Deranged: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer!

In 1928 Albert Fish convinced Mr and Mrs Budd to allow him to take their 10 year old daughter, Grace Budd to his niece's birthday party at a fictitious address and then totally disappeared. Until six years later when Fish wrote a disgusting letter to Mrs. Budd, informing her that he had kidnapped, murdered and cannibalized their ten year old daughter. Thankfully, because Mrs. Budd was functionally illiterate she didn't get to read the despicable letter and her son Edward immediately brought it to Detective William King who had been tirelessly searching for Grace Budd since her disappearance and for the man who called himself Frank Howard, who had kidnapped her. Detective King traced the envelope to a rooming house where Fish had been living and, upon learning that he was expected back to pick up some mail, immediately moved in to wait for his quarry and eventually captured the old man who immediately confessed to kidnapping Grace Budd and murdering her in an old abandoned house in Westchester known as Wisteria Cottage and immediately led the police officers to Grace Budd's skeletal remains. Fish was tried in White Plains and was convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair. He remains the oldest man ever executed in Sing Sing.

You should always be skeptical whenever someone says something like, "That guy was the worst serial killer ever." Really?Although Albert Fish seems to be surely one of the nastiest killers ever, most people automatically give him that title because most of his crimes were committed against children. Personally, I get tired of this appeal-to-emotion fallacy myself; if someone carves up an adult female, or even adult male, the killer is still perpetrating his crimes against a human, isn't he? Why is one class of human more valuable than another? (Of course they're not but American society perpetuates this myth. "A crime against humanity is a crime against humanity," should be the expression of the day.)The Toy Box Killer targeted adult women, and many of his crimes were probably as nasty as Mr. Fish's. Read a book or two about him and you should agree. Paul Bernardo was beyond an animal. But if you want to split hairs, the Toolbox Killers really might have been the "worst." Sure, Mr. Fish was a sadist, but he seemed to be more of a masochist to me, while the Toolbox Killers were total sadists. They tortured their victims in nearly unspeakable ways, but I'll give you a couple: they pulled body parts off with pliers and pounded ice picks into ears. And they were "nice enough" to let their victims live for quite awhile before doing them in.The real reason why Mr. Fish is held in such contempt is his letters, really. He had a bad habit of sending out the grossest letters that you will ever read. If they weren't so disgusting they'd be humorous. But sending out dirty letters doesn't make you a killer, but it did get Mr. Fish into a whole lot of trouble. Just like BTK, who sent out a computer disk to the police; and just like Maury Travis, who sent a copy of an image from a web site to the police which implicated him; Mr. Fish tripped himself up by sending one of his nastiest letters to the family of one of his victims. Ah, if serial killers would just put their pens down and keep their mouths shut. . . .This book made me think of how crime and punishment have changed over the years. If the same trial happened today with the same evidence -- sans DNA like back in the 30s -- it would be difficult to find Mr. Fish guilty, at least for me. But Mr. Fish made another mistake: he led the police to the site where he buried that victim, discussed above. Without a body it's hard to prove murder. But the forensics team first had to prove that the bones were human, and they further had to show approximate age of the victim of those bones. The pearl necklace that the little girl wore, even in death, was probably the straw that broke Mr. Fish's back.But this book also reminds me of three things that a good true-crime book must contain, at least for me. 1. Why did the criminal commit his crimes? 2. How did the police catch the criminal? 3. What was going on historically during the time?And number three was explained really well here; you could even argue perhaps that it was done too well. But since the crimes occurred so long ago -- it won't be too long before this story is a century old -- it was necessary for the author to give real context here. He did a very nice job of interleaving "current events" of that day in with this crime story, enough so that I had a good feel for the time period.Was Mr. Fish "Deranged"? You betcha. Was Mr. Fish "evil"? Well, you'd have to define "evil" first I suppose but I don't have a problem with it. But was Mr. Fish the worst serial killer ever? Hmmm, probably not. Unfortunately, he's got a whole lot of competition. Just ask the Toolbox Killers for a start.

Harold Schechter hits another crooked nail square on the head with DERANGED, a 'true crime' novel dealing with one of the most heinous killers of the 20th century, Albert Fish. The author was extremely fair in presenting the conundrum of whether Albert was "insane" or not. Some would (rightly) say that Mr. Fish proved himself insane simply from the depravity and multiplicity of his strange acts. Others would simply regard him as a monster who knew the difference between right and wrong and therefore should be punished to the full extent of the law.Once again Mr. Schechter did an incredible amount of research in putting together this narrative of a series of crimes committed some 85 years ago, going so far as to interview the relatives of witnesses/participants who had predeceased the writing of this book. I found the observations made by Fish's family members extremely interesting considering the crimes that their father had allegedly committed. They paralleled the recollections by family members of other mentally ill individuals that I have either read about or investigated on my own. "Johnny was always a little different." "I always felt a little sorry for Johnny." "That's just Johnny." "His boundaries are a little wider than normal." No one EVER defined a family member as bipolar/schizophrenic/OCD, etc. He/she was always just "different".Albert became notorious not just because of the depravity of his crimes against children, but also because of his advanced age and the actual brutality he visited upon himself. The author pulled no punches on his descriptions of the crimes and self-abuse, so be prepared for graphic evidence. The fact that these crimes were visited upon innocent children magnifies the horror of his acts. Not for the faint of heart but fascinating to those of us interested in trying to understand the human mind.

Though Schecter occasionally goes off on tangents, they give full flavour to his writing and in a case as gross as Albert Fish's, serve as a bit of a palette cleanser.His research is flawless, not in the slight bit sensationalist but neither does it shrink from horrifying detail.

This book arrived promptly and was well packaged.I hadnt heard about this serial killer before so didnt know what to expect from this text. I can't begin to describe the horrors this book unfolds, I was completley enthralled, disgusted, horrified and shocked throughout - but it is a fantastic read!The author writes extremely well and manages to present the facts of the case alongside relevant historical information of that time which adds to the story. He also maintains a dignified prose that does not slide into the outlandish....although the crimes committed are certainly difficult not to become impassioned about.I will be reading more of Harold Schelchier's work, very impressed indeed - good luck not having nightmares from this!

But recreates the 1920-30s richly. Captures the zeitgeist.Presentation of the case as I said is not systematic but meanders through the saga rather.

Shocking but fascinating ! Another well written & informative book. Loved it !Was he or wasn't he - insane ? That IS the question ?

Book is a good read but got I bored near the end.