2. Nannie Doss
Known as “The Giggling Nanny”, Nannie Doss killed four out of five of her husbands. She also killed her mother, grandson, mother-in-law, and sister.
She was born in Oklahoma in 1905 and was one of five children. At age 7, she hit her head on a metal seat on a train ride and suffered from headaches and blackouts for years afterwards. She had a strict father who forbade his daughters from going to school dances or other social activities. She had a lonely childhood and immersed herself in romance novels and magazines, which probably led to her getting married at 16.
Nannie was married to rapists, alcoholics and womanizers. Her preferred weapon of choice was rat poison and arsenic, which she put in her husband’s prunes and coffee. After her husbands died, she was questioned but always played dumb. She was quickly released after being questioned for her third husband’s death. At the time, authorities started digging into her past.
Her fifth and final husband, Samuel Doss, survived a poison attack and spent a month in a hospital in Tulsa. Ater he was brought home, she put arsenic in his coffee and finished him off for good. Her husband’s doctor asked Nannie whether she would allow for an autopsy, and she agreed. He found traces of poison so high he immediately informed the police and was arrested.
When she finally confessed her crimes, she giggled like a schoolgirl during the interrogations and was known as “The Giggling Nanny” ever since. She said her murders were not for money, but for love like in the magazines she read. Although she confessed to murdering her previous husbands, she was only tried for the murder of Doss. She was sentenced to life in prison where she died of leukemia.
