The Corked Bottle at 32 Feet: How a Woman Was Quietly Poisoned

The Corked Bottle at 32 Feet: How a Woman Was Quietly Poisoned

A dark amber bottle labeled "veterinary arsenic" sat corked in four inches of cistern water thirty-two feet down - and the cork had been pressed back into place from the outside. How did an apparently healthy thirty-eight-year-old farmer end up dead with a sealed bottle sunk beneath her primary water source, and who would have known enough to hide it so carefully?

In this episode, we tell the story of Lori Patterson and the unlikely chain of people who reconstructed her death: a well contractor, a county correspondent, and local witnesses. You’ll hear how routine habits, travel routes, and a single sealed bottle raise the question of whether Lori’s death was natural or deliberate.

Person: Lori Patterson
Date: February 17, 1936 (body found); March 11, 1936 (bottle recovered)
Location: Cutter County, Oklahoma
Cause of death on certificate: Cardiac failure, complicated by malnutrition
Finder of bottle: Ruth Turner, well contractor

- Lori Patterson was found outside on the ground a few minutes past 7:00 a.m., roughly eight feet from the cistern cover.
- The cistern inspection lamp was lowered thirty-two feet and found about four inches of standing water with a dark amber bottle at the bottom.
- The bottle’s label read "veterinary arsenic" (sheep dip) and the bottle was near empty.
- The cork on the bottle was fully seated and appeared to have been pressed from the outside rather than loosened by impact.
- Lori’s regular routine included waking at 5:15 a.m. and walking the east fence-line of her sixty-acre farm; she owned two chickens and no sheep.

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