I just now discovered that the Mall Passer is dead.

Michael DeBardenleben, counterfeiter and notorious serial kidnapper, rapist and killer, died in prison on January 26, 2011. Known to the Secret Service as the Mall Passer because of his practice of passing counterfeit money almost exclusively at Malls, he was finally apprehended and during the execution of a search warrant on a storage unit he rented, agents discovered evidence of his other criminal activities.

His records, including calendars which documented his travels, also had photographic and tape recorded accounts of his depraved sexual assaults on women he had kidnapped. After being convicted of lesser crimes and being sentenced to over 300 years in prison, DeBardenleben was fortunate not to be prosecuted in any of the states where he might have received capital punishment.

Our agents Greg Mertz, Dennis Foos, and Mike Stephens gathered the evidence in the case, which filled the security vault at WFO, and worked with agencies throughout the eastern seaboard, down through Florida and over to Texas in efforts to identify victims seen in photographs which were found.

DeBardenleben's case is documented in a book titled Lethal Shadow by Stephen Michaud. Our agents cooperated in the writing of the book.

It is good to know that DeBardenleben is no longer polluting our land.

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