Editing Albert Fish (section)

===1919–1930: Escalation===
Around 1919, Fish stabbed an intellectually disabled boy in [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]].<ref name="NYT03261935">{{Cite news |title=Fish is Sentenced. Admits New Crimes; Death in Electric Chair Fixed for Week of April 29, 1935. Move to Set Aside Verdict Denied |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/03/26/archives/fish-is-sentenced-admits-new-crimes-death-in-electric-chair-fixed.html |quote=As Albert H. Fish was sentenced to die in the [[electric chair]] at [[Sing Sing]], Westchester authorities revealed today that he had confessed to a series of other crimes in various parts of the country. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 26, 1935 |access-date=March 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704041009/https://www.nytimes.com/1935/03/26/archives/fish-is-sentenced-admits-new-crimes-death-in-electric-chair-fixed.html |archive-date=July 4, 2018 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref> He often chose people who were either mentally disabled or [[African-Americans|African-American]] as his victims, later explaining that he assumed these people would not be missed when killed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/fish/20.html |title=Albert Fish: real life Hannibal Lecter |publisher=[[Crime Library]] |access-date=November 7, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024122004/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/fish/20.html |archive-date=October 24, 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Fish would later claim to have occasionally paid boys to procure other children for him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marriner |first1=Brian |title=Cannibalism - The Last Taboo |date=2011 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781446492949 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wif_AQfJdJ4C |language=en |page= 138}}</ref> Fish tortured, mutilated, and murdered young children with his "implements of Hell": a [[meat cleaver]], a [[butcher knife]], and a small [[handsaw]].<ref name="Troy Taylor 2004">{{cite web |url=http://www.prairieghosts.com/fish.html |title=Albert Fish: The Life & Crimes of One of America's Most Deranged Killers |last=Taylor |first=Troy |publisher=Prairieghosts.com |year=2004 |access-date=March 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608130819/http://www.prairieghosts.com/fish.html |archive-date=June 8, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> On July 11, 1924, Fish found 8-year-old Beatrice Kiel playing alone on her parents' farm on [[Staten Island]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. He offered her money to come and help him look for rhubarb. She was about to leave the farm when her mother chased Fish away. Fish left but returned later to the Kiels' barn, where he tried to sleep but was discovered by Beatrice's father and forced to leave. In 1924, the 54-year-old Fish, suffering from [[psychosis]], felt that [[God]] was commanding him to torture and sexually mutilate children.<ref name="crimelibrary" />

Shortly before he abducted Grace Budd, Fish attempted to test his "implements of Hell" on a 10-year-old child he had been molesting named Cyril Quinn. Quinn and his friend were playing [[Four square|box ball]] on a sidewalk when Fish asked them if they had eaten lunch. When they said that they had not, he invited them into his apartment for sandwiches. While the two boys were wrestling on Fish's bed, they dislodged his mattress; underneath was a knife, a small handsaw, and a meat cleaver. They became frightened and ran out of the apartment.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Borowski|first1=John|title=Albert Fish: In His Own Words|date=September 5, 2014|publisher=Waterfront Productions|isbn=978-0692263754}}</ref> Despite [[bigamy|already being married]], Fish married Estella Wilcox on February 6, 1930, in [[Waterloo, New York]]; they divorced after only one week.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ex-Wife Unconcerned |date=December 15, 1934 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/12/15/archives/exwife-unconcerned.html |access-date=March 29, 2010 |page=3 |quote=Mrs. Estella Wilcox of Waterloo, former wife of Albert Fish, said tonight that she did not care what happens to her former husband. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704041001/https://www.nytimes.com/1934/12/15/archives/exwife-unconcerned.html |archive-date=July 4, 2018 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Fish was arrested in May 1930 for "sending an obscene letter to a woman who answered an advertisement for a maid."<ref name="NYT12151934"/> Following that arrest and another in 1931, he was sent to the [[Bellevue Hospital]] for observation.<ref name=took>{{Cite news |title=Mr. and Mrs. Budd Name Him on Stand as One Who Took Child Away Before Murder |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F11FE3B59107A93C1A81788D85F418385F9 |quote=The parents of 10-year-old Grace Budd identified Albert Fish today as the man ... He criticized psychiatrists of Bellevue and Kings County Hospitals for ... |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 13, 1935 |access-date=March 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107174208/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F11FE3B59107A93C1A81788D85F418385F9 |archive-date=November 7, 2012 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref>