Murder and Mysteries with Massnick · Kimberlie Massnick

Eye Ball Killers - Part 2

·37 min·2 clips

Charles Albright’s obsession with eyeballs is tied to his mother refusing fake eyes for taxidermy animals.

1. Murder and Mysteries with Masnick focuses this episode on Charles Albright, called the “Texas eyeball killer,” the “Dallas slasher,” and the “Dallas killer.” 2. Masnick, P-Cubed, and guest Casey Hatwood trade off the story because Casey has followed the case and Masnick keeps pushing the rabbit holes. 3. The episode asks whether Albright’s adoption, childhood, and taxidermy fixation help explain the crimes the hosts are discussing. 4. Masnick says Albright was born in August 1933 and was adopted from an orphanage as an infant. 5. The hosts argue over whether someone can remember being adopted as an infant and whether resentment later can really trace back to that moment. 6. Casey cites a figure that 16 percent of 500 known U.S. serial killers were adopted. 7. Masnick challenges that number by saying the sample of 500 sounds too low for the conclusion the statistic suggests. 8. The conversation turns into a debate over correlation, sample size, and whether adoption explains anything without more research. 9. Masnick says Albright’s adoptive father Fred owned a grocery store. 10. The hosts say Albright’s adoptive mother Del may have been a strict school teacher, a nurse, or both. 11. They say Del pushed Charles academically so hard that he skipped two grades and graduated at 15. 12. The episode places that timeline in 1948 and compares a 15-year-old then with a 15-year-old now. 13. Casey says Albright forged his way into North Texas University at 15 and later got kicked out of the teaching track and the medical field. 14. Masnick and Casey connect that early rule-breaking to a criminal path that they say started with petty theft and guns in his teens. 15. The most repeated family detail is Del’s role in teaching Charles taxidermy and bringing home dead animals like rabbits, squirrels, and foxes. 16. They say he became angry that his stuffed animals had buttons or marbles instead of realistic eyes. 17. Masnick says that frustration helped shape the eye motif that later appears in the case discussion. 18. The tone is loose, teasing, and argumentative, with long digressions into World War II, adoption, and parenting. 19. Listeners interested in true crime, adoption debates, and forensic oddities would probably enjoy this. 20. Listeners wanting a tight, linear crime recap would probably skip this.

As heard by us

A loose, funny chat that keeps circling back to the point.

This episode starts in a darkly comic place, with nucleation and the removal of the eyeballs and surrounding tissues treated as both gruesome and oddly fascinating.

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Why you'd press play

You want a true-crime chat that starts with eyeballs and wanders into World War II service and sacrifice.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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