Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Eyeball Killer” Charles Albright Pt. 2

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

In March of 1991, after the murder of three sex workers in four months, Dallas investigators only had one lead: Charles Albright. The problem was that they had no proof he had been involved in any of the crimes. Their only hope was finding somebody on the street who would talk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode contains discussion of murder and sexual assault. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. On a spring afternoon in March 1991, Tina Connolly stood on a street corner in Oak Cliff, batting her eyes. They were big and beautiful, and the 20-year-old used them to attract clients. So when one of her regulars pulled up and invited her into his car, she knew they had worked again. Tina slipped into the passenger seat. Her John was one of her regulars, an older man named Charles.

As he drove towards their regular spot, he talked about his family and work as a carpenter. He was a nice, polite guy and always paid well. When they arrived at the field, Charles liked to use for their business. He asked for oral sex like he always did. But as Tina was working, Charles pulled on her hair, something he normally didn't do. It was rough and hurt, like he was angry and taking it out.

on her. Tina was a little nervous. It was odd behavior for Charles, but it wasn't abnormal for for other clients to be a little aggressive, depending on their mood. So she figured it was probably nothing to worry about. But then Charles started to fumble around for something in his truck. Tina could hear the sharp clank of metal-on-metal, like he was shifting around heavy tools. Charles was a construction worker, so it made sense that he'd have tools in his truck, but something didn't feel right to Tina. She could sense him growing more frantic, like he was looking for something specific,

possibly something dangerous. At that moment, Tina knew she had to get away. She leapt out of the seat and sprinted towards the road, her heart pounding in her chest. Charles called after her, but she ignored him and kept running as fast as she possibly could. She couldn't go back, because as she got away,

a dark feeling rose through her that if she had stayed, Charles Albright just might have killed her. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we're taking a look at Charles Albright, also known as the Eyeball Killer. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Last time, we watched as Charles learned the art of charming his way out of trouble and developed an uncanny love of eyes. Then in 1990, a sex worker was found dead near Charles' neighborhood, with her eyeballs cut out of their sockets. Today, we'll cover two similar murders and follow an investigation that relied on the thinnest evidence.

We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels. But you don't need to break any laws to find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify. It's the commerce platform that can help you with literally everything,

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Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Early in the morning of December 13, 1990, 26-year-old sex worker Veronica Rodriguez ran through the streets of South Dallas, trying to piece together what had just happened.

She'd been standing on the boulevard with her friend Mary Pratt when the two were picked up by a John to do a double. It was a regular evening to start, but somewhere along the way, the John raped Veronica that attempted to murder her. Luckily, she'd managed to get away. Mary hadn't. Veronica reached for her forehead, feeling a gash and blood. She had to get somewhere safe in case the man came after her again. She spotted a house nearby and knocked on the door. An older truck driver by the name of Axton Schindler opened up. Veronica told him her story, and he led her inside to catch her breath.

She stayed through the sunrise, the evening slowly fading into memory as she recovered. However, as the morning wore on, she was itching to get back out again. She was still terrified, but she had to look for work. So she said goodbye to Axton and hit the streets. A little later that day, Veronica was picking up a client when a police car pulled up beside her. Officers John Matthews and Regina Smith were the two cops assigned to the area, so they knew Veronica well. They'd arrested her several times, in fact. Seeing the cops, Veronica was immediately on a...

edge. The last thing she needed after her nightmarish evening was to be thrown in jail. So when Smith rolled down the window and asked Veronica about the cut on her forehead, she pleaded with them not to throw her in jail. Then she told the officers about her night, about being attacked and escaping the violent John. She probably hoped they'd have some sympathy for her. Maybe she even hoped they'd look for Mary. But Smith and Matthews weren't buying it. For one thing, they didn't yet know about Mary's murder, so the whole story sounded like an exaggeration. And for another, Veronica likely had brain damage from her history of heavy drug use. Listening to her wild stories was something they were used to.

And this one sounded especially far-fetched, and they assumed she'd made the whole thing up. Veronica couldn't get them to believe her, but they let her go, as they hadn't caught her doing anything illegal. It was frustrating that they didn't seem inclined to investigate her claims, but she was grateful to not be on her way to jail. Meanwhile, Smith and Matthews all but forgot about Veronica's story. Even the next day on December 14th, when they learned about Mary's death, they didn't make the connection. The next day, however, they were patrolling the hotel where local sex workers usually saw clients, when they spotted Veronica again. This time she was in the passenger seat of a truck, sitting next to an older white man.

To Smith and Matthews, this definitely looked like soliciting, so they pulled up next to the car and asked the two to get out. But just as Smith was about to cuff the driver, Veronica pleaded with them to stop. She explained that this was Axton Schindler, the man who had saved her the other night. He wasn't a John, just a friend bringing her presence. She pointed to the makeup and perfume

on the floor of the truck as evidence. She even asked Axton to explain how he'd saved her a few nights prior, but he wouldn't back up her story. Instead, he remained eerily quiet. This behavior gave Officer Matthews a weird feeling about Axton as they drove the two to the station. It seemed odd that the guy refused to confirm Veronica's story, but that he wouldn't deny it either. It was a long shot, but maybe he had something to do with Mary's murder,

because something wasn't quite right. He ran Axton's information through the city computers, but it came back clean, save for some petty traffic violations. Without anything concrete against him, he was eventually let go. Even if there was a connection to the murder of Mary Pratt, Matthews wasn't an investigator. He was just a beat cop in the area. He had to let it go. But by early January, Mary's case still hadn't been solved. So Matthews told the lead detective on the case about Veronica's story and encounter.

It seemed like a misstep to not mention it at all. From what we know, the detective, John Westfallen, didn't do much with the information. He was already swamped with other tips about assault in the air. Oak Cliff area and focused on those instead. Westfallen had also pulled the FBI in because Mary's missing eyes suggested they were dealing with someone serious. With the big guns on the case, he might have assumed they'd find something better than Veronica's patchy story. Yet over the next few weeks, every time Matthews ran into Veronica, she repeated her troubling claims. Once, she even included a detail about how she and Axton had eaten breakfast at a jack-in-the-box, which perked his

ears. From Matthew's experience, people with a drug addiction had a hard time keeping their stories consistent, let alone remembering details. The location of the fast food chain was so specific that Matthews was more inclined to believe her. But even as investigators came around, 57-year-old Charles Albright wasn't even a name on anyone's radar. From what we know, Charles continued to frequent sex workers during this period, but he wasn't violent with any of them. Instead, turned to his old ways, lavishing them with presence and money. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. As a reminder, she is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist,

but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. We can't confirm Charles killed Mary Pratt, but if he did, then he was likely in a cooling-off period. While researchers believe this period can range from 72 hours to many years, Its existence is a key characteristic that distinguishes serial killers from those that commit other kinds of multiple victim homicide like mass murder. Criminologist Arn Nettlstein writes that this period may enable a person to move from killer to everyday human being. Charles would have come off his murderous high and gone right back to his normal life, flirting with women and picking up sex workers on the side.

It would have been hard to tell he'd committed a gross crime in secret. Even when he was caught breaking the law, it was for much less serious infractions. Sometime, in the beginning of 1991, Charles stole a stack of baseball cards from a local store. He was arrested and thrown in jail, but from what we can tell, he was released without charge. When he came home, he told his girlfriend, Dixie, it had all been some kind of mix-up, and she presumably believed him. It was easy for Charles to sneak almost anything past her, thieving or hiring sex workers. As far as we know, she had no clue about Charles' extracurriculars.

By early February, it seems like Charles was restless. His cooling off period, if that's what it was, was definitely over. On the evening of February 8th, 27-year-old Susan Peterson was allegedly drinking and smoking with her pimp, gearing up for her night. Susan was tough, cunning, and had great instincts for danger. her pimp never had to protect her. So when Susan got into a man's pickup truck sometime after midnight, he assumed it was one of her regulars. He figured she was safe and would be back in 20 minutes.

Like with Mary, we can't officially confirm the following. But it's likely the man in the pickup truck was Charles Albright. He'd hired Susan many times before and always made her feel comfortable. If Susan got into his car, she wouldn't have thought she was in any danger. Unfortunately, she was wrong. Coming up, the eyeball killer strikes again. Put yourself in the shoes of a real-life detective. Imagine examining the crime scene,

gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses, feeling the pressure mount as you race against time to catch a criminal. Each week on Scotland Yard Confidential, the new Spotify original from Parkast, we enter the minds of some of the greatest detectives in history, following in their footsteps as they hunt down suspects and solve seemingly impossible cases, like the scandalous murder of singer Cora Crippin in 1910,

whose body was found in her cellar shortly after her husband skipped town. With a daring Hatt and Garden heist of 2015, when a gang of elderly thieves made off with a hall worth millions, and the cryptic notes founded a murder scene during the First World War. Was it a clue or a red herring designed to throw investigators off? Scotland Yard Confidential is a Spotify original from Parkast Made in partnership with Noiser, airing episodes weekly starting May 19th. Follow and listen to Scotland Yard Confidential for free on Spotify.

Now back to the story. On the night of February 8th, 1991, 27-year-old Susan Peterson was in a field in South Dallas with her latest John. The man laid out a blanket and asked her to perform oral sex. It was an easy job, once Susan did regularly. It should have been like any other night. Susan relaxed and got to work, but sometime during the act, her John pulled out a gun. Susan had little time to process what was happening, let alone get away. The man shot her in the stomach, causing her to fall backward.

Then he stood over her and shot her in the chest. This bullet likely killed her as it ruptured her heart, but just to make sure her attacker shot her a third time right in the head. The man then took Susan's body to a neighborhood south of Dallas. The street he chose was less than a mile from where Mary Pratt was found just two months earlier. He displayed her on the side of the road, pulled her shirt up over her breasts, and left the rest of her body nude. Then he ripped out a clump of her hair and laid it on her chest. Somewhere along the way, he extracted her eyeballs with a surgeon's precision.

Susan's body was found later the next morning. First, it seemed like just another senseless murder. But when the pathologist noticed the missing eyes, he contacted Detective Westfallen. By now, there was a pattern. Two murders, with similarly posed bodies, both with eyeballs missing. It's likely that the killer had taken the eyeballs as a trophy, something psychologist Joel Norris refers to as the totemic phase. This is a point at which the killer takes an item from the victim to relive the high of having killed. Hearing this disturbing detail, it was clear to Detective Westfallen, they had a serial killer on their hands, one who would likely strike again. But if Charles Albright had killed Susan Peterson, nobody would have known it in the weeks following.

He was busy delivering newspapers and playing softball. If his girlfriend Dixie thought he was up to something, she never said a word. Back at the Dallas Police Department, efforts to crack Marion Susan's cases ramped up. Officers Regina Smith and John Matthews knew the area best and had their colleagues out looking for clues. They asked sex workers if they'd heard or seen anything suspicious. Ran checks and the license plates spotted at the hotel sex workers used most and sent out word to the local papers. Crucially, the authorities didn't release information about the missing eyeballs

as they were afraid of causing a panic, but someone did let slip that there was a facial mutilation involved. As a result, rumors flew through the sex worker community and the general public. The stories encouraged one anonymous woman to call into the county constable's office, saying she had a possible tip. The woman gave the name Charles Albright, who she had met through Mary Pratt. She didn't give the constable much information, but she did say that Charles had an odd love for eyes and a collection of exacto knives, both things that seemed like an obvious connection to the killer. But for some reason, the deputy constable on duty didn't put two and two together,

nor did they contact the city office, where the investigation was primarily handled. That meant that by March, officers Smith and Matthews and Detective Westfallen still had little information on Mary and Susan's killer. The only thing they really had was Veronica Rodriguez's story and Matthew's weird feeling that Axton Schindler might know more than he was letting on. Unfortunately, that was a dead end. Axton wasn't speaking, and they had no reason to bring him in for questioning. This left Charles Albright able to fly completely under the radar.

He'd allegedly killed in December, then two months later in February. By March, it seems he was ready to attack again. Sometime that month, he took out a regular, a sex worker named Tina who had beautiful eyes. Charles picked Tina up most Tuesdays. Then he'd drive her out to a field, lay out a blanket, and ask, for oral sex. He was a good customer for the 20-year-old and was always polite. But at that particular day he was a little rougher with her. Then he began fumbling for something in his truck. To Tina, it sounded like he was looking for a weapon.

Understandably, this thought spooked her, enough so that she ran away and didn't look back. This likely annoyed Charles. If he had planned on killing Tina that day, his prey had just escaped. But as far as we know, he shrugged it off and drove away. There were other women out there. He'd just find another. A week or so later, Charles was driving through Oak Cliff, looking for a woman to pick up. According to 37-year-old sex worker Brenda White,

he eventually spotted her and asked her to get in his car. Brenda was older, experienced, and always wary of dangerous situations. So she surveyed Charles, sizing him up. He was older with graying hair and wore cowboy boots and jeans. He was probably all right, she thought. And besides, if he wasn't, she always carried a can of mace. Likely feeling relaxed, Brenda got into the truck. When Charles started driving, she directed him to a motel.

That was her other thing. She never went anywhere. She didn't feel safe. But Charles didn't like Brenda's plan. Calmly and kindly, he said he had a preferred spot he would take her to. Brenda said no. This crossed her boundaries. She told him she only worked out of this motel. If that didn't suit him, he could stop the car and let her out.

But Charles kept driving, arguing that his place was better. Brenda insisted, slyly putting her hand on the can of mace on her belt. She told him to take her right to drop her off, but she wasn't going anywhere with him. Suddenly, Charles grew angry. Still driving, he yelled at her, one of you did me wrong. I'm going to kill all of you. At that point, Brenda knew she was in danger. She pulled out the mace and sprayed at Charles' eyes. It was enough to cause him to panic and let up the gas for a moment,

giving her a chance to jump out of the car. Brenda rolled out to the ground, caught her breath, and stood up. Thankfully, Charles sped off and she was in the clear, but she was spooked by the terrifying close call. Meanwhile, Charles only grew more frustrated. Two thwarted attacks. First Tina, now with this other woman. He was angry.

All worked up. Charles drove through the rain in the early morning hours of March 19th, scouring Oak Cliff streets for sex workers. Tina was likely his first choice. Maybe he thought her eyes would be the ultimate trophy. Not only because of their beauty, but because she had gotten away last time. Perhaps he wanted revenge.

But after driving around for quite some time, Charles figured he'd wasted enough time looking. Dawn was approaching. He needed to find someone soon, or risk being caught. As he drove by Tina's regular corner one last time, he noticed a different sex worker. She was wearing a yellow raincoat and stumbling, as if she was very high. This was 45-year-old Shirley Williams. She was a friend of Tina's, though it's unclear if Charles knew about the converse. Whatever he thought of her, she was good enough for him at that moment.

He convinced Shirley to get in his car and drove her out to his usual field. He laid down a blanket, pulled out a red condom, and asked for oral sex. He also demanded she take off her clothes, despite the freezing rain. Charles was already worked up from the evening spent driving around, and soon enough he lost his temper entirely. He beat Shirley, then grabbed his gun out of his turn out of his train. He grabbed his gun out of his truck and shot her in the head. With Shirley lying lifeless on the rain-soaked blanket,

Charles returned to his truck and grabbed his bag of tools. He took out an exacto knife, planning to extract his trophies from their sockets. But out in the distance, the sky was beginning to lighten. Time had gotten away from him. It wouldn't be long before the sun came up and he could be seen. He'd have to rush his extraction. He worked quickly, slashing into Shirley's face.

His cuts were sloppy in a way that probably made him all the more frustrated. As he was cutting, his hand slipped, twisting the knife into her cheek. The blade broke, leaving a fragment in her skin. He'd blown it. Giving up on his clean cuts, he ripped Shirley's eyeballs out and threw her body into the truck. He didn't have enough time to take her to where the other victims were found, so he went to a different part of town and stopped a half block from an elementary school. He didn't pose her like previous victims had been, nor put back on her shirt.

There was no time. He left her by the road, then sped off. The next morning, Shirley was found curled up and entirely nude, a stash of red condoms next to her body. After hearing about Shirley's death, Brenda White thought about her own attack, how she'd sprayed the man with mace. Talking to cops was always risky for sex workers, but if her information could prevent another murder, it was worth the risk. She took her story to the two cops she was familiar with, Smith and Matthews. The pair listened with interest, thinking that Brenda's tale sounded remarkably similar to Veronica's. The two attacks could have been by the same guy, but they had no idea who that could have been.

The only actual name they had was Axton Shindler's, and he was supposedly the hero in one of them. Still, it was a lead they could at least follow and see where it went. His name had come up mostly clean in the city computer. but the county had a bigger database. So they went to the county office and asked the constable to help them run the name. They didn't find anything outright suspicious, but they did learn that Axton Schindler didn't own the house where Veronica had taken shelter.

Not that that was a big deal, but it was a detail that was crucial to cracking the case. You see, the owner's name was listed as Fred Albright. As soon as Smith and Matthews said the name aloud, Albright. The constable perked up. He'd heard that name once before in a phone call about this case, except

the tip had been about a man named Charles Albright. Smith and Matthews knew this was a huge breakthrough. Maybe they weren't looking for Axton Shindler or Fred Albright. Maybe they were looking for Charles. Coming up, the FBI

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Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. Now back to the story. The pressure was on for Dallas investigators. There'd been three murders in four months, and by the end of March 1991, they only had one lead. The man's name was Charles Albright, and his connection to the murders was loose.

There was no actual proof that he'd been involved, and only the smallest possibility that he was their guy. So Dallas police officers, Regina Smith and John Matthews, printed out his pictures, then searched for the two sex workers who'd recently escaped violent Johns. The first was Brenda White, who'd managed to escape an attack by using Mace, After tracking her down, they met her in an alley and showed her six photos, five of random men and one of 57-year-old Charles.

When Brenda saw the photo of Charles, she instantly confirmed. He was the guy who had attacked her just a few weeks earlier. Smith and Matthews perked up and invited Brenda to come to the station to give her full story to the FBI. They'd secured one witness. Now they just needed the second, Veronica Rodriguez. Veronica was in jail at the time and therefore easy to track down. But she'd grown distrustful of the cops and for good reason.

Every time she tried to talk about her attack, they dismissed her story. So when they laid out the six photos and asked her to identify her attacker, she was hesitant to give a straight answer. She mumbled and avoided the question. Knowing Veronica's help was vital to their case, the officers tread carefully. They told her she didn't have to speak if she had to speak. didn't want to. They suggested that instead she could simply pick up the photo of her attacker and signed the back. Thankfully, that did it. Veronica reached forward, grabbed the photo of Charles

and signed her name. The testimony of the two women wasn't enough to charge Charles with the murders, but it was enough to charge him with attempted assault. Then they could search for proof he was the killer. But first, they had to arrest him. At 2.30 in the morning on March 22nd, Charles heard some sort of commotion outside his home. Lightning was flashing across the Dallas skyline, but it wasn't thunder that he heard. It was something else. People, he was sure of it.

Wearing only red briefs and a T-shirt, he opened the front door and called out, asking who was there. But he saw no one and received no answer. Charles closed the door, probably figuring he'd been imagining things. But just a few moments later, he heard a window break.

Smoke grenades flew in through the smashed glass and exploded, and the front door was knocked open. In an instant, tactical agents rushed in and pinned Charles to the floor. An officer put a gun to Charles' head and ordered him to stay still. Charles obeyed entirely, remaining dead quiet. This wasn't how he wanted things to go, but he was determined not to give himself up, no matter how hard investigators tried.

Back at the station, Charles'clock. Charles' resolve proved impossible to break. He wouldn't admit to anything, which meant pinning the crimes on him was going to be difficult. Making things even harder, his girlfriend Dixie defended him. She said Charles had been either at work or at home with her on the nights of all three murders. Plus, she'd always known him to be a sweet, smart, talented man.

She described him like he wouldn't hurt anyone. And Charles? Well, he did what he always did. He cooperated, answering all Detective Westfallen's questions with a sense of calm and cool collectedness. He admitted he had guns hidden in his house, so an agent was sent to collect them. And when Westfallen brought up Charles' criminal history, Charles simply told a few entertaining stories. Clearly, Charles explained, none of his crimes involved violence. And when asked about the sex workers, he lied through his teeth, claiming that he didn't know any.

Then he began to laugh. Charles acted like the whole thing was ridiculous. We don't know whether he was putting this on for show or whether he truly thought it was incredulous. Whatever the case, he was doing what had always served him best, using charm to distract his accusers. Then, when he was asked about Axton, all Charles said was that he was one of his tenants

and that Axton was a weird guy. It sounded almost like an accusation coming from him. At that point, there was only one thing to do. Bring in Axton Schindler. Police sent Charles back to his jail cell to await trial. Killer or not, they still had him on assault charges, which meant the streets should be safe. And by 7.30 that morning,

Axton arrived for questioning. Westfallen found that, just like Charles had said, Axton Schindler was a weird guy. Unlike Charles, he was nervous and jumpy. He talked fast. When they asked him about, the night Mary was murdered. He admitted Veronica had come to his place, but only because she wanted drugs. Then they asked if he had a gun. Axton admitted to having the same kind of weapon that had

killed the three women, but quickly explained that someone had stolen it. If this was true, it's possible that Charles could have been that thief. As Axton's landlord, he certainly had access to his house, but investigators couldn't find the weapon. It wasn't looking good for a murder charge. Charles had an alibi in Dixie, and although Axton seemed somewhat shady, they couldn't pin anything based on his vibe. They needed more. First, they searched Charles House, hoping to find them murdered women's eyeballs, which would be the best evidence. But while they found plenty of items that suggested a connection to the slayings, exacto blades, true crime books, and a copy of the book Gray's Anatomy, they didn't find the eyeballs or anything to definitively tie him to the women.

It wasn't until they searched Albright's cars that they found something promising. Blankets covered in hair. Investigators sent the blankets to a lab, along with Charles vacuum, and a hairbrush. Then they collected samples of the murdered women's hair, as well as stray hairs found on their bodies. Just a few days later, the forensic scientist came back with the results. Hairs from the victims matched the hair found on Charles' blankets, and hairs matching his were on their bodies when they died. That did it. On March 26, 1991, Dallas Police charged 57-year-old Charles Albright with capital murder in Mary and Shirley's cases. The following week, they added charges for Susan Peterson's.

It was a victory, but it wasn't over. The next step was to secure an actual conviction. Hair samples weren't ironclad evidence, so investigators continued to collect what they could and speak with anyone willing to talk. At one point they spoke to Shirley's friend Tina. She told them about the night she'd gotten spooked by Charles and ran away. Then she led them to Charles' favorite field. There they found used condoms, pieces of women's clothing, another blanket, and a few copies of the newspaper Charles had once delivered. But more importantly, they spotted a yellow raincoat, the one Shirley had been wearing the night of her death.

It was crumpled up and covered in blood and hair that matched Charles. It had to be enough to convince a jury. At least they hoped it would be. The trial began in November of 1991, but it didn't start out well for the prosecution. Charles stuck resolutely to his story. He didn't know the women, and he'd never been a violent person. He even volunteered to take a lie detector test just to prove his innocence. When she took the stand, Dixie still insisted Charles had been with her on all three nights. She wouldn't waver. And then there was Veronica Rodriguez.

She should have been the prosecution's star witness, but for some reason, on the stand, she retracted her whole story. She said she'd never met Charles and insisted that she'd been pressured into picking his photo from the lineup. As for Axton Schindler, he continued to deny Veronica's story,

and his hairs didn't match any of those found on the blankets or bodies. Neither side gave him a notice to appear, and he fled town during the time. during the trial. The prosecution didn't have strong testimony against Charles, but they did have those matching hair samples and the bloody raincoat found where he liked to take sex workers. It was circumstantial evidence and not enough

for a guilty verdict in Mary and Susan's cases, but the jury was convinced that he killed Shirley Williams. At the age of 58, Charles was sentenced to life in jail. His friends were shocked and continued to defend him, telling stories about how generous and lovely he was. Many even continued to talk to him or visit him at his Amarillo prison. Charles was a popular inmate who spent his days playing softball, taking classes, and building furniture.

All in all, he seemed generally happy, and why wouldn't he be? He was popular, which was something he'd always enjoyed. But one woman with whom he'd had a romantic relationship recalled a moment once where Charles seemed regretful of his past. This might have been what psychologist Joel Norris calls the depression phase, where a killer realizes they've never achieved what they really wanted to. They neither obtained a sense of power nor found any sort of emotional healing. Killing didn't solve any of their problems.

It didn't satisfy any desires. With the woman, Charles talked about how his life hadn't gone as planned, how he should have been a surgeon. He might have been thinking back to those early days of doing taxidermy, learning how to cut eyeballs out of their sockets. It's those skills he might have used on the bodies of Mary Pratt, Susan Peterson, and Shirley Williams, but we'll never know for sure,

as nobody ever found their eyes. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on Charles Albright, amongst the many sources we used, we found The Eyeball Killer by John Mavis. Matthews and Christine Wicker, extremely helpful to our research. You can find more episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify.

We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Juan Borda, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of serial killers was written by Stacey Nemick, with writing assistants by Joel Callan, fact-checking by Anya Barely,

and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Scotland Yard Confidential is the new Spotify original from Parkast. Enter the minds of some of the greatest detectives in history as they crack seemingly impossible cases. Join us for episodes airing weekly starting May 19th, Follow and listen for free on Spotify. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed.

Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon News, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Do you want to hear something spooky? Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal.

One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves. Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I had lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever. you get your podcast.