The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1902-07-04
HER "a. AWFUL STORY. !.

Boston, June 26-Jane Tcppan, MUIR
deress and degenerate, committed TO
Taunton insane hospital yesterday as
the outcome Of Mondays trial wherein
she was found guilty Of murder, by
reason Of insanity. Of poisoning Mrs.
Mary D. Gobbs Of Calumet, has killed
ut least thirty other persons, according
to her own confession. Her sase is
one Of extraordinary circumstances. A
nurse by profession, enjoying the con-
fidence Of an unlimited acquaintance;
Of seeming lovable disposition skilled
in the uses of medicines, especially Of
narcotics, she was at heart maniac,
whose delight at times was to see her
patients writing in deaths agony.
And her work win not stop there, for,
having baff1ed medical Skill SO that the
attending physician would assign a
natural cause Of death. she would seem
to. recover her normal mental poise
and sorrow with the living for the loss
of the loved one.
Jane Toppan's crimes were revolving
beyond all description, but the details
perhaps will never be known, Tor the
lips Of her counsel are sealed. Her
confession was not made as a
Story OF Wholesale Murder,
hut has been drawn outSlittle by lit
tie, from time to time when her coun-
sci have talked with her in Barnstable
Jail. ~ 81.
To the commemorative officers, upon
whom the burden fell of prosecuting
her for murder, the terrible nature of
her crimes were known, and step by
step they followed her movements as
she had nursed, not health, but to the
grave, members of families to which
she had admission as a friend and
companion. She was indicted last
spring for the killing of Mrs. Gibbs,
her sister, Mrs. Harry Morrison of
Chicago. and her father. Alden p. Da-
Wis of Calumet, and her trial Monday,
the shortest on record in this common
wealth, was for the murder of the first
named. The case rested on the testi-
mony of alienists, who not only pro-
nounced Jane Toppan to be insane,
but to be a degenerate. They said her
impulses were irresistible and COM
PEELED her to murder her parents in
Of their struggles. They told of her
confession of killing Mrs. Gibbs by adj
ministerlng morphine and atrophine,
hiding the effects of the former by use
of the latter.
To her senior counsel, Judge F. NJ.
Bixby of Brockton, she admitted kill
dictment and then Of other persons
until her list entire
Numbers Thirty-One.
This list is held by her counsel and it
is not expected that it will be made
public. The remarkable incident in
connection 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
tips.
To alienists, to whom she made a
full confession of the Calumet cases,
she spoke without reserve, describing
deliberately the most indelicate de-
tails, believing that its was knowledge
due to them as physicians. In fact,
she discussed the cases as if she were
a student Of mediocre or surgery at q
clinic. She implied to them that it was
to crafty an Abnormal passion that
she put patients to death, and during
the interval OF ebr;"" life and the de-
parture of natura It from the body
it was her pass:c so to handle the
bodies of her victims.
The alienists were forced to study
Jane Toppan as subject. They found
that she embodied the worst types Of
degeneracy, and with this clear there
was no doubt of her mental condition.