The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-11-18
SHE Is THE SELF-CoNFESSE ,
POisONER OF THlRTY-oNE
PERSONS.
Committed Murders Without Fear of
Consequences or Remorss for
Love Of Taking Life.

TAUNTON, Mass, Nov. 1S.-Jane
Toppan. the poisoner of thirty lone
persons, after two and one-half years
confinement in the insane asylum here.
is approaching-has approached-the
secondary stage Of her ailment, moral
insanity and is believed to be near the
end. Until within short period the
visitor to the hospital was unable to
observe even the least trace of insan-
ity. The question used to be asked :
why is she here? She seems to be
as sane as her attendants" But now
her mental delusions are frequent. al
most constant, and were any one out
side to see her there would be no
doubt of the appropriateness of her
Incarceration.
She has abandoned her careless.
cheerful frame of mind in which she
has heretofore been and is now fretful,
peevish, even ugly, fault finding, fear
full of eating because of suspected
poisons, complaining of her treat
ment, morose-everything but re-
morseful. The intellectual insanity, fol-
lowing the moral insanity with which
it is now believed Jane Toppan has
been afflicted from birth. will in all
probability result in her death. pos
sibly within twelvemonth. She has
dwindled to almost a skeleton.
DR.. r. H. Steadman of Boston, one
of the three alienists upon whose GER
tificate the woman was committed,
and who has made her case a study
ever since, says: In this after his
tory we find brought into bold relief
the inherent, underlying defect of
weakmindedness which was noted. but
only obscurely seen earlier for want
of opportunity for proper observation
and also the outgrowth therefrom OF
pronounced intellectual change in the
shape of positive decisions. These to-
gether with the other and characteris-
tic manifestations, afford the strong
est confirmation of the patients in
sanity, intellectual and moral
In the course of his discussion of the
case DR.. Stedman says further:
THE development of a delusional
state in the course of moral insanity
is apparently not uncommon and af-
fords another and strong argument
for-the contention that intellectual in
colvement in some form is an essen
tial feature Of the disease, or, in other
words, that there is no such thing as
a mental disorder affecting the moral
sphere alone
Devoid Of Fear or Remorse.
This case of Jane Toppan will ever
be medico-legal classic. AS child
she was noted as a mischief maker;
her foster mother was obliged to send
her from home because she constant
ly told lies. Yet, when she became a
nurse she developed qualities which
made her agreeable, even loved, and
when she was arrested some of her
former patients evinced far more con-
Germ than she herself. Indeed, from
the day of her arrest Jane Toppan has
never shown fear of the consequences
much less remorse for her murders
Poison had been habit of her life, she
told the examining physicians.
In planning and carrying out her
always calm and clear-headed. After
administering the poison she ex-
perienced great relief and went to bed
and slept soundly. In telling of her
crimes she exhibited no bravado, but
showed that she had no appreciation
of the eilormity of her acts. "Why
don't grieve over it and feel sorry?''
she asked.
The world shuddered when Jane
Toppan was arrested and her crimes
were told in print. DR.. Stedman has
evidence to substantiate twenty of
the murders to which she confesses;
the other eleven are beyond investiga-
ton. In two instances she claimed to
have been seized with conjunction
and to have sent for another nurse
One of the patients was saved in
consequence. In another instance she
took the opportunity to repeat the
dose and make sure of her victim. AS
said before, there was an utter ap-
sence of motive in all cases. The whole
gamut of human motives was run over
by the investigators in vain. There
was neither avarice nor hatred to in
spire her. No sexual instinct had been
perverted in her. as was at first sup
posed, nor was she a user of liquor