Charles Albright was known as the "Eyeball Killer," a man whose life of deception and cruelty reached its climax in the early 1990s with a series of murders carried out on Dallas City streets. The discovery of the body of s*x worker Mary Pratt in 1990, with the seeming surgical removal of her eyes, was just the beginning.
The murders struck the community with shock as another three victims, Susan Peterson, Rhonda Bowie, and Shirley Williams were found with similar injuries between 1988 and 1991. Charles Albright was a convicted felon and former teacher. He was caught in 1991, largely by a young cop by the name of Regina Smith.
Though proven to be linked to one murder, Albright could only be convicted of Williams' murder, and he took other suspected murderer secrets to his grave. In 2024, Lifetime's Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story dramatizes this case, focusing on Smith's role in this murder case.
Regina Smith's role in finding the "eyeball killer," aka Charles Albright
Regina Smith was a recruit in the Dallas Police Department who was assigned to the special task force set up to investigate the murder of Mary Pratt. Here, this rookie showed intuition and guts in working her beat and gathering intelligence about what was happening in the s*x-working community.
As Smith puts it while describing in an interview with A&E in 2023:
"The fact [the victims] were prostitutes did not diminish the importance we put on investigating each murder."
This work would eventually get her connected with Charles Albright to the crimes. It was when Smith found that two witnesses had described a regular client known for unpredictable behavior that she carefully documented their statements and kept reporting to the homicide division, though they resisted.
It was at that time, in March 1991, when Smith's collection of witness accounts and evidence proving Albright's presence at the scene of the third murder was able to drive the momentum of investigators. The partner even commented on Albright's "coldhearted, stoic" behavior when they apprehended him.
Through keen-mindedness and toil, Smith realized Albright was the principal suspect behind the murder of Shirley Williams as he was arrested and convicted.
Who were Charles Albright’s victims?
The bodies of known victims of Charles Albright shared two grim commonalities; they were all s*x workers, and their eyes were removed with clinical skill. The first, Mary Pratt, was found on the roadside in December 1990. When, during her autopsy, her missing eyes were revealed, police were horrified to note this gruesome detail, and to avoid panic, the public was kept unaware.
Just two months later, Susan Peterson's body was found in similar circumstances: she was shot, and her eyes were removed. The similarity of injuries occurred to the point of chilling consistency and pointed toward someone in the medical field who could have medical knowledge and surgical precision as suspected by authorities.
The third victim presented a peculiarity: she was older and black, whereas Pratt and Peterson were younger and White. Albright's precise pattern was seemingly broken with Williams, whose eyes had been less precisely removed.
Smith's aggression toward illuminating Charles Albright's background, coupled with the testimonies by the witnesses, presented a situation to which the investigators could no longer be oblivious. They had all the clear-cut pointers that pointed out the culprit as the "Eyeball Killer."
Where is Charles Albright now, dead or alive?
Charles Albright was convicted in December 1991 of the murder of Shirley Williams, but it appears he may have been a suspect in at least two others. There was some circumstantial evidence, but ultimately, Albright's conviction was based on Smith's notes and testimony from a witness who claimed to have seen him with Williams on the night she was killed.
Charles Albright was sentenced to life to be held without parole. He spent the rest of his life in the John Montford Psychiatric Unit in Lubbock, Texas. He died there in 2020. Albright never confessed to his crimes. It is widely believed that he killed more women than the ones he was tried for.
Several years into his prison sentence, Smith contacted him to get information about the missing eyes of the victims, which were never found. Unfortunately, she could not get an appointment with him. Albright's motives and crimes are still unknown, leaving haunting "souvenirs" of his actions and other questions.
Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story is available on Lifetime.
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