Early Criminal Activities

By the beginning of the 20th century, Albert Fish was living in New York City, where the size and anonymity of the population made it easier for him to move without attracting attention. He worked as a house painter and decorator, maintained an outwardly ordinary appearance and began building the kind of double life that would later define him.

New York was growing quickly during this period. Crowded tenements, transient workers and large numbers of children living in poverty created conditions in which vulnerable people could disappear from public notice. Police departments had fewer investigative tools, communication between jurisdictions was limited and crimes against poor children did not always receive sustained attention.

Fish appears to have understood how to use those weaknesses. He presented himself as quiet, polite and harmless, qualities that allowed him to approach people without immediately causing suspicion. His age and unremarkable appearance later became useful when he attempted to gain the confidence of families.

Accounts of Fish's early adulthood state that he became involved in prostitution and spent time moving through areas of the city where sexual activity could be conducted with relative secrecy. Some reports describe him working as a male prostitute, although much of the surviving information comes from statements made after his arrest and should be treated carefully.

What is clearer is that his sexual behavior became increasingly connected to violence, humiliation and control. Fish later described a long history of masochism and self-inflicted pain. He also began directing those interests toward other people, including children and young men who were easier to exploit.

The original accounts often describe these early offenses as being driven by financial necessity as well as sexual compulsion. That explanation may apply to some of his behavior, but it should not be used to soften what he did. Fish repeatedly sought out vulnerable people and took advantage of their trust. His actions involved planning, concealment and an awareness that discovery could bring punishment.

He was able to appear respectable when necessary. Fish could speak carefully, invent convincing personal stories and present himself as someone offering work or assistance. These methods later became central to the way he approached victims and their families.

His ability to deceive people was more important than any supposed criminal brilliance. Fish benefited from the social conditions around him, including weak protection for children, limited record keeping and the lack of cooperation between police departments. A man could give a false name in one neighborhood and appear elsewhere without an officer having immediate access to his history.

Fish did have encounters with law enforcement during his adult life. He was arrested for several offenses, including theft and sending obscene material through the mail. He also served time in prison. These arrests show that he did not operate completely beyond the reach of the authorities, although none exposed the full extent of his conduct.

The claim that officials dismissed all his behavior as harmless eccentricity is too broad. Some people clearly recognized that he was disturbed. The greater problem was that individual arrests and complaints were not connected into a complete picture. Mental illness, sexual violence and crimes against children were also poorly understood and inconsistently investigated during that period.

Fish later offered elaborate explanations for his behavior, often describing religious commands, punishment and personal suffering. Psychiatrists who examined him after his arrest disagreed over how much these beliefs controlled his actions. Some considered him seriously mentally ill, while others pointed to the careful steps he took to avoid detection.

That distinction became important because Fish was not simply acting without awareness. He used false identities, selected people he believed were unlikely to be protected and changed his behavior depending on who was watching. Whatever psychological disorders he experienced, he also understood the need to hide what he was doing.

The early years of his criminal activity therefore reveal less about a sudden descent than a gradual escalation. His private behavior became more extreme over time, while his public life remained largely conventional. He worked, traveled and eventually married, creating the appearance of stability even as his offenses continued.

New York itself did not create Fish, nor did urbanization make his actions inevitable. The city did, however, give him access to large numbers of strangers and allowed him to move between different social settings. Poverty and weak child-protection systems increased the vulnerability of the people he targeted.

Later biographies have sometimes described this period in dramatic terms, portraying Fish as a shadowy figure moving freely through hidden corners of the city. The reality was probably less theatrical. He survived by appearing ordinary.

That outward normality became one of the most disturbing features of his life. The people around him did not see a figure who obviously matched the crimes later associated with his name. They saw a working man, a husband and eventually a father.

Fish's marriage and family life would add another layer to that public image. While presenting himself as a provider and parent, he continued developing a private pattern of deception, self-harm and abuse that remained largely unknown to those closest to him.

References & Further Reading

Independent, non-Wikipedia sources vetted at the time of publication. External links open in a new window.

• Harold Schechter, Deranged (1990) — The standard modern biography; the fullest secondary account of Fish's New York years and arrest record. Open Library record.
• Frederic Wertham, The Show of Violence (1949) — The psychiatrist's account, built from his 1935–36 interviews with Fish, including the masochism and self-harm material. Open Library record.
• Brian Innes, Serial Killers — A survey of the genre that situates Fish's escalation alongside comparable cases. Open Library record.
• NYPL Digital Collections — Albert Fish — Contemporaneous New York press coverage across the Library's digitised holdings.

Within this archive, see the early life for the childhood record, the biography for the full life, the family record for the marriage, the arrest for the 1934 capture, and the psychiatric record for the Wertham material. Full citations are held on the sources page.