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Journal of the Dead: A Story of Friendship and Murder in the New Mexico Desert – A Riveting Recreation of the Shocking Events in Rattlesnake Canyon
I killed and buried my best friend today ... When authorities found Raffi Kodikian -- barely alive -- four days after he and his friend David Coughlin became lost in Rattlesnake Canyon, they made a grim and shocking discovery. Kodikian freely admitted that he had stabbed Coughlin twice in the heart. Had there been a darker motive than mercy? And how could anyone, under any circumstances, kill his best friend? Armed with the journal Kodikian and Coughlin carried into Rattle- snake Canyon, Jason Kersten re-creates in riveting detail those fateful days that led to the killing in an infamously unforgiving wilderness.
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
33 people are currently reading
550 people want to read
About the author
Jason Kersten
8 books13 followersI got into writing when I was eleven when I read The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. At the end I was astonished that printed words had created an intense emotional and physical reaction in me—a genuine magic spell! I wanted to learn the secret, to help me connect with others and understand our world.
I won an award for short fiction in college, then set off on the journalism trail after I began working in magazines. Long form journalism suited me. I started specializing in true crime because nobody where I worked was doing it, and I came from a family that included both lawyers and convicts, so I was familiar with the criminal justice system (that's another story).
Along with my books, I've published stories of all kinds in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, GQ, and numerous other magazines. I love the research process, discovering places and people I never knew existed and bringing their stories to life. Much is hidden beneath what we see right in front of us.
I hope you enjoy my books!
I won an award for short fiction in college, then set off on the journalism trail after I began working in magazines. Long form journalism suited me. I started specializing in true crime because nobody where I worked was doing it, and I came from a family that included both lawyers and convicts, so I was familiar with the criminal justice system (that's another story).
Along with my books, I've published stories of all kinds in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, GQ, and numerous other magazines. I love the research process, discovering places and people I never knew existed and bringing their stories to life. Much is hidden beneath what we see right in front of us.
I hope you enjoy my books!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
August 12, 2019
Haunting
I think a lot of us are fascinated with tales of treks across the desert, about what the desert can do to the unwary and unprepared. We can see those vultures circling and we can feel the chapped lips, the mouth so dry that we can hardly speak, and we can see the shimmer of the heat on the dry rocks and sand and hear the wind whispering, and we can be enveloped by the silence.
In this true crime tale Maxim magazine senior editor Jason Kersten expands on an article he wrote for that magazine and turns it into a modest book. It is a engrossing story about two young men, close friends, who travel west and get lost in Rattlesnake Canyon in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park without any water. As dehydration, fatigue, and hopelessness set in, the two men prepare to die. One of them, David Coughlin, is vomiting violently, hour after hour. He is in such pain that, so the story goes, he asks his friend Raffi Kodikian to kill him, to put him out of his misery.
Some hours later the next day their camp is spotted and the rangers come. They find Kodikian alive in the tent. He tells them where Coughlin's body is and confesses that he stabbed him through the heart as an act of mercy.
What makes this story work, and what makes it worth an entire book, is the uncertainty that still exists about Raffi Kodikian: did he kill his friend, as he claims, because he could not bare to see him suffer anymore, or did he have a more sinister motive? Kersten's narrative clearly leans toward the idea that Kodikian's action was a delusional mercy killing; however most of the law enforcement people mentioned in the book find Kodikian's story unconvincing. Kersten himself allows that in all the literature he could find, there was only one story of a mercy killing in the desert. Apparently it is an extremely rare event. Furthermore, the Rattlesnake Canyon they couldn't find their way out of is not that big. As Kersten terms it, Rattlesnake Canyon "is just a crack--five miles long, seven hundred feet deep..."
Another factor that makes this story interesting is the law itself and the defense chosen by famed New Mexico lawyer Gary Mitchell and his assistant Shawn Boyne. Since New Mexican law defines a mercy killing as a murder, period, and is not a complete defense to the crime, the lawyers had to come up with something better. Boyne made an argument for "involuntary intoxication" and it seemed to fit. Only problem was, according to the legal definition of that defense an agent of intoxication was required. Instead what they had was lack of water. Curiously, they might have argued that the juice of the prickly pear cactus fruit was the agent, but for some reason they did not. Kersten reports that eating prickly pear cactus fruit was probably part of the reason Coughlin vomited so violently.
Finally I have to say that Kersten does an excellent job with limited resources. He was not able to interview Kodikian, who refused his entreaties, so he had to reconstruct the story from the trial transcript and from interviews with other people, none of whom, of course, was in the canyon with the two men. Kersten also does a fine job of placing the story within the historical context of the New Mexican desert and deserts everywhere while making it clear how people die of thirst and how the law works in cases like this.
However, as I finished the book, I was left somewhat dissatisfied as other readers were, not so much because I found Kodikian's story unbelievable or even because I doubted it, but because I felt that I did not really know Kodikian. We can see that "he appears to be," as Kersten reports, "quite a well-adjusted young man" who "had good friends" and appeared to enjoy life. Kersten adds, "He could be me or fifty people I know." (p. x) In fact the only negative thing anybody said about Kodikian was that he could be stubborn.
I wondered as I finished the book if a stubborn person may be more likely to believe in his own judgment against the laws of men and be more willing to do something forbidden than the average person. I wonder, but I don't think that fully explains it. I really believe that the desert can do crazy things to our minds, especially when we are tired and thirsty and the implacable terrain shimmers and dances into a confusing mosaic as we become more and more removed from conventional reality and from hope. At such times in such circumstances we may very well become confused about what is right and what is wrong. At least I think that is what happened to David Coughlin and Raffi Kodikian.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
I think a lot of us are fascinated with tales of treks across the desert, about what the desert can do to the unwary and unprepared. We can see those vultures circling and we can feel the chapped lips, the mouth so dry that we can hardly speak, and we can see the shimmer of the heat on the dry rocks and sand and hear the wind whispering, and we can be enveloped by the silence.
In this true crime tale Maxim magazine senior editor Jason Kersten expands on an article he wrote for that magazine and turns it into a modest book. It is a engrossing story about two young men, close friends, who travel west and get lost in Rattlesnake Canyon in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park without any water. As dehydration, fatigue, and hopelessness set in, the two men prepare to die. One of them, David Coughlin, is vomiting violently, hour after hour. He is in such pain that, so the story goes, he asks his friend Raffi Kodikian to kill him, to put him out of his misery.
Some hours later the next day their camp is spotted and the rangers come. They find Kodikian alive in the tent. He tells them where Coughlin's body is and confesses that he stabbed him through the heart as an act of mercy.
What makes this story work, and what makes it worth an entire book, is the uncertainty that still exists about Raffi Kodikian: did he kill his friend, as he claims, because he could not bare to see him suffer anymore, or did he have a more sinister motive? Kersten's narrative clearly leans toward the idea that Kodikian's action was a delusional mercy killing; however most of the law enforcement people mentioned in the book find Kodikian's story unconvincing. Kersten himself allows that in all the literature he could find, there was only one story of a mercy killing in the desert. Apparently it is an extremely rare event. Furthermore, the Rattlesnake Canyon they couldn't find their way out of is not that big. As Kersten terms it, Rattlesnake Canyon "is just a crack--five miles long, seven hundred feet deep..."
Another factor that makes this story interesting is the law itself and the defense chosen by famed New Mexico lawyer Gary Mitchell and his assistant Shawn Boyne. Since New Mexican law defines a mercy killing as a murder, period, and is not a complete defense to the crime, the lawyers had to come up with something better. Boyne made an argument for "involuntary intoxication" and it seemed to fit. Only problem was, according to the legal definition of that defense an agent of intoxication was required. Instead what they had was lack of water. Curiously, they might have argued that the juice of the prickly pear cactus fruit was the agent, but for some reason they did not. Kersten reports that eating prickly pear cactus fruit was probably part of the reason Coughlin vomited so violently.
Finally I have to say that Kersten does an excellent job with limited resources. He was not able to interview Kodikian, who refused his entreaties, so he had to reconstruct the story from the trial transcript and from interviews with other people, none of whom, of course, was in the canyon with the two men. Kersten also does a fine job of placing the story within the historical context of the New Mexican desert and deserts everywhere while making it clear how people die of thirst and how the law works in cases like this.
However, as I finished the book, I was left somewhat dissatisfied as other readers were, not so much because I found Kodikian's story unbelievable or even because I doubted it, but because I felt that I did not really know Kodikian. We can see that "he appears to be," as Kersten reports, "quite a well-adjusted young man" who "had good friends" and appeared to enjoy life. Kersten adds, "He could be me or fifty people I know." (p. x) In fact the only negative thing anybody said about Kodikian was that he could be stubborn.
I wondered as I finished the book if a stubborn person may be more likely to believe in his own judgment against the laws of men and be more willing to do something forbidden than the average person. I wonder, but I don't think that fully explains it. I really believe that the desert can do crazy things to our minds, especially when we are tired and thirsty and the implacable terrain shimmers and dances into a confusing mosaic as we become more and more removed from conventional reality and from hope. At such times in such circumstances we may very well become confused about what is right and what is wrong. At least I think that is what happened to David Coughlin and Raffi Kodikian.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
July 7, 2024
When authorities find Raffi Kodikian barely alive four days after he and his best friend David Coughlin got lost in an desert canyon, they make a grim discovery. Raffi claims to have stabbed David to death in a mercy killing, but the police suspect the truth may be darker.
It was awkward on my way out of the library with this book, because another patron, intrigued by the cover, asked me what it was about, and I had to explain it was about a man who killed his best friend out of mercy – or so he claimed – when they were lost on a hike, except the controversy is that people seem to have found it quite impossible that the pair of them could get so lost in such a well-marked place, or that they could have become so desperate as that in just four days.
The poor man probably wanted to run down the stairs to get away from me, except that he was too polite for that. But he did say it sounded nightmarish and would probably keep him up at night.
Anyway, it’s odd to have discovered after reading the book that there’s not much more to the story. It’s a strange and sad case that the author presents without prejudice, but there’s no clearer answers than those we already have. That those answers are just so awful is probably why this case lingers in the collective memory.
I thought Kersten did a great job of evoking the harsh desert environment and bringing the desperation that David and Raffi felt closer to the reader, which goes a long way toward helping us sitting comfortably on our couches or trains or lunch tables at work understand why things might have gone the way they did out in Rattlesnake Canyon.
It was awkward on my way out of the library with this book, because another patron, intrigued by the cover, asked me what it was about, and I had to explain it was about a man who killed his best friend out of mercy – or so he claimed – when they were lost on a hike, except the controversy is that people seem to have found it quite impossible that the pair of them could get so lost in such a well-marked place, or that they could have become so desperate as that in just four days.
The poor man probably wanted to run down the stairs to get away from me, except that he was too polite for that. But he did say it sounded nightmarish and would probably keep him up at night.
Anyway, it’s odd to have discovered after reading the book that there’s not much more to the story. It’s a strange and sad case that the author presents without prejudice, but there’s no clearer answers than those we already have. That those answers are just so awful is probably why this case lingers in the collective memory.
I thought Kersten did a great job of evoking the harsh desert environment and bringing the desperation that David and Raffi felt closer to the reader, which goes a long way toward helping us sitting comfortably on our couches or trains or lunch tables at work understand why things might have gone the way they did out in Rattlesnake Canyon.
March 17, 2014
I found this book on a thrift store shelf and got it with some others three for a dollar. I thought it sounded like a fascinating true crime story and after finishing reading it I know I was right.
Two friends on a cross country road trip stop along the way to camp overnight in the desert. On their way out the next morning they get lost, become dehydrated, and eventually one friend supposedly begs the other to murder him as a way of mercy killing. They were only missing for a few days so its hard to exactly call it euthanization but the courts found that he did believe he was ending his friend's suffering from imminent death. We read about their friendship, their families and even the park rangers and investigators involved in the case.
I was stationed overseas in South Korea when this was in the headlines so I never previously heard of this case. I don't know how big it was in the news or if this book offers much more than what was covered on television at the time. The author begins by telling us that he will not pick a side and let us decide weather we believe in the innocence found by the courts or not and I believe for the most part he stayed true to that.
I liked the parts where the author moved away from the main plot to tell about dehydration studies and the history of the area and felt that he did a great job of painting a vivid picture of the place and mindset as well as rounding out what could have been a very thin story based on court records and notes from the murder trial.
This was a quick read and an interesting way to pass the time. I don't feel the author was the most skilled and there were times where sentence structure was ineloquent or words were left in after editing changes but for the most part I could gloss over them and just enjoy this haunting tale.
Two friends on a cross country road trip stop along the way to camp overnight in the desert. On their way out the next morning they get lost, become dehydrated, and eventually one friend supposedly begs the other to murder him as a way of mercy killing. They were only missing for a few days so its hard to exactly call it euthanization but the courts found that he did believe he was ending his friend's suffering from imminent death. We read about their friendship, their families and even the park rangers and investigators involved in the case.
I was stationed overseas in South Korea when this was in the headlines so I never previously heard of this case. I don't know how big it was in the news or if this book offers much more than what was covered on television at the time. The author begins by telling us that he will not pick a side and let us decide weather we believe in the innocence found by the courts or not and I believe for the most part he stayed true to that.
I liked the parts where the author moved away from the main plot to tell about dehydration studies and the history of the area and felt that he did a great job of painting a vivid picture of the place and mindset as well as rounding out what could have been a very thin story based on court records and notes from the murder trial.
This was a quick read and an interesting way to pass the time. I don't feel the author was the most skilled and there were times where sentence structure was ineloquent or words were left in after editing changes but for the most part I could gloss over them and just enjoy this haunting tale.
February 24, 2019
I have wanted to read this book for a long and I haven't wanted to read it. No, it's not because it involves a grisly murder involving two young hikers who allegedly became disoriented and lost in the New Mexican desert in August and one allegedly begged the other to end his suffering by killing him. It's because i knew and played with the deceased (and his brother) as a child. His maternal grandmother lived across the street from me. I still have pictures with him as a boy . . .
Much of what actually happened is unknowable because the story mostly comes from the lone survivor. There are facts that support his story, but there are an abundance of sufficient facts to cast doubt as well.
I thought the author did a good research job telling back stories of that slice of land, past difficulties trying to survive its desolate landscape and bout some of the attorneys involved. Whether or not justice was served, he leaves to the individual reader.
I recall seeing at least one of the television documentaries on this tragedy after it happened in 1999. In a way, this book gave me some closure, albeit still not a satisfactory one.
Much of what actually happened is unknowable because the story mostly comes from the lone survivor. There are facts that support his story, but there are an abundance of sufficient facts to cast doubt as well.
I thought the author did a good research job telling back stories of that slice of land, past difficulties trying to survive its desolate landscape and bout some of the attorneys involved. Whether or not justice was served, he leaves to the individual reader.
I recall seeing at least one of the television documentaries on this tragedy after it happened in 1999. In a way, this book gave me some closure, albeit still not a satisfactory one.
January 26, 2011
super creepy...the whole story made me sick. it will be interesting to discuss and i'd like to hear other views on what happened...but as a book, the writing style was a little confusing...he jumped between one story to another to folk-lore and i kept wondering where he was going, what was fact and what was fiction, and when i finished the book i was left wondering what exactly has happened...i'm going to go throw up now.
October 27, 2016
Good book
What an interesting account of sad events. I would recommend it to all readers. Also seems objectively presented. AwAiting more from this author.
What an interesting account of sad events. I would recommend it to all readers. Also seems objectively presented. AwAiting more from this author.
May 23, 2018
I don't have a lot of experience with true crime, and only read this because the incident was mentioned in "Over the Edge; Death in Grand Canyon." The authors of that book recommended this one, and I agree with them. It's easy to read, absorbing, darkly fascinating, and disturbing without being too sensationalist. The realities of the desert are portrayed very well.
I did keep getting the lawyers confused at the end. That was probably mostly my fault, but the author could have slipped in a few more reminders (like saying "the defense" or "the prosecution" sometimes instead of using their last names almost exclusively). However, it was a minor issue.
I'm not entirely sure how much of the re-creation of events in the desert was conjecture by the author and how much he relied on various sources. That would have been interesting to know.
I found the restraint of the prosecutor fascination. And the support of Dave Coughlin's family. And the whole bizarre scenario. It's hard for me to understand why you'd take so little water with you (of course, I'm from the Arizona desert and have a great deal of respect for it and the heat). It's hard for me to understand how you could get so hopelessly lost in such a small area (but, of course, I'm used to trail finding in that sort of terrain and have never been so dehydrated that I lose the ability to think). So I don't know what to think about Raffi Kodikian's story, and it's going to drive me crazy that I don't know the truth, but that's what I get for reading true crime.
Hopefully, in addition to the main aim of this book, it will also reinforce a few rules of the desert: respect the heat, carry plenty of water, take a good map and know how to use it, and don't expect anyone to rescue you.
I did keep getting the lawyers confused at the end. That was probably mostly my fault, but the author could have slipped in a few more reminders (like saying "the defense" or "the prosecution" sometimes instead of using their last names almost exclusively). However, it was a minor issue.
I'm not entirely sure how much of the re-creation of events in the desert was conjecture by the author and how much he relied on various sources. That would have been interesting to know.
I found the restraint of the prosecutor fascination. And the support of Dave Coughlin's family. And the whole bizarre scenario. It's hard for me to understand why you'd take so little water with you (of course, I'm from the Arizona desert and have a great deal of respect for it and the heat). It's hard for me to understand how you could get so hopelessly lost in such a small area (but, of course, I'm used to trail finding in that sort of terrain and have never been so dehydrated that I lose the ability to think). So I don't know what to think about Raffi Kodikian's story, and it's going to drive me crazy that I don't know the truth, but that's what I get for reading true crime.
Hopefully, in addition to the main aim of this book, it will also reinforce a few rules of the desert: respect the heat, carry plenty of water, take a good map and know how to use it, and don't expect anyone to rescue you.
December 3, 2017
I've written out a big long review regarding this book, but I'm still not finished and I'm tired of wasting my time on this. So I'll leave this snippet. Perhaps later I'll revisit it.
Peter "Bigfoot" Busnack's evidence is anecdottal at best and should not have been admitted. Unripe pickly pears are indeed very bitter, but do not result in the vommitting and other symptoms Busnack is attributing to their ingestion. I note that Busnack's allegations don't include the names of his two students who suffered at the hands of nopales and an unripe fruit.
Sorry, I'm Mexican. We eat these fruits and nopales all the time. Busnack's a crock of shit and is obviously involved only to grab himself a bit of limelight. I'm sure he's glad that his survival classes get a little free advertisement from his use in this trial.
My attempts at digging up an actually credible source for potential allergic reactions to unripe cactus fruit have revealed absolutely nothing which backs up Busnack's claims. The only mention of an allergy towards cactus fruit is from Pubmed and only mentions respitory symptoms, not gastrointestinal ones of the caliber Busnack describes.
Busnack is not a doctor, has no medical training, and has written no academic journals describing the effects he describes unripe cactus fruits as having. His credibility is nill. He is not an expert witness and his testimony is completely useless.
Peter "Bigfoot" Busnack's evidence is anecdottal at best and should not have been admitted. Unripe pickly pears are indeed very bitter, but do not result in the vommitting and other symptoms Busnack is attributing to their ingestion. I note that Busnack's allegations don't include the names of his two students who suffered at the hands of nopales and an unripe fruit.
Sorry, I'm Mexican. We eat these fruits and nopales all the time. Busnack's a crock of shit and is obviously involved only to grab himself a bit of limelight. I'm sure he's glad that his survival classes get a little free advertisement from his use in this trial.
My attempts at digging up an actually credible source for potential allergic reactions to unripe cactus fruit have revealed absolutely nothing which backs up Busnack's claims. The only mention of an allergy towards cactus fruit is from Pubmed and only mentions respitory symptoms, not gastrointestinal ones of the caliber Busnack describes.
Busnack is not a doctor, has no medical training, and has written no academic journals describing the effects he describes unripe cactus fruits as having. His credibility is nill. He is not an expert witness and his testimony is completely useless.
November 2, 2020
I grabbed this on impulse off a rack in the library. It’s about two hikers who got lost in the New Mexico desert (sadly, not far from civilization at all). They ran out of water and started suffering, and pretty soon they decided to kill themselves. Only the one who was suffering a little less killed the other one and then did not kill himself. Instead he lay down in the tent and was rescued a few minutes later. The book is about the results of that action and whether he was telling the truth about the whole thing or not.
The book was kind of a disappointment to tell the truth. I do think it went down just like the survivor said it did. There’s just zero evidence to indicate otherwise. I felt set up to believe that there was more to the story, but really there wasn’t. Yes it was an unusual and sad story, but not a shocking one. Moral of the story: bring enough water and don’t underestimate the f’ing desert.
The book was kind of a disappointment to tell the truth. I do think it went down just like the survivor said it did. There’s just zero evidence to indicate otherwise. I felt set up to believe that there was more to the story, but really there wasn’t. Yes it was an unusual and sad story, but not a shocking one. Moral of the story: bring enough water and don’t underestimate the f’ing desert.
March 10, 2025
Wonderfully written, very difficult to put down. The story itself is fascinating, unique, disturbing. I could not ask for more information than this book provides. Everything from character witnesses, pictures, expert information. Kersten clearly did his research and then some. I found myself very conflicted on how I felt about this case, and about Raffi specifically. But by the end, I just felt sorry for him. I felt so sorry for him, for Dave, for their family and friends. Hearing Raffi's account of the moments of the murder was so upsetting, but necessary to realize he truly thought he was doing the right thing, because had he not killed him he would have allowed his suffering to continue. I cannot imagine the guilt he deals with, even 25 years after this incident. I hope he's doing okay.
August 4, 2022
Firstly, the Potomac doesn’t flow anywhere near Bucks County or Philadelphia - it’s the Delaware. (p.40) Next, I remember the case from a New Mexican point of view. Either these guys were incredibly stupid or just blamed stupid. Either way, most of the folks I talked to didn’t buy the story. The book does its best to be balanced and not take a position. The descriptions of what it’s like to walk out in the desert are accurate and almost convey just how brutal it is. Finally, the epilogue story of another hiker getting lost gives one pause.
June 29, 2024
I couldn't put this book down. It was tragic and horrifying, but also very real...as someone who hikes a lot, I can totally see how a situation like this could have unfolded. It was the perfect storm of inexperience, bad luck, unforgiving weather, awful timing, and misinformed decision-making. I honestly don't know if the way things turned out for the sole survivor was fair...all I know is that reading this book made me hyper cautious when it comes to hiking in remote areas. I always take too much water and snacks, always tell someone where I'm going, and I never hike alone.
July 19, 2020
While the author does a good job of trying to stay neutral in reporting of the facts, a bias does emerge, in my opinion. I felt the description of what they went through was well written given the fact that there was one man's account and a journal to go from.
Overall a wonderfully written tale that makes one think what they would do in the situation Raffi and Dave were in. It's easy to sympathize with both men.
Overall a wonderfully written tale that makes one think what they would do in the situation Raffi and Dave were in. It's easy to sympathize with both men.
July 19, 2020
I couldn't put this down (read it in one sitting)! The impeccable research done for this book meanders down endless fascinating tributaries, and I think the author did a good job of remaining impartial. This book is a reminder that the desert that is easy to speed through in an air-conditioned car is a dangerous place, even close to civilization.
A very sad story, all in all, and presents a haunting ethical dilemma.
A very sad story, all in all, and presents a haunting ethical dilemma.
October 14, 2019
Well, this probably could have been a longform article. But the pacing is great and the author has obviously done his research. It's thorough and reads like a thriller, and while on one hand I wanted the author to tell me his opinion, I also appreciated that he gave me complete enough information for me to debate the myriad of theories in my head.
January 9, 2022
Two men get lost in the desert, and their friendship faces the ultimate test. Though the book has a killing, a mystery, and a high-profile trial, it's much more than a true crime book. The facts seem simple enough, but the mystery keeps deepening and becoming more fascinating. Kersten makes the people in the story come alive and depicts the desert in all its stark beauty and fearsomeness.
January 8, 2023
Good quick read about a crazy story! I only wish there had been a bit more digging - interviews by the author and answers to some questions that must’ve been addressed in the investigation. Like what came about from the handwriting analysis? Headed to YouTube now to put a face to Kodikian so I can choose which side I’m on!
July 14, 2023
The subject is distasteful and very nearly unforgiveable, as an act of supposed compassion for a dying friend. And yet the story line is fascinating and very well written, exhaustively (or seemingly) researched. The author/compiler of facts strives to be unbiased and that is commendable. The personal jury is still "out" on "reasoning" in the matter.
August 27, 2018
My copy of this book shares the ISBN# with another one. It is also 236 pages with a few photos.
1st Read: August 21-26, 2018
An adventure story turned tragic. Not too bad of a read, though, I wouldn't read it again.
1st Read: August 21-26, 2018
An adventure story turned tragic. Not too bad of a read, though, I wouldn't read it again.
October 15, 2020
This book was a disappointment. The case itself sounded interesting which is why I brought this book.
The author gives history of the police and the places and this bored me. This is not why I had brought the book. I think you're better off just googling it if you are interested.
The author gives history of the police and the places and this bored me. This is not why I had brought the book. I think you're better off just googling it if you are interested.
May 5, 2023
Sad story, they explain the outcome at the beginning, so the book repeats itself a lot with a lot of unneeded repeated detail. Started to lose interest. Could have told the whole story in half the amount of time it took.
June 13, 2017
Great Read
Couldn't put my kindle down,2hrs,30 mins
Well written.Thank you Jason Kersten
Post on Amazon(Laurie A. Yerrick)and Goodreads
Swell quick read
Couldn't put my kindle down,2hrs,30 mins
Well written.Thank you Jason Kersten
Post on Amazon(Laurie A. Yerrick)and Goodreads
Swell quick read
October 2, 2018
Not a whole lot of tension here. The conclusion seemed self evident to me. But an interesting story.
January 2, 2021
Stupid stories about stupid kids. Can't believed he killed his friend, smh.
February 8, 2021
I feel for all the people involved, such a harrowing story. I had to keep reading much like binge watching tv.
November 17, 2023
it’s a fascinating story but the book reads like a very long article. it reminds me of when i was in college and had to meet word counts.
August 20, 2024
Don't murder your friends
July 17, 2025
Excellent book. I found out about while reading Over the Edge Death in Grand Canyon. Once I started the book it was hard to put down.
August 9, 2019
Spellbinding
I picked up this book because I live in New Mexico. I didn't expect to be so totally captivated. I couldn't put it down. Kersten is a born journalist with a gripping story to tell. To his credit he doesn't make judgements but gives all sides equal weight, allowing the reader to believe the story or not. One of the two best books I've read this year.
I picked up this book because I live in New Mexico. I didn't expect to be so totally captivated. I couldn't put it down. Kersten is a born journalist with a gripping story to tell. To his credit he doesn't make judgements but gives all sides equal weight, allowing the reader to believe the story or not. One of the two best books I've read this year.
November 29, 2016
I found this book through BookBub (if I remember correctly) and it's a true story in the New Mexico desert, so I had to give it a read.
It's an interesting, tragic read, and ethical dilemma - could you kill your friend in dire circumstances?
It's definitely a bit of a puzzle, with much that defies explanation. How did Kodikan move the heavy rocks given his incapacitated state? Did Coughlin eat unripened cactus, hence the worse condition and delusions?
I don't know if there simply wasn't more for the author to work with, or if he only scratched the surface by relying on court records and second-hand accounts. Given that Coughlin's family supported Kodikan (what?!), and that the Prosecutor chose not to pick apart some of Kodikan's testimony (see above re: moving heavy rocks) that might have lead to a harsher sentence, I suppose those closest to the event were satisifed with the outcome.
Still, it's interesting that there have been very few documented cases of similar mercy killings under much harsher conditions... it begs the question that there is more to the story.
It's an interesting, tragic read, and ethical dilemma - could you kill your friend in dire circumstances?
It's definitely a bit of a puzzle, with much that defies explanation. How did Kodikan move the heavy rocks given his incapacitated state? Did Coughlin eat unripened cactus, hence the worse condition and delusions?
I don't know if there simply wasn't more for the author to work with, or if he only scratched the surface by relying on court records and second-hand accounts. Given that Coughlin's family supported Kodikan (what?!), and that the Prosecutor chose not to pick apart some of Kodikan's testimony (see above re: moving heavy rocks) that might have lead to a harsher sentence, I suppose those closest to the event were satisifed with the outcome.
Still, it's interesting that there have been very few documented cases of similar mercy killings under much harsher conditions... it begs the question that there is more to the story.
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