His crimes unfolded over six years within a single Chicago neighborhood, targeting women whose circumstances left them especially vulnerable to predation and, afterward, to being overlooked. The Englewood area during the 1990s was home to at least one other active serial killer simultaneously, a convergence that complicated investigations and allowed Crawford's crimes to continue longer than they might have otherwise. The confusion between cases extended even to a false confession by another offender claiming one of Crawford's murders as his own.

DeBardeleben's crimes came to light almost by accident — it was a counterfeiting investigation that led Secret Service agents to evidence of a far more serious pattern of sexual violence spanning years and multiple states. The breadth of what investigators uncovered in his possession after his arrest placed him among the most studied subjects in criminal psychology, and the DSM-IV later cited him specifically as an exemplar of both sexual sadism and antisocial personality disorder. His 375-year federal sentence reflected the scope of documented offenses, while suspected homicides for which he was never tried remained unresolved at his death.