No, didn't notice that. Thanks for shining a light on this fact. Well done by the production people. Proves, that this kind of story, was actually relevant in some phases of history. I mean, if there is an actual letter, that an actual killer have sent to his victims parents, to delight himself, it's smart, that they used that letter for the show. To show the real twisted mind of a killer, not the show writers or book author ideas and fantasies on the subject.

@madarada said:

No, didn't notice that. Thanks for shining a light on this fact. Well done by the production people. Proves, that this kind of story, was actually relevant in some phases of history. I mean, if there is an actual letter, that an actual killer have sent to his victims parents, to delight himself, it's smart, that they used that letter for the show. To show the real twisted mind of a killer, not the show writers or book author ideas and fantasies on the subject.

There is a long sad history of adults eating children during times of starvation. Often they, unable to eat their own, would trade their kids for a neighbors kids! Even the bible describes such action during a period of famine! So if what Albert Fish wrote is true (that has been debated as historians can find no evidence of such a famine where he said there was), his lasting unnatural appetite was awoken by such practice.

Some animals in the wilderness have resorted to killing and eatign their own kind. I guess we are not so far removed as we think!

I'm most certain that we aren't, even remotely, removed from this kind of beastiality. We have build a world around ourselves, that tries best to convince about progress and civilised ways of life, but, there are many giveaways on the facts, that we still haven't understood anything about our own nature. One big example would be the ongoing wars. I understand the sentiment behind not being able to eat your own children, though. I remember from Hannibal Lecter's backstory in "Hannibal Rising", that "what made him that way" - into a serial killer and cannibal, was, in fact, that he had been tricked into eating his own beloved sister Mischa. (The abuse he later suffered in the orphanage also played a role, I'm sure.) I guess, that kind of thing can seriously traumatize a person.

So Albert Fish invented that particular famine?

So Albert Fish invented that particular famine?

Unknown. Just no record of it so it is possible he did as an excuse for his horrid actions. Gracie (the victim the prompted the letter) was not his first, he said, and he had killed and eaten many children. He would be caught, tried, and executed for her murder. Type his name in an web browser and you'll come up with multiple hits, even a picture of him and of poor Gracie.