Jane Toppan (Jolly Jane)

Background Her parents were Irish immigrants . Her mother died of Tuberculosis when she was young. Her father was an abusive alcoholic. Her and her sister were put in an orphanage after her father sewed his own eyelids shut. She was placed as a servant in Ann C. Toppan’s home. She adopted the last name Toppan and changed her first name from Honora to Jane. The Toppan’s had a daughter already, Elizabeth, and her and Jane did not get along. (She ended up murdering her) She was left by a man at the altar at age nineteen. Her birth father and sister both went insane. Attended Cambridge Nursing School. She transferred to the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Crimes Crime She worked in a hospital and began experimenting with the patients by giving them high doses of morphine and atropine. She would lay with them and hold them until they died. Date 1885-1901 she continued to kill many victims. She was arrested on October 29, 1901. Victim Confessed to 33 murders. Punishment She was found not guilty for reasons of insanity however she was locked up in Taunton Insane Hospital until her death.

Evidence Former patients who suspected that she tried to poison them came forward to the police, ex-friends who had experienced her jealous tendencies, and student nurses whose careers she had ruined, came out to tell their experiences with Jolly Jane.

Most Recent Crime In 1901, Toppan moved in with an elderly man named Alden Davis and his family in Cataumet whom she just recently killed his wife at her hospital. While there, she poisoned him and two of his daughters. After, she moved back and went after her step-sisters husband and killed his sister and poisoned him. The members of the Davis family who survived ordered a toxicology exam on Alden’s daughter, and the report found that she had been poisoned. They put a police report out on Toppan. On October 29, 1901, she was arrested for murder.

Quotes/Nickname “My ambition is to have killed more people — helpless people — than any other man or woman who ever lived” Nickname: Jolly Jane or Angel of Death

Books/Shows Books Fatal by Harold Schechter Murderess by Anne Bertram Deadly Women- S3E3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDQMLd96sBc

Why? Jane Toppan had a life of abuse and insanity ran in her family. She lost her mother at a young age so she could’ve been experimenting with death to try to relive the trauma of her mother but have it in her control. She never sexually abused the victims but she said she got a sense of sexual desire from laying with them and feeling their life leave their body.

Differential Association Theory Jane grew up with a poor family, and a very abusive father. A history of insanity ran through her family so that was apparent her whole childhood. She was exposed to this so therefor her tendency to follow in the footsteps was more prominent. She had no reason to be this however she just enjoyed it. It was easy for her to commit this crime because she tended to blend in.