Andrew entered into a conflict with both of his daughters over his decision to divide his valuable properties to family members before his death. He sold the family’s farm in Swansea, and the sisters received a rental property, which they later sold to their father for cash. Shortly before the murders, a serious argument ensued with another family member named John Morse, and subsequently both sisters were asked to leave the family home. Lizzie however soon decided to go back home earlier than expected.
The family had a barn on the land, and on the second floor, Lizzie kept pigeons. She returned home one day to find that the heads of the birds had all been cut off with an axe. Her father admitted that he had killed them, as he was afraid that they would attract attention to the barn from young boys in the neighbourhood who he feared would enter the barn and get hurt or possibly even start a fire.
Shortly before the murders, the entire household became ill. Abby feared that as her husband was an unpopular man, the family were being poisoned. It was later diagnosed that the family had food poisoning after Andrew had bought cheap mutton as food for the family and the meat had been left on the stove for days. The family also suspected that milk was being tainted as well. This proved to be also untrue after examinations of the milk were made.
After the murders were committed, police went to examine the scene of the crimes. They found a hatchet in the basement and this was assumed to be the murder weapon. The hatchet was clean, but part of the handle was missing. The police had little faith in the new technology of finger printing and did not take any prints from the hatchet. Lizzie Borden was then arrested on the 11th of August 1892, and her statements proved to be inconsistent, and her behaviour was also deemed suspicious.
Lizzie Borden did not face a murder trial until June of 1893. During the trial it was disclosed that no blood soaked clothing was ever found, but a few days after the murders, Lizzie had burnt a dress on a kitchen stove, claiming that she had brushed against fresh baseboard paint and had smeared paint on the dress.
Despite testimony and incriminating evidence, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders on the 20th of June 1893. There was no blood evidence, and no proven murder weapon and the short duration between the two murders all stood in her favour. It took the jury just ninety minutes to find there was enough reasonable doubt that she was not in fact guilty. It also emerged that shortly before the double murders another hatchet murder had taken place.
A man named Jose Correira has committed a hatchet murder shortly before the trial. The case bore many similarities to the double murder. It was eventually proved that Correira had not even been in the country when the double murders were committed. No evidence was ever presented to show conclusively who was responsible for the killings and the case remains unsolved to this very day.
There are many theories as to who the actual murderer was. One theory suggests that the maid may have actually committed the murders, after being asked to clean windows on a hot day just as she was recovering from food poisoning. Another theory was that Andrew Borden’s illegitimate son William, may have actually committed the murders after trying unsuccessfully trying to extort money from his father. The truth is that the killer will probably never now be known.
The house where the murders were committed is now a bed and breakfast on Second Street in Fall River Massachusetts.
Albert Fish
Some would describe Albert fish as a vile monster. A better description would be one of the most evil men that has ever walked this Earth. He was a paedophile who molested hundreds of children and he murdered and tortured numerous others. He became known by several names during his life, including: The Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, and the Boogeyman. He was thing of nightmares, he was a cold killer and he was also a cannibal with a taste for chid flesh.
Hamilton Howard Fish, was born in Washington D.C on the 19th of May 1870. At the time of his birth, his father was 75 years old, 43 years senior to his mother. He was the youngest of four children and he spent most of his childhood in an orphanage. It was here that he received the nickname ‘ham and eggs’, so he used the name Albert to escape from the nickname.
There was a history of mental illness within his family, including an uncle who had suffered from religious mania, a brother who was confined to a mental hospital, another brother who died of hydrocephalus, and a sister who was said to have also had a mental affliction. Three other close relatives were thought to have had mental issues including his mother who said she heard voices and often hallucinated.
His father died of a heart attack in 1875. His mother was then forced to go out to work, which lead to Albert being taken away to the orphanage. It was at the orphanage that he along with other boys would be stripped naked. He would then be whipped or beaten by the teachers. After a while he started to enjoy the punishments, and would often gain an erection during the beatings for which he was teased by the other orphans.
At the age of 10, his mother found that she was then in a position to support her son. Two years later, Albert Fish entered a relationship with another boy who introduced him to the practices of both drinking urine, and eating faeces which is known as Coprophagia. He then began to visit public baths so that he could watch other boys while they would undress.
In 1890, Fish moved to New York City, and it was here that he said that he became a male prostitute. It was also around this time, that he began to rape young boys. In 1898, his mother had arranged for him to marry, and the woman was nine years his junior, she bore him six children, named, Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John and Henry. Even with a family of his own, he still continued with his molestations of children.
At some point around this time, a male lover took him to visit a waxwork museum. During the visit he became besotted with a bisection of a penis. He later entered into a relationship with a mentally retarded man, he tied the man up and tried to castrate him. The man screamed violently, and Fish fled the scene, leaving a $10 bill behind. Fish began to visit brothels where he would ask to be beaten and whipped.
In 1903, Fish was arrested for embezzlement, and was sent to Sing Sing, which was a maximum security prison. By 1917 Fish’s wife had left him for a handy man who had lodged at the family home. She left the children behind at the mercy of Fish. After the rejection of his wife, Fish said that he began to hear voices. He once wrapped himself in a carpet, saying that he had been instructed to do so, by John the Apostle.
It was also around this time that he also began to self harm himself. X rays at the time of his death found that he had 29 needles lodged in his pelvic area. They were embedded so deep that they became impossible to remove and he would also repeatedly beat himself with a nail studded paddle.
Fish was thought to have first attacked a child around 1910 in Wilmington Delaware. In 1919 he stabbed a mentally challenged boy. In 1924 he stumbled across an 8 year old girl playing alone on a Staten Island farm, he offered her money to help him look for rhubarb, and she accepted. As the girl was just about to leave with him, when the girl’s mother appeared and chased Fish away. He was later found trying to sleep in the barn for the night and was asked to leave the property.
At the age of 55, Fish began to hear voices and was deluded, saying that God had ordered him to torture and kill little boys. In February of 1930, he remarried, but the marriage only lasted for a week. Later that year he was arrested for sending an obscene letter to a woman who had answered an advert he had placed for a maid.
In May of 1928, the 58 year old Albert Fish called at the home of Edward Budd. He was responding to an advert Budd had placed seeking employment for himself. He was calling on the pretence of wanting to hire him. He called a few days later, where he convinced the parents to allow him to take their 10 year old daughter grace to a birthday party that evening, she never returned home again.
Six years later, an anonymous letter was sent to The Budd family. Mrs Budd could not read, so she asked her son to read it to her, it read:
&n
bsp; Dear Mrs Budd. In 1894 a friend of mine shipped as a deck hand on the Steamer Tacoma, Capt John Davis. They sailed from San Francisco for Hong Kong, China. On arriving there he and two others went ashore and got drunk. When they returned the boat was gone. At that time there was famine in China. Meat of any kind was from $1-3 per pound. So great was the suffering among the very poor that all children under 12 were sold for food in order to keep the others from starving. A boy or girl under 14 was not safe in the street. You could go in any shop and ask for steak-chops-or stew meat. Part of the naked body of a boy or girl would be brought out and just what you wanted cut from it. A boy or girl’s behind which is the sweetest part of the body and sold as veal cutlet brought the highest price. John staid there so long he acquired a taste for human flesh. On his return to N.Y. he stole two boys, one 7 and one 11. He took them to his home stripped them naked tied them in a closet. Then burned everything they had on. Several times every day and night he spanked them-tortured them - to make their meat good and tender. First he killed the 11 year old boy, because he had the fattest ass and of course the most meat on it. Every part of his body was cooked and eaten except the head – bones and guts. He was roasted in the over (all of his ass), boiled, broiled, fried and stewed. The little boy was next, went the same way. At that time, I was living at 409 E 100 St. Near –right side. He told me so often how good human flesh was I made up my mind to taste it. 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 mamma. First I stripped her naked. How did she 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 9 days to eat her entire body. I did not fuck her tho I could of had I wished. She died a virgin.
The letter was to lead the authorities back to Fish. It had been delivered in an in envelope that had a small hexagonal emblem on it. On the emblem were the letters N.Y.P.C.B.A. This stands for the New York Private Chauffeur’s Benevolent Association. A janitor of the company had taken some of the stationary home and had left it at his boarding house when he left. The address was at 200 East 52nd Street.
When the police arrived, the landlady told them that Albert Fish had moved out of his room just a few days earlier. However Fish’s son had sent him some money and Fish had asked her to hold a cheque for him. William F King, who was leading the investigation waited at the house until Fish returned. Fish soon made his way back to the house to collect the cheque.
When confronted by the investigator, Fish initially agreed to be taken for questioning, but then suddenly without warning he brandished a razor blade. King quickly disarmed him and took him to the police headquarters. During questioning, Fish did not deny the murder of Grace Budd, he did comment that he had meant to kill the girl’s brother Edward, but it had never entered his head that he would rape the girl.
Fish later admitted to his attorney that he had in fact had two involuntary ejaculations at the time of the murder, and this was later used at his trial to show a sexually motivated kidnapping. By doing so, this would avoid the mention of cannibalism. A picture of Fish appeared in the paper, and through this, Fish was also linked to the disappearance in 1927 of a four year old child named Billy Gaffney. A three year old friend who he had been playing with at the time, said that Billy had been taken by the Boogey man.
Gaffney’s mother visited Fish in Sing Sing prison, to try to find out some further details about her son’s death. It was here that Fish confessed to the child’s mother. He said:
I brought him to the Riker Avenue dumps. There is a house that stands alone, not far from where I took him. I took the boy there. Stripped him naked and tied his hands and feet and gagged him with a piece of dirty rag I picked out of the dump. Then I burned his clothes. Threw his shoes in the dump. Then I walked back and took the trolley to 59 Street at 2 A.M. and walked from there home. Next day about 2 P.M, I took tools, a good heavy cat of nine tails. Home made. Short handle. Cut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches long. I whipped his bare behind til the blood ran from his legs. I cut off his ears – nose- slit his mouth from ear to ear. Gouged out his eyes. He was dead then. I stuck the knife in his belly and held my mouth to his body and drank his blood. I picked up four old potato sacks and gathered a pile of stones. Then I cut him up. I had a grip with me. I put his nose, ears and a few slices of his belly in the grip. Then I cut him through the middle of his body. Just below the belly button. The through his legs about 2 inches below his behind. I put this in my grip with a lot of paper. I cut off the head –feet – arms hands and the legs below the knee. This I put in sacks weighed with stones, tied the ends and threw them into the pools of slimy water you will see along the road going to North Beach. I came home with my meat. I had the front of his body I liked best. His monkey and pee wees and a nice little fat behind to roast in the oven and eat. I made a stew out of his ears – nose – pieces of his face and belly. I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt and pepper. It was good. Then I spilt the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and pee wees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put them in the oven. Then I picked four onions and when the meat had roasted about ¼ hour, I poured about a pint of water over it for gravy and put in the onions. At frequent intervals, I basted his behind with a wooden spoon. So the meat would be nice and juicy. In about two hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did. I ate every bit of the meat in about four days. His little monkey was as sweet as a nut, but his pee wees I could not chew. Threw them in the toilet.
Fish stood trial for the murder of Grace Budd. The trial began in March 1935. Fish tried to plead insanity. Various psychiatrists testified about the numerous sexual fetishes that Fish had. To them Fish was a phenomenon, they had never seen such a case before where one person had so many sexual abnormalities.
Fish was said to be obsessed with religion and especially the story of Abraham and Isaac. By sacrificing a boy, he believed that it was penance for his own sins. He also believed that if God thought what he was doing was wrong, then he would surely send angels to Earth to stop him. Edward Budd was his intended victim to sacrifice, but he had turned out to be larger than he anticipated. He looked at Grace as a boy and considered her cannibalism to be a form of communion.
The expert for the defence, named Frederick Wertham declared Fish insane. Wertham was asked if Fish knew right from wrong. He concluded that he did know, but it was a perverted knowledge that was based on his views of sin, atonement and religion therefore it was an insane knowledge. Two other experts backed up his findings.
Fish had been treated in Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in 1930. Menas Gregory who had treated Fish, described him as abnormal, but sane. The jury found him to be sane and guilty, and he was sentenced to the death penalty. After being sentenced, Fish also confessed to the murder of eight year old Francis McDonnell on Staten Island, who he had assaulted and then strangled with his suspenders.
Fish arrived at prison in March of 1935. He was executed in January of the following year. On facing his execution, he said that the electrocution would be the supreme thrill of his life. He entered the chair at 11.06 am and he exclaimed, ‘I don’t even know why I am here’. It took two jolts of electricity before he was pronounced dead just three mi
nutes later.
Rumours arose that the equipment short circuited after the first attempt, and it took two attempts to electrocute him due to the amount of metal inserted into his body. He was buried in the prison cemetery.
Jerry Brudos
Jerry Brudos was born in Webster South Dakota in 1939. He was the youngest child of four sons. His mother had always wanted a daughter and took to dressing him in girl’s clothes. He suffered constant belittlement and abuse at the hands of his mother. During his childhood, the family constantly moved home, until they eventually settled down in Salem, Oregon.
At the age of five, Brudos found a pair of spike heeled shoes at a junkyard. This developed into an obsession with women’s shoes from a very young age. He developed his obsession to women’s underwear and would try and steal underwear from female neighbours. He also attempted to steal shoes from his grade school teacher. He spent most of his teenage year in and out of mental hospitals.
As a teenager he began to stalk local women. He progressed to knocking the down, or choking them unconscious, and then he would steal their shoes. At the age of seventeen, his behaviour developed to a more sinister level. He abducted and beat a young woman, and then he threatened to kill her if she did not follow his sexual demands. He was shortly after arrested and spent the next nine months in the psychiatric ward of Oregon State Hospital. At the hospital, they discovered that his sexual fantasies were fuelled by his hatred for his mother and wanting to exact a revenge on women in general. They diagnosed him with having schizophrenia.
The Killers Trilogy Page 13
