Charles Albright: The Real-Life Norman Bates
The Eyeball Killer murdered and mutilated sex workers in Texas.
When police in Dallas, Texas started to discover the badly mutilated bodies of sex workers in the early 1990s, they knew they were dealing with a particularly depraved serial killer. Yet when the perpetrator was unmasked as a mild-mannered brainiac, his friends were so shocked they refused to believe it.
However, the story of Charles Albright suggests his unusual past and propensity for petty crime hid a dark side that he eventually succumbed to.
The making of Charles Albright
Charles Albright’s story began with his adoption at three weeks old. An exclusive interview with Texas Monthly from 1993 states that his birth mother had been just 16 when she became pregnant and that she was ordered to give up the baby when her father found out.
The new parents — Delle and Fred Albright — were doting but especially protective, particularly the mother. She would change his clothes if he became remotely dirty and took him to a polio hospital to warn him what might happen if he touched dog faeces.
There were also more alarming episodes of behaviour from Delle. She shut him in dark rooms and tied him to his bed as punishment and…
