Janie Lou Gibbs was born on December 25, 1932, in Cordele, Georgia. She grew up in a small town where family and community were important. Janie was known for her involvement in her local church. She became a dedicated member of the church community and took pride in her contributions.

After some time, Janie got married to a man named Marvin. They were married for 18 years. During this time, she became a mother and eventually started operating a daycare from her home. This allowed her to be around children and provide care for them while also raising her own family.

In 1965, Janie Lou Gibbs poisoned her husband, Charles, by adding arsenic to his dinner. While he was in the hospital, she also brought him homemade soup that contained more poison. He died on January 21, 1966, but doctors believed he suffered from liver disease. After his death, Gibbs received support from the local church and donated part of his life insurance to them.

Eight months later, Gibbs poisoned her youngest son, Marvin, who was only 13 years old. He died on August 29, 1966. Doctors thought he had inherited a liver disease, but his death certificate cited hepatitis. Gibbs was not suspected of any crime, and yet again, she donated a significant amount of life insurance money to the church.

On January 23, 1967, Gibbs's 16-year-old son, Melvin, died suddenly. Doctors attributed his death to a rare muscular disorder. Gibbs continued to donate most of the life insurance payout to the church. At this point, she had one son left, Robert, who was 19 years old. Robert had recently become a father to a child named Raymond, and Gibbs seemed happy to be a grandmother.

Soon, Raymond fell ill and died, followed by Robert's sudden death just a month later. The family doctor grew suspicious and referred the case to the state crime lab for further investigation. An autopsy on Robert revealed a fatal amount of arsenic in his system. This led to Gibbs’s arrest for murder on Christmas Day. The bodies of her husband and two other sons were exhumed, and tests confirmed they too had arsenic.

Initially, Gibbs was found mentally unfit to stand trial and was sent to a mental institution, where she worked as a cook. Eventually, she was declared fit for trial and sentenced to five life sentences. Gibbs remained in prison until 1999 due to a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, at which point she was released into her sister's custody. She died in a nursing home in Douglasville, Georgia, in 2010.