Customer Reviews

Beyond Cruel (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was a fast read partly because the author has written short chapters with specific titles. Every true crime writer is probably trying to find the next Ted Bundy. Mike is no Ted Bundy although he thinks he is smarter and more sophisticated but a student of the man's crimes. Mike is a very sick man who has done horrible acts of violence towards innocent women including his wives and other women like real estate agents. His murder count is a lot lower to our knowledge because it's possible that he killed more but won't talk about it. He's in jail for life. He did have a sick, perverse sexuality which featured unwilling participants in bondage. He murdered a couple of women and a man who ill-stricken in Greece, New York. There are pictures and some basic information about his crimes but not enough detail or thorough explanation of how he became a monster in human flesh.

The story of Mike Debardeleben, as related in Stephen Michaud's recent publication, Beyond Cruel, is written more in textbook style than in standard true crime books. Instead of taking the facts and making an easy to reading, easily flowing story, Michaud's somewhat just list the facts paragraph by paragraph then breaks it further down into chapter by chapter.

And while Debardeleben's crimes were absolutely horrendous, I would not, by far, call him the most sadistic killer.

Also, be prepared to wade through tons of information about his counterfeiting crimes while looking for the "sadistic" part of the story.

The most interesting part to me was the epilogue that detailed follow up information on his children; especially the daughter that was placed for adoption at birth.

I'm a big biography and true-crime fan, and have read hundreds of books in these genres. The quality of the writing is so variable in true crime that it is often a gamble when you buy one of these books. This story has so much potential to be gripping, moving, chilling, upsetting, enlightening, or SOMETHING - how could it end up being written so dully? Well, it was... dull. Deadly, horribly dull.

It was really skimpy on details, which I understand some readers may appreciate, since not everyone wants to know every grisly moment. OK, but if you're going to skip the scary/gross/perverted/evil minutiae, at least make it interesting somehow. This book was just sooo dull, dry, simplistic, and written at a fourth-grade reading level to boot.

Here, you don't need to buy it - literally here it is: there was this guy named Mike Debardeleben, who was obsessed with his overbearing, overweight mom (like all serial killers, yawn) and he traveled around doing various crimes, including counterfeiting (where did he get so skillful? Where did he get his equipment? I sure don't know), and raping and killing women. He was 100% evil and vile. Then he got caught due to the pure-hearted heroism of the federal agents and cops. They are 100% good. The cops thought alot of the evidence was yucky and it made them feel icky, but they didn't give up, and Mikey ended up in jail.

Real life isn't that black-and-white.

This is a very dull book. I agree with another reviewer that it is more like a text book style. I didn't finish the book because it was so dry. I did make it through 75% of it then thought I would do something more entertaining like watch paint dry. The book is not well written.

I very much love reading these true crime stories and I typically feel that I have learned something profound from each of them. This story of Mike D (I refuse to spell out that long name!) is compelling, but unfortunately, the telling of his story is difficult to get through. It does not read well (although I do get the point of the story, the writing makes it a bit of a drag). I have yet to finish it - it will be a slower process than usual due to the difficulty of reading and keeping my interest. I believe the problem is the way the writer structured the telling of Mike's story that makes it hard to read, as well as a dislike for the writer's style (a lot of odd wording issues). Still, it is worth reading simply for the story itself. This serial killer was incredibly intelligent and had many psychological problems. If you choose to read this story, do so for the learning experience that you would gain from attempting to understand a person like Mike D.

I am giving this book 3 stars because I believe it is worth reading (for the story) but beware that it won't be a thrill ride! Still, you will gain insight from it.

As one of the judges in Mike DeBardeleben's trials commented, DeBardeleben's crimes are "beyond the pale". So perverse and depraved were his fantasies, that using the term sadist is not an exaggeration in labeling him. What makes his crimes unusual are the counterfeiting schemes that parallel his rampage. Not only did he devise a sophisticated way of printing phony money, but he also extorted from the wealthy.

The life of DeBardeleben follows a familiar path of a rough childhood and a poor relationship with his mother. The anger toward women is mirrored in each of his five wives and in each victim on a remarkmable scattered path of crime. So base and cruel were the recordings of his crimes that hardened investigators were disturbed.

Although author Stephen Michaud's writing is rather dry at times, the errors that should have been corrected by proofreaders are unacceptable. The misplacement of punctuation marks in Chapter 10 is so bad it is comical. Yet the most interesting mistake is on page 91, the first page of the Chapter 12. "Indistinct voices filtered down from an upstairs radio as the team picked its way through DeBardeleben's dark, dusty living mom ...". It would seem as though spellcheck did not recognize "mom" should have been "room".

As other readers have noted, I found great interest in the Epilogue. In this section, we learn the fates of the children DeBardeleben left behind. It is an aspect of true crime that is rarely explored.

This book was hard to read in my opinion. I was anxious to get to the end and felt as though I never would. One of the most aggravating things about this book was that the authour used the main character's full name every time he mentioned him. I finally just skipped over the name or just said 'MIKE' to myself.

- There are 4 pages of photographs. They show the killer, his victims and the Secret Service agents who hunted him down.

- The story is more gripping and original than any movie or novel I've ever seen. It's about a criminal who raped, killed, printed counterfeit money, robbed and kidnapped people. He eluded the Secret Service for almost 10 years.

- The writing is factual but it's some what dry. So, I give it 4 stars.

The harrowing aspect of this man is his long-run of violent crimes.

Roy Hazelwood called him "the most dangerous criminal on this planet" (that was his opinion).

Mike DeBardeleben, per the expert (Hazelwood), is a true sexual sadist. The "great white shark" of predators.

Fascinating story, and this story is true.

Good book, I love true crime, can't believe this man got away for so long. Very twisted.