ALBERT FISH DIES IN CHAIR: THE WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 17, 1936

The whole of it fits in four paragraphs. On the morning after Albert Fish was put to death at Sing Sing, The Washington Times gave the news a single narrow column on page five, under an International News Service dateline from Ossining. Death, the wire writer began, had written "finis" to his strange career. The man he had killed was named in the next sentence: Grace Budd, lured from her family's home in New York in 1928 and never brought back.

The line that makes the cutting worth keeping comes in the third paragraph. A few days before the execution, the paper reports, Fish had told his attorney that "the electric chair will be the supreme thrill of my life." The remark has been repeated in nearly every account of the case written since, and here it is in print within hours of the event, set directly beside a plainer fact: when the time came, he had to be helped into the chamber by guards.

He did not die alone. The same night the State of New York electrocuted John Smith of the Bronx, who had killed a man named John Wilson in a quarrel over money, and the column gives him the last paragraph. Smith had one leg and went to the chair on a crutch, the paper says, buoyed by religion, and sat down almost tranquilly. Fish, on whom the story opened, gets no last words at all.

This is a wire notice written the morning after, and it carries no more than a few facts and one secondhand quotation; the remark about the chair reaches the paper through the attorney, not from anyone who heard Fish say it in court. The paper calls him Albert Howard Fish and gives his age as 66. His name is usually given as Albert Hamilton Fish, and he was 65 when he was executed on the night of January 16, 1936. It calls Grace Budd nine years old; she was ten. Fish was convicted of one murder, hers, on March 22, 1935. He confessed to two more killings of children and was never tried for either, and his claim of a hundred victims was not believed by the prosecutors.

This page of The Washington Times was printed in 1936, which is less than ninety-five years ago. The Library of Congress believes such issues are in the public domain but cautions that they may contain some copyrighted third-party material; nothing in this short wire item appears to be syndicated or separately copyrighted. The scan is the Library's copy from Chronicling America, with the citation and rights statement beneath it.

Large, clean type made this an easy column to read, and the transcription below follows it word for word with no illegible passages. The paper's wording stands as printed: the middle name "Howard," the wire credit "(I.N.S.)," the phrase "lethal chamber," and its 1936 racial description of John Smith, which is reproduced as a record of how the paper wrote, not as an endorsement of it.

Scan of a single narrow column from page 5 of The Washington Times, January 17, 1936, under the headline "ALBERT FISH DIES IN CHAIR": four short paragraphs of large, clean type with an Ossining dateline and an I.N.S. credit. No photograph. — The Washington Times (Washington, D.C.), January 17, 1936, page 5, column 7: "ALBERT FISH DIES IN CHAIR." Library of Congress, Chronicling America (LCCN sn84026749).Select the scan to open it at full size. The full newspaper page: JPG or PDF.Rights: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety." This issue was published in 1936. Because it is less than 95 years old, the Library of Congress notes that issues like it may contain some copyrighted third-party material.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

ALBERT FISH DIES IN CHAIR

OSSINING, N. Y., Jan. 17 (I.N.S.).—Death today had written "finis" to the strange career of Albert Howard Fish, 66-year-old sadist.

Fish, who slew 9-year-old Grace Budd after luring her from her home in New York in 1928, was put to death in the electric chair last night along with John Smith, one-legged Bronx Negro.

Fish, who told his attorney several days ago "the electric chair will be the supreme thrill of my life," had to be helped into the lethal chamber by guards.

Smith, slayer of John Wilson in a quarrel over money, limped to his doom with a crutch. Buoyed up by the comfort of religion, he sat in the chair almost tranquilly.

Transcriber's notes

- Readability: excellent. Large, clean type. No [illegible] markers were needed.

- Kept as printed: "Albert Howard Fish" (he is usually given as Albert Hamilton Fish, which is how SKC files him); the International News Service credit as "(I.N.S.)"; "lethal chamber"; and the racial description of the second condemned man, which is the paper's own 1936 wording and is reproduced here as a matter of record, not of endorsement.

- The paper gives his age as 66; Fish was 65 at his execution on 16 January 1936, which this 17 January edition reports as "last night".

- The quoted line about the electric chair is the reason to keep the item: it is a contemporary record of the remark, attributed to his attorney, that is quoted in almost every later account of the case.