Killer Nurse: Jane "Jolly Jane" Toppan

                                    

                                          


                          
		
                          
Jane Toppan (March 31, 1854 –August 17, 1938), born Honora Kelley, was an American serial killer,nicknamed "Jolly Jane". After her arrest in 1901,she confessed to 31 murders. Toppan is quoted as saying that herambition was "to have killed more people—helplesspeople—than any other man or woman who ever lived".
                          


                          
Early life
                          


                          
Jane Toppan was born Honora Kelley onMarch 31, 1854, the daughter of Irish immigrants.  Her mother,Bridget Kelley, died of tuberculosis when she was very young.  Herfather, Peter Kelley, was well known as an eccentric and abusivealcoholic, nicknamed by those who knew him "Kelley the Crack"(as in "crackpot").  In later years, Kelley becamethe source of many local rumors concerning his supposed insanity, themost popular of which being that his madness finally drove him to sewhis own eyelids closed while working as a tailor.
                          


                          
In 1860, only a few years after hiswife's death, Kelley took his two youngest children, eight-year-oldDelia Josephine and six-year-old Honora, to the Boston Female Asylum,an orphanage for indigent female children. Kelley surrendered the twogirls, never to see them again. Documents from the asylum note thatthey were "rescued from a very miserable home".
                          


                          
No records exist of Delia and Honora'sexperiences during their time in the asylum, but reportedly Deliabecame a prostitute, while their older sister Nellie (who was notcommitted to the orphanage) was committed to an insane asylum.  InNovember 1862, less than two years after her father had left them,Honora Kelley was placed as an indentured servant in the home of Mrs.Ann C. Toppan of Lowell, Massachusetts. Though never formally adoptedby the Toppans, Honora took on the surname of her benefactors andeventually became known as Toppan.  The original Toppan familyalready had a daughter, Elizabeth, whom Honora was on good termswith.
                          


                          
Motives
                          


                          
An article in the Hoosier StateChronicles. published shortly after Toppan's arrest, reported thatshe would fondle her victims as they died and attempt to see theinner workings of their souls through their eyes.  Under questioning,Toppan stated she derived a sexual thrill from patients being neardeath, coming back to life and then dying again.  Toppan administereda drug mixture to the patients she chose as her victims, lay withthem and held them close to her as they died.
                          


                          
Toppan is often considered an "angelof death", a type of serial killer who takes on a caretakerrole and attacks the vulnerable and dependent, though she alsomurdered for seemingly more personal reasons, such as in the case ofthe Davis family. It is possible Toppan was also motivated byjealousy, in the case of the murder of her foster sister. She laterdescribed her motivation as a paralysis of thought and reason, astrong urge to poison.
                          


                          
Toppan used poison for more than justmurder, reportedly poisoning a housekeeper just enough so that sheappeared drunk in order to steal her job and kill the family.  Sheeven poisoned herself to evoke the sympathy of men she was courting.
                          


                          
Murders
                          


                          
In 1885, Toppan began training to be anurse at Cambridge Hospital. Unlike her early years, where she wasdescribed as brilliant and terrible, at the hospital she was wellliked, bright and friendly, evoking the nickname "JollyJane".  Once Toppan became close with the patients, shepicked her favorite ones. The patients were normally elderly and verysick. During her residency, Toppan used her patients as guinea pigsin experiments with morphine and atropine; she altered theirprescribed dosages to see what it did to their nervous systems.However, she spent considerable time alone with patients, making upfake charts and medicating them to drift in and out of consciousnessand even getting into bed with them.