Coroner's Journal: Forensics And The Art Of Stalking Death

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a small town with big-city problems, lives up to the translation of its name: Red Stick. The author, the coroner there for ten years, has seen his fair share of the unusual and disturbing cases which range from bizarre to heartbreaking.

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.