NANNIE DOSS
Julia Leech
“The Giggling
Granny”
History
• Born:
• Nancy Hazel
• Blue Mountain, Alabama
• November 4, 1905
• Four siblings
• One brother, three sisters
• Controlling and nasty father, James
• Was unhappy growing up
• Could not read well– poor student
• Unable to do well in school because her father forced all
of the kids to work on the family farm
History (Cont.)
• Got a head injury on a train ride when the train suddenly
stopped at the age of 7
• She had head aches, black outs, and depression that persisted for
years
• Loved reading her mothers romance magazines as a
child, and the lonely hearts column
• She would dream of her future romances
• Her father refused to let the girls wear makeup or dress
attractively and to go to social events as teenagers to
prevent them from getting molested
• Although his attempts were unsuccessful considering she was
molested several times
First Marriage
• She married her first husband when she was 16 with her
fathers blessing
• They had 4 children
• The middle two had been poisoned by her
• Her husband, Charley Braggs, left her, taking the eldest
daughter, after their deaths
Second Marriage
• Robert Harrelson
• 1929
• He sent her poetry and she sent him cake
• They lived with her daughters
• He was an alcoholic and had a criminal record for assault
• They were married for 16 years
• One day she snapped and gave Robert rat poisoning
Third Marriage
• Arlie Lanning
• Met through lonely hearts column– married after 3 days
• Alcoholic womanizer
• Nannie would disappear for months at a time
• When he died it was believed to be heart disease, it is
now believed that Nannie poisoned him
• Later their house burned down and Nannie collected the
insurance money
Fourth Marriage
• Richard
Morton
• Unfaithful to
her
• Died months
later from
being
poisoned
Fifth Marriage
• Samuel Doss
• June 1953
• He disapproved of her adored
romance novels
• He was admitted into the
hospital for “flu like symptoms”
• He was sent home completely
healthy and died the next day
• The hospital got suspicious and
preformed an autopsy (Def: a
postmortem examination to discover
the cause of death or the extent of
disease) and found arsenic in him–
this lead to Nannie’s first arrest
Total List of Victims
• Her 2 middle daughters
• Frank Harrelson
• Arlie Lanning
• Arlie Lanning's mother
• Her sister Dovie
• Her grandaughter
• Her grandson
• Her mother, Lou Hazle
• Her son-in-law, Richard Morton
• Sam Doss
Confession and Conviction
• After she was arrested for Samuel Doss’
murder she quickly confessed to killing
four of her husbands, her mother, her
sister Dovie, her grandson Robert, and
her mother-in-law Lanning
• Law enforcement got suspicious and
preformed autopsies on her other
victims
• Evidence
• Arsenic Found in Samuel
• Confession
• Poison found in other victim (Def: a person
harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a
crime, accident, or other event or action)
• The fact that she is a common person in all
of the murders (Because she was legally or
biologically related to them)
Sentencing & Prison Life
• She was sentenced to life in prison but only for Samuel’s
murder
• She died about ten years later of leukemia doss
Theory: Psychological
Growing up Nannie had a controlling father who was nasty
and controlling to her and the rest of her family. He was
very verbally abusive. Also she was unable to get a proper
education because of her lack of time spent in school. She
was unable to focus on her schooling because her father
forced her to stay home and work on the farm. She was
denied a normal social experience as a child because her
father refused to let the children interact socially outside of
school and the girls were forced to dress modestly without
make up in attempts to keep them from being sexually
assaulted. His attempts were unsuccessful considering she
was molested several times as a young girl and a teenager.
Theory: Psychological (Cont.)
While all of that was going on she dreamed of a perfect
love. She would sift through her mothers romance
magazines and novels and would imagine herself falling in
love. She would search through the lonely hearts column.
She was desperate for love and throughout her life she
would search desperately for the perfect romance, that is
why she was married so much and murdered them when it
was not what she wanted. She was still a young, young
teenager when she was first married. Most of her husbands
turned out to be drunks or cheaters. None of her marriages
ended up like she imagined which lead to her murderous
tendencies towards her husbands and could potentially be
the reason she killed the others, they could have gotten in
the way of her perfect love.