Jane Toppan

Jane Toppan

Jane Toppan (* 1854 in Boston as Nora Kelley ; † August 1938 in Taunton / Massachusetts ) was an US -American serial killer who from 1880 to 1901 in Massachusetts by injection of morphine - atropine killed at least 31, but probably about 70 people -Cocktails Has.

Toppan was adopted after her mother's death, and her first name was also changed. As a young woman, she suffered a nervous breakdown and made several suicide attempts . It was not until the age of 26 that she began training as a nurse at Cambridge University Hospital, Massachusetts, and was considered hardworking. Her colleagues, however, felt that they were overly interested in the morgue. After several deaths among the patients she cared for, she was discharged but not reported.

She then worked as a nurse for several families in New England and only came under suspicion when all four members of the Davis family died one after the other and the poison was found in the autopsy ordered by the police . She was arrested on October 29, 1901. As a result, many of her former patients were exhumed and the results were the same for all of them.

Toppan confessed to around 70 acts. In the course of her trial, she said:

"I've killed more helpless people than any other man or woman."

She also stated that this was exactly her goal.

Toppan was admitted to the Taunton Mental Hospital and died of old age .

literature

• Murakami, Peter and Julia: Lexicon of Serial Killers 450 case studies of a pathological type of killing. 7th edition, Ullstein Taschenbuch, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-548-35935-3 (source, unless otherwise stated)

Web links

• Jane Toppan. In: murderpedia.org. Retrieved March 16, 2013 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 15, 2007 at 11:07 pm