Walter samples opened the door of his Memphis home on a cold February morning in 1941.

He grabbed the morning edition of the commercial appeal,

and as he reached down for that newspaper,

he was surprised to see a bottle of milk had been left on the porch.

It was odd because he hadn't placed an order with his milkman.

Walter checked with his neighbors to see if possibly their milk had been delivered by mistake, but theirs had

come as scheduled. Now Walter samples loved milk. In fact, the 69-year-old drink it with just about every meal.

He assumed it was a sample of some kind from a new dairy.

So he placed the bottle in his refrigerator and thought nothing of it until he dressed for the day and made his breakfast.

Soon after Walter drank a glass of that milk, He learned that old saying is true. Revenge is best served cold.

Welcome to Southern Mysteries, exploring history and mysteries of the American South.

I'm your host, Shannon Ballard, and this is the mystery of the poisoned milk bottle. the where he attended university and studied engineering.

He served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

during the War of 1898, known as the Spanish-American War.

Walter relocated to Memphis. known as the Spanish-American War.

Walter relocated to Memphis around 1901, where he continued to work with U.S. engineers

until he retired.

At 69 years old, Walter lived alone and led a rather quiet life.

His neighbors liked him, but never really felt like they knew a lot about him, apart from him being a bachelor with no children.

They also assumed he had a lot of money because he owned several rental properties

and had retired with a pension from the war department.

He was that older friendly looking white-haired guy in the neighborhood

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