Jane Toppan “The Nightmare Nurse”

Hannah Howell3rd/4th block3/20/2014

BIOGRAPHY

♦ Jane was born in 1857 as Honora Kelley.♦ Jane’s parents were Irish immigrants.♦Her mother, Bridget Kelley, died of tuberculosis when she was very young.♦Her father was a well known alcoholic. He eventually went crazy and was caught stitching his own eyelids together.♦ He was confined to an asylum

CHILDHOOD

♦ In November of 1864, Toppan was placed as an servant in the home of Mrs. Ann C. Toppan. ♦ Jane was never fully adopted but she took their surname and became Jane Toppan.♦ Toppan suffered shame and humiliation at the hands of her foster mother. ♦ Due to abuse at the hands of Mrs. Toppan, Jane developed jealousy for her foster sister.

CHILDHOOD

♦ Jane grew up In the imposing gray house at the corner of third and Vernon street in Lowell’s centralville neighborhood ♦ Jane was very jealous of her beautiful step sister while she was growing up.♦ Jane was a Mischievous child. She lied and was a thief, but she was also very intelligent.

ABOUT JANE

♦ For extra spending money she worked in middle to upper class homes as a private nurse. ♦To her clients and co-workers she was known as "Jolly Jane" ♦ This was because she could come off as being happy and so careful of her patients who she spent majority of her time with.♦When she drank at the local bars at night she denounced everyone around her.

STARTING OUT

♦ She decided she needed different surroundings so she left home for nursing school in 1885. ♦She excelled in her class work, but supervisors and colleagues were disturbed by her obsession with autopsies. ♦She was hired by dozens of New England families, caring for the ill and elderly in several states.

STARTING OUT

♦ In 1885, Toppan began training to be a nurse at Cambridge Hospital. ♦She was dismissed from Cambridge after two patients died mysteriously in her care, and she left the hospital.♦Toppan would spend a lot of time alone with her patients, making up fake charts and medicate them to drift in and out of consciousness. ♦ Toppan began using her patients as guinea pigs in experiments with morphine and atropine.

JANE’S FIRST VICTIM

♦ In late June, of 1901, Mrs. Davis went to visit Jane at her home. ♦ She was a personal friend. ♦ Once Mattie arrived, Toppan gave Mattie a drink of poisoned Hunyadi water. (A mildly laxative ,mineral water)♦ She started feeling extremely sick, and so Toppan gave Mattie a dose of morphine.♦Mrs. Davis died from heart failure

♦ In 1899 she killed her sister, Elizabeth Foster, with a dose of strychnine. ♦ In 1901, Toppan moved in with the elderly Alden Davis and his family to comfort him after his wife’s death. ♦ Within weeks she killed Davis and his two daughters.

STARTING OUT

♦ She would alter their prescribed dosages to see what they would do to their nervous system. ♦ Jane regularly used morphine and atropine to kill her patients and nobody suspected a thing♦She was recommended for the prestigious Massachusetts general hospital in 1889.♦ She there claimed several more lives.

STARTING OUT

♦ Jane would often times get into bed with her victims.♦ Jane claimed that she got a sexual thrill from being around people near death. ♦ She often referred to herself as the “Angel Of Death” ♦ Jane said that her ambition was “To have killed more helpless people than any women who has ever lived” and she nearly succeeded.

JANE’S METHODS

♦ Jane would poison her patients with Morphine or Atropine.♦ Her method was the same in every killing. ♦ Jane declares, “ Because poisoning had become a habit of her life” and killed without any remorse at all.

INFORMATION

♦ Jane would commit her murders during the day and at night. ♦ The murders occurred between Middlesex county and Suffolk County in Massachusetts♦ Her other nickname was “The modern Lucretia Borgia”, who the title by a most remarkable series of murders is in the insane asylum at Taunton, Mass. Haunted terrible visions of many victims.

GETTING SUSPICIOUS

♦ After numerous murders throughout her nursing career at hospitals, authorities started getting suspicious and starting looking further into the deaths of her patients.♦ They found out that all of the patients that were under her care, all died the same. ♦ Eventually, Jane Toppan was caught and she went to court.

CONFESSION

♦She fed a lethal "tonic" to her foster sister, Edna Bannister, and she was working on another patient when police cut short her medical career. ♦In custody, Toppan confessed to 31 murders, naming her victims, but students believe her final tally falls somewhere around 70

COURT

♦The grand jury’s indictment charged her with the murder of three persons whom she been engaged to nurse and died under her charge.♦At trial, Jane's lawyer grudgingly conceded eleven murders, staking his hopes on a plea of insanity . ♦Toppan said "That is my ambition, to have killed more people -- more helpless people -- than any man or woman who has ever lived." and Declared insane.♦Toppan was confined for life to the state asylum at Taunton, Massachusetts

DOWNHILL

♦ After the first 4 years in the insane asylum, Jane become a physical wreck. ♦ Jane was in the best bodily health and was a smiling women.♦ Jane weighed over 209 pounds.♦ Her certainly that all of her doctors and even family members were trying to poison her.♦ Jane started dying from starvation

1st year

2ND year

JANE’S DEATH

♦ Jane died at the age of 84 in the Taunton Insane Asylum.♦ Jane lived for 36 years in the Asylum, before dying in August, 1938.♦ Jane Toppan is one of the most remarkable criminals.

CAPE COD♦ Cape Cod was not only the home of Jane Toppan but, it was also the home of another serial killer; Antone Costa.♦ Antone Costa was the Provincetown man who the police believe butchered four women in the late 1960’s.♦ Antone’s case gained international attention in comments to the media, claimed “The hearts of each had been removed from the bodies and were not in their graves…each body was cut into as many parts as there are joints.”

HISTORY ON FEMALE SERIAL KILLERS

♦ Female serial killers account for only 8% of all American serial killers, but American females account for 76% of all female serial killers worldwide.♦ Female serial killers also have different methods than males do. Such as:-Poisoning: 80% -Stabbing: 11% -Shooting: 20% -Drowning: 5%-Bludgeoning: 16%-Suffocation: 16%

TOP 10 FEMALE SERIAL KILLERS

1.)Aileen Wuarnos 2.)Myra Hindley 3.)Rosemary West 4.)Kristen Gilbert 5.)Nannie Doss6.)Jane Toppan 7.)Karla Homolka 8.)Beverly Allitt9.)Andrea Yates 10.)Elizabeth Bathory

1 2 3

4 6

10

5

7 8 9

10 VICTIMS OUT OF 70

♦ Israel Dunham ♦ Lovey Dunham ♦ Elizabeth Brigham♦ Mary McNear♦ Myra Conners ♦ Mattie Davis ♦ Genevieve Gorden♦Alden Davis ♦ Minnie Gibbs ♦ Edna Bannister

SOURCES

♦http://womenserialkillers.blogspot.com/2011/02/jane-toppan-nightmare-nurse.html♦http://krazykillers.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/jolly-Jane-the-angel-of-death/♦http://murderpedia.org/female/t/toppan-jane.htm♦http://www.yatedo.com/p/Jane+Toppan/famous/6d2d33e2677c33084330cdc2dc7fb2ef♦http://serialkillers.briancombs.net/2145/victims-of-jane-toppan/♦http://psyed.org/r/psd/pd/pdd/male_v_female_killers.html♦http://www.capecodconfidential.com/cccjanetoppancclife.shtml♦http://www.courtreporter.net/resources/true-court-stories-angels-of-death/♦http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=37&dat=19011207&id=z1oBAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YCkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6568,2496342♦http://thecargoculte.com/archives/34

CONTRIDICTING SOURCES

♦ Some websites said that Toppan killed over 100 patients, but others said 70.♦ Websites said that Jane’s mother died of child birth and others said that she died of tuberculosis.♦ Websites said that Jane went to court in 1901, but she went in 1902.