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Her Deadly Web: The True Story of a Former Nurse and the Strange and Suspicious Deaths of Her Two Husbands
Raynella Dossett Leath said she came home one morning in 2003 and found her husband's body in bed―covered in blood, a Colt .38 by his side. But authorities were suspicious of Raynella's story. Why would her husband of ten years suddenly commit suicide? And if he had taken his own life, why did it appear that three shots were fired? David Leath was not the first of Raynella's husbands to turn up dead. After digging into Raynella's past, police unearthed bizarre, gruesome details surrounding the death of her first husband, who was seemingly trampled by his own cattle. Which led investigators to Could Raynella have staged his death, too? To those who knew her, Raynella was a loving mother of two, a good neighbor and friend, a nurse who always reached out a helping hand. Was this woman capable of killing both her husbands? And if Why did she do it―out of greed, jealousy, revenge? This is the story about what dark secrets were lurking inside HER DEADLY WEB .
272 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 3, 2012
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330 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 15, 2012
Enjoyable True-crime read about a black widow former nurse and the suspicious deaths of both of her husbands.
From the back:
Raynella Dossett Leath said she came home one morning in 2003 and found her husband's body in bed--covered in blood, a Colt.38 by his side. But authorities were suspicious of Raynella's story. Why would her husband of ten years suddenly commit suicide? And if he had taken his own life, why did it appear that three shots were fired?
David Leath was not the first of Raynella's husbands to turn up dead. After digging into Raynella's past, police unearthed bizarre, gruesome details surrounding the death of her first husband, who was seemingly trampled by his own cattle. Which led investigators to wonder : could Raynella have been involved in his death, too?
From the back:
Raynella Dossett Leath said she came home one morning in 2003 and found her husband's body in bed--covered in blood, a Colt.38 by his side. But authorities were suspicious of Raynella's story. Why would her husband of ten years suddenly commit suicide? And if he had taken his own life, why did it appear that three shots were fired?
David Leath was not the first of Raynella's husbands to turn up dead. After digging into Raynella's past, police unearthed bizarre, gruesome details surrounding the death of her first husband, who was seemingly trampled by his own cattle. Which led investigators to wonder : could Raynella have been involved in his death, too?
October 29, 2012
Only reading because this happened in my hometown and I personally know the accused and her family. Otherwise, this book is very poorly written. The story jumps around mercilessly and includes alot of small side stories that are incorporated in random places that have no bearing on the main story lines, which often leaves the reader very confused. Also, the use of grammar and the English language is absolutely horrendous for a writer that is not self published.
April 3, 2020
Diane Fanning has produced a book with such a wild cast of characters that were this a novel, no one would believe it. Raynella Dossett Leath killed her two husbands and nearly got away with it. No spoiler here. Her friends thought she was a loving, caring women; her husbands knew different. I have no idea how Fanning kept the cast of characters straight, but she did. I kept turning pages late into the night to finish it. She owes me three hours of sleep.
Seriously, if you love true crime as much as I do, you'll not put this down until the final page. Highly recommended as a cure for narcolepsy! LOL
Seriously, if you love true crime as much as I do, you'll not put this down until the final page. Highly recommended as a cure for narcolepsy! LOL
April 6, 2025
Interesting read. It shared other facts about Knoxville and true crime events that took place at the time Raynella’s case was active. I wish the title or chapter names said it would be a mix of stories. You’d be reading one chapter about Raynella then the next was on another case that happened. It was an abrupt transition. Can’t believe Raynella was released in 2017!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2025
as a lifelong knoxvillian and a true crime fanatic, i had no idea about this case until i got this book for christmas this year. holy moly this woman is bonkers and free how ?? wowzers
October 25, 2025
An above-average true crime book.
I'm not a big fan of true crime and some I've read are poorly written. I've certainly never four-starred one before. But these crimes took plane in Knoxville, TN, my home town and I was an interested by-stander through newspaper reports. I never met Raynella, but I know many of the other people involved.
This author isn't just a good writer, but a fine researcher. Taking the time to go back to the grandparents of the three people involved (Raynella and her two dead husbands) and tracing the history of Oak Ridge, TN ( main site of the Mahattan Project, which produced the atomic bombs that ended the war with Japan) is fascinating reading. It explains how all three came to be the people they were. Not that anything totally explains Raynella. She's a oner.
Actress Kate Hudson created a stir when she claimed that Knoxville was the deadest town her rocker husband ever played. As she put it diplomatically, "We had to make our own fun." Either Kate doesn't appreciate the entertainment value of political shenanigans or she doesn't know about the ones in Knoxville. Trust me, we have plenty of fun.
I'd expect more sympathy toward Raynella, at least from women. I always joke that I never blame a woman for killing her husband because she knows him better than we do. However, both Raynella's husbands sound like good men and it appears the murders were motivated from sheer greed.
We joke about Raynella's killer cows and the lengths she'd go to to get more pasture for them. We point out to our men friends that Raynella's probably NOT a good choice for a wife should they ever be single and hunting. Frankly, it's tough to feel sympathy for Raynella, although she has many friends, judging by the usually kind treatment she's received from the justice system.
Raynella's first husband was a fine man with a good heart. Other than the fact that he was carrying on a long-term affair with one of his office staff and fathered a child with her, he was a good husband and father. He was dying of cancer when his wife claimed he was trampled by cows. Meaning she got double insurance payout because he died accidentally. Nice.
Her second husband was rougher, but widely liked and partner in a busy barber shop. She convinced a shrink that he suffered from depression and (possibly) the beginning of dementia, leading to his suicide. The evidence showed otherwise.
Both husbands had massive amounts of seditives in their blood when they died, administered by their wife the nurse. She was never tried for the death of her first husband. People were suspicious that the Medical Examiner was so fast to call it an accident although he hadn't yet seen the lab blood report.
But then Pedigo the Predator had his own problems and was in the process of losing his office and having his medical license revoked. And (although she wasn't one of the good-looking young men he drugged and molested and photographed, he was a friend of Raynella. Soon another ME would be appointed, although she was booted out because of her drug addiction. Must be a tough job.
Her claim that her second husband committed suicide was shaky, given that he would have had to fire the third shot after he was dead. When the book ends, Raynella has been conviced of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
She made headlines for shooting at the husband of the woman who had a long-time affair with her first husband and gave birth to his child. He was the manager of the local transmission repair store and I met him when I had transmission work there. She claimed her cows (Raynella's cows again!) woke her up and she found the man peeing on her husband's grave. He says she called him out to talk and then tried to kill him. We agreed we could do without a lawyer and find another barber, but trying to kill a good transmission man was beyond the pale. However, she got the plea reduced and then the conviction erased. More evidence of the special privileges she got.
Happily (for Raynella and the two daughters who stuck by her), it was discoved that the judge who presided over her trials was bombed out of his mind at all of them. He was praised for starting a ground-breaking program to rehab drug dealers instead of jailing them. Our prisons are stuffed, so this looked like a good idea.
Until we found out he's an addict himself. I saw him when I was called for jury duty and he DID look bad, but I just figured he was a heavy drinker. The drug addiction could be forgiven, but he was getting sex from one of the females in the program in exchange for providing her with drugs. So he lost his job and went to prison. Most of the convictions from the trials he presided over were voided and had to be tried agaqin.
The weary DA's office went back in for a third trial. Very soon into that one, the judge astonished everyone by dismissing the jury, claiming there wasn't enought evidence for a trial. Even Raynella's defence lawyers were bumfuzzled.
So Raynella is a free woman again. However, she DID suffer and perhaps more than she would have in jail. In a civil trial, it was ruled the will she'd talked her second husband into signing was missing and assumed revoked. Therefore his daughter and only child got half of the small farm belonging to her father AND half of the big farm that Raynella inherited from her first husband.
It's widely believed Raynella acquired the second hubs because he owned land next to the Dossett farm. Not a big place, but enough for Raynella to yearn to get her hands on it. The plan backfired and I have to believe Raynella regrets she ever hatched it.
Will she murder the second husband's daughter? Or marry the judge who refused to retry her? Stay tuned. And Kate Hudson says we're boring!
I'm not a big fan of true crime and some I've read are poorly written. I've certainly never four-starred one before. But these crimes took plane in Knoxville, TN, my home town and I was an interested by-stander through newspaper reports. I never met Raynella, but I know many of the other people involved.
This author isn't just a good writer, but a fine researcher. Taking the time to go back to the grandparents of the three people involved (Raynella and her two dead husbands) and tracing the history of Oak Ridge, TN ( main site of the Mahattan Project, which produced the atomic bombs that ended the war with Japan) is fascinating reading. It explains how all three came to be the people they were. Not that anything totally explains Raynella. She's a oner.
Actress Kate Hudson created a stir when she claimed that Knoxville was the deadest town her rocker husband ever played. As she put it diplomatically, "We had to make our own fun." Either Kate doesn't appreciate the entertainment value of political shenanigans or she doesn't know about the ones in Knoxville. Trust me, we have plenty of fun.
I'd expect more sympathy toward Raynella, at least from women. I always joke that I never blame a woman for killing her husband because she knows him better than we do. However, both Raynella's husbands sound like good men and it appears the murders were motivated from sheer greed.
We joke about Raynella's killer cows and the lengths she'd go to to get more pasture for them. We point out to our men friends that Raynella's probably NOT a good choice for a wife should they ever be single and hunting. Frankly, it's tough to feel sympathy for Raynella, although she has many friends, judging by the usually kind treatment she's received from the justice system.
Raynella's first husband was a fine man with a good heart. Other than the fact that he was carrying on a long-term affair with one of his office staff and fathered a child with her, he was a good husband and father. He was dying of cancer when his wife claimed he was trampled by cows. Meaning she got double insurance payout because he died accidentally. Nice.
Her second husband was rougher, but widely liked and partner in a busy barber shop. She convinced a shrink that he suffered from depression and (possibly) the beginning of dementia, leading to his suicide. The evidence showed otherwise.
Both husbands had massive amounts of seditives in their blood when they died, administered by their wife the nurse. She was never tried for the death of her first husband. People were suspicious that the Medical Examiner was so fast to call it an accident although he hadn't yet seen the lab blood report.
But then Pedigo the Predator had his own problems and was in the process of losing his office and having his medical license revoked. And (although she wasn't one of the good-looking young men he drugged and molested and photographed, he was a friend of Raynella. Soon another ME would be appointed, although she was booted out because of her drug addiction. Must be a tough job.
Her claim that her second husband committed suicide was shaky, given that he would have had to fire the third shot after he was dead. When the book ends, Raynella has been conviced of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
She made headlines for shooting at the husband of the woman who had a long-time affair with her first husband and gave birth to his child. He was the manager of the local transmission repair store and I met him when I had transmission work there. She claimed her cows (Raynella's cows again!) woke her up and she found the man peeing on her husband's grave. He says she called him out to talk and then tried to kill him. We agreed we could do without a lawyer and find another barber, but trying to kill a good transmission man was beyond the pale. However, she got the plea reduced and then the conviction erased. More evidence of the special privileges she got.
Happily (for Raynella and the two daughters who stuck by her), it was discoved that the judge who presided over her trials was bombed out of his mind at all of them. He was praised for starting a ground-breaking program to rehab drug dealers instead of jailing them. Our prisons are stuffed, so this looked like a good idea.
Until we found out he's an addict himself. I saw him when I was called for jury duty and he DID look bad, but I just figured he was a heavy drinker. The drug addiction could be forgiven, but he was getting sex from one of the females in the program in exchange for providing her with drugs. So he lost his job and went to prison. Most of the convictions from the trials he presided over were voided and had to be tried agaqin.
The weary DA's office went back in for a third trial. Very soon into that one, the judge astonished everyone by dismissing the jury, claiming there wasn't enought evidence for a trial. Even Raynella's defence lawyers were bumfuzzled.
So Raynella is a free woman again. However, she DID suffer and perhaps more than she would have in jail. In a civil trial, it was ruled the will she'd talked her second husband into signing was missing and assumed revoked. Therefore his daughter and only child got half of the small farm belonging to her father AND half of the big farm that Raynella inherited from her first husband.
It's widely believed Raynella acquired the second hubs because he owned land next to the Dossett farm. Not a big place, but enough for Raynella to yearn to get her hands on it. The plan backfired and I have to believe Raynella regrets she ever hatched it.
Will she murder the second husband's daughter? Or marry the judge who refused to retry her? Stay tuned. And Kate Hudson says we're boring!
March 6, 2012
yep, another true crime time waster...this woman creeped me out.
February 16, 2025
Raynella Bernardene Large was born in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in 1948. Her father was a nuclear scientist, so the family moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where Raynella was raised. She attended school in Oak Ridge, and graduated college with her RN in Nursing. She married the Knox County District Attorney, Ed Dossett, in 1970. Dossett was found dead inside a corral at their home in 1992, and his death was ruled an agricultural accident despite his terminal cancer diagnosis and suspicions of Raynella and his insurance clause. Raynella remarried six months later. Her second husband was a retired barber, David Leath. Leath was discovered dead in the bedroom by Raynella in 2003. Suicide was suspected, but foul play on the part of Raynella was also suspected. This book goes into the investigations into the deaths of both of Raynella's husbands.
This book was particularly interesting to me, because this is the area I am from. I am in Chattanooga, which is about an hour and a half from Knoxville. I have visited Oak Ridge several times, and if you have the change to visit the nuclear history museums there, I suggest you do so. I have been to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg many times and am going up for the day this weekend to see the new Bodies Museum. I am always interested in court cases from places that are known to me. This book was sufficiently detailed and informative about the case. I did look up to see if there had been any new developments since this book was published and there have been. If you plan to read this book, definitely do some post reading research about Raynella.
This book was particularly interesting to me, because this is the area I am from. I am in Chattanooga, which is about an hour and a half from Knoxville. I have visited Oak Ridge several times, and if you have the change to visit the nuclear history museums there, I suggest you do so. I have been to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg many times and am going up for the day this weekend to see the new Bodies Museum. I am always interested in court cases from places that are known to me. This book was sufficiently detailed and informative about the case. I did look up to see if there had been any new developments since this book was published and there have been. If you plan to read this book, definitely do some post reading research about Raynella.
February 17, 2020
a real page turner... how can a woman that appears to be so sweet and kind commit such atrocities.. truly evil lurks within her heart..
December 29, 2022
A little slow at times, but interesting. Didn’t realize how corrupt Knox County was, so this was pretty interesting.
December 5, 2024
woman can be worst then man. this is a sad story.
May 19, 2012
Her Deadly Web is a true crime by Diane Fanning. It's the story of Raynella Dossett Leath who found her husband in bed, dead from an apparent suicide. There were some concerns, though. For one thing, apparently 3 shots were fired. And this wasn't the first husband Raynella had lost. And she doesn't wait too long before tying the knot again.
Rather than tell you the ending, I'll tell you what I liked about the book. Diane Fanning has written many true crimes. As in the past, she does extensive research, which shows in the pictures, detailed interviews, and court records. The people are real. Diane does not let you forget that these are real people.
But this story isn't just about the suspicious deaths of one woman's husbands. It's also the tale of how status in a community can act as a barrier between a high-standing suspect and police arrest.
I don't read much true crime, but when I do, I read ones written by Diane Fanning. She does so much research and has such a way of using the truth to bring the people to life.
If you like true crime, I can recommend Her Deadly Web by Diane Fanning. If this had been fiction, I wouldn't have believed anyone could get away with such crimes for so long. I give Her Deadly Web a rating of Hel-of-a-Story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FTC Disclaimer: I bought Her Deadly Web with my own money. I don't like to spend money, but doing so did not influence my review.
Rather than tell you the ending, I'll tell you what I liked about the book. Diane Fanning has written many true crimes. As in the past, she does extensive research, which shows in the pictures, detailed interviews, and court records. The people are real. Diane does not let you forget that these are real people.
But this story isn't just about the suspicious deaths of one woman's husbands. It's also the tale of how status in a community can act as a barrier between a high-standing suspect and police arrest.
I don't read much true crime, but when I do, I read ones written by Diane Fanning. She does so much research and has such a way of using the truth to bring the people to life.
If you like true crime, I can recommend Her Deadly Web by Diane Fanning. If this had been fiction, I wouldn't have believed anyone could get away with such crimes for so long. I give Her Deadly Web a rating of Hel-of-a-Story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FTC Disclaimer: I bought Her Deadly Web with my own money. I don't like to spend money, but doing so did not influence my review.
March 7, 2016
Raynella Dossett Leath is suspected of killing her husband David Leath in 2003 whom at first they taught committed suicide. She is also a suspect in the death of her first husband, Ed Dossett, in 1992. He supposedly died when trampled by a cattle stampede, but prosecutors now believe was killed with a lethal dose of morphine. Halfway through the book it becomes about Dr Pedigo, medical examiner that did the autopsy on Ed Dossett. I found most of it unnecessary. A few highlights on why he is not a credible person would have been enough to get the point across. Just write another book on Dr Pedigo. It does go back to the former nurse's story and all of the details are dragged trough the court system which has its own issues. Immediately following her conviction on the murder of David Leath,the charges relating to her first husband's death were dropped. Really? Just wow.
August 19, 2012
This book was ok. The case was good, but it seems like there was not enough background on Raynella or her first husband. There was also a lot of filler information. Not one of Diane's best, but it was still ok.
October 2, 2017
True Crime
A woman who was suspected of killing both her husbands, this story is an interesting one because of the two trials she went through. She was convicted after two trials of killing her second husband though I believe there was better evidence for the first one.
A woman who was suspected of killing both her husbands, this story is an interesting one because of the two trials she went through. She was convicted after two trials of killing her second husband though I believe there was better evidence for the first one.
January 17, 2012
I like this book.It takes place in Knoxville Tn where I currently live..Tells the story of a women who murders two of her husbands,
April 18, 2012
Interesting....
May 16, 2021
Mostly about a woman who kills two husbands, but it includes a lot of crimes in the Knoxville, Tennessee area.
November 3, 2013
I really enjoyed this book
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews