2. What was their childhood like?
› Nannie had a rough childhood growing up with
an abusive father.
Were there any precursors? Did childhood
behavior reflect problems?
› When Nannie was younger, she fell off a train,
and suffered severe head trauma, causing
Nannie to suffer from depression.
3. What was their adult life like?
› Nannie’s adulthood was full of work at a linen
factory.
Did they finish high school or college?
› Nannie dropped out of school in the 6th grade.
She was never allowed to have any social
relationships with boys or to dress pretty or do
her makeup. Instead, she fantasized of
another life while reading romance
magazines.
Did they marry? Have children?
› Yes, she married 5 times, and had 4 kids with
her first husband; the man who got away.
4. What motives did the killer have for the
killings?
› None of the men Nanny married lived up to the
expectations she had; therefore, she killed all her
husbands, and kept remarrying. Unfortunately,
none of them compared to the ones she read
about in her love stories.
And she told them about Richard Morton, Arlie
Lanning, Frank Harrelson, too. All men whom she had
at first admired, but they turned out to be duds. All she
had ever wanted was romance, a man to love her,
but instead she got what she described as "dullards".
Each and every one of them. "If their ghosts are in this
room they're either drunk or sleeping.”-a quote from
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders
/women/doss/16.html
5. What methods and rituals did they perform
in the killings?
› Nannie had a sorta, “quick, whatever I can
do at the moment” kinda method to her
killings.
› She killed some of her victims with arsenic
(rat poisoning, food poisoning etc.), and with
the weak victims like her grandson, she
strangled.
6. o What was the profile and characteristics of
their victims?
• Husbands, Family, anyone she loved or had
loved.
Two Children Sister Dovie
4 Husbands Grandson Robert
Her Mother Mother-In-Law
Nannie may have even potentially killed her 2nd grandchild, with
accusations of her sticking a headpin in the infants head.
7. What factors led to them getting caught?
› Nannie was caught when her last husband
Samuel Doss had died. After performing an
autopsy, the hospital concluded that arsenic was
in Samuel’s system. After putting two and two
together, all deaths were revolving around
Nannie, and all fingers were pointing at her.
Detectives went
back and discovered
Arsenic in all of the
Victims bodies, and
Asphyxia in some.
8. What were they charged
with and sentenced to?
› Nannie was sentenced to
life for the murder of her
husband Samuel Doss.
After being caught, Nannie
could not stop laughing at
herself for the crimes she had
committed, hence the
name, “The Giggling
Granny”.
9. Why are serial killers so difficult to spot?
› Serial killers are so difficult to spot because they
blend in, and play roles of authority. Nannie was
just a normal grandma, with a cute little giggle.
Nobody could ever believe she was capable of
murder.
"Looking at her and talking to her, detectives just
could not believe that Nannie could be a killer,"
Terry Manners relates in Deadlier Than the Male
10. It’s said the Romance
magazines and Prunes
are what kept Nannie
going on her killing
sprees.
11. List the characteristics that make up the four types
of serial killer crime scenes.
› Organized Crime Scenes- Completely planned to
avoid getting caught.
Body Hidden, Transports Body, Hidden Weapon
› Mixed Crime Scene- Mixture of Disorganized, and
Organized Crime Scenes
Staged, Two Offenders, Planned or Interrupted
› Atypical Crime Scene- Can’t be classified, may
have to look at previous crime scenes to piece
evidence together.
› Disorganized Crime Scenes- Spontaneous crime
occurred, frenzied assault,
Body at the Scene, Evidence and Weapon Left
12. What are the most surprising pieces of
information you learned from doing this
webquest?
› While doing this webquest, I prepared to
hear some gruesome information, but I guess
I didn’t quite prepare myself for the numbers.
I just don’t understand how someone could
kill so many innocent people. Like Nannie,
not only did she kill her own family, or
husbands, but even her own kids! Now with
her husbands, that’s another story, but I
guess Nannie really took the “til death do we
part” vowel a little too seriously.
