Lottie Johl- fenced grave!

Lottie Johl’s (d.7November 1899) fenced grave- Bodie (Mono County) California.

LOTTIE JOHL

Nobody knew anything about Lottie, not even her last name. She worked in the Red Light District of Bodie, California, as a prostitute, where she met Eli Johl. A rough German man, who co-owned the City Market where he worked as a butcher.

They fell in love and married. Lottie cleaned up her life and attempted to join the respectable society of town, but because of her past lifestyle, the people of Bodie shunned her. She once attended a costume ball, decked out in the best of finery. Her outfit was picked for the "Most Beautiful Costume" award, but at Midnight when the masks came off and everyone found out it was her, she was asked, “to leave,” and the award was given to someone else.

One day in early November 1899,Lottie fell ill in, and consulted the Doctor who gave her a Prescription. Later that evening, she started having violent convulsions. The doctor was called again, but could not determine what had caused such a drastic turn for the worse. She was dead by morning. (She died November 7, 1899.)

Eli requested that an autopsy be performed, where it was discovered that the druggist had mistakenly given her poison instead of the proper medication. The townsfolk demanded Lottie be buried "outside the fence" in Boot Hill, instead of the Cemetery proper where decent people were interred. Eli argued, and eventually was allowed to bury her “inside the cemetery perimeter,” on the west side, (Bodie Miners’ Union Cemetery), farthest from the Bodie cemetery entrance-gate and the town.