there are multiple victims, particularly serial murder. I want to dive into the mind of a
serial killer & do a brief overview to see if the social upbringing and if that played a role
in how they killed, and why.
What is a serial killer? A serial killer is an individual who has murdered three or
more people over a period of more than a month, with a down “cooling off period”
between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological
gratification. The common characteristics of a serial killer are usually someone who
usually has higher than average intelligence. They often come from broken homes with
the absence of a father figure. If the father is present there is not a good relationship
present. The father is abusive mentally, physically and emotionally. There mother is very
protective and domineering. Their families usually have a history of psychiatric, criminal
or alcoholism related issues. They were often bullied as children and have suicidal
tendencies with low self esteem. Most were bed wetter’s well into their early teens. Early
on they became fascinated and enjoyed torturing animals and setting fires. Some were
involved in petty crimes, such as theft, fraud, vandalism, etc... as a teen or in their early
adulthood. Even though they have high intellect they often have trouble staying
employed and tends to work lower class jobs.
There are 2 classifications of serial killers, organized and unorganized. The
organized serial killer is of high intelligence. They are well organized and plan their acts
beforehand. They have a common MO and stick to a routine and choose their victims at
random. They enjoy watching their victims suffer and usually prolong there pain and
suffering. They find a great deal of pleasure keeping their victims alive just enough to
cause more pain to them. Before the act is played out they have fantasized about the
murder. They often go for a particular group of individuals such as old people,
prostitutes, children and young women. They take all precautions before the crime is
committed and leave very little pieces of hard evidence for investigators to go off of.
The unorganized serial killer is usually of lower intelligence and is often a high
school drop out. They usually live alone and have poor social skills. They have bad
hygiene and problems dating, most often never have dated at all. They do not plan things
out in advance which leaves a margin for mistake which is usually where clues are left
behind that can tie them to the crime.
The first serial killer I will cover is Albert Hamilton Fish, who also became
known as Gray Man, Werewolf of Wysteria, Brooklyn Vampire. He was born on May 19,
1870 in Washington, D.C. as Hamilton Howard Fish. Fish was the youngest of five
children to Irish father Randall Fish, (1795 – 1875) from Kennevec, Maine & his mother,
Ellen (1838 – death unknown). Fish had 3 living siblings: Walter, Annie and Edwin Fish.
There was a family history of mental illness that affected an uncle and two of his siblings
and several other close relatives. Even is mother was believed to suffer from
hallucinations. His father was 43 years older than his mother and died of a heart attack
when Fish was only five years old. After his fathers death his mother was forced to find
work and became unable to take care of all the children so Fish was put into an
orphanage where he spent most of his childhood. Fish chose to be called Albert after his
dead brother to escape the nickname “Ham & Eggs” that he was given at the orphanage.
It was reported that in the orphanage, Fish was often stripped and severely whipped and
beaten in front of the other children. Eventually, Fish began to look forward the beatings
and enjoyed the physical pain; he would often get erections from it and for that was
teased by the other orphans. In 1890 his mother removed Fish from the orphanage and
was able to take care of him. In 1892, at age 12 he became associated with a young boy
that introduced him to drinking urine and eating feces. Fish began visiting public bath
houses and would watch other boys undress. Fish was compulsive writer and would often
write obscene letters to women he would see in the paper.
In 1890 fish moved to New York where he reported to have worked as a male
prostitute. He was said to begin raping and molesting young boys, usually under the age
of 6. In 1898 Albert began work as a painter. His mother arranged a marriage with his
first wife Anna. Anna was nine years his junior. During the course of their marriage they
had six children: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John and Henry. Even after his
marriage Fish continued raping young boys and is sick obsession with them grew more
and more. He started to become fascinated with the penis and castration. Fish would
frequent brothels where he was whipped and beaten for pleasure.
In 1917 Fish’s wife left him for another man. After this Fish began to hear voices
that would tell him to do things. Fish started to self inflict pain and would beat himself
with a nail studded paddle. He also started to embed needles into his groin which he most
often removed afterwards. Some of the needles were inserted too deep so they remained
permanently his body. When he was x-rayed it revealed that Fish had 29 or more needles
in his pelvic area.
On May 5, 1928 Fish responded to a classified ad placed by Edward Budd. Mr.
Budd was looking for work and Fish posed as a possible employer. When Fish met the
Budd family he set his eye on their daughter, Grace. Fish took Mr. Budd to a farm for
him to work and convinced him to let him take Grace to his niece’s birthday party, with
ill intentions in mind. Fish took Grace to an abandoned home where he stripped down
naked and strangled her to death. He chopped her body up into pieces and ate her pieces
over a 9 day timeframe. On September 5, 1930, Charles Edward Pope was arrested for
the suspected kidnapping of Grace. He was later found not guilty on December, 22. It
wasn’t until six years later that the family had some closure as to what happened to
Grace. Mrs. Budd received an anonymous letter. The letter talked about how children
were chopped up and sold in order to keep others from starving. It went on to say how
they had lunch and Grace sat on his lap. It was then that he decided to eat her. He made
the plan to take Grace to the party and how he took her to an empty house in Westchester
where he stripped naked and called Grace to enter the room and proceeded to strangle her
to death. The letter was traced back to a janitor who had left stationary in his old room
that Fish had rented. The FBI waited for Fish to return to his room and arrested him upon
his arrival. Fish didn’t deny the murder and admitted his intentions to kill Graces brother
Edward instead.
After Fish’s capture it was found that Fish had other victims prior to Grace Budd. The
victims are as follows.
Francis X. McDonnell, age 8, July 15, 1924
Emma Richardson, age 5, October 3, 1926
Billy Gaffney, age 4, February 11, 1927
Grace Budd, age 10, June 3, 1928
There are other victims that could not be directly connected back to Fish. They are listed
as follows…
Yetta Abramowitz, age 12, 1927
Mary Ellen O'Connor, age 16, February 15, 1932
Benjamin Collings, age 17, December 15, 1932
Fish has been known to boast that he has “had children in every state” and the
figure was around 100 victims. It is unclear as to whether or not these are murders or
rapes. Fish was put on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Grace Budd on March 11,
1935. The trial lasted 10 days. Fish plead insanity claiming that he heard voices from god
telling him to murder children. Even though Fish was evaluated and said to have several
sexual abnormalities, the jury found him to be sane and guilty. He was then ordered the
death sentence by the judge. Fish was executed on January 16, 1936 in the electric chair.
Before his death, he was able to mutter one last statement “I don’t even know why I’m
here”.
Are killers born or bread? Is it genetic? When and why do they snap? These are
all valid questions but do we really know the answer. It is know that mental illness plays
a huge role in the characteristics of a serial killer but what sets them apart from the
average person. There are millions of people with mental illness in some form or another.
That can range from bi-polar, multiple personality disorder, post traumatic stress
disorder, schizophrenia, etc… and many with the help of medication can still lead a
healthy normal life. There have been several studied and evaluations performed on
captured killers and mental illness plays a huge role. Could it be that they are too
smart???
References
Murder American Style, Alex Alvarez & Ronet Bachman, 2003
http://www.prairieghosts.com
http://serialkillercalendar.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.buzzle.com