Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was a truly disturbed human being and one of the most notorious serial killers of his time. His family had a history of mental illness, which may have influenced his behavior. When he was a young boy he was sent to an orphanage, there he was whipped and beaten, it was there that he was thought to have acquired a love of pain, especially when it inflicted on himself. He married a woman and they had five children, his wife left him and that's when his strange behavior started, he would sometimes shout to the sky I am the Christ. He also liked to be whipped and paddled and x-rays later showed that he had stuck needles so deep into his body that he could not get them out. He quickly developed a sort of bloodlust and began to engage in cannibalism. He confessed to killing and eating three children, including Grace Budd; a thorough investigation led to his arrest. His trial lasted ten days and the jury reached a guilty verdict in less than an hour, the judge sentenced him to death by electrocution, Albert thanked the judge. On January 16, 1936, he was placed in the chair; His last words were "I don't even know why I'm here." The Fish family was thought to have a history of extreme mental illness, which may have caused Albert to act as he did. His father died of a heart attack in 1875, Albert was only five years old. Albert's mother placed him in an orphanage because she could no longer take care of him at the moment. He was the youngest of four children in his family; he had three eldest... middle of paper ... in New York, Fish's lawyer tried to focus on the fact that Fish was a good father and never harmed his children, and the fact that no sane person would eat a small child. But his lawyer was unable to prove whether Fish actually ate any of those children. He then focused on Fish sticking needles into himself and how he loved getting beat up. But after ten days of trial, the jury took less than an hour to find Albert Fish guilty, the judge sentenced him to death by electrocution, Albert was not happy at the beginning of the sentence but was happy to die of this way and even thanked the judge after the trial. trial. On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish was taken to the electrocution chair, although the process was said to take only three seconds, some believed the electric charge failed the first time because of all the nails in his body. His last words were "I don't even know why I'm here".