Nannie Doss

Nannie Doss

$1.25

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Vol XCIII, No. 311

Arrest

Nannie Doss

• After killing her fifth husband, Doss confessed to murdering him by putting rat arsenic in his coffee.

aka The Giggling Granny

Childhood and Upbringing

• born Nancy Hazel
• other nicknames include "The Jolly Black Widow" and the "The Giggling Nanny".
• killed from the 1920s-1954
• killed 11 people, including four of her husbands, mother, sister, grandson, and mother-in-law.
• poisoned her victims with arsenic.

• Born in Blue Mountain, Alabama on November 4, 1905
• She had one brother and two sisters.
• Dropped out of school in the sixth grade because her father required her and her siblings to work on the family farm.
• She wasn't allowed to have friends, wear makeup, or wear dresses.
• Her father was controlling

Trial and Sentencing

Adult Life and Marriages

• Oklahoma centered Nannie Doss's case only for the death of Samuel Doss.
• She plead guilty on May 17, 1955 and was sentenced to life in prison.
• Since she was a women, she wasn't sentenced to execution in the electric chair.
• She was never charged with the other murders she admitted to.
• Died from leukemia in the hospital ward at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1965

continued..

• Married Charles Braggs at 16 and had four children. Two of the children died from "food poisoning", but Doss is suspected of having poisoned them. Braggs was controlling and manipulative. The two were divorced.
• Met Frank Harrelson through the Lonely Hearts Column in the newspaper and got married two years after Doss's divorce to Braggs. Harrelson turned out to be an alcoholic and had a criminal record for assault. Were married for 16 years. Doss later admitted to putting rat arsenic in his corn whiskey when he had raped her.

• Married Arlie Lanning three days after meeting in the Lonely Hearts Column. He also turned out to be an alcoholic. After being married for 2 years, Lanning died of a heart attack that was believed to have been induced by a flu. Because of his history of alcoholism, an autopsy wasn't performed because it was believed he succumbed to it. Doss obtained $500 in insurance money when Lanning's house was burned to the ground.
• Doss met her fourth husband Richard L. Morton through a singles club called Diamond Circle Club. Morton turned out to be an adulterer. Doss's mother died during her visit shortly after complaints of stomach cramps. Morton died 3 months later.
• Her last husband Samuel Doss was hospitalized for flu-like symptoms but was released after 2 weeks. That same evening, Samuel Doss died. An autopsy was ordered when his doctor was alarmed of his sudden death. The autopsy found large amount of arsenic in his system.

other facts

• was nicknamed "the Giggling Granny" because she seemed amused when talking about the deaths of her husbands.
• Doss told her interrogators that she was "...searching for the perfect mate, the real romance of life" to explain why she killed her husbands.
• in a train accident, Doss hit her head on a metal railing that gave her headaches for the rest of her life.

works cited

• "Nannie Doss | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers." Nannie Doss | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014
• "Nannie Doss." About. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
• "Recipe for Death." Nannie Doss the Lonely Hearts Husband Killer — — Crime Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.