The Texas Eyeball Killer
Investigation
A few days earlier, a frightened woman had called the deputy constable to discuss a man named Charles Albright — who was Fred's son. She once had worked in a clothing store at the mall and Albright, a customer, had come in frequently and given her gifts. Her fellow workers had disliked him, but she had decided to go out with him. She soon had reason to regret that decision, and she considered him to be dangerous. As Matthews and Wicker tell it, Albright revealed to her that he was a professional con man and that he possessed a lot of stolen property. Although he was married, he'd convinced this woman to move into one of his rental properties, where he then came for sex. She said that his demands became weirder until he outright scared her, especially his obsession with knives and eyes. She moved out, got married and moved on with her life, but remained afraid, even years later, that Albright would find her and kill her. The best piece of information she offered was that she was aware that Mary Lou Pratt and Albright had been acquainted.
When the officers looked into SpeeDee's history, it turned out that he had a long criminal record, including a conviction for aggravated assault on a child. Not only that, a woman named Dixie popped up in the records, and the officers recalled that SpeeDee had said that was his wife's name. The facts and associations were growing more compelling by the minute. They knew they had to check this guy out.
Detective Westphalen advised Matthews and Smith to show Brenda some photos to see if she could pick out the man who had picked her up and threatened her. She looked over the collection of mugs and without hesitation, pointed to a photo of Charles Albright.
The next step was to contact Veronica and show her the photos. She was in prison and it was difficult to get her to cooperate, but in the end she, too, selected Albright as her attacker. That was two for two — good corroboration, even if these reports were from prostitutes with drug habits. It was time to move in on Albright.