In 2015 I have resolved to spend my nights as I wish: with a Patricia Cornwell book in my lap and an episode of Law and Order: SVU playing in the background. The combination of these two art pieces is like a natural Xanax for me. I won't speculate as to what this means.

I also enjoy reading about real-life crimes and the lives of cops and medical examiners. I recently came across a very interesting article in the New York Post last year about Dr. Judy Melinek, a former New York City medical examiner, in which she describes some of the grisly deaths she encountered on the job. She also gives an account, in sickening detail, of what she says is the worst way to die: being boiled alive in a sewer.

"What's the worst way to die?" is the next most-asked question, to which Melinek usually replies, "You don't want to know."

When people insist, however, she tells them about Sean Doyle.

Around Christmas 2002, bartender Doyle went out drinking with pal Michael Wright and Wright's girlfriend. As they all walked home, Wright thought Doyle was hitting on his girlfriend, and witnesses later told cops they saw a man getting "the s–t beat out of him." He was heard screaming, "No, don't break my legs!" and another witness said he saw someone throw Doyle down an open manhole.

The drop was 18 feet. At the bottom was a pool of boiling ­water, from a broken main. Doyle didn't die instantly — in fact, as first responders arrived, he was standing below, reaching up and screaming for help. No paramedic or firefighter could climb down to help — it was, a Con Ed supervisor said, 300 degrees in the steam tunnel.

Four hours later, Sean Doyle's body was finally recovered. Its temperature was 125 degrees — the medical examiners thought it was likely way higher, but thermometers don't read any higher than that.

Damn. Just. Damn. That is not a good way to die.

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