Jane Toppan (March 31, 1854 – August 17, 1938), born Honora Kelley, was an American serial killer, nicknamed "Jolly Jane". After her arrest in 1901, she confessed to 31 murders, but only 12 were confirmed. Toppan is quoted as saying that her ambition was "to have killed more people—helpless people—than any other man or woman who ever lived". Toppan worked as a nurse from c. 1885 to 1902. Her victims consisted of her patients and their family members. In 1860, only a few years after his wife's death, Kelley took his two youngest children, eight-year-old Delia Josephine and six-year-old Honora, to the Boston Female Asylum, an orphanage for indigent female children. Kelley surrendered the two girls, never to see them again. Documents from the asylum note that they were "rescued from a very miserable home". No records exist of Delia and Honora's experiences during their time in the asylum, but reportedly, Delia became a prostitute while their older sister Nellie (who was not committed to the orphanage) was committed to an insane asylum. In November 1862, less than two years after her father had left them , Honora Kelley was placed as an indentured servant in the home of Mrs. Ann C. Toppan of Lowell, Massachusetts. Though never formally adopted by the Toppans, Honora took on the surname of her benefactors and eventually became known as Toppan. The original Toppan family already had a daughter, Elizabeth, with whom Honora was on good terms. The surviving members of the Davis family ordered a toxicology exam on Alden Davis' youngest daughter, Minnie. The report found that she had been poisoned, and local authorities assigned a police detail on Toppan to watch her. On October 29, 1901, she was arrested for murder. By 1902, she had confessed to 31 murders. Soon after the trial, one of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, the New York Journal, printed what was purported to be Toppan's confession to her lawyer, claiming that she had killed more than 31 people, and that she wanted the jury to find her sane so she could eventually have a chance at being released. Toppan insisted upon her own sanity in court, claiming that she could not be insane if she knew what she was doing and knew that it was wrong, but nonetheless she was declared insane and committed. On June 23, in the Barnstable County Courthouse, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed for life in the Taunton Insane Hospital.
Jane Toppan (March 31, 1854 – August 17, 1938), born Honora Kelley, was an American serial killer, nicknamed "Jolly Jane". After her arrest in 1901, she confessed to thirty-one murders, but only twelve were confirmed. Toppan is quoted as saying that her ambition was "to have killed more people—helpless people—than any other man or woman who ever lived". Toppan worked as a nurse from around 1885 to 1902. Her victims consisted of her patients and their family members. In 1860, only a few years after his wife's death, Kelley took his two youngest children, eight-year-old Delia Josephine and six-year-old Honora, to the Boston Female Asylum, an orphanage for indigent female children. Kelley surrendered the two girls, never to see them again. Documents from the asylum note that they were "rescued from a very miserable home". No records exist of Delia and Honora's experiences during their time in the asylum, but reportedly, Delia became a prostitute while their older sister Nellie (who was not committed to the orphanage) was committed to an insane asylum. In November 1862, less than two years after being abandoned by her father , Honora Kelley was placed as an indentured servant in the home of Mrs. Ann C. Toppan of Lowell, Massachusetts. Though never formally adopted by the Toppans, Honora took on the surname of her benefactors and eventually became known as Toppan. The original Toppan family already had a daughter, Elizabeth, with whom Honora was on good terms. The surviving members of the Davis family ordered a toxicology exam on Alden Davis' youngest daughter, Minnie. The report found that she had been poisoned, and local authorities assigned a police detail on Toppan to watch her. On October 29, 1901, she was arrested for murder. By 1902, she had confessed to thirty-one murders. Soon after the trial, one of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, the New York Journal, printed what was purported to be Toppan's confession to her lawyer, claiming that she had killed more than thirty-one people, and that she wanted the jury to find her sane so she could eventually have a chance at being released. Toppan insisted upon her own sanity in court, claiming that she could not be insane if she knew what she was doing and knew that it was wrong, but nonetheless she was declared insane and committed. On June 23, in the Barnstable County Courthouse, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed for life in the Taunton Insane Hospital.
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