Journal of the Dead: A Story of Friendship and Murder in the New Mexico Desert

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"The man of knowledge," Nietzsche is said to have remarked, "must not only be able to love his enemies; he must also be able to hate his friends." Indeed, it's a thirst for existential knowledge and adventure that unexpectedly pushes two bosom friends beyond the brink of disaster--and ultimately calls into question the very meaning of friendship--in Journal of the Dead. Jacob Kersten's riveting account—expanding on an article originally published in Maxim--reconstructs the true-crime story of a baffling murder that took place one desperate morning in 1999 in New Mexico's Rattlesnake Canyon. Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin, having lost their way after embarking on a casual, short-term hike in the desert, find themselves out of hope, on the verge of fatal dehydration. According to a journal kept by Kodikian, they decide on a mutual suicide pact to spare each other excruciating pain before an inevitable death. Yet Kodikian survives after stabbing his friend. Soon afterward, he is rescued by rangers and subsequently charged with the murder of his best friend. Kersten's source material has a disturbingly fascinating quality from the start, but his accomplishment in shaping it into a multi-layered narrative is admirable and artful. Kersten pulls out all the stops in depicting not just the back story of these two friends and their circle but also the deeper focus of the history of the desert, its allure and attendant attractions--in particular the Carlsbad Caverns--along with intriguing excursions on such topics as the biology of dehydration, the mechanics of topographical maps, and the legal niceties of the "intoxication defense." His choice of background details enhances our sense of the extreme situation in which these unfortunate individuals are trapped and helps retard our easy judgment of Kodikian’s choice. Kersten is especially good at restoring an element of suspense--the outcome of the desert tragedy is replayed earlier in his book--in the way he allows the ensuing courtroom drama to unfold. Yet however much he attempts to maintain an aura of ambiguity around Kodikian's motives, Kersten can't quite efface a stance of exculpatory compassion. --Thomas May


From Publishers Weekly
An expanded version of Kersten's article in Maxim magazine, where he was a senior editor, this is a well-told account of a fatal 1999 cross-country trip by two best friends, Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin, that ended in the desert near New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns with Coughlin stabbed to death and Kodikian claiming that he had, in effect, committed a mercy killing. Kersten demonstrates, in his first book, good journalism and a flair for the true crime genre. He carefully details the beginnings of the young men's friendship and the pull of the open road that led the Kerouac-loving Kodikian and the rugged, adventurous Coughlin to attempt what should have been an easy journey. Kersten expertly describes the rigors of Rattlesnake Canyon in the Chihuahuan Desert, in which the two men got lost: "not only the largest, but probably the least understood desert in North America." He also unsparingly details the horrible effects dehydration has on the human body, which he uses to illuminate aspects of Kodikian's murder trial and Kodikian's claim that Coughlin had demanded to be put out of his misery. Although Kodikian ultimately pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, Kersten's skillful use of court transcripts and interviews with key law enforcement officials and lawyers shows that there were more questions than answers about what happened, and that the true heart of the matter is the "ambiguity" between what could have been "an understandable act committed out of compassion under incredible physical and mental duress" or "an ingenious lie, designed to hide the truth of an enraged murder." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Sixteen months in the penitentiary seems a trivial penalty for second-degree murder, but that was Raffi Kodikian's stretch for killing his buddy David Coughlin in 1999. The two Boston-area friends, in their mid-20s, became lost in a New Mexico canyon. In dire distress from dehydration, Coughlin was in such excruciating pain that he begged Kodikian to end his misery--or so Kodikian said. Just hours after Kodikian knifed Coughlin, rescuers arrived. Author Kersten maintains a detached posture in his account of the bizarre case, trooping through the investigation that hinted at something besides bonhomie between the pals--namely, a woman. Kersten then moves straight to the procedural phase, describing how the defense lawyer used multiple strategies to exonerate his client, while the prosecutor reminded folks that situational ethics don't apply to murder. Despite its heavy subject, Kersten's well-crafted narrative is light and briskly paced, replete with local desert color, family backgrounds, holes in Kodikian's story, and the unanswered question of whether justice was done. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description

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?

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the summer of 1999, best friends Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin headed off on an American rite of passage - a cross-country trek in the spirit of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The two stopped for a simple overnight sleep-out in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, carrying barely adequate camping supplies, only three pint bottles of water, and a journal to record their experiences. After they awoke the next morning in Rattlesnake Canyon, however, the friends' adventure quickly took a turn for the worse when they were unable to find their way back out of the canyon. The journal they left behind chronicles their increasingly desperate search for help, as each new path ended in frustration, and buzzards began to circle overhead.

Four days after they entered the canyon, help arrived. Rescuers found Kodikian dehydrated but alive. When he was asked where Coughlin was he pointed to a pile of stones: "Over there...I killed him," he said.

David Coughlin had been stabbed 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 Rattlesnake Canyon, Jason Kersten re-creates in riveting detail those fateful days that led to the killing in an infamously unforgiving wilderness. Through in-depth interviews and profiles, he presents the key players in Kodikian's case and examines the ongoing controversy of an instance of murder that captured national headlines. Jason Kersten's Journal of the Dead is at once a true-crime mystery set in the wild, an exploration in moral ambiguity, and a compassionate portrait of a friendship's tragic end.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Kersten, a senior editor at Maxim, recounts this unhappy story in a spare, understated style that perfectly suits the book's plainspoken secondary characters. One of the book's unexpected pleasures is its portrait of life in New Mexico's dusty desert towns. The police officers and lawyers are presented as uncommonly decent people struggling to sort out a bizarre situation. — Bruce Barcott

Publishers Weekly

An expanded version of Kersten's article in Maxim magazine, where he was a senior editor, this is a well-told account of a fatal 1999 cross-country trip by two best friends, Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin, that ended in the desert near New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns with Coughlin stabbed to death and Kodikian claiming that he had, in effect, committed a mercy killing. Kersten demonstrates, in his first book, good journalism and a flair for the true crime genre. He carefully details the beginnings of the young men's friendship and the pull of the open road that led the Kerouac-loving Kodikian and the rugged, adventurous Coughlin to attempt what should have been an easy journey. Kersten expertly describes the rigors of Rattlesnake Canyon in the Chihuahuan Desert, in which the two men got lost: "not only the largest, but probably the least understood desert in North America." He also unsparingly details the horrible effects dehydration has on the human body, which he uses to illuminate aspects of Kodikian's murder trial and Kodikian's claim that Coughlin had demanded to be put out of his misery. Although Kodikian ultimately pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, Kersten's skillful use of court transcripts and interviews with key law enforcement officials and lawyers shows that there were more questions than answers about what happened, and that the true heart of the matter is the "ambiguity" between what could have been "an understandable act committed out of compassion under incredible physical and mental duress" or "an ingenious lie, designed to hide the truth of an enraged murder." (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This cautionary tale expands upon the author's Maxim story about two best friends who became desperately stranded in a New Mexico desert. One was found dehydrated but alive, the other dead of a knife through the heart. David Coughlin and Raffi Kodikian had been friends for over five years and trusted each other with everything. In summer 1999, Coughlin decided to leave his job in Wellesley, MA, and head to graduate school on the West Coast, with Kodikian, the consummate adventurer, along for the ride. On the way, the pair decided to camp in Carlsbad Caverns National Park for one night, but the next morning they were unable to find their way back to the trail head. Kersten uses court transcripts and journal entries to re-create the details of the days and hours leading up to Coughlin's death at the hands of his best friend. Was it murder or a mercy killing? In the end, Kersten's direct prose creates a very real scene, one so unfathomable that even the reader armed with both Kodikian's version and other speculations can't help but feel for all involved in this perplexing and tragic scenario. Recommended for larger libraries and extensive adventure collections.-Rachel Collins, "Library Journal" Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews