Albert Fish Last Words

Albert Fish's reported last words were: "I don't even know why I am here." This is the phrase most commonly attributed to him in the contemporary press coverage of the 16 January 1936 execution and is the version that appears in executioner Robert G. Elliott's 1940 memoir Agent of Death. The evidentiary record is, however, not entirely settled: two competing accounts exist in the press reports of the following day, and the historical record should be read with that qualification in mind.

The Robert Elliott account

Robert G. Elliott served as the State of New York's official electrocutioner from 1926 to 1939. He was present at the Fish execution on 16 January 1936 and personally operated the switch. His 1940 memoir Agent of Death: The Memoirs of an Executioner, co-written with Albert Beatty and published by E. P. Dutton, is the most-cited source for Fish's final statement.

In the memoir, Elliott records Fish entering the death chamber at approximately 11:05 p.m. in the company of the Roman Catholic prison chaplain Father John McCaffrey. Fish was described by Elliott as calm and cooperative. Elliott writes that Fish, seated in the chair and while being fitted with the head-electrode, turned to the assembled witnesses and said, "I don't even know why I am here." The current was applied at 11:06 p.m. Death was certified at 11:09 p.m. by the prison physician Dr Charles Sweet.

The contemporary press reports

The day after the execution — 17 January 1936 — the major New York newspapers carried accounts based on statements from the twenty-four official witnesses present at the death house. The reports are not fully consistent:

• The New York Times (17 January 1936, p. 8) reported that Fish "uttered no word" on entering the chamber and was silent at the moment of electrocution.
• The Daily News of the same date reported that Fish "mumbled something about not knowing why he was there" — the account closest to Elliott's memoir version.
• The Herald-Tribune reported only that Fish "walked steadily to the chair" and made "a brief remark" which was not transcribed.

The inconsistency between these three contemporary accounts is itself historically significant. The full text of each report is reproduced in the sources archive.

The thrill-of-a-lifetime phrase

A second statement is sometimes attributed to Fish in popular retellings of the execution: that he described the forthcoming electrocution to reporters, in the days before the execution, as "the supreme thrill of my life — the only one I haven't tried." This phrase was reported by the Daily News on 14 January 1936 from an interview conducted during Fish's final week in the death house, and is often confused with his last words.

It is important to distinguish the two: the "supreme thrill" remark was a pre-execution interview quote given in the days before 16 January, not a last statement made in the chair. The "I don't even know why I am here" line is the one associated with the moment of execution itself.

The execution in detail

For the full account of the execution, including the legal chronology leading up to it, the witnesses present, and the autopsy record, see the Albert Fish execution page. The key details:

• Date: 16 January 1936
• Time of electrocution: 11:06 p.m.
• Time of death certification: 11:09 p.m.
• Place: Death House, Sing Sing State Prison, Ossining, New York
• Executioner: Robert G. Elliott
• Physician: Dr Charles Sweet
• Chaplain: Father John McCaffrey
• Age at death: 65 years, 7 months, 28 days

Fish's body was taken by the prison morgue for autopsy. The pelvic examination reconfirmed the twenty-nine sewing needles documented in the 1935 Albert Fish X-ray. The remains were released to Anna Mary Hoffman, Fish's estranged wife, and interred on 20 January 1936 in a grave marked only with a numeric plot identifier.

Reconciling the accounts

The historical consensus — informed by the weight Robert Elliott's memoir carries as the most direct available testimony — is that Fish did make a brief remark in the chair and that the remark was consistent with the phrase "I don't even know why I am here." This is the version reproduced in Harold Schechter's Deranged (1990) and in the Schechter-edited reference volumes that follow. The Sing Sing administration's own execution log, preserved at the New York State Archives, does not record the words verbatim; the log notes only "prisoner made brief statement."

The broader context of the Albert Fish case is documented across this archive — the biography, the crimes, the victims, the arrest, and the Westchester trial — and readers are referred to those pages for the fuller record.

Further reading on the Albert Fish execution

For the full execution record, see the Albert Fish execution page. For the story of how he came to be in the death house in the first place, see how Albert Fish was caught and the Albert Fish arrest file. For the trial that led to the death sentence, see the main Albert Fish biography. For the primary-source bibliography used on this page, see sources.

Last reviewed: 19 May 2026 · Editorial team: Bureau of Historical Research · Sources: Robert G. Elliott and Albert Beatty, Agent of Death: The Memoirs of an Executioner (E. P. Dutton, 1940); New York Times, Daily News, Herald-Tribune 17 January 1936; Sing Sing execution log, New York State Archives; Deranged (Schechter, 1990).