Rotten Mango - #52: Giggling Granny Serial Killer (Nannie Doss)

Episode Date: April 4, 2021

Who would ever suspect a sweet little grandma with the best-baked goods in town of having a sinister past? She was a doting grandmother, wife, daughter, and a “domestic goddess.” But once in a while, she would add a special ingredient to her baked goods resulting in the death of her loved ones. After 11 funerals - nobody suspected the grieving grandma.  Do you trust your grandma? Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. But I've been better boom.

But I've been better boom with the mini-sode. This week's mini-sode is talking about old people. And I've got my opinions, I've got my thoughts on old people, and I know I know I'm gonna be old one day. If I'm lucky, I'm gonna get old. And I'm gonna be an old grandma. Oh people are young people. Old people. I've got my thoughts on old people. I think old people a lot of them used to be thoughts. I don't know. No I'm asking you like do you like old people more or young people more? Do you want me to offend half of my audience at a time? Jazzy or Malenio? Okay I will say this If I am walking past a 60-year-old grandma, my mom's 60-year-old grandma now, maybe that's why I chose those words.

Okay, if I walk past her versus a 15-year-old teenager, I would be terrified of the teenager. I don't know. Anytime you know this, every time we go to trade a dress and target, and I see teenagers in the parking lot, I'm like, I need no idea to get back into the car. They're gonna judge me.

Yeah, I don't blame them. So we're talking about old people. Do you think that old people are all nice? Because I think that there is this misconception of, you know, if you're old, you look so frail, you look like an elderly person, you look like a grandma, such a nice little grandma, just cooking all these sweets, these cookies and brownies. But what if what if you're a cold-hearted killer? And what if you're serialness? little grandma just cooking all these sweets these cookies and brownies but

what if what if you're a cold-hearted killer and what if you're serial in the serial killer name is the giggling granny whoo it reminds me of that wasn't there a Korean grandma yes what's her name what was it like she's calling like some I don't know yeah she would poison all imperfect oh yeah so today we're talking about nanny does most of the she's calling like some I don't know. Yeah, she would poison all of her victims. Right. Oh yeah. So today we're talking about Nanny Doss. Most of the source for this podcast is brought to you by Black Widow,

the true story of the Giggling Granny, Nanny Doss. It's a book by Ryan Green. It's a really good one. I had a really great time reading it. So let's just jump right in today's story. It takes place in Blue Mountain, Alabama. And there's this tiny little farm in Blue Mountain called the Hazel Farm, and it's owned by the Hazel family, more in particular James Hazel.

He inherited it from his parents, and when I tell you it's not really a good plot of land, like it's not. So for a farm, it actually has a lot more mud than it does grass and soil, and actually harvestable while I know nothing about farming. Like actual soil that you can harvest. On top of that, his parents had a ton of loans on the place, so when he inherited it, not only did he inherit unplodible land, but just tons of debt. The land was in desperate need of constant maintenance, and he just didn't have any

laborers, like nobody works for free, and he couldn't even afford to keep the land, so how can he afford these laborers. And James Hazel, he's a very interesting person. He's the type where if you walked by his farm and you said, hey James, it looks like you're having a rough time. Me, being a good citizen, can I help you out? For free, I'm not going to charge you. He would say, no, I don't need your dirty charity, get out of my land.

Like just a very, very strong, what do you call it? Like prideful person. Now, it got so bad that on his farm, the bank wouldn't even give him anymore loans because he wasn't even making money. He had a couple of dairy cattle that he was milking, but other than that, I mean, he was in a real shit hole. On top of this, he was at the age that he needed to get married.

He's got to run this farm. He's got to find a wife. He's got to make some kids, which by the a wife, he's gotta, you know, make some kids, which by the way, back in the day, kids equals free labor, so he's like, this is all gonna work out. But no woman wanted to marry him. I mean, he was a rough guy, he didn't really do nice things for girls.

And on top of that, marrying him is pretty much marrying yourself into a lifelong debt situation. That's just how it was back in the day. You don't marry for love. You marry for putting food on the table. Where was this? 1905. Don't click out. I know some people don't like these older cases, but I'm telling you this one is a must here because it's absolutely insane. So Lou lives in Blue Mountain Alabama as well and she lives like on the other side and she comes from an incredibly poor family too.

So she had just gotten pregnant, she was super young, she's not married yet, gets pregnant. Her whole family, I mean this is 1905, they're like oh hell no you didn't, you did not just get pregnant out of wedlock. So her dad decides that he's gonna do the only respectable thing, which is to try to beat the baby out of her. To beat her up until she miscarries, and the only reason he didn't do that is because Lou's mom, his wife, kept physically putting her body in between him, his fist, and his daughter.

So Lou was going through a rough time, right? And the whole thing that they wanted to know, the dad just kept saying, tell me who the father of this child is, because I'm going to go beat the shit out of that guy and I'm going to make him marry you. So back in the day, if you got pregnant with someone, it doesn't matter if you don't love this person. It doesn't matter if you're like, hey, maybe we should co-parent. Your parents would almost 100% arrange a shotgun wedding. You know, they would just make you marry this person because it is more respectable for

the family for you to get married to this person that you hate than for you to be pregnant out of wedlock. Now for whatever reason, even though she gets kicked out of the house, even though she has no job, she's now completely homeless, she does not tell them who the father is. There's a couple of reasons why maybe she didn't do this. It's one, she genuinely doesn't know who the father is. Two, she was raped and this is the product of a rape situation and she doesn't want to marry her rapist and three maybe she loved that guy and wanted to protect him from you know the wrath of her family maybe that was the situation but for whatever reason Nancy was born in November of 1905 and Nancy is the main protagonist of today's podcast

that is Nanny Doss. Nancy she goes by Nanny the rest of her life. She's like giggling granny the giggling nanny I see so nanny her name is nanny. Yeah, but nanny also stands for grandma, right? No granny. Oh, that's granny. Yeah, oh net. Oh, nanny stands for like a babysitter. Right right right, but she's not a babysitter Oh, no, she's a granny later. Okay. I mean, she kills most of her life. Nanny the granny. Nanny the granny.

Okay. Nanny at the Grammys. I don't know if it's boy. It's. So Lou is considered in the eyes of Blue Mountain Aloebaima, a ruined woman. Don't go near her. The men, they don't want anything to do with her.

A single mom, Yuck, Il, this is 1905. The women, they were like, oh no, we can't be around her. The men, they don't want anything to do with her. A single mom, Yuck, ill, this is 1905. The women, they were like, oh no, we can't be around her. Otherwise, we're gonna catch her bad luck. We're gonna get pregnant and we're single. This is not okay. But almost a week after giving birth to Nancy, she looks at the whole community and she laughs in their face because she said, I just got a marriage proposal. So you can shove that up your arch. So a local farmer by the name of James Hazel that we just talked about had proposed to to Lou and was like, can you marry me? And she accepted they know each other barely, barely at a week after having her baby, she and this newborn baby moved on

to the Hazel farm. Now, the rest of the community in Blue Mountain, they just kind of assumed that this is the dad of the baby. They thought maybe he just wasn't man enough to propose. Maybe he was scared of commitment. And then finally, once he saw that little baby in his arms, he said, I'm gonna be a gentleman. And I'm gonna propose to Lou, because that's the right thing to do.

So to the outside world, everyone assumed that they were all biologically related now. They thought that that was... Yeah, so from the eyes of the rest of the world, they thought that James was the biological father of Nancy. And that timing was pretty much the only unfortunate thing about their family. But from inside the house, they knew for a fact that Nancy was not the daughter of James. And James made this clear throughout the rest of her life. So it's like talked about they didn't even try to hide it from Nancy. So James and Luz marriage almost right off the bat it was shitty.

So the reason, okay, so the reason why James proposed is because nobody wants her basically. Yeah, nobody wants her, nobody wants him. So he married her for the option of no other woman wanted to marry him. He was going to lead her down the road to poverty. He knew that and nothing else, but now he's going to put Lue to work almost immediately. She moved into that farm one week after giving birth. She's got this baby she's trying to take care of and he straight up is like, hey, we got to go out into the field right now.

From like dawn to sunset, they were out just working those fields. Now Lue, on the opposite side of the spectrum, nobody really wanted to marry her because she had a child out of wedlock. She was considered ruined in this time period. So their marriage was shitty. They both knew that they weren't married for love. They were married for convenience. And James was constantly stressed out about the farm and he would take it out on Lou and Nanny. So he made Lou work non-stop. If she didn't do it fast enough,

if she didn't do it the way he liked it, he would scream at her, and then later eventually, he would grab this cane, and he would beat her with it. And they would just work all day. I mean, they would go out before the sun comes up, they would clear the fields of debris, they would plant crops, milk the cows, by nighttime, they would still have half of their list

that they still had to finish, and they were just swamped. By the way this is them not even breaking even. This is them working this hard to just not go under. I mean it was an incredibly stressful situation. Now meanwhile little nanny this infant she is pretty much alone most of her life. Otherwise you know her parents aren't taking care of her. She spent it completely ignored. She was just kind of another task. That's how everyone saw her. Even her mom saw her as another thing to take care of in a very busy, tiring, exhausted day.

There's no grandparents, nothing? No. Wow. Because they just all kind of like, this is also in the 1900s where you just kind of like a, you're like, bye. I got married now. You're no longer your quote unquote dad's problem, you're now the husband's problem. Yeah, that's how they saw women, that's gnarly. So by the time that Nanny is old enough to walk,

she's set to work. Yeah, she had to start working on the farm. If she didn't do a good job or did it too slowly, this little toddler should we get yelled at or hit with the cane. James genuinely looked at his family as if they were just labor sources And so that led him to want to have more children He said Lou we've got to make more babies so that eventually we just have like this team of farmers We are farmers

That's where they came from exactly it came from James. Hey, so don't sue me So he's like, yeah, we need more free labor. Let's have more babies. So almost immediately, Lou got pregnant four more times and had four more kids, and they were timed carefully so that Lou's pregnancies were not interfering with the harvest times. So she wouldn't be heavily pregnant

during these busy times. So she has one son and three daughters, and now Nanny becomes a literal nanny. So she's the eldest and she's forced to take care of them. That's her job. She has to prep their meals, change their diapers, pretty much do everything when she's like six years old. Just like everything. She was like their mom because Lou is out there working the fields and even with all of this, like I said, the farm barely broke even. Now sometimes Nanny would be allowed to go to school only during the

slow months in the winter times, but here's the catch. The school is two miles away and James Hazel did not want to waste gas on sending Nanny to school. So she would have to walk in the rain in the snow to get to school. Now, when she gets to school, is she gonna have a good time? No. She's gonna get bullied because she was incredibly poor. Her clothes showed that. The way that she acted, the way that she carried herself initially when she was young Showed that she came from extreme poverty now nanny was also always behind on school So she feels stupid and to her being a kid. She's like, what's the point?

I'm gonna try so hard to catch up and then spring time is harvest time I'm not gonna be in school anymore and the next winter and behind again What is the point of this so So she never went past elementary school in formal education. But Nanny Doss actually grew up to be an incredibly well-spoken, eloquent, charismatic woman because she loved to read. That was her favorite thing.

She would always read. And her favorite were romance stories. I know, I know, romance stories. So Lou, her mom, she would hide spare change whenever she could to help buy these romance novels for Nanny to read. She just kind of helped her get through the days and escape from reality. And she would take this these books everywhere with her. So one day, when she's seven years old, she's on a train.

She's gonna go visit an uncle in Southern Alabama. This is James Uncle, James Friend. She's all seven. By herself? No, with the rest of the family, right? So they're all sitting on this train, the railroad train, and she's reading her romance novels. And then suddenly, everything goes dark.

And she wakes up on her uncle's couch, and she has no idea how she got there. And she's in so much pain. She sees her mom bring an ice pack to her head. And she's like, wow, I'm still in so much pain. What happened, mom? Like, I was on a train, and then suddenly, I'm on the couch like wow I'm still in so much pain what happened mom like I was on a train and then suddenly I'm on the couch and I'm in pain and she was unconscious for the whole day the whole day so finally when she comes

to it they tell her that a storm had struck while the railroad was traveling through Alabama a pine tree fell onto the railroad track so the driver of the railroad he slammed on the brakes nanny was seated in front of a metal bar and her head went bunk onto the metal bar and she stayed unconscious for the rest of the trip. Is that true? Yeah. And she had permanent damage to her brain. So for the rest of her life, she's going to have intense migraines, severely depressed at times, she had uncontrollable rage.

They never took her to a hospital even for the next year because I mean it was really rare to not see Nanny crying. That's what everyone said. For years she would have severe headaches blackouts, she would get depressed as like an eight year old and James did not allow her to go to the hospital because they didn't have money for it. Wow. Okay. So that was just I mean people, everyone in her family said that there was a noticeable change in her personality and just the way that Nanny handled herself after this. It was almost like after this, she just became a completely different person. A lot of people say that James has something to do with it. They said, and I quote, if she had been an animal, he would have put her

down. He did not care. He just didn't care if she was in pain all the time. It was just, hey, are you making me money? Are you working on the farm or not? Now, the other kids, they start getting older and they are forced to work too, but there's kind of a huge difference that starts happening. This is when Nanny around the time that she had this head injury, she starts noticing that James, this father figure, the only man in her life is treating her so differently from her siblings. So with her siblings, he had expectations. He said, you work, you do this.

But oh man, if you come to me crying saying, listen, Dad, I can't do it anymore. He's going to say, all right, go to your room. But with Nanny, she would get beat. Why can't you do that? You need to do more. You're lazy. You need to do this and this and that. So there was definitely a distinction and how you treat it. She knows that that's not her dad.

And so it's probably worse for her. And for whatever reason, because of this dynamic that was happening, Nanny became public enemy number one for James. He just hated her. I don't know what it is about her. So Nanny starts taking it out on her sibling. She's like, listen, I'm gonna get beat. You're gonna get beat because it's not fair. So Nanny starts beating on her own siblings in retaliation and she gets super mad at them and you would think you would think that James is gonna beat her, right? And James would pull her aside, get his cane and be like, Nanny, if you beat your siblings, I'm gonna beat you. And she was just straight up say, well then do it then. then like I'm already in so much pain what's a little more like fucking beat me then she was I mean she was balls to the walls wow

that is something and I think it has to do with the fact that she always felt like she was betrayed by James I mean she thought that there was never gonna be a difference she grew up with this man she calls him dad everyone thinks that they're a family. What if this doesn't make any sense to her? So after all of this takes place, her only escape in life are those same books. It becomes much more intense though. I mean, this love and romance concept and nanny's brain becomes her main obsession in life. She reads about romance that was the opposite of her parents. And that's the type of love that she wanted. She wanted to have this opposite life. She wants a man to come sweep her off her feet,

no more routine of misery, no more hatred, just pure, pure love. That's what she wanted. And she hated the farm life. She said this isn't romantic. Sometimes she would get a farm romance book, but it's a different type of farm. Why are they writing on horses with their hair just like waving in the wind, but I'm cleaning up debris and milk in a cow? What's going on? This is not the same type of farm, so she just wanted to be treated like a lady and taken away from this impoverished life, and so she wants to live out these dreams. She's not trying to run away. She just wants to get married. She just wants to feel like a girl.

That's like her whole thing. And James absolutely refuses. You would think if she's working so hard, maybe he would just give a little. Nope. He said, you're not allowed to wear anything. That is attractive, because you're gonna get molested. So no pretty close, no makeup.

Even if you try, I will beat you. So one time he catches Nanny, trying to like fix her hair in the mirror, just trying to make a cute little hairstyle and he grabs his cane and beats her for it. And if, because now you're talking about four daughters who are growing up, it wasn't just Nanny who wanted to look cute. The rest of his, you know, daughters wanted to look cute too. And any time they said, but dad, he would say, well, look at your mom. Look at your mom. You'll end up like her. You'll end up having a kid out of wedlock. Look at nanny. Look at your

mom. And that's what's going to happen if you dress like that. Like in front of the whole family. Yeah. So the only socializing the kids had because eventually they all stopped going to school because it wasn't worth it. They stayed and worked on the farm all day. The only socializing was when James took them to his family events on his side. And his family was massive. They said that if James' family was having a party, you could go and nobody would know that you're not part of the family. Like, that's just a huge family. They just be like, oh, who are you related to? Cousins, cousin cousins? I like your spirit.

Not that nice, right? Yeah. Because you don't really get to know your brother. And it's not like an intimate feeling, right? And so one day in one of these gatherings, James catches his cousin molesting one of his birth daughters. He catches someone? Yeah, molesting his birth daughter.

And he gets so mad that he beats the shit out of them until they were purple and blue and they could barely walk anymore And everyone in the family decided oh, okay, so James's birth daughters. They're off limits. You can't molest them Which like I don't even know out there. There's so much time pack with that one sentence But we don't have time for it right now because this is a long one. Wait, this isn't from Alabama. Yeah, okay You said Okay, so I'm from Georgia. Can I make those jokes?

I'm just one state away. Well, I was one state away. And so they tried it with Nanny. James's cousin tried to molest Nanny. And this is like Nanny's uncle, then, right? Tried to lift up her skirt when she was only 12 years old, and Nanny got punished. Instead of James giving the same reaction

which he did to his birth daughters and beating up his family members, he just said Nanny got punished. Instead of James giving the same reaction which he did to his birth daughters and beating up his family members, he just said, Nanny, why are you wearing a skirt? Whoa. In front of everyone. So then now the whole purfs of this family thought, all right, you can't touch James's birth daughters. But Nanny, she's fine to touch because he's not gonna get mad at you, he's not gonna beat you up. James didn't really care. So then another uncle comes around and unbutton's nanny is dressed in front of people and she was sent to her room. What do you mean she was sent to her room?

James said go to your room like you're acting up. If you weren't wearing that, if you weren't flirting with your uncle, he wouldn't have unbuttoned your dress. Where is the logic in this? Crazy. So James would go as far to sit nanny down in front of their extended family and tell nanny that you're setting a bad example for your younger siblings. Like look at this.

Don't be a Lucy Goosey. You're kind of just like your mother. The apple doesn't fall farther from the tree does it. He would say these types of things. Imagine you get molested and the adults are telling you the ones that are supposed to protect you are telling you hey it's kind of your fault. What? So then this is where she has this absolute haytrid for James. I'm talking a fire burning haytrid which at this point I can't blame her because she's a minor.

So she starts reading more and more into these like lonely hearts, these magazines. So inside of the newspapers, there's columns called the Lonely Hearts column, or the Miss Connections column, and there's sections where people would say, hey, I saw this woman on the train, beautiful, call me, or the lonely hearts that'd be like, hey, I'm lonely, I'm looking for this type of partner. Almost like a tinder, but like back in the day, the a newspaper. And so she's looking at these like a getaway. I need to start my own life, I need to start my own romance, I need to leave the own life. I need to start my own romance. I need to leave the farm and I need a man to do all of this because in the 1900s,

he can't do this as a female. So she writes to a few of these men. But whenever they answered James intercepted and just like got rid of the letters. So now that Nanny, she turns 15 years old, she's done. She's like, I'm ready to move on. If he's not going to let me do it, I got to get out of the house. But now at this point, James never let her out of the house Not because he was worried that she'd get molested, but because she was finally strong enough She was finally strong enough to do some adult work to do some heavy lifting on the farm And he needed a return on the investment of feeding her for the past 15 years So she starts thinking about how do I how do I bargain with this man?

Because I can't sit here and say, but dad, I wanna go meet a friend. And so she starts thinking, okay, logically, logically, what can I do? Perfect. She finds a job. And she tells James, I get it. If I get a job, I won't be on the farm.

You'll lose labor on the farm. Yes, that's absolutely. But, but I will make a tiny bit more. At an entry level factory job, I won't be on the farm. You'll lose labor on the farm. Yes, that's absolutely. But, but I will make a tiny bit more at an entry level factory job than what I could bring to this farm by doing labor. And so my income would also be regular and consistent and also separate from the farm. What do you think about that, James? And so he was like, okay, fine. But she would have to turn in all of the paychecks to him. So she was like, this is amazing.

She starts working at the local linen thread mill. And finally, she's away from the family. She's socializing with girls that were also in her social standing. So no longer was she bullied because all of these other girls came from really, really, not well families. So they're all working at this factory.

And she just became like a social butterfly. She was so popular at work. And one of the main reasons was because she wasn't sick of the work. She was just so happy to be out that she never complained if one of the girls had broken something, she would help them fix it. She was just like, let me help you because she just was so obsessed with outside interaction that she did not care, she'd never complained. She was willing to do anything just to get off of that farm. People freaking loved her, including all of the guys. Now, I know people say this about Ted Bundy, but this is what people said about Nanny Dawes, that she was incredibly beautiful when she was young. Just stunning,

is how people describe her. I found one picture of her when she was really, really young and she just looked very pretty. It's hard to compliment a serial killer. I'm like, she looks pretty, sorry. So, um, yeah, all these guys, they start hitting on her, but they really only wanted her for sex and dating, never for marriage, not because this is the 1900s, but because, at this time period, girls would have been expected to bring a dowry or some sort of property, they would bring something to the table when they get married. And everyone knew that the hazel family and the hazel farm was just way too small and too broke. So marrying a pretty young bride like Nanny, I mean, you just don't really do any of those

things unless you're wealthy. So she spent a ton of her time flirting with these factory boys. She also started smoking to have an excuse to hang out with them outside. And that's where she meets her first husband, Charlie Braggs. And he was so taken by her, the minute that he laid eyes on Nanny,

he said, oh my God, I gotta marry you. Like straight up, can I, can we just get married? He was 17 years old, he was considered very tall and handsome. And Nanny told him straight up, like I'm not looking for sex. So you can just fork out of here, if that's what you want. I'm looking for marriage.

And so he was like, no, that's what I'm looking for. I want to marry you, Nanny. And so she takes him to meet her parents, just to see if this Charlie dude is serious about marriage. And wow, her parents loved him. So he was immediately so charming. I mean, he's good looking. so Louis, like this is perfect. And James, who doesn't love anyone, loves him.

So James is okay with her getting married? Yeah. Why is that? Because now someone else has to feed her. Okay. Yeah. It's like a weird thing. Love the logic.

Yeah. And so James loved him because he didn't hang out at bars. He didn't hang out at cafes and listen to jazz music. Like all the other boys, he would spend his paycheck on taking care of his family home and his sick mom. So James was like, that's work ethic. Wow. And he immediately arranges for them to get married.

Four months into meeting. They get married. Nanny goes to this little wedding ceremony. She packs up a small bag of her clothes and moves in with him. And she is beyond disappointed. Because this is not what she wanted. She wanted with those books offered. She wanted romance. She wanted the whole dating part where people bring her flowers, where she goes on dates, where she gets lavished and fancy meals and nothing! There was nothing romantic at all.

They kept working during the four months, so they barely spent time with each other. I mean, anytime that they did spend time, her parents were there. Like, what is this? So in her diary entries, she talked about how she felt forced into this marriage. Where is the romance? James yet again has ruined another thing in her life. James freaking sucks. She says that the entire process felt like another transaction

to her father. The way that James would sell or buy a freaking cow. This is it. This is how he did it. And Nanny, she was like, all right, I'm still gonna be the perfect wife. Maybe this whole initial dating process wasn't the best, but we can still keep the romance alive once we get married.

So she promised she's gonna cook all the best meals. She was really good at cooking, really, really good baking. Wow, she was amazing at baking. She was gonna start when she was really young. Yeah, exactly. And she was like, I'm gonna bake him the best stuff. I'm gonna get pregnant, raise the kids, clean the house, keep it spotless. and nanny's houses were always spotless. I mean, she was a domestic goddess, is what people said. And with nanny's support and love, you know, Charlie would become a better man. He's well fed, well taken care of in the house. So of course, professionally, he's gonna climb up the ladder, because he's so content at home.

You know, behind every great man is a serial killer. That's what it is. So she's like, and then eventually we'll have money, we'll have time for romance. And she was kind of excited. And on top of that, Charlie seemed kind of easy to manipulate. So she thought, maybe that's good.

Maybe that's a good thing in her husband. So the night after their wedding, she had another setback. So during the whole wedding, she hated it. Shotgun wedding vibes. And she was like, that's fine. Those didn't happen. It was just her thinking. Yeah, she's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be the best wife ever. I'm gonna be the best wife ever, right? And that night, another setback. This was her first time having sex. And she had read all about it. I mean, these romance novels, they don't really talk about sex, but sex is the undertone to everything.

It's just like this vibration in the world and she was ready to experience those vibes, but she didn't experience it. In reality, this is her first time and it was incredibly unpleasant and painful for Nanny. But if you ask Charlie, he had a splendid night. So very different experiences, very little to no communication happening there. And so she comes down from her wedding night, the next morning, she's like, all right, that was painful, that was really, really unpleasant, but we're gonna work on it. You know, I'm gonna be the best wife ever.

I'm gonna start cooking breakfast, and she comes down, and they're sitting on the table as her mother-in-law. And she's like, what the heck? Why is she here? And the mother-in-law. And she's like, what the heck? Why is she here? And the mother-in-law straight up says, Charlie will be needing his breakfast before work and just leaves.

She's like, what? First of all, this is supposed to be a sick lady. I mean, she's met her a couple times, but now suddenly she doesn't seem so sick anymore, barking orders at me like Charlie will need her breakfast or his breakfast before work. I mean, what's going on here? So she's surprised.

She's like, was she here all night? Did she hear anything? And when she's thinking all these things, she makes a breakfast. Charlie comes downstairs and he goes straight to his mom. Kisses are on the cheek and says, good morning instead of on his new wife, that he just banged for the first time. So mama's boy. Mama's boy.

And so she's like, what the fork? Okay, that's fine. And right as he's leaving for work, she gives him a kiss goodbye and says, so when's your mom going home? And he says, what do you mean? She's home silly. She lives with us. He never freaking told her. So the rest of her day and the rest of her life with Charlie, she would just be doing chores all day while her mother-in-law sits and watches her do those chores And she wanted her to do it all the right way now side note nanny does do everything the right way like she does everything

Detail oriented she's incredibly like a perfectionist all of that But the mother-in-law wanted to do it her way, you know every everyone has a different way of running their house And she was like well that's just not how I do it. And she didn't beat her like James did, but she nicked everything. So, Charlie comes home and she's like, listen, Charlie, I love your mom, love you. But I mean, don't you think that this is a little bit too much?

I have a hard time cooking, she makes me nervous. And then his eyes, his mom could do no wrong. And for you to even imply that my mom is doing something wrong, I mean, you're really sick and twisted, Nanny. Like, don't do that. So she's like, what? This is when she realizes that Charlie's mom had manipulated her son so much that she ended down to like the art.

They literally couldn't even date. They couldn't spend quality time together. Nanny would be like, hey, Charlie, there's a new romance movie, do you want to go see it in the theater? And the mother-in-law would suddenly be like, oh Charlie, sweetie my stomach hurts. And so they would have to stay home and take care of the mother-in-law. Hey, Nanny would be like, hey Charlie, do you want to take me out for dinner? Just us two to bond. And suddenly the mother-in-law would have a dizzy spell.

And they would have to stay at home and take care of her and the one thing that her mom-in-law loved to do was force these two to play Ma Zhong all day. They're white by the way but like I guess I don't know. I don't know if Ma Zhong was popping in the 1900s. Yeah they would just sit there and play Ma Zhong. I don't know how it works with three people but that is what Nanny said. They always played Ma Zhong all day. And she wanted to go out. Nanny wanted to be a social butterfly with her husband. Her whole life was isolated.

She was miserable. But this was her chance to be free. And now she was just doing the same thing again. Just under a different dictator. And so she does what she normally does during these times is to escape into these romance novels. But her mom-in-law said, that is infidelity. You were cheating on Charlie if you read a romance novel. So they started having these passive fights about it,

OK? Nanny would bring in on romance novels, she'd be reading it, and then she would hide it. But then suddenly when she goes to her hiding spot, it's gone. So she's like, with the fork. So this kept going on for a couple of months, and then one day, during dinner, the mother-in-law looks at her son and says, you know, Charlie, here's the best thing about your wife. She's not in to all that garbage, trash, infidelity stuff like these romance novels that all these other girls are reading.

You got lucky. And Charlie was like, you know what? I did got lucky. And Charlie was like, you know what? I did get lucky. So kind of put her in this corner of like, regardless, she can never have a romance novel if either of them finds it. So Nanny's new addiction became smoking cigarettes, which was widely accepted at the time.

Romance novels, no, cigarettes, yes. So there was no way that the mother-in-law could tell her to stop smoking without Charlie thinking that she's being unreasonable. It was really popular back in the day to smoke. So Nanny would go out of the house to smoke, and she would smoke upwards of 40 cigarettes a day at the time, and she would get so depressed, Charlie started going out more and more, sometimes he would be gone for days at a time, and she knew that he was having a bender, he was having

an affair, and she would be stuck with the worst mother-in-law, and she just wanted to lay in bed and die, but she couldn't, because then her mother-in-law would have confirmation that Nanny is a lazy bitch. So for the first three years, Nanny did everything right. She gave Charlie all the sex that he wanted, she cooked, and she cleaned, she was a domestic goddess, and then finally, when he didn't want it as much, she got pregnant. And she did this strategically because now he can't leave. And so within the first, like, however many years, they had four daughters one year in

between each. So they had the eldest being Melvina and the youngest being Florene and then two girls in between. Now Nanny hated Charlie at this point. She's like, he's an idiot. He doesn't understand anything. He's like a shitty dad. I'm a better mom with the heck.

His mom is evil, but at least the upside is the mother-in-law is no longer a threat because she has children. She's the mother of his children. What is she gonna do? And because Nanny got so confident and said, they can't leave me. No one can abandon me anymore.

She would leave her four daughters with the mother-in-law, with her own mom, Lou, and she would start going through the bars in a local town. She loved it, and she made quite a scandal. She would roam some of the bars topless after hours. She was being fondled by random men and public. She would go into the back rooms with men in these bars. And Charlie and his mom, they never had solid proof. But even if they did, it was kind of moot point because Charlie was having multiple different affairs with women at the factory.

So he can't really say anything either. They're just both doing their own thing, having affairs. Now Nanny was smart about it though because she kept great detail about all of Charlie's affairs. And she said, if he ever tries to leave me, if he ever tries to leave me dry and high, I am gonna release all of this. And the public opinion will not be in his favor. Now, already it wasn't in his favor

because his affairs were really obvious to everyone in town. So Nanny has always been really good at faking it. She's always smiling, she's charismatic. She seems like she's got the perfect housewife, right? But Charlie, he would tell anyone who would listen about how unhappy his marriage was, how miserable he is, and he primarily did it to gain the sympathy of women who wanted, you know, to be nice, and he wanted to have sex with them, and he would lay his head on their

shoulders, and then grab a booby. But the one thing, and everyone felt so bad for Nanny, because the one thing everyone said about Nanny was that she had overwhelming love for her daughters. That was apparent to everyone. Her mother and mom Charlie's mom would even say the one good quality about nanny is that she's an amazing mom but in reality she was faking it. Even in front of her daughters she would smile she would take wonderful care of her daughters but it was hard for nanny to have a connection with any of them. It was just hard. She didn't feel connected to them, she actually felt like they were weighing her down. But she never

abused them, even to their face, she was very nice to them. She just kept thinking about how good of a mom she would be, if she only had one child. If she only had one child, she could take care of that child, and she could also take care of herself. She could put on makeup, she could do her hair, and everyone would benefit. She'd be a beautiful mom with a beautiful, healthy child. But if she has four children, her children are neglected, they're miserable, she's miserable, nobody's happier, healthy. And so for her, the choice is simple. But it isn't that simple, because she already has four kids.

So one day, Charlie goes on on a three day affair bender. He's going out drinking with these women. He's gone for three days. This is very usual. He does it all the time. Nanny jots it down on her diary, but she never acts like anything's wrong. But this time, it's a little bit different because he gets home and the whole town's at his house.

Like, all of the town is inside of his house and he's like, what the heck's going on? I'm hung over. I smell like cheap perfume. What the and everyone immediately when they see him they're just hugging him and they're saying oh my god are you okay I'm so sorry my condolences and he's like what and he looks around everyone's wearing black so he's like oh my god my mom's dead and then he runs into the kitchen and he sees his mom fully alive and she's holding on to nanny n Nanny, she's sitting next to the eldest daughter petting her hair and she's got the oldest or youngest daughter

in her arms. The two middle girls are missing and he's looking at them looking around and he doesn't see his other two daughters anywhere and he says, where are the girls? And everyone in the town was shocked, because they're like, what? How do you not know? What are you talking about? Nanny starts crying in front of everyone and all of the women just flocked to her to comfort her. Like, oh, god, your husband's an asshole.

And James, the dad, drags Charlie away and tells him what happened. So Melvina, the oldest daughter, she's never hungry in the morning, so she just eats a piece of toast. Florene, the youngest daughter, she's still breastfeeds. So the two middle children, they ate their porridge like they do every single morning, and by lunchtime neither of them could even walk.

The doctor was rushed to the house, and it was a really, really bad case of food poisoning. The grains that were used to make the porridge, they were bad. I mean, they threw them out, but there was nothing that could have been prevented. Even Charlie's mom told everyone There's nothing nanny could have done. She's the best mom ever and for the first time ever she was disgusted by her son Wow, so back then grains could be tainted and there's really nothing you could do I mean you're just like the 1900s. You just plot that so you were telling me she plot Some crazy insane murder on her daughter rat poison

Rat poison. Yes, and everyone believed her. Yes. So Charlie was Immediately hated by the whole town and his mom and nanny. She was receiving sympathy Your husband cheating on you. You're alone taking care of these kids two of them die You have no love in your life. Like, give me a hug, nanny. I'ma make you a fucking casserole. Like people were just showering her. So every time Charlie left the house, because he hated being home now. His mom and nanny were always just looking at him, just disappointed with shameful eyes. And every time he went into town, everyone just tell him, you're so lucky to have a wife like Nanny!

And he was just confused. He would keep complaining about stuff that happened in the house and his mom for the first time ever in his entire life would snap at him and say, don't you dare say a word against your wife, you'll never understand how a woman loves her babies. And so suddenly mother-in-law is straight up in Nanny's corner just yes, beets. So the funeral and the autopsy, the doctors didn't do an autopsy, they knew it was a case of food poisoning, they told Nanny to throw away the grains, because the grains were the only thing tainted.

So back in the day, either the food is tainted, or you don't cook it well enough, or you've got germs in your house, but everyone knew that Nanny's house was spotless, and Nanny's cooking was the envy of all the husbands in the town. So it had to have been the grains and nothing else Everyone trusted nanny so much that at the funeral she had prepped an entire beautiful spread of food and people ate it I guess nobody thought that she would kill her own daughters, right? Yeah Now Charlie for months he couldn't even look but she did it why just because she's co-blooded She just felt like they were bringing her down.

Right, that's straight up co-blooded, right? If you really think about it, what kind of fucking motive is that? It's not for anything but your own little bit of self-interest. She said she wanted to do her hair in the morning straight up. Yeah, she wanted to take care of herself. That is really co-blooded. Just for your own children too. And Charlie could not look at Nanny in the eyes because the whole time, I mean, he was scared

of her reaction. Eventually, she's going to blow up on him. The past couple of months, she didn't yell at him once. She didn't say, where the fork have you been? You know, she didn't do any of that. But he felt like, finally, if he looked her in the eye, she would just burst. She would just have this rage at him. Maybe she would start blaming him or maybe

it was his general guilt and shame. He just never looked during the eye for months. And then finally, they locked eyes while she was putting down a plate of food. And he looked up and he looked into her eyes. And that night he became paralyzed with fear. He said there was just nothing in her eyes. There was no anger, there was no sadness, it just felt like her eyes were dead. And so that night he packed his bags, he grabbed Melvina, the eldest daughter in the middle of the night, and ran away, because he firmly believed Nanny killed his daughters. And now that she has the fun of having the town sympathy and love, she might try to do it again, to Melvina or to him. The only reason he couldn't take the youngest daughter was because she was an infant and

nanny had fallen asleep with her in her arms. Huh, that's pretty wild that he felt that. Yeah, but also just like leaves his mom. So he leaves and the whole time, the whole town finds out that he ran away and they have no reason to suspect that nanny is evil and there was no love in our eyes And that's what he ran. So even more love came to Nanny. What a disgusting vile human Charlie is and eventually she had to start working because there was no income in the house So now she has to provide for her infant daughter and take care of her mother-in-law. Now her mother-in-law Thankfully was never really that hungry because ever since her son ran away

She just became so sick in law, thankfully, was never really that hungry. Because ever since her son ran away, she just became so sick. Her stomach began to act up, she was bedridden all the time. The only thing that she could even think about eating was nanny's special recipe of stewed prunes. And that was it. So every single day between work and taking care of her baby, she took care of her mother-in-law and made her these beautiful student prunes every single day. But it didn't work. Eventually the mother-in-law, she too, died. And the whole town said, Nanny!

I feel so bad for you. I mean, the whole town was kind of expecting it too, because Charlie was still nowhere to be found. She was shocked. She was heartbroken, probably already ill, so it made sense that she passed away, but they were so worried for Nanny, I mean you can barely afford to upkeep the house. The entire house was in Charlie's name by the way, she didn't have any rights to the house, which gonna happen to you.

So one year later, Charlie comes back home and this time he gets out of the taxi with another woman and that woman's son. So they come back into the house and he said, you know what, the whole time I was thinking about it and I was like, why am I paying rent? When I've got this house and you're just living in luxury, he said that to nanny, living in luxury, which like, I'm not on nanny side, but like what? And so nanny packed up her things, took Melvina because he really didn't care for his daughter. I don't know, Charlie's a weird one. She takes both of her daughters and leaves. They were married for eight years before they divorced. She's still in her early 20s, right? Yeah. So Nanny goes back

to the Hazel farm with her kids. Lou was super excited to have the grandkids around and James was really excited because he wanted Nanny to go straight back to milk and some cows. And Nanny was like, I'm not freaking doing that. So she gets a job at a cotton mill in the next town over. And it was just not great working conditions. But it was fine. After eight years of a shitty marriage, plus four-year-old children, she was still young and beautiful. She was 24 years old. She was ready to hit the town. Now this time, Nanny's picky. She's like, I don't want to rush. I want to have a fairy tale romance. I don't, I want a better catch. Charlie was an ass. I don't want young boys that are going to be mama's boys, I don't want to rush. I want to have a fairy tale romance. I don't I want to better catch. Charlie was an ass. I don't want young boys that are gonna be mama's boys. I want someone who's independent from their mom that can stand up to their mom and say mom and no.

I don't like the old ones because you know, they're unmarried for a reason. There's a reason that they haven't gotten married. So she starts furthering her searches. She starts going through the lonely hearts column and reaching out to people and everyone loved her she would send a picture of herself plus some fresh baked goods and a letter to all of her potential suitors now these letters were nothing short of fifty shades of gray but it was done very poetically so of course the guys were like oh my god now one of these guys was a Robert Franklin Harrelson but he goes by Frank he 22 years old, so he's two years younger than Nanny, and he lived in Jacksonville.

Now, he seemed mature, he lived in an apartment in the city of Jacksonville, holy shit. You know, I'm a farm girl, this is amazing. He had a social life, he loves listening to jazz music, the day he received her letter with a picture, and some, um, beautiful poetry. He jumped into his car and drove to meet her at the farm. And that's when he realized she's even better in person.

Like, she's charming. She's vibrant. She's full of life. Even in her 50s, later on, people describe her as having like a girl's heart. Like, she seems almost like a teenager, still even when she's in her 50s. I feel like we all know people like that.

My mom's kind of like that. She's 60, but she acts like she's 16 most of the time. It's just really odd. And sometimes I feel like I'm the parent. And it's like, all right. Anyway, it's enough about me. So for the next few weeks, I'm sorry, he starts courting her.

And he drives her place often, brides her just lavish gifts, chocolates, flowers, lace, poetry, and within two months He proposes and the whole town comes to their wedding and everyone was so supportive. They said after a disgusting But whole like Charlie, I really hope you find love girl. You deserve it So she packed up her two girls and she headed off to Jacksonville to live with Frank and their marriage was happy in the beginning Jacksonville, Florida? Alabama. Oh, okay. I swear there's like a Jacksonville in every state Okay, Frank loved his whiskey and the more time that would pass the more time he would spend away from the house drinking whiskey with other men But also other women and she would try her absolute best like literally she would cook she would, she would clean, she would take care of the kids, everything, and she would

have sex with him anytime you wanted. That was like her thing. But he would start just skipping dinners. So she would have this home cooked meal that she spent all day on, and they would go to waste, because he's out drinking, and then it would get worse and worse, because she would get a call from the police station. Hey, you need to come pick up your husband, he got into a drunken fight. He's charged with felony assault. And guess what? It's not his first time.

So this is when she finds out that he had done a lot of jail time for felony assault, for punching people when he was drunk. So she's like, oh my god. But still, this is her second marriage. She's Red Romance bucks. She can change him. So she starts trying. She starts trying to get him to stop drinking, but he won't. So then she thinks maybe I can

go with him. I can supervise. So then she goes, she starts drinking with him. And they go on these benders together and then one day, they dump teenage Melvina, the eldest daughter at a friend's house, and they completely forgot that they have a second child. So Floreen, she walks home from school and nobody's there. And nobody's there for the next second child. So Florene, she walks home from school, and nobody's there. And nobody's there for the next two days. So finally, the police come because the neighbors were worried about her and she gets driven back to Blue Mountain, Alabama, to be with Charlie, her dad,

and Nanny got pissed. So Nanny drives to Blue Mountain and picks up her, her kid Florene, not out of love, but out of spite. She was like, I will die before he gets custody of these kids. Not that she cared about them. So Frank's drinking gets worse. He starts beating Nanny. He starts beating the daughters.

But both of the girls will grow up under him. So they will remain married for the next 16 years. And Melvina, she immediately, when she's 18, she's like, I need to leave the house. Just like Nanny did, she just wanted to get married She was sick of this adoptive parent beating the shit out of her and living in this house straight up like nanny Situation but now it's nanny's daughter under that same exact situation. She hated her life And so Melvina starts dating a guy by the name of mosey who you know nanny really liked him

She was like you need to marry this guy. He is a catch. He was 18 years old, same age as Melvina, steady job, yet two parents that were still together, very supportive, yet his own house that Melvina could move into, so they get married. And within last summer year, Melvina was pregnant. Now, Nanny pretended to be really happy for her, but she wasn't.

She just kept thinking to herself, she's gonna ruin her life, just like I did. Why? Kids are never good, that was, you know, Nanny's thing. One kid, fine, fine, she's just gonna have this one son, but that's it, that's it. But then soon after, she gives birth to the son, she goes pregnant again. And Nanny pretends to be happy, but she's so pissed. I mean, that disgusting, moisy little, son-in-law just wouldn't even let my daughter's body heal before climbing on top of her again.

I mean she was super pissed. This baby was gonna ruin everything. She's gonna lose herself. She's gonna lose her figure. She's gonna lose, you know, being able to put on makeup having time because now she has two kids. Her life is gonna be ruined with these kids. I had a kill two of my kids just so I can have some semblance of a life back and now Melvina she's just out here popping out babies without thinking about the ramifications. Jesus, we so the day of the second kid's birth it was super rough at the hospital. Melvina was having contraction, she was having difficulties. Nanny came in there and she took control. She started barking orders at the nurse at the doctors, bringing water, she's thirsty, etc, etc, just screaming at everyone. And Melvina just kept thinking

at herself like, wow, it's amazing to have such a wonderful mom who has been taking care of my first born, who has been helping me out in the hospital. I mean, this is amazing, she's the best. And so finally, after an entire night of labor, she gives birth to a healthy little baby girl. And Melvina was so exhausted that she couldn't even hold her baby afterwards. So the doctors gave it to Nanny, the grandma. Eventually the doctor returns to check upon them, and the baby was dead. Now the doctor's opinion was, after such a long childbirth, maybe the baby was cut off

from oxygen for too long, and there was no clear cause of death, but nobody thought anything strange. So Melvina, she was a wreck. A day later, she's discharged from the hospital, and she's returning home with her husband, Mozie, and Florene. She's so tired, and she kept thinking about this nightmare that she had. And she finally looks at her younger sister and says, Florene, I know this is crazy, but I can't stop thinking about it. I had this dream that mom I know this is crazy, but I can't stop thinking about it. I had this dream that mom Got a pin like a hot pin from her hat and Pushed it into my baby's head right next to me in the hospital. I mean it's an insane dream

And Florine looks at her and she freaks out you think she's freaking out because she's like what mom would never do that Florine said oh my god. I remember when I ran into the hospital room when the baby was pronounced dead. I saw mom crying and I saw that she kept fidgeting with a hat pin in between her fingers. So you're telling me is this not a dream? Was I so like, drugged up and so exhausted that I saw that and thought I was a dream? Was I so like drugged up and so exhausted that I saw that and thought I was a dream? But they didn't have any proof and Nanny, she had always been the doding grandmother of her first child. She had taken such good care of Melvina's first child. Why would she kill her second? She never said this is a bad idea. I mean, it doesn't make sense. So they just try

to think, okay, let's get rid of these thoughts. But Mozy, Melvina's husband could not get over it. He started blaming his wife for the death of their second child. Just getting resentment, just getting frustrated, felt like it was her fault. Meanwhile, Melvina lost her child, so she's going through some shit too. Their marriage got to a point where it's beyond repairable, so they both start having affairs. So Melvina, she was obsessed with soldiers, she would go down to the bases and start sleeping around with some soldiers, and she would be gone for like weekends at a time.

She would drop off her first kid Robert at nanny's house, her mom's house, and she would go hang out with these men. Now nanny hated this. She said, listen, you gotta stop doing this. This is not the type of life that you want to live. You need to have a romance in your life. You need to rekindle that relationship with your husband. A true love. Now one day she's dropping off her son and she's saying mom, I'm gonna go after the weekend. Watch my son.

Robert, he's two years old at the time. And then he was like, no, I'm not doing this again. And Melvina just blew up. She said mom, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have married this guy in the first place. You told me, you pushed me into marrying him. And secondly, I wouldn't have suffered for years. Under this adoptive dad, I could have stayed with my biological father. I wouldn't have been beat every single day of my life. So yeah, it is all your fault. This is your fault that I turned out the way that I did So pretty much everything nanny hated about her parents Melvina hated about her Was that a wake-up call for her? No, no she didn't feel the opposite of a wake-up call because nanny was in shock

Melvina just left she was like yeah for you take care of my two-yearyear-old. Left Robert in her arms and just ran off with a soldier. And all Nanny did was cook the rest of the day thinking about how dare she, all I did in my entire life was protect this girl. Did she not understand what I did for her? I mean, she's so sheltered. She's so spoiled. She never understood the harsh reality of life. She's never had to work in a farm every single day of her life. She's never been molested before. This girl needs to be humbled. So, side note. Around this area there's a lot of rodents. All around town. Not just Nanny's house, because this is back in the day.

And, um, well, no, rodents are everywhere even to this day. They're wild. Okay, have you seen those rodents carrying like a full size extra-large dominos pizza on a New York subway? It's weird. We got a lot of strength. So they always had red poison inside of everyone's house. So super common household item. And the main form that I came in during the time

was arsenic, which is incredibly poisonous. I'm pretty sure it's banned right now, but that's what they used back in the day. Like, it's enough to kill a horse, it's enough to kill a human, so for sure it's gonna kill a rat, and she always kept her on the top shelf of the kitchen

so that no one would accidentally use it because it's like this still very white powder. What are some of the things that's baking soda? That can happen, but that day, she decided to cook with it, and she baked cookies for her little grandson. And of course, she said, no, no, no, you can't have cookies until you're done with your lunch. And so he finished up his lunch like a good little boy, and then he had a cookie.

And then he went out to play, and then Nanny came outside and said, do you want more cookies? And he came back in and kept eating more cookies. So throughout the whole day, she kept feeding him more cookies. This indicates that she could have stopped at any time, but she did not. The next morning, she wakes up and her grandson is dead. And she's like, oh my god, oh my god! And she calls for a doctor. Tries to call Melvina, but she's nowhere to be found.

She's out with a lover. Freaks out. The doctor arrives. And because he's two years old, they say that he died of natural causes because it wasn't that rare it wasn't that rare back in the day you know when your kid just dies a lot of kids didn't make it out of childhood and They called it caught death which we now know as sudden death syndrome sudden infant death syndrome Does it caught? Yeah, like in their caught they died Because they're so young so Melvina comes home next day and finds out that her first born had died. Suddenly, all of her suspicions about hat pins and her second daughter and, you know,

her first kid, they're all like crashing down on her. But she couldn't even confront her mom because Nanny was surrounded by townspeople who were saying, oh, I know what it's like. You're a grandma, it's so sad. And it was a pretty much a repeat of what had happened with her own children, Charles being shamed. Everyone looked at Melvina like, how do you just

dump your kid with your grandma? Where were you? You couldn't have been doing anything that was good. You were doing some weird shit, weren't you? So Melvina was being shamed the entire time. So the funeral takes place. Nanny's crying on the ground at the funeral, and everyone goes home.

And Frank decides, so Frank, the husband, he decides to have a drink with his adoptive daughters. Melvina and Florene, they start drinking. And that is when Frank straight up says, I reckon I'm next. And the daughters look at him and they're like, wait, you think so too? So they share the whole hat pin story and they're all just like, what the fork? So Frank barely stays home at this time.

He no longer eats meals inside the house. He no longer stays home. He's just out all the time getting super drunk. One day, he comes home super drunk and he rapes Nanny. He does not take no for an answer. She kept trying to get him away, kept trying to push him off, but in his drunken stupper, he did not care. He dragged her to bed, she cried the whole time. I mean, there was blood everywhere. It was an incredibly painful,

traumatizing experience and even passed out on top of her. So she pushed him off, super pissed. Just crying. This is the last straw. In her head, this is the worst betrayal, which I agree with. Like, this is the worst betrayal in a marriage. What are you talking about, right? And she decided Frank has to die. But Frank's murder posed a couple of problems. First of all, he wasn't young enough for cut death. No one's gonna think, like, oh, infant, he wasn't old enough, like the mother-in-law, to be like, oh, natural causes. The whole town knew that he was abusive So she had all the motive in the world and even if she tried poisoning him right he never ate at home anymore

And he hid his whiskey because every time he didn't hide it she poured it out So now he like hid it in the house and she doesn't know where she's been looking for it for like years now And so this is this is gonna be really hard. She was infuriated He leaves the next morning for work and she's out in her garden. This is like the only place that she felt like she had control was her garden. You know, everything was pristine. She had these beautiful rose bushes. Everyone loved her garden. And she's like crying because she's like, how do I kill him? This is evil. This guy is evil. This is supposed to be

a romantic story and you raped me. And as she's tending to her roses, she sees that there's a hole on the ground. And she gets so pissed. Whisky. And she's crying. How dare someone ruin my roses? What is the reason for this? And she rushes over, she gets on her knees, and she starts digging into that hole. Like, what would be, why would someone dig a hole?

And then she sees the whiskey bottle. And she was like, well, it's a sign from heaven that I need to kill him. So she adds a whole bunch of rat poison to the bottle and she buries it again. And the whole day she was having a great time. She was humming again around the house while she was doing these chores, just singing and reading her books. And the next morning she finds her husband's body outside on the front porch. Dead. She grabs the bottle of liquor, washes it clean, replaces it back into his hands and calls for the police.

Now when they get there, Frank's entire body smells of whiskey. Like even from like the driveway. I don't know if they had driveways back in the day, but like even from like meters away, they could smell the whiskey of his body. The empty bottle by his side, his past history of assaulting people when he's drunk. I mean the cause of death is clear without an autopsy. He drank himself to death. There was no suggestion of foul play. So 16 years of marriage later, and our husband had died. So both of nanny's daughters, they do come to the funeral, but neither of them wanted anything to do with their mom after that. So they just distanced themselves at this point. Frank's life insurgency policy came out and it changed Nanny's life completely. This was the first time that she had money and didn't need to depend on a man. So she thought this is amazing. If Frank were still alive, he would have drunk in it it He would have went through this money by drinking it

So she buys 10 acres of land in Alabama and she built herself a little cottage on one side The rest of the land she rents out to local farmers Which was a pretty responsible thing to do so she was making income while she has the savings I mean she was doing pretty well for herself She was financially independent and at this point everyone's like cutting off ties from her whole family wants nothing to do with her and she was like that's fine I'm gonna keep myself busy because I need a new highspend I need that romance that I've been looking for my whole life

So she starts going through the columns again this time she wants to look outside of Alabama So she paid for tab newspapers from the nearby states delivered to Alabama to her door. And the response to her post on the only hearts was overwhelming. The postman hated going to her house because his bag were full of letters every single time from potential suitors. They loved her. So for the next two years after Frank dies, she travels the nation. I mean, she was meeting up with men in New York City.

She was going to Idaho. It was said that she always traveled in a cloud of perfume. She had movie to Idaho. It was said that she always traveled in a cloud of perfume. She had movie star makeup Her hair was perfectly curled to accentuate her long neck She was always dressed to the tens. I mean she genuinely even even after all this time 40-year-olds Looks like a queen. That's what people said just stunning and the fact that she acted like a giddy little 17-year-old men loved her. So she meets a guy from North Carolina, an Arley landing,

who was originally from Alabama, but he was super romantic. He tried to tell her at listen, the only reason I'm not married in my 40s is because I never found the right person, but she smart. Nanny knows it's because he was being a hoe, and she knew that, listen, I can change him. So she was interested and she got more and more interested and finally she goes to meet him and she, wow, they both like fell in love. Immediately, he was in the war, he was in the Navy so he was super well respected in North Carolina. His only scandal was that a lot of women liked him. So when Nanny was introduced to all the townspeople, they hated her, the women hated her,

because they wanted to marry Arley. But Nanny was so charming that immediately they became like her best friend. Like, that's how charming she was. So she had a great time in conclusion. She thought, I was just chasing all the wrong guys. I just needed to go up one socioeconomic ladder and all the men are different here.

It's a different pool of men, which I'm just gonna say right now. No, it's not. No, it's not. So she was like, here lies the perfect man. So she returns Taliban, grabs all of her stuff, goes to North Carolina, and they get married. So this is her third marriage. And she does the same thing, but this time it looked like it was gonna work.

They go dancing, they go to movies, they have a good time. I mean, the romance was live, and Arle was so handsome that she had a hard time being not suspicious of it. She kept thinking that he's cheating on her, which was 100% true. Because Arle was shady. He was in love with Nanny. He loved her cooking. He loved her cleaning. Great guy.

But he loved other women. And he knew that it would upset her, so he just thought if she doesn't know, it's fine. But one month into their marriage, he fell asleep at the house of a woman he was having an affair with. And she knew, I mean, nanny knew, like why isn't he home? He messed up. So the next day he returns. And she's not there. So he's like, oh, fork, she knows. She knows that I cheated on her and she's leaving me. So he goes through the whole house, he's in a panic because he genuinely loved Nanny in whatever sick twisted way.

And on the kitchen, he finds a note, going on a trip, be back soon. One week later, Nanny arrives and she says, oh, I just went to my house in Alabama to check up on it. But it was obvious that everything in her bag, she bought from New York City, her ticket was from New York City to North Carolina, but I really kept quiet because he was like, I'm not gonna question her

because where do I stand? I have no moral ground, and so he just promised himself that it wasn't gonna happen again, he was gonna do right by Nanny. But again, it happened, and he accidentally fell asleep at another woman's house. And so the next day he arrives at home, and this time again, it happened. And he accidentally fell asleep at another woman's house. And so the next day he arrives at home, and this time again, it's empty. So he panics, and on the kitchen is another note, but this time it's even shorter.

It just says, back soon. This time she would be gone for an entire month. Wait, what is happening? Where did she go? To have flings with other men. Oh, so she's punishing him? Yeah. And so for the next five years, you know, they stay married.

They have these ups and downs because it seems like in this situation, he wasn't necessarily abusive. He was just a little cheat-nassho. And so they would constantly cheat on each other, but then they would have like this month where they loved each other. And then they would cheat on each other again. And it was just a lot. Now, during the end of their marriage,

the flu was going around the entire town. I'm talking influenza. And he had to stay home. He couldn't go out and cheat on people because influenza was spreading. It was spreading too hard. His friends were drop and dead. So he was like, I'm not trying to drop dead. No one's worth it. So they spent months together.

I mean, it was absolutely perfect, just cooking meals for him, fresh-breaked pastries every day. And finally, a little after Christmas, he got a little treat from Nanny, his favorite pie. It should've worked really hard on this pie, so he was like that's so sweet babe and he starts eating it. That's a little bitter, but you know his wife made such an effort, he's not gonna be like wow Nanny it's a little bitter today and the next morning the doctor gets a call. You've got to come. My husband's dead and he arrives at the house and he looks at the body and he's tired. It's only morning and he had already gone to six other houses where

six other men had died of influenza. So he looks straight at the body and the doctor says, Yopbo is the flu. He passes away. The whole town is just sympathetic towards Nanny. Oh, I mean, just, oh my god, Nanny. The flu got him too. So she packs up her stuff, gets a little bit of life insurance money, heads back to Alabama, and she starts looking for a new husband. How long was she married to this? Five years. She's like 45 now.

Yeah, she's like, I'm gonna get a new husband. And almost immediately on her return, she gets a letter that her sister is sick. Her sister, Dovey, is sick. So she rushes to her sister's side and her sister, who is in her 30s, because she's younger than her. And she looked like a skeleton

with skin draping over her. They don't know what happened to her, but she was incredibly sick. So Nanny tells everyone, including her sister, Dovey, I got you, I'm gonna nurse you back to health. Don't you worry, I'm gonna take care of you just like I did when you were a fricking baby. And she nursed her for about a week, but then Nanny decided, you know what? This is like really getting into my schedule because I'm only gonna be 45 for how long and I need to get married again.

So she decided, you know, I don't want to waste my time. She's not gonna get better. Let me just give her my famous stewed prunes. And almost almost immediately Duffy died within a week of Nanny's care So Duffy's funeral comes around and Nanny's parents aren't there. Loo and James are not there and so she starts asking her siblings Why the fuck aren't mom and dad here while I was really aggressive? Why the fork aren't mom and dad here? And then I said oh, you don't know Because dad just died and Nanny was so pissed. James Hazel, the one who had abused her for most of her childhood, had died and

Sick and twisted Nanny was so upset because she wanted to be the one to kill him, but she didn't. And he got away from her. Now on the same side of the spectrum, Loo, mom needed to be taken care of because, I mean, you know, husband's dead, they got a cell farm, holy shit. Nanny was the only one with money because her husband, Frank had died and she got life insurance money. The rest of her siblings, they were struggling, they were in poverty.

And so the only thing that she cared about was money, love, and the public opinion. She really cared about how people looked at her. She always wanted sympathy. She wanted to be that amazing caring caretaker. So she forcibly had to take on her mom. So her mom moves in with her. And this is when Nanny realizes her mom has just resumed the dictator role. She was just as demanding as James was, not abusive physically, but just barking orders at her. And that's when Nanny realized, wait a minute, my whole childhood, I thought my mom was

the messenger. She was also a victim of James. But is she a fucking collaborator? Is she a dictator just like James? And she starts hating her mom. But to the outside world, Nanny was the best daughter ever. Because her mom became bedridden. Her mom became so sick. And the whole town rallied behind Nanny because not only did her husband

die and that's why she came back to Alabama, her sister died and now she's taking care of her mom full time and she's dying. So everyone just falling dead. Yeah. And so she dies. Mom dies. Yeah, and so she dies mom dies and everyone gives her sympathy and she finds her next husband Richard Morton from Kansas. Yep, she's going even further away So she takes the train to see him and he was an absolute gentleman through the letters, right and within a month

They're married she moves to his house in Kansas and he worked from home So her last relationship she was always suspicious of Arley cheating on her and now that Richard works from home, I mean she never has to think about that. She loved it, she loved how flat Kansas was because she could finally see the sunset, like she could see the horizon and it just felt like endless, you know, possibilities in life. He showered her with gifts. He would go out into town, come home, new gift, ooh amazing. One day she goes to the hairdresser and the town gossip was there. The town gossip is like that one Karen who like can't stop talking about other people's lives and so she's sitting there and she's like, oh you're married to Richard!

Yeah, you know, Richard is a catch good for you, but you know the reason that he wasn't married is because a lot of young woman they just would date him and string him along so that he could shower them with gifts, he loves giving people presents. You know what's funny is that he's still giving these girls presents. And then he's like, what? Just like yeah, just recently, well he got this one girl. Oh, I forgot her name, but she just got this beautiful necklace from him.

And he's wearing the same necklace. So you're telling me that he would buy a gift for some random girl in town and then bring home the same gift to me? The woman in the hairdressing salon, they were surprised because she wasn't crying, she wasn't making a scene. She just kept her calm, she looked sad, and when Richard came to pick her up, she smiled and said, well thank you guys, and she left, and all of the women said, ah that poor sweet woman, man. And they felt so much sympathy for her. So while she's married to Richard, she starts looking for her next husband.

And she's hiding these letters while she's writing letters to our next suitors. She tells everyone that she's a widow from Kansas, except for her husband is Dullalove in Kansas. But she's like, I will widow looking for her husband. Meanwhile, she also starts taking out life insurance policies on him. And she starts reading his mail. And that's when she realizes, even with all the life insurance policies, with his amount of spending on all of these other women and his mortgage, she would barely make money.

Because he's going to drive himself into debt, he's just buying gifts for all these bitches around town. So she decided, all right, three months into his marriage, I'm gonna stew him some prunes with some rat poison and she killed him. The next morning, he doesn't wake up, the police, they knew he was an old man. So she left Kansas with over $20,000 within a couple of months. So then she is looking for love again. This girl won't stop. Can't stop. And she lowers her standards.

Now she says, listen, I'm not even looking for romance. I'm just looking for someone to die with. To die with or to die for her. Exactly. To kill. Yeah. So she's like, I'm just looking for someone to die with because, you know, at this point, I'm in my 50s, headed into my 60s. I don't want to die alone.

So she starts going through all of these. There's something called the Diamond Club which is like this matchmaking business back in the day where they would get like widows and widowers to meet up. So not the lonely hearts because those are for like younger people. So she just wanted a gentleman and that's when she meets Samuel Doss who is 59 years old. He was good looking looking friend old guy. I mean he didn't gamble, he didn't drink, he hated curse words, he was an absolute gentleman. So she moved to marry him in Tulsa, Oklahoma and he was not a passionate man at all, like

at all. But she fit his lifestyle. She was great at domestic things and that's what he wanted. And so they get married and the marriage was miserable. Nanny was not allowed to use a fan inside their house, even if it was sweltering hot in Oklahoma because of electricity bills. Oh.

Oh. She was cooking the whole time and no fan allowed. The lights had to be turned off every two seconds. If she's reading, she can only turn on one tiny little light that barely illuminated her book. Sex was scheduled. Oh. That's crazy. reading. She can only turn on one tiny little light that barely illuminated her book. Sex was scheduled. That's crazy.

He said, ah, I can't relate. She would, he would tell him that she couldn't spend money. Even on, she was trying to like make these beautiful home cooked meals for him. But she would say, don't get that cut of meat. No, don't make a pot He's 59. Yeah, what is he saving money for? I don't know. Well, he said it was unholy He's very religious and he said it was unholy to spend frivolous money So she would even get critiques. So what is the holy thing to do is to save money? I think donated to the church maybe when you die She would even get critiques. So what is the holy thing to do is to save money.

I think donated to the church maybe when you do it. I got it. So she would get critiques even if she spent all day cooking a beautiful meal and he'd be like, why did you use pecans? Those are expensive. Instead use peanuts. Exactly! Wow, you know that by heart.

Have you said that to someone before? And so she's gonna do any of that. I mean, she hated this. This is back into her misery. So three months into it, she runs away back home to Alabama. She was like, fork this. I'm done. I'm gonna marry someone else. And she hated him. She was so upset with him, another dictator in her life. But when she gets home, there was a letter from Samuel Dawes. And at this point, she was ready to just, you know, call it quits, get married again. But this letter pretty much said, hey, come home, I'll put you on the bank,

like I'll share a bank account with you as long as you're responsible, I won't nitpick every little thing that you spend, as long as you promise that you won't spend it on anything dumb, like pecans. And you won't, you won't have to do any of those things that you didn't wanna do because you're gonna go to hell. But if you do it the way that I want you to do it, you're gonna live a holy life

and we're gonna go to heaven together. So come back and she reads this and she wanted to start fresh, but now she couldn't. She was like, I gotta kill this fucker. That's what she thought in her head. She's insane. So she goes back to Oklahoma. The amount of premeditation in this, you know? It's not even a crime of passion. Like reading a letter, you're in the heat of the moment. No, she takes a fucking train to Oklahoma. So they get there and she goes to the bank with him

and he puts her on the bank account and he changes the life insurance to her. So I mean poor dude I think it was just a mixed match of characters and values but I think he genuinely wanted to like try to do it right like he was like I'm gonna be a man of my word and I'm gonna do what I said that I promised and she seemed like she tried a little bit but then he found a romance novel and he said you need to stop reading this. This is trash. And she says, why? But you read too. And he says, for spiritual betterment, for intellectual betterment, romance novels are the lowest form of entertainment. And they are designed to induce you to have sinful thoughts and practices. You are wallowing in filth right now.

What in the world? So she was like, alright, I'm going to kill him. But the problem is, this is the opposite problem of her first husband that she killed Frank. Well her second husband, but the first that she killed, because he was never home. He never ate anything. Meanwhile Samuel was always home. He was always watching her cook. He was overanalyzing everything. He also hated sugar and sweets, which you need sweets to cover the taste of

You know rat poison so she started slowly stirring it into his coffee every dinner building up that poison in his system and Eventually he was hospitalized. He had a stop eating. He lost 15 pounds. He had this crazy stomach issue He goes to the hospital. They have no idea what's wrong with him Meanwhile, Nanny is just by his side the whole time in the hospital But I assure you she was pissed the whole time. She underestimated Samuel He didn't grow up poor like the rest of her husband's he wasn't that old He was he wasn't that weak. He never drank. He had pretty good health He was supposed to have been dead, but he was just hospitalized

So now this is suspicious, right? So she's like, I got to be extra careful. So Samuel on the other hand, I mean poor guy, he's laying in the hospital bed and he's thinking, wow, my wife is so dedicated to me. Maybe after this life-threatening situation, I can go home and let her live a little. Maybe we can go buy her a nice dress and maybe I can take her out to the movies. Like, he had one of those like midlife crisises where he's like, what am I doing? This woman loves me. I need to take care of her.

So he comes home three days later and she's got this insane meal cooked out for him. I'm talking pot roast, just everything. And she told him, don't worry, don't worry Samuel, I didn't spend a lot of money and I won't be doing it again. I just wanted to celebrate your good health again. And you know, you've been so hungry in the hospital, hospital food sucks and he scarfed down all that food and she kept topping off his coffee and he was washing everything down with that coffee.

And he said, oh, I don't feel good. And she said, well, maybe you over ate after all those stomach problems. Why don't you go and lay in bed? And the rest of the night she cleaned up while she heard him moaning in bed. And the next morning, he was dead. And the community yet again rallied around Nanny. But the doctor, the doctor in the hospital, not the autopsy doctor,

the doctor in the hospital just, just to rinse it right with him. By law, he couldn't autopsy Samuel and he was suspicious of Nanny. So there was no way that he could just ask her to sign the autopsy papers, right? So he did it strategically. He went to Nanny when she was with all of the townspeople and said, Hey, I think we need to autopsy the body because there's a rumor that there might be something bad in the food supply here. And everyone's like, What?

Food supply? Should we stop eating? Well, we could get to the bottom of it if we are atop see him. A person with a brain cell. Yes. And so Nanny, she was forced to say yes, sign the slip and the autopsy showed that he had pork roast, coffee, and enough cyanide to kill a horse inside of a system. So the police immediately arrest her, bring her in for questioning, and she just keeps denying it. But it was very suspicious. She would let out these little giggles. That's why they call her the giggling granny.

Like strangled hysterical- Oh! Like, very creepy. I don't even know. Like, just- Hey! I don't know how she would do it. I imagine it to be similar to the Stephanie Lazarus interrogation. Which is- Oh! What are you talking about? My daughter? You know, maybe kind of like that.

So she would just be like, this is, this is ridiculous for you even to question me. And they questioned her for over an hour because they needed a confession. Think about it, a cute little grandma with grandkids. I mean, there's no way they're gonna get a conviction. So after a day in custody, an FBI agent, Paige steps in and he had constructed a timeline of all the mysterious deaths in her life in the last years, you

know, and he sat, he sits down and he questions her and she tells him, oh, straight up, a quote. Oh, you're a handsome young man, but if you think I heard anybody, I am afraid that you're as good looking as you are foolish. I don't know why grandma speak like this because grandma is confusing. My cute or am I not? I don't know. And so he pretty much tells her, I know about the other husbands, I know they're dead. We're gonna seek the death penalty unless you, you know, cooperate with us. So for the next day, she confesses to the murder of four husbands.

She denies ever hurting her own relatives or her children or anything, but they don't really care, because this is enough to get a conviction. So they exume all of the adult bodies, but not the bodies of the children, and they all showed evidence of heavy arsenic poisoning. So we've got her four husbands,

Frank Arley, Richard, and Samuel. Her first husband, Charlie, is the only one that got away. And her mother was killed, her sister, her grandson, and her mother-in-law of Charlie. Her first husband's mother-in-law. Now, it's also suspected that she killed her two middle kids. It's also suspected that she killed Melvina's second child in the hospital.

It's also suspected that she killed one of her other husband's mother-in-law's. So that brings a total count to 12. But they only convicted her for one and she pleads guilty because they didn't want to give her any more attention and fame and it didn't matter if she had you know 12 convictions versus one. It was easier and cheaper for the state to convict her of one and they spared her the death penalty but they gave her life in prison and she died 10 years later in prison of leukemia at 60 years old. But what's crazy is while she was in prison she had a ton of admirers,

a lot of men wrote her and she would flirt with them. Now I think what's interesting about this case is we talked a lot about like other cases where maybe I was money, maybe it was just your a psychopath, but this one I mean she had just like the strangest warped image of love and romance. And when she wasn't happy, she went into a murderous rage. And the only way for Nanny to be happy is if she had this almost five-year-old Disney picture of love, which just never happens. Yeah. I gotta say though, this story does show how fucking shitty the whole society is, right? Yeah, even her mom getting ruined, the husband, the husband, the, you know, it doesn't excuse anything, but damn, that's some rough times.

Yeah, for some rough times. I mean, I guess it's still rough time, but... But this lady, I mean, I just don't know how she got away with it. This is, this goes to show. If you're a giggling granny, you could get away with a lot. I swear to God, there's a grandma serial killer out there somewhere. She's like actively killing people right now. We're looking for like a suspect in their 20s.

You're wrong. It's an 80-year-old grandma. She's beating people with her walker. Could be our neighbors. Oh, shit. Yeah, we got a lot of old neighbors. So stay safe, because it's people with her walker. Could be our neighbors. Oh shit. Yeah, we got a lot of old neighbors, so stay safe, because it's not just the young ones. And I hope you guys enjoyed this week's not many so.

Sorry, gotta stop doing that. Bye.