Jane Toppan
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Jane Toppan (born Honora Kelley; March 31, 1854 – August 17, 1938), nicknamed Jolly Jane, was an American
serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
who is believed to have murdered over 100 people in
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
between 1895 and 1901. She confessed to 31 murders. The killings were carried out in Toppan's capacity as a
nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
, targeting patients and their family members. Toppan, who admitted to have committed the murders to satisfy a
sexual fetish Sexual fetishism is a sexual fixation on an object or a body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish is a fetishist. A sexual fetish may be regarded as a mental disorder if it causes significant psychoso ...
, was quoted as saying that her ambition was "to have killed more people—helpless people—than any other man or woman who ever lived".


Early life

Jane Toppan was born Honora Kelley on March 31, 1854, in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, the daughter of Irish immigrants. Her mother, Bridget Kelley, died of
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
when she was very young. Her father, Peter Kelley, was well known as an eccentric and abusive
alcoholic Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...
, nicknamed by those who knew him "Kelley the Crack" (as in "crackpot"). In later years, Kelley was said to have sewn his own eyelids closed while working as a tailor. In 1860, only a few years after his wife's death, Kelley surrendered his two youngest children, eight-year-old Delia Josephine and six-year-old Honora, to the
Boston Female Asylum The Boston Female Asylum (1803–1910) was an orphanage in Boston, Massachusetts, US "for the care of indigent girls."U.S. Bureau of the Census. Benevolent institutions, 1904; p.78 Its mission was to "receive ... protect ... and instruct ... fema ...
, an
orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...
for indigent female children; he never saw them again. Documents from the asylum note that Delia and Honora were "rescued from a very miserable home". No records exist of their experiences during their time in the asylum, but reportedly, Delia became a
prostitute Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...
while their older sister Nellie (who was not committed to the orphanage) was committed to an
insane asylum The lunatic asylum, insane asylum or mental asylum was an institution where people with mental illness were confined. It was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. Modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from and eventually replace ...
. In November 1862, less than two years after being abandoned by her father, Honora was placed as an
indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of Work (human activity), labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as paymen ...
in the home of Mrs. Ann C. Toppan of
Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, United States. Alongside Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, it is one of two traditional county seat, seats of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in ...
. Though never formally
adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
by the Toppans, Honora took on the surname of her benefactors to distance herself from her former family and eventually became known as Jane Toppan. The original Toppan family already had a daughter, Elizabeth, with whom Honora was on good terms.


Murders

In 1885, Toppan began training to be a
nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
at
Cambridge Hospital Cambridge hospital may refer to the following: United Kingdom *Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, an NHS foundation trust which manages the following hospitals in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom **Addenbrooke's Hospital **Ro ...
. Unlike her early years, where she was described as brilliant and terrible, at the hospital she was well-liked, bright, and friendly, earning her the nickname "Jolly Jane". Once she became close with the patients, she picked her favorite ones, who were normally elderly and very sick. During her residency, Toppan used her patients as guinea pigs in experiments with
morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
and
atropine Atropine is a tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic medication used to treat certain types of nerve agent and pesticide poisonings as well as some types of slow heart rate, and to decrease saliva production during surgery. It is typically give ...
; she altered their prescribed dosages to see what it did to their
nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...
s. However, she spent considerable time alone with patients, making up fake charts, medicating them to drift in and out of consciousness, and even getting into bed with them. Toppan was recommended for the prestigious
Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...
in 1889; there, she claimed several more victims before being fired the following year. She briefly returned to Cambridge but was soon dismissed for administering
opiate An opiate is an alkaloid substance derived from opium (or poppy straw). It differs from the similar term ''opioid'' in that the latter is used to designate all substances, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain ( ...
s recklessly. Toppan then began a career as a private nurse and flourished despite complaints of petty theft. Toppan began her poisoning spree in earnest in 1895 by killing her landlord, Israel Dunham, and his wife. In 1899 she killed her foster sister Elizabeth with a dose of
strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...
. In 1901, Toppan moved in with the elderly Alden Davis and his family in Cataumet to take care of him after the death of his wife, Mattie (whom Toppan had murdered). Within weeks, she killed Davis, his sister Edna, and two of his daughters, Minnie and Genevieve. The surviving members of the Davis family ordered a
toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating ex ...
exam on Minnie, which determined that she had been poisoned. Local authorities assigned a police detail on Toppan to watch her. On October 29, 1901, she was arrested for murder. By 1902, she had confessed to thirty-one murders. Soon after the trial, one of
William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
's newspapers, the ''
New York Journal :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 ...
'', printed what was purported to be Toppan's confession to her lawyer, claiming that she had killed more than thirty-one people, and that she wanted the jury to find her sane so she could eventually have a chance at being released. Toppan insisted upon her own sanity in court, claiming that she could not be insane if she knew what she was doing and knew that it was wrong, but nonetheless she was declared insane and committed. On June 23, 1902, in the Barnstable County Courthouse, she was found
not guilty by reason of insanity Not or NOT may also refer to: Language * Not, the general declarative form of "no", indicating a negation of a related statement that usually precedes * ... Not!, a grammatical construction used as a contradiction, popularized in the early 1990 ...
and committed for life in the Taunton Insane Hospital. She died there on August 17, 1938, at the age of 81.


Victims

Victims Toppan identified are: *Israel Dunham: patient, died on May 26, 1895, aged 83 *Lovely Dunham: patient, died on September 19, 1897, aged 87 *Elizabeth Brigham: foster sister, died on August 29, 1899, aged 70 *Mary McNear: patient, died on December 29, 1899, aged 70 *Florence Calkins: housekeeper for Elizabeth, died on January 15, 1900, aged 45 * William Ingraham: patient, died on January 27, 1900, aged 70 * Sarah (Myra) Connors: patient and friend, died on February 11, 1900, aged 48 * Edna Bannister: sister-in-law of Elizabeth, died on June 19, 1901, aged 77 * Mattie Davis: Wife of Alden Davis, died on July 4, 1901, aged 62 * Genevieve Gordon (Annie): daughter of Alden and Mattie Davis, died on July 30, 1901 * Alden Davis: died on August 8, 1901, aged 64 * Mary (Minnie) Gibbs: daughter of Alden and Mattie, died on August 13, 1901, aged 40


Motives

An article in the ''Hoosier State Chronicles'', published shortly after the arrest, reported that Toppan would fondle her victims as they died and attempt to see the inner workings of their souls through their eyes. Under questioning, she stated she derived a sexual thrill from patients being near death, coming back to life and then dying again. Toppan administered a drug mixture to the patients she chose as her victims, lay with them, and held them close as they died. Toppan is often considered an " angel of mercy", a type of serial killer who takes on a caretaker role and attacks the vulnerable and dependent, though she also murdered for seemingly more personal reasons, such as in the case of the Davis family. It is possible Toppan was also motivated by jealousy, in the case of the murder of her foster sister. She later described her motivation as a paralysis of thought and reason, a strong urge to poison. Toppan used poison for more than just murder, reportedly poisoning a housekeeper just enough so that she appeared drunk in order to steal her job and kill the family. She even poisoned herself to evoke the sympathy of men who courted her.


See also

* Serial killers with health related professions *
List of serial killers in the United States A serial killer is typically a person who kills three or more people, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines serial murder a ...
*
List of serial killers by number of victims A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more people, in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons.''Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying'' entry o"Serial Killers" (2003) by Sa ...


References


Sources

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External links


Profile
crimemuseum.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Toppan, Jane Female necrophiles 1854 births 1938 deaths 19th-century American murderers 19th-century American women 20th-century American murderers 20th-century American people 20th-century American women American female serial killers American people of Irish descent American women nurses Medical serial killers Necrophiles Nurses convicted of murdering patients Nurses from Massachusetts People acquitted by reason of insanity People from Lowell, Massachusetts People from Taunton, Massachusetts Poisoners Serial killers from Massachusetts