September 28, 2022 • 14 mins
Described as the Giggling Grandma, Arsenic Annie and Lady Blue Bird, this black widow carried many titles but one thing was for certain, she was cunning, smart, beautiful and deadly.
Killing eleven people from 1920 to 1954 this is one of the more lethal cases we will cover this season and one this is for certain, those who doubted her did not live long enough to regret it.
This is the case of Black Widow Nannie Doss.
Killing eleven people from 1920 to 1954 this is one of the more lethal cases we will cover this season and one this is for certain, those who doubted her did not live long enough to regret it.
This is the case of Black Widow Nannie Doss.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Described as a giggling grandma, arsenicAnnie, and Lady Bluebird. This black
widow carried many titles, but onething was for certain. She was cunning,
smart, beautiful, and deadly,killing eleven people from nineteen twenty to
nineteen fifty four. This is oneof the more lethal cases we will cover
(00:23):
this season, and one thing isfor certain. Those who doubted her did
not live long enough to regret it. This is the case of black Widow
Nanny Dos. This is Tales fromthe Dark. Nannie Doss was born on
(01:19):
November fourth, nineteen oh five,in Blue Mountain, Alabama. She was
born under the name Nancy Hazel toJames and lou Hazel. Nanny was one
of five children. She had onebrother and three sisters. Both Nanny and
her mother hated James, who wasa strict and often controlling father and husband.
(01:48):
There is evidence that Nanny was conceivedillegitimately, as James lu married after
nineteen oh five, since his recordsalso show that in nineteen oh five,
Annie and her mother were living ontheir own. Nanny had an unhappy childhood.
She was a poor student who neverlearned to read well. Her education
(02:12):
was erratic because her father forced hischildren to work on the family farm instead
of attending school. When she wasaround seven years old, the family was
taking a train to visit relatives insouthern Alabama. When the train stopped suddenly.
Nanny hit her head on the metalbar in the seat in front of
(02:32):
her. For years after, shesuffered severe headaches, blackouts, and oppression.
She blamed these and her mental instabilityon that accident. During her childhood,
her favorite hobby was reading her mother'sromance magazines and dreaming of her own
(02:54):
romantic future. Later, her favoritepart was the only Heart's column. The
Hazel sisters teenage years were restricted bytheir father. He forbade them to wear
makeup and attractive clothing. He wasalso trying to prevent them from being molested
by men, which happened on severaloccasions. He also forbade them to go
(03:19):
to dances and other social events.Nannie first married at the age of sixteen
to Charlie Braggs. They had metat the linen thread factory where they both
worked, and with her father's approval, they married after dating for just four
months. He was the only sonof his unmarried mother, who insisted on
(03:42):
living with both Nannie and her newhusband. Nanny later wrote, I was
married, as my father wished,in nineteen twenty one, to a boy
I only knew for about four orfive months, who had no family,
only a mother who was unwed,and who had taken over my life completely
when we were married. She neverseen anything wrong with what he done,
(04:06):
but she would take spells. Shewould not let my own mother stay all
night. Charlie's mother took up alot of his attention, and she often
prevented Nanny from doing things she wantedto do. The marriage produced four daughters
over a four year period of nineteentwenty three to nineteen twenty seven. Under
(04:29):
a lot of stress, Nanny starteddrinking, and her casual smoking habit became
a heavy addiction. The marriage wasan unhappy one, and both suspected each
other correctly, of infidelity. Braggsoften disappeared for days on end. In
early nineteen twenty seven, they losttheir two middle daughters to suspected food poisoning.
(04:55):
However, Charlie didn't believe in.Charlie thought that Nannie had killed them
both, so he fled from her, taking their eldest daughter, Melvina with
him and leaving newborn Florine behind.His mother also died around this time.
Nanny, in the meantime, tooka job in a cotton mill to support
(05:16):
Florine and herself. Bragg's returned homein the summer of nineteen twenty eight with
him. Anne Melvina was another woman, a divorcee with her own child.
Nanny and Charlie soon divorced, andshe returned to her mother's home, taking
her two daughters with her. Charliealways said afterwards that he left her because
(05:43):
he was frightened of her Living andworking in Anniston. Nanny soothed her loneliness
by reading true romance and other suchreading matter. She also resumed pouring over
Lonely Heart's column and wrote to men, averageis there a particular ad that interested
her? Was that of Robert Harrelson, a twenty three year old factory worker
(06:09):
from Jacksonville. He sent her romanticpoetry and she sent him a cake.
They met and married in nineteen twentynine, when she was twenty four,
two years after her divorce from Charlie. They lived together in Jacksonville with Nannie's
two surviving daughters. After a fewmonths, she discovered that he was an
(06:30):
alcoholic and had a criminal record forassault. Despite this, the marriage lasted
sixteen years. Melvina, Nannie's oldestdaughter, gave birth to Robert Lee Haines
in nineteen forty three. Nannie cameto help, and after a few painful
hours, a baby boy was born. Melvina, exhausted and from labor and
(06:56):
groggy from ether, thought she sawNannie's a hat pin into the baby's head
and later told Mosey and Florine.They told her how Nanny had said the
baby was dead, and they noticedthat she was also holding a pen.
However, the doctors cannot come upwith an explanation for the death. After
thus, Melvina and Mosey drifted apart, and Melvina began dating a soldier.
(07:23):
Nanny disapproved of him, and whileMelvina was visiting her father, after a
particularly nacy fight with Nanny, Melvina'sson died mysteriously under Nannie's care on July
seventh, nineteen forty five. Thecause of death was diagnosed as aphyxia from
unknown causes, and two months laterNanny collected a five hundred dollars life insurance
(07:48):
policy that she had taken out onher grandchild. In nineteen forty five.
Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers atthe end of World War Two, and
haroldson second husband, was one ofthe many people who celebrated rather robustly.
After an evening of particularly heavy drinking, he sexually assaulted Nanny. The following
(08:13):
day, as she was tending toa rose garden, Doss discovered Harolson's corn
whiskey jar buried in the ground.Nanny took the jar and topped it off
with a rat poison. Harolson dieda painful death that evening. Nanny met
her third husband while traveling in Lexington, North Carolina. His name was Arley
(08:35):
Lanning, and she married him withinthree days of meeting him through another Lonely
Heart's column. Arley, in manyways was like his predecessor Harolson. He
was an alcoholic and a womanizer.However, in this marriage it was Nanny
who often disappeared for months on endwhen she was home. However, she
(08:58):
did play a doting wife, andwhen her husband died of what was said
to be heart failure, the wholetown turned up to his funeral to support
her. Afterwards, the house thecouple lived in burned to the ground edban
left to Laning's sister, and hadit survived, it would have gone to
(09:20):
her. As it happened, theinsurance money went to Nanny and she quickly
banked it. She soon left NorthCarolina, but only after Laning's elderly mother
had died in her sleep. Sheended up at her sister Dovey's home.
Dovey was bedridden, and soon afterDas's arrival, she died. Nanny had
(09:45):
joined the Diamond Circle Club looking foranother husband. That's where she met Richard
L. Morton of Emporia, Kansas. Richard did not have the same drinking
problems her other husbands, but hewas a womanizer. Before Nanny could poison
(10:05):
him, she poisoned her mother,Luisa on January nineteen fifty three when she
came to live with them. Mortonmet his death three months later. Nanny
then met and married Samuel Doss ofTulsa, Oklahoma, in June nineteen fifty
three. A clean cut, churchgoingman, he disapproved of the romance novels
(10:31):
and stories that Nanny endored. InSeptember, sam was admitted to the hospital
with flu like symptoms. The hospitaldiagnosed a severe digestive tract infection. He
was treated and released on October fifth. Nanny killed him that evening in her
rush to collect the two life insurancepolicies that she had taken out on him.
(10:54):
This sudden death alerted his doctor,who ordered an autopsy. The autopsy
revealed a huge amount of arsenic inhis system. Nannie was then arrested.
Nannie confessed to killing four of herhusbands, her mother, her sister Dovey,
(11:15):
her grandson Robert, and her motherin law, Arley Laning's mother.
The state of Oklahoma centered its caseonly on Samuel Dass, though the prosecution
found her mentally fit for trial.Nannie pleaded guilty on May seventeenth, nineteen
fifty five, and was sentenced tolife in prison. The state did not
(11:39):
pursue the death penalty, though dueto her gender, Nannie was never charged
with the other deaths. She diedof leukemia in the hospital ward of the
Oklahoma State Penitentiary in nineteen sixty five. What do you think of this case?
(12:00):
Was Nanny just in it for themoney or did she have some other
kind of vendetta? Be sure tolet us know, because for now,
for tonight, I think we're goingto have to add the case of black
Widow Nanny Doss to our never endingbut are always growing tails from the dark
(13:01):
world. The more
Described as a giggling grandma, arsenicAnnie, and Lady Bluebird. This black
widow carried many titles, but onething was for certain. She was cunning,
smart, beautiful, and deadly,killing eleven people from nineteen twenty to
nineteen fifty four. This is oneof the more lethal cases we will cover
(00:23):
this season, and one thing isfor certain. Those who doubted her did
not live long enough to regret it. This is the case of black Widow
Nanny Dos. This is Tales fromthe Dark. Nannie Doss was born on
(01:19):
November fourth, nineteen oh five,in Blue Mountain, Alabama. She was
born under the name Nancy Hazel toJames and lou Hazel. Nanny was one
of five children. She had onebrother and three sisters. Both Nanny and
her mother hated James, who wasa strict and often controlling father and husband.
(01:48):
There is evidence that Nanny was conceivedillegitimately, as James lu married after
nineteen oh five, since his recordsalso show that in nineteen oh five,
Annie and her mother were living ontheir own. Nanny had an unhappy childhood.
She was a poor student who neverlearned to read well. Her education
(02:12):
was erratic because her father forced hischildren to work on the family farm instead
of attending school. When she wasaround seven years old, the family was
taking a train to visit relatives insouthern Alabama. When the train stopped suddenly.
Nanny hit her head on the metalbar in the seat in front of
(02:32):
her. For years after, shesuffered severe headaches, blackouts, and oppression.
She blamed these and her mental instabilityon that accident. During her childhood,
her favorite hobby was reading her mother'sromance magazines and dreaming of her own
(02:54):
romantic future. Later, her favoritepart was the only Heart's column. The
Hazel sisters teenage years were restricted bytheir father. He forbade them to wear
makeup and attractive clothing. He wasalso trying to prevent them from being molested
by men, which happened on severaloccasions. He also forbade them to go
(03:19):
to dances and other social events.Nannie first married at the age of sixteen
to Charlie Braggs. They had metat the linen thread factory where they both
worked, and with her father's approval, they married after dating for just four
months. He was the only sonof his unmarried mother, who insisted on
(03:42):
living with both Nannie and her newhusband. Nanny later wrote, I was
married, as my father wished,in nineteen twenty one, to a boy
I only knew for about four orfive months, who had no family,
only a mother who was unwed,and who had taken over my life completely
when we were married. She neverseen anything wrong with what he done,
(04:06):
but she would take spells. Shewould not let my own mother stay all
night. Charlie's mother took up alot of his attention, and she often
prevented Nanny from doing things she wantedto do. The marriage produced four daughters
over a four year period of nineteentwenty three to nineteen twenty seven. Under
(04:29):
a lot of stress, Nanny starteddrinking, and her casual smoking habit became
a heavy addiction. The marriage wasan unhappy one, and both suspected each
other correctly, of infidelity. Braggsoften disappeared for days on end. In
early nineteen twenty seven, they losttheir two middle daughters to suspected food poisoning.
(04:55):
However, Charlie didn't believe in.Charlie thought that Nannie had killed them
both, so he fled from her, taking their eldest daughter, Melvina with
him and leaving newborn Florine behind.His mother also died around this time.
Nanny, in the meantime, tooka job in a cotton mill to support
(05:16):
Florine and herself. Bragg's returned homein the summer of nineteen twenty eight with
him. Anne Melvina was another woman, a divorcee with her own child.
Nanny and Charlie soon divorced, andshe returned to her mother's home, taking
her two daughters with her. Charliealways said afterwards that he left her because
(05:43):
he was frightened of her Living andworking in Anniston. Nanny soothed her loneliness
by reading true romance and other suchreading matter. She also resumed pouring over
Lonely Heart's column and wrote to men, averageis there a particular ad that interested
her? Was that of Robert Harrelson, a twenty three year old factory worker
(06:09):
from Jacksonville. He sent her romanticpoetry and she sent him a cake.
They met and married in nineteen twentynine, when she was twenty four,
two years after her divorce from Charlie. They lived together in Jacksonville with Nannie's
two surviving daughters. After a fewmonths, she discovered that he was an
(06:30):
alcoholic and had a criminal record forassault. Despite this, the marriage lasted
sixteen years. Melvina, Nannie's oldestdaughter, gave birth to Robert Lee Haines
in nineteen forty three. Nannie cameto help, and after a few painful
hours, a baby boy was born. Melvina, exhausted and from labor and
(06:56):
groggy from ether, thought she sawNannie's a hat pin into the baby's head
and later told Mosey and Florine.They told her how Nanny had said the
baby was dead, and they noticedthat she was also holding a pen.
However, the doctors cannot come upwith an explanation for the death. After
thus, Melvina and Mosey drifted apart, and Melvina began dating a soldier.
(07:23):
Nanny disapproved of him, and whileMelvina was visiting her father, after a
particularly nacy fight with Nanny, Melvina'sson died mysteriously under Nannie's care on July
seventh, nineteen forty five. Thecause of death was diagnosed as aphyxia from
unknown causes, and two months laterNanny collected a five hundred dollars life insurance
(07:48):
policy that she had taken out onher grandchild. In nineteen forty five.
Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers atthe end of World War Two, and
haroldson second husband, was one ofthe many people who celebrated rather robustly.
After an evening of particularly heavy drinking, he sexually assaulted Nanny. The following
(08:13):
day, as she was tending toa rose garden, Doss discovered Harolson's corn
whiskey jar buried in the ground.Nanny took the jar and topped it off
with a rat poison. Harolson dieda painful death that evening. Nanny met
her third husband while traveling in Lexington, North Carolina. His name was Arley
(08:35):
Lanning, and she married him withinthree days of meeting him through another Lonely
Heart's column. Arley, in manyways was like his predecessor Harolson. He
was an alcoholic and a womanizer.However, in this marriage it was Nanny
who often disappeared for months on endwhen she was home. However, she
(08:58):
did play a doting wife, andwhen her husband died of what was said
to be heart failure, the wholetown turned up to his funeral to support
her. Afterwards, the house thecouple lived in burned to the ground edban
left to Laning's sister, and hadit survived, it would have gone to
(09:20):
her. As it happened, theinsurance money went to Nanny and she quickly
banked it. She soon left NorthCarolina, but only after Laning's elderly mother
had died in her sleep. Sheended up at her sister Dovey's home.
Dovey was bedridden, and soon afterDas's arrival, she died. Nanny had
(09:45):
joined the Diamond Circle Club looking foranother husband. That's where she met Richard
L. Morton of Emporia, Kansas. Richard did not have the same drinking
problems her other husbands, but hewas a womanizer. Before Nanny could poison
(10:05):
him, she poisoned her mother,Luisa on January nineteen fifty three when she
came to live with them. Mortonmet his death three months later. Nanny
then met and married Samuel Doss ofTulsa, Oklahoma, in June nineteen fifty
three. A clean cut, churchgoingman, he disapproved of the romance novels
(10:31):
and stories that Nanny endored. InSeptember, sam was admitted to the hospital
with flu like symptoms. The hospitaldiagnosed a severe digestive tract infection. He
was treated and released on October fifth. Nanny killed him that evening in her
rush to collect the two life insurancepolicies that she had taken out on him.
(10:54):
This sudden death alerted his doctor,who ordered an autopsy. The autopsy
revealed a huge amount of arsenic inhis system. Nannie was then arrested.
Nannie confessed to killing four of herhusbands, her mother, her sister Dovey,
(11:15):
her grandson Robert, and her motherin law, Arley Laning's mother.
The state of Oklahoma centered its caseonly on Samuel Dass, though the prosecution
found her mentally fit for trial.Nannie pleaded guilty on May seventeenth, nineteen
fifty five, and was sentenced tolife in prison. The state did not
(11:39):
pursue the death penalty, though dueto her gender, Nannie was never charged
with the other deaths. She diedof leukemia in the hospital ward of the
Oklahoma State Penitentiary in nineteen sixty five. What do you think of this case?
(12:00):
Was Nanny just in it for themoney or did she have some other
kind of vendetta? Be sure tolet us know, because for now,
for tonight, I think we're goingto have to add the case of black
Widow Nanny Doss to our never endingbut are always growing tails from the dark
(13:01):
world. The more
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