The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-25
JANE TOPPAN,
 MURDERESS Says She Has Killed 3l
 Persons. POISON WAS THE MEANS
Nurse Rivals Lucretia BOrgia
 In FiendiShneSS.
Desire to Witness Death Agonies o1 Her Friends Drove Her to the Declares That
 She Is Not Insane.

Boston, June 2--Jane Toppan, murders ess and degenerate, committed to Taun- ton Insane Hospital today, was the out como of yesterdays trial wherein she was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in poisoning Mrs. Mary D. Gibbs of Cataumet, has killed at lcas1 thirty other persons according to her own confession.
 Her case is one of extraordinary cir- cumstances. A nurse by profession, en- towing the confidence of an unlimited ac- quaintanceship. of seeming iovable dispo- sition, skilled in the uses of medicines especially of narcotics, she was at heart maniac whose delight at times was to see her patients wrthing in deaths agony. And her work did not stop there. for. having bafflcd medical skill so that attending physicians would assign nat uraI cause of death, she would seem to recover ner normal mental polse and sor- row with the living for the loss of a loved one.
 Her confession was not made as story of wholesale murder but has been draWn out little by little.
 To the commonwealth's officers upon whom the burden fell of prosecuting her for murder the terrible nature of her crimes was known and step by step they 1 followed her movements as she had nursed, not to health, but to the grave, members of families into which she had admission as friend and companion. She was indicted last spring for the | killing of Mrs. Gibbs. her sister, Mrs. Harry Gordon of Chicago and her father. | Alden F. Davis of Cataumet. and her | trial yesterday, the shortest on record In | this commonwealth, was for the murder of the first named.
 The case rested on the testimony Of aiienists who not only pronounced Jane Toppen to be insane but to be degeu- crate They saId her irapussea irreAisti~ bly compelled her to murder her patients l in order that she might enjoy the sight | of their struggles.
 | To her senior counsel. Judge F.. M. l BiUby of Broekton, she first admitted killing the three persons named in the | indictment and of others until the list entire numbers thirty-one. This list is | held by her counsel and 1t is not expect- ed that it win be made public. The remarkable incident in connection with this list is that when 1t was made l up she repeated with q snow of interest | the names of her victims, checking off | the number of her finger tips. She had spoken of the deaths of Mrs. O. A.
 Brigham of Lowell. lifelong friend, be- | ing the daughter of Mrs Thompson. who took Jane from a founding hospital in | Boston where she had borne the name of Kelly; of Mrs. Edna H. Bannister. sis- | ter to Mrs. Brigham; Miss Florence N. | Calkins. housekeeper for the Brighamss | Miss Myra Corners of the Episcopal | Theological School in Cambridge who secured for her a position in the institu-. ton; of Mrs. McNear of Watertown and of Mir. and Mrs. Israel F. Durham of Cambridge
 She told how she killed each, saying she used morphine and atropine mixed | in mineral water and whiskey. Some I times she used injections, as in the case of the deaths at Cataumet. She did not remember how each individual was killed | Where they were poisoned. the drugs were those mentioned.
 | To the alienists. to whom she made a confession of the Cataurnet cases. she spoke without reserve. describing delib- | erately the most indelicate details. be- | lleving that it was knowledge due to | them as physicians. She said the paroxysms of desire were intermittent and there were times when patients were quietly dying that her better nature | would become uppermost and she would try to check approaching death She
 might nurse the patient ever so carefully
 
 come 8 craving to administer poison and
 this amounted to the strongest uncon-
 troIlabe impulse. which only physical
 restraint would stop and then she would
 render her patient unconscious
 In the presence of death. she would
 gleefully fondle the patient. stare into
 the eyes as if it were to see the inner
 workings of the soul. do all possible to
 intensity the agony of the patients and
 then when the end came back she would
 become herself again.
 She told of setting fires in homes in
 which she was a nurse or visitor and
 intimate acquaintance tell of peculations
 of money and jewelry. With the money
 she earned. or obtained one. way or an-
 other. she was in the habit of making
 lavish presents to her friends. She be- Heves she is not of unsound mind and
 declares she knew she was doing wrong.