Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-06-25
WHOLESALE MURDER
Confessed by Jane Toppan AZ
ter Escaping Death.
Admits Killing 81 Persons, Whom She
Nursed, by Poison.
The Murderess Taken to Insane Hos
pitai at Taunton.

Boston, June 24.-Jane Toppan rnur
deress and degenerate. committed 70
Taunton Insane Hospital. TODAY. as the
outcome of yesterdays trial wherein
she was found not guilty of murder bv
reason of insanity, of Mrs. Mary d.
dlbbs OF Cataumet, has killed by sub
Tile poison at least 81 other persons, ac-
cording to her own confession.
Her case is one of extraordinary cir
cumstances. nurse by profession.
enjoying the confidence of an unlimited
1cquaintanceship, of seeming lovable
disposition, skilled in the use of medi-
cines, especially narcotics. she was at
heart a maniac whose delight at times
was to see her patients writhiSg in
deaths agony. And her work did not
stop there. for having baffled medical
skill so that the attending physician
would assign natural cause of DEATH
she would seem to recover her normal
mental poise and sorrow with the liv-
ing for the loss of a loved one.
Jane TOppan's crimes were revolving
beyond ali description, but the details
perhaps will never be known. for the
| lips of her counsel are sealed. Her con-
| feSSion was not made as a story of
wholesale murder. but has been drawn
ont little by little from time to time
when her counsel have talked with her
in Rarnstable jail during the eight
months she was there awaiting trial
| To the commemorative officers upon
whom the burden fell of prosecuting
her fer murder, the terrible nature of
her crimes was known and step by
| calJ
the had nursed, not into health but to
the grave, members of families in
which she had admission as a friend
and companion.
She as indicted last spring for the
| killing of Mrs. Gibbs her sister. Mrs.
Harry Gordon Of Chicago, and her
father Alden p. 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 tn testimony of alien
/ lists who not only pronounced Jane
| Toppan to be insane but to be a de-
generate. They said her impulses ire
sistibly compelled her to murder her
| patients in order that she might en-
| JOY the sight of their struggles. They
| told of her confession of killing Mrs
/ Gibbs by administering morphine ard
atropine. hiding the effect of the for
MGR by use of the latter.
That confession pronounced in open
court. promised by Attorney General
Parker i'll his opening plea to the jury,
was mild incident to the revelations
Of today, and which her senior counsel,
Judge F. NJ Bixby of Brockton, does
| n q Or
killing the three persons named in the
Indictment. ana then of other persons
until the entire list numbers 81. This
| list is held by her counsel and it is not
expected that it will be made public.
| The remarkable incident in connec-
ton with this list 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
tins. Shr had spoken of the deaths of
Mrs. O. 4. Brigham Of Lowell, a life
| long friend. being the daughter of Mrs.
| Toppau. who took Jane from a found
| ling asylum in Boston where she had
| borne the name of Kelly; of Mrs. Ed
| nah EauniSter, sister to Mrs. brigham:
| Miss Florence n. Calkins, hOusekeeper
| for the Brigham family; Miss Myra
| Connors of the Episcopal Theological
School in Cambridge. who secured for
| Her position in the institution and
| gave her an outing at Woods Hole: of
Mrs McNear of Watertown. another
| friend: Of Mr. and Mrs. Israel p Dun
| ham Of Cambridge.
she told how she killed each, saying
| she used morphine and atropine mixed
im mineral water or whiskey. Some
times she used injections, as in the
case of the deaths at Cataumet. She
! dill not remember how each individual
was killed. but where they were poi
soncd the drugs were those mentioned,
because they We're from a vegetable |
base and they can scarcely be detected |
after death.
To the alienists, to whom she made |
confession of the Cataumet cases, she |
spoke without reserve, describing the |
most indicate details. believing that |
it was knowledge due to them as physi |
clans. In fact she discussed the cases |
as if 2 student in medicine or surgery |
at a clinic. She implied to them that |
it was to crafty an abnormal passion |
that she sput patients to death and dur |
ing the interval of ebbing life and the |
body it was her passion also to handle |
the bodies of her victims.
she said these paroxysms of desire |
were intermittent and there were times |
when patients were quietly dying that
her better nature would become upper,
most and she would try to check APP
preaching death. She might nurse the
patient ever so carefully and seek to
effect a cure. Then would come a crav
ing to administer poison. and this
amounted to the strongest uncontroll-
able impulse, which only physical re-
straint 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