Crime Chronicles: Jolly Jane Toppan

*Sigh* You know how whenever you think you've seen everything, something new comes along? Our last three entries in the Crime Chronicles series were on:

1. Ronald Clarke O'Bryan
2. Erzsebet Bathory
3. Delphine Lalaurie

These were not nice people, O'Bryan murdered his eight year old son with cyanide and ruined a perfectly good holiday in the process. Bathory and Lalaurie were just psychos who harmed their servants and, in Bathory's case, complete strangers because they could get away with it. So, what could possibly be worse than those three or any of the other monstrous individuals we've covered? How 'bout a nurse who got sexual satisfaction out of killing? Yeah, this is likely to get a bit...uncomfortable.

Becoming Jane

Boston, Massachusetts, March 31, 1854. Bridget Kelley and her husband, Peter, welcome a baby girl, Honora Kelley, to the world. Sadly, however, Honora's time with the Kelleys is short-lived. Her mother, Bridget, passed away from tuberculosis when she was very young. Her father, Peter, was...well...nutty.

Peter Kelley was known to be an abusive alcoholic and bore the nickname "Kelley the Crack" - not very flattering, is it? In 1860, Peter took Honora - then aged six and her eight year old sister, Delia and surrendered them to a local children's shelter for girls - The Boston Female Asylum. From there, Peter Kelley disappears from their lives forever. There are no records of their time in the asylum, but it's speculated that Delia became a prostitute at some point.

Honora Kelley, meanwhile, was sent to the home of one Ann C. Toppan in Lowell Massachusetts to work as a servant. This was in 1862. She eventually adopted the Toppans' last name and changed her name - becoming Jane Toppan.

Criminal Tendencies

Jane began her nursing training in 1885 at Cambridge Hospital where she was very well-liked and known for her friendly demeanor. This is where she got the nickname 'Jolly Jane'. Unfortunately, 1885 is also the year wherein her criminal activities begin. See, a lot of her patients were either elderly or very ill, often both.

She would gain their trust and then use them as guinea pigs, and I mean that literally. Jane would experiment on patients by altering prescribed doses of morphine and atropine to see what the effects would be - this is something that another poisoner, Graham Young, would do years later.

In 1889, she got a job at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Her employment there didn't last long but, before being fired in 1890, Jane was able to add more victims to her list. She subsequently returned to Cambridge Hospital for a bit, until she was busted recklessly administering opiates to patients and given the sack.

A Callous Carer

Her killing spree began in earnest in 1895, and she later identified 12 victims. I should note that these are the victims that Jane IDENTIFIED. She confessed to 31 killings, but there could be 100+ for all we know. With that said, let's see who's who, shall we?

Israel and Lovely Dunham were Jane's landlords at the time of their deaths. Israel died first with his wife following two years later, they were 83 and 87 years old respectively. Elizabeth Brigham was, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, Jane's foster sister - gee, so much for family. Liz was 70 at the time of her passing.

Mary McNear was a 70 year old patient of Toppan's at the time of her death. Florence Calkins was Elizabeth's housekeeper, she was 45 when she fell foul of Jolly Jane. William Ingraham and Sarah Connors were both patients of Jane at the time of their passings and Sarah was also Jane's friend...I guess she didn't need an enemy. They were aged 70 and 48 respectively. Edna Bannister was Elizabeth's 77 year old sister-in-law at the time of her death in 1901.

Her last set of victims was the Davis family, and I think at this point she'd gotten cocky. Why? Because most of her victims were elderly or very sick or both (as I noted earlier) so it's likely that nobody batted an eye at their deaths - meaning she got away with it. When she moved in to care for Alden Davis and his family, she had the perfect setup.

Her first victim in the family was Alden's wife 62 year old Mattie Davis, she died on July 4, 1901. Alden and Mattie's daughter Genevieve died later that month on July 30, 1901. Alden Davis died on August 8, 1901 at the age of 64. Just a week later on August 13, 1901, Mary Davis, Genevieve's sister, also died. She was the last identified victim and, as near as I can tell, the youngest of Jolly Jane Toppan's victims at 40 years old.

Jolly Jane's Arrest

So, to recap; over the course of a month and a bit, an entire family is almost wiped out. The only common denominator is Jane Toppan. With that in mind, surviving Davis family members had a toxicology exam done on Minnie Davis' body. The medical examiner subsequently found evidence of poisoning (lethal doses of morphine) in the body.

Jane Toppan was placed under surveillance and arrested for murder in 1902.

Before I continue, I think it's only fair to warn you guys, this is going to get a little...gross. You've been warned so, on with the show!

A Disturbing Confession

After Jane's arrest, a local newspaper came out with some...disturbing information. Toppan would allegedly crawl into bed with her victims and...erm...touch and cuddle them...Ew!

Over the course, of her confession, Jane admitted to getting sexual pleasure from watching her victims die (again, ew!) and, at one point admitted to 31 poisonings. It was also reported that she wanted to kill more people than any other killer - male or female - who ever lived.

The End of an Angel of Mercy

Jane Toppan is classified as what's called an Angel of Mercy. Basically, what that means is the killer - in this case, Toppan - takes on the role of a caretaker and preys on vulnerable or dependent individuals. Patients with terminal illnesses or crippling physical disabilities are common prey for these types of killers, from what I understand. Given that she also, by her own admission, got a sexual thrill out of killing, I'd say she probably qualifies as a lust killer as well.

Now, usually, this is where I'd talk about the investigation and resulting trial, but there's a problem. I couldn't find anything on the trial itself. What I did find was that Jane wanted to be found sane by a jury to have a shot at freedom in the future. To that end, she proclaimed her sanity in court saying that she knew what she was doing and that it was wrong therefore she was not insane.

The jury, however, disagreed and, on June 23, 1902, Jane Toppan was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She was committed to the Taunton Insane Hospital where she stayed for the rest of her life before dying in 1938 at the age of 84.

Questioning Humanity

This is one of those stories that makes you question humanity as a species. Where in blazes did evolution go so wrong that we've got weirdos like this prowling the streets? The really sick thing is that there are so many of them out there - Harold Shipman, Kristen Gilbert, Lucy Letby (whom we talked about in our second entry to the series) - it makes one wonder just how safe they are in a medical setting.