Meet Charles Albright – a serial killer who developed an obsession with eyeballs when he was a child.
Between October 1988 and March 1991, the Eyeball Killer brutally murdered at least four women and attempted to kill another.
Albright’s reign of terror began in October 1988, when 30-year-old sex worker, Rhonda K. Bowie, was found dead with more than 20 stab wounds on her body.
In December 1990, Albright struck again, shooting and killing 33-year-old veteran sex worker Mary Lou Pratt. She was shot in the back of the head with a .44 Magnum and severely beaten.
However, it was what investigators found—or rather, didn’t find—that shocked them: Pratt’s eyes had been meticulously removed with surgical precision.
Two months later, in February 1991, the body of 27-year-old Susan Peterson was discovered on the same street as Mary Pratt. Like Pratt, she had been shot and left partially nude.
The medical examiner confirmed that Peterson’s eyes had also been surgically removed.
A month after Peterson’s murder, 41-year-old Shirley Williams met the same gruesome fate. She was shot, left nude, and her eyes had been meticulously removed.
A significant breakthrough came when a fifth victim, Veronica Rodriguez, told the police that one of her clients had attempted to kill her.
In March, 1991, investigators zeroed in on Charles Albright, a 57-year-old former high-school teacher, described by his neighbors as “the gentlest man” they know.
Albright’s obsession with eyeballs began at the age of eleven when his adoptive parents enrolled him in a taxidermy course.
Despite extensive investigative efforts, police struggled to gather enough evidence to charge Albright with the first three murders.
That changed when rookie police officer Regina Smith took matters into her own hands, ensuring the Eyeball Killer would face justice.
In December 1991, Albright stood trial for the murder of Shirley Williams. Although he repeatedly claimed to have no idea why he had been arrested, the jury convicted him based on overwhelming circumstantial evidence and sentenced him to life in prison.
Albright spent the remainder of his life incarcerated at the John Montford Psychiatric Unit in Lubbock, Texas, where he died in 2020.
