Late last month, former Poughkeepsie Middle School teacher Albert Fentress, who killed and cannibalized an 18-year-old student in 1979, chose not to contest his detention from Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center in Goshen for at least two more years.
In 1980 Fentress was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the killing of Paul Masters, a recent Poughkeepsie high school graduate. According to published reports, Fentress admitted to having images of the movie “Deliverance” in his mind before luring Masters into his City of Poughkeepsie home, tying him up in the basement, sexually abusing and mutilating him, shooting him in the head and cooking and eating some of his body parts.
Fentress has spent more than two decades in various psychiatric intuitions throughout the state; he has been at Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center since 2002.
Every two years Fentress has the right to request a state Supreme Court hearing to whether or not he is still considered dangerous, and should be released from the hospital or relocated to another facility.
Fentress also withdrew his petition to be released in 2001, after a witness claimed that he was abused by Fentress when he was 10 years old. The testimony discounted Fentress’ earlier claim that he had been cured of his mental and emotional problems by being totally truthful with psychiatrists who examined him. Fentress, who gave psychiatrists a detailed sexual history, testified to three homosexual encounters – none involving a minor.
Since that time, a second witness has come forward.
Fentress’ most recent hearing was scheduled for later this month in Suffolk County before State Supreme Court Judge James Catterson, who had previously heard the testimony of the two witnesses who were molested by Fentress as children. According to Catterson, Fentress’ failure to disclose the incidents to his doctors indicated that he was not being truthful over years of treatment.