Two medical examiners, Alvin Querhammer of McHenry County and Robert Babcox of Lake County, met up at a conference in 1981. Querhammer shared with Babcox that a prominent local businessman, Michael Albanese Sr., had recently passed away. Meanwhile, the man’s son, Michael Albanese Jr., was experiencing nausea, vomiting, and neurological symptoms with no known cause. It was a perplexing case that sparked Babcox’s interest. He knew the name Albanese. He had two elderly women, a mother and daughter, pass away the year before in his county from mysterious illnesses. He recognized the name Albanese- the younger woman had a son-in-law named Charles “Chuck” Albanese. Querhammer shared that Chuck was the elder son of Michael Albanese Sr. and brother of the man who was ill. Could this be a coincidence?
Charles Michael Albanese was born on June 13th, 1937, to Michael and Clara Albanese in Chicago, Illinois. Charles, often called Chuck for short, was the oldest of two boys born to the family. His younger brother was named Michael Albanese Jr. and the two grew up rather privileged. People who knew Chuck described him as a “spoiled brat”. He was known as someone who wanted money without having to do much work for it. Chuck and Michael Jr. began working for their father’s company, Allied Die Casting, during their adulthoods, holding executive positions within the company.
Prior to the opening of Allied Die Casting in 1966, Chuck worked as a car salesman. He was married with three little girls. On February 1st, 1965, Chuck and a friend posed as detectives and broke into the home of a sixty-one-year-old bus driver. They robbed the man of $160, but unbeknownst to Chuck, a neighbor got his license plate number. A week later, he was arrested and charged with armed robbery and several counts of auto theft. Somehow, he managed to get a sentence of five years of probation- no jail time. This incident was enough for his wife to leave him, however, and take his three children to Wisconsin.
Charles married again, although not much is known about his second wife. He was still legally married to her, however, when he married Virginia Mueller in Las Vegas over Labor Day weekend in 1972. Following the finalization of his second divorce, both his first and second wives pursued legal action against Chuck for failure to pay child support. How many children he and his second wife had is unknown and it seems he did not have contact with the children from his first and second marriages.
By 1978, Chuck and his wife Virginia were doing well financially with Chuck in his executive role within the family company. They moved into a nice home in Spring Grove, Illinois. Neighbors stated Chuck liked to flaunt his wealth and enjoyed many fruits of his labor. Chuck, Virginia, and their two young daughters enjoyed frequent vacations and owned multiple expensive cars. Chuck was the President of Allied Die Casting, with his brother and father also holding executive roles.
Virginia’s mother, sixty-nine-year-old Marion Mueller, lived with her own mother, eighty-seven-year-old Mary Lambert, in an upscale retirement community outside Chicago known as Fox Grove. Virginia and Chuck often visited the women, who were known to be in remarkedly good health for their ages. Marion had siblings living nearby, but Chuck was able to convince Mary Lambert to leave her estate to Marion only. He would visit the two women on his own sometimes, bringing little gifts including trinkets, jewelry, and snacks.
Mary (Sausmann) Lambert was born on June 12th, 1893, in Austria. She was married to John Lambert, who died in 1955. Together, they had a son, Francis, and two daughters, Marion and Elizabeth. Marion, born on March 30th, 1911, in Chicago, would marry and have one daughter, Virginia Albanese, before divorcing her husband. In their golden years, both Mary and Marion enjoyed living together and spending time with their children and grandchildren.
On August 5th, 1980, Mary Lambert became suddenly ill and was admitted to McHenry Hospital. The woman had severe nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The next day, August 6th, the eighty-seven-year-old passed away. Given her advanced age, the cause of death was determined to be a heart attack. Although sudden, it was not terribly surprising as the woman was nearly ninety years old.
It was only twelve days later, however, when sixty-nine-year-old Marion Mueller grew ill with the same symptoms as her mother. She was rushed to St. Therese Medical Center in Waukegan. Marion succumbed to her illness two days later, passing away on August 18th, 1980. The deaths of these two relatively healthy women so close together sparked fear in the community. Perhaps the water supply was contaminated. The county health department conducted a full investigation of the women’s home and public utilities, but nothing was identified that could have contributed to the deaths.
Following the deaths of Mary, Marion became the sole beneficiary of her mother’s estate. After Marion’s death two weeks later, Viriginia became the beneficiary of both her mother and grandmother’s estates. Chuck and Virginia gained approximately $150,000 plus the proceeds of selling the home in Fox Grove. The home was sold below market value, assumed to be a strategy to secure a quick sale.
That September, the board for Allied Die Casting met which consisted of the three stockholders: Charles Albanese, Michael Albanese Sr., and Michael Albanese Jr. Michael Sr. seemed to be unhappy with the way his son was running the company as president and called for Chuck to be fired. However, he settled on demoting his son to treasurer. It is unclear what sparked the argument between father and son, but witnesses confirmed that the two were not getting along well.
Just days after the meeting, Michael Albanese Jr., then in his thirties, became sick after eating his lunch. The young man was suffering bouts of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Soon after, Michael Sr. also began to experience symptoms. Over the next several months, both men struggled with nausea and vomiting after eating at work. Michael Jr. began to have neurological symptoms such as numbness and weakness that caused difficulty walking.
Pictured: Michael Albanese Sr.
In May of 1981, Michael Albanese Sr. was hospitalized, and doctors were not sure they could save the sixty-nine-year-old. Michael Joseph Albanese was born July 24th, 1911, in Chicago. He and his wife Clara were parents to two boys: Chuck and Michael Jr. They were the founders and owners of Allied Die Casting. With his health failing, a new agreement was signed by Michael Sr., Michael Jr., and Charles Albanese. The new agreement, which Michael Jr. needed his wife’s assistance to sign, made Charles Albanese the vice president of the company. On May 16th, 1981, Michael Albanese Sr. passed away.
Soon after the death of Michael Sr., the McHenry County Medical Examiner attended a seminar where the Lake County Medical Examiner was also in attendance. The two, already familiar with one another, discussed their recent cases including that of Albanese. They also discussed the mysterious illness plaguing Michael Jr. The two men, linking Charles Albanese to all three deaths, sought orders to exhume the bodies of Michael Albanese Sr., Marion Mueller, and Mary Lambert after testing confirmed the presence of arsenic in the body of Michael Albanese Jr.
The second autopsies on Marion, Mary, and Michael Sr. demonstrated all three had toxic levels of arsenic in their systems. Analysis showed Mary had been given one very large dose of arsenic prior to her death, whereas Michael Sr. appeared to be poisoned over a long period of time. The cause of death for all three was changed to arsenic poisoning and the manner of death to homicide. Detectives quietly began working to connect Charles Albanese to the crimes, careful not to alert him to the investigation.
Investigators learned that on August 4th, 1980, two days before Mary Lambert’s death, Charles Albanese wrote a post-dated check to his ex-wife to satisfy his child support arrears. He told his ex-wife that he would have the money to cover the check, $3,648, in a couple of days. After Mary Lambert’s death on August 6th, her bank account was closed and the money, $3,600, was deposited into Charles and Virginia’s checking account. Following Marion Mueller’s death two weeks later, Charles Albanese paid the past due amount of his mortgage, avoiding foreclosure.
While circumstantial evidence certainly indicated Charles Albanese in the crimes, investigators did not believe Viginia was involved. For one, she is the one who gave permission for Mary and Marion’s bodies to be exhumed. The evidence against Charles was not enough yet for indictment because they could not link him to the arsenic. Soon, however, they got their smoking gun. Allied Die Casting sold scrap zinc to a metal plating firm in Wisconsin. Upon interview, they learned Charles Albanese was not contributing the funds from the sale to the company, instead pocketing $25,000 to $35,000 for himself. Additionally, the metal plating operator said that he sold Charles Albanese some arsenic because Chuck said he needed to get rid of some pests around the house.
Michael Albanese Sr. left his entire estate to his wife, Clara, making her net worth approximately $500,000. Charles was not known to be close to his mother, but investigators soon learned that Chuck and Viriginia were planning a Thanksgiving vacation Jamaica. The police feared that Clara may be his next intended victim and chose to arrest him on November 18th, 1981, to prevent another tragedy. Chuck was arrested at his office just hours before he was to leave for Jamaica.
Charles Albanese was charged with the murder of Marion Mueller in McHenry County. He was charged in Lake County for the murders of Mary Lambert, Michael Albanese Sr., and the attempted murder of Michael Albanese Jr. The defense won a change of venue for his first trial, with the trial taking place in Bloomington, Illinois in May of 1982. Evidence of his crumbling finances was presented by a forensic accountant. In addition to his home being in foreclosure, Albanese was being sued by both of his ex-wives for arrears of support. These problems went away following the deaths of his mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law.
Medical examiners provided testimony about the arsenic found in all three of the deceased’s bodies. The man from Wisconsin who sold Charles Albanese the arsenic took the stand, claiming Chuck started asking for the arsenic in 1979 to rid his home and trash of pests. A neighbor testified that the trouble with pests in the garbage did not start until the Spring of 1980, but the defense contended that Chuck used the arsenic for that purpose. The motive for the murder of father and attempted murder of his brother was presented to be control over the company. Perhaps, the state contended, he intended to make Clara Albanese, his own mother, his next victim.
Charles Albanese was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to death row. Following his first trial, he went on trial for the murder of Marion Mueller. Again, Charles Albanese was found guilty and again sentenced to death. He was transferred to Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois, in 1982 to await execution. Here, he became John Wayne Gacy’s pinochle partner. Chuck maintained his innocence, however. Virginia Albanese filed for divorce.
Between 1982 and 1995, Charles Albanese appealed his convictions and sentences. He claimed that Michael Albanese Jr. was likely the person who committed the crimes, but that seemed illogical to the court given Michael suffered permanent nerve damage from arsenic poisoning. Additionally, Michael Albanese Jr. had no motive or connection to Marion Mueller or Mary Lambert. Charles Albanese refused contact with most of his family, stating it would be too hard to continue those relationships while on death row.
On September 19th, 1995, Charles Albanese was transferred via helicopter from Menard Correctional Center to Statesville Correctional Center for his execution. He spent his final day professing his innocence and accusing the prosecution of covering up the facts of the case. For his last meal, Albanese requested prime rib, baked potato, garlic bread, coffee, Coca-Cola, and pistachio ice cream. He made no final statement before he was given lethal injection. Albanese was pronounced dead September 20th, 1995, at 12:20 am.
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