Serial Killer Charles Albright #truecrime

In Dallas Texas from late 1990 to 1991 a serial killer prowled the streets committing inhuman acts against women. The victims were shot and then the depraved killer expertly removed their eyeballs. The murderer would be arrested for 3 murders where he removed the eyes of those he killed as well as the stabbing death of a 4th for which he would eventually be acquitted.

Charles Albright, the Eyeball Killer aka the Dallas Ripper.

Charles Albright was born in Amarillo Texas on August 10, 1933. He was quickly given up for adoption and would be taken in by Fred and Delle Albright.

He was pushed hard by his parents in school which led to him skipping 2 grades. As a teenager, Albright took up taxidermy as a hobby. He would shoot animals then stuff them with his mothers help. His family did not have enough money to buy the glass eyes used by professionals and so instead he was forced to use buttons. Some theorize that this is when his fascination with eyes began.

He began getting into legal trouble early. His first arrest occured at age 13 for aggravated assault. Albright later shifted his criminal focus to theft. At age 17 he was arrested again, this time for theft. Albright had stolen guns and money. He ended up serving 6 months in prison.

After prison, Albright enrolled at Arkansas State Teachers college studying premed. While in school, he studied multiple languages and participated in clubs. Charles also began exploring his fixation on eyeballs.

He cut the eyes out of a photo of 9’e of his friends ex girlfriend and pasted them onto another woman’s picture and on his walls. He continued his career in theft as well, coercing a woman named Betty Nestor to give him keys to the college. Albright married Nestor in 1954. After being caught with stolen items, he was expelled from the school.

Despite having a wife and daughter, Charles Albright continued his life of crime. He was arrested for dealing in stolen goods in 1961 and also sentenced to 2 years probabtion for forging credentials to get a job as a high school teacher in 1968.

The Charles and Betty split up in 1975. He was in and out of trouble with the law including an arrest for child molestation in 1981. In 1986, Albright inherited $100,000 when his father died. During this year he also moved in with a woman named Dixie Austin.

The first murder occurred in December 1990. Mary Lou Pratt was a 33 year old prostitute in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas who was known to police. Her body was found on December 13- she had been shot with a 44 caliber pistol in the back of the head. When the medical examiner began her autopsy he found that both of her eyes had been cut out. The removal had been done so expertly that no one had noticed the eyes were gone until she was on the exam table.

2 months later, in February of 1991, the killer struck again. 27 year old Susan Beth Peterson was also a street worker and her body was found on February 10th on the same street where the first victim was found. She had been shot twice in the head and once in the chest. When police discovered that her eyes had also been removed, they knew a serial killer was on the loose in Dallas.

The third and final known victim was a 45 year old named Shirley Williams. Her body was found near an elementary school. She had been beaten, having facial bruising and a broken nose. Her cause of death was 2 gunshots to the face and head. Suspecting another attack by the eyeball killer, an investigator lifted her eyelids and confirmed that her eyes were missing. Further examination revealed the broken tip of an x-acto knife blade.

Charles Albright came to the attention of police regarding the murders when someone reported him as being a friend of Mary Lou Pratt. They also told investigators that Albright had a fixation on knives and eyes. This led to a search warrant of his home, where investigators found a .44 revolver and X-acto knives.

In addition to the gun and knives, police found further evidence linking Albright to the murders. There was a red condom which matched that which was found near Shirley Williams. One source reported that dolls were found in the house that had had their eyes removed as well.

Upon ballistics testing, the gun was found to not be a match to the weapon used to kill the women. However, hair samples found in the home were consistent with those found on some of the victims but there was not enough to perform a dna test. Hair taken from Albright were also found to be a close match to those found on Shirley Williams body, but not close enough to conclusively determine he was the killer.

Charles Albright was charged with the 3 murders and a 4th murder which would later be dropped. His trial started on December 2nd 1991. The prosecution team had a difficult case, after some of the evidence was thrown out accidentally and a witness withdrew her testimony that she had been attacked by Albright. The hair samples were used as the primary evidence although it connected him to the 4th murder- the stabbing death of Rhonda Bowie which was thrown out due to Albright having a strong alibi for the time of the killing.

At the end of the trial, Albright was convicted of only the murder of Shirley Williams. He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to the Texas State Prison in Amarillo. Officials at the prison reported that he still had a fascination with eyes, and spent time reading about cases involving their removal. Charles Albright died in August of 2020 at the age of 87 at the West Texas Medical facility in Lubbock.