Nannie Doss was born in Blue Mountain, Alabama in 1905. Nannie was one of five children, with one brother and three sisters. She grew up with an abusive father, who sheltered her for most of her childhood. He frequently pulled his children out of school, without a second thought, to labor at their family farm. As a result, education was not a priority to Nannie, and she dropped out of school in the sixth grade.
At the age of 7, Nannie's life was forever changed. Nannie and her family were one a train ride, when the trian suddenly stopped, causing Nannie to be jolted forward and recieve a severe head injury. This incident caused Nannie to have frequent migraines, blackouts, and depression for most of her life. Nannie Doss later claimed that …show more content…
But the healthy girl died soon after being born for reasons that have not been explained. Later, Melvina recalled being in the hospital, in and out of conciousness, seeing her mother stick a hatpin into the temple of her newborn. There was no evidence found to prove this. About six months later, Melvina's little boy, Robert, died while in the care of Nannie due to asphxia from unknown causes. Soon after this incident, Nannie recieved $500 on an insurance policy that she had taken out on the boy.
Robert Harrelson died in September of 1945. Later, Nannie would exlpain that Robert came home drunk one night and raped her. The next day, out of revenge, she put rat poison in his jar of corn whiskey and watched him die a painful death.
After Harrelson's death, Nannie was back reading the lonely hearts column to find Husband #3. Within two days of meeting, Nannie and Arlie Lanning were married. Arlie was another alcoholic, but not an abusive one. Two and a half years of marriage later, Arlie died of what appeared to be a heart attack, but no further investigation was done. Arlie had left his house to his sister, but within two months, it was burned to the ground, and Nannie collected the insurance money. Around this time, Nannie moved in with her sick sister, who also died in the care of