Historical story

Happy Jane - a serial killer who killed with a smile on her face

Jane Toppan was a nurse with a warm, friendly smile. It was with him that she soothed the anxiety of her patients and their relatives, promising that they would be safe. However, her cheerful expression concealed a dark secret that resulted in the deaths of at least 31 people.

Jane Toppan was born in Boston in 1854 as Honora Kelley, the third daughter of Irish immigrants. She did not have a happy childhood. Her mother died of tuberculosis when the girl was still a child, and her father Peter, a tailor by profession, was an aggressive alcoholic suffering from a mental illness. He's not the only one. It soon turned out that the Kelley's eldest daughter was also mentally incapacitated and was locked up in the facility where she spent the rest of her life.

Jane Toppan killed her victims with a warm smile on her face.

When Jane turned six, Peter decided that raising his two daughters was beyond his abilities and transferred them to a Boston shelter for poor children. The girls were prepared to work as domestic help. Learned manners and skills important for maintaining the farm, they left the place as servants, who then worked on long-term contracts in rich homes to work off the possibility of getting an education.

Unfortunately for Delia, Jane's older sister, such a future was not in store. Despite the opportunities offered by service in a good home, the girl eventually went astray for unknown reasons. She ended her life as a prostitute addicted to alcohol. Jane was more fortunate, but that cannot be said of the people who became her victims…

Waiting for my last breath

Two years after joining the orphanage, Little Honor was taken in by the Toppan family in Lowell, Massachusetts. The girl adopted the new name and surname of her guardians, although they have never been officially adopted by them.

The couple already had a daughter, Elizabeth, but the relationship between her and the new family member was not, according to various sources, sisterly. The young Miss Toppan was the future heiress of her parents' estate, living a comfortable and worry-free existence. Jane knew very well that if she didn't take care of herself, no one else would do it for her.

As the years passed, Jane felt worse and worse in a subordinate position in the Toppan house. She had a difficult character, marked by bad memories from an early age, and her new family did not treat her well. She was more of a cinderella than a happy ward. Ann Toppan made her life as difficult as she could by not allowing her to get married or leave home to get a new education. After her death, Elizabeth took charge of Jane's fate, who would turn out to be even worse than her mother.

At the age of 6, Jane was placed in an orphanage known as the Boston Women's Sanctuary in the South End (on the map).

Luckily for Jane - at the age of 31, she was finally released from her contract and was able to go on her way. She started it by joining the ranks of the nursing school at Cambridge Hospital. She wasn't popular with the friends she told lies about, even leading to the expulsion of some of them.

She also told fairy tales about herself to hide the truth about her origins. However, she was adored by the patients. Smart, friendly and always smiling - these strengths earned her the nickname Jolly Jane. The patients under her care claimed that they felt safe under her wings and were treated with care. Unfortunately, Jane had a second face under the friendly facade.

She was overheard once, while training at Cambridge, saying that there is no point in keeping old people alive. Which might explain the ease with which she administered medications to them.

Thanks to the acquired knowledge and unlimited access to drugs, Jane played in experiments on her patients, most of whom were elderly. She tested different doses of morphine and atropine on them watching what they did to their nervous system. Apparently her favorite moment was waiting for the victim's last breath. Everything was getting away with her thanks to her falsified results and statistics.

After graduating from school, the woman was recommended to work at the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital, where she continued to practice her murderous experiments. It was short-lived, as she was released a year later. The reason, however, was not to discover the truth about its activities, but ... lies and petty thefts.

Following these events, Jane opened her own nursing practice. She obtained recommendations from doctors and was eventually employed at the Cambridge hospital, although she did not stay there for long. She was thrown out for recklessly administering opium-based drugs to patients. Interestingly, it did not destroy her career, and it did not even force her to move. Oh no, Jane stayed in Cambridge and took care of private elderly care.

Angel of death

It was the perfect cover for her criminal intentions. After all, the deaths of old, sick people rarely raised any doubts. And Jane's friendliness only helped her commit the murders.

Patients loved her and their families felt that she genuinely cares for the sick. (...) Her favorite agent was a glass of European mineral water imported from Budapest. She poured a mixture of morphine and atropine into it and let them work.

In this way, she poisoned not only her patients, but also the Dunham couple (with whom she rented a room), her adoptive sister Elizabeth, friend Myra Connors, Mattie and Aldena Davis (with whom she spent the summer on Cape Cod), and their two daughters, Annie and Minnie. .

The motive for the Davis killing was Jane's unpaid debts - and it was a mistake that contributed to her downfall. The deaths occurred in too short intervals. The surviving family members commissioned a toxicological study of the body of the youngest daughter, Minnie, which revealed poison in her body.

Jane Toppan has been arrested. The court found her insane. She spent the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital in Taunton. Although she herself confessed to 31 homicides, the real number of her victims is estimated at 70-100 people. It is ironic that neither of them suspected the nurse of malicious intent.

Most of them gradually deteriorated in health and passed away over the course of days, weeks, or even months. Their deaths were explained by diseases, heart attacks or other natural diagnoses, and the bereaved families of the deceased heartily thanked Jane for accompanying them in the last moments of their loved ones' lives. Her meticulous image of a trusted and caring carer has been deceiving people for many years. However, in confinement, the woman no longer hides her true face:

(...) one of the nurses who cared for her in Taunton told about her behavior:sometimes Jane recalled her to her chair with a twinkle in her eye. Then she pointed at the door. - Take morphine, my dear, and we'll go to the ward. And then with a broad smile she added:- We'll have a good time watching them die .