Henry Joseph Vila and his wife Edith Vila were murdered during a nighttime burglary at their Albany hills home on November 22, 1981. Their deaths stood as the only double murder in Albany’s history and the killings remained unsolved for years.

In 1999 DNA testing linked Charles Junior Jackson, then a 62-year-old former Oakland handyman serving a life sentence at Folsom for a different murder, to the Vila killings. Albany Police Lt. Bill Palmini described the DNA as conclusively tying Jackson to the scene. Prosecutors reopened the case with assistance from Alameda County prosecutor Rockne Harmon, a noted DNA expert; authorities delayed filing charges while exploring Jackson’s possible connection to other unsolved local killings.

Jackson’s criminal record began in 1953 and included multiple imprisonments for burglary, rape, assault, and child molesting. Court records from his 1982 trial show prosecutors believed he might be connected to several other unsolved murders, though those links were not proven.

Does anyone have memories or information about the Viles, their neighborhood, or the 1981 investigation that could help fill gaps in the timeline?