Cause of Death or Coroners Journal

Cause of Death: Forensic Files of a Medical Examiner

Author: Stephen D Cohl

The body of a woman floats to the surface of a lake with sixty pounds of cinder block and chain attached to her legs. Her killer faces the death penalty if the prosecution can answer one question: Did she drown? A worker for the only U.S. plant licensed to produce anthrax dies, the victim of a heart attack. But what caused his heart to stop beating?

Follow veteran medical examiner Dr. Stephen D. Cohle into the world of forensic pathology, as he solves these and many other cases. Written from an insider's view, Cause of Death puts the reader behind Dr. Cohle's shoulder while he examines each victim. The cases range from exotic murder mysteries ripe for a CSI episode to everyday casualties of heart attacks and car accidents. Every victim, though, has a story to tell. Enter a real-life morgue with its strange sights, sounds, and smells, and watch a forensic mastermind as he unravels each victim's cause of death.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Scenes     7
Decompression     21
Thorns!     27
Contrasts     49
Safe Sex?     56
What Killed Harry Freiburg?     73
The Perfect Murder     77
Bugs!     87
Red Sky in the Morning     101
The Oxford Lake Death Penalty Case     105
The Rough Sex Case     122
Skeletons in the Closet     131
Accidents     153
The Shortest Chapter     154
15 Seconds     169
The Museum of Tattoos     173
Blue Highway     189
Cyanotic     198
Broken Hearts     207
Broken Hearts     216
Of Zebras and Horses     227
David versus Goliath     230
Endings     243
The Hand of God     250
Horseplay     261
Bad Medicine     264
The Last Chapter: Life     283
Message in a Bottle     288
Conclusion: Morgue Poetry and Wintergreen Mints     397
Acknowledgments     313
Notes and Sources     315
Index     327

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Coroner's Journal: Forensics and the Art of Stalking Death

Author: Louis Cataldi

During Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Louis Cataldie remained in New Orleans in dangerous and often unbearable conditions to attend to the sick, the injured-and the dead. As chief coroner of Baton Rouge, tending to the dead is Cataldie's job. A little town with big-city problems, Baton Rouge means "Red Stick"-and lives up to its bloody name. Cataldie has faced unusual and disturbing cases, from tracking three serial killers on the loose simultaneously while working the scene of a Malvo/ Muhammad Beltway Sniper shooting, to helping apprehend Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee in a controversial case that was featured in an ABC Primetime Live special with Diane Sawyer and Patricia Cornwell.

Cataldie's maverick ways have made him a favorite target of the media, but he offers no apologies, and speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. Graphic and frank, this is his unique, up-close look at his life spent stalking death in the Deep South.

Publishers Weekly

Cornwell's foreword may attract readers to this unremarkable account by the chief coroner in Baton Rouge, La. Flat writing and the occasional platitude ("How sad. This is someone's daughter") detract from what could have been an interesting professional memoir by a dedicated public servant whose duties include ordering psychological evaluations and commitments, as well as the more familiar forensic work. Instead, the scenarios, whether an autoerotic hanging or the evaluation of a psychiatric patient, are brief and lacking dramatic tension. Some readers may also be put off by the short prologue added after Hurricane Katrina, which is the "incomplete accounting" the author labels it; the value and heroism of the doctor's work are not adequately captured by his words. His perspective on a number of serial killer cases-and the mistakes made by law enforcement in investigating them-will be new to many and are indicative of the frankness and professionalism that have apparently marked his career. (Mar. 16) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.