Nancy Doss AKA “The Giggling Grandma,” seemed to be a
friendly and happy neighbor, a good wife and mother on the outside, but on
the inside was there something much darker brewing?
Born Nancy Hazel in 1905 to Louisa and James Hazel in Blue Mountain,
Alabama, she was one of 5 children. James would force his children to work on
the farm rather than going to school, when she did go she had a poor academic performance.
When she was 7 the family was taking a train to visit relatives when Nancy
hit her head on a metal bar when the train stopped suddenly. For years she
suffered from severe headaches, blackouts and depression; she blamed these and
her mental instability on this accident. James forbade the Hazel sisters from
wearing makeup and attractive clothing to prevent them from being molested by
men. This however still happened; Nancy had been molested by a string of local
men before reaching her middle teens.
At the age of 16 she married Charles Braggs and quickly
after they married they had 4 children. Braggs was baffled when 2 of them died
suddenly and only a few months apart, each child seemed perfectly healthy when
Charles left for work, but died in convulsions soon after breakfast. Small
insurance payments started to come through for the children they lost. As time
went on Charles became increasingly suspicious of his wife. One afternoon he
took his oldest child Melvina and left Nancy and their other daughter Florine
behind. A year later he returned with Melvina and a new girlfriend who had a
child of her own. The 2 divorced and Nancy took her 2 daughters and moved back
in with her parents until she met Frank Harrelson through a classified column,
the 2 met, married and lived together in Jacksonville. Harrelson was not the
man she thought he was, she found out that he was a drunk, had been arrested
before and was in debt. Despite this they stayed married for 16 years.
In 1943 Nancy’s oldest daughter Melvina had her first child,
a son that she named Robert and soon after that she gave birth to her daughter in
1945. The second child however died soon after being born, she was a healthy
baby girl that passed away from unknown reasons. Even though there is no proof
of this incident Melvina recalls while she was in and out of consciousness after
a difficult delivery she saw her mother stick a hatpin into the head of the
baby girl. Moving forward to July 7th of 1945, Nancy and Melvina got
into a fight over Melvina’s new boyfriend and how Nancy disapproved of him.
Later that night Robert was in the care of Nancy and died from what doctors
said was asphyxia from unknown causes. A few months later she collected a life
insurance check of $500 that she had taken out on Robert.
Now back to good ol’ Frank, their marriage was in turmoil the
majority of the time, but on September 14th, 1945 Frank had come
home and was obliterated, he had been drinking and ended up raping Nancy. The
next day Frank up and died. Nancy told the coroner that Frank was an awful
drunkard, so he put down cause of death “acute alcoholism.”
Nancy figured she had found her last husband in the
classifieds why wouldn’t she be able to do it again? This is where she met
husband #3, Arlie Lanning, within 2 days of meeting each other they were
married (don’t recommend this folks)
Just like her last husband Arlie was a drunk, but the upside was that he
wasn’t violent. Within 2 ½ years of marriage Arlie became ill, he showed
signs of having the flu that was going around; fever, vomiting, stomach pains.
He died and doctors stated it was believed to be a heart attack brought on by
his sickness, because he was an alcoholic his body just couldn’t handle it. An
autopsy was never performed. The house was left to Arlie’s sister, but right
before she was to take ownership the house burned down. Nancy moved in with her mother in law, this
arrangement didn’t last long as Nancy was set to leave as soon as she received the
insurance check from the burnt down home. Just before Nancy was set to move in
with her sister Dovie, her mother in law died in her sleep. Then soon after moving
in with Dovie (who had cancer), Dovie passed away while she was in the care of
Nancy.
Now at this point you might be thinking damn, this woman has
some serious bad luck, but this is a true crime blog, so chances are it’s
something else entirely!
Now Nancy just can’t be without a man so she joins a singles
club where she meets husband #4, Richard Morton. This love story doesn’t last a
long time, Nancy is excited that Richard isn’t an alcoholic like the last 2,
but he was still seeing his ex-girlfriend on the side. At the time of finding
this out Nancy’s father died and her mother came to visit her. Well within days
her mom started complaining of severe stomach pains, she later died. And guess
what? Richard succumbed to the same fate just 3 months later. At this point
Nancy already had her eyes on another man by the name of Samuel Doss.
You probably already know where this is going, but soon
after Richards’s death Nancy soon became Mr. Samuel Doss, husband #5. Now
Samuel was a good and decent man, he was a minister that was dealing with the
death of his previous wife and 9 children that had been killed during a
tornado. He wasn’t a drunk, womanizer or abuser; he was a church going man that
fell madly in love with Nancy. But, no one is perfect. He in her eyes was boring.
He led a very regimented life and expected the same from Nancy. He kept very
tight control over the money, and let Nancy have very little. No romance novels
or love stories on television were allowed and bedtime was 9:30pm every night. This
did not go over well with Nancy so she left. Soon after Samuel agreed to sign
her onto his checking account, she returned and she became a doting and caring
wife. You know by having access to all of his money and convincing him to take
out 2 life insurance policies, leaving her to be the only benefactor.
Not too long after they crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s,
Samuel ended up in the hospital with…..Stomach Pains! Shocking…I know. He recovers
and returns back home. Nancy being the caring wife she is makes him a nice home
cooked meal his first night home, within hours Samuel is dead. This time
doctors were actually alarmed at such a sudden passing and finally an autopsy was
ordered. They found that his organs were filled with arsenic, enough to kill 20
men.
Police brought Nancy in for questioning and she confessed to
killing Samuel and her three other husbands, and her mother, and her sister,
and her grandson and her former mother in law. Despite committing these murders
she seemed to have an upbeat attitude which is even more sickening. She would
often joke about her dead husbands and the methods she used to kill them, such
as making them a sweet potato pie with the special ingredient of arsenic. Prosecutors
never pursued charging Nancy with any of the other murders, just Samuels. She
was sentenced to life in prison, in 1963 after 8 years in jail she died in the
Oklahoma State Penitentiary of Leukemia.
She always insisted that despite the insurance payments she
received her motive was not money. She said the main reasons for murdering her husband’s
was motivated by marital boredom, she dreamed of finding the perfect mate, one
that you would read about in a true romance novel. How Romantic.
Resources:
https://www.thoughtco.com/serial-killer-nannie-doss-973101
https://murderpedia.org/female.D/d/doss-nannie.htm
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nannie-doss-41380.php
No comments:
Post a Comment