“Jolly Jane” Toppan: Angel of Mercy (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is psychological damage this absolutely is psychological
damage [Music] with a with a little dash of psychological damage I would say it's a
lot it is this is part two of Jane toppen who is known as Jolly Jane um she doesn't live up to that name though uh
that's one of those nicknames that you're like yeah okay yeah I can't think of like any other person to compare it
to but I know exactly what you mean but oh no I'm making sounds sorry son of a bit yeah we're chaotic right now but you
you love us for that and we love you back yeah but in part one I mean she was unhinged yeah that's not even the word
to say the least yeah she ended up killing her own sister um and delighting in it and then trying to go [ __ ] her
mans trying to go [ __ ] her mans she's not even done with that so she she hasn't even given that up I had a
feeling cuz then she [ __ ] killed the then she killed the the helper that her brother-in-law had hired to help him in
the house after he was grieving the death of his wife meanwhile this man is like in his 70s yeah and just like
dealing with all of this um she has killed countless patients she has killed elderly couples her landlords
she has killed her friend she has killed I mean there's no bounds to her and she
does it with a smile on her face and she ends up hugging the person and caressing
them as they die I hate the part where you say caress yeah it's not great it's pretty horrible it's not great but what
is great is Ash has found a new passion and before we get into part two which h you need this right now because I'm not
kidding you I don't think anybody realizes how [ __ ] brutal Jane toppen is but so scared it's going to get worse
in part two and you you need to be ready so Ash has found a passion and here it is my passion is called sound baths get
ready that was a good one wasn't she absolutely brown cow stunning you feel healed I always feel healed I'm in a I'm
on a healing Journey you are on a healing journey I just I put down the sound bath and picked up my French FY
french fry palis [Laughter] Santo every I have it like a little like chunk of Palos Santo on my chair and I
keep thinking it's a french fry because that's who I am as an individual and I keep seeing this really this look of
pure joy on her face when she walks by and I can almost see them like oo a rogue french fry and then she realizes I
need it right off the arm of my chair she realizes it's not and it's always severe disappointment it makes me
feel bad but you know what are you going to do that's where we are today we're we're in a place you're welcome for the
sound bath Mikey went out and bought a sound bath cuz the energy was weird in here should I wait should I quickly tell
my story yeah tell your story before we get into don't worry we'll get into it but this is a very interesting story and
it's paranormally so you guys will appreciate it I actually like I've never ever had an experience like this and I'm
ready to talk about it it happened like it was this week wasn't it yeah it was literally coule days ago and we should
preface this by saying like um I've been dealing with some [ __ ] [ __ ] lately and
um it's I've been in a place of of Rage in in this room in particular outside has been like
very heightened lately will say so I went to go to the bathroom the other day and there wasn't any toilet paper in the
bathroom so I came in here to be like hey [ __ ] there's no toilet paper in the bathroom but I walked into the
bathroom experienced the fact that there was no toilet paper went to turn around
and I'm like about to walk out the doorway of the bathroom and I see Elena like very like I see her and it
registers like oh that's my [ __ ] sister who didn't fill the toilet paper and you're wearing I saw you wearing a
white sweatshirt like you're always wearing a white sweatshirt I'm wear one right now literally is wearing one right
now and I went to say something to you and then I was like I had this like wave of confusion wash over me and this is
all in like like two seconds yeah but like I experienced a wave of confusion and then you were gone and I was like
wait that like what that's what and then I walked in here and it was like the one
[ __ ] day where she wasn't wearing a white sweat chirt and she's just sitting on the couch in the office and I had not
moved mik was in the room with me and you would have been like I would have seen you like dive onto the couch if you
were like [ __ ] with me for if you were able to to shift time like that that would have been funny I it was so
cuz it happened so quickly that I saw you but it wasn't like a oh I just saw something out of the corner of my eye or
like oh I saw like a reflection in the mirror I literally saw you and you were there for like two three seconds and
then I I think the wave of confusion that washed over me was like wait no like that's not her but I was and I like
opened my mouth to say something to you before I was like no that's not her so I
was literally just standing there with my mouth open just just in an empty room with your mouth open and then I ran in
here and you saw I was like she was like flushed and like slightly shaking and I
could I could essentially see her heart beating out of her chest yeah like it was very real fight ORF flight reaction
that was happening there that I could witness just from looking at her I'm actually surprised I didn't pee my pants
I am too and then my the [ __ ] that was it's true my walk in the bathroom I'd like to be escorted
everywhere now it's yeah I don't know what it was but I'm like we were like maybe my energy is so [ __ ] up that
something's going on I don't really know how that works but we so that's why actually Mikey went out and got the the
sound bowl and it's my new passion now and even though it stresses me out hates it yeah I hate it I love it but I think
but Mikey said today we think you hate it partially because you don't like loud noises for sure's but also cuz your
energy is like no no don't heal me don't heal me with sound maybe I think that's
what it is I'm open I'm an open book but genuinely I don't think like I've seen actual ghosts before like in front of me
and I haven't been that that wasn't a ghost that wasn't like a a glimpse of like something out of the corner of my
eye that was something I've never [ __ ] experienced I really want to know what the [ __ ] it was I when we
looked into it it seemed like it possibly could have been like a a glitch in The Matrix but it didn't I don't I
just don't think it was that I feel like it was like a trickster like when we had
Rachel stavis on we need Rachel back we need Rachel to F we need Rachel here we need her at least on a zoom with us not
for a recorded thing but like something's up we just got a bring her here and then my little sister was
texting me today and telling me like a bunch of [ __ ] [ __ ] that's going on like
spiritual [ __ ] [ __ ] in her house I think maybe I mean we got a clipse energy and
like I think there's you know there's all kinds of [ __ ] going down in the airwaves right now yeah and like in the
cosmos it's like energy in general like this in this year of 2024 that we've never experienced on Earth before so I
think it's just a bunch of [ __ ] [ __ ] happening to be quite honest so let's continue the pattern and you can tell me
the [ __ ] [ __ ] of uh Jee toppen to to well that's I mean we're going to get into it now
that we've we've made you wonder about space and time we've bathed you with sounds you know we've bathed you with
sound we've done all that yeah and now I'm going to take you to a really terrible end of the story I'll sound
bath you at the end of there go sound bath you B you sound B you um what we're going into right now is her final
Killing Spree um throughout much of her adult life Jane had found professional success
and had somehow dodged suspicion like we were talking about and arrest she nobody
even suspected her and it was due in large part to her ability to place herself into the good graces of powerful
and influential people that she needed to she was able to manipulate able to charm that's her thing and in fact it
was the letters of recommendation and other support from Physicians and surgeons that were very well respected
that had continually got her employment at hospitals and in private nursing her entire life which is wild when you think
about that yes cuz it's even after so many patients had died under very confusing and unexpected circumstances
around her and families like going to her being like hey it's weird that this happened and then also all of my loved
ones things were missing do you think she had something to do with it and they're like ABS [ __ ] lutely not no
way and then it's like your own sister died violently and unexpectedly on vacation with you yeah weird and then
your your brother-in-law's housekeeper like your brother-in-law's housekeeper like all these people around you
yeah it's weird but unfortunately for one of those influential benefactors placing their trust in Jane toppen would
prove to be a a very poor decision oh no so in the summer of 1901 Jane returned to the Cape Cod Cottage where she had
murdered her sister just two years earlier oh God Jane had been vacationing there with Elizabeth and oramel since
1896 and in that time they've gotten to know the owners of the rental property pretty well their names were Alden and
Mary Davis the davises had always been impressed with Jane's professionalism and success in the nursing realm and
they were always happy to have her at the cottage for the weekend so they were really nice in fact Jane had so
ingratiated herself that the couple was willing to let her live in the cottage at a seriously reduced rate of $250 for
the entire season wow of course as a single person of limited means Jane didn't have that much that much money to
begin with but accepted the offer anyway of course cuz she just figured I'll just you know I'll just murder
people if I need to steal it um she figured she would find some way to pay that's part of her illness is she
believes she will always get out of a jam no matter what cuz she's smarter than everyone and because she has yeah
she's had no honestly nothing to tell her the contrary and it turned out Jane was right to think the davises cared
enough for her that they would believe whatever excuse she gave about why she couldn't pay that price that she had
agreed to pay year after year the couple invited Jane back at the same discounted
despite the fact that Jane almost never paid what she was owed wow what she owed
excuse me but eventually however Mary Davis had finally reached the limits of her generosity and she decided she wore
out her [ __ ] welcome she's done with making exceptions for little Jane top in there so in June after receiving a
letter from her daughter saying she would be stopping in Boston for a few days Mary thought you know what that's a
good enough reason to go to the city and finally collect the debt that Jane had owed them Fair yeah way more fair than
most people would exactly and in the weeks leading up to her plann trip to Boston Mary had actually been in kind of
poor health on account of her diabetes that she was dealing with which wasn't helped by what at the time was a
record-breaking Heatwave in the Northeast uh for that reason and more Alden Davis her husband had tried to
convince her to abandon the trip to visit Jane but Mary was she wasn't taking note for an answer she was like
nope I am she was firm in her resolve and on the morning of June 25th Alden accompanied his wife to the train
station cuz she said [ __ ] it I'm going to get that Deb she's a brave [ __ ] when
Mary Davis finally reached Cambridge that afternoon she wasted no time going straight to Jane's boarding house on
Wendell Street and she got there just as Jane and her landlords were sitting down
for dinner so she announced her reason for being at the house and immediately Jane invited Mary to sit down have a
rest eat something and she insisted that Mary must be thirsty after such a long trip n so she disappeared into the
kitchen and reappeared with a glass of water for their guest I'm not thirsty at all no after they had eaten Jane said
she'd be she'd be happy to pay what she owed of course like I'm never I'm not going to stiff you such a good-hearted
woman I am of course I will and then she said you know what Mary why don't you and me we take a walk to the bank and
I'll get that money out right now but when Mary stood up from the table she was suddenly very dizzy and felt week
despite this Mary was determined she was like I'm getting that [ __ ] money and so she was like I'm fine but as soon as
they stepped outside into that sweltering heat Mary collapsed to the ground June in the middle of Boston is
not fun and this was a record-breaking Heatwave right so Jane's land Jane's landlord Melvin Beetle rushed outside
and with Jane's help they were able to get Mary upstairs to a vacant bedroom as Melvin attempted to make Mary
comfortable Jane disappeared into her own own bedroom where she grabbed a hypodermic needle Mary was clearly very
uncomfortable and was trying to speak trying to say something and Jane said so I gave her another small dose of
morphine another remember another uh this quieted Mary for a long time uh the following day Jane sent word to Alden
her husband to let him know what had happened and Alden sent their daughter geneveve to Cambridge to check on the
situation although Mary hadn't been in the best health recently Genevie was very
surprised to find her mother was in such bad shape by the time she got there and
despite Jane's protest she called the doctor to come immediately good Dr John Nichols came a short time time later and
was given a thorough explanation of the symptoms by Jane who explained that Mary
was a bad diabetic who against Jane's advice had eaten a large piece of cake after dinner the previous evening what a
[ __ ] to to act like this is her diabetes and like her negligence and handling it and she's like and I tried
to tell her not to but you know she decided to have the cake recognizing that Mary's symptoms were similar to
that of someone in a diabetic coma the doctor had really no reason to doubt M Jane's assessment yeah I mean she knows
that she's a medically trained person nor did he have any reason to doubt that the woman was already in the capable
hands of a trained nurse who had worked at massgen in Cambridge hospital and as a private nurse so he left the house
with a plan to check periodically over the next couple of days in the week after that Jane spent day after day
injecting Mary with varying doses of atropine and morphine pushing her to the brink of death then pulling her back oh
my then repeating the cycle pushing her to the brink of death pulling her back this is like misery
it's I like diabolical I mean this is this is sadistic and she was angry the fact that Mary was trying to make her
pay for her [ __ ] which is wild that she's want to exert control over this woman very much so and she was punishing
her absolutely um as Harold sheer points out in his book this method was quote a
calculated effort to make the old woman's death seem like the result of natural causes right but she was also
there was an obvious level of sadism involved in prolonging this death and the agony involved in it uh it was like
Jane was reveling in the power had and again not o just over Mary's life and death but also the power she had over
Mary's loved ones who could only sit by helplessly as she died horrifically wow and finally on July 4th Jane
administered one final dose of morphine and killed Mary Davis just for collecting a debt this is
like scary the people who year for years had allowed her to live there for like no money and just took care of her yeah
and then eventually we're like you got to pay your debt and she was like I'll just kill you and not only kill you but
punish you slowly while there was a certain element of sadism in the murder of Mary Davis Jane's reason for killing
this woman was mostly because she didn't want to pay the debt yep and she she didn't want to deal with it but in the
wake of Mary's death for the re for reasons that were never made clear Jane decided pretty immediately that she was
going to kill the entire family oh like she wasn't stopping at Mary do you think it's possibly so that the that
house that property they owned couldn't be left to anybody else and she could still go there I don't know that's the
thing there would be nobody around to question her motives at all cuz they were like you said they were all sitting
by watching helplessly as Mary died she just got mad and I think she wanted to punish them
all this is nuts in a few weeks after 's funeral with their father in declining help and health and deep in the throws
of grief at this point of course geneveve and her sister Minnie invited Jane to stay with the family in katet in
near the cape at least until Alden was well enough to care for himself again because she's a nurse so they're like
this is how much they trust her you helped our like they think you helped our mother in her dying days so come
help our dad when you tortured our mother to death but we have like the fact that they had no idea at that point
and it wasn't long after Jane had gotten settled in the Davis home that she set the house on fire intending to kill
everyone inside so whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa what the [ __ ] yep moved in with the family set the house on fire
so she goes from like slowly methodically poisoning people and getting some kind of sexual thrill out
of that to literal arson just like to kill kill an entire family what the [ __ ] yeah you said that
like yeah just like and then she set the whole house on fire and then she set the
house on fire what set the house on fire thinking she could make it look like an accident
sure did it work fortunately Alden Davis had been suffering from insomnia since his wife's death he was not able to
sleep cuz he was so upset he smelled the smoke and began yelling for help at this
point Jane appeared and was like oh my goodness you roused me from my sleep I had no oh no that is on fire and the two
put out the fire with minimal damage in the days that followed though she repeatedly tried to burn the house down
with everyone inside but every time her attempts were thwarted by neighbors who who managed to extinguish the Flames
before any harm could be done and at what point were they like hey weird that you're here and our house keeps catching
fire well that's the thing So eventually the family was like it's a little suspicious you're you're kind of the
common denominator here has never caught on fire before and now that you've moved
in with us it is um a regular occurrence perpetually catching on fire like it it
can't stop won't stop catching on fire at this point like they're like this seems to be a pattern that like you are
here and this is what's happening so they were like Jane this is a little weird like we can you can you stop maybe
explain what's going on so she made up a story about having seen a stranger lurking around the house just before the
fires all started sending rumors of an arsonist around the small town and seeming to satisfy the Davis's
suspicions that they were being targeted oh no and also scaring the [ __ ] out of
the entire town everyone there a rogue arsonist yeah oh that was extra for I bet that fed her for days now very often
Jane would find a way to justify her actions so as not to appear psychotic in the case of her elderly and infirm
victims for example if she would say they were suffering you know they' be better off dead but so what she was
doing was in their best interest like who gives a [ __ ] if I'm actually torturing them in the case of geneveve
Gordon Alden and Mary's daughter a similar rationale was applied although she had attempted to appear strong in
order to support the rest of the family geneveve had in fact been extraordinarily affected by her mother's
death she was course deep in the throws of grief struggling sometime in Late July Jane pulled Minnie aside to tell
her you know what I noticed geneveve seems a little melan col and you know what I did see her in the garden shed
and she was looking at a small bottle I think it was poison essentially being like hey Minnie I think your sister's
going to kill herself what now the story was a complete fabrication that was a lie of course but the bottle of poison
was real yeah because Jane planted it there it was Fifer strictly Paris green which was a popular insecticide
containing high levels of Arsenic and copper both of which are toxic at even small amounts yeah with the of concern
planted it didn't come as a total surprise a few days later on July 28th when geneveve became violently ill and
started vomiting uncontrollably geneveve was taken to bed and watched over by Jane the next morning Jane roused Minnie
to let her know that her sister had died in the middle of the night oh my God a doctor was called and
the usual evaluation was made after which Genevieve's death was declared the result of disease though no death
certificate was ever made up that's weird privately Jane told some of the neighbors that she'd found a syringe
next to Genevieve's bed and believed who have she had taken of her own life so she walked around and told all the
neighbors that geneveve had killed herself which is clearly untrue this is even worse ready oh no later after her
arrest Jane said I went to the funeral and felt as Jolly as could be and nobody suspected me in the least
felt as Jolly as could be at a funeral at her funeral as the killer after killing This Woman's young
woman's mother in an agonizingly torturous way for trying to collect a debt this is truly unlike any other case
that we've covered and she's so open about just like whatever and just like she's so open about getting so much
enthusiasm and like Glee from this yeah now with her sick yeah with her plan to completely eradicate this entire family
in motion now Jane wasted little time moving on to her next Target on August 8th after returning from a trip to
Boston Alden Davis returned home to um to the cottage suffering the effects of another record-breaking heat wave that
was happening this is an awful time for all of them after getting Alden settled on the couch Jane went to get a glass of
water and Alden was like oh thank you so much I'm going to go to bed and rest but
I'm going to drink this water first the next morning when Alden didn't come down
for breakfast one of his grandchild was sent to check on him no and the little girl returned a few minutes later
frightened because her grandfather wouldn't wake up alarmed Minnie and Genevieve's husband Harry rushed to
alden's bedside where they found him dead oh my God so she's killed mother father and one sibling and she's not
done no she's not done and and somehow it gets worse alden's doctor Dr Leonard ladder was summoned to the house and
Jane explained her theory that after all the stress and grief of the previous month you know what his heart just
simply gave out like you piece of [ __ ] like he died of a broken heart she's trying to say
which is yeah legit like that does happen but oh my God and Dr ladder knew alden's history and his recent condition
so he was like you know what I guess so Janes assessment seems right and he concluded that Davis was known to
experience weak spells that invariably followed any great excitement or nervous strain and his death was caused by
apoplexy oh my God now in the past Jane's murders like most serial killers were followed by like a cooling off
period yeah where she would let things stabilize chill out let the suspicions subside and then she would ramp up again
but she appears now that she's in the grip of like frenzy this is absolutely frenzy and she was finishing this job
she wasn't stopping there she was not done less than a week later on the morning of August 12th Minnie and Harry
Harry is um Genevie husband right uh Minnie and Harry were planning to go to Woods Hole for the day when Jane
convinced Minnie to drink a glass of cocoa wine to build up her strength for the trip it wasn't long after that
Minnie began to feel very badly and by the time the pair had returned from Woods Hole Minnie was exhausted dizzy
and listless barely able to move from the couch feigning concern Jane rushed off to the kitchen to get a glass of
water into which she dissolved a tablet of morphine and a tablet of atropine the drugs took hold very
shortly and Jane made Minnie comfortable on the couch then went to bed for the night knowing that she was going to be
agonizingly dying on the couch oh my God and also Dave's Dave said that cocoa wine is wine with cocaine in it yeah so
she now has cocaine in her system mixing with whatever the [ __ ] Jane put in for
water yep atropine and morphine like your heart is going to blow out of your [ __ ] chest this next part is going to
really get you it got me so that evening while the few remaining members of this
family slept Jane crept back down to the Parlor Where Minnie had slipped into a coma she ejected her with one additional
dose of morphine just to make sure this would have been the point usually where she like with her other
victims that she like gets into the bed with them and does some weird [ __ ] but
this time she did something in my opinion that's worse she didn't lay with Minnie she went upstairs woke up
Minnie's 10-year-old son Jesse and quote brought the little boy into her own bed
and held him close while his mother lied dying on the couch downstairs that's tell me that didn't
that like my that made my stomach sick no that actually like like that turned my stomach that is
woke that 10-year-old child up and took him to with him so she could have him near her while she knew that she had
murdered his mother and she was agonizingly dying downstairs that's that was like her next
level of like what she was going to derive out of this that's Twisted on so many levels because she claims that she
gets sexually aroused when these things happen and this seems like it was another way to do so because it's her
knowing that that's happening downstairs and him not knowing that and she has that woman who's dying's baby in her
[ __ ] bed that's ew I want to I'm like actually filled with rage all the sudden
no literally like it turned when I say it turned my stomach it turned my stomach oh
my I hope something really [ __ ] awful happens to her she's not done no you got
to tell me at the end that like I never want to hear that like anybody got sentenced to death but this woman
sentenced her to [ __ ] death she's [ __ ] awful that's heinous that she like that that just sent me yeah it as
it should Minnie's nearly lifeless body was discovered the next morning August 13th by her cousin Bula Jacobs who
notified Harry Gordon um that's Jeni's husband yes her brother-in-law yeah for the second time in less than a week Dr
ladder had to come to the Davis house to attend to a dying person and he was immediately met by Jane again who told
him about the trip the woman had taken to Woods Hole against Jane's advice yeah Dr ladder explained examined Minnie and
prescribed regular drinks of cocoa wine to stimulate her cuz remember we're in the time of we're in the time of you
know living where it was a doctor would just say like do some cocaine about it and like that's like a legit like the
people joke about that but the fact that that's like a legit fil yeah uh it was to like stimulate her and then he left
insisting that he would come back to check on Minnie under the circumstances it seems the decision to give this
patient more alcohol like laced with cocaine before leaving would make us be like what the [ __ ] yeah but it's truly a
test to how thoroughly Jane had convinced everyone of her competency and innocence
that he was like okay just continue the course and we'll she'll be fine right of
course by that point Minnie was far too sedated to drink anything so Jane created a poison
enema what you heard that right a poison enema by dissolving a morphine tablet in
whiskey what then she administered it to Minnie a poison enema yep I'm so I yeah no words
I what the [ __ ] when Dr ladder returned a few hours later he was surprised to find that Minnie's condition had
severely worsened so he called for another doctor who happened to be vacationing nearby the two men tried for
literally hours to get Minnie back to stable but she was almost completely unresponsive by this point a little
after 4 p.m. that afternoon after having been subjected to every treatment and medication the doctors could think of
mini Gibbs died from what Dr ladder would later describe simply as exhaustion exhaustion
mhm and a poison enema is nowhere near where I ever thought we would go your mind can't conceive of it a
poison enema you can't conceive of what this woman does like you really can't the [ __ ] thinks of that Jane toppen and
that that's also like weirdly yeah this just weird [ __ ] like that's [ __ ] weird she's
[ __ ] [ __ ] oh my God and just like to to violate her like that like like she's already completely out of it and
you're just performing a [ __ ] enema like that's like another level like obviously you're killing her that's
[ __ ] violation of anybody's yeah it's an enema that you know is going going to
prolong this torture and make it worse oh my God that's that's beyond that's beyond and obviously right now it seems
like nearly impossible to believe that an entire family could die unexpectedly and under mysterious circumstances in a
six week span without raising significant suspicions it sure does but in 1901 medicine and biology were still
emerging as modern fields of study so diagnosises were sometimes like they were rudimentary and really poorly at
best and very few people would have suspected much less ever believed that a woman especially a nurse would be
capable of systematically killing four people who she had known for years and claimed to have loved for years she
claimed to have loved this family I'm just like but like hey everyone in town like this woman shows up their house
starts as Elena said perpetually catching on fire always after one of them died then a bunch of them die and
like weird circumstances the fire and and the numerous numerous deaths to me I'm like
it's really hard to think it's hard to understand especially from this this place time where we are but the
residents of katat just Chuck chocked up the death of the Davis family as an act
of God and said it was very tragic but what can we do and it's likely no one thought much about
you know Jane at all no one ever ever bothered to ask any questions when she packed her bags and returned to Boston
they were just like okay bye Jane sorry and it's not even like she kept going back to that house so she didn't
even do this not that that would make it any better she house she didn't even do
it for that that's why I think she just did it cuz she wanted to demolished her entire family satisfaction out of it and
like what happened to these kids yeah she left Terry Harry yeah Harry was the only one who
she wanted to kill all the actual like family like the blood Family Blood exactly yeah and despite and I mean you
think we're done we're not done no despite the passage of many many years Jane had never stopped believing that
with Elizabeth out of the way she could finally have orml Brigham to herself she
wasn't done girly pul she wasn't done in late August 1901 Jane had just returned
home from Cape Cod and given that she had no pressing things to attend to decided she would pay a visit to her
former home oh and when she arrived in LOL to visit Brigham she had expected to find him alone but was disappointed
because when she went there his sister 70-year-old Edna banister happened to be there just like Florence Caulkins on the
previous visit Jane looked at her and said well you're not a romantic rival but you are competing for his attention
and I don't like that and just as before she she resorted to her typical methods of dealing with
problems on the afternoon of August 26th Edna felt dizzy and was generally feeling run down so she went to her room
to take a nap when she awoke later that evening she was already feeling better just a little spell but Jane still
insisted the woman should rest and brought her her classic glass of water that's so scary that it's just something
inous as a glass of water water here's water in the middle of the night as Jane watched over Edna the woman slipped in
into a coma the following morning oramel called for Dr William Bass the same physician who was called upon Florence's
death but the doctor was unable to revive Edna the next day Edna banister was declared dead from heart failure
later when Jane finally confessed to her crimes to the police she said everything
seemed favorable for my marrying Mr Brigham I had put the three women to death who had stood in my way stop it
that when you actually lay that out like that that's first of all how she sees that is that the his wife his
housekeeper and his sister are Rivals who stand in her way yep and I put them to death she killed
them because of that literally said I had put the three women to death who stood in my way I put them to death like
she somehow has the power to sentence them to death it's just so callous like the way she speaks she's so callous now
we we've been sitting here this whole time being like where the [ __ ] are all the people that suspect that something
weird is a funny because again like now this same doctor and poor orl he's like am I just a death magnet like is every
woman in my life going to die like the grief in his life yeah but the thing is throughout her adult life several people
did suspect her of nefariousness but they didn't really know what she had done like they they
couldn't they weren't like hey I think she's murdering lots of people like no one was really thinking that they just
couldn't be sure like they were like something's off here like she's something's up with her I don't know
what it is I think she's doing some bad [ __ ] but people are dying around her but
she's a nurse and a woman I can't imagine she's so nice right taking care of us you know it was one of those kind
of things but after his daughter-in-law Minnie's mysterious death and the death of her immediate family Captain Paul
Gibbs became suspicious that these deaths weren't the result of natural causes let's [ __ ] go Paul Gibbs
Captain let's go Captain Paul Gibbs he had just visited with Minnie the day before her death and she while obviously
deeply in grief everyone was dying around her and her family she hardly seemed exhausted him he was like he was
like he she died of exhaustion the next day was fine she was fine she was just sad then after Minnie had become ill
Gibbs paid a visit to see how she was doing and walked in on Jane giving Minnie an injection huh the scene itself
hardly seemed unusual because after all Minnie was sick and Jane was a nurse yet
there was something that he couldn't pinpoint he was like there's something secretive about her behavior it's it
didn't look like she wanted me to see that right and it made him think that she was doing something she shouldn't
have done he was picking up on the little details and he's a dad like he's a parent like something up he's a
[ __ ] captain of what we don't know but he's a captain of this and after the young woman's death Paul suggested that
an autopsy should be performed like he was proactive he was like let's figure this out wild suggestion and Jane
strongly objected saying there is no need of an autopsy there was no suspicious circumstances I'd be like uh
she's a nurse maybe as far as you're concerned and he didn't want to spread any slanderous rumors so he kept his
concerns to himself for a while because he was like I feel like I'm going to like he's being a decent human and being
like I don't want to like totally smear This Woman's name if I'm like completely
wrong right like she's a nurse like I'm just going to like [ __ ] up her whole life by being like I think you killed
her when I don't have the proof yeah so he was like you know what like I I'll just keep it to myself but it turned out
he wasn't alone in this especially when it came to the Davis Family the day before his death Alden Davis took a
train to Boston to do some business and on his return trip he spoke to a fellow train passenger named IRA Cushing in the
following days Cushing was shocked to learn that Alden had died cuz he appeared very healthy when he had seen
him it didn't seem possible that this man could look and feel perfectly healthy one day than dead the next right
his suspicions were further stoked when just a few days later alden's young healthy daughter died under similarly
mysterious circumstances I'm so glad people are like actually putting things together here yeah like this is [ __ ]
weird because he he couldn't be certain about what had happened but Ira Cushing felt it was important that he at least
share his perspective with someone nice so he sought out Captain Gibbs who he knew had a close relationship with the
Davis Family Cushing paid a visit to Gibbs a short time after Minnie's funeral and explained that he believed
the Davis family had been poisoned and he said probably with arsenic close to his surprise Gibbs agreed he was like oh
my God thank you're saying exactly what I've been thinking and he's like or at least something like that like arsenic
in leveraging their most influential contacts the two men initiated a plan to get the bodies exhumed and to have
proper autopsies conducted to on the Davis family members let's [ __ ] King go these two kings here two kings and it
took some persuasive arguing but eventually Cushing and Gibbs were able to convince the da that there was some
reason to believe the deaths hadn't been natural damn and the da agreed to have the bodies of geneveve and Minnie
exhumed wow on August 30th the bodies were exhumed from their graves and autopsies were performed by Dr Robert
font the medical examiner from uh barnable County with assistance from two doctor s from Harvard Medical
School also based on the two men's suspicions the district attorney assigned state police detective John
Patterson to tail Jane let's [ __ ] go let's somebody go get her go go get her go get her so detective Patterson Trail
Jane from the moment she left katow oh [ __ ] following her all the way to LOL where he took a room in a boarding house
under an assumed name Jane meanwhile had already resumed her plan to marry orml Brigham however
when she realized the man wasn't interested in her Jane then made a disingenuous attempt to end her own life
by drinking poison okay but what she was doing and she admitted this later was she was hoping that it the dramatic
display would just convince briam to give in right the plan didn't work obviously he's like I really just don't
like you no way and Jane was admitted to LOL General Hospital where Patterson also checked in under an assumed name
shut the [ __ ] up discharged from the hospital in early October Jane decided to abandon her plans to marry Brigham
and instead headed out to visit an old friend in Amherst New Hampshire with John Patterson following closely behind
while Jane was visiting amher doctors on Cape Cod were examining geneveve and Minnie's remains well the press were
just sitting by waiting to hear what the [ __ ] was going on in 1901 what the [ __ ]
else is going on yeah and given how tight lipped the clinicians were being the Press started speculating that it
was probably all [ __ ] they weren't hearing anything so they were like up so the Boston Daily Globe actually wrote
from Facts gleaned after the autopsies it is inferred that nothing was found to Warrant any suspicions they weren't
saying that because they heard that they were saying that cuz they hadn't heard anything yeah so they just [ __ ]
they're making an inference it's easy to understand why that assumption was made
because the alternative was honestly too hideous for anyone to even comprehend at
that point of course absolutely the truth though was that Dr font and his colleague had found lethal traces of
poison in Minnie's stomach that very much exceeded anything one might consume on accident that finding along with the
growing suspicions around Jane was enough to get an arrest warrant nice on October 29th state police detective
Josephus Whitney Josephus I know Josephus forever Josephus Whitney uh in the company of two other
detectives traveled to Hurst and sought out Patterson who was staying at a boarding house near the home of George
and Sarah Nichols with whom Jane had been staying get those people away from her oh absolutely because you'll hear in
a second the detectives informed Patterson of the autopsy results and together the four detectives went to the
Nickels home to arrest Jane toppen incredible since leaving Calment in late summer Jane had begun to get the
impression that people were uh maybe gossiping about her a little bit I wonder why and that maybe they were
suspecting that she had something to do with the the Davis Family deaths maybe whether this was just paranoia or not is
unknown but when detective showed up with the arrest warrant Jane was not surprised at all when they announced
that she was being arrested for the murder of Min Gibbs Jane was unperturbed started packing her things without any
issue and said I'm innocent and then she said and I'll readily go back with you I'm very shocked by this and it seemed
that they had gotten there just in time because in her confession Jame said Jane
said if the police hadn't shown up when they did I might have killed George Nichols and his sister too the fact that
she says like I might have like maybe maybe if I felt like it that isn't that just [ __ ] crazy that's [ __ ] up like
she didn't even she didn't go there with any intention to kill them but she was like if I if I got around to it like if
they pissed me off I might have if the mood struck you know literally though so Jane was transported back to Barnstable
Barn Barn where she was held on the charge of Murder in the case of mini Gibbs the next day she appeared before a
judge in the Bristol County Court where she pleaded not guilty to the charge and
the case was continued to November 8th and Jane was remanded without bail just as she's always done in the path when
she was accused of wrongdoing she took on the role of I'm so misunderstood I'm a victim told the
press that oh no like in total victimhood oh she insisted she'd knew nothing about the deaths of the Davis
Family excepting that I suppose they all died from natural causes she told the reporter yeah but if Jane was hoping to
keep her name and story out of the paper papers she uh didn't do a good job within days nearly every paper across
the state and honestly the surrounding areas was dedicating multiple pages to this story reporters were seeking out
anyone that could have any facts or any speculation really on Jane toppen uh and
while she was only facing one charge of murder at the time several people started connecting the dots and
wondering whether all those who died under Jane's care had in fact died of natural causes the answer is no and in a
statement to the Press regarding Jane's desire to marry him orl brigam said it is generally understood that she did and
I never proposed to her nor she to me I suppose she wanted to get the money Mrs toppen left and she if she married me
and I was out of the way of course it would be hers wow so he was like she was going to kill me like yeah she wanted to
marry me but I'm pretty sure she would have killed me and taken the money it was just a conquest yeah Jane toppen had
spent years murdering people and went entirely undetected in fact any time a person did voice any concern or any
suspicions you you heard they were shouted down by someone way more powerful who outright refused to
entertain any notion that Jane could be anything other than professional amazing
no way could she have murdered someone to the point where their faces literally became omelets but also now it seemed
like everyone had a story to tell about Jane and her cruel or bizarre behavior I
believe it named classmates from primary school were quot quoted as saying they had always had a certain fear of her wow
while other articles noted any peculiarity as though it was evidence of insanity all of a sudden it was as
though everyone went from believing in Jane's innocent without any questions just blindly to all of a sudden
harboring these deep-seated suspicions that she'd always been capable of Cruelty and murder and it's like where
were you yeah exactly when all these people were murdered exactly because the grand jury had already broken for the
year there was considerable time between when she was arraigned in her trial in that time the Press went crazy trying to
publish anything they could get their hands on about it specifically related to Jane's motives and her sanity by
March the DA's office had assembled a panel of three alienists which is psychologists I also wish we called them
that now alienists the alienists like I think that's such a cool name that's fun
um it was to determine whether she was sane and could even be held accountable for the murders upon their first visit
to Jane she was defiant and she said why how absurd me insane of course I'm not I'll show them that I'm not insane andd
be like I'm good I think you should probably go with the the insane inness the more Jane talked the more the panel
of doctors concluded she was definitely psychologically impaired yeah while Jane
was also always intelligent and always very coherent and never resembled what the public at that time imagined a
mentally ill person to be there was increasing ly little doubt that Jane was entirely capable of murder they said
quote her utter mendacity and disposition to speak slurring of even her best friends and to make accusations
against them almost without exception to praise one minut and blame the next was
very marked and the P that's what the panel wrote in their report and they also noted that she seemed to lie con
constantly making the most outrageous claims seemingly without any regard of whether even someone believed her so
they're like uh altogether we Sur that something's up here that she's wild uh by April after multiple visits with Jane
in her jail cell the alienists concluded quote homicidal Mania is naturally the dominant force in the mentality of the
nurse and Miss Jane toppen is insane huh so they said homicidal Mania which makes sense wow it does also by
that by that time the charges against Jane had grown to include three of the four members of the Davis family all of
whom she was accused of killing with intentionally fatal doses of morine or some other poison and it turned out that
once the three doctors got Jane talking she was more than happy to boast about herself and her crimes so all they
needed to do was sit back and listen to her I wonder at what point she was just like n actually
[ __ ] cuz at first she's like nope I didn't do [ __ ] and I'll prove it to you I think then she was just like whatever
cuz she thought she would get out of it right and she was like I might as well just tell you it's kind of fun to talk
about so I'll get out of it I'm sure God you know or do you think it was when she
realized like oh [ __ ] I'm probably not going to get out of this she never realized that really she didn't realize
that until it was way past this she thought even when she was sentenced she thought there's no way I'll get out of
this spoiler alert um although she stopped short of confessing outright to a large number of murders her quote fond
remembrances of the patients who had met such tragic deaths was a compelling reason to suspect her of killing dozens
of people I would say so in their final report to the DA's office the panel of alienists concluded that Jane had
exercised quote a cool judgment scious and sound when she committed the murders and that she was quote insane and
irresponsible at the time of the homicide with which she is charged the problem though was what do you do with
her Jane's Insanity was not temporary and as far as the alienists saw it it was something that she had always had
and was always going to live with like this wasn't something that was going to be fixed and it was also not something
she could really be treated for and yeah like released into the world they said her disease being constitutional she
will never recover and that if ever at large again she would be a constant menace to the community I love that they
describe it as a menace like I think she was a little bit more than that she was
a a top tier Menace I would say a threat yeah on June 22 a special session of the
Barnstable Superior Court was called to order was called to order in the case against Jane by that time she had
confessed to at least 31 murders damn but was now suspected of many more given the notoriety of the case the
prosecution was led by Massachusetts Attorney General Herbert Parker who presented the jury with Jane's
confession and the many of the important points from the psychological evaluation
concluding that Jane was and always would be a danger to society I mean pretty remarkably but
honestly understandably the defense didn't really bother to refute the claims made and just agreed with the
narrative presented by Parker including their Theory as to the motive which is personal or financial gain means she was
irredeemably insane yeah and opportunity she was a nurse with unrestricted access
to poisons just nuts the trial lasted less than one day and the only testimony presented was the panel of alienists who
evaluated Jane at various points leading up to this yeah and given that Jane who
was only really formally charged with three murders admitted to murdering murdering 12 people and had been
described like at least 12 people at least uh and had been described by three doctors as having quote a degenerate
type of insanity there was little doubt as to what the verdict was going to be and after hearing the testimony and
listening to both sides the jury deliberated briefly and returned a verdict of Not Guilty by reason of
insanity despite being found not guilty it was still understood that Jane was a highly dangerous person who needed to be
permanently removed from Society so she was a sentence to immediate commitment to quote the Taunton insane hospital for
life that's a quote that's not me saying it when the sentence was read Jane seemed completely unmoved and said I
realized that I'm not fit to be free and I think you've done the best thing for me so it was like I don't actually give
a [ __ ] about this so whatever so I guess lock me away whatever cuz she's like I
now from the moment Jame was arrested practically all of New England followed the case daily and we're very surprised
by how jovial and high-spirited Jane had been in the face of all these accusations however just two years later
the Boston Globe reported that in her time at Taunton Hospital Jane had become quote emaciated her High Spirits have
gone and is not believe she can live very long I saw a picture of yeah there there's a photo of her when she was
admitted and then like one or two years in and she looks like a different person
a completely different person and equally shocking to everyone was the ways in which had de had decomposed
mentally yeah um the globe reported the mind that was able to convince so many that it was normal is now palpably
diseased for mental imbecility that means physical de dis disintegration has complete possession of the nurse wow not
surprisingly Jane entered the hospital like I said with the belief that it was going to be a short confinement she was
going to win her release she was going to get out she'll convince somebody and she thought she would convince somebody
I will be able to convince them to let me out I believe it and this of course directly contradicted the Court's order
that she was going to be confined for the remainder of her life but Jane's personality disorder told her made her
believe that she was smarter and better than any other people and would eventually get out of this predicament
she found herself in when it became apparent finally that she wouldn't get out of the situation as easily as all
the others Jane became defiant and uncooperative and eventually she fell back her old habits of pettiness and
spiteful gossip that had plagued her her entire life one report said she has abandoned the careless cheerful frame of
mind in which she has been here to heret for been and is now fretful peevish even
ugly and fearful of eating because of suspected poison which I think how's that is the
funniest like Karma move in the whole world it's also just hilarious that they're like she's even ugly now she's
even ugly now I know I'm like Dam I was like what a damn early 1900s like Jesus she's fretful peevish even ugly yeah
even ugly now she was a lot of things in the year after she was confin started to
be confined but one thing she never was remorseful I believe I'm not even shocked by that ever and while she may
have been unpleasant and been a Relentless gossip Jane's time at Taunton Hospital passed relatively uneventfully
eventually she be became what one staff member described as a quiet old lady just another patient who caused no
trouble on August 17th 1938 Jane toppen died from natural causes at Taunton State hospital at the age of 84 the fact
that she got to live that long really makes you wonder what the forces are that be yeah in writing of her death
many papers could not resist using the statement she made to the Press after she was sentenced and this is it I have
given the alienists and her ber Parker the names of 31 persons I killed but as a matter of fact I killed many more
whose names I cannot recall I think it would be safe to say that I killed at least hundred from the time I became a
nurse at a Boston hospital where I killed the first one until I ended the lives of the Davis Family wow and that
is the story of Jane toppen that was absolutely mindbending she is incredibly prolific and incredible [ __ ] up truly
like wow I was also just looking at pictures of the um state hospital that she was that cuz I I think it got
demolished yeah it did um and it was the second mental hospital in Massachusetts
ever oh yeah yeah that's like one of the one of the the infamous ones you know crazy yeah
um I also think the site is like super haunted I've seen it in one of the New England books yeah it definitely is it's
one of those ones that's always on the list it just like that part of the story just caught my attention for a minute
but holy [ __ ] yeah that the way that that like obviously like murder is terrifying in and of itself and like it
started off so scary but then as it went through she just got so much more unhinged with every last murder like she
just wanted to kill an entire family yeah and in your straight in your rational mind like you're thinking like
there has to be an end game like for why she wanted to do that like I was I was like no she she wants the house yeah
like when you said that I was like oh just wait but no she never even like she didn't want the house she just she just
wanted to kill a family yeah she felt like she was justified in everything she did that really was like a a mindbending
case that one was a wild one yeah so with that being said we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird
but not so weird as Jane topen because is what the actual [ __ ] what [Music]

Considered among the first (and certainly the most prolific) American female serial killers and so-called angels of mercy, Jane Toppan’s killing spree went unnoticed for more than fifteen years, as she transitioned from one hospital to another, leaving an unprecedented trail of carnage in her wake. Jane was finally arrested in 1901, after killing the entire family of a man for whom she’d been hired to provide care. The arrest and trial were a sensation, as murder and cruelty were a direct contradiction of the norms and standards long relied upon to define American womanhood.

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, murdered her family and patients with sadistic pleasure, evading suspicion until her arrest.

Key points

Psychological Damage Unleashed. Exploring the shocking story of Jane Toppen, a nurse turned murderer.
A Disturbing Transformation. Jane's descent from caregiver to killer takes a chilling turn.
The Final Killing Spree. Jane's murderous intentions escalate as she targets an entire family.
Jane's Deception Unraveled. Jane fabricates a story about a stranger to cover her tracks, instilling fear in the town.
The Poison Enema. In a shocking twist, Jane administers a poison enema to her victim, leading to a tragic death.
Captain Gibbs' Suspicion. Captain Gibbs begins to suspect foul play after witnessing the mysterious deaths in the Davis family.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I really want to know what the [ __ ] it was.

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7:05WatchMay 6, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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