Thu Nguyen Charles Albright 1

Charles Albright-serial killer

Nguyen Ngoc Minh Thu

Holy Cross High School

Psychology CPA

Mrs. Sarah Roy

May 8, 2022

Charles Albright was born on August 10th 1933 in Amarillo, Texas, the United States.

He was a serial killer from Dallas, Texas. He was an orphanage but then he was adopted by

Delle and Fred Albright. As a young child, he was doted upon and he would be dressed as a girl

and was given a doll as his aunt presented. His mother played an important role in his

education. Delle accelerated his education and he skipped two grades through her help. She

was a school teacher so she was very strict and overprotective over him. Albright would

constantly find a way out of the yard behind his mother's workplace. Delle inspected the fence

for gaps but found none, but later heard that he would just wait for passers-by to hoist him over.

To keep him away from the fence, Della tied him to the porch1. When Charles was less than a

year old, Delle even punished him by locking him in a dark room. If he wouldn’t take a nap, she

would tie him to a bed2. As Charlesgot his first gun, he began to shoot small animals like

1
Victoria Bedford, Maryann Bishop, Jillian Lee Allen, Lauren Blanks, Annemarie Bartholomew,

& Ann Spangler. “Charles Albright “Eyeball Killer, Dallas Ripper and Dallas Slasher”“.

Department of Psychology, Radford University.

2
Skip Hollandsworth, May 1993 “See No Evil - Texas Monthly”. Texas Monthly.
Thu Nguyen Charles Albright 2

squirrels and rabbits. Delle led him to become a taxidermist, which led him obsessed with eyes.

Delle showed him how to use all the tools: the knife for cutting the skull, the little spoon for

scooping out the brains, the scalpel to cut away the eyes, and the forceps to pull out the eyes3.

Sadly, he then uses these skills on humans. When visitors came to their house, they saw

Charles Albright’s first works of art, a collection of blind birds and instead of their eyes, they

were two dark buttons.4 I think this is the time he developed an obsession with eyeballs. He

soon grew bored of killing these small animals. As I read about his early life, I can see that the

potential of being a killer appeared earlier. Then his criminal life began at the age of thirteen, he

was a petty thief and was arrested for aggravated assault. However, his mother quickly handled

it and got him out. At the age of fifteen, he graduated from high school and went to North Texas

University. Next year, he was convicted of stealing petty cash, was found with two handguns

and a rifle, he was put in jail for a year. He then attended Arkansas State Teachers College but

was expelled because he stole items. After being expelled, he falsified a degree and gave

himself bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He forged signatures and checks. He then married his

college girlfriend and had one daughter. However, after being caught because of falsifying

degrees and others, he was put on probation and the marriage in 1974. In 1982, while visiting

his friend’s house, he sexually modested a fourteen-year-old girl. He did plead guilty but then he

said that he did it to avoid a hassle.4

3,4
Victoria Bedford, Maryann Bishop, Jillian Lee Allen, Lauren Blanks, Annemarie Bartholomew,

& Ann Spangler. “Charles Albright “Eyeball Killer, Dallas Ripper and Dallas Slasher””.

Department of Psychology, Radford University.

5
Kaila Ohsowki, 2022. “Serial Killer Who Collected His Victim’s Eyes.”
Thu Nguyen Charles Albright 3

Charles Albright was well known as “The Dallas Ripper”, or “The Eyeball Killer”. There

were three victims, actually, one was convicted while two others were just suspected. The time

span for the crime was from December 13th 1990 to March 18th 1991. Three victims were

prostitutes respectively Mary Lou Pratt, Susan Beth Peterson, and Shirley Williams.6 They were

all shot to death and their eyes were removed expertly. As I had researched before,he was

obsessed with eyes, he tended to remove the victims eyes from when he was young, like a

collection of blind birds or removing eyes from dolls and magazines. (Kaila Ohswoki) The other

evidence for Albright’s unusual interest in eyes is that when Albright attended at Arkansas State

Teachers College, his classmate found out that he cut out his ex-girlfriend’s eyes’ photos and

those “eyes” were then plastered all over the dorm’s walls, windows and even in the male

bathrooms7.

Charles was reported by a woman, she said that he and Mary Pratt, the first victim, was

acquainted and apparently all the local prostitutes knew that Albright had an infatuation with

eyes. After the second victims died, several prostitutes came to the police and reported that

Albright had assaulyed them, which made the police have reasonable suspicion to search his

home8. Charles Albright was arrested on the rainy day, March 22, 1991, he didn’t say a word

when he was handcuffed9 . Though being interrogated all night, Charles refused to confess

6
Victoria Bedford, Maryann Bishop, Jillian Lee Allen, Lauren Blanks, Annemarie Bartholomew, &

Ann Spangler. “Charles Albright “Eyeball Killer, Dallas Ripper and Dallas Slasher””. Department

of Psychology, Radford University.

7
Kaila Ohsowki, 2022. “Serial Killer Who Collected His Victim’s Eyes.”
8,9
Amanda Sedlak-Henever, 2018. “Messed up thing about the Texas Eyeball Killer’s

Relationship with his mother”.

Thu Nguyen Charles Albright 4

anything. Through the searching in Charles’s house, the police found a stash of X-ACTO knives,

some rifles, a copy of Gray’s Anatomy, and at least a dozen books on true-crime and serial

killers. However, none of them were weapons and victims’ eyes were never found 10. The key

evidence to convict Charles was hair. Both hairs from William’s coat and hairs found in the

vacuum at Albright’s home were the same 11. Though being charged with three murder cases,

Albright just went to trial for William’s death, the last victim. Because of lacking evidence, hair is

the evidence tied Albright to the three killings, which the prosecution mainly relied on. Despite

DNA evidence linking him to the murder of Rhonda Bowie, the prosecution was withdrawn

because he had an alibi.12 . Eventually, he was found guilty of the murder of Shirley Wiilliams in

late November 1991. He was sentenced to life and passed away on August 22, 2020 13.

Charles Albright’s characteristic was likely defined as an organized serial killer.He was

organized since no witnesses, no murder weapon, no fingerprint were found on the crime

scene, he removed the eyes and there was no telling where Albright would attempt to kill the

next victim14. In cognitive approach, since Albright was educated well by his adoptive mother (he

skipped 2 grades) and he also had experience in surgery (his mother used to want him to

become a taxidermist). It was quite easy for him to remove the victim’s eyes and destroy almost

all clues. I think he moved the corpses to a place that was easy to find (a dumping ground and a

residential street near an elementary school) and then posed them lewdly to challenge the

10,14
Skip Hollandsworth, May 1995 “See No Evil - Texas Monthly”. Texas Monthly.
11
Mara Bovsun, Jan, 2018. New York Daily News.
12
Kaila Ohsowki, 2022. “Serial Killer Who Collected His Victim’s Eyes.”
13
Benjamin H.Smith, 2019. “'Eyeball Killer' Charles Albright Plucked Out The Eyes Of Dallas

Sex Workers.” Oxygen True Crime, Crime News.

Thu Nguyen Charles Albright 5

police. In behavioral approach, his adoptive mother , Delle Albright, she tied him to a bed to

make him sleep, locked him up in the dark, dressed up as a girl with a doll, gave him a gun at a

young age and the worst is that she only cared about his education and not caring about his

criminal activities, she even able to keep Charles’s multiple charges as secrets from their

community. Albright was a mission-oriented serial killer, three victims that he killed were worked

as a sex workers. Albright rarely had sex with the sex workers, he was more into sadistic

demeaning and beatings15. I think Albright only killed prostitutes because he believed his

biological mother who put him on adoption was one of them16.

15
Victoria Bedford, Maryann Bishop, Jillian Lee Allen, Lauren Blanks, Annemarie Bartholomew,

& Ann Spangler. “Charles Albright “Eyeball Killer, Dallas Ripper and Dallas Slasher””.

Department of Psychology, Radford University.

16
Amanda Sedlak-Henever, 2018. “Messed up thing about the Texas Eyeball Killer’s

Relationship with his mother”.

● Resources:

- http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Albright,%20Charles.htm

- https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/see-no-evil-3/

- https://serialkillerdatabase.net/charles-albright/

- https://www.ranker.com/list/charles-albright-mother-facts/amandasedlakhevener

- https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dallas-eyeball-killer-murdered-women-remove

d-eyes-article-1.3769218

- https://www.oxygen.com/mark-of-a-killer/charles-albright-eyeball-killer-serial-killer-sex-w

orkersdallas-texas-90s