9. Nannie Doss, aka “The Lonely Hearts Killer”
Besides having a badass nickname, The Lonely Hearts Killer (born Nancy Hazel and also known as “The Giggling Nanny”) made it into the 9 most evil female serial killers of all time when in 1954 she confessed to the murder of four out of five husbands, her two sisters, her mother, two of her own children, a grandson, and a mother-in-law (although many wouldn’t hold the latter against her).
Her first marriage was arranged, and produced four daughters, two of whom passed away due to “food poisoning”. Suspecting his young alcoholic bride to be the author of this tragedy, hubby number one wisely fled the coop and took with him his two surviving daughters.
Groom number 2 wasn’t so lucky. Two years after the divorce, she got hitched to a man she’d met through the Lonely Hearts column in the newspaper, and remained with him for 16 years, until one drunken night he forced himself upon her. The next morning she adulterated his whiskey with rat poison and that same evening he died a slow, excruciating death.
She married number three, another lonely and alcoholic heart, only three days after they’d met. He soon died from “heart failure” and not long after, their house burnt down. Once the afflicted widow had collected the insurance money her mother in law “died in her sleep”, and she went on to stay with her sister, who shockingly also died.
Along came and went husband number four: they got married, he died, she cashed in, you know the song. Nannie’s mother also passed away around that time, ironically, she was accidentally poisoned while residing with the couple.
Last but not least comes clean-cut, churchgoing Mr. Doss, who three months after their wedding attended the hospital with flu-like symptoms, and was diagnosed with a digestive tract infection for which he was treated, and released a few days later. Of course, he died that same evening, which was sensibly odd to his doctor, who ordered an autopsy that unveiled the presence of a massive amount of arsenic in his system.
After being arrested, the number nine serial killer in our list of the 9 most evil female serial killers of all time confessed to all the murders, but only got convicted for the last one, and died in jail from leukemia ten years later. So, revisiting what I was saying earlier: this woman murdered EVERYONE around her, and it still took 25 for someone to notice! C’mon!
