You know that feeling of reassurance you have when you or a loved one is sick but they're in the care of a trusted doctor or nurse? The peacefulness you feel in the knowledge that your healthcare providers would never purposely hurt you?
Now imagine the exact opposite of that feeling. Few things may be more frightening.
Allow me to introduce you to Honora Kelley. Born to Irish immigrants Peter and Bridget Kelley in Boston in 1857, Honora’s life started off pretty rough. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was only a year old, and her father was an abusive alcoholic. Peter Kelley's nickname was “Kelley the Crack,” because he was widely known as being mentally unstable. He made his living as a tailor—an important detail, because later in life he would go on to SEW HIS OWN EYES SHUT.
Before things got quite that wild, Peter decided it was in everyone's best interest that he stop parenting. In 1863, he took six-year-old Honora and eight-year-old sister Delia to a nearby orphanage and home for women—the Boston Female Asylum. The asylum took in orphaned and "indigent" (poor) girls, taught them basic housekeeping skills and then connected them with families with whom they could live... as indentured servants.
Later in 1863, still only six years old, Honora became an indentured servant for a Mrs. Ann Toppan in Lowell, Massachusetts. Though she wasn’t officially adopted, Honora did change her name to "Jane Toppan," which she would go by for the rest of her life. This was likely due to Ann’s pressuring, as she repeatedly told the girl that “Honora” just sounded too Gaelic. The Toppans told friends and neighbors that Jane was Italian and that her parents had died at sea because they didn't want anyone to know that she was Irish. Ann reportedly was verbally abusive to Jane, and liked to remind her that she was not as pretty or accomplished as her "real" daughter, Elizabeth.
"No Irish need apply." Anti-Irish sentiment was common across New England at the time. Boston Daily Evening Transcript, 19 Jun 1868.
Jane’s indenture ended at age 18, and she was given $50 by the Toppans, with whom she remained as a servant. When Ann Toppan died, Elizabeth and her husband Oramel Brigham took over the household and Jane became their servant. Though Elizabeth was said to have always been kind to Jane, it's easy to see how painful it must have been for Jane, always seen as less than, to become literally subservient to her sister. Around the age of 30, Jane and the Brighams had some sort of falling out and Jane left. Unfortunately for Elizabeth and Oramel Brigham, they would see Jane again.
In 1885, Jane began training as a nurse at Cambridge hospital. Some of her peers there called her “Jolly Jane,” as she was reportedly very outgoing, happy, and friendly. However, she was also remembered as a pathological liar who frequently stole and had a bizarre obsession with autopsies.
It was at Cambridge that Jane began experimenting with administering various doses of morphine and atropine to unsuspecting patients. Jane preyed on the old and vulnerable in particular. One patient who had just undergone a painful procedure to remove a uterine ulcer recalled that Jane medicated her and then climbed into bed with her and kissed her face repeatedly. Jane attempted to give the patient a second dose, but a disturbance nearby caused her to jump out of the bed and leave the room.
Toppan joined Massachusetts General Hospital in 1889, only to be fired a year later. She returned to Cambridge, but was soon let go for misuse of opiates. Regardless, she somehow still received recommendations from doctors to work as a private nurse. It seems that many of her patients were exceptionally fond of her, especially the ones she didn’t murder.
In 1895, Jane killed her landlord, a man named Israel Dunham. Two years later, she murdered Israel’s wife (who was also her roommate at the time), Lovey Dunham. Jane later said they had become old, “feeble and fussy,” so it seems they had to go.
In 1899, Jane invited her foster sister Elizabeth Brigham to stay with her at Buzzards Bay on the Massachusetts coast, where she was vacationing at the time. Elizabeth had been feeling down and hoped some time away from her everyday life might do her some good.
Jane had always been jealous of her foster sister Elizabeth, who was, by all accounts, prettier, more respectable, and less murdery.
One day, during her stay, Jane suggested a picnic for the two of them down on the shore. She packed a traditional seaside lunch: cold corned beef, taffy, and mineral water with just a splash or two of strychnine. Jolly Jane would later recall how she held her dying sister “with delight as she gasped her life out.”
Jane lost no time following the sudden death of her sister, immediately moving in with newly single and not-so-ready to mingle Oramel Brigham. Jane took over housekeeping duties—a necessity as she had murdered the housekeeper three days after arriving... oops—and attempted to seduce Oramel, her dead foster sister/victim’s widowed husband. She was unsuccessful, however, and thus resorted to some more drastic tactics: namely, poisoning him with morphine and pretending to be pregnant with his child. We've all been there, am I right?
When she still hadn't won him over, Jane then did what any reasonable person would do: she gave herself a large dose of morphine so she could appear sick but not quite die, thus gaining her desired's sympathy. Old Oramel was having none of it, and forced her to leave.
Jane was soon visited in Cambridge by a Mrs. Mattie Davis, from whom she rented a cottage. You'll remember this as the charming little seaside villa where she murdered her foster sister. Well, poison and opiates must have been getting pricey, because Jane was behind on the rent. When Mattie arrived in July to demand her money, what she received instead was morphine and atropine. Classic Jane.
Never one to miss an opportunity, Jane took advantage of Mattie's newly single husband Alden and swooped right in. While "nursing" Alden, she started setting random fires for fun across the Davis's properties, some of which did some real damage. She helped the investigators when arson was suspected, mentioning a darkly dressed man slinking about the perimeter of the property. The Davis family members soon began accusing one another of being the arsonists. They would would all die never finding out the truth and all pointing fingers at one another, however, because within the space of six weeks, Mattie Davis, husband Alden, and two of their adult daughters would all be dead.
Jane first set her sights on Davis daughter Genevieve, suggesting to other family members that she was suicidal following the sudden death of mother Mattie. When Genevieve died unexpectedly, so soon after her mother, it was deemed by the coroner to have been a heart attack. Jane was quick to begin a rumor that Genevieve had, in fact, taken her own life by ingesting insecticide.
Nine days later, Alden Davis, Mattie's husband and Genevieve's father, was found dead. His cause of death was determined to be cerebral hemorrhage. Four days later, the Davis's other married daughter, Minnie, was found dead. Her death was attributed to "exhaustion." Classic Victorian coroners.
In the space of not even a month and a half, four Davis family members were dead. As you can imagine, suspicion had begun to be aroused. Jane had erred in murdering too many related people too quickly. Soon, her murderous spree would end.
What more fitting ending could there be for this Cape Cod murder mystery than the arrival of a sea captain hero?
Enter master mariner, Captain Paul C. Gibbs, the father-in-law of Minnie Davis Gibbs.
Upon Minnie's death, the Captain demanded the bodies of the Davis family be re-examined, this time employing expert physicians and Harvard professors. When the bodies were finally exhumed, they were found to contain lethal doses of morphine and atropine.
The Boston Globe, 31 Aug 1901; The Piqua Daily Call [Piqua, Ohio], 3 Jun 1901
Jane was arrested on 29 October 1901. At first appearing nervous and claiming innocence, Jane ultimately confessed to at least 31 murders. Later in life she suggested that her victim count was at least 100. Jane professed a desire to continue murdering as many helpless people as she possibly could. She was ultimately found not guilt by reason of insanity, and committed to the Taunton State Hospital for life.
It is rumored that Jane would attempt to convince medical staff at Taunton to dose other patients with morphine so that they could both watch, stating "We’ll go out in the ward. You and I will have a lot of fun seeing them die.”
Sources
"Jane Toppan," Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Toppan : 5 Oct 2022).
"Jolly Jane," Wicked Yankee (http://wickedyankee.blogspot.com/2014/02/jolly-jane-part-2.html : pub 28 Feb 2014, accessed 6 Oct 2022).
"Jolly Jane Toppan, the Killer Nurse Obsessed With Death," New England Historical Society (https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/jolly-jane-toppan-killer-nurse-obsessed-death/ : 5 Oct 2022).
Myers, Jennifer, "For 10 years, ‘Jolly Jane’ poured her poison," The Sun [Lowell, Massachusetts], 2 Nov 2011.
Phelan, Catherine, "Jolly Jane Toppan: The Angel of Death Who Confessed to Killing over 30 People," The Lineup (https://the-line-up.com/jolly-jane-toppan-the-angel-of-death : pub 18 Jul 2017, accessed 6 Oct 2022).
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