Hannibal Lecter and Albert Fish

Everyone who knew Gracie said she was a sweet, well-behaved child. When she returned from church that Sunday morning, there was a visitor at her home. The man, "Frank Howard," had called on the family a week before. He was to be Edward’s new employer.  "Frank" invited Gracie to sit on his lap where she played with his money.

Gallagher’s opening statement continued:

...While she was sitting there, he said to the Budd parents that his sister was giving a birthday party for her children, up at 135th Street in the city of New York, and he thought it would be nice if Grace would go along with him. He said he loved children, he would return early that night, they need not worry, it would be all right. They hesitated to let her go, but finally consented.

It was a decision Gracie’s parents would regret the rest of their lives. She never came home. Many years passed before her family knew where she had gone and what had happened to her. But as the defense psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham wrote in his book, The Show of Violence:

He looked like a meek and innocuous little old man, gentle and benevolent, friendly and polite. If you wanted someone to entrust your children to, he would be the one you would choose.

One New York City detective, William F. King, never gave up on the case. Periodically he would ask one of the popular media personalities to run a story on Grace Budd’s disappearance. His hope was to draw out the criminal. In 1934, his patience finally paid off.