Mike DeBardeleben was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1940. He was born into a military family, and thus moved several times in his childhood during the World War II years. He had a fairly rough childhood, with his father being quite strict and using very physical punishments for everything. He also grew a hatred for his mother, who was not caring enough to him and apparently neglectful. He joined the United States Air Force, but got into trouble and was discharged fairly quickly. After that, he really began his life of crime. His crimes ranged from thefts to counterfeit money. Ultimately, he was arrested for counterfeit money in Maryville, Tennessee. (That peaked my interest since Maryville is just an hour away from my house.) After that arrest, his other nefarious activities came to light.

I have major problems with this book. The title indicates that the book provides a chilling story. It did not. There was nothing chilling in this book. Most of the book was spent talking about his counterfeit operations. Another good portion of this book was about the court case, which can get very tedious and boring for people reading true crime. I didn't have a problem with that, really, but it was just annoying to me that I bought this book expecting to learn about a serial killer that I had not yet heard of, and I am wasting half my night reading about his counterfeit schemes. While I understand that it is important to the understanding of the man and how he became known to law enforcement, that is not the purpose of me buying this book OR what the title says it is about. I had to just do a Google deep dive to actually learn about this guy and his crimes. I learned more from that than I did this book. I am irritated with myself for buying it, even though it was on sale for $5. I do not recommend this book. Look for another one, or just google about the guy.