There
have been many horrific crimes that have taken place on Cape Cod,
from Tony Costa to the Lady of the Dunes, to Edward Ray Snow and
beyond. One name that belongs right up there with those previously
mentioned, but usually is overlooked, is that of Nurse Jane Toppan.
Nicknamed ‘Jolly Jane’ her poisoning murders shocked New England
and were only the tip of the iceberg. This is the story of those
crimes and the intriguing soul behind them.
The
life of Jane Toppan began in turmoil. Born in 1857 as Honora A.
Kelley in Boston’s North End she was one of four sisters born to
poor Irish immigrants Peter and Bridget. Bridget died of
tuberculosis early in Honora’s childhood and shortly before Peter
died from alcohol in 1863 Honora and her sisters became residents of
the Boston Female Asylum for Destitute Girls on Washington Street.
Honora was adopted by Captain Abner Toppan of Lowell and his wife Ann
who christened her Jane Toppan. She would become an indentured
servant to the family.
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| 'Jolly Jane' Toppan |
Despite
being treated poorly by her adoptive mother Jane excelled in school
and participated in activities at the First Congregational Church in
Lowell. She got along well with the Toppans’ daughter Elizabeth
whom she felt a kinship with as she too was mistreated by Mrs.
Toppan. After turning eighteen Jane had the chance to leave yet
chose to stay and continue working for Elizabeth and her husband
Oramel Brigham for a decade. Jane’s life changed at the age of
twenty when she fell in love with a man she wished to marry. He
moved nearly one hundred miles west to Holyoke for work to save money
for marriage. However while there he met someone else and ended up
marrying her instead. Jane would never be the same.
She
became introverted and brooding, resenting Elizabeth’s happy
marriage. In 1885 Jane suddenly left Elizabeth’s home and entered
nurses’ training at Cambridge Hospital. She would also train some
at Mass General Hospital where she made a great impression on her
superiors but her fellow nurses-in-training saw her as trouble. It
was during her time at Mass General where Toppan attempted to poison
a fellow nurse. To further complicate things it was discovered that
Jane had left the training before being formally discharged and thus
her diploma as a Registered Nurse was never awarded. This did not
stop Toppan as she would ironically become head nurse at Cambridge
Hospital only a year after failing to get her diploma by lying to
management there about her credentials.
Her
time at Cambridge Hospital saw her garner a very positive reputation
as a nurse, the best doctors recommended her as she was described as
highly intelligent and caring. She had a high volume of cases which
masked her sinister side. During the early 1890’s Nurse Jane
Toppan’s poisoning murders began. Those people whom Toppan wished
to keep as cases she would sometimes administer less-than-lethal
doses of poison to keep them from recovering. The striking dichotomy
of her pleasant outside with her evil inside was apparent in the
murders of a husband and wife in her care.
On
May 26, 1895 Toppan poisoned Israel P. Dunham. The family thought so
highly of her that when Dunham’s widow became sick two years later
they sent for Toppan to care for her. She then poisoned Mrs. Dunham
as well. While part of the private-duty circuit in and around Boston
Jane moved back in with her foster sister Elizabeth and her husband
Oramel. In 1899 Elizabeth became ill and Jane cared for her,
including accompanying the family to the village of Cataumet in
Bourne on the Cape for the summer. However Elizabeth only grew worse
and died in August 1899. Coincidentally Elizabeth’s housekeeper,
also in Jane’s care, died in January 1900.
Toppan’s
reputation gained her a job as a nurse at the Episcopal School in
Cambridge caring for a girl with typhoid fever in the fall of 1899.
There she met Myra Connors the head matron at the school and also at
the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. In January 1900 Connors
became sick and confined to her bed. Ironically after Toppan left
for another case Connors began steadily improving. When Toppan
returned to care for her ‘friend’ for free Connors rapidly
declined and died on February 11, 1900. It was at this time that
several people including Connors’ friend Nellie Coombs began to
suspect Toppan of poisoning Connors to gain her position at Woods
Hole. These suspicions only grew when Nurse Jane did indeed succeed
Connors as head of the ‘Mess House’ at the M.B.L. in the summer
of 1900.
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| The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory |
Much
as during her time at the Cambridge Hospital Jane Toppan was highly
respected at Woods Hole. During her summer at the M.B.L. there were
no incidents to speak of. However her undoing would come when she
returned to Cataumet for the summer like the year before.
Toppan
became good friends with the Davis family from Buzzards Bay,
including renting a cottage from patriarch Alden P. Davis. Davis,
his wife Mattie, and his two daughters referred to Nurse Jane simply
as ‘Jennie.’ Toppan left Woods Hole and returned to Cambridge in
1901. On July 3, 1901 Mattie Davis arrived for a visit to see if
Jane wished to rent their cottage again for the summer and had dinner
with her. Mattie became violently ill and died on July 4th.
Suspicion arose but Jane proclaimed diabetes as cause of death and
her word was believed.
She
returned to the Cape with the body of Mrs. Davis to grieve with the
family. Mattie’s daughter Genevieve became ill at her mother’s
funeral and Nurse Jane cared for her at the request of her father.
Genevieve died July 13th with Toppan claiming heart
disease as the culprit. Alden P. Davis was devastated and at 70
years old his failing health which followed was not surprising. On
August 8th Alden was found dead in his bed by Nurse Jane,
she proclaimed his death a mixture of grief and a stroke. Shockingly
the man who performed Mrs. Davis’ funeral confessed to burying her
without a death certificate, going only on Nurse Jane’s word again.
Toppan
stayed with the remaining daughter Mary, and some other family
members who had come to comfort her. When Mary became bed-ridden
Nurse Jane cared for her. She told a doctor who came that she was
just tired and the doctor took her word and left. Mary died early on
August 13, 1901 making her the fourth member of the Davis family to
die in Jane’s care in six weeks. Finally Jane’s facade unraveled
as Mary’s husband suspected poisoning. After Mary’s funeral Jane
left Cape Cod returning to Lowell and a police investigation began.
The
undertaker recalled Jane telling him the Davis family wished for a
lot of embalming fluid to be used, possibly to mask the poisoning
agents in their bodies. The net closing in Jane attempted suicide by
poison but was revived by a doctor. She then fled to Amherst, New
Hampshire and was subsequently placed under arrest on October 29,
1901 and arraigned at Barnstable District Court. Now in custody the
true scope of the horrific crimes Jane Toppan committed would be
exposed.
On
November 20, 1901 the four Davis family victims were exhumed and it
was determined they all died from a lethal dose of morphine. She was
indicted in December. Jane confessed to her lawyer Fred Bixby that
not only had she murdered the Davis family but at least 31 people,
perhaps as many as 100. With her victims she administered morphine
and atropine in water or whiskey, or used injections. Toppan
admitted that although she did not think she was insane she did not
feel any remorse for what she had done.
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| Taunton State Hospital where Jane lived out her remaining years. |
On
April 8, 1902 three experts examining her found Jane Toppan to be
insane. Her trial in Barnstable began and ended on June 24th
with Jane being committed to the Taunton State Hospital. Toppan
lived out her remaining years feeling no remorse for the lives she
had affected, dying inside the hospital’s walls on August 17, 1938.
Despite
her claims that she wasn’t insane, and her confession to untold
cruel poisoning murders, only Jane Toppan herself knows just how far
her crimes reached. Jolly Jane’s story is truly terrifying showing
that sometimes looks can be deceiving and trust can get you killed.
View my previous blog posts: In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Thomas Ridley & Cape Cod's Loneliest Grave
2 comments:
Wow Chris, never heard this story before! Fascinating, thank you! Love your blog, so nice to see such love for one's home and region!
Thank you so much, I am really glad you enjoy it!
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