00:00Four-year-old Billy Gaffney is playing in the hallway outside his New York City apartment.
00:04Right beside him is his three-year-old neighbor, also named Billy. They're just kids, laughing,
00:09arguing, doing what little boys do. And then they're gone. Panic sets in. Neighbors search
00:15the building floor by floor. Finally, the father finds his son alone on the very top floor. He
00:21kneels down and asks, where's Billy Gaffney? The little boy says the boogeyman took him.
00:26No one ever saw Billy Gaffney again. And for the longest time, they didn't know who to blame.
00:31They didn't realize the little boy got it right the first time. Except the boogeyman isn't imaginary.
00:37He has a name, Albert Fish. He looks like your grandpa, but he's one of the most disturbing
00:42criminals in American history. His murders are so horrifying, they inspired Stephen King.
00:47And trust me when I tell you that reality in this case is so much worse. I'm Chris. Let's recap.
00:56It's May 1928. The Great Depression is looming. And for working class families in New York,
01:06life is already a struggle. 18 year old Edward Budd thinks he's found a solution. He wants to
01:12leave the crowded city, work in the country and send money home to help his family. So he places
01:17a classified ad with his name, his address, and one simple request. Young man, 18, wishes position
01:25in country. A few days later, there's a knock at the Budd family apartment. At the door is an elderly
01:30man with gray hair and a gray mustache. He's polite, soft-spoken. He introduces himself as Frank Howard,
01:37a farmer from Farmingdale, Long Island. He tells Mrs. Budd he's responding to her son's ad. He'd like to
01:43interview him for a job. As they wait for Edward to come back from a friend's, Mr. Howard tells Mrs. Budd
01:49all about himself. He says he raised six kids on his own after his wife took off years earlier. And
01:55with the help of several farmhands, he says he has a booming 20-acre farm out in Long Island with
02:01hundreds of chickens and lots of cows. But he's down one farmhand and needs a replacement. Just then,
02:08Edward comes in. Mr. Howard looks him over and comments on his size and strength. Edward assures
02:13him he's a hard worker. The offer comes quickly. Fifteen dollars a week. Edward accepts the job right
02:19away. Mr. Howard even agrees to hire Edward's good friend as well, and promises to return Saturday to
02:25pick the boys up. Everyone is thrilled about this amazing opportunity with what looks like a kind old
02:30man. Saturday arrives. Edward is ready to go, but Mr. Howard doesn't show. Hours pass. Then a telegram
02:37arrives. He's been delayed. He says he'll come by the next morning. And on Sunday morning, there's
02:41another knock at the door. It's Mr. Howard. This time he's carrying gifts. Fresh strawberries and
02:47cheese, he says, straight from his farm. The family is flattered. They invite him inside for lunch. As
02:53they're sitting down to eat, the front door opens. Ten-year-old Gracie Budd is just home from Sunday
02:59school. She's a friendly little girl, the kind who charms everyone she meets. Mr. Howard takes a liking to
03:05her right away. After lunch, he tells the family he'll come back later that night to pick up Edward
03:09and his friend. But first, he says he has another stop. A birthday party for his niece. The girl,
03:15he explains, is about Gracie's age. There will be a lot of other kids there. Maybe Gracie would like
03:21to come along. He'll have her home by nine that night. The buds hesitate. They ask the question any
03:26parent would ask. Where's the party? Mr. Howard gives them an address. It sounds reasonable. Close
03:31enough. Nothing that raises immediate alarms. And in these times, joy is hard to come by. They
03:37want Gracie to enjoy herself, so they say yes. She puts on her coat and leaves with Mr. Howard.
03:42She is never seen again. And almost immediately, the cracks in his story start to show.
03:48Frank Howard from Farmington, Long Island doesn't exist. The strawberries and cheese he brought them
03:54weren't from a farm at all. They came from a shop in Manhattan. The address he gave for the supposed
03:59birthday party doesn't exist. He came looking for Edward, but he noticed Gracie. And once he had her,
04:05he vanished without a trace. Because Frank Howard is Albert Fish. A man known by many names. Names
04:13whispered after children disappeared. The Werewolf of Wisteria. The Brooklyn Vampire. The Moon Maniac.
04:19The Boogeyman who took four-year-old Billy Gaffney from his apartment building just a year earlier.
04:24The Gray Man who walked away with eight-year-old Francis McDonnell found murdered in 1924. No one
04:31connects the dots. Not yet. And so Albert Fish is free to disappear, free to reappear, and free to
04:37keep hunting. Then, in 1934, everything changes. Out of nowhere, a letter arrives for Mrs. Budd. At first,
04:44it looks ordinary, almost polite. But as she reads, the tone shifts. The letter describes that day. We had
04:52lunch, it reads. Grace sat in my lap. I made up my mind to eat her. He goes on to say he strangled her
04:59inside an empty house in Westchester County, then roasted her remains in an oven before eating it over
05:05the next several days. No one wants to believe it. It's so twisted it can't be real. Except the letter
05:11includes specific information about that last lunch at the Budd home. Details only the killer would know.
05:18This isn't a prank. It's a confession. But it's also a clue. The handwriting is neat, careful, deliberate.
05:25But it's the stationery that matters most. It's traced back to a private chauffeur's association.
05:32Someone there left some stationery and envelopes at a rooming house in Manhattan. From there,
05:37they tracked down the landlady. They described the fake Mr. Howard to her. His gray hair, his large gray
05:44mustache. Only one former guest matches that description. 65-year-old Albert Fish. He checked
05:50out already, but he's expecting a letter from his son. He sends him money, and Albert will be coming
05:56around soon to collect it. Sure enough, he comes to the boarding house for his mail a few days later.
06:02And when he does, the landlady calls the police. And they quickly realize this isn't just about one
06:08little girl. Because now, Albert Fish is talking. He lays out in deliberate and horrific detail
06:14the things he claims to have done to at least 100 children across the country. Not whispers. Not
06:21remorse. Bragging. At trial, his attorneys argue he's legally insane. Then Fish's own children take
06:27the stand. There are six of them, just as he told Mrs. Budd. His wife really did leave. By the time he was
06:32arrested, his kids were all grown, mostly estranged, and long familiar with a man they never truly
06:38understood. They describe a childhood shaped by chaos, by sudden mood swings, by intense punishing
06:45religious beliefs, and by violence. Not as discipline, but as something their father seemed to enjoy.
06:51Pain excited him. Over the years, Albert Fish deliberately shoved more than two dozen sewing
06:57needles deep into his pelvis. Acts of self-inflicted torture he later framed
07:02as moral punishment, which tells you everything you need to know. This isn't a man who couldn't
07:06control himself. This is a man who enjoyed suffering. His own and everyone else's. It takes a jury less
07:13than an hour to decide he's legally sane and guilty. On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish is strapped into the
07:21electric chair at Sing Sing prison. He's executed, but versions of him live on in fiction, including the
07:27fisherman in Stephen King's Black House. And even after death, he's still terrifying people.
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