Charles Frederick Albright
(born August 10, 1933)
is a serial killer from Dallas, Texas
, convicted of killing three prostitutes in
1991.
Early life
Charles was adopted by Delle and Fred Albright, from an orphan's
home. His mother, a
schoolteacher, was
very strict and overprotective of Charles. She accelerated his
education, helping him to skip two grades.
His criminal career started early. At age 13, he was already a
petty thief, and was arrested for
aggravated assault.
At age 15, he graduated from high school and
forged his way into North Texas University
. At age 16, the police caught him with some
petty cash from a cash register, two handguns and a rifle. He spent
a year in jail. After his release he attended
Arkansas State Teacher's
College and majored in
pre-med studies.
Found with stolen items, he was
expelled from the college before
graduation but not prosecuted. Unfazed, he simply falsified his
degrees, stealing the right documents, forging signatures, and
giving himself fictitious bachelor's and master's degrees.
He married his college girlfriend and they had a daughter. Charles'
wife was a teacher, but he failed to hold a job for long. He
continued to "cheat" by forging checks and claiming false
credentials, and he was caught in his deception while teaching at a
high school, but he always managed to get probation for his illegal
acts. In 1965, he and his wife separated, finally divorcing in
1974.
Albright was caught stealing hundreds of dollars' worth of
merchandise from a hardware store and received a two-year prison
sentence. Yet he served less than six months before he was out
again. In this time he began to befriend and gain the trust of his
neighbors; so much so, that he was even asked by local residents to
babysit their children, including future
radio broadcaster
Arnie States. In
1981, after his mother died, while Albright was visiting some
friends, he
sexually molested
their nine-year-old daughter. They reported him and he was
prosecuted. He pled guilty and received only
probation. He later claimed that he was innocent
but had pled to avoid a hassle.
In 1985, Albright met a woman named Dixie, in Arkansas. He invited
her to come live with him and it wasn't long before she was paying
his bills and supporting him. Charles took a 'paper route' in the
early morning, apparently to visit prostitutes without raising his
wife's suspicion.
Victims
December
13, 1990 - Mary Lou Pratt, 33, a well-known prostitute in the
Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas
. Her
body was found lying face-up. She was wearing only a T-shirt. She
was shot in the back of the head with a
.44-caliber bullet. The medical examiner
discovered that this killer had removed both eyes without making
much of a mark on the eyelids, and apparently had taken them with
him.
February 10, 1991 - Susan Peterson, a prostitute, was found nearly
nude, with her T-shirt pulled up to display her breasts in the same
manner as Pratt. She'd been shot three times: in the top of the
head, in the left breast and
point-blank
in the back of the head. One bullet had pierced her heart and
another entered her brain. A clump of her hair lay on her chest.
She had been dumped in south Dallas, just outside city limits, and
the
medical examiner found that
this victim bore another grisly similarity: her eyes had been
surgically removed.
March 18, 1991 - Shirley Williams, a part-time prostitute, was
found naked, lying on her side near a school, with her eyes
removed. Williams also had facial bruises and a broken nose, and
she had been shot through the top of her head and in the
face.
Arrest and trial
On March 22, 1991, Albright was arrested and charged with three
counts of murder. His trial began on December 13, 1991. The
prosecution suffered many blows and their case seemed
circumstantial at best. The only evidence
that was solid was the forensic evidence - hairs found at Williams'
murder scene matched Albright. On December 18, 1991, the jury
deliberated and found Charles Albright guilty. He was sentenced to
life in prison for the murder of Shirley Williams, Mary Lou Pratt
and Susan Peterson.
References
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