The Devil's Right-Hand Man: The True Story of Serial Killer Robert Charles Browne

by Stephen G. Michaud, Debbie M. Price

Describes how a bizarre letter from Robert Charles Browne, a man serving a life sentence for the killing of a young girl, sparked a trio of retired law enforcement officials to form a cold case squad that took on its own investigation into unsolved murders in six states in an effort to uncover the true story of a cold-blooded serial killer.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2007

Reviews

[Katherine Addison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted this book to be a lot better than it was.

And it wasn't BAD. It was an interesting book about the way a volunteer cold case squad in Colorado Springs coaxed serial killer Robert Charles Browne in helping them to solve one of his early murders that had only been classed as a missing persons case.

But it doesn't feel finished. Not just because there are dozens of other murders Browne claims to have committed, but because Michaud & Price published their book while several of these murders were waiting on DNA evidence. I know with the laboratory backlog, an author CAN'T wait for all the DNA to come in, but it makes this book feel rushed. Like there's some invisible deadline Michaud & Price felt they had to meet.

(I know another book about Browne just came out, Hello Charlie, but this is TEN YEARS LATER. Who the heck were Michaud & Price trying to scoop?)

So it feels rushed and superficial, like a bad documentary. (I just watched a bad History Channel documentary about the Zodiac Killer, so the comparison is easy to make.) I feel as if there's a lot more work Michaud & Price could have done, more questions they could have asked. Honestly, the sharpest and most incisive thing about this book is its title, and that's a quote from one of Browne's ex-wives.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

True crime about a serial killer who writes letters to a detective. A bedtime reading distraction. Not the kind of true crime I normally enjoy. I usually go more for the “hunt for” type books. In this one, the serial killer is already behind bars and confessing to more crimes. Not great, but not terrible either.

[Katie Harder-schauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm working on writing my review now. It will be posted here after it goes live on my blog. I will say that I got more cop backstory in this than I was expecting.

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just arrived. ordered from bol.com

Interesting but to be honest sometimes a bit boring. Glad I was done with it. I do applaud those older detectives for working the cold cases!

[Bill reilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 1993 a drifter found a skull at the bottom of a ravine in Colorado Springs. Forensics matched it to a missing 13 year-old girl, Heather Dawn Church. She had been missing for two years. At the time of the disappearance, Heather’s Mormon parent’s had separated and were going through a divorce. Robert Charles Browne lived nearby on a Christmas tree farm with his fifth wife. Although not an early suspect, a fingerprint match on a window frame pointed to Robert. He was the youngest of five children. He first married a 13 year-old girl when he was 17. Detectives interrogated Browne for several hours until he asked for a lawyer. The book bounces back and forth between the Church murder and Browne’s incarceration and letter writing campaign to the police in 2000. The killer wrote, “you one, the other team 48.” The lead detective, Charles Hess, was reminded of Ted Bundy’s death row confessions. He believed, as I do, that a delay of a few months would have provided invaluable information to law enforcement. A background check on Browne revealed heavy drug use and time in prison for burglary. Three of his ex-wives suffered abuse at the hands of the psychopath. A guilty plea resulted in a life sentence for Robert. In early 2003, after several months of a cat and mouse letter writing exchange with Hess, Browne finally gave a cryptic clue regarding a dead body found in Flatonia, Texas in 1984. A 17 year-old stripper/prostitute named Nidia Mendoza was choked to death and cut up into pieces after a “date” with Robert in Sugar Land, Texas. Nidia was five feet tall and with her head and legs removed, fit nicely into a suitcase. Browne’s memory for detail is astounding. Each kill remained embedded in his brain. Because the murders occurred over the course of twenty years, the police were not able to verify most of them. The book chronicles the investigation and the cops frustration at being unable to solve so many cold cases. Ted Bundy scored anywhere from thirty to one hundred kills. We will never know whether Browne is telling the truth. The Devil’s Right Hand Man never answers that question.

[John Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not very good. It is not “the true story of serial killer Robert Charles Browne”. It is the true story of a trio of retired policemen who looked into cold case files; decided to investigate Browne and the murders he committed; contacted Browne and played cat and mouse games in conversations and correspondence with him, during which he hinted at the details of almost fifty murders he committed. At the end of the book, the reader still does not know whether Browne is lying or indulging in his own fantasies, or may have killed that many people and has a hazy memory for details. Over half of the book is taken up with the personalities and tactics of the investigators. To get a glimpse of what could have been explored more profitably, one only has to look at the evocative photographs in the book of the shacks that Browne and several of his victims lived in, located in Coushatta, Louisiana. What is this town like; what is Browne’s family like; in short, what is the milieu of his upbringing, crimes, victims: this poor, depressing end of the road?

[Jonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent read and focuses more generally on the efforts taken by some retired officers to tie together strings of murders that supposedly Robert Browne is responsible for.
It was a slow but interesting read. I never found myself overly enthusiastic about the story but wanted to finish it nonetheless.

[Neil Mudde]

Tedious, endless complications in getting this Robert Charles Brown to confess to other murder, started reading then skipped pages, in the end, went to the last few pages of the book, and finished "reading" it

[rivergirl_reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning of the book dragged on and was try. There was a few chapters that really hooked me in, but then they went back to dragging on. True crime books don’t need to be dry to get all the information in. I think it’s just poor and inexperienced writing to fault.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Frankly couldn't even finish it. Seemed to be more about the team than about the killer himself.

[Jorezza Antonio · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book. Robert Brown is not a well known killer. It shows what he did to his victims and how he confessed to the murders.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but ultimately rather unsatisfying because it leaves so many questions unanswered.

[Karen Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written book but very disappointed that most cases aren't solved.

[Johnny Story · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story unfolds with a cold case being solved and subsequent arrest of Robert Charles Browne in 1995. The three cops assigned to break the case eventually convince Robert to spill the beans on potential other murders over the 25 year killing span (from 2000-2007)
The author uses a more matter-of-fact law enforcement tone, focusing more on the details of the case than the victims, their background, and the killer himself. Regardless, the mystery to Robert's claims is engaging, certain details of the murders are haunting, and the emotional detachment reliving his kills is mind blowing.
If psychopath/sociopath serial killers and human behavior intrigue you then check out this book.
Robert Charles Browne: "The score is you one, other team forty-eight."

[Jaye Sudar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very interesting so far. Jeff Nohr is someone I went to high school with upteen years ago. Saw him at our high school reunion and he told me about the book. So, I'm reading it.
~~~~~one week later~~~~~
While a little dry and slow in places, it was the methodology of the cold case detectives that made this interesting to me. Plus the fact that most of this went on less than 90 miles north of me. It was a nice break from the rest of my reading.

[J. Ewbank · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book by Michaud and Price is a decent read. It is about as well done as you can do a book with the topic. It ios a presentation of the story of a serial killer which makes it limited in interesst as well as method of writing.

It was interesting to learn what we could about him.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book, not as gripping or involved as some of the genre. For some reason I felt the book was skimpy.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

saying I "read" this book isn't exactly true - I abandoned it about 100 pages in because I was bored stiff. Which was surprising, because I really liked Michaud's Ted Bundy books.

[Ccm13]

.........dude was bad news. shows well enough how the human mind can be messed up. based on a true story...good reading if you're into crime stories.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good book. But it did seem to dwell more on the coldcase team than about Robert Browne.

[Stephan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty decent book. Robert Browne is a truly sick individual. Also knows just how to work the system in order to get what he wants.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horribly twisted predator.