“Jolly Jane” Toppan Angel of Mercy (Part 1) | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Elina I'm Ash and this is [Music] morbid no it's morbid in the morning
again two in a row look at us two in a Rizzo waking up early it's that you might hear a little bit of light rain
which I know some of you actually you dig hard prefer even prefer it's light might be a little TI a little pitter
patter um cuz it's rainy here and it's windy but I woke up and it was so [ __ ] spooky this morning it was it's
very spooky today and it's spooky in the Pod lab cuz we have very light lighting
and we only have candle light mhm it's feeling right very like low lights yeah yeah [ __ ] the big light [ __ ] the big
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would be gorina it truly would gorgia um but yeah I thought I had something else
to say but but here I am you don't have anything no just that you should buy the
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path of totality I haven't read it in its path of totality I'm excited I'm excited it's going to be
wild curl up on the plane and read your scary ass book hell yeah uh but yeah pre-order it it's awesome and you guys
have been great so far pre-ordering and I appreciate you endlessly keep it up um
you are lovely and I see all those really kind things that you're saying and it's really nice because they get
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[ __ ] left turn brain for you take it with us because Lind if Lind is listening Lind
will appreciate that endlessly did you guys watch that movie and if you haven't go watch it it's one of those really
nostalgic great ones so funny um get over it it has Ben Foster in it it has Kirsten dun it has Shane West yeah in it
it's got all the hot people of the time all the hot people um that girl I can't remember her the actress's name but
she's in like Soul Survivors oh hold on P the cast list she's like the hot girl she's Allison in
this but uh it's it's got Martin Short in it [ __ ] munis is in this milakunis is in it so many people are in it Cisco
Cisco is in it it's got yeah it's just it's right it's really right Mar yeah is the he's the one who says keep icing
your front B swelling continu if do not ice if you do not ice are you thinking uh Melissa Sage Miller probably yes yeah
she's Allison yeah so it's a great ridiculous oh and Colin um Hanks Colin Hanks and vitamin C and vitamin C
now I want to watch this guys watch yeah I don't know what happened I I just started thinking like how do I say like
keep ordering keep ordering the butcher game spelling continues if you don't order the butcher game honestly I think
that's our marketing tactic here uh keep pre-ordering the butcher game swelling continues if you do not pre-order so
that's going to be let zando know that's what we're going with letting zando know
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you um so I know we're a little chaotic but it's morbid in the morning also when
are we not chaotic oh the way that you just morning showed that I did you did morbid in the morning and then she
reached for her coffee like so Wake Up San Francisco wake upir that and she has a ghost mug like um ghosts on a mug just
to clarify I would like a ghost mug though that's one thing of ghost I do not have
I'm actually shocked by that well I bet Etsy has ghost You' got a chalice so I have a chalice and I I have a chalice
from actually Caleb got me a chalice and a big old Stein like a Stein kind of thing for your for your ale but I need
like a coffee mug yeah and I think Mikey is already looking for one for me because he's a real one right now he's
the realest um um they just launched loungewear I know I need the sweatpants they were cute
they're like jogger style yeah I need to I need to get some I'm going to do that
this is the most chaotic intro I think we might have ever had it really is you know what this is a very chaotic case so
we're we're ready for the energy it's also a Massachusetts case it's a Boston case it's got our local hospitals in it
what um it's got Mass General what what oh hey um it's got all that stuff and it's also terrible and uh this person is
a a a Damon so awesome we're going to talk about a jolly Jane toppen something tells me that she's not so jolly no
she's not she's not like she doesn't have like a Saint Nick Vibe nope she definitely doesn't she is uh what is
commonly referred to as an angel of mercy killer uh I don't think that's the proper name for her she's referred to is
that a lot but that's not even slightly what she did cuz she was a nurse so what
we're going to be talking about is there's going to be a high count here as always with these kind of killers um she
was really [ __ ] brutal like she she didn't do this for Mercy killings she did this cuz she liked to watch people
suffer and die in front of her that's horrible and she liked having that like power that's not why you go into nursing
yeah no and when you find out like who she you know how she grew up and what happened to her very early in her life
you know she wasn't really going down a great a great path obviously you make a choice of course she made the wrong one
evidently she's on morbid so yeah so that you never made a good choice if you're there if you're the the actual
person we're talking about so she's actually considered among the first and definitely the most prolific American
female serial killers um Jane toppin Killing Spree went actually unnoticed for more than 15 years 15 cuz that's the
other thing she was a master manipulator wow she was she's one of those people that you go how the [ __ ] did no one
realize this like how was she able to convince people I me she was 15 years that's crazy she would transition from
One hospital to another these very highly regarded hospitals too like the biggest teaching hospitals in the nation
at that point and still at that point um and she left an unprecedented trail of Carnage in her wake she was finally
arrested in 1901 after killing the entire family of a man who she was hired to provide for what yeah and her arrest
and her trial were just Sensational um because at that point especially because this is the early
1900s murder and cruelty for cruelty sake was not something you associated with women no at all definitely not uh
now we know better that everybody can be cruel for sake that now we know better but back then it was like no way can a
woman do that mhm um but ultimately Jane toppen ended up confessing to 31 murders
holy and that's only what she confessed to exactly we think there is probably many more she would she was Reckless
like she would go hard so let's go back to the beginning who was Jane toppen I don't know so Jane toppen was actually
born Anora Kelly not Jane toppen no relation no relation to to this one uh she was born
in Boston Massachusetts on March 31st 1854 uh she was the youngest of three children born to Bridget Finn and Peter
Kelly according to author Harold Sher who we will be referencing um his work a lot during this and you might recognize
that name because in the edgein series we used his book deviant for a lot of that like mentioned him a lot during
that too so he he knows a lot about old timey serial killers we love an author um according to Shear Kelly the father
was a chronic drunk prone to Violent outbursts and so wildly eccentric that his neighborhood nickname was Kelly the
crack as in crackpot it's a little iconic but it's a little iconic it's pretty horrible that
he was a father he's also really [ __ ] terrible okay not iconic at all um he's terrible in fact in the years after
Jane's arrest strange and outrageous rumors actually begin circulating about her father's bizarre behavior um
including one where people said that while working at a tailor shop he seed his own eyelid
shut what yeah nobody knows if that was true or not it was just a rumor but it was like people believed it because of
who he was so you know what kind of person he is if people are like maybe he did like perhaps wow now on September
25th 1859 Bridget the mother died from tuberculosis leaving the children in the soul care of Peter of Kelly the CRA C uh
who was very unequipped to be a single parent to three small children very une quii to be any parent to three small
children he very much struggled to provide for his three daughters for three years um until he gave up finally
he just was like you know what no I can't do it and he brought 8-year-old Delila and six-year-old Anora to the
Boston female asylum in February of 1863 and just beg them to take the children oh my god um this place was one of the
very few Aid Societies in Boston at the time um it was called the Boston female Asylum but it was later renamed the
Boston Society for the care of girls um it was a public charity that raised funds and provided support for female
orphans in the city was it horrible though um from what I don't know a lot about this place I didn't look too hard
into like what was cuz honestly like it's heart R this was awful anyways and I was like going into like looking into
this place might send me over the edge at this point whenever you look into an orphanage it really brings you to like
the depths of the of the human behavior I have a lot of trouble looking into those kind of places I can't handle
reading about those children being orphaned children being treated it's like I can't I can't it's another level
but from the moment one thing I will say about them is you know it did turn into
a facility that people respected so from the moment they looked at Peter Kelly the managers of the female Asylum could
tell that he was in absolutely no position to take care of these children they're like hand him on over we got
this in their initial description Kelly was described as a man quote whose habits evidently rendered him an unfit
protector for his little girls and noted that the appearance of both girls quote
indicated that they had been rescued from a very miserable home oh no uh the surviving documentation of the female
Asylum doesn't really provide a lot of details about their life before being surrendered to the Asylum uh it doesn't
it also so really doesn't provide any insight into how they formed these opinions that they first formed upon
seeing them yeah but sheer points out quote modern research has conclusively shown that brutalization is always a
factor in the development of adult psycho psychopathy yeah um very evident in Jane toppen yeah um so Shear suggests
that both girls probably certainly suffered from significant abuse at the hands of their father and it was bad
enough that it was easily identified viable by strangers upon first seeing them as coming from a miserable home
that's really really really sad so in fact based on that initial assessment the board voted unanimously to admit the
girls that day wow that same day like right away yeah that tells across the board were like bring them in and Peter
signed the papers surrendered his children and never saw them again never spoke to them never saw them again bye
which obviously like was most likely a good thing the fact that AB like the abuse at least at his hand stopped there
but then you think about the trauma that that creates like you just you have your
dad for 6 to 8 years of your life and then you literally never see the [ __ ] again like that's as horrible as he was
it's like that's all you know yeah that's that's a whole different kind of if that's like impounded impacted drama
and it's like when that's all you know that's all you that's your dad that's also all you expect right out of life is
when you for 6 years or eight years have been treated like that and then given up
you just think that's what life is you're like well that's how I should be treated like that's just what you come
to expect which is what forms these horrific things in adulthood sometimes because you are just going being like
what like the world sucks everybody's horrible everything's cruel why would I expect or why would I be anything
different like that's just putting that in that kid it's true it's like when you're in a horrible relationship as an
adult and you just come to expect that's what I should expect from a relationship
so you end up going into these cycles of being with these horrible people who treat you like [ __ ] cuz you're like well
that's what a relationship is what else could it be yeah the expectation becomes
like what accept yeah so nothing is known that and this is where this is probably a good thing at this point
because like I I was like I don't want to know a whole lot of details about what happened there um really nothing is
known of Delilah and anora's time at the Asylum like there isn't like a lot of Records i' say like this is what
happened during that time that's probably good but for Anora that time was pretty brief and from the looks of
it it wasn't super eventful it's not like you know we have a lot of medical records happening or anything like that
it was just you know uh in November 1863 that's when a woman named Anne toppen of
LOL Massachusetts appeared before the asylums board and expressed a desire to adopt Anora just Anora yes now after
filling out all the paperwork she needed to the request was approved and custody
of Anora was transferred to an toppen she immediately renamed the girl Jane and added the surname toppen so she went
from Anora Kelly to Jane toppen and she's like at least 10 at this point probably she's definitely at least like
eight I would say or like nine you know like she's or maybe you're right like maybe somewhere around the 10 she's a
young to be dealing with that R after all she's been through I think um and and regarding the transfer of custody
it's important to note here that although an toppen had expressed interest in adopting Jane cuz we're
going to refer to her as Jane now cuz she did go through her adult life as Jane she like accepted that name there's
no documentation showing a formal adoption ever occurred like there's no documented adoption here like she
adopted her but not formally that's interesting did the process change maybe like throughout the years or no she
should there should have been adoption documentation she just formally she just like got custody of the girl essentially
weird um and later this was brought up in Jane's trial way later in her life by one of the psychiatrists who evaluated
her um who thought it was pretty significant that Jane was adopted uh was was adopted quote unquote but was
actually apprenticed to Mrs toppen on indenture papers so she worked for her is what
we're really and they got that from the L historical society it's in basically in the simplest terms an toen didn't go
to the female Asylum looking for a daughter that day she went looking for a servant yeah what F A Child servant so
she was essentially like sold to this woman essentially now according to Harold sheer there's little documentation of
what became of Delilah her sister after Jane left with the toppins right right um but he said as an adult
she it was not a good life for her Delila Delila did not have a good life afterwards like they were obviously
severely affected by what happened to them in childhood sad all around she ended up real like living on the fringes
of society she fell into um like turning to alcoholism and other substances uh she became a sex worker out of
desperation only and died in squalid circumstances that's really all that's known it's just really sad and it kind
of shows you like that what happened really affected them both in different ways and it makes you wonder like first
of all obviously what they we know what they went through in the beginning of their life with their dad being abusive
like we can only imagine but then you wonder what yeah like the orphanage doesn't sound like it was the best no
which usually they weren't no so now once settled in with the Widow and toppen and her young daughter Elizabeth
Jane began attending public school and there she was identified very quickly as very intelligent and very quick to pick
up on new skills and new ideas she was very smart um at home she appeared to get on pretty well with Elizabeth her
like quote unquote new sister um but there was definitely a a difference in how they were treated by an uh Elizabeth
was allowed to go out play with her friends do the normal things Jane had to stay in the home and she had to just
help with the housework she was Cinderella a servant literally um also an often went out out of her way to
remind Jane of her Heritage a lot um which like and she would remind her of it like as a way of kind of being like
this is your station in life because you're Irish oh so and she would say to her
like and she was this is a quote you can't help being Irish but that doesn't mean you have to act like a
Patty oh [ __ ] it's on square up so she exactly Square the [ __ ] up [ __ ] like
let's go in we are IR okay right in the chin right in the chinly but and to tell a child this a
like to make her think that somehow she you aren't treated like my real daughter
because I you're basically my servant and even out like what so in response to the poor treatment she received from an
um who Jane honestly didn't even call mother didn't call an she called her auntie oh wow Jane developed strangely a
very cheery and gregarious personality and actually like ended up like going the opposite way for a little while um
and she also became what everybody thought of as a very clever very fascinating Storyteller it really is
interesting how how different households affect kids and like kids respond to trauma in so many different ways like
there are kids that like really go through like dark dark depression and really Retreat into themselves and then
there's kids that when they're not at home just like really flourish yeah even though they've they've gone through very
similar treatments kids are so [ __ ] resilient yeah they are they absolutely are that's why when you see a child
experiencing depression yeah you have to know that that is very difficult to do in the grand scheme of things that takes
a lot of [ __ ] on that kid for them to be broken like that so like whenever you
see that it's not like oh they're just dealing with some stuff it's like no that kid's been through [ __ ] we can't
even imagine because for them to actually break it takes a lot kids are very resilient yeah and it shows right
here that she was just she was broken but man she she became a very mon human being very brutal monst
adult um and actually like a lot of her childhood acquaintances would say if Jane toppen were there it wasn't
necessary to provide any other entertainment like she was she was a good time gal um and uh in hindsight
it's pretty clear that her very outgoing personality was definitely partially a way for her to
kind of like compensate for feeling so inferior in her own home she felt like she had to yeah she got
kind kind of like validation and this worked for her for a little while but eventually it actually led to the other
way it pushed her into the other side because it led to this like this very much a complex of self-hatred and
intolerance because then she was fighting these ideas that her Heritage yeah made her less than and that she was
treated less than all the time at home so it's like but you're being kind of like thought of as this gregarious
really entertaining person outside so I think those two things fighting just led
to her not understanding who she actually was and then there was this complex that was fighting against each
other yeah and she just went it again it's one it's like two two paths to virge in a wood and you took the wrong
one yeah and as she Grew Older Jane and the toppin would go out of their way to hide ignore or even downplay the fact
that she was Irish at all around other people like it was a total source of shame it's crazy how they lived in
Boston that we're hiding the think it now I'm like geez um and actually they used like a very they were relied upon a
story that they would say that she lost both her parents in an accident at Sea while they were traveling to the United
States from Italy oh okay so they would use that as the thing she's Italian and this also is what we're going to find
out is Jane is a liar in her entire life becomes a chronic pathological any kind of liar you can
think of she lies lies lies she lies right out of her face she lies like a liar all the livel long day for her
whole life and it's like because she was taught to lie she was taught that to in
order for you to be respected as a human being and to be treated as a human being
and for us even to deal with you as a human being lie about who you are to your very core as a child
so it's like she was just taught this [ __ ] yeah and then it turned her like she became a monster because of it and
while a lot of people around Jane when she was younger remember her as very pleasant you know pretty easygoing like
nothing crazy but even at a young age there were signs that beneath her cheery exterior there was definitely a
significant like um uptick in her being more selfish seemed like there was signs
of her being a deceitful person as well and as she got older those came out more
and more it was like she was pushing that down but she just couldn't according to Shear some of her
schoolmates described her as an encourageable liar prone to Wild Fabrications that she doggedly stuck to
even when they were proven to be fragant false that's the scariest kind of person
when you can look when like when they're lying to you and you're like no I literally have this proof right here and
they're like the scariest type of person it's you can't argue with somebody like
that cuz then they turn it around and make you feel crazy it's like that's the scariest thing is when you start
questioning your own Integrity Am I Wrong am I crazy am I I'm holding a movie ticket here and you're telling me
that it was printed wrong yeah but maybe I maybe it is who knows uh but Jane regularly claimed among other things
that her father was a world-renowned sailor who lived in China her brother had fought against the Confederates at
Gettysburg and was an awarded a medal by President Lincoln damn and that her sister sister's unrivaled Beauty had won
the heart of an English Lord oh which sounds all those things sad don't like offend me they make me think that she
has a a fantasy life that she wish she lived and she lived in this miserable life and she just wanted to escape
probably went to that fantasy land in her mind growing up which would be all right if she was just telling
Fantastical tales about her family and about herself who gives a [ __ ] let people live in their own [ __ ] fantasy
world as long as it's not [ __ ] with you let people live in their dulu but she takes it to a dark place yeah don't
let them live in the dark place yeah now these lies like we said pretty trivial they did serve several purposes for Jane
not only were they further attempts to cover her Irish heritage which she was being told was something to be shamed of
but they were also an attempt to compensate for her crippling feelings of inadequacy and to prove also her
superiority over the less glamorous and more around her as she Grew Older the lies became less like a fantasy kind of
thing like that is like my sister is so gorgeous that an English Lord fell in love with her like that kind of silly
stuff less trivial and much more pointed and much more cruel okay they became they took a very sharp turn in her teen
years Jane became known as a vicious gossip at school oh no spreading the nastiest rumors about the other girls I
mean she turned hard as a teen like I said it was like it went from that trivial little girl
fantasy world where you're like whatever man like live there like you've had a tough life mean girl and it just turned
into like well I want to hurt people and she would like and she would report like
this fake bad behavior to teachers about people that didn't happen trying to get
them in trouble and when she herself was caught or doing or saying something bad
she would invariably blame it on someone else and make herself out to be a victim
so she very much took on the victim role later in life and she used that as a crutch to do Despicable things makes
sense that's good now while most of her peers and teachers eventually kind of grew tired of calling out her lies and
bad behavior they were just like you're kind of annoying and toppen never tired of punishing
Jane uh whatever Jane did anything she did wrong or didn't complete her chores to an and standards cuz remember she's
just her servant at this point Jane would be beaten with a switch oh and like very brutally
bered so not surprisingly this abuse hardened Jane and it honestly made her [ __ ] hate an uh yeah I would think
and she would carry that for the rest of her life that hate stck you're not going
to you're not going to let go of something like that but while Jane definitely had no love for her foster
mother quote unquote uh she saved the darkest feelings of hatred and resentment to her foster sister I was
wondering if it was going to get there in Jane's mind Elizabeth was the embodiment of everything that Jane would
never have and could never be yeah she was beautiful she was popular with her peers and it all seemed to come so
effortless for Elizabeth but what Elizabeth represented most of all was Jane's failed or unrealized romantic
desires as well when she reached her late teens Elizabeth began you know she began dating a young Deacon named oramel
Brigham and their enduring relationship would stand as a constant reminder to Jane of her
inferiority as a narcissistic psychopath Jane was caught in an endless and she ended up being diagnosed yeah um Jane
was caught in an endless and endlessly frustrating cycle of desire for the Adoration and validation that comes with
love but would always kind of be thwarted by her truly profound egotism and her inability to form any kind of
bonds with people around her that were meaningful in anyway she just couldn't get there it just wasn't you know
she she is found to be like she has a lot going on she a lot and it's like so these kind of things were really
stopping her from ever forming a meaningful bond which is a sad thing to look at yeah just when you look at just
that you know like when you look at everything else you're like oh [ __ ] but that like knowing that people have to
live with that is tough that like something is just innately stopping you from being able to form those kind of
bonds but basically she desperately longed for the physical and romantic affection that she was reading about in
books yeah um but she was completely incapable of actually feeling those things for anyone else which made her
inherently undesirable to everybody else because she just wasn't showing it to anybody so it wasn't coming off as she
wanted it right you know this is such a such a tragic tale it is it's sad and as
she grew older and her romantic desires took on you know the the natural flow of
becoming you know more adult in in nature she stifled those feelings and she kind of like those
romantic failures and her inability to find that like a real the reality of that instead of just in a book or
something she heard about or seeing her sister have that it warped and it ended up twisting those desire s and causing
themselves to like kind of manifest in [ __ ] up ways like it was like these desires she was having to feel this
thing and to have this thing she couldn't have it wasn't happening she saw it wasn't happening she saw other
people having it couldn't get it so she took that desire and she just Twisted it
into like maybe I want to see people suffer maybe that's what I want because no one's giving me what I want and maybe
can take that from them maybe I can take the most important thing from them which
is their lives so when Jane turned 18 years old she received a $50 stipend from Ann
toppen um per her indenture contract and as a legal adult now she was free to leave the topen house but
with nowhere else to go and very few skills beyond that of a domestic worker at the time she chose to stay at the
topin house for nearly a decade more wow when an died a few years later bye and ownership of the house transferred to
Elizabeth and her new husband or mal briam the Deacon Jane stayed on acting as a domestic worker just as she always
had so now she's living in the same house she grew up in and I worked as a domestic worker in and now she's working
for the lady of the house which is Elizabeth and her husband who Jane is very jealous of this relationship right
so this is just this is recipe for [ __ ] disaster but when Jane did finally move out in 1885 she did so at
at a big personal risk at the time really because the only money she had was that which was given to her upon her
18th birthday 50 bucks at which like at the time that's a good chunk of change for the time but like not to go out and
strike out on your own and she had no family that she could turn to for support if things didn't work out she
really only had Elizabeth and she [ __ ] hated her um and also in the late 19th century jobs for women were
few and far between as it was and those who did try to seek Independence really just only at the time could end up as a
teacher a seamstress or a factory worker those were like your three options you know and even now teachers aren't paid
enough so it's like you know back then it wasn't enough and given that Jane is not your typical you know healthy minded
woman going out into the world she sure isn't her grandiose ego and inability to
form any kind of meaningful bond with another human being it's pretty likely that those jobs
weren't going to work for her right you know those weren't things that were going to work for her I don't really see
her as a school teacher but there was one job that was open to women and had a lower barrier to entry and it would have
given Jane exactly the kind of power over others that she'd been craving her entire life yeah throughout much of the
19th century hospital nursing was a thoroughly unglamorous job still is an unglamorous job I would say one would
say um but one of the hardest like truly like nurses out there snap snaps to you
honestly uh this was but back then they were staffed by untrained and kind of unsavory women at the time like the low
barrier was real imagine like that being the person that's taking care of you're
an unsavory character and at what like why why was that ever a thing I don't know um as Harold sheer points out quote
the wards of of you were staffed by former inmates of Blackwell's Island workhouse women generally arrested for
drunkenness or prostitution who were paroled on the condition that they serve a stint as a nurse what the [ __ ] real
life and this was true of hospital nursing in many other urban areas of the United States at the time including
Boston yeah until about 1950 and that's when the state legislature recommended that an
institution be established to properly educate and prepare young women for a career in nursing good call cuz like
look at how [ __ ] hard nursing is yeah you have to like you have to be very smart to be doing all the things all the
things literally all the things and it's like you need to be trained highly trained highly skilled highly evaluated
to do that in 1887 Jane applied and was accepted into the nursing school connected to Cambridge hospital which
was one of the few teaching hospitals established after the legislature's recommendation for that for Jane and the
other students the two years spent in the program would have been very grueling much like nursing school is now
yeah um most work 12 or more hours a day seven days a week often with little or no time or off or breaks wow um in her
first month Jane was a trainee which meant she was given the most unpleasant work of course I like cleaning the
floors emptying chamber pots all that good stuff despite the menial and very unpleasant work Jane did us she was she
had always done and she just approached the work and her colleagues with a smile
had a cheery disposition and her nickname was finally earned Jolly Jane so at this point she like stopped making
up nasty rumors about people she at least stopped being I I think this was always her her thing even when she was
nasty in making up nasty rumors she always had that like she's like the mayor in Nightmare Before Christmas uh
where she could switch that face really fast to be like it's fine everything's okay you know like she could put on that
like Pleasant cheery exterior and then she go behind your back and be like this [ __ ] hoe like super [ __ ]
manipulative exactly now given her background as a domestic servant and her ability to tolerate poor treatment and
backbreaking Labor uh Jane could have made a very good nurse at the time because that's what it was it was
backbreaking Labor and very poor treatment which she was used to yeah and especially at the time when qualified
women in this Fields were in short sply uh the problem was that Jane didn't like
to work she didn't like to work like she she was good at it she didn't like to work and she surely thought herself
better than the other trainees around her cuz remember she's got that ego yeah the superiority thing in fact just like
her experiences in school Jane was well-liked by many of the instructors and administrators but her peers found
her she could sometimes be this nice Jolly Jane that they got but like I said they found her to be a NY gossip who
often avoided consequences by blaming her mistakes and wrongdoings on everyone else oh those are like the worst kind of
[ __ ] people to work with when you're like that is literally your fault and you are not taking me down with you and
they're like yes see you at the bottom and then everybody they've manipulated people above them so they get out of it
oh according to Shar quote in at least two instances she spread slanderous rumors about fellow trainees that
ultimately led to their dismissal wow to be she showing her snake to be okay doing that to like watch somebody lose
their livelihood especially back then where it was like so hard to get a job and like make them make a living for
yourself to just be like yeah like lol especially as a woman yeah like she knows how hard it is she knows the The
Limited places that women have to go and how how hard it is to be taken seriously
she doesn't give a [ __ ] she's look at the power that this woman craved over other people because it seems like she
had a life that she was kicked around like a like a stray cat and it's like and so I think she turned and looked at
it and said well I'm going to do it right back yeah but I'm going to do it a 100 times worse and that's [ __ ] up of
course it is and that's that's sick and that's that's a twisted mind that's a broken mind that's not somebody who's
sitting there saying well I could I could do that or I could decide to make this life for myself and better myself
go this other other way because as We Know we've seen people go both ways so you can't blame it on that but it's
definitely something that that kind of influenced how she looked at people around her for sure right now if Jane's
devious and duplicitous Behavior wasn't bad enough she also continued her habit of telling wildly unbelievable lies
about her personal history and future endeavors on one occasion Jane told a group of other trainees that having
heard about the advancements in medicine being made by women in American nursing
the Zar of Russia had requested that Jane join the personal staff at an enormous salary his personal staff at an
enormous salary good for her yeah just like the lies she told about herself in school these Fabrications were
definitely to make her seem Superior make the other nursing trainees feel intimidated by her and also to
compensate personally for her own crushing feelings of inadequacy inferiority that she had always felt
imagine working with a woman who's like uh the Zar of Russia is gonna hire me and she it's like one of have you ever
worked with somebody that's like oh I have like much bigger better things going on that you're still here though
yeah and it's like years later she's literally saying the Zar of Russia wants me to join his personal staff for a much
bigger salary and they're like why aren't you doing that why aren you there she's like just you know cuz I'm so
above it not ready yet I'm just so above that you know it's not it's not the money for me it's like no it is it's for
everyone right now now almost from the start James Pierce disliked her because of her unfounded
and absurd suspicious tail bearing slanderous gossip and consequent Mischief making as well as her pleasure
in inventing fabulous Tales fabulous Tales fabulous Tales but in time her instructors and administrators had
become suspicious of her as well during this 2-year period of training she was suspected of reporting false information
about patients and also sending patients to other institutions without doctor's approval and also reporting false
symptoms that resulted in patients receiving the wrong treatment oh that's terrible and ultimately prolonging their
illnesses because of that these were there were also reports of various items and valuables going missing without
explanation which by the way she was a [ __ ] thief too um shre said during her term of service at one of the
hospitals many articles were missed sums of money stationary aprons uniforms Etc
and she was suspect of stealing all of them wow now Jane would often be confronted with these suspicions though
there was never any real proof so what were they going to do and she also seemed Adept at getting out of trouble
and avoiding consequences either by Charming her accuser they manipulators are always good at that or just throwing
the blame on someone else but the primary reason Jane was able to avoid responsibility and the reason many
people were willing to tolerate her behavior was that she was very popular with the patients
patience liked her she she flicked on that Jolly Jane she sure did that's why she was Jolly Jane um however while
there were many patients Jane did like there were just as many if not more who she [ __ ] despised I believe that was
very open about it yeah according to Shear there were more than one occasion where Jane Jane was overheard saying
quote there was no use in keeping old people alive oh okay wow and I was like nobody thought that was a a red flag the
the maroon of flags [ __ ] he despite how competent she may have seemed to her instructors and peers when it came to
actually providing treatment to patients she was quote extremely Reckless and frequently gave larger doses than had
been prescribed that's so bad years later after her arrest Jane actually admitted that during her residency
period at Cambridge hospital she frequently experimented on patients withholding medications or administering
larger do does of morphine or atropine just to see what would happen oh okay that's
literally what some of the worst serial killers have said that they've done like
Hillside Strang stranglers doing experiments I just wanted to see what would happen if I injected this person
with this it's also it's so chilling like like spine chilling because it's it's such a simple explanation for
something so remarkably [ __ ] up and that's it's honestly like I'm going to take it to a lighter place here it's
honestly like in scream when Billy Lumis says it's scarier when there's no motive
yeah that's true in life it's like I just wanted to that's the truest [ __ ] that statement is so [ __ ] true
because we said before when there's it's scary when there's a reason yeah but [ __ ] when there's no reason to point to
it's like oh you just did that cuz you wanted to right like that's way scarier and this is even worse she couldn't even
say with certainty but she said by her own estimation she killed about a dozen people during her
2-year training period what and each of those deaths was assumed to be from natural causes and she didn't even know
how many she lost count said byy her estimation but she couldn't be sure at least 12 that's so F so this lady later
when it's like 31 way higher yeah she's she's just guesstimating wow now it's important to note Jane's recklessness
wasn't a matter of sloppiness or inattention at all um each overdose or experiment as she called it was very
methodical very calculated the fact that she called them experiments she called them experiments like by during her
instruction periods she paid very close attention to her lessons and was known to ask tons of questions about all the
medications she took detailed notes like she was on it she knew everything about
these medications she knew what they would do right in the present day such curiosity about various poisons might
arouse suspicions or be flagged yeah maybe it maybe but as Shear points out at a time when substances from arsenic
to strick nine were routinely prescribed for a range of ailments Jane's interest
didn't really seem that unusual she was just learning about the medications right but it like it honestly probably
made her look like a really good bright student you know it's impossible a pinpoint when she began experimenting on
patients and ha that even Jane herself had actually forgotten when she had started she's like I don't know I just
been doing this point to it you said it was like she got away with it for like 15 years been a while my God but by the
time she was out of her 2-year training period and was on a regular rotation at the hospital she was already injecting
patients with a variety of substances oh At first she used morphine exclusively because it was regularly prescribed for
a range of illness so she could get away with it she just put more in there and see what happens she would inject the
patient with varying amounts and stand beside them to watch how the drug affected each person she never left
that's one of the changes too is she a difference with her she didn't do it leave and then be like whoop it wasn't
part of that she watched sometimes she would like Comfort them like fake Comfort them through it sometimes she
would just she would like touch them caress them hug them whisper in their ear as this was happening she was and so
she was always there when they actually to watch them take their last breath that was part of it for her it took 15
[ __ ] years for you guys to be like hey Jane's always in the room where people die yeah and the last person who
have injected them with something now in somewhat smaller doses the drug would cause their pupils to dilate their
breathing would get louder and their skin would become clammy as they started to perspire very heavily yeah in larger
doses the patient would simply slip into a coma very quickly and then they would
eventually stop breathing and die but Jane found one thing that was most satisfying to her and she said this she
said the most satisfying thing was when the patient's death would involve violent convulsions oh my God yes this
woman is one of the scariest serial killers genuinely truly like she didn't love to watch when it was a quick silent
relatively you know not terrifying death think about think about just the stress
that you see like seeing something like that happen on TV you're like oh wow like even in a in a movie or a
television show you're like oh that's very upsetting to watch like it's it's just very visceral and very jarring to
watch and it's I mean I can't even fathom that I've never personally seen like an adult have like a full seizure
of me like in real life like I can only like my youngest had a relatively small seizure in my arms and I can tell
you if that that will stick with me until the day I die and beond abely and it's like and that was a that was
luckily thankfully she's completely fine suffer nothing from it but it was a very
small seizure in comparison to what it could have been watching standing there and watching an
adult go through convulsions in front of me while they're struggling to breathe and in pain and and
terrified and you're just watching it like how I'm like what I I think part of me is like I wish I could I wish she was
hooked up to all kinds of things so we could witness what her vitals did in that moment cuz I'm like do you have the
same response internally as we do like do you that would trigger my fight ORF flight response in a mive I mean I would
go into [ __ ] the outer space like my whole body would be a live wire of just [ __ ] losing it but would hers like
I'm like would hers just be gone but or would hers go off like yours because she's excited by it that's the thing
like not a flight or uh fright or flight kind of thing just like an excitement excitement it's like would your brain be
lighting up would your what would be happening inside of you I I was just thinking that cuz I've never really
thought of somebody standing there watching someone deliberately die in such a violent way in so that
they did it and I'm like I would just be very curious to see we would never be able to see but it's like I would be
very curious to see that if there's just a different situation going on in there
yeah that's why like these brains are fascinating they're [ __ ] up like they are [ __ ] up but I do think it's more
important to study some of these brains and yeah cuz it's not the same create some kind of like situation like that
obviously without killing anybody like duh but just to see what happens in a in a psychopath's brain like that that's
the thing like it's just this is so different than anything you can conceive of that it's just it's got to be
something different here and then to know like is to when you find out what's happening in the brain when these things
are going on to find out is there a cure yeah for a serial killer for a psychopath it's not that's not a to
like wild thing to say it's like there's cures for so many it's a mental illness
like it's it's an amalgamation of mental illness something so what is it you know
what I mean like I wonder if someday there ever will be the cure for the the psychopath or like something
that you can you can do to to determine it early yeah before it becomes a thing you know I mean like become one of those
things where you can catch it and do something to it it's not totally out of the realm of
possibility you know like we who knows and who knows too like it might be something that like we're already doing
yeah who really knows we don't know when you know like when your kid is going through something and you take them to
therapy but like a previous serial killer their parent didn't take them to therapy because it wasn't a thing like I
do Wonder true there's at least that step being taken it's like could we take 15 more steps and like get higher on
here but it's like maybe that really is part of it it could be anyway yeah there
a little detour but in time Jane began to experiment with other drugs instead of morphine and eventually began
blending the morphine with atropine which is a painkiller derived from belladon and detura plants that if not
handled colle or properly handled can have significant toxic effects unlike morphine which caused a certain amount
of sedation atropine causes losers to lose control of their muscle coordination while also potentially
causing hallucinations and delirium in many cases patients will pick at real or imagine N Things From hairs and scabs on
their own skin to items on a nearby table or Phantoms only they can perceive in the room and Jane would inject
victims with various doses one after the other and watch the effect which satisfied her dark and sadistic desires
to watch them just lose all coordination and pain and Terror insane and it also helped her because it would create such
a perplexing set of symptoms that no one could figure out what these deaths were
and they certainly weren't weren't thinking they were intentionally caused so despite her unique choice of murder
weapon Jane toppen was like many other serial killers to come after her in that the pleasure she derived from murder was
in the feeling of power she had over another person acting as you know the acting as God essentially and watching
them die right and seeing the light go when she was later asked how she felt when she committed these crimes Jane
would describe her murders as quote Delirious enjoyment voluptuous delight and the greatest conceivable
pleasure I don't have words for how disturbing that is voluptuous Delight in the
greatest conceivable pleasure watching an elder and cuz I'm assuming like a lot of these people are elderly a lot of
them are elderly yeah just and people who are already like they're in the hospital to begin with they're already
going through something you know traumatic or something where they need attention and it's like and then you're
just causing so much extra disruption to their system and watching them die and when pressed further about this
she eventually did admit that she murdered because it gave her a sexual thrill I had a feeling so she's like a a
sexual SST essentially yeah absolutely uh oh gross one of Jane's surviving victims told police after Jane had
injected her with the poison Jane quote climbed into bed with her as she Lay Dying before being interrupted by
another nurse walking through so she would literally climb into bed with these people while they
were con convulsing and dying and struggling to breathe and this is just beyond in a in
a hospital in some of the in the best hospitals in the world as we'll see Mass General is one of these Hospitals
Massachusetts General Hospital one of the top hospitals in the entire world and you think about like
and the reason I say that is you think about all the activity going on in a hospital yeah and all the people in the
hallway like walking back and forth constantly going in and out of rooms and [ __ ] and she just she has so much G that
she just first of all does this and then second of all hops into bed with her victims just like not worried that
anybody's going to walk in like yeah and not worried that that's just like [ __ ]
up in and of itself and like Beyond but no thought of being caught by anything cuz I think that's crazy she has such a
high ego to She's So ego Centric that she truly believes that she can talk her way out of anything and to be honest got
every reason to think that because she does it is scary how some people really I think we already said it but how they
can talk their themselves out of things like that it's a power it is it really is it's a power it's inexplicable and
it's an awful power because it's like somebody who can do that is very dangerous too the most dangerous um and
again this is like the late 1800s so it's like hospitals are just such obviously such a different situation
than they are now right right like but for this for this to happen at Mass general you know like Cambridge hospital
like these are we know these Hospitals now and they were always well respected always well-run always well like these
are the top hospitals from the beginning yeah and even them even she was even able to do it to them like think about
what she could have done somewhere with less oversight but thanks to her ability to
charm the right people her entire life those with influence apparently in the late 18 in late 1888 Jane landed a
position at Massachusetts General Hospital no out of her trainee days this again was one of the most prestigious
training Institutes of the day and Remains the top Hospital one of the top hospitals in the world in addition to
providing nerv nursing services at the hospital she would also be able to continue her education with some of the
most well-respected doctors and surgeons in the entire country yeah whose recommendations she would rely on for
future employment yeah now at first Jane's supervisor objected her to her admission actually based mostly on the
fact that she was of Irish heritage that's [ __ ] but as she' done so many times in the past Jane managed to
thoroughly impress her superiors and made it through her probation period without any trouble so she was a and it
K these are the same kind of people we always say it the people who if they use their [ __ ] powers for good oh my God
they they could go off and do great things yeah climb right to the top in fact Jane had so impressed the hospital
uh administrators that when the head nurse took a temporary leave leave of absence Jane was named as her
replacement no goodbye despite only having recently come out of her probation period the [ __ ] that's how
manipulative She was That's Bonkers and how much of a charmer she was now unfortunately while Jane may have been
you know may have managed to fool the higher ups it wasn't long before she fell back into her old habits and her
peers labor labeled her a self-promoting liar who routinely disparaged the efforts of her colleagues while taking
the credit for herself yeah she's a true [ __ ] snake she really is there were other problems too incorrect information
being entered into patient charts records being falsified various items going missing around the hospital same
[ __ ] following her everywhere most importantly though Jane had once again become Reckless and others began
noticing that she was dispensing medic Pati at improper dosages putting patients at significant risk of
course now while her behavioral problems an occasional Reckless or careless in injection was caused for concern no one
would have thought much l much less believed that a nurse in a worldclass medical facility was actively murdering
patients cuz that's just like you your brain doesn't go there naturally no and yet there is documented
evidence that many people under Jane's care at this time did indeed die unexpectedly of course yeah clearly with
modern medicine still in its infancy though it's unclear how many of those deaths were actually
murders but testimony provided during Jane's trial strongly implies she had been perfecting her method and
practicing her craft while working at Mass General I would say so now in a statement provided by Amelia fenny who
was a patient admitted for treatment of abdominal cancer going in for abdominal cancer yeah like that's a that's huge
the woman claimed she had been having difficulty sleeping one evening due to her pain and laying on her cot in the
dark she came to realize someone was in the room with her oh the visitor lit the
lamp and cuz remember we're doing this by lamp light everybody remember that the way like that's so silly that that
just occurred to me but the fact that there's not even electricity no oh my God like there's no it's lamp picturing
a hospital with no electricity and lamp light like you picture a hospital you picture
like like [ __ ] beeping everywhere oh my God so this person lit the LMP and revealed herself to be Jane
toppen a nurse and said I'm the nurse no finny explained that she was in terrible
pain and asked Jane please get a doctor for me yeah but Jane replied there's no need for that I have something to make
you feel better after helping finny sit up on the cot Jane handed handed the woman a glass and told her to drink
which the patient did she is a nurse after all yeah and not long after after she drank it she began to feel her body
going numb and her throat became uncomfortably dry as she slipped into unconsciousness Amelia felt the sheets
and covers being pulled back and heard the cck creek as it shifted for years after finny would convince herself that
this was an hallucination caused by the medication and it was only after Jane was arrested Ed that she realized it was
real as Amelia Lay Dying on the cot Jane began caressing and stroking her hair and face gently then started kissing her
face all while Whispering that everything would be all right moments after this finny felt the
glass being pressed to her lips again as the nurse encouraged her to drink more but used and then but she said she
realized IED what was happening and used all her strength she had to keep her mouth shut and turn her head then very
suddenly the nurse jumped out of the cot as though she had been startled and fled
the room and that's when Amelia couldn't fight the effects of medication and just
went unconscious and this was she was literally laying next to her saying everything's going to be all right
stroking her [ __ ] hair K kissing this is deranged truly deranged now e this is so yucky it's so yucky now
wildly I guess it wasn't the nefarious experiments and bizarre behavior with the patients and people dying that led
her to be ousted from General from Mass General but it was her duplicitousness and her costic personality that ended up
getting her gone one or the other's going to do it something had to although Jane had managed to charm more than a
few of the higher ups in the hospital their character references weren't enough to shut down the number of
complaints about her unpleasant demeanor that her colleagues came forward to and
the growing suspicions that Jane was trying to blame people for items that had gone missing including supplies from
the store room a diamond ring from a patient oh my God and money that had been stolen from a cash box damn when
was when she was confronted Jane acted indignant and performed the role of the unfortunate victim just as she had done
every time before I but at a time when nuring was emerging as a legitimate field of study for women there was very
little room for error and the suspicions others had of Jane could have negatively
affected the hospital's reputation abut M General isn't going to put up for that
[ __ ] they said Jane toen not today baby they said no way um they were like we want to be iconic um however without any
evidence that she was responsible for the thefts her supervisors couldn't fire her without causing even more problems
for themselves their opportunity to get rid of her finally did come in summer of
1890 when Jane left her assed Ward without permission ooh that's all she did got her on a technicality it was it
was a minor infraction but they were like that's what we needed thanks Jane it was a documented violation of the
rules and exactly what they needed to get her the [ __ ] out of Mass General so they were like bye [ __ ] he said don't
let the door hit you on your way out yep see you see you later so see you never although she had already completed her
studies and her diploma was set to be awarded Jane was fired from the hospital and never receiv received her license
but she still went on to work in another hospital but like good Mass General was
like bye you're like yeah yeah yeah I was like General was like [ __ ] that I love it now after being dismissed from
Mass General Jane spent a year providing Nur private nursing services for prominent local families collecting
glowing letters of recommendations that by the end of the year allowed her to regain her employment at Cambridge
hospital okay of course Jane being who Jane was Jane just being Jane just being Jane it
didn't take long for her to fall back into those old nasty habits of hers from Gossip to theft and most importantly
murder this time however she didn't confine her experiments to just the patience her distaste for her co-workers
started to blend with her contempt for her patients okay but how did she poison them when one of the train e 19-year-old
Maddie Davis fell ill during a shift she laid down to rest in one of the beds and
she was tended to by nurse toppen no at one point Jane gave the girl some medication that according to the
official report caused Maddie to quote be seized with a sudden and violent collapse fortunately for Maddie a doctor
happened to be passing by the room at the time and intervened ultimately saving the girl's life Wow like so many
of the professional around Jane at the time the Doctor Who Saved Maddie never suspected that she would have been
intentionally poisoned by one of the [ __ ] Hospital staff nor did Maddie think that why would anybody think yeah
she just was like what the [ __ ] happened to me but there was at least one doctor
at Cambridge hospital who after noticing that several of his patients had died under Jane's watch became very
suspicious and reported Jane to the hospital Administration for what he believed was a reckless use of dangerous
drugs and I was like he said [ __ ] I have your number that's my guy right there given all the trouble that Jane
was suspected of causing you know thefts and strife among the nursing staff administrators use the doctor's
suspicions as a reason to fire Jane bye girl and she was fired from Cambridge hospital in the spring of 1891 get the
[ __ ] out that was a short stint for her entire life James Jane's worst instincts
and criminal Behavior had prevented her from forming any kind of bond with others and she spent every waking moment
trying to cover up her deeply held feelings of inadequacy with overcompensation and really dark
manipulation but now at age 32 those same instincts and behaviors had cost her not one but two jobs at two of the
most prestigious teaching hospitals on the East Coast also while she had invested four years of her life in
training she'd managed to get fired from both hospitals before receiving a license so she wasted a [ __ ] ton of time
because she's a [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] jeane now under these circumstances it seemed unlikely that Jane would find
more work in another hospital so she returned to private nursing where she could she knew she was going to make
more money there and really there was not going to be a lot of oversight for her mhm it was kind of perfect for what
she was doing yeah so for Jane the transition from hospital to private nursing wouldn't have been all that
arduous or uncomfortable because she' spent her entire Youth and then some tending to the needs of a wealthy Foster
mother and sister yeah which wasn't all that different from private nursing to be honest as a private contractor she
really would have been suspect expected to just sit with the patients in their homes administer medications provide
other treatments and kind of wait on them during periods of convalescing yeah for Jane those things would have likely
honestly been a cakewalk very easy the easiest Parts less easy would have been the constant interactions with doctors
and concerned family members who would have relied on Jane at various points during this of course for much of her
life she had struggled when it came to interpersonal Communications largely because she was a chronic liar who used
to manipulated people to get what she wanted or to make herself look or feel Superior and this caused endless
problems for Jane in a hospital setting because patience came and went quickly you know she was interacting with a lot
of people in those environments but it was really doubly challenging in a home environment because everyone talked to
one another regularly there and there were far fewer people on whom things could be blamed when they went wrong yet
Jane never seemed to lack employment and while there was occasional complaints about her behavior she managed to do
quite well for herself during this period according to Shear some of her employer employers were taken aback by
her tendency to spin elaborate lies about her life and accomplishments though for the most most part they
dismissed her fondness for extravagant storytelling as a function of her Irish ancestry she's really out here making
the Irish look I know I'm like damn like can you not Jane can you stop giving us
a bad name seriously now after her arrest Jane would confess to 31 murders and stand trial for 12 deaths but at
various points she was suspected of as many as 100 murders or more throughout her adult life that's believable she
only confessed and was stood trial for that amount of deaths they do believe it is over a hundred wow although some of
those victims were almost certainly killed during this early period of private nursing which is between 1891
and 1895 their identities and the details of their deaths remain pretty much unknown
that's so sad it is what is known is that Jane's most Reckless period of mass killing the one for which you would
eventually be caught and pro uh prosecuted for began very much in Earnest in the spring of 1895 and it
started not with a patient under her care but with her own landlord what Let's Start The Killing Spree portion of
this as a private nurse Jane was often required to provide livein Round the Clock care for her patients obviously
which took care of her housing needs so that was good for her but when she wasn't required to live with her
patients Jane found lodging with an elderly couple Israel and lovey Dunham yes don't even don't you dare
lovey don't you dare go near lovey Dunham she was living at 19 Wendell Street in Cambridge at a certain point
Jane began providing home care for the Dunhams who were nearly 80 years old at the time you live your whole [ __ ]
life just to come into contact with this on May 26th 1895 Israel Dunham died after 4 days of illness from what the
coroner identified as a strangulated hernia it was only after her arrest that the truth would be revealed Israel
Dunham had been poisoned by Jane toppen because he had become in her words quote
fee and fussy he's 80 and sick be as feeble and fussy as you'd like to be I'm going to
be the fussiest I am the fussiest I'm fussy at 38 so I'm fussy as hell it's going to get real bad when I'm 80 Jane
stayed on as a border with Mrs Dunham for more than two more years who had lovey had no idea that this woman had
murdered her husband for 2 years she lives there until September 19th 1897 when she decided that lovey the Widow
had become quote old and cranky and poisoned her with a combination of morphine and atropine dissolved in water
which remember atropine poisoning causes delirium and hallucinations and is very
scary yeah and she did this to this 80s something year old Widow who had already
lost her husband two years prior because of her yep throughout her adult life Jane's assaults and Mur were committed
against those with whom she either had a casual relationship the Dunhams M or a professional association as a healthcare
provider right this changed in the summer of 1899 when Jane murdered her foster sister Elizabeth
Brigham no since moving out many years earlier Jane had maintained a tenuous relationship with Elizabeth I knew that
was going to blow your mind oh she here's the thing Elizabeth was always very cordial and very welcoming to Jane
I thought you said like she was she was pretty nice to her she was not mean she was not she didn't treat her but she was
jealous of her it was the jealousy she was everything that Jane could never be and I think even that probably pissed
Jane off that Elizabeth wasn't a [ __ ] it's like that she wanted her to be this
what she was in her head why aren't you and honestly Jame was probably why aren't you like me I'm this angry
[ __ ] miserable off-putting liar snake manipulator murderer terrible person and
I don't have any of the things that you have and like you're this person who's like this good person on top of all the
other things that you have it probably pissed her off absolutely and so she was always very cordial very welcoming to
Jane despite Jane's very off-putting personality in fact Elizabeth and her husband had always had fond feelings for
Jane and were happy that she managed to find success in Boston as a nurse they were happy for her wow and like told her
as such they like congratulated her and celebrated her and we're like we're so glad you found this and Elizabeth it
sounds like she was probably trying to be the family that like her mom was never too to Jane to Jane Jane on the
other hand spent most of her life resenting Elizabeth who again she felt was totally undeserving of all the
things that Jane herself had been denied whether it was an toppen love and affection
Elizabeth's many close friends and acquaintances or her romantic relationships and her very successful
and loving marriage for Jane Elizabeth represented a constant reminder of all the ways that she believed she had been
failed by everything around her and that she didn't get that [ __ ] and not that
that's she couldn't look at it as I want to strive to be that I need to destroy that and I want to use her support to
like lift me up in that way and know that I have this person in my corner she looked at it and said I have to destroy
that to get it yeah and there's still there's people who think that all around that you have to destroy the thing
that's above you to get there instead of just grabbing someone's hand and standing up there with them let's do it
together right yeah and it's the grossest kind of thought process and it's like they're the most dangerous
kind of people and it doesn't get you anywhere look what look what happen to Jane topen exactly in August 1899 oramel
and Elizabeth planned AAC on Cape Cod and hoping to lift Elizabeth out of a recent bout of depression that she had
been suffering from orl suggested they invite Jane along to keep her company until he arrived a few days later oh God
because they loved Jane right and they thought that you he was like oh you love Jane make you feel like it's your sister
you know like that's your sister for all intents and purposes Jane arrived late on the evening of August 25th and the
following day the two enjoyed a picnic at the beach like sisters later that night Elizabeth
announced that she was feeling tired and went to bed early the following morning
when she didn't wake Jane claimed she went to check on Elizabeth and that she found her unresponsive in her bed yeah
because of what you did after making her sister comfortable Jane went next door and asked for help summoning the local
doctor later that afternoon oramel received a telegram informing him that Elizabeth his wife had become
dangerously ill oh no and he made immediate plans to get to Cape Cod but unfortunately by the time he arrived the
following day Elizabeth was in a coma after having suffered from what local doctors described as quote a stroke of
apoplexy what is that which would associate with stroke symptoms okay a little bit um and like it leads to
unconsciousness oh okay Elizabeth died the following day August 29th at age 70 oh my God she was 70 at this point in
time she killed her sister at 70 years years old what the [ __ ] she killed her sister at 70 years old after being
invited on a vacation with her and her husband to make feel better because her husband thought that her sister who she
loves so much will cheer her up wow like wow and again you live your whole [ __ ] life for your sister to kill you
yeah and then it's even worse a few days later as orl was packing up Elizabeth's
belongings at the vacation home home that they'd rented that he was now packing up after she died there all by
himself he was surprised to find that his wife's purse contained only $5 when they planned for the trip a few
days earlier Elizabeth had said she would be taking no less than $50 for her expenses because she was like [ __ ] that
I'm going to spend money yeah hell yeah go girl and it seemed impossible that she would have spent that much money in
a short period of time especially when she wasn't even feeling good exactly so orml asked Jane if she knew anything
about it but Jane was like I don't know what the [ __ ] you're talking about she
did however tell orl that just before Elizabeth died she had told her that it was her her dying wish that Jane take
her gold watch and chain as a Keepsake she's such a [ __ ] she's a [ __ ] she's a [ __ ] with a capital K in any
case of murder that isn't witnessed by others the only information we have available is from physical evidence or
obviously whatever details if any the Killer is going to choose to disclose yeah since poisoning tends not to give
you a whole lot in terms of evidence or Insight at all almost all the details known about Jan's murders were provided
by the killer herself and unfortunately those were sometimes vague and brief and
[ __ ] um but when it came to the murder of Elizabeth Brigham Jane not only confessed but elaborated on her
motive saying that Elizabeth quote was really the first of my victims that I actually hated and poisoned with a V
vindictive purpose I let her die slowly with gripping torture oh my God that is her words that's someone you literally
like however old she was like we're thinking like 10 8 to 10 when she was adopted she spent her whole life like
growing up with this this sister again for all intents and purposes they live treated her well who treated her well
who was kind to her who you know whatever had no control over how her mother exactly was or how she was
treated and I'm sure probably tried to like help when she could yeah I let her die slowly with gripping torture you how
do you do that to someone that like that you know how do you do that to anybody obviously but how do you do that to
somebody that like is your family it gets worse no it doesn't she told investigators that as her sister began
to slip into a coma Jane climbed into bed with her to be as close as possible when she died and she said quote I held
her in my arms and watched with delight as she gasped her life out I there's like no words it's like the
fact that she like hops into bed with people and holds them as they die you can't you can't picture in your mind
somebody doing that in an evil manner no you picture somebody trying to hold someone to comfort them right like I
can't picture her doing that just try to be there for them as they're dying like
being like you're not alone I'm here with you like you're not alone like somebody I've seen people do that of
course I can't picture her doing that happily this woman all I picture is this woman with a maniacal Chesire Cat smile
on her face just delighting in all of the throws of death that is happening that closer my brain can even picture
that like that's how just absolutely insane this idea is she is she's something totally different never I've
never heard of somebody who who does this she's a different Beast she really is to hold somebody to hold your family
as they're dying and to be happy yep while doing so is heinous and your sister who always treated you well I
won't do that to you thank you you're welcome same I got you now just a few months later in December 1899 Jane
killed again although this time she went back to her preferred victim profile oh
God on Christmas day no 70-year-old Mary mcneir traveled the short distance from
her home in Watertown Hey to her daughter's home in Cambridge and that day mary caught a chill and by the
evening she felt like she was coming down with a cold in the days that followed Mary developed a cough and
symptoms of a cold but as far as the doctor could tell it was nothing serious just a shitty cold you know it was
Winter yeah nevertheless her family was concerned about her health and insisted they hire a private nurse so the family
doctor recommended Jane toppen to the mcneir family Jane seemed more than competent in qualified and
within a day it seemed as though Mary was showing signs of improvement wow pleased that things were going so well
Mary's granddaughter Evelyn Shaw returned home for after a visit confident that her grandmother was going
to be well again in no time flat of course just a few hours later though Mary's Coachman appeared at Shaw's door
to tell her that her grandmother had taken a sudden and very serious turn and she should return to Watertown as soon
as possible Evelyn raced back to her grandmother's house and by the time she arrived the doctor was already there he
told the family Mary had quote suffered a stroke of apoplexy just like Elizabeth
which according to Jane had occurred just after she took her medication Jane immediately informed the staff of what
had happened but insisted it was nothing to be worried about and she would care for the woman despite Jane's insistance
the cook felt it appropriate to notify the family and sent The Coachman to the Shaw's home in Cambridge wow I'm glad
these other people are like get [ __ ] like no I'll tell who I want to unfortunately by the time the doctor
arrived there was literal he could do to help Mary and she died on December 29th without ever regaining
Consciousness so she just slipped into a coma and then died in the days after the
funeral while they were pack backing out Mary's belongings the family noticed many of her nicest clothes and jewelry
were missing and they asked the doctor whether he thought Jane might be to blame and giving how well they knew and
trusted the rest of the staff their suspicions weren't unreasonable because they were like nobody on this staff did
that yeah like we we let this new woman into our home our grandma dies and then all her nice stuff is gone but the
doctor was outraged by that accusation are you kidding me as far as he was concerned Jane toppen was one of the
best private nurses there was in Boston and he would not tolerate any arguments to the contrary the that's how well she
Charmed them the egg the egg on his face all his face is an egg at this point he
became an egg he that's that doctor honestly he had a great fall he sure did yeah now just as she had always done she
had managed to manipulate exactly the right person in order to avoid any detection wow because the details of
Jane's activity are based largely on self-reports it's difficult to Lish a timeline or a pattern in the frequency
with which she killed cuz remember there's so many more than what we even know of but there is a noticeable
increase in Murder beginning with another atypical victim huh in mid January 1900 just a few weeks after
killing Mary mcneir Jane paid a visit to to her foster sister's Widow oramel Brigham hoping to find him alone
no oh this is now that Elizabeth was out of the way it seems that Jane had intended to win Brigham's affection and
finally Reed the Romantic attention that she felt she deserved way more than Elizabeth what so now she's trying to
[ __ ] her murdered sister's husband blink blink blink blink but she was pretty upset when she
found that orl had hired a young woman named Florence Caulkins to help with the responsibilities of the house again not
in a relationship with her just hir her to help him take care of the house he's probably depressed now she later told
investigators Jane did I was jealous of her I knew she wanted to become Mr bram's wife I think she might have just
been that was just her job working whether or not that was true Jane had no intention of tolerating competition she
had gone through Great Lengths to get rid of the biggest competition as a matter of fact uhuh so on January 15th
Jane poisoned the 45-year-old housekeeper to ensure that she would be out of the way of her dead sister's
husband like orell's not going to be like wow it's weird that every time you're around someone dies like what the
[ __ ] you're the other thing is it's like she did that to take her dead sister's
husband the sister that she murdered and crawled into bed with and watched as she
breathed her last breath and also like you don't think he's going to start to suspect this you're supposed to be a
nurse but all these people just die in your care like you're not good at this job you suck less than 2 weeks later
70-year-old William Ingram a Watertown patient under Jane's care died on January 27th 1900 the doctor who
attended to the body after his death labeled the death the cause of death as degenerative disease of the heart which
Ingram was known to have suffered with but was nonetheless pretty suspicious that his death had come so suddenly nice
that he actually like was s he was like wait a second as far as the doctor could
tell the only thing that had changed in his care was the recent AR the recent arrival of his new nurse Jane toppen oh
I had a feeling once again those suspicions were shut down after Jane was arrested and more than a year after his
death Ingram's family released a statement insisting quote no suspicion was attached to topen and she proved
herself to be most capable wow like the few murders of intimate relations she'd already
committed the last grouping of murders committed by Jane broke from her established victim profile starting with
her friend Myra Connor what now it's unclear how the two women had met but by February 1900 they
known one another for about two years so that's a that's a long friend a friendship at the beginning of February
Myra was feeling unwell and called for a doctor who diagnosed her with localized
peritonitis which basically is inflammation of the lining of your abdomen it it's usually caused by some
localized infection like a perforation of the bowel or a burst appendix not great
um she was prescribed op an opium solution o you know the 1900s of uh a week later on February 7th Jane arrived
at her home insisting that she be allowed to care for her sick friend until that point Connor had been making
steady progress towards actually a full recovery but almost immediately after Jane arrived her condition took a strict
turn for the worse according to testimony provided by Connor's doctor during Jane's trial on February 11th
less than a week after Jane's arrival by the way Myra Connor's quote died in great Agony suffering such terrible
convulsions that her left arm was bent nearly double what yeah what bent nearly double
I don't understand it like literally she went through such convulsions that her arm broke oh my God like it threw her in
such convulsions that her arm broke in like two places oh my God was like bent the wrong way and this is supposed to be
her friend and you'll find out why she was going through such horrible convulsions here because once again Jane
was benefiting from modern medicine being in its infancy although the doctor was confounded by how peritonitis had
escalated to such a violent end he's like I've never seen this before but following Jane's arrest it occurred to
him that the symptoms Myra exhibited now strongly resembled the effects of strict
n poisoning strick nine poisoning causes horrible spasming so the back arches unnaturally enough to cause literal
damage to your back and spinal cord that's how violent the spasms are death from strick nine poisoning usually comes
only hours after being exposed to it and it's caused by either expiation caused by paralysis of the systems necessary to
control your breathing or you die from exhaustion from the convulsions that's how bad it is you can
die from the exhaustion of convulsing so violently what it is a nightmarish way to die yeah I would
say so I would absolutely say so what the [ __ ] and later it would be learned that that like Elizabeth Jane had been
so deeply en of Myra particularly for her job as a dining hall matron at St John's theological School although this
seems like clearly this is a weak motivation for [ __ ] horrible murders but she's this is her mindset this is
her mindset jealousy she is a jealous jealous woman and cannot handle it and to go to those lengths because of your
jealousy like whoo and it's clear at this point that Jane has spun wildly out of control I would say so to the point
that for it you know it's her ability to resist the urge to kill at this point is
non-existent she cannot resist the urge and yet this would be the last time that
Jane killed for more than a year but when she resumed her activity it would be what one can only call Reckless
abandon I mean it feels that way right now and that's where we're going to end part one cuz I think we need to take a
[ __ ] second we do but like damn cuz all this time I'm like I need to breathe yeah I mean I don't blame you whoa Jane
toppen and when we when we return for part two we are going to go through her final murder spree and what happens
after all right it's a horrific tale we will see you then so we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it we not
so weird as Jane no [Music]

When Jane Toppan began training to be a nurse at Cambridge Hospital in 1885, she was bright, eager, and well-liked by her peers and seemed to form easy bonds with the oldest and most vulnerable patients. What no one knew at the time was, once Jane managed to get time alone with her patients, she began conducting medical experiments by injecting them with various drugs and even going so far as to get into bed with them to hold them close to her as they died from the overdoses she’d administered.

Thank you to the amazing Dave White of Bring me the Axe Podcast for research!

References

Boston Globe. 1902. "Agree that she's insane." Boston Globe, April 6: 1.

—. 1901. "Alden P. Davis' death due to another cause." Boston Globe, November 21: 1.

—. 1901. "Hint to watch Miss Toppan." Boston Globe, October 31: 5.

—. 1901. "Inquiry is under way." Boston Globe, August 31: 1.

—. 1902. "Is Miss Toppan sane." Boston Globe, March 26: 1.

—. 1904. "Jane Toppan an imbecile." Boston Globe, July 10: 6.

—. 1902. "Jane Toppan insane, found not guilty." Boston Globe, June 24: 1.

—. 1938. "Jane Toppan, poisoner of 31, dies in hospital at age pf 81." Boston Globe, August 18: 1.

—. 1901. "Marriage and money." Boston Globe, November 1: 1.

—. 1901. "Murder by poison." Boston Globe, October 31: 1.

—. 1901. "No cause for suspicion." Boston Globe, November 4: 2.

Lowell Historical Society. 2022. Lowell’s ties to “Jolly” Jane, Massachusetts’ Female Serial Killer. October 29. Accessed March 28, 2024. https://www.lowellhistoricalsociety.org/lowells-ties-to-jolly-jane-massachusetts-female-serial-killer/.

New York Times. 1904. "Jane Toppan, an extraordinary case of moral insanity." New York Times, October 23: A2.

—. 1938. "Miss Jane Toppan, 84, Mass poisoner, dies." New York Times, August 18: 15.

Schechter, Harold. 2012. Fatal: The Poisonous Life of a Female Serial Killer. New York, NY: Pocket Books.

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

Jane Toppan, a nurse, killed at least 31 patients, finding pleasure in their suffering and death.

Key points

Pre-order the Butcher Game. The hosts promote their upcoming game with a humorous twist on marketing.
Childhood Trauma Discussion. A deep dive into how childhood experiences shape adult behavior, particularly in Jane Toppin's case.
Jane's Duality. Jane's outgoing personality masked deep feelings of inferiority and self-hatred.
A Dark Turn. Jane's lies evolve from trivial to malicious as she becomes a vicious gossip.
The Nurse's Path. Despite her troubled past, Jane enters nursing school, earning the nickname 'Jolly Jane.'
Jolly Jane's Dark Side. Despite her popularity, Jane harbored a deep disdain for many patients.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Keep pre-ordering the butcher game, swelling continues if you do not!

A humorous marketing tactic for their upcoming game.

3:47WatchMay 2, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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