Editing Albert Fish (section)

==1890–1918: Early adulthood and criminal history==
By 1890, at age 20, Fish moved to [[New York City]]. There he engaged in [[male prostitution]] and began [[child molestation|molesting]] and [[rape|raping]] boys, mostly less than six years old. In 1898, Fish's mother [[arranged marriage|arranged a marriage]] for him with Anna Mary Hoffman, who was nine years his junior.<ref name="crimelibrary"/><ref name="berry-dee">{{cite book|last1=Berry-Dee|first1=Christopher|title=Cannibal Serial Killers: Profiles of Depraved Flesh-eating Murderers|date=2011|publisher=Ulysses Press|location=Berkeley, CA|isbn=978-1569759028|page=157}}</ref><ref name="marriage1">{{cite web |url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24ZC-KF6 |title=New York City City Marriage Records, 1829-1940 |website=[[FamilySearch]] |access-date=July 22, 2017 }}</ref><ref name="marriage2">{{cite web |url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F6WT-5TX |title=New York Marriages, 1686-1980 |website=[[FamilySearch]] |access-date=July 22, 2017 }}</ref> They had six children: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John and Henry Fish.<ref name="crimelibrary"/> In 1903, Fish was arrested for [[grand larceny]], convicted and incarcerated in [[Sing Sing|Sing Sing Prison]].

[[File:Pelvis of Albert Fish (X-ray).jpg|thumb|left|150px|X-ray of Fish's [[pelvis]] and [[perineum]], introduced as evidence at his trial, demonstrating more than two dozen [[self-embedding|self-embedded]] needles]]
Fish later recounted an incident in which a male lover took him to a [[wax museum]], where he was fascinated by a bisection of a [[human penis]] and subsequently became obsessed with sexual mutilation.<ref name="berry-dee"/><ref name=capo>{{cite book|last1=Capo|first1=Fran|title=Myths and Mysteries of New York|date=2011|publisher=Morris Book Publishing, LLC|location=Guilford, CT|isbn=978-0-7627-6107-4|page=114}}</ref> Several years later, around 1910, Fish was working in [[Wilmington, Delaware|Wilmington]], [[Delaware]], when he met a 19-year-old man named Thomas Bedden. He took Bedden to where he was staying and the two began a [[sadomasochism|sadomasochistic]] relationship; it is unclear whether or not the sadomasochism was consensual on Bedden's part, but Fish's later confession implied that Bedden was [[intellectual disability|intellectually disabled]]. After ten days, Fish took Bedden to "an old farm house", where he [[torture]]d him over two weeks. Fish eventually tied Bedden up and cut off half of his penis. "I shall never forget his scream or the look he gave me", Fish later recalled. He originally intended to kill Bedden, cut up his body, and take it home, but he feared the hot weather would draw attention; instead, Fish poured [[Hydrogen peroxide|peroxide]] over the wound, wrapped it in a [[Vaseline]]-covered handkerchief, left a $10 bill, kissed Bedden goodbye and left. "Took first train I could get back home. Never heard what become of him, or tried to find out," Fish recalled.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Borowski|first1=John|title=Albert Fish: In His Own Words|date=September 5, 2014|publisher=Waterfront Productions|isbn=978-0692263754|page=314|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

In January 1917, Fish's wife left him for John Straube, a handyman who boarded with the Fish family. Fish was subsequently forced to raise his children as a [[single parent]]. After his arrest, Fish told a newspaper that when his wife left him, she took nearly every possession the family owned.<ref name="prairieghosts.com">Taylor, Troy. [http://www.prairieghosts.com/fish.html Albert Fish: The Life & Crimes of One of America's Most Deranged Killers."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608130819/http://www.prairieghosts.com/fish.html |date=June 8, 2011 }} ''Dead Men Do Tell Tales''. 2004. Retrieved February 14, 2007.</ref> Fish began to have auditory hallucinations; he once wrapped himself in a carpet, saying that he was following the instructions of [[John the Apostle]].<ref name="TSK" /> It was about this time that Fish began to indulge in [[self-harm]] by [[self-embedding|embedding]] needles into his groin and abdomen.<ref name="crimelibrary" /> After his arrest, [[X-ray]]s revealed that Fish had at least twenty-nine needles lodged in his [[pelvis|pelvic]] region.<ref name="crimelibrary" /> He also hit himself repeatedly with a nail-studded paddle, and inserted wool doused with lighter fluid into his [[anus]] and set it alight.<ref name="prairieghosts.com"/> While Fish was never thought to have physically attacked or abused his children, he did encourage them and their friends to paddle his buttocks with the same nail-studded paddle he used to abuse himself.

===1919–1930: Escalation===
Around 1919, Fish stabbed an intellectually disabled boy in [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]].<ref name="NYT03261935">{{Cite news |title=Fish is Sentenced. Admits New Crimes; Death in Electric Chair Fixed for Week of April 29, 1935. Move to Set Aside Verdict Denied |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/03/26/archives/fish-is-sentenced-admits-new-crimes-death-in-electric-chair-fixed.html |quote=As Albert H. Fish was sentenced to die in the [[electric chair]] at [[Sing Sing]], Westchester authorities revealed today that he had confessed to a series of other crimes in various parts of the country. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 26, 1935 |access-date=March 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704041009/https://www.nytimes.com/1935/03/26/archives/fish-is-sentenced-admits-new-crimes-death-in-electric-chair-fixed.html |archive-date=July 4, 2018 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref> He often chose people who were either mentally disabled or [[African-Americans|African-American]] as his victims, later explaining that he assumed these people would not be missed when killed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/fish/20.html |title=Albert Fish: real life Hannibal Lecter |publisher=[[Crime Library]] |access-date=November 7, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024122004/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/fish/20.html |archive-date=October 24, 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Fish would later claim to have occasionally paid boys to procure other children for him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marriner |first1=Brian |title=Cannibalism - The Last Taboo |date=2011 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781446492949 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wif_AQfJdJ4C |language=en |page= 138}}</ref> Fish tortured, mutilated, and murdered young children with his "implements of Hell": a [[meat cleaver]], a [[butcher knife]], and a small [[handsaw]].<ref name="Troy Taylor 2004">{{cite web |url=http://www.prairieghosts.com/fish.html |title=Albert Fish: The Life & Crimes of One of America's Most Deranged Killers |last=Taylor |first=Troy |publisher=Prairieghosts.com |year=2004 |access-date=March 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608130819/http://www.prairieghosts.com/fish.html |archive-date=June 8, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> On July 11, 1924, Fish found 8-year-old Beatrice Kiel playing alone on her parents' farm on [[Staten Island]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. He offered her money to come and help him look for rhubarb. She was about to leave the farm when her mother chased Fish away. Fish left but returned later to the Kiels' barn, where he tried to sleep but was discovered by Beatrice's father and forced to leave. In 1924, the 54-year-old Fish, suffering from [[psychosis]], felt that [[God]] was commanding him to torture and sexually mutilate children.<ref name="crimelibrary" />

Shortly before he abducted Grace Budd, Fish attempted to test his "implements of Hell" on a 10-year-old child he had been molesting named Cyril Quinn. Quinn and his friend were playing [[Four square|box ball]] on a sidewalk when Fish asked them if they had eaten lunch. When they said that they had not, he invited them into his apartment for sandwiches. While the two boys were wrestling on Fish's bed, they dislodged his mattress; underneath was a knife, a small handsaw, and a meat cleaver. They became frightened and ran out of the apartment.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Borowski|first1=John|title=Albert Fish: In His Own Words|date=September 5, 2014|publisher=Waterfront Productions|isbn=978-0692263754}}</ref> Despite [[bigamy|already being married]], Fish married Estella Wilcox on February 6, 1930, in [[Waterloo, New York]]; they divorced after only one week.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ex-Wife Unconcerned |date=December 15, 1934 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/12/15/archives/exwife-unconcerned.html |access-date=March 29, 2010 |page=3 |quote=Mrs. Estella Wilcox of Waterloo, former wife of Albert Fish, said tonight that she did not care what happens to her former husband. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704041001/https://www.nytimes.com/1934/12/15/archives/exwife-unconcerned.html |archive-date=July 4, 2018 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Fish was arrested in May 1930 for "sending an obscene letter to a woman who answered an advertisement for a maid."<ref name="NYT12151934"/> Following that arrest and another in 1931, he was sent to the [[Bellevue Hospital]] for observation.<ref name=took>{{Cite news |title=Mr. and Mrs. Budd Name Him on Stand as One Who Took Child Away Before Murder |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F11FE3B59107A93C1A81788D85F418385F9 |quote=The parents of 10-year-old Grace Budd identified Albert Fish today as the man ... He criticized psychiatrists of Bellevue and Kings County Hospitals for ... |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 13, 1935 |access-date=March 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107174208/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F11FE3B59107A93C1A81788D85F418385F9 |archive-date=November 7, 2012 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref>