Chiropractor Brian Mann Convicted Poisoned Wife for $1 Million Insurance Scam

An Alabama jury has found 36-year-old Brian Mann—once a well-regarded chiropractor in Hartselle—guilty of attempted murder for secretly dosing his estranged wife’s “multivitamins” with lead and then taking out a stack of life-insurance policies on her worth more than $1 million. The verdict was read Thursday after roughly three hours of deliberations spread over two days. Mann now faces sentencing on August 27.

Hannah Pettey, now 25, told jurors her nightmare began in August 2021 with crippling back and abdominal pain, dizzy spells, and relentless nausea. Over the next few months she shed 40 pounds, eventually hallucinating as her condition spiraled. Mann, she testified, insisted she stay home and keep taking the “immune boosters” he supplied from his clinic—capsules prosecutors say he spiked with lead salvaged from a construction project.

While Pettey languished, Mann was busy buying “a lot of insurance policies,” each carrying six-figure payouts if she died. At least one agent testified the flurry of applications was so unusual it triggered an internal review. Mann even asked to raise existing coverage limits while she lay hospitalized.

Pettey told jurors Mann appeared “the nicest he’d ever been” during her illness—bringing water, pills, and, crucially, ankle weights. She said he insisted she strap them on before doctor visits so the scale wouldn’t reveal her drastic weight loss and jeopardize the new policies that required her to be in “good health.”

When Pettey’s mother finally rushed her to the hospital, specialists found her lead level hovering around 80 micrograms per deciliter—eight times the threshold considered dangerous. Physicians testified that any movement risked shifting pressure inside her skull; at one point, surgeons irrigated her colon to flush out residual metal. Despite aggressive treatment, Pettey still carries lead in her bones, suffers chronic hand pain, and has been told the poisoning likely left her infertile.

As detectives closed in, Mann tried to cast himself—and even the couple’s young children—as fellow victims, telling a nurse practitioner he’d spotted “lead fragments” in a self-administered X-ray. A hospital scan did show a suspicious mass in his stomach—but doctors said it appeared freshly swallowed, bolstering prosecutors’ claims he ingested lead to stage a false parallel poisoning

Pettey described years of manipulation: Mann deleted her social-media accounts, discouraged her from working, and limited contact with her family. Once the investigation began, relatives barred Mann from visiting her in the hospital—an action that initially left her “distraught” until the evidence of foul play became clear.

Jurors convicted Mann of attempted murder, rejecting his defense that testing procedures were flawed and that he, too, had been poisoned. He remains in custody awaiting the August 27 sentencing hearing, where he could face decades in prison for a scheme prosecutors say was as methodical as it was merciless.

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? 

Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod

Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872