On this day, Dec. 18, 1991, the Texas Eyeball Killer, Charles Albright, was convicted of murdering three prostitutes.
In December 1990, Dallas prostitute Mary Lou Pratt was found dead with a .44-caliber gunshot wound to the head. When the medical examiner lifted the 33-year-old victim’s eyelids, her eyes were missing. They had been surgically removed.
In the next four months, two more prostitutes were found dead with carved-out eyes. One of the women was a friend of Pratt’s who had called police saying she had information about the killer, but she was never able to reveal what that was.
Police got a break when Albright’s girlfriend called the detectives saying she broke off the relationship because of his obsession with her eyes and knives.
Police searched Albright’s home and found a collection of books on serial killers, Nazi literature, a. 44-caliber gun, surgical knives and a doll collection that had eyeless masks.
A jury found Albright guilty of all three murders. He was sentenced to life in prison.
– Scott McCabe
