Free Women Serial Killers of the 20th Century by Sylvia Perrini Page A

year in membership. All members received a monthly newsletter with the newest members added monthly. Through this club, she made contact with a recently retired businessman, Richard Morton, from Emporia, Kansas. He fit Nannie’s romantic dream: he was a tall, dark, handsome, half American Indian, with piercing eyes. While he dated her, he bought her presents of jewelry and other trinkets as well as clothes. Nannie and Richard married in October of 1952, and she moved into his house in Emporia. Nannie’s romantic dream was soon shattered.
    Richard Morton was not a drunkard lik e her previous two husbands, but he was a liar. He was swimming in debt and, to make matters worse, he was also a womanizer and had a long-standing girlfriend he wasn`t going to give up. Nannie realized she had made a colossal mistake but not as deadly a mistake as Richard had. Nannie realized he had to go. Then her mother Lou showed up.
    Nannie’s father James had died, and her elderly mother invited herself to visit Nannie. Within a short time of arriving at Nannie’s and Richard’s house, Lou complained of severe stomach cramps and died in January of 1953. Three months after her mother died, Richard, also complaining of severe stomach pains, died.
    And no one – doctors, family, friends , or neighbors – asked questions.
    As soon as Nannie had realized her mistake in marrying Richard, she had begun her perusal of the lonely-hearts ad columns again. Two months before Richard’s death, she began a pen pal correspondence with fifty nine -year-old Samuel Doss from Tulsa, Oklahoma. With Richard in the ground and the insurance check in the bank, Nannie traveled to Tulsa. Samuel Doss, on meeting Nannie, fell deeply in love and immediately proposed to Nannie. To Samuel, Nannie seemed to be homely, cheerful, and an accomplished cook. They married in June of 1953.
    Nannie was attracted to Samuel, as he seemed so different from all of her previous husbands. He had a steady job as a state highway inspector. He didn’t drink or womanize. He was a straight, church going conservative man. His flaw, as Nannie discovered, was that he was seriously set in his ways. Bedtime was at 9.30 pm; he did not approve of Nanny’s romance stories, viewing them as a painful waste of money. He disapproved of her television viewing and kept tight control of the household spending. Nannie found him frustratingly tedious and irritating remarkably quickly. She persuaded Samuel to take out two life insurance policies.
    In September , after a well-cooked supper by his wife, Samuel complained of stomach pains and called in his doctor. The doctor admitted Samuel to the hospital and diagnosed him with a serious digestive infection. They kept him for twenty-three days before releasing him on October 5 th . For his first supper home, Nannie cooked a delicious roast pork dinner followed by her specialty of stewed prune dessert. Before midnight, Samuel was dead.
    Samuel’s doctor was aghast and spoke to Dr. Schwelbein, the doctor who had examined Samuel prior to releasing him from the hospital. They concluded his death did not make any sense, and an autopsy was ordered. The pathologist performing the autopsy discovered enough arsenic in Samuel’s body to kill twelve horses.
    Nannie was the immediate suspect and promptly arrested. The police were astounded by her reaction to being arrested: she giggled and she continued to giggle throughout her police interrogations. In between her giggles, Nannie admitted to murdering four husbands, her sister, her mother, her grandson, and Arlie’s mother.
    It was not long before the media nicknamed her "The Giggling Granny" and "The Jolly Widow ”.
    Groups of psychiatrists were called in to examine her ; their conclusion was that she was mentally sane. Her trial was set for June 2nd, 1955, in the Criminal Court of Tulsa, Oklahoma. On May 17 th , she pleaded guilty to the murder of Samuel Doss, the only murder that had taken place in Oklahoma.