Nannie's Kitchen Nook

The Killer: Born Nancy Agnes Hazel (November 4, 1905-June 2, 1965), Nannie Doss was a serial killer responsible for the deaths of 11 people between 1927 and 1954. In October of 1954, she confessed to killing four of her husbands, two of her children, one of her sisters, her mother, her two grandsons, and a mother-in-law from her first marriage. Growing up in Blue Mountain, Alabama, her favorite hobby was reading romance magazines and novels. Nannie  married at the age of 16 to Charley Braggs, who divorced her after his mother died of mysterious circumstances. After realizing her second husband, Robert Harrelson, was an alcoholic, Nannie put rat poison in his corn whiskey jar. Her third husband, Arlie Lanning, was a lecher who died of what was believed to be heart failure. Richard Morton married Nannie in 1952, and the couple was married for about a year. After poisoning her mother, Nannie poisoned Morton for being adulterous. Her fifth marriage was to Samuel Doss, a minister who disapproved of the romance novels Nannie adored. In October of 1954, Nannie killed Doss in order to collect the two life-insurance policies she had taken out on him. Nannie Doss was sentenced to life imprisonment, and she died from leukemia in 1965. When confessing to the murders, Nannie Doss giggled and joked about her crimes, which earned her the moniker, “The Giggling Granny.”

The House: Pictures of the house Nannie shared with her fifth husband in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are rare. In addition, my research has shown that the house where Nannie poisoned Samuel Doss, 1402 East 4th Street, no longer exists. Based on historical context, as well as Nannie's arrest records, we find that the house was most likely a modest bungalow in a working-class neighborhood of the 1950s. Probably a small, single-family home that contained a central kitchen, where Nannie prepared the arsenic-laced coffee and stewed prunes that led to Samuel's death. The kitchen was tidy, lived-in, and warm. It appeared to be completely safe; a deception Nannie relied upon.

The Floor Plan: From using AI to gain information about the Doss home, I was able to get a conceptual idea of what the house may have looked like. I also requested a floor plan of how the kitchen may have been structured. (Please see below.) Lastly, I had AI create a picture of how the kitchen may have looked. (Please see below.)

Sources:

Buhk, Tobin T. The Lonely Hearts Killers: The Bloody Passions of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez. Exposit Books, 2020.

Curtis, Gene. "Only in Oklahoma: Black Widow Enjoyed the Limelight." Tulsa World, 2007. 

Harvey, Gordon. "1929-1945: The Great Depression and World War II. Nancy 'Nannie Doss' Hazle." 2014. www.encyclopediaofalabama.org. Accessed 15 August 2026.

Jones, Ann. Women Who Kill. Beacon Press, 1996.

Jones, Richard Glyn. The Mammoth Book of Women Who Kill. Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2002.

Manners, Terry. Deadlier Than The Male: True Stories of Women Who Kill. Pan Books, 1995.

Who2 Biographies. "Nannie Doss Biography." 2013. www.who2.com. Accessed 14 August 2026.