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Inside the Crimes of the 'Giggling Granny,' Serial Killer · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: All right, welcome to another deep dies everybody. Today, we're
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  gonna we're going to look at the case of Nanny Doss.
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  She was known as the Giggling Granny. Oh wow, and uh,
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  you know, at first glance, she was this you know,
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  loving grandmother, right, charming smile. But underneath that that facade,
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  she confessed to killing eleven family members over twenty seven years.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So that's what we're gonna we're gonna uncover today.
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  Speaker 2: That is pretty fascinating that you can have that kind
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  of a dual nature going on, you know, to be
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  able to I mean, eleven people is a lot of
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  people to be able to fool for that long.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, and we're gonna we're gonna kind
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  of look into that, like how does she manage to
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  do this? So let's start at the beginning with her
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  early life. Okay, Nanny Doss's first marriage, she was just
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  sixteen Oh wow, yeah, pretty young. Yeah, and it was
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  a union that was really encouraged by your father. And
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  within five years her and her husband, Charlie Braggs, they
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  had four daughters.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. And it was to his mother too, So you
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  can imagine a lot of stress. Now. Yeah, four daughters
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  in five years.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's a lot. Yeah. And sadly, two of
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  their daughters died unexpectedly, and they suspected it was food poisoning,
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  but it was never really proven. But this is where
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  kind of like the first cracks in her facade appear, right,
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  because Braggs became suspicious of her, and understandably so, of course,
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  and he eventually took their eldest daughter and left her,
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  and shortly after his mother died too.
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  Speaker 1: Ah.
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  Speaker 2: So it's really unsettling to think that, you know, these
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  might have been her first victims given what happens later.
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  Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So and here's a really chilling fact. Braggs is the
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  only husband that survived wow, being married to Nanny DAWs.
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  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 2: She went on to have four more husbands, and with
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  each one there was this disturbingly familiar pattern that emerged.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so what was the pattern?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, each of these husbands had problems, okay,
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  whether it was you know, alcohol and fidelity, They disapproved
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  of her romantic novels, and each of them met an
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  untimely end.
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  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, two died from rat poison.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wow, two from Arsenic lace coffee, and even her
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  third husband's mother died in a house fire.
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  Speaker 2: That's a lot of tragedy. Yeah, Like how much tragedy
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  surrounding one person.
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  Speaker 3: Can surround one person? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Like, was this you know, some sort of twisted vigilante justice, Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: In her mind?
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  Speaker 2: I have no idea.
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  Speaker 1: Or were these men just obstacles in her way of
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  pursuing something else, whether it was you know, freedom or
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  excitement or what.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, or maybe she just enjoyed it, you
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  know what I mean. Like that's a possibility too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard to say, it's hard to say with certainty,
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  you know, what motivated her. But it's clear that she
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  was drawn to men with certain vulnerabilities, and she exploited
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  them with really tragic consequences.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: So the big question is how did.
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  Speaker 1: She manage to escape scrutiny for so long? I mean,
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  was it just you know, people trusting a seemingly harmless
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  granny figure.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think that probably had something to
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  do with it. You know, back then people were a
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  little more trusting, I think. Yeah, and especially you know
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  somebody that's like a doting grandmother. I don't expect that Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But also, you know, forendic science wasn't as advanced back
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  then as it is now, and so you know, maybe
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  some of those deaths they just thought, oh, it's natural causes,
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  you know, they didn't really look into it, right, And
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  it wasn't until her final husband, Samuel DAWs died that
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  they started to really kind of uncover the truth.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Samuel's death was the big turning point, wasn't.
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  Speaker 3: It huge turning point? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Because the doctor that examined Samuel, he discovered a massive
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  amount of arsenic in his system. Wow, And that immediately
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  raised red flags for him. And I think that's really,
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  you know, a key moment, right, because it prompted a
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  thorough investigation.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. You think about it.
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  Speaker 1: Without that doctor's diligence and the advances in toxicology, you know,
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  Nanny Doss might have just continued her spree. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Who knows how many more victims there would be.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, And so during questioning she can Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And it wasn't just to Samuel, you know, she confessed
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  to killing a whole string of family members, four husbands,
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  two daughters, her mother, a mother in law or her sister,
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  and even two grandsons. It's a horrifying list. Yeah, two grandsons.
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  They died after eating prune cake, least with arsenic Oh.
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  Speaker 2: My gosh, those are children that trusted her.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's just disturbing. It's a really disturbing case.
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  Initially she was sentenced to death, but then she was
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  declared insane and spared the death penalty. So she spent
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  the rest of her days in prison, dying from leukemia
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  at the age of fifty nine. And there's this eerie
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  coincidence she died exactly ten years wow after being taken
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  into custody.
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  Speaker 2: That is eerie. I mean, what are the chances?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're left with this unsettling story, right of
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  this unassuming, giggling granny who turned out to pack this.
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  Speaker 3: Prolific serial killer.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it really prompts us to ask, how
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  did she deceive everyone for so long? Why wasn't she
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  so inspected earlier with such a clear pattern?
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  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it's really hard to say. You know, I
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  think it's a combination of factors, you know. Yeah, like
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  we said, you know, societal norms. People were more trusting
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  back then, forensic science wasn't as advanced. But I think
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  it just goes to show you that, you know, you
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  can't always judge a book by its cover, you know,
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  and you have to be observant and question assumptions and
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  just realize that appearances can be very deceiving. Even the
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  people that seem the most harmless could be harboring these
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  dark secrets.
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  Speaker 1: And so if you're intrigued by Nanny Dass's story, we
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  encourage you to dig a little deeper, you know, into
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  this case and other historical true crime accounts. There's a
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  wealth of information out there. You know. They can teach
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  us a lot about the complexities of.
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  Speaker 3: Human behavior for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay curious.
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  Speaker 3: Expert Speaker