sense 22.sen.001001 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Because of the early ridicule I endured, I had no support system. There was no one with whom I could talk and no one I would trust to listen. I felt very alone, but learned to go on with my life. I did occasionally wonder about things and I think on some level I always knew something was going on. I would catch myself thinking about an odd mark or unexplainable bruise, and deciding, “Oh, they must have been here last night.” It took me years to wonder who “they” were. I accepted my odd fears and worked to overcome them. I didn’t question where they came from. There were times I would awaken with my nightclothes on backwards, inside out, or both. I became obsessed with checking them to make sure they were on correctly at bedtime, which they nearly always were. In the morning, I would be at a loss to explain how they had turned or flipped. Every once in a while, I would wake up with nothing on and find my night clothes in another room. This was extremely hard to explain, but I managed to simply shrug it off and not think too deeply about it. Occasionally, I would see some cartoon character or drawing of something with large eyes. They made me uncomfortable, but I would just avoid them. I didn’t like to spend the night at anyone else’s house because I felt a vague sense of guilt that I would somehow endanger them. I kept to myself for many years.

Everything changed in my 20’s when I accidentally picked up a book on alien abductions. The book was Communion by Whitley Strieber. I have been an avid science fiction reader my entire life, but always stayed well clear of UFO and abduction topics. I had never read any other books by this author, and didn’t have any idea what this particular book was about. I bought the book as part of a package for joining a book club and without thinking picked Communion. When it arrived, I put it aside and ignored it for months. The cover bothered me, so I turned it over and put it under a stack of other books. Even though I hadn’t read a word in it yet, I didn’t like the book. It disturbed me. Ultimately, I ran out of other reading material and picked it up again. As I began to read, I realized that I was recognizing more and more of the material. I read it from cover to cover in a few hours, never putting it down once I began. No other book has ever affected me as that one did, before or since. Quite literally, my world fell apart that day.

dropped 44.dro.002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

The charges against Albright shifted and changed as the prosecutors prepared for trial. First the three murders were attributed to him, and then the unsolved 1988 stabbing murder of an Oak Cliff-area prostitute, based on several strands of hair found on her that were consistent with Albright's (although her eyes had not been removed). Then Albright came up with an alibi for that one — he was out of town — so that charge was dropped. Given the type of evidence available, a grand jury reduced the capital murder charges to murder, so the death penalty was off the table, and eventually the district attorney's office settled on prosecuting Albright for only one murder, Shirley Williams, without explaining why they were doing so.

The judge said that, should they lose, they could not reinstate the other charges for later cases. It wouldn't matter. The Williams case was their strongest one, and if they lost that, they would surely lose the others, too. The judge knocked down the bond to $750,000, but Albright could not afford that any more than the original $3 million, so he remained in prison.

Thus, when his trial date was finally set for December 2, 1991, Albright faced prosecution for the murder of Shirley Williams, which carried a sentence of life in prison. However, the court ruled that the prosecution could bring in the other cases, based on the linkage. Once the legal issues were worked out, the trial, initially delayed, began.