He was born on 20 March 20 1895 in Munich. He studied medicine in Germany and England. He and Sigmund Freud wrote letters to each other, and Wertham chose to study mainly psychiatry. In 1922 he was asked to come to the United States and to join the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He became a United States citizen in 1927. He moved to New York City in 1932. He became the director of a psychiatric clinic connected with the New York Court of General Sessions. All people who were convicted of serious crimes had a psychiatric examination there. The report from those examinations were used in court. In 1935 Wertham spoke in court for the defense in the trial of Albert Fish, a serial killer. Wertham said Fish was insane.