*Pictured above: Mary Lou Pratt, Susan Peterson, and Shirley Williams
December 13th 1990, Dr. Elizabeth Peacock, a Dallas area medical examiner was
preparing to perform an autopsy on a woman who had recently been brought into the morgue. The deceased? A 33-year old sex worker named Mary Lou Pratt. Pratt was a well-known and well-liked sex worker who frequented the Oak Hill neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. Pratt was found wearing only a t-shirt, which was pushed up over her chest, exposing her breasts. A cursory glance of Pratt’s body showed that she had been beaten and a single gunshot wound was visible on the back of her head.
Dr. Peacock went about her work examining Pratt’s body and discovers that the bullet hole in the back of Pratt’s skull was made with .44 caliber gun. Dr. Peacock’s exam uncovered evidence that Pratt had been sexually assaulted. During the examination of Pratt’s face, Dr. Peacock opened Pratt’s eyelids to determine the color of her eyes but she jumped back with surprise. Pratt’s eyeballs had been removed with such expert surgical precision, that there was no observable signs of trauma to her face. It appeared as though Pratt’s killer had taken her eyes with him. Susan Peterson’s body was found on February 10th 1991. Peterson was found
approximately one-mile away from where Pratt’s body had been found two months earlier. As with Pratt, Peterson was a Dallas area sex worker whose body had been dumped out in the open and left partially nude, wearing only a t-shirt, lifted up above her breasts. Peterson had been shot 3 times: once in the top of her head, once in her chest, and once in the back of her head. Peterson’s eyes? Gone. Removed ever so carefully and taken by her killer.
On March 19th, 1991, a waitress was walking down the street and saw something propped
up against a curb across the street from an elementary school. As the waitress walked closer to the curb, she was horrified to discover that it wasn’t something, it was someone…at least it had been someone. Shirley Williams had been murdered; shot twice (once in the face and once at the top of the head), had her eyeballs removed, and her body dumped partially nude for the world to see. While there were similarities to Pratt and Peterson, Williams’ murder did have a couple of notable differences. For one thing, Williams was African American and Pratt and Peterson were Caucasian. And for another thing, Williams’ had cuts and scratches around her eyes (later determined to be from an X-Acto knife), indicating that the removal of her eyes wasn’t as precise and clean as Pratt’s and Peterson’s. What happened? Was the killer interrupted? Was Williams’ murder more spontaneous while the others were planned? Or was the killer just more angry and frenzied?
Three women are dead. All murdered. All had their eyes removed / stolen. They were all beaten, at least one was raped. As a final indignity, all of the women were left exposed, save for a t-shirt and dumped in public places. And the police didn’t have any leads but they did have one harrowing account from a woman named Veronica Rodriguez. In fact, Veronica had been with Pratt the night she was murdered.
On the night of December 12th, 1990, a man had approached Veronica and Pratt and asked them if they wanted to have a three-way. They agreed. Sex work is dangerous and there’s safety in numbers…most times. Pratt and Veronica got into the unknown man’s vehicle and the three of them drove off to a secluded field in the south of Dallas. Once parked, the man became increasingly angry, aggressive, and violent. Veronica was hit with something (she believed it to be a gun) and lost consciousness. When she woke, she saw Pratt being shot in the back of the head by the man who had hired them. Having just witnessed her friend murdered and fearing for her own life, Veronica took off running as fast as she could to find help. In the distance, Veronica saw a house. When she reached it, she frantically banged on the door until the man who lived there, a truck driver named Axton Schindler, opened the door and brought Veronica into the house and out of danger.
Veronica went to the police. She told them about her assault, her friend’s murder, and her narrow escape. The problem Veronica now faced, was finding someone to believe her story. Veronica was a frequent drug user who had a history with the police in the area where she worked. She had a reputation as a liar and a burn out. Despite her past, Veronica was adamant, what she had experienced on December 12th really happened. Her friend was murdered and she could describe the guy who did it.
Police began an investigation into Veronica’s story. During their search, the investigators found no physical evidence that led them to any promising suspects. But upon further investigation into Axton, police discovered that Axton didn’t own in the house he was occupying the night Veronica came banging on his door. He was a tenet. He rented the home from a local man who owned several small properties around Dallas. Several of these properties were in close proximity to the dumping grounds of Pratt, Peterson, and Williams. This property owner’s name was Charles Albright.Who is Charles Albright? Charles Albright can best be described as a remarkable underachiever and con man. As baby, he was adopted by Delle and Fred Alright. By all accounts, Delle was extremely overprotective of Charles. Since Delle was a school teacher, she pushed Charles academically, ultimately helping him skip two grades.
When Charles was still a boy, Delle caught him playing with a dead animal in the woods. In an effort to cultivate this curiously into something…productive, Delle ordered Albright a taxidermy kit. The kit included instructions on how to remove a dead animal’s eyes (and how to replace them with false ones).
By the time Charles was 15 he was a thief, a forger, and had a record for aggravated assault. At the tender age of 16, Charles was sent to jail after being caught with stolen cash, two handguns and a rifle (neither of these guns belonged to Albright). This incident led to a year in jail for Albright, but that didn’t teach him a thing. While attending Arkansas State Teacher’s College, Albright was again caught with stolen items and expelled. The school decided not to press charges (maybe assuming expulsion was punishment enough) but Alright didn’t miss a beat: he falsified all the correct documents and forged a bachelor and master’s degree.
Albright married his college girlfriend and they had a daughter. In 1974, Albright and his wife divorced. Albright could never seem to hold down a job and at times, he was a high school teacher (when he could find work). Throughout their marriage, Albright continued to forge checks, falsify credentials and conducting various deceptive acts. He wasn’t very good at being a con man considering he continued to get caught, but he was good at avoiding more jail time and serious punishment – Albright usually managed to get probation for his crimes.During a visit with friends in 1981, Albright was caught molesting their daughter. Albright pled guilty in order to “avoid the hassle” and was given probation (yes, seriously).
Once his probation was complete, Albright was back to his old ways: relying on someone else to provide for him. In this case, this person was a woman named Dixie who Albright invited to live with him. She paid all of Albright’s bills and paid his rent. To Albright’s defense, he did hand out papers on a paper route. He also visited local prostitutes in the area (without telling Dixie).
Albright was a con-man, a liar, a fraud, and a child molester, but what linked him to the murders of Pratt, Peterson, and Williams? A search of Albright’s home uncovered a fascination with mannequins and masks-- he seemed to have a fascination for "dead-eyed" objects and art pieces. Forensic scientists who serached Albright's home matched Albright’s hair to human hair found on Williams’ body. Also of note, Williams’ hair was found in the vacuum cleaner of Albright. If Albright frequented sex workers on the regular, it wouldn’t be so suspect to find Albright’s hair on the body of a sex worker, but this piece of evidence was enough for a jury of Albright’s peers and he was found guilty of murder on December 18th, 1991. Albright was only convicted of Williams’ murder since there was no evidence to convict him (or even bring him to trial) in the murders on Pratt or Peterson. However, it remains public opinion that Albright is responsible for the murders of Pratt and Peterson. Charles Albright is now serving a life sentence but he still proclaims his innocence. Even though Albright claims he’s innocent, he spends his free time doing something a little…damning. He allegedly spends his days in prison drawing pictures of eyes, various colors, shapes and sizes. He hangs his creations on the walls of his cell. If I were his defense attorney, I’d encourage him to get a new hobby.
Sources1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Albright2. https://www.oxygen.com/mark-of-a-killer/charles-albright-eyeball-killer-serial-killer-sex-workersdallas-texas-90s3. https://murderpedia.org/male.A/a/albright-charles.htm4. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dallas-eyeball-killer-murdered-women-removed-eyes-article-1.37692185. Autopsy 5: Dead Men Do Tell Tales