Karla Homolka is one of Canadas most infamous female serial killers. This glee lessened over time as she began her punishment. Just a year after her divorce, Doss married her second husband. William DeLong is a freelance wordsmith. The final murder ended up revealing her for what she was. Nannie was promptly arrested. Rather, she killed quietly with poison, letting victims believe they were getting sick. Instead, after she pleaded guilty on May 17, 1955, she was sentenced to life imprisonment. Nannie would later admit that it was this unfortunate chance event that was the root of all of her evil and strange behavior. She later had a conversation with her husband and Florine, who told her that Doss had informed them earlier that the baby was dead and that they had noticed she had a hairpin in her hand. Why the United States Entered World War I, 123rd Machine Gun Battalion in the Meuse-Argonne, Northern Military Advantages in the Civil War, The Year Before America Entered the Great War. Her sister also suddenly died after being around her sister with no explanation. Whats not to love about simmered prunes mixed with cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar and baked into a moist and flavorful dessert? Leonarda Cianciulli, "the soap lady killer," became a serial killer and a cannibal in a deluded attempt to protect her family. Meanwhile, Doss took out insurance worth $500 on Robert. Nannie Doss was born on November 4, 1905, in Blue Mountain (now a part of Anniston), AL to James and Louisa Hazel. He drank without inhibition and one night, after returning home completely intoxicated, raped Doss. She also killed Lannings mother, her mother-in-law; Lou Hazel, her own mother; Dovie Frances Hazel Weaver, her sister; and Robert Lee Haynes, her grandson. However, I am going to be outlining one of those exceptions, Nannie Doss. He did not allow non-educational, non-enlightening TV shows and magazines in the house and disliked the romance novels and stories that his wife adored. This head trauma caused Nannie to suffer from severe headaches, blackouts and depression for many years. Furthermore, her favorite part was the lonely hearts column. Imagine you got into a fight with your significant other. She married a second time in 1929 to Robert Franklin Harrelson, who later became her first confirmed victim. Her casual smoking habit turned into a heavy addiction. Nannie Doss was an American serial killer who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison after murdering 11 people between the 1920s and 1954. She connected with her second husband Frank through a romantic ad in a newspaper column and they were married by 1929. Her parents were Louisa "Lou" (ne Holder) and James F. Hazel. People assumed he died of food poisoning. Doss confessed to killing four of her husbands, her mother, her sister, her grandson, and her mother-in-law. And more importantly, why are you by yourself? He also forbade them to go to dances and other social events. . Before she poisoned him, she poisoned her mother, Louisa, in January 1953 when she came to live with them. She had four siblings, including a brother named William Roscoe Hazel and a sister named Dovie Frances Hazel Weaver. Nannie Doss was prosecuted by J. Howard Edmondson, who later became governor of Oklahoma. It was then that Nannie Doss confessed to killing four of her five husbands, and authorities believed she may have killed many of her blood relatives as well. Bodies of her victims were exhumed and found to contain alarming amounts of poison. You sigh contentedly and wash it down with a large thermos of coffee. Driven by greed, she killed Samuel on the very day he had come back home so she could collect the two insurance policies she had taken in his name. If he hadnt left, he would likely have joined his two deceased children. Im so excited for this post because I have not yet researched a female serial killer. For a while at least, Nannie seemed to care for her like a good daughter. Within days of arriving, Doss mother died of stomach pains. However, she was spared the electric chair due to her obvious insanity. You sit down to a homemade dinner of juicy and tender pork roast. He was a heavy drinker, so doctors attributed the heart attack to alcohol. While Braggs was an attentive father, his relationship with his wife did not improve at all. Just eight weeks after Lanning died, the house he and Doss lived in burned to the ground. Doss grew up reading her mothers romance magazines and wished for a fairytale future. She gave birth to her son Robert Lee Haynes in 1943. However, the doctor who had cared for him in the hospital didnt believe he had just succumbed to illness. Her parents were Louisa "Lou" (ne Holder) and James F. Hazel. Lannings sister was designated to receive the house through his will, but instead, an insurance check was sent to Doss for the damages. Braggs and Nannie soon divorced, with Nannie taking her two girls back to her mother's home. Within months after the death of her fourth husband, Nannie had her eyes set on a new one. The state of Oklahoma centered its case only on Samuel Doss. Nannie was one of five children; she had one brother and three sisters. They got married that year. One such pen pal was Sam Doss, who would become her fifth husband. Until you do, approximately half an hour later. After the tragic incident, the grief-stricken couple slowly drifted apart and eventually separated. Doss would later tell police he had come home drunk and raped her and she reacted by putting rat poison in his corn whiskey jar the next day. By the time she was a teenager, Doss dreamed of living an idyllic life with her future husband. Nannie Doss was referred to as the Giggling Granny, the Lonely Hearts Killer, the Black Widow, and Lady Blue Beard. He simply made the mistake of telling his wife that she could only read magazines or watch television shows that were for educational purposes. After their wedding, Braggs mother insisted on living with them. However, the arrangement soon proved to be troublesome as most of Braggs time was taken up by his mother. Nannie Doss was only charged for the death of Samuel Doss. When she asked if she could work in the kitchen, she was politely told no. After confessing to the murders of four or her five husbands, Nannie Doss leaves the county attorneys office and heads to jail. A native of Alabama, she grew up resenting her father, who was forceful and controlling. As she was known to do at the most inappropriate of times, she giggled and smiled about it. You take a nap, not expecting to wake up anytime soon. Your head is pounding and you cant think except to run to the bathroom where you have nonstop and explosive diarrhea. She was anxious all the time and soon enough, started drinking. While in these unpleasant circumstances, Nannie allegedly turned on her own grandchildren. Perhaps she used the romance magazines as an escape from her abusive father while her mother turned a blind eye. The Nannie Doss case in the mid 1950s is being featured on Japanese television as one of the five most unusual murder cases in the world. She had apparently found a possible husband number six in North Carolina based dairy farmer John H. Keel before her arrest and even sent him a cake. Her reason for murdering her husbands was because she was in pursuit of the perfect husband. Edmund Kemper is a convicted serial killer from America who murdered ten people. He and Doss divorced soon after and she and her two daughters moved in with her mother. He drank without inhibition and one night, after returning home completely intoxicated, raped Doss. She boarded a bus to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to meet Samuel Doss, a Nazarene minister who had lost his family in a tornado in Madison County, Arkansas. Nannie was sentenced to life in prison. Bettmann/Getty ImagesAuthorities question Nannie Doss about her crimes. She wasnt a happy child. A year later, Doss met her second husband, Jacksonville resident Robert Franklin Harrelson, through a lonely hearts newspaper column. The couple moved in with Braggs mother, and soon, Doss realized she had escaped the violent hands of her father, only to fall into the manipulative hands of her mother-in-law. She topped it off with rat poison, and Frank died on Sept. 15, 1945 just hours after Doss filled his liquor bottle. That flu hit you hard, but a month later youre back on your feet again. At the age of seven, Nannie Doss fell forward while on a train and her head collided with the floor. She put rat poison in the whiskey. The couple divorced in 1928. And be a bit careful about money. Unfortunately, instead of being grateful for a place to stay, Nannie then killed her own sister. No one else was ever charged. He was her only son and she was unmarried at the time so Doss had to accept it. They got married that year. While they were married, Doss' mother needed a caretaker and moved in with the couple. After returning from the bar, Harrelson forced sex upon Doss and she vowed to get even. Reading romance magazines, especially the lonely hearts columns, took up much of the young ladys spare time. Doss believed in true love and romance, and she wasnt willing to wait to find it. To make matters worse, as she talked to the police about each of the people she had killed, she smiled and giggled. Fortunately, his murder was her last one, and upon her arrest, they uncovered large amounts of damaging evidence. This time, it was Doss who would often vanish for prolonged periods. To know more about her childhood, career, profile and timeline read on. At the age of 16, Nannie Doss wed a man she had only known for four months. Birth . Doss mother needed a caretaker after she fell and broke a hip in 1953 after her father passed away. Check out this biography to know about his childhood, life, crimes and other facts about him. During this time, many critical events took place, including the murder of 11 people. Three months later Morton died of similar symptoms. Before long, she confessed to killing not only her four husbands, but confessed to seven other murders as well. Within months, Sam Doss was in the hospital with a digestive tract infection. The death was diagnosed as asphyxia from unknown causes, and two months later Nannie collected the $500 life insurance she had taken out on Robert. Whenever she came back, she played the role of a doting wife perfectly. He showed flu-like symptoms and the diagnosis was a severe digestive tract infection. Nannie Doss was arrested in 1954. Check out this biography to know about her birthday, childhood, family life, achievements and fun facts about her. 1905. . Nannie later wrote: I married, as my father wished, in 1921 to a boy I only knowed about four or five months who had no family, only a mother who was unwed and who had taken over my life completely when we were married. In addition, Morton had another girlfriend who he met before Doss. To Doss, Mrs. Braggs was not all that different from her terrifying father. They married in 1952 in Emporia, Kansas. Nannie Doss final victim was Samuel Doss of Tulsa, Okla. In the ensuing years, Doss gave birth to four daughters. This biography of Aileen Wuornos provides detailed information about her childhood, life, crimes & timeline. Braggs often would not be home for days on end. She laced a prune cake with poison. Nannie Doss, under arrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma, November 1954. He thanks you for reading his content. Driven by greed, she killed Samuel on the very day he had come back home so she could collect the two insurance policies she had taken in his name. Samuel died on October 12, 1954. After a successful treatment regime, the hospital let him go. After the funeral, the house they had lived in, which was inherited by Lannings sister, burned down and Doss got the insurance money. Exhausted from labor and groggy from ether, Melvina thought she saw her visiting mother stick a hatpin into the baby's head. Harrelson was no different. In all, authorities suspect she killed as many as 12 people, most of whom were blood-related. As a result, Nannies education suffered. In all, it was revealed that she had killed four husbands, two children, two of her sisters, her mother, two grandsons, and a mother-in-law. The doctors ordered . But when she was home, she played the doting housewife, and when he died of what was said to be heart failure, the townspeople supported her at his funeral. Within months after the death of her fourth husband, Nannie had her eyes set on a new one. One day, Melvina had a particularly unpleasant argument with her mother and went to her fathers house to stay for a while. At age 9, while the family was taking a train to visit relatives in southern Alabama, Nannie hit her head on a metal bar on the seat in front of her when the train suddenly stopped. James would force his children to work on the family farm, refusing to let the children go to school, resulting in Nannie's poor academic performance. Doss was 16 years old when she married her first husband, Charley Braggs, after knowing him only for four months. Doss returned home to help care for her sick sister, Dovie. Despite this, the marriage lasted 16 years. She and Braggs worked together at the Linen Thread Company in nearby Anniston. She was a year older than he was. Nannie Doss was promptly arrested. She had apparently found a possible husband number six in North Carolina based dairy farmer John H. Keel before her arrest and even sent him a cake. He was dead before midnight. During her marriage to Morton, Doss already had began to correspond with new men. Read on to learn about the last seven. She left Robert in her mothers care. So youre not the brightest, but your hearts in the right place. Aileen Wuornos was a serial killer who was sentenced to death for killing seven men in Florida. Doss even had a surprising motive for killing her male companions. On July 7, 1945, Doss was taking care of Melvina's son, Robert, because Doss and Melvina had an argument over Doss's disapproval of Melvina's boyfriend. In 1945, Harrelson raped Nannie. She was anything but sorry for her crimes. Nannie Doss, otherwise known as the Giggling Granny, or Lady Bluebeard, was an elderly woman who poisoned and killed up to 11 members of her family, including four husbands.She blamed early head trauma and an unrealized dream of a romance novel-style marriage as the impetus behind her coldhearted murders, the crimes of Nannie Doss will shock even the most hardened true crime lovers. Nannie Doss was an American serial killer who received the famous nicknames, "The Giggling Nanny," and "The Jolly Black Widow" when she went on a murder rampage, which lasted around thirty-five years. Nannie killed him that very evening with her tried and tested method of arsenic in coffee. Despite the abuse, the marriage lasted 16 years until 1945. In 1927 (Age 21/22) Nannie Doss started her killing spree, during her crimes as a serial killer she was known to murder her victims. The happy couple lived with Braggs' mother, but she had the same abusive type of behavior as Doss' father. Exhausted from the labour and still groggy from the ether, Melvina thought that she saw her mother kill her daughter by sticking a hairpin into the newborns head. He had the dubious and fortunate distinction of being the only husband that Doss did not murder. In January 1953, Doss mother, Lou, moved in with them after her husbands death. Long before Nannie met Samuel, she had several other marriages. Perhaps it was her mother-in-law that kickstarted Doss murdering spree. They married in 1952 in Emporia, Kansas and not long after that, Morton started to spend night after night with other women in the town. She was never prosecuted for the other murders, but many believe she was responsible for at least 11 deaths. Nannie Doss was promptly arrested. He also did not allow them to attend any dances or other social events. Only three days after that, Morton perished after drinking from a thermos full of coffee that had been spiked by Doss with arsenic. Nannie left him for a short period in protest until he put her name on his bank account and took out two life insurance policies with her as beneficiary. Her first marriage, to a co-worker named Charley Braggs, was tumultuous to say the least and Braggs would later claim that he left Doss because he was afraid of her. Instead, Nannie was given a check from their insurance company to cover the damages. She would later develop a special love for the lonely hearts column. Worry? You miss your spouse and are looking around the room. But she made a grave mistake. Bettmann/Getty ImagesAfter confessing to the murders of four or her five husbands, Nannie Doss leaves the county attorneys office and heads to jail. Sources cite either a singles club or additional romantic advertising as netting Nannie another husband by 1952. Before they had time to figure out what happened, they were dead. [2] He showed flu-like symptoms and the diagnosis was a severe digestive tract infection. Nannie Doss is credited with killing at least 11 people. She was also known as the Giggling Granny, the Lonely Hearts Killer, the Black Widow, and Lady Blue Beard. Braggs took his older daughter, Melvina, with him and left a newborn, Florine, with his ex-wife and mother.