Illustrated in Cozy 1950s housekeeping magazine illustration style
Nannie's Recipe for Happiness
A Story About a Woman Who Tried Marriage Many Times
Nannie loved romance magazines. She read every one she could find. She believed in true love and happy endings and the perfect match. She got married four times looking for it. Or maybe five times. Possibly more. It's hard to keep track because the husbands kept not working out. Nannie kept trying, though. She was very optimistic.
Nannie Doss married at least four men, possibly more. She found husbands through lonely hearts columns and romance correspondence clubs.
Nannie's cooking was famous. She put so much love into every pot. Her special stewed prunes. Her homemade whiskey. Her carefully prepared roasting ears of corn. 'Eat up,' Nannie would say, beaming over the table. She always watched to make sure everyone finished every bite. 'There's arsenic in them,' she did not say. But there was.
Doss used arsenic as her primary method, concealing it in food and drink. She was suspected of killing up to 11 people.
It was not just husbands, as it turned out. There was a mother-in-law. There was a sister. There were two of her own children, suspected. There were nephews. There was a grandson. Nannie's social circle had a very high mortality rate. 'Oh, it was just bad luck,' Nannie would say, giggling. She did a lot of giggling. That was how she got her nickname.
The press dubbed her 'The Giggling Granny' after her cheerful demeanor during police questioning. She is suspected of killing at least 11 relatives over several decades.
Husband number four died of a mysteriously upset stomach. The doctor noticed something odd and sent samples to a lab. The lab noticed arsenic. The police came to talk to Nannie. She giggled through the whole interview. 'Now why would I do that?' she said. The lab report said why. The lab was not giggling.
Samuel Doss died in 1954. An autopsy revealed large amounts of arsenic. Nannie was arrested and eventually confessed to four murders.
Nannie told her story to the police and the newspapers with great cheerfulness. She said she was looking for the perfect man and hadn't found him yet. The newspapers loved her. The judge did not. She was sent to prison for life. She never got to read the ending of the romance she was writing. Sometimes the story doesn't go the way you plan.
Doss was sentenced to life in prison in 1955. She died in 1965. Her case highlighted how a friendly, grandmotherly persona could mask a pattern of methodical killing.