S1 Ep4: Nannie Doss: The Murderous Giggling Granny

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

History, Documentary, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When widower Sam Doss was rushed to the hospital with abdominal pains in 1954, his doctor was flummoxed by his life-threatening yet mysterious illness. But Doss got better and came home -- then died the next day. That's what prompted police to look at his matronly, sweet-talking new wife, Nannie.

Born Nannie Hazle, it turned out this missus had left a trail of dead husbands behind her -- not to mention several relatives, all of whom died of sudden and inexplicable illnesses. By the time Nannie was done confessing, she'd earned nicknames like The Giggling Grandma and The Black Widow.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they earn the label crime of the
0:12.5	century. But the stories that made headlines in decades past aren't necessarily
0:18.6	remembered today. I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of
0:27.3	this show, I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
0:34.4	This is crimes of the centuries.
0:39.8	Today's story begins in 1953. This is the year Dwight Eisenhower became president. The USSR began
1:01.4	testing the hydrogen bomb and the United States developed a polio vaccine. It was also the year in
1:07.2	which a farmer and minister in Oklahoma named Samuel Doss died a mysterious and painful death.
1:14.6	Sam's doctor was flummoxed. Sam had been admitted originally around early September with searing
1:21.1	abdominal pain and other bizarre symptoms, but he'd fought back. His doctor wasn't sure what had
1:27.7	triggered the initial illness, but it seemed odd. Sam had always been healthy with an iron stomach.
1:33.6	The 50-year-old had survived incredible emotional hardship too, and he'd bounced back from it.
1:39.4	In fact, just a few months before he fell ill, he'd married for the second time in his life. It was
1:45.4	the beginning of what should have been a beautiful second act for a man who had endured unspeakable loss.
1:54.2	To understand that, we'll back up briefly. Sam was born in 1895 in Arkansas to parents George Doss
2:01.1	and Nancy Mervina Keane. He was one of seven children, two girls and five boys, and right around
2:07.4	the time he reached adulthood, Sam joined millions of other young men in the United States
2:12.8	by registering for the First World War draft. At that point, he listed his occupation as a farmer
2:19.7	laborer in Chaplin, Arkansas. Six years later, on January 31, 1928, he married Winnie Artis Smith,
2:28.4	a woman nine years his junior, and a small ceremony at her parents' house. The couple raised
2:33.9	six children, two girls named Annelie and Wilma Jean and four boys, Arnold George, James Monroe,
2:40.8	Willie Joe, and Ernest Leigh Roy. It was a pretty pleasant life considering that most of the marriage
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Amber Hunt and Audioboom, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Amber Hunt and Audioboom and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.