Topic > Active Serial Killers: Jane Toppen - 797

Jane Toppen was a portly Irish woman who was an active serial killer in the United States from 1887 to 1901. She confessed to killing more than 31 people in her 14 years of activity, using mainly morphine and atropine. She is one of the few female serial killers who got a sexual thrill from her killings. It is not known whether she had sexual intercourse with them, but she is said to have slept with them and caressed them as they died. Jane Toppen was born Honora Kelley around 1857. There are few surviving records of Honora's early life, and so it is debated whether her birth date is between 1854 and 1857. In 1863, when she was about six years old, Honora's father dropped her off at the Boston Female Asylum. In 1864, the asylum placed her as an indentured servant in the home of Ann Toppan. There, she suffered abuse from Ann as she became extremely jealous of Ann's daughter Elizabeth. Although she was never adopted, Honora changed her name to Jane Toppen. After her servitude ended in 1874, she remained with the family until 1885, when Elizabeth married Oramel Brigham. She led a quiet life until 1887, when she began training as a nurse at Cambridge Hospital in Boston. At first, when she liked a patient, she only interfered in small ways to ensure they stayed with her, but she soon began experimenting on patients with morphine and atropine. He is thought to have killed more than a dozen patients during his time in Cambridge. One patient of note is Mrs. Amelia Phinney, one of the few survivors of Jane Toppen's poisonings. Amelia claimed that after the operation Jane gave her a foul-tasting drug that was supposed to help with her discomfort. As she was falling asleep, Amelia realized that Jane had crept into the... middle of the paper... In her confession Jane stated that she wished the psychiatric board would find her crazy, she felt very superior when she discovered that she had passed in outwit a group of specialists. He described the thrill and gratification he got from his killings and said he felt no remorse for his actions. She tried to claim that if she were just married she would be too busy being a mother and housewife to be a murderer. The June 23 trial lasted less than eight hours, and after only twenty minutes of deliberation, the jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity. She was sentenced to remain in Taunton Insane Hospital for life. Jane was taken to hospital on June 24, where she remained for three and a half decades. As his mind slowly worsened, he remained in hospital until his death on August 17, 1938; he was about eighty years old.