They were searching for the perfect mate Nannie Doss told police, after she was arrested for murdering her husbands. Doss seemed like a sweet lady. She smiled all the time she married, had four children, and spent time with her grandchildren. But behind the happy was a trail of death and murder that lasted from the 1920s to 1954. It was then that Nannie Doss confessed to killing four of her five husbands, and the authorities also believed that she could have killed many of her relatives.

Doss’ story begins with her birth to a family of farmers in 1905 in Blue Mountain, Alabama. Instead of going to school, all five of Jim and Louisa Haze’s children stayed at home to work on household chores and But behind the happy was a trail of death and murder that lasted . It was then Nannie four of her five husbands was murder by her on 1942, and authorities believed she may have killed many of her blood relatives as well.

Doss story begins with her birth to a family of farmers in 1905 in Blue Mountain, Alabama. Instead of going to school, all five of Jim and Louisa Haze’s children stayed at home to work on household chores and . At age seven, Doss suffered a head injury while riding a train. Head injury has forever changed her life. By the time she was a teenager, Doss dreamed of living an idyllic life with her future husband. Reading romance magazines, especially the lonely hearts columns, took up much of the young lady’s spare time. Perhaps she used the romance magazines as an escape from her abusive father while her mother turned a blind eye. Then the marriages began. At the age of Nannie Doss wed a man she had only known for four months. Charley Braggs and Doss had four children together from 1921 to 1927. The marriage fell apart at that point. The happy couple lived with Braggs’ mother, but she had the same abusive type of behavior as Doss’ father. Perhaps it was her mother-in-law that kick started Doss’ murdering spree. Two children died under mysterious circumstances that same year. One moment the kids were perfectly healthy, and then suddenly they died without an apparent cause. Two children died under mysterious circumstances that same year. One moment the kids were perfectly healthy, and then suddenly they died without an apparent cause. The couple divorced in 1928. Braggs took his older daughter, Melvin, with him and left a newborn, Florine, with his ex-wife and mother. Just a year after her divorce, Doss married her second husband. He was an abusive alcoholic from Jacksonville, Fla. named Frank Harrelson. The two met through a lonely hearts column. Harrelson wrote her romantic letters, while Doss responded with racy letters and photos. Despite the abuse, the marriage lasted 16 years until 1945. During this period, Doss likely killed her own newborn granddaughter a few days after the birth by using a hairpin to stab her in the brain. A few months after the granddaughter’s death, her two-year-old grandson, Robert, died of asphyxiation while in Doss care. These two kids belonged to Melvin, Doss’ older child with Braggs. Doss married her second husband he was an abusive alcoholic from Jacksonville, Fla. Named Frank Harrelson. The two met through a lonely hearts column. Harrelson work her romantic letters, while Doss responded with racy letters and photos. Despite the abuse, the marriage lasted 16 years until 1945. During this period, Doss likely killed her own newborn granddaughter a few days after birth by using a hairpin to stab her in the brain. A few months after the granddaughter’s death. Her two year old grandson, Robert, died of asphyxiation while in Doss’ care. These two kids belonged to Melvin, Doss’ older child with Briggs. Harrelson was next on the murder list. Following a night of drunken revelry at the end of World War II, Doss mixed a secret ingredient into his hidden jar of Moonshine. He was dead less than week later on Sept 15, 1945. People assumed he died of food poisoning. Meanwhile, Doss collected enough life insurance money from Harrelson’s death to buy a plot of land and a house near Jacksonville. Arlie Lanning of Lexington, N.C. died in 1952 several years after he responded to a lonely hearts classified ad placed by Doss. Playing the doting wife, Doss agreed to take care of her. Shortly thereafter. He was a heavy drinker, so doctors attributed the heart attack to alcohol. Richard Morton of Emporia, Kan. Was Doss’ next true love, although he spent a lot of time with other women while married to Doss. However, Doss wouldn’t discover this just yet, because she was distracted with other matters. Doss’ mother needed a caretaker after she fell and broke a hip in 1953 after her father passed away. The women died suddenly and without warning a few months after Doss agreed to take care of her. Shortly after her mother’s death, one of Doss’s sisters died suddenly after having contact with the Nannie Doss. Nannie Doss’ final victim was Samuel Doss of Tulsa, Okla. He was neither a drunk nor abusive He simply made the mistake of telling his wife that she could only read magazines or watch television shows that were for educational purposes. Nannie Doss was a serial killer who earned the monikers The Giggling Nanny, and The Jolly Black Widow after going on a killing spree that begin in the 1920s and ended in 1954. Doss was easy to entertain. Her favorite pastimes included reading romance novels and poisoning members of her family to death. Childhood years Nannie Doss was born Nancy Hazel on Nov 4, 1905, in Blue Mountain, Alabama, to James and Lou Hazel. Much of Doss childhood was spent avoiding the wrath of her father who ruled the family with an abusive iron fist. If they were needed to work on the farm, James Hazel on Nov 4, 1905, in Blue Mountain, Alabama, to James and Lou Hazel. Much of Doss’ childhood was spent avoiding the wrath of her father who ruled the family with an abusive iron fist. With education being a low priority in the Hazel family, there were no objections when Nannie decided to leave school for good after completing the sixth grade. When Nannie was 7 years old, she was on a train that suddenly stopped, causing her to fall forward and hit her head. After the incident, she suffered for years with migraine headaches, blackouts, and depression. From early on James Hazel refused to allow his daughter to do anything to enhance their appearance. Pretty dresses and makeup were not allowed nor were friendship with the boys. It was not until does got her first job in 1921 that she had any real social interaction with the opposite sex. At the age of 16, instead of attending school and worrying about prom night, Doss was working in a linen factory and spending her spare time with her head buried in her favorite pastime, reading romance magazines, especially the lonely hearts club section. While working at the factory Doss met Charley Braggs who worked at the same factory and took care of his unmarried mother. The two began dating and within five months they were married and doss moved in with Braggs and his mother. If she hoped by marrying was to escape the oppressive environment she grew up in, she must have been disappointed. Her mother in law turned out to be extremely controlling and manipulative. Motherhood The Briggs had first child in 1923 and three more followed over the next three years. Doss life had become prison of raising children, taking care of her demanding mother in law, and putting up with 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. Who was forceful and controlling? At the age of seven, she mental instability on the accident. She married five times. Her own mother; Davie Frances Hazel Weaver, her sister; and Robert Lee Haynes, her grandson. She married a second time in 1929 to Robert Franklin. Harrelson, who later became her first confirmed victim. The happy couple lived with Bragg’s mother, but she had the same abusive type of behavior. People assumed he did of food poisoning. If they were needed to work on the farm, James Hazel gave little thought to pulling the children out of school. The early 1950s were a lethal time for Nanny’s relatives. Her third husband, Arlie Lanning, died at Lexington, North Carolina, in 1952. A few months later, in January 1953, her mother died while Nanny nursed the woman for a broken hip. Two of her sisters died the same year, in different towns; each collapsed while Nanny was visiting, each with the same mysterious symptoms of stomach cramps and convulsions. In 1953, it was husband number four — Richard Morton — laid to rest at Emporia, Kansas. She had an unhappy childhood. She was a poor student who never learned to read well; her education was erratic because her father forced his children to work on the family farm instead of attending school. When she was around seven years old, the family was taking a train to visit relatives in southern Alabama; when the train stopped suddenly, Nannie hit her head on the metal bar on the seat in front of her. For years after, she suffered severe headaches, blackouts and depression; she blamed these and her mental instability on that accident. He was the only son of his unmarried mother, who insisted on living with them. Doss later wrote. Was one of the many people who celebrated rather robustly? After an evening of particularly heavy drinking, he raped Doss. To cope, she began drinking at night and managed to get out to local bars for her own adulterous fun. Their marriage was doomed.