Criminal Masterminds

by Anne Williams

  Not only did he stop her from watching her beloved television, but he also denied her the pleasure of reading her favourite romance magazines. He told her that, ‘Christian women don’t need a television or romance magazines to be happy,’ adding that they were the route to all evil. Bedtime in the Doss household was strictly at 9.30 p.m. and sex was very limited. The boring life soon became too much for Nannie, and she packed her bags and headed back to Alabama. Sam was soon hot on her heels, writing letters saying that he was prepared to change his ways. To show how much he loved her, Sam said that he was prepared to open up a bank account in her own name, so that she could spend money when she liked. However, when she continued to ignore his advances, Sam made the final sacrifice and took out two life insurance policies, naming Nannie as the sole beneficiary. This turned out to be a very big mistake – in effect signing his own death warrant.

  Nannie returned to Oklahoma and for a month life seemed to be going well. However, one evening in September 1953, Sam sat down to a dinner prepared by his loving wife. After the main course, Sam pushed his plate aside and cut himself a piece of Nannie’s famous prune cake. By the evening, like his predecessors, Sam was writhing in agony. Over the next couple of days he lost a lot of weight and eventually he had to be admitted to hospital. He stayed there for twenty-three days and was diagnosed with having a severe digestional tract infection.

  Sam was released on October 5 and Nannie, who was disgusted that he should have survived her first attempt, went right back to where she had started. She had prepared him a special welcome-home dinner promising him that it would soon ‘have him back on his feet’. She had cooked him a delicious roast pork dinner, which was in fact quite harmless. It was the coffee that followed that was laced with arsenic. By midnight, Sam Doss was dead.

  Nannie’s big mistake on this occasion was, in her hurry to kill husband number four, she hadn’t waited long enough. Doctor Schwelbein, who was very upset by the death of his patient, decided to order an autopsy. He knew that Sam was healthy when he left hospital and to him it didn’t make any sense. His suspicions were justified, Sam Doss had not died of natural causes. In the intestines and stomach, the doctor found enough arsenic to kill several horses. Nannie, who was unable to give an explanation about the poison, was immediately arrested.

  the giggling granny

  During the hours of interrogation, Nannie behaved like a giggling schoolgirl. She kept maintaining that she was innocent and spent all the time thumbing through the pages of her beloved magazines, saying that she was convinced that she would find her ultimate mate. The investigator assigned to the case, special agent Ray Page, was getting extremely frustrated and told Nannie to put the magazine down and to pay attention to what he was saying. It was hard for him to get angry with a woman who appeared to be a sweet grey-haired, old grandmother.

  Eventually, after various phone calls, Page learned that Nannie’s previous three husbands had all died under similar circumstances. When the agent confronted her, Nannie replied, ‘Are you saying, young man, that I killed all my husbands?’ and broke into a fit of giggles.

  Finally, Page could stand it no more and tore the magazine out of Nannie’s hands, telling her that he was aware that many other people who Nannie had associated with had dropped dead.

  Without her magazine to keep her amused, Nannie seemed to lose spirit, and eventually said, ‘All right, all right.’ She confessed to having murdered Sam Doss, saying that he had been a miser and hadn’t allowed her the pleasures of television or her magazines.

  ‘OK, there you have it. Can I have my magazine back now?’ Nannie asked, seemingly unrepentant.

  Agent Page said she could have it back as soon as they had talked about her other husbands. Nannie paused for a moment and thought, and then asked if they would return her magazine if she told them everything. Page promised and Nannie shrugged and winked at the agent saying, ‘It’s a deal’. Page could hardly believe what he was hearing. She told him that all she had ever wanted was a man to love her and take care of her, but she had always ended up with a ‘baddun’. The confessions followed one after another and Page, who just shook his head in disbelief, simply handed Nannie back her copy of Romantic Hearts.

  The following day agent Page and other detectives flew from Alabama to Kansas and North Carolina, and arranged for the bodies of Nannie’s husbands, her sister Dovie, mother Louisa, grandson Robert and Arlie Lanning’s mother to be exhumed. Investigators found arsenic in the bodies of all her husbands and Nannie’s own mother. The remaining members of her family had most probably been smothered in their sleep. When Page requested that the bodies of Nannie’s two daughters be exhumed, the request was denied as the government felt they already had enough evidence to put the granny away for the rest of her life.

  Although Nannie was wanted in other states, she was only tried in Oklahoma. Nannie was declared fit to stand trial and the date was set for June 2, 1955 in the criminal court of Tula. However, her lawyers advised her to plead guilty to avoid going to trial, and she was subsequently given life imprisonment. She was spared the death penalty because she was a woman, but Nannie spent the remainder of her days in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary dreaming of eternal love. Nannie Doss died of leukaemia on the prison’s hospital ward in 1965.

  Phoolan Devi

  Phoolan Devi was one of India’s best-known women, who was literally adored by thousands of lower-caste Hindus. Her career in crime started out as a quest for revenge against the traitorous Ram brothers, Sri Ram Singh and Lala Ram Singh. Sri Ram was the leader of a notorious gang of dacoits who incurred the wrath of Phoolan by murdering her lover, Vikram Mallah, while he slept at her side.

  her early life

  Phoolan Devi was born on August 10, 1963, in the village of Gorha Ka Purwa, Uttar Pradesh, in India. Her family were sub-caste boatmen called mallah and she was the second child in a family of four sisters and one younger brother. Even though the mallah were poor, Phoolan learned pride from a very early age. Her father, Devidin, was a meek man with little backbone, who owned about an acre of land and a valuable Neem tree that grew on it. Phoolan and her sisters were constantly raped and beaten by their uncle, Bihari, who had made sure that the family inheritance belonged to him.

  When Bihari died, he bequeathed the estate to his eldest son, Mayadin, and even as a young child Phoolan distrusted her cousin. She was right to distrust him, because it wasn’t long before Mayadin showed his darker side. One night, while Phoolan’s parents were away, Mayadin sent some men to cut down Devidin’s Neem tree. He intended to sell the valuable wood and take the proceeds for himself.

  When her father returned and saw that the tree had been felled, he said nothing, knowing that it would be futile to fight back. Phoolan was appalled by her father’s lack of mettle and decided to take matters into her own hands. She was fearless and headstrong and confronted her cousin, demanding compensation for the Neem tree. Mayadin totally ignored her, but when she taunted him in public, he finally lost his patience and threw a brick at her head, knocking Phoolin unconscious.

  Despite the beating, Phoolin was not prepared to give up and continued to jeer at her cousin, making him a public spectacle. Mayadin decided that he would silence Phoolin once and for all, and he arranged for her to be married to a man called Putti Lal who lived some distance away from her village. At the time Phoolin was eleven, while Putti Lal was a man in his thirties. As a young girl, Phoolin had no idea what was expected of her in a marriage, and she was soon subjected to more rape and abuse. When she saw the sight of his penis, or ‘snake’ as she called it, she was so frightened she cried and pleaded with him not to come near her. Fed up with fighting with his feisty young wife, Putti Lal, who already had another wife, decided to give Phoolin menial duties around the house. She was so miserable that she ran away from her husband and managed to walk all the way home, despite the fact that it was an exceptionally long way.

  When she arrived back at her village, her family were horrifie
d, a woman didn’t simply leave her husband – it was unheard of in their culture. Her mother was so ashamed of her daughter, that she told her to jump in the well and kill herself. Phoolan ignored her mother’s rantings, annoyed that anyone should decide her fate for her, and she decided to stay put and accept her family’s condemnations. She never let up on Mayadin, even going as far as taking him to court for seizing property that belonged to her father. In court she would shout and cause a scene, resulting in her having to be physically removed.

  Mayadin retaliated and accused Phoolin of stealing from his house. Phoolin adamantly denied the accusation, but was arrested anyway and received abuse at the hands of the police. After being beaten and raped she was thrown face-down into a cell full of rats and left there to die. She knew that her cousin was behind this injustice and, despite the fact that her body was greatly weakened, her mind and will became stronger and stronger. It was while lying in that cell that Phoolin developed a strong hatred for the way the majority of men treated women.

  THE DACOITS

  In July 1979, a gang of dacoits (or armed robbers), led by their notorious leader Babu Gujar Singh, set up camp on the edge of Phoolin’s village. The villagers felt threatened by their presence and Phoolin, now freed from her cell, told the people of Gorha Ka Purwa to stand up for themselves. Babu Gujar, who learned of Phoolin’s impertinence, sent her a note saying that if she continued in that manner he would kidnap her and cut off her nose. This was a traditional punishment for women who stepped out of line.

  The next chain of events is only supposition, because Phoolin herself gave conflicting stories of what exactly happened. Apparently Phoolin was abducted from her village and taken to the dacoit camp, which was deep in the jungle, a trek which took several days. In the dacoit gang there were two factions – the thakurs, led by Babu Gujar Singh, and the mallahs, led by Vickram Mallah. Vickram had been impressed by Phoolin the first time he saw her, and realised she had a strength beyond most mallah women. When Babu Gujar attempted to rape Phoolin time and time again, Vickram tried to defend her, much to the annoyance of Babu Gujar.

  He asked Vikram why Phoolan was so special, when they had raped so many girls before.

  Vickram replied, ‘I told you not to touch her. She belongs to my community . . . If you touch her, I’ll shoot you.’

  Babu Gujar ignored Vickram and continued to abuse Phoolan, which resulted in Vickram killing him and taking over as leader of the dacoits. Phoolan had great respect for Vickram and it wasn’t long before they became lovers. He became her mentor and taught Phoolin how to use a rifle, and before long she took part in all the gang’s activities. For once in her life her bold and fearless nature was respected, and she saw their raids as a way of oppressing the upper-castes and redistributing their wealth.

  Phoolan and Vickram enjoyed a life of romance and adventure, similar to that of Bonnie and Clyde. Vickram was the first person to show Phoolan that life could be good and he treated her well. However, just like Bonnie and Clyde, the good times were soon to run out.

  the rival

  Sri Ram was a member of the thakur caste, who had spent time in prison with Vikram. In prison Sri Ram became Vikram’s ‘guru’ and taught him many lessons on the ways of gang life. When Vikram was released from prison, he managed to raise 80,000 rupees to bail out Sri Ram and his brother Lala Ram. On his release, Vikram told Sri Ram that due to his seniority and experience he should take over as leader of the dacoit gang, but this met with a lot of opposition from other members as they were distrustful of Sri Ram. Phoolan was also doubtful about Vikram’s decision and made her feelings known. Gradually the gang divided into two separate factions – Vikram’s men and Sri Ram’s men.

  Phoolan and Vikram had been invited to a wedding in a neighbouring village, and as they prepared to leave with some of their gang members, the two Ram brothers approached them and told them they would like to come as well. They set off down the road just after it turned dark, carrying torches to light their way. After a couple of hours they stopped along the road to buy some melon, but as Vikram went to take his first bite, two shots rang out from a field close by. Vikram immediately collapsed on the floor and when Phoolan rushed over to him, she found he had been shot twice in the back.

  She looked around and noticed that Sri Ram was missing. Due to the rivalry between him and Vikram, she had no doubt that he had been the one that had fired the shots. To try and stem the flow of blood coming from Vikram’s wounds, Phoolan tied cloth around his torso and managed to get him carried to a doctor. After being examined, the doctor said it would be too dangerous to remove the bullet as it was lodged too close to his spine. Vikram was expected to die, but despite the doctor’s prognosis, several weeks later he was able to get out of bed and walk.

  As Vikram became stronger, he gathered his gang members around him and soon they were back to their old ways of raiding and looting. However, tension within the gang was rife and Phoolan could not rest easy at night. She would sit outside his tent with her rifle poised. One evening she let her guard drop and decided to spend the night with her lover, but she was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of gunfire. As her eyes started to focus in the dark she could clearly see the outline of Sri Ram holding a gun as Vikram whispered, ‘Phoolan. It’s him. The bastard shot me . . .’

  Sri Ram dragged Phoolan from the tent and when she struggled he hit her over the head with the butt of his rifle. She was carried to the river and forced onto a boat. As the boat was pushed away from the shore she turned to Sri Ram and asked him why he hadn’t killed her as well.

  ‘Oh, you can still be a great deal of use,’ Sri Ram replied with a grotesque smirk on his face.

  torture and humiliation

  When the boat pulled into the bank, Phoolan, who had been dragged naked from her tent, had to put up with further humiliation as she was led into a village. She was made to stand in the centre of the village while Sri Ram publicly declared that she had just killed her lover, Vikram. This news incited the men of the village and they demanded that she should be punished. Sri Ram was the first to rape her and then she was literally passed from man to man. Added to this she was beaten and cursed and called a ‘mallah whore’. Phoolan had to endure this type of torture for over three weeks. She was bruised and filthy from being dragged around on the end of a leash like a dog, but all the time she resolved to keep her strength so that she could one day get her revenge.

  When Phoolan felt she could take no more she was finally rescued by an elderly Brahmin. Her face was barely recognizable, it was so swollen and covered with blood. Her rescuer managed to sneak into the camp where the dacoits were holding Phoolin, and he took her away on the back on a cart drawn by an ox. He took her deep into the jungle where she was nursed back to health by one of the villager’s wives. Although most of her wounds had healed, there was one that would never recover, and that was her hatred of Sri Ram.

  PHOOLAN’S OWN GANG

  As soon as Phoolan was well enough to leave the jungle, she started building up her own band of dacoits. She arranged for the kidnap of two wealthy merchants, for which she earned 50,000 rupees in ransom and she approached another dacoit leader, Baba Muskatim, who she knew sympathised with her plight. Muskatim gave her ten of his own men to start her gang. One of the men she chose was a tall, bearded man with long black hair, called Man Singh. He told Phoolan to wear a red cloth tied round her head to symbolise her mission to get revenge. With Singh’s help, Phoolan’s hunt for Sri Ram began in earnest.

  She went from village to village and became famous as an avenger for women rights. As soon as she heard of a rape or any abuse against a woman, she took it into her own hands to punish the man concerned. Phoolan interrogated villagers to try and glean information about the whereabouts of Sri Ram. Eventually, her thoroughness paid off and she found out that Sri Ram and his gang were in hiding in Behmai, a thakur village close to where she had been tortured. She led her gang to a village close to Behmai, but decided to
lay low until she had perfected a plan of ambush. She was determined that she was not going to let Sri Ram get away.

  When they finally attacked the village on February 14, 1981, Phoolan divided her men into separate groups so that they approached from all sides. However, they did not have the result they had hoped for as Sri Ram and his brother were nowhere to be found. Phoolan was angry and was convinced that the villagers were hiding the Ram brothers. She told her men to round up all the young thakur men and bring them to her in the town square. Here she told the thakurs to line up and threatened them with death if they didn’t tell her where the Ram brothers were hiding. The thakurs pleaded ignorance, but Phoolan still didn’t believe them and started to hit them in the groin with the butt of her rifle. When they still denied knowledge of the men’s hideout, Phoolan became even more enraged and ordered her men to start shooting at them. When her fury was spent, twenty-two of the thirty young men were dead.

  the bandit queen

  After the massacre at Behmai, the police began an intensive hunt to find Phoolan Devi. By this time her reputation had spread far and wide, and she had been given the name of ‘Bandit Queen’. Dolls of Phoolan Devi, dressed as the Hindu goddess, Durga, were being sold in the markets of Uttar Pradesh and she was being glorified by the Indian media.

  After two years of searching, the police came no closer to arresting Phoolan, and Indira Gandhi decided to try and negotiate a surrender. In 1983, Phoolan was in poor health and many members of her gang members were dead. In February, no longer having the strength to fight, Phoolan agreed to a surrender to the authorities. Phoolan dictated the terms of the surrender as she said she didn’t trust the police of Uttar Pradesh. She stated that she would only lay down her arms in front of Mahatma Gandhi and the Goddess Durga and not the police. She also made a list of conditions: