Subject of 'The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven' book suing Carol Stream publisher

On Nov. 4, 2004, 6-year-old William “Alex” Malarkey was permanently paralyzed as a quadriplegic in a car crash in Ohio and spent two months in a coma.

As he emerged from his coma, Alex began telling friends and family a story about how he had gone to heaven and talked to God, Jesus, angels and even the devil before returning. Six years later, the boy and his father, Kevin Malarkey, sold the story to the Carol Stream-based Tyndale House Christian publishing company.

Now, Alex Malarkey, 20 and living off Social Security, is suing Tyndale House for damages and to be disassociated from the book, “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” after nearly seven years of claiming the story is “one of the most deceptive books ever” and three years after he penned an open letter calling the story “fictional.” The suit also claims it was his dad, Kevin Malarkey, who “concocted” the whole story.

According to the lawsuit filed in DuPage County, Tyndale sold 112,386 copies of the book in 2010, its first year of publishing. In 2013, Tyndale House won a platinum award from the Evangelic Christian Publishers Association for selling more than 1 million copies of the book, which became a New York Times best-seller and was billed as “a true story.”

But in January 2015, Alex, paralyzed from the neck down, admitted he had fabricated the story.

“I did not die,” he wrote in a blog post. “I did not go to heaven. I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention.”

The book was promptly taken out of print by Tyndale.

Now, Alex claims to have never received a penny from the sales.

“This is a terribly unfortunate situation, which deeply saddens all of us at Tyndale,” a representative of the firm, who asked not to be named, said Monday. “Despite the claims in Alex Malarkey's lawsuit, Tyndale House paid all royalties that were due under the terms of our contract on his book. Any books still available from online vendors are from third-party sellers.”

According to the DuPage lawsuit, Alex Malarkey views the legal action as a way to finally settle the matter.

“Now that he is an adult, Alex desires to have his name completely disassociated from the book and seeks a permanent injunction against Tyndale House requiring it to do everything within reason to dissociate his name from the book,” according to the complaint. “Alex is not affiliated with the book. Alex is not connected to the book. Alex wants and has no association with the book.”

The complaint also alleges Tyndale House has not cooperated with Alex Malarkey as he tries to solve the complicated legacy behind the book.

Only Kevin Malarkey signed a publishing agreement for the book. In January, Alex's attorneys wrote to Tyndale House asking for an “accounting of all revenue earned from, all expenses associated with, and all disbursements made in association with the publication of and sale of the book.”

The publisher, however, agreed to do so only if Alex Malarkey confirmed the publishing agreement was “in effect and binding,” the lawsuit says.

“Tyndale House presumably made millions of dollars off this book based on the number of copies sold,” an out-of-state attorney representing Alex, and who asked not to be named, said. “One would have to assume they've made millions. We don't know if Kevin was paid. We have to assume he was, but we don't know how much or when.”

The attorney said Tyndale refused to provide an accounting “unless we agreed that a contract that we've never seen is valid.”

A Tyndale representative said the publisher “does not publicly discuss contract terms.”

Alex Malarkey is suing the publisher on the grounds of defamation, financial exploitation and publicity placing a person in a false light, among others.

“Despite the fact that Tyndale House has made millions of dollars off Alex's identity and an alleged autobiographical story of his life, Tyndale House paid Alex, a paralyzed young man, nothing,” the lawsuit states.

The attorney said Alex's mother, Beth, warned Kevin and Tyndale that Alex's Social Security income could be affected by money made from the book.

“We don't know why Alex was never paid. We don't have the contract. We did know the Social Security was an issue and his mother tells us she put everyone on notice who would listen. And they weren't listening much,” the attorney said. “She made everyone aware that that was an issue and she was ignored. So we don't know where that money went. We don't know how much there was.”

Two dates have been set to consider the lawsuit: July 9 and Sept. 25.