S1 Ep4: Nannie Doss: The Murderous Giggling G...

In 1976, a woman survived a brutal kidnapping and stabbing in a San Diego parking lot. The man accused of the attack was Edgar Smith—once a cause célèbre, hailed as a wrongfully convicted intellectual. His release had been celebrated by writers, editors and influential public fig ...  Show more

In 1957, Edgar Smith was sentenced to death for the murder of a teenage girl in New Jersey. From his prison cell, he began writing letters, essays and arguments build a case not in court, but on the page. One of those letters landed on the desk of William F. Buckley Jr. Others fo ...  Show more

This week the boys are back and were talking about one of the most prolific black widow killers of the early 20th century, Nannie Doss aka The "Giggling Granny", who in her lifelong pursuit for true romance, left a trail of dead family members in her wake.
 

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When Nannie's father dies of natural causes, her mother Louise moved in with Nannie. It does not take long before Louise also got great stomach pains and died in a mysterious way. No one suspected that good, kind Nannie has anything to do with all the deaths around her. But, s ...

When the crimes of Nannie Doss came to light the press gave her nicknames like "The Giggling Granny" and "The Jolly Widow." This was due to Nannie's behavior towards the police and in the courtroom. She acted like everything was a game. The truth was much more severe because N ...

Today, we’re bringing you an episode from another Pushkin show, Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. This episode is based on Killers of the Flower Moon, with permission from its author, David Grann. Minnie Smith grew sick quite suddenly. She had been young, fit and healthy; the do ...  Show more