Nannie Doss

Doss was born Nancy Hazel on November 4, 1905, in Blue Mountain, Alabama, the United States. Her parents were Louisa "Lou" (née Holder) and James F. Hazel. She had four siblings, including a brother named William Roscoe Hazel and a sister named Dovie Frances Hazel Weaver. Both Nannie and her mother despised James because of his controlling behaviour towards every member of the family. He would not let his children attend school but forced them to serve as farm-hands.

As a result, Nannie’s education suffered. When she was seven years old, she boarded a train to go to Alabama where a few of her relatives lived. During the journey, the train suddenly ceased moving and she hit her head on a metal bar on the seat opposite of her. In the years after, she had bouts of depression, headaches, and blackouts. She would later blame her mental instability on the accident.

Doss grew up reading her mother’s romance magazines and wished for a fairytale future. She would later develop a special love for the lonely hearts column. Despite James forbidding Doss and her sisters from wearing make-up and attractive clothes in fear of molestation, it still happened on several occasions. He also did not allow them to attend any dances or other social events.

Doss was 16 years old when she married her first husband, Charley Braggs, after knowing him only for four months. She and Braggs worked together at the Linen Thread Company in nearby Anniston. After their wedding, Braggs’ mother insisted on living with them. He was her only son and she was unmarried at the time so Doss had to accept it. However, the arrangement soon proved to be troublesome as most of Braggs’ time was taken up by his mother.

In the ensuing years, Doss gave birth to four daughters. While Braggs was an attentive father, his relationship with his wife did not improve at all. She was anxious all the time and soon enough, started drinking. Her casual smoking habit turned into a heavy addiction. Both were unhappy and suspected the other, correctly so, of infidelity. Braggs often would not be home for days on end.

In 1927, their two middle daughters died under mysterious circumstances a few months apart from each other. According to Braggs’ later statement, when he left for work the girls seemed healthy but they were crying while he was leaving and reportedly died in convulsions soon after having breakfast. Doss could not provide any reasonable explanation. It is quite possible that she had poisoned those girls.

After he was warned anonymously not to eat anything his wife prepared, Braggs fled their home, taking their eldest daughter, Melvina, with him but leaving Florine, their youngest, behind. He had the dubious and fortunate distinction of being the only husband that Doss did not murder. In the summer of 1928, Braggs came back with Melvina, a new love interest and her own child. He and Doss divorced soon after and she and her two daughters moved in with her mother.

A year later, Doss met her second husband, Jacksonville resident Robert Franklin Harrelson, through a lonely hearts newspaper column. He courted her with poetry; she wrote passionate letters and sent him a cake and a photograph of herself. They got married that year. She was a year older than he was. However, the relationship had several issues right from the beginning, mostly due to Harrelson’s alcoholism and violent temper.

Despite this, the marriage lasted 16 years. Melvina had grown up by then and got married herself. She gave birth to her son Robert Lee Haynes in 1943. Two years later, she and her husband had another child, this time a daughter. Exhausted from the labour and still groggy from the ether, Melvina thought that she saw her mother kill her daughter by sticking a hairpin into the newborn’s head.

She later had a conversation with her husband and Florine, who told her that Doss had informed them earlier that the baby was dead and that they had noticed she had a hairpin in her hand. After the tragic incident, the grief-stricken couple slowly drifted apart and eventually separated. Melvina then started dating a soldier whom Doss did not particularly like. Meanwhile, Doss took out insurance worth $500 on Robert.

One day, Melvina had a particularly unpleasant argument with her mother and went to her father’s house to stay for a while. She left Robert in her mother’s care. On July 7, 1945, he died from asphyxiation and within two months after his death, Doss cashed in on Robert’s insurance.

In 1945, after the end of the World War II, The United States of America was in a full celebratory mood. Harrelson was no different. He drank without inhibition and one night, after returning home completely intoxicated, raped Doss. The following day, she found his corn whiskey jar buried while she was in the garden tending her roses. She put rat poison in the whiskey. Harrelson died an excruciating death that evening.