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Lethal Shadow: The Chilling True-Crime Story of a Sadistic Sex Slayer
Profiles the life and crimes of James Mitchell De Bardeleban, from his initial arrest as a counterfeiter to the discovery that he was also a sadistic kidnapper, torturer, and sex murderer responsible for a twenty-year reign of terror.
316 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 11, 2015
I was delighted to randomly come across this book in the true crime section, since I'd been wanting to learn more about this man ever since I first heard a brief yet sensational overview of his crimes. I can now say after reading this that the sensationalism wasn't formed by exaggeration, it's the story and crimes themselves that are inherently over-the-top and evil to an almost cartoonish degree. Mike DeBardeleben's criminal career is one that would make movie audiences roll their eyes in disbelief, yet all of it really freaking happened. And it's one of the most extreme and disturbing examples of sexual sadism I've ever come across. The fact that DeBardeleben's name isn't even close to being as well-known as Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy and the rest of the most infamous names in serial crime is incomprehensible to me. But more on that in a bit.
This book has three significant problems, most of which stem from the sheer complexity of the case itself: it isn't organized well enough, it has many gaps in the narrative of DeBardeleben's life and crimes, and most importantly it's WAY too short. The first two problems are almost certainly exacerbated if not entirely created by the apparent lack of available information on DeBardeleben in general. While the Secret Service and DeBardeleben himself kept extensive records, there are still a staggering number of gaps in his crime timeline, which no one aside from DeBardeleben himself seems able to fill in. I'm willing to overlook that, but the short length of the book compared to the gargantuan amounts of notes, letters, tapes, etc. DeBardeleben made is what I find baffling. I desperately wanted to read MORE of his notes and diaries, to see MORE pictures of the huge amounts and varieties of evidence collected from his storage lockers. You could probably publish an entirely separate book containing JUST that information and have it be five times the length of this book, and that's a low end estimate. I read true crime books in order to get inside the heads of the offenders, and I felt like this book had only barely scratched the surface of DeBardeleben's inner turmoil and pathology by the time it was over.
Despite all the holes in the timeline, what parts of DeBardeleben's life we are told about are absolutely chilling. That someone so toxic could cover so much ground in so little time is nauseating, because it forces you to imagine how many men, women and children he could've victimized in just a single year of his criminal career. Then you remember this guy was free to do this for decades, and it becomes overwhelming to the point where your brain wants to go into denial mode just to lessen the horror. It's clear that not only did DeBardeleben want to hurt his victims in the present, but that he took great pride in going out of his way to make sure his victims STAYED hurt years after he disappeared from their lives. He tortured others in every way imaginable and in fact seemed to view torture as an art, one he researched and practiced and was exceedingly skilled at. He was a student of violent pornography and material about other serial killers/rapists, and even cobbled together life lessons and sadistic fantasies from his own abusive childhood. Every single person, object or event in his life was evaluated in terms of what role it could play in the fulfillment of his next fantasy, regardless of whether that was scamming thousands of dollars off a naive elderly person, kidnapping a young girl to sexually abuse, or murdering a woman simply because the opportunity arose to do so. The depth and breadth of his narcissism and sexual sadism is almost unrivaled compared to other serial offenders I've read about. When Roy Hazelwood himself makes special mention of how absolutely vile a person he is, you know DeBardeleben has reached a level of absolute depravity and corruption that is extraordinary even among the worst of the worst criminals.
Going back to an aforementioned point, I find it extremely difficult to understand why this man is so obscure relative to other serial offenders who do not approach his level of criminal intelligence, range, inventiveness, proliferation and depravity. There is almost NO category of crime that DeBardeleben didn't at least dabble in. His counterfeiting activities alone are legendary, and based on his own 'collections' I feel certain he has to be one of the most prolific serial rapists this country has ever seen. So why the obscurity? I can't help but think it's due, at least in part, to a conscious effort on behalf of the Secret Service to keep a lot of this story quiet. Before I read this I knew only a tiny amount about DeBardeleben, but one thing I did know was that the Secret Service was aware of his existence as a sexual predator years before he was apprehended as the Mall Passer, and that very little if anything was done to investigate further or even question him about it. This horrifically egregious oversight is skated over in the book. I know from researching other crimes that all this happened in a much different time, one in which sex crimes weren't adequately understood, responded to or even taken as seriously as they are now. But this book was first published in 1994, more than enough time during which to examine the situation with hindsight, and law enforcement's enormous failure to give DeBardeleben's sex offenses more than a cursory glance should be honestly discussed and exposed for the terrible judgment that it was. There are women and men that paid with their sanity, stability, and even their lives for that poor judgment. Despite the incredible effort the Secret Service put into making sure DeBardeleben would spend the rest of his life in prison after being caught as the Mall Passer, pretending that they didn't also essentially hand him a free pass to continue his spree of sexual torture and murder is unacceptable to me.
According to this page there is apparently a newer, updated version of this book which I would love to get my hands on. I hope it's a decent chunk of new text in the updated version, because no amount of information added to this story could be too much for me.
This book has three significant problems, most of which stem from the sheer complexity of the case itself: it isn't organized well enough, it has many gaps in the narrative of DeBardeleben's life and crimes, and most importantly it's WAY too short. The first two problems are almost certainly exacerbated if not entirely created by the apparent lack of available information on DeBardeleben in general. While the Secret Service and DeBardeleben himself kept extensive records, there are still a staggering number of gaps in his crime timeline, which no one aside from DeBardeleben himself seems able to fill in. I'm willing to overlook that, but the short length of the book compared to the gargantuan amounts of notes, letters, tapes, etc. DeBardeleben made is what I find baffling. I desperately wanted to read MORE of his notes and diaries, to see MORE pictures of the huge amounts and varieties of evidence collected from his storage lockers. You could probably publish an entirely separate book containing JUST that information and have it be five times the length of this book, and that's a low end estimate. I read true crime books in order to get inside the heads of the offenders, and I felt like this book had only barely scratched the surface of DeBardeleben's inner turmoil and pathology by the time it was over.
Despite all the holes in the timeline, what parts of DeBardeleben's life we are told about are absolutely chilling. That someone so toxic could cover so much ground in so little time is nauseating, because it forces you to imagine how many men, women and children he could've victimized in just a single year of his criminal career. Then you remember this guy was free to do this for decades, and it becomes overwhelming to the point where your brain wants to go into denial mode just to lessen the horror. It's clear that not only did DeBardeleben want to hurt his victims in the present, but that he took great pride in going out of his way to make sure his victims STAYED hurt years after he disappeared from their lives. He tortured others in every way imaginable and in fact seemed to view torture as an art, one he researched and practiced and was exceedingly skilled at. He was a student of violent pornography and material about other serial killers/rapists, and even cobbled together life lessons and sadistic fantasies from his own abusive childhood. Every single person, object or event in his life was evaluated in terms of what role it could play in the fulfillment of his next fantasy, regardless of whether that was scamming thousands of dollars off a naive elderly person, kidnapping a young girl to sexually abuse, or murdering a woman simply because the opportunity arose to do so. The depth and breadth of his narcissism and sexual sadism is almost unrivaled compared to other serial offenders I've read about. When Roy Hazelwood himself makes special mention of how absolutely vile a person he is, you know DeBardeleben has reached a level of absolute depravity and corruption that is extraordinary even among the worst of the worst criminals.
Going back to an aforementioned point, I find it extremely difficult to understand why this man is so obscure relative to other serial offenders who do not approach his level of criminal intelligence, range, inventiveness, proliferation and depravity. There is almost NO category of crime that DeBardeleben didn't at least dabble in. His counterfeiting activities alone are legendary, and based on his own 'collections' I feel certain he has to be one of the most prolific serial rapists this country has ever seen. So why the obscurity? I can't help but think it's due, at least in part, to a conscious effort on behalf of the Secret Service to keep a lot of this story quiet. Before I read this I knew only a tiny amount about DeBardeleben, but one thing I did know was that the Secret Service was aware of his existence as a sexual predator years before he was apprehended as the Mall Passer, and that very little if anything was done to investigate further or even question him about it. This horrifically egregious oversight is skated over in the book. I know from researching other crimes that all this happened in a much different time, one in which sex crimes weren't adequately understood, responded to or even taken as seriously as they are now. But this book was first published in 1994, more than enough time during which to examine the situation with hindsight, and law enforcement's enormous failure to give DeBardeleben's sex offenses more than a cursory glance should be honestly discussed and exposed for the terrible judgment that it was. There are women and men that paid with their sanity, stability, and even their lives for that poor judgment. Despite the incredible effort the Secret Service put into making sure DeBardeleben would spend the rest of his life in prison after being caught as the Mall Passer, pretending that they didn't also essentially hand him a free pass to continue his spree of sexual torture and murder is unacceptable to me.
According to this page there is apparently a newer, updated version of this book which I would love to get my hands on. I hope it's a decent chunk of new text in the updated version, because no amount of information added to this story could be too much for me.
January 26, 2016
This was a fast-action page turner book with alot of interesting history. I would recommend it.
May 13, 2025
I'm morbidly fascinating by the criminal mind, especially by serial killers. I quite liked this book, but with so many characters it got confusing following who was who. It would be very useful to have a glossary of the characters and their predicaments, of what gruesome ordeal they encountered. The epilogue was weak - about Mike's offspring. A postscript by Hazelwood or one of the lead detectives would have been better. On the whole, I enjoyed it and would totally recommend it to those who share the same interest.
April 20, 2022
Not bad but a bit dull at times. Not tedious; not a lot of boring background. Somehow it was just missing something.
August 28, 2020
VERY interesting. VERY thorough. Very disturbing. I loved it!
March 23, 2015
Two and a half stars would be a more accurate rating. I do not remember ever hearing about Mike DeBardeleben, the subject of this book. He reminds me a little of Ted Bundy--intelligent but ultimately controlled by their dark side. Interesting that the Secret Service chased after him for a dozen years for passing counterfeit bills all over the country, then,when they finally captured him and located his printing press they discovered equipment, photos, and other evidence that indicated he was also possibly a serial sex offender and murderer. I give the book only two stars, because from my perspective, Michaud doesn't have his book well organized. It tends to jump around a bit, probably due to the complexity of the subjects activities. Well documented--goes into DeBardeleben's past and goes through his capture and the court cases that sent him behind bars. Interesting epilogue about his daughters re-connection as adults. One had been given up for adoption. The other weakness is the book never revealed how DeBardeleben learned the printing techniques necessary to be a fairly successful counterfeiter. The book didn't indicate he had any past experience in the printing business, or ties to anyone with that expertise.
September 11, 2010
This is a true crime novel about the "Mall Passer" aka Michael Debardleben. This is a case I studied in Criminal Law and it made me cringe. This man was initially wanted for counterfeiting; however, each state he went to, women disappeared. The officers had enough evidence to search a storage unit for counterfeiting equipment. Upon their search, they discovered tapes with female names. If you like true thrillers, I recommend reading this book.
February 26, 2017
A readable true-crime narrative of a captured counterfeiter who turns out to be much more than the Secret Service could ever have guessed. After falling out of print, Lethal Shadow was republished by its author, and while it's good for writers to keep getting paid for their work, you might want to avoid this self-published edition. It wasn't proofread (or was proofread very badly), and a few sentences have been rendered unintelligible.
November 27, 2011
This is not very well-written. Like a lot of true crime books, it's repetitive and riddled with useless details. I don't care how tall the members of the task force are, or what color cars they drive. Also, because DeBardeleben refused to admit to or discuss any of the rapes or murders he committed, there just isn't that much factual material for the author to cover.
January 16, 2016
A grim but satisfying read. Honestly where do all these people come from!? It was wonderful to see so many law-enforcement people, from every imaginable jurisdiction and level of the system, working together on one of the weirdest cases ever.
July 2, 2008
If you like true crime, I recommend this book.
Well written and a very disturbing story.
Well written and a very disturbing story.
July 27, 2016
decent enough for a true crime, but buy really needed a better ending
July 10, 2013
For a true story it was very traumatizing. It was so great!!'n
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews