Milford chronicle., 1902-06-27
CONFESSED 81 MURDERS
Jane TOppan, Wholesale POisOner,
Makes a Statement.
DECLARES SIZE IS NOT INSANE

Says She Could Not Help Committing
the Crimes, and That There Would
Have Been Many More Victims Had
She Not Been Arrested.
Boston. June 25.-Jane Toppan, who
was sent to the Taunton Insane Asy-
lum by jury at Barnstable Monday,
where she was tried for the murder
of Mrs. Mary D. Gibbs, has made
confession to her senior counsel, Judge
Fred NJ. Bixby, that during her career
as a professional nurse she killed no
less than 81 human beings. Judge
Bixby said that Miss Toppan had ad-
mitted that she had set fires and com
mitted other serious acts. She said
she could not help committing the
crimes. She argued. moreover, 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, un.
der the circumstances, she could be
of unsound mind.
Morphine was Miss Toppan's agency
for producing death. Many of her vic.
tins were unsuspecting and most init.
mate friends others were the patients
of reputable physicians, who employed
her on account of her ability as a
nurse. Miss Toppan was so expert in
her knowledge of how to employ drugs
| and poisOns that she was able to es
cape detection for years. In the de
tailed story as told to Judge Bixby by
Miss TOppan she did not enumeratC
her many victims, although she die
admit the killing of Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs
Harry Gordon, of Chicago, and Alder
P. Davis, all of whom died at Catau
met last summer.
Miss Toppan murdered to crafty &
passion. She was responsible for nu
merOus fires in houses in which sh,
was nurse, and had she remained a
liberty she admits that many NOR
people would have died and many NOR,
incendiary fires would have occurred
Jane Toppan's crimes were revolt
ing beyond all description, but the de
tails perhaps will never be known, 70
the lips of her counsel are sealed. He
confession was not made as a stor
of wholesale murder, but has beei
drawn out little by little, from time t
time, when he counsel have talke
with her in Barnstable Jail
She said her impulses irresistibl
compelled her to murder her patient
in order that she might enjoy tn
sight Of their struggles. She told hoy
? she killed each, saying she used mol
phine and atrophine mixed in minera
water and whiskey. In the presenc
. of death she would gleefully fondl
the patient, stare into the eyes as if
were to see the inner workings of tn
soul, do all possible to intensity tn
: agony Of the patients, and when tn
end came she would become herse
again.
! Alienists say that Jane Toppan en-
: bodied the worst types Of degenerate,
= and with this clear, there was n
: doubt of her mental condition. Will
murder was Jane Toppan's creates
: crime, there were many lesser forms
mental depravity, each in themselvC
, deplorable. She told of setting fire
! in homes in which she was a nurse
u visitor, and intimate acquaintanc,
u tell Of populations of money and jel
+ elry.
{ Judge Bixby and the experts doul
{ the accuracy of portions of Miss To
; pans confession, but it is doubtful
Il they can find evidence that will ev
e disprove or substantiate it. No ma
II ter what the doctors say, Miss To
n pan has stated that she killed tho
81 people, and despite a reputation 81
has for being untruthful, this stat
Is ment will doubtless have to be acceI
o ed as true.