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He is arguably the most depraved serial killer in the annals of American crime, a sadist, paedophile, and cannibal who by his own estimation killed as many as 100 children over a murderous career spanning more than two decades.

He was also a reprobate of quite staggering proportions, who practiced so many perversions that his court-appointed psychiatrist called him “the most polymorphous pervert I have ever known.”

The newspapers of the day called him the Gray Man, the Brooklyn Vampire, or the Werewolf of Wisteria.

His real name was Albert Fish.

On Monday, May 28, 1928, Delia Budd answered a knock on her apartment door and found a frail old man standing on the threshold.

(Image: New York Daily News)

(Image: New York Daily News)

He introduced himself as Frank Howard and said he was there in response to an advertisement that Mrs Budd’s 18-year-old son, Edward, had placed in the New York World newspaper. The young man had offered his services as a laborer and Howard was interested in employing him at his farm on Long Island.

After a brief interview, Howard said that Edward would be suitable for the position and arranged to collect him over the weekend. He returned to the Budd residence on Sunday, June 3, bearing gifts of strawberries and cheese, which he said were from his farm.

Invited to stay for lunch, Howard spent much of his time fawning over the Budd children. After the meal, he explained that he had to attend a birthday party for his niece and would return by nine that evening to pick up Edward. Then, as he was leaving, an idea seemed to occur to him.

If the Budds were agreeable, he would be happy to take their ten-year-old daughter, Grace, to the children’s birthday party with him.

Mrs Budd was at first hesitant, but her husband persuaded her to allow the child to go, saying that it would be a treat for Grace. Eventually, Mrs Budd acceded. Grace left the house holding Frank Howard’s hand, still dressed in the white confirmation dress she’d worn to church that morning. Her family would never see her again.

(Image: New York Daily News) (Image: New York Daily News)

Frank Howard did not return to the Budd residence by nine o’clock. In fact, he did not return at all that night, leaving the Budds frantic about their daughter’s whereabouts.

When the following morning arrived with still no sign of Mr Howard or the child, Albert Budd decided to go to the police.

He was referred to veteran detective William King of the Missing Persons Bureau. King’s suspicions were immediately aroused when he learned that the address of the supposed children’s party did not exist. There was also no record of a farmer named Frank Howard in Long Island.

Thus began one of the biggest manhunts in New York history. Yet, despite the best efforts of the police, their investigation turned up no trace of either Grace Budd or Frank Howard.

(Image: New York Daily News)

(Image: New York Daily News)

Grace would remain a missing person until November 14, 1934. That was the day on which a letter landed in the Budd mailbox, a letter so barbarous that it is fortunate its recipient, Delia Budd, was illiterate.

“My dear Mrs Budd,

'On Sunday, June the 3rd 1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. Brought you pot cheese — strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind to eat her.

"On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said “Yes,” she could go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked out. When we got there, I told her to remain outside. She picked wildflowers. I went upstairs and stripped all my clothes off. I knew if I did not I would get her blood on them.

"When all was ready I went to the window and called her. Then I hid in a closet until she was in the room. When she saw me all naked she began to cry and tried to run down the stairs. I grabbed her and she said she would tell her mamma.

"First I stripped her naked. How she did kick — bite and scratch. I choked her to death, then cut her in small pieces so I could take my meat to my rooms. Cook and eat it. How sweet and tender her little ass was roasted in the oven. It took me nine days to eat her entire body. I did not have sex with her though I could of had I wished. She died a virgin.”

The letter was taken by Edward Budd to Detective King. When the detective examined it, there was one detail that jumped out at him, a barely discernable logo bearing the letters, N.Y.P.C.B.A. Further investigation revealed that it stood for “New York Private Chauffeur's Benevolent Association.” It was through that organization that King gained his most important clue yet.

(Image: New York Daily News) (Image: New York Daily News)

One of its members, a man named Lee Sicowski, admitted that he’d taken some of the Association’s stationery for private use. He’d left a few sheets, he said, at a cheap boarding house on East 52nd Street.

King hurried to the flophouse, where he learned that the person who had occupied the room after Sicowski was an elderly man named Albert Fish. King listened with growing interest as the landlady described Fish. He was a close fit to the description the Budds had given of Frank Howard.

Fish had since vacated the room but he returned to the boarding house occasionally to collect mail. The next time he showed up, on December 13, 1934, King was waiting for him.

At the police station, Fish admitted readily to the abduction and murder of Grace Budd. According to him, his intended victim had been Edward Budd. However, once he laid eyes on the pretty, dark-haired Grace, he decided that he wanted her instead. He’d therefore concocted the children’s party story and had been surprised when the Budds had fallen for it.

(Image: New York Daily News) (Image: New York Daily News)

After leaving the Budd home with Grace, he stopped off to pick up a cleaver, saw and butcher’s knife which he’d left for safekeeping with a newsagent while he’d visited the Budd residence. He bought a round trip train ticket to Worthington Woods for himself and a one-way ticket for Grace.

As they left the train, he recalled, he left his bundle of tools behind and Grace helpfully ran back to retrieve them. From there, he took the girl to an abandoned building known as Wisteria Cottage. Leaving the child to play outside, he went up to the second-floor bedroom, where he laid out his bundle of tools and took off his clothes. Then he called Grace upstairs.

On seeing the grizzled, naked old man, Grace had screamed, “I’ll tell Momma!” and tried to escape. But Fish grabbed her by the throat and strangled her to death. He then beheaded and dismembered the body, wrapping the choice cuts in newspaper and carrying them home with him, cooking and consuming them over the next few days.

Several days later, he returned to the cottage and disposed of the remains by throwing them over a wall at the back of the property. Detectives would later find them in exactly the spot he had described.

Horrific though it was, the murder of Grace Budd was not the only one committed by Albert Fish. With nothing left to lose, the elderly killer now admitted to a string of homicides, committed between 1910 and 1934.

Among these were the high profile cases of four-year-old Billy Gaffney in February 1927 and eight-year-old Francis McDonnell in July 1924. According to Fish, he’d kidnapped and murdered the children. In the case of Billy Gaffney, he’d eaten part of the body, which he’d roasted in his oven. He went on to confess to over 100 child killings, most of them “poor negro children” whose disappearances were never investigated.

(Image: Popperfoto) (Image: New York Daily News)

The sheer brutality of these crimes, and the relish with which Fish described them, suggested a deeply disturbed individual, one who perhaps should have been committed to an asylum. Dr Frederic Wertheim, who spent more time examining Fish than any other psychiatrist, certainly believed so.

To Wertheim, Fish had described his many fetishes and perversions. Fish enjoyed pushing needles into his scrotum and inserting petrol-soaked cotton wool into his anus and setting it on fire.

He often beat himself bloody with a ping-pong bat that was studded with long nails. He regularly consumed human excrement.

Fish’s insanity, however, would not be enough to save him from the justice that the people of New York demanded. Found guilty at trial, he was sentenced to die in the electric chair.

He was put to death at Sing Sing Prison on January 16, 1936.

The harrowing true story of Albert Fish is the subject of the book, “Confessions of a Cannibal” by bestselling true crime author, Robert Keller. The case is also one of 18 featured in “Cannibal Killers Vol. 1,” by the same author. Both are available in e-book and paperback on Amazon.