Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1902-06-27
A SERIES OF GRIMES.
Miss Toppnn Says She Murdered 81
Human BcIuQs.

Human BeInGs.
Boston, June 25.-Suspected Of the
death of IL persons. but indicted for
numbering only three, Miss Jane Top
pan, who was on Monday declared in
sane, has confessed that she has killed
during her career as professional
nurse no less than 81 human beings.
This statement was made to Judge
Fred NJ. Bixby, of Brocton, senior
counsel at the trial at BarnstabIe,
when Miss Toppan was found not
guilty, by reason of insanity, on the
charge Of numbering Mrs. Mary ID.
Gibbs. Judge Bixby said also that
Miss Toppan had admitted that she
had set fires and committed other Sc
rious acts. She said she could not
help committing the crimes. She ar
gued that she was not insane. She
said she knew she was doing wrong
when she administered poison to her
victims, and she asked Judge Bixby
how, under such circumstances, she
could be of unsound mind.
Morphine was Miss Toppan's
agency for producing death. Many of
her victims were unsuspecting and
most intimate friends; others were
the patients of reputable physicians
who employed her on account Of her
ability as nurse. Miss Toppan was
SO expert in her knowledge of how to
employ drugs and poisons that she
was able to escape detection for
years.
Jane Toppan's crimes were revolt
ing beyond all description, but the
details perhaps will never be known,
for the lips of her counsel are sealed.
Her confession was not made as a
story of wholesale murder, but has
been drawn out little by little, from
time to time when her counsel talked
with her in Barnstable Jail.
To the commonwealth officers, up
on whom the burden fell of prose-
cutting her for murder, the terrible
nature of her crimes was known and
step by step they followed her move
ments as she had nursed, not to
health, but to the grave, members Of
families into which she had admis-
sion as a 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 p. Davis, of Catu-
met, and her trial Monday, the short
est one on record in this common
wealth, was for the murder of the
first named. The case rested on the
testimony of alienists, who not only
pronounced Jane Toppan to be in
sane, but to be degenerate.
They said her impulses irresistibly
compelled her to murder her patients
in order that she might enjoy the
sight of their struggles. They told of
her confession of killing Mrs. Gibbs
by administering morphine and afro
pine, hiding the effect of the former
by the use of the latter.
The remarkable incident in connec-
tion with her list of victims is that
when it was made up she repeated
with a show of interest the names of
her victims, checking off the number
on her finger tips. She had spoken
of the deaths of Mrs. o. \. Brigham,
of Lowell, lifelong friend, being
the daughter of Mrs. Toppan, who
took Jane from founding hospital
in Boston, where she had borne the
name of Kelly; of Mrs. Edna H. Ban
mister, sister TO Mrs. Brigham; Miss
| rlOTtilcc ~ Nulhlus, hOuSChotPeI VI
the Brigham family; Miss Myra Con-
nors, of the Episcopal Theological
| school in Cambridge, who secured for
her a position in the institution; of
Mrs. McNear, of Watertown, another
friend; of Mr.. and Mrs. Israel p.
Dunham, of Cambridge. She told how
she killed each, saying she used NOR
phine and atrophine mixed in mineral
water and whisky. Sometimes she
used injections, as in the case of the
deaths at Calumet. She did not re-
member how each individual was
| killed, but where they were poisoned
the drugs used were those mentioned
To the alienists, to whom she made
confession of the Calumet cases
she spoke without reserve, describing
deliberately the most indelicate de.
tails, believing that it was knowl-
edge due to them as physicians. In
fact she discussed the cases as if she
were a student in medicine or surgery
at clinic. She implied to them that
1t was to crafty an abnormal pas
sion that she put patients to death
and during the interval of ebbing life
and the departure of natural heat
from the body, it was her passion
also to handle the bodies of her vic
tins. She said the paroxysms of de
sire were intermittent and there were
times when patients were dying thai
her better nature would become up
permost and she would try to checl
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