Nanny after a court appearance
Nannie Doss, born Nancy Hazle, presents one of the most notorious cases of hidden violence under a mask of domestic normalcy. Known by nicknames such as the “Giggling Granny,” “Lonely Hearts Killer,” “Black Widow,” and “Lady Blue Beard,” Doss was the epitome of a typical mother and grandmother—always smiling, soft-spoken, and kind-hearted, or so it seemed. Yet, her kindly exterior masked a history of lethal cunning that spanned decades, eventually revealing a hidden motive entwined with love, romance, and ultimately, tragedy.
Early Life and Background
Nannie Doss was born on 4 November 1905 in Blue Mountain, Alabama, now part of Anniston. The daughter of Louisa “Lou” Holder and James F. Hazle, Nannie’s childhood was marked by hardship and strict paternal control. James Hazle, her father, was known to be controlling and abusive, and Nannie, along with her mother, reportedly resented him deeply. He kept his daughters isolated, forcing them into labour on the family farm and preventing them from attending school. Nannie’s academic performance suffered greatly as a result, which would affect her future relationships and aspirations.
A significant event in Nannie’s early life occurred at age seven when she sustained a head injury during a train journey. The incident, which left her with severe headaches, blackouts, and spells of depression, likely contributed to the mental instability that would later manifest in her adult life. She also developed an affinity for her mother’s romance novels, which featured tales of romance and betrayal, with the “lonely hearts” columns becoming a particular favourite—a harbinger of what would later become a deadly obsession.
The First Marriage and Initial Signs of Darkness
At 16, Nannie married Charley Braggs, a fellow worker at a linen factory. Braggs was the only son of a single mother who continued to live with him after the marriage. 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. She never seen anything wrong with what she done, but she would take spells. She would not let my own mother stay all night…
The marriage produced four daughters between 1923 and 1927, but the pressure of a restrictive home life took its toll on Nannie. She began to drink heavily, and tensions between her and Charley escalated, with both suspecting each other of infidelity.
In 1927, tragedy struck when the couple’s two middle daughters died from what was deemed “food poisoning.” Soon after, Charley Braggs took their eldest daughter, Melvina, and left, leaving Nannie with their newborn, Florine. Although Braggs later returned with Melvina, he maintained his distance from Nannie, ultimately citing his fear of her as the reason for his permanent departure.
A Pattern Emerges: Husbands, Children, and Mysterious Deaths
Following her divorce from Braggs, Nannie married several times, each marriage marked by a similar pattern of sickness and death. Her second husband, Robert Franklin Harrelson, whom she married in 1929, was an alcoholic with a criminal record. Although their marriage lasted for 16 years, it was marred by his violent outbursts and infidelities. During this period, her daughter Melvina had two children. Exhausted from labour and groggy from ether, Melvina thought she saw her visiting mother stick a hatpin into the baby’s head. When she asked her husband and sister for clarification, they said Nannie had told them the baby was dead—and they noticed that she was holding a pin. The doctors, however, could not give a positive explanation.
The grieving parents drifted apart and Melvina started dating a soldier. Nannie disapproved of him, and while Melvina was visiting her father after a particularly nasty fight with her mother, her son Robert died mysteriously under Nannie’s care on July 7, 1945. 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.
In the same year, following an assault by Harrelson, Nannie laced his whiskey with rat poison, resulting in his death. This was the first confirmed instance of her using poison to end the life of a family member.
The “Lonely Hearts Killer” and Subsequent Marriages
Nannie’s third husband, Arlie Lanning, met her through a lonely-hearts column. Their marriage was brief but tragic; Lanning was an alcoholic and womaniser, and within months, he had died of what was assumed to be heart failure. The townspeople sympathised with Nannie, unaware that her apparent “bad luck” in marriage was her own design. Soon after, the couple’s house, which had been left to Lanning’s sister, burned down. The insurance money went to Nannie, who quickly banked it, and after Lanning’s mother died in her sleep, Nannie left North Carolina and ended up at her sister Dovie’s home. Dovie was bedridden and soon after Nannie’s arrival she died.
Nannie’s fourth marriage to Richard Morton ended similarly, with Morton dying in 1953 after a brief marriage. Notably, Nannie’s mother, Louisa Hazle, also died suddenly in January 1953 while living with Nannie and Morton, adding another casualty to the growing list of suspicious deaths.
The Final Straw: Samuel Doss
Nannie’s fifth and final husband, Samuel Doss, was a conservative Nazarene minister who disapproved of her fascination with romance novels. The marriage, however, would be her undoing. In September 1954, Samuel was hospitalised with severe digestive issues and briefly recovered. Upon his release, however, he died suddenly, prompting his doctor to demand an autopsy. The findings were damning—enormous amounts of arsenic were found in his system, leading directly to Nannie’s arrest.
Arrest, Confession, and Legacy
Faced with the overwhelming evidence of arsenic poisoning, police questioned Nannie, who eventually confessed to killing four of her husbands, her mother, her sister, two of her children, two grandsons, and her mother-in-law. Although she was ultimately convicted only for the murder of Samuel Doss, her life sentence marked the end of her decades-long killing spree.
Throughout the trial, Nannie maintained an eerie cheerfulness, smiling and laughing—a behaviour that led to her infamous nickname, the “Giggling Granny.” She would die from leukaemia in the prison hospital ward in 1965, still a subject of both fear and fascination.
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