Chronology

Early Life

• 19 May 1870
  Born Hamilton Howard Fish in Washington, D.C., to Randall Fish (aged 75) and Ellen Ketcham Fish (aged 32).
• 16 Oct 1875
  Father Randall Fish dies of heart failure at the Sixth Street Wharf, Washington, D.C. Hamilton is five.
• 1879
  Ellen Fish places the child at St. John's Orphan Asylum, Washington, D.C. He remains there for approximately three years.
• 1880
  Ellen Fish reclaims the child, who returns to public school in Washington.

New York Years

• 1890
  Aged twenty, moves to New York City. Takes up the house-painting trade. Changes given name from Hamilton to Albert.
• 19 Jan 1898
  Marries Anna Mary Hoffman at New York.
• 1899–1911
  Six children born: Albert Jr., Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, Henry.
• 1903
  First arrest of record — obscene correspondence, New York. Brief detention, no conviction.
• 1917
  Anna Fish leaves the household; the marriage ends. Fish begins the itinerant period that will last until his arrest.

The Homicides

• 15 Jul 1924
  Francis McDonnell, 8, taken from Richmond Avenue, Port Richmond, Staten Island. Body found 17 July in the Lattingtown Wood.
• 11 Feb 1927
  Billy Gaffney, 4, disappears from a hallway at 99 15th Street, Brooklyn.
• 3 Jun 1928
  Grace Budd, 10, taken from 406 West 15th Street, Manhattan. Journey to Wisteria Cottage, Worthington, New York.
• 1929–1934
  Extensive obscene correspondence to widows and unmarried women. Brief Bellevue commitment in 1930 following one complaint. Some later true-crime sources also place a disputed brief marriage to Estella Wilcox in this period, though it is not corroborated by the primary record.

Resolution

• 11 Nov 1934
  Delia Budd receives the anonymous letter. The envelope's N.Y.P.C.B.A. letterhead is the investigative clue.
• 13 Dec 1934
  Fish arrested at 200 East 52nd Street, New York, by Detective William F. King.
• 14–17 Dec 1934
  Wisteria Cottage searched; Grace Budd's remains recovered and identified.
• Feb/Mar 1935
  Confession letter to Elizabeth Gaffney. Formal written confession statement prepared for the Grand Jury.
• 11–22 Mar 1935
  Westchester County trial before Judge Frederick P. Close. Dr. Frederic Wertham testifies for the defence. Insanity plea rejected. Guilty verdict on 22 March.
• Mar 1935
  The 1935 pelvic X-ray is entered as Exhibit 7: twenty-nine needles embedded in the pelvic tissues.

Execution

• Dec 1935
  Transferred from Westchester County jail to the Sing Sing death house; cell no. 5.
• 15 Jan 1936
  Governor Herbert Lehman declines to commute the sentence.
• 16 Jan 1936, 11:06 p.m.
  Electrocuted at Sing Sing by Robert G. Elliott. Two applications of current. Pronounced dead at 11:09 p.m.
• 17 Jan 1936
  Post-mortem examination at Sing Sing. Autopsy confirms the continued presence of several of the needles.
• Jan 1936
  Interred without ceremony in the prison cemetery at Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County. Grave unmarked. Prisoner number 83909.

Afterward

• 1940
  Robert Elliott's memoir Agent of Death published; includes the executioner's account of the 16 January 1936 electrocution.
• 1949
  Frederic Wertham's The Show of Violence published by Doubleday. Chapter 4 devoted to the Fish case.
• 1990
  Harold Schechter's Deranged published by Pocket Books. First full biographical treatment.