The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-07-06
POISONED 7 PEOPLE
Jane TOppan, the Greatest
Woman MurderesS.
SHE MIXED MORPHINE
Gave 1t to Her Victims With
WhiSkey and Water,

New York July 5-The New York World
prints the following:
I want TO be known as the greatest
criminal that ever lived. That is ny
ambition"
This astonishing declaration was made
by Jane Toppan to Mrs. Cash. wife OF
the jailor OF Barnstable, where for ten
months the woman was imprisoned
awaiting trial
And surely this placid murderess. who
confessed 10 her counsel the deliberate
slaughter OF thIrty-one human beings
must feel that her aspirations have been
realized.
Her crimes unparalleled in history
were committed with no apparent rea-
son. But during the recent trial a phase
developed which showed that the afro
cious motive and Aendish performance
Of the whitechapel horrors. the infa-
nous Jack the Ripper"
Eleven persons are positively known to
have died as a result Of poisons admin
istered TO them by Jane Toppan while
she was acting as nurse
She is SAID 10 have furnished list Of
twenty additional victims 70 her coun-
sci, Judge Frederick ". Bixby.
The original eleven are as follows:
Mrs. Genieve Gordon Of Chicago. daugh-
ter Of Mr. and Mrs. Alden P. Davis at
Cataumet. Aug Is. 1901
Mary d. Gibbs, daughter of Alden F.
. Davis at Cataumet. Aug. 1S 1901
Alden 2. Davis, Of Cataumet, who died
in July. 1901.
Miss Connors. Of Woods HoI, died at
Cambridge IL 1890 Of "copplieation Of d.
seases.
4 Mrs Alden P. Davis. wife of Alden P.
s Davis, aged sixty-two years.
Mrs. O. NJ Brigham. Of Lowell. died
at Bourne. Aug. % 1899, aged sixty nine.
. Two days Illness due 10 supposedly heart
failure
Florence y. CaIkins. housekeeper for o.
II. Brigham. died at Lowell. Jan. ID. 1900
short illness, heart failure"
Mrs. Emma Bannister Of Tunbridge
Vt. sister ef Mrs. o. N Brigham. seven
ty-seven; two days i'll; heart failure.
Israel P. Durham. who died at Cam
bridge, May IS. 1897.
Mrs. Levery P. Durham. who died at
Cambridge. Sept. r. 1897
Mrs. McNear. who died at WATERFOWL,
in 1899.
Even II twenty be accepted as the total
OF her victims. Jane Toppan. in the num-
Der and atrocity Of her crimes, is easily
the greatest woman poisoner that ever
lived
Lucretia Borgia, who was the daugh-
ter of Alexander ". with the aid Of her
brother Caesar. managed to get rid Of
= gOodly number OF enemies. The num-
Der OF her victims though not known. !
has usually been estimated at less than 4
q score. The information in regard TO (
Catherine de Medica who after Lucre- 1
tia Borgia ranked greatest Of female I!
prisoners. is equally vague. Nine. de (
Brinvilliers on her death confessed that (
she had poisoned her father, her two
brothers. her child. two servants. and sew /
eral hospital patients by way Of expert I
ment
But Jane Toppaa has surprised them /
all. There is little doubt that her victims I
actually numbered thirty-one, for her /
confession was made not 70 Judge Bixby \
only. but repeated to the three alienists, /
Drs Quimhy Jelly and Stedman. present /
a. her trial. 20 Mrs. Cash
The peculiar atrocity Of this violation I
OF the almost sacred relationship of the (
nurse and patient was aggravated by her .
treatment Of the bodies Of her victims /
Jane Toppan has declared that she found
exquisite delight in handling the bodies .
OF the persons she murdered. in feeling .
the breath grow faint and the pulse
flicker lower and lower till all warmth
had departed In the very moment Of
the passing OF the spirit she found her
greatest JOY, demoniac as this seems
and incomprehensible by her normal hui
man mind.
The motives OF former women poison Z
ers-and women who have heen the great
est poisoners in history-have not as a
rule been complex. Lucretia Borgia muir
dered from ambition or revenge Cath
erine de Medici adopted this method Of
rigging herself OF human obstacles for
similar reasons. and the MarQuise de
Brinviluers poisoned her father and rela-
tfves TO inherit property.
But Jane Toppan. who has eclipsed
them all in the number and horror OF
her crimes. seems TO the ordinary mind
10 have committed murder FOR the sheer
pleasure OF killing.
Yet 10 the allenists who heard her stolid
OF horrors a motive present.
ed itself. so monstrous that I'D on the
alone the woman was adjudged insane.
according 10 her confession MissTopnan
from the time she was twelve years old.
had been a criminal and Tor period
covering twenty years a resembles pois-
Oner Normally. she told them. she had
no desire TO kin people. but when the i'm
pulse 70 murder came upon her-and
these paroxysms seized her periodically
she could not resist H.
What IS the history Of this woman
monster
Are her criminal impulses the result
OF heridity. Of envoirment or Of individu-
a. degeneraoye
What Is she ike. this human ghoul.
who wrought death smilingiy. success
fully for nearly twenty wears.
To obtain answers 10 these questions +;
for readers q the sunday World / vis-
lied the scenes of Jane Toppan's crimes
and Of her early youth I went 70 Low :
pn. Barnstasle where for over ten months
she was imprisoned. and 10 Tauton where I
she IS row incarcersted for life in an /
insane asylum. But I talked with the I
men and women who have been nearest :
10 her who knew her best In youth and
lince she became the notorious criminal 7
u thins OF any other axe.
According 70 all that I can learn on :
he subject Jane Toppan-her real name ?
S Nora Kelly. Topaz being the name ?
y the family OF her esD~l-fr-- - - /,