Volume 8 · Chapter 6
The Eyeball Killer
Charles Albright
Victims: Mary Pratt · Susan Peterson · Shirley Williams
Case at a glance
- When
- December 1990 – March 1991
- Where
- Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas
- Perpetrator
- Charles Frederick Albright
- Victims
- Mary Pratt, Susan Peterson, Shirley Williams
- Outcome
- Convicted of Shirley Williams’s murder in 1991 and sentenced to life; died in custody on August 22, 2020
The case
Between December 1990 and March 1991, three women were shot to death in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas: Mary Lou Pratt, 33, on December 13; Susan Peterson, 27, on February 10; and Shirley Williams on March 10. All three had worked as prostitutes. In each case the killer had removed the victim’s eyes with a precision that suggested a practiced hand.
Two patrol officers and a deputy constable traced the attacks to Charles Albright, a 57-year-old Dallas man and former teacher with a long interest in taxidermy. He was arrested on March 22, 1991. Forensic analysts matched hairs found on Shirley Williams to Albright and tied animal hairs from his vacuum cleaner bag to her raincoat.
Prosecutors tried Albright only for the murder of Shirley Williams. In December 1991 a jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison. The other two cases were never brought to trial. Albright denied the killings for the rest of his life and died on August 22, 2020, at age 87, while in custody at a prison medical facility in Lubbock, Texas.
Read the full story
This case is told in full in True Crime Case Histories, Volume 8 by Jason Neal.
Get Volume 8 on AmazonCase photographs
10 photos
Where it happened
Why this case
“Albright was convicted of one murder, but investigators always believed he killed all three women. Mary Lou, Susan and Shirley were too often described only by their work, as though that explained what happened to them. Their names belong at the center of this story, alongside the patient forensic work that caught him.”
— Jason Neal, author of True Crime Case Histories
