The Letter that crakced the case
Detective William King knew about the Grace Budd case and he never gave up on finding the murderer. Walter Winchell, popular newspaper journalist during he time period, was Dectective kings biggest ally. Winchell wrote a made up article that would say that they have a suspect in the Grace Budd Case. Fish would read the article and write a letter to the Budd family that said:
"On Sunday June the 3 - 1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. Brought you pot cheese - strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind ... On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said Yes she could go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked out. When we got there, I told her to remain outside. She picked wildflowers."
The letter would continue to describe how he ate her. When the detective saw the letter he had no clue how someone could do this. During the time that Fish wrote the letter he was working at the New York Private Chauffeur’s Benevolent Association. Ater writing the letter fish scratched out the return adress on the pre printed envelope but did not obscure the NYPCBA emblem enough. Detective King tried to match the handwriting to 400 of the NYPCBA employees. He could not find a single match. The next step was to find if someone had taken a stationary from the association. The answer to this question was yes. The janitor from the association had taken the stationary back to his prior home at 200 east 52nd street. King went to the building at described the janitor to the landlord. The landlord said that she remembers a man who moved out of the building. Immediately King asked for the sign in log and before he knew it he found a perfect match. The signature the match come from was none other than albert Fish.
"On Sunday June the 3 - 1928 I called on you at 406 W 15 St. Brought you pot cheese - strawberries. We had lunch. Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind ... On the pretense of taking her to a party. You said Yes she could go. I took her to an empty house in Westchester I had already picked out. When we got there, I told her to remain outside. She picked wildflowers."
The letter would continue to describe how he ate her. When the detective saw the letter he had no clue how someone could do this. During the time that Fish wrote the letter he was working at the New York Private Chauffeur’s Benevolent Association. Ater writing the letter fish scratched out the return adress on the pre printed envelope but did not obscure the NYPCBA emblem enough. Detective King tried to match the handwriting to 400 of the NYPCBA employees. He could not find a single match. The next step was to find if someone had taken a stationary from the association. The answer to this question was yes. The janitor from the association had taken the stationary back to his prior home at 200 east 52nd street. King went to the building at described the janitor to the landlord. The landlord said that she remembers a man who moved out of the building. Immediately King asked for the sign in log and before he knew it he found a perfect match. The signature the match come from was none other than albert Fish.
