logo
She murdered 31 and snuggled victims as they died for sexual kicks - the 'jolly' killer you've never heard of

She murdered 31 and snuggled victims as they died for sexual kicks - the 'jolly' killer you've never heard of

Daily Mail​26-05-2025

Jane Toppan had become a crutch to the prominent Davis family as they were struck by tragedy after tragedy.
It was summer and the wealthy railroad dynasty had welcomed their longtime friend and adored 'jolly' nurse into their idyllic Cape Cod home.
But, one by one, the family members suddenly dropped dead.
In just over a month, four had died - succumbing to a seemingly unrelated myriad of illnesses.
Family matriarch Mary 'Mattie' Davis was first, with her death explained away by her diabetes.
Days later, her daughter Genevieve Gordon was dead from apparent heart failure.
After losing his wife and one of his daughters, Alden Davis - who made the family fortune running the railroad from Boston to Cape Cod - suffered an apparently fatal stroke.
His other daughter Mary Gibbs would be dead within days - seemingly of a broken heart.
But to Gibbs' father-in-law, the sudden wipeout of the entire Davis family was oddly suspicious.
Something sinister was going on.
Toppan, the popular Boston nurse and Davis family friend who had cared for each of the four victims, was harboring a macabre secret.
As a nurse, Toppan (pictured) killed patients and anyone else who got in her way with lethal doses of morphine
For years, Toppan was known by the affectionate nickname 'Jolly' Jane due to her warm and jovial bedside manner.
But, in reality, she was an 'Angel of Death' - killing patients and anyone else who got in her way with lethal doses of morphine.
Some were injected with a fatal dose of the drug while others were poisoned with Toppan's special laced bottles of Hunyadi mineral water.
In a sick twist, Toppan reveled in toying with her victims' lives by bringing them to and from the brink of death with alternating doses of morphine and atropine.
As her helpless victims lay dying, the 'jolly' nurse would curl up in bed with them - getting a twisted sexual thrill while they gave their last breaths.
By the time 'Jolly' Jane Toppan was exposed as one of America's first female serial killers, she had claimed the lives of at least 31 victims, according to her own remorseless confession letter.
But many fear the number could truly top 100.
'She really was probably the first woman serial killer,' Diane Ranney, the former assistant director of the Jonathan Bourne Public Library in Massachusetts who has researched the Toppan case for decades, tells DailyMail.com.
'[But] it seems odd to me that the fame really never reached her.'
Despite her sadistic murder spree, Toppan is a serial killer that few have heard of.
Even in the Cape Cod town of Bourne - where many of the murders took place - Ranney says the chilling past is a little known tale among the community.
'People don't know about it… for some reason, it's one of those well-hidden secrets,' she says.
Born Honora Kelly in Boston's south end in 1854 to Irish immigrant parents, Toppan's start in life was turbulent to say the least.
Her mom died when she was only a small child, leaving her and her sister to be raised by her alcoholic father.
In a bizarre twist, her dad - in the throes of mental health issues - sewed his own eyelids shut and abandoned his two daughters at the Boston Female Asylum.
Honora was later taken in as an indentured servant by the wealthy Toppan family and her name changed to Jane Toppan.
'I'm probably the only person who's been researching her who feels sorry for her,' Ranney says.
'Everyone else calls her a monster, which in a way she was, but the more I looked into things, the more I thought, she's a very interesting person.'
Through her years of research, Ranney says it's 'a question of why she was like she was'.
It's a question Toppan gave a curious answer for after she was caught.
In her young adulthood, Toppan was jilted at the altar by her fiancé.
She went on to blame her lover - and being unmarried - for sending her down her dark and deadly path.
'If I had been a married woman I probably would not have killed all these people,' she infamously claimed.
Rejected by her lover, Toppan decided to train at Cambridge Hospital to be a nurse - a vocation that would give her the knowledge of drugs and position of trust that she would later exploit.
When Toppan started working as a nurse, she became an instant hit, earning her the nickname Jolly Jane as she would always joke with her patients.
'She had a rather strange way of expressing her love for her patients. She took very, very good care of them… But in the end, she wound up killing them,' Ranney says.
It is unclear exactly when the killing spree started.
During her time at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Cambridge School of Nursing, many patients mysteriously died in her care.
When she then turned to private nursing, providing her rich patients with home visits, there were also curious spates of fatalities.
But surprisingly, the deaths were always explained away by some illness or another - and no alarm was raised.
Several years would pass before anyone suspected the nurse of killing the patients she had doted on with such care.
For other victims, Toppan's murders were far more personal.
There was her foster sister Elizabeth Brigham who she had grown up with.
Her best friend Sarah Connors whose job she wanted to take at a theology school.
Her love interest's sister Edna Bannister who she felt was getting in the way of a romance.
And her former landlords Israel and Lovey Dunham.
Toppan's luck only ran out when she murdered the Davis family in summer 1901 after they had dared to ask her to finally pay the $500 in overdue rent she owed.
Even Toppan went on to admit this may have finally been a step too far, declaring: 'That was the greatest mistake of my life.'
Following pressure from Gibbs' father-in-law, her body was exhumed and a fatal dose of morphine discovered.
Toppan's depraved killing spree was a secret no more.
In October 1901, the 47-year-old was arrested for murder.
Ultimately, she only stood trial for the murder of Gibbs in a case that hit headlines across the US as the media and public poured over the story of a perverse female serial killer who got a sexual kick out of killing.
Victims who lived to tell the tale came forward with their shocking stories.
One patient described Toppan plying her with a mystery drink and then clambering on top of her, kissing and caressing her while she lay suffering in a hospital bed.
At the time, the woman passed the bizarre encounter off as a dream - only learning how close she came to being another victim when Toppan was arrested.
While suspected of 11 murders, a bombshell confession letter published in the New York Journal revealed Toppan's actual death toll was at least 31.
In the shocking declaration, Toppan boasted that her depraved goal was 'to have killed more people - helpless people - than any other man or woman who lived'.
She also described being driven by an 'uncontrollable passion' for death, writing that: 'No voice has as much melody in it as the one crying for life; no eyes as bright as those about to become fixed and glassy; no face so beautiful as the one pulseless and cold.'
Ranney says there is no indication that Toppan deliberately chose a career in nursing to give her the opportunity to kill.
'I don't think it started out like that. I think she may have accidentally killed someone without realizing… she may have just decided, 'oh, look what I can do. Wow, that really gave me a thrill.' But I don't think she became a nurse for that reason,' she says.
'I think part of it was a sense that she was powerful.'
More than a century on, however, questions remain as to whether it was really Toppan who penned the shocking confession letter.
Ranney isn't so sure.
'I've always wondered whether it really was [her],' she says.
'It did not strike me that it was her writing… just the way it's written. I don't think she would have been quite so blunt about things. It just seems to me that her nature was to be more secretive.'
She adds: 'But then again, by that time, she may have decided that she was just going to confess because it brought her more notoriety.'
Toppan was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was sent to the Massachusetts psychiatric hospital in Taunton.
She lived there until her death in 1938.
Somewhat ironically, Toppan would often refuse to eat and drink at the facility - paranoid that someone was trying to poison her.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Chemtrails: why is RFK Jr battling a debunked conspiracy theory?
Chemtrails: why is RFK Jr battling a debunked conspiracy theory?

The Guardian

time2 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Chemtrails: why is RFK Jr battling a debunked conspiracy theory?

The Trump administration appears sceptical about the climate crisis but is deeply concerned about another weather phenomenon: chemtrails. To conspiracists, chemtrails are visible trails left by commercial airliners, lasting longer than the usual condensation trails from jets and containing unknown, sinister chemicals. To weather scientists, chemtrails are a myth based on misidentification and a lack of understanding about how different humidity levels cause contrails to disappear quickly or linger and grow. The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is determined to take action on chemtrails. During a recent TV discussion, when an audience member said chemtrails were her biggest health worry, Kennedy affirmed that material was being added to jet fuel. 'I'm going to do everything in my power to stop it,' he said. 'Find out who's doing it and holding them accountable.' Kennedy said he was trying to discover which government department was responsible. He suggested the culprits might be Darpa, the Pentagon's advanced research arm. While there really has been military research into contrails, this was aimed at reducing them to make planes harder to spot. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Despite many claims, there is no evidence of nefarious substances being covertly added to commercial jet fuel. But to conspiracists, this only proves there must be a cover-up.

Popular morning snack and dinner staple found to contain alarming levels of autism-linked chemicals
Popular morning snack and dinner staple found to contain alarming levels of autism-linked chemicals

Daily Mail​

time4 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Popular morning snack and dinner staple found to contain alarming levels of autism-linked chemicals

People vying to be healthy may want to think twice before reaching for two popular nutritious staples. The Environmental Working Group, a health advocacy organization, recently released its 'Dirty Dozen 2025' list - where it ranked the fruits and vegetables covered in the most toxic chemicals. After analyzing the Department of Agriculture's data on levels of pesticide contamination in different fruits and vegetables, the group ranked 47 of them based on their toxicity levels. Of these, they found the top 12 fruits and vegetables covered in pesticides. While usual suspects such as spinach, strawberries and kale took the top three spots, researchers noted that blackberries were a new addition to the list. Over 80 percent of samples of the popular berry, which is usually priced at $6 for 12oz, were found to be covered in two or more pesticides, placing it 10th on the list. The agency noted the most common pesticide they found on blackberries was cypermethrin - a toxic synthetic insecticide linked to autism. Also new on the list, landing in 12th place, were potatoes - the most commonly eaten vegetable in the US. The researchers found nearly all of the 1,000 samples of potatoes had high concentrations of chlorpropham, a plant growth regulator banned in the European Union due to its hormone-disrupting and cancer-causing properties. Alexis Temkin, EWG's Vice President of Science told CNN: 'The guide is there to help consumers eat a lot of fruits and vegetables while trying to reduce pesticide exposure. 'One of the things that a lot of peer-reviewed studies have shown over and over again (is) that when people switch to an organic diet from a conventional diet, you can really see measurable levels in the reduction of pesticide levels in the urine.' Organic produce is grown without synthetic pesticides, with farmers opting for more natural options that are less persistent in the environment. She noted that her team found 50 different pesticides across a variety of fruits and vegetables that made the Dirty Dozen list. Coming in fourth were grapes, fifth were peaches and sixth were cherries. These fruits were followed by nectarines, pears and apples at seventh, eighth and ninth place, respectively. The EWG ranked blueberries in 11th place. The agency noted blackberries had never made it on the list before as they hadn't been tested prior to 2023. However, both the EWG and Department of Agriculture examined 294 non-organic blackberry samples from July through December 2023 and found at least one pesticide in 93 percent of them. Most notably, they discovered the presence of cypermethrin, which is banned in the EU to due to its dangers to human health. While cypermethrin has proven beneficial in killing harmful insects in berries, certain studies have shown that consumption by pregnant woman may increase the risk of autism. A 2019 BMJ study found that a baby had a higher risk of developing autism if its mother had been exposed to cypermethrin within 6,500 feet of their home during her pregnancy. Cypermethrin has also been found to disrupt thyroid hormones, which are critical to brain development. At times, direct exposure to the insecticide may also cause irritation to the skin and eyes, numbness, tingling, itching, a burning sensation, loss of bladder control, incoordination, seizures and in severe cases, death. Since fruits such as blackberries are promoted for being rich in antioxidants and vitamins, they are often included in recommended healthy diets for children and pregnant women to help improve their nutrition levels. However, this may put them at a higher risk of being exposed to the insecticide. While insecticides are added into blackberry fruits as they grow, potatoes are covered in pesticides after they are harvested and ready to eat. Temkin said: 'It's applied after harvest to essentially prevent potatoes from sprouting while they're in storage or in transit. 'Because it's applied so late after harvest and so close to when consumers might be exposed or eating potatoes, that's partially what leads to some of these really high concentrations.' Between 2022 to 2023, the Department of Agriculture collected and tested more than 1,000 samples of potatoes for pesticides after washing and scrubbing each piece. They found that over 90 percent of samples contained twice the acceptable levels of chlorpropham allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency even after washing and scrubbing. The toxic pesticide has been linked to causing changes in blood cells and harm to the thyroid by reducing the production of certain hormones such as thyroxine - which is responsible to maintain the growth of cells. Low levels of thyroxine can cause DNA mutations and excessive growth of cells across the body - which may pave the way for cancer development. Similarly to cypermethrin, a 2024 Medicina study also found that prenatal exposure to chlorpropham has been found to increase a baby's risk of developing autism. Chlorpropham was banned in the EU in 2019 after officials found that people, particularly children, were being exposed to more than acceptable levels of chlorpropham through non-organic potatoes. Despite the results, Temkin noted the annual report is not meant to discourage consumers from eating fruits and vegetables but instead to encourage people to buy organic food. Multiple studies have shown that those who consume organic food have lower exposure to synthetic pesticides as organic farming prohibits the use of such chemicals. The EWG recommends buying organic whenever accessible because food residues are a main source of pesticide exposures for many people. For people looking to eat cleaner fruits and vegetables, the EWG found pineapple to be the least contaminated produce tested, followed by sweet corn (fresh and frozen), avocados, papaya, onions, frozen sweet peas, asparagus, cabbage, watermelon, cauliflower, bananas, mangos, carrots, mushrooms and kiwi. If you do opt for a dirty dozen, be sure to wash it with water or solutions of baking soda or vinegar.

EPA says power plant carbon emissions aren't dangerous. We asked 30 scientists: Here's what they say
EPA says power plant carbon emissions aren't dangerous. We asked 30 scientists: Here's what they say

The Independent

time8 hours ago

  • The Independent

EPA says power plant carbon emissions aren't dangerous. We asked 30 scientists: Here's what they say

The Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed a new ruling that heat-trapping carbon gas "emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution.'' The Associated Press asked 30 different scientists, experts in climate, health and economics, about the scientific reality behind this proposal. Nineteen of them responded, all saying that the proposal was scientifically wrong and many of them called it disinformation. Here's what eight of them said. 'This is the scientific equivalent to saying that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer,' said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the tech firm Stripe and the temperature monitoring group Berkeley Earth. 'The relationship between CO2 emissions and global temperatures has been well established since the late 1800s, and coal burning is the single biggest driver of global CO2 emissions, followed by oil and gas. It is utterly nonsensical to say that carbon emissions from power plants do not contribute significantly to climate change.' "It's about as valid as saying that arsenic is not a dangerous substance to consume," said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann. "The world is round, the sun rises in the east, coal-and gas-fired power plants contribute significantly to climate change, and climate change increases the risk of heat waves, catastrophic storms, infectious diseases, and many other health threats. These are indisputable facts," said Dr. Howard Frumkin, former director of the National Center for Environmental Health and a retired public health professor at the University of Washington. Climate economist R. Daniel Bressler of Columbia University, said: 'We can use tools from climate economics, including the mortality cost of carbon and the social cost of carbon, to estimate the climate impacts of these emissions. For instance, in my past work, I found that adding just one year's worth of emissions from an average-sized coal-fired plant in the U.S. causes 904 expected temperature-related deaths and over $1 billion in total climate damages.' University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs said: "Their statement is in direct conflict with evidence that has been presented by thousands of scientists from almost 200 countries for decades. 'It's basic chemistry that burning coal and natural gas releases carbon dioxide and it's basic physics that CO2 warms the planet. We've known these simple facts since the mid-19th century,' said Oregon State's Phil Mote. Andrew Weaver, a professor at the University of Victoria and former member of parliament in British Columbia, said: 'President Trump is setting himself up for international court charges against him for crimes against humanity. To proclaim you don't want to deal with climate change is one thing, but denying the basic science can only be taken as a wanton betrayal of future generations for which there should be consequences.' Stanford climate scientist Chris Field, who coordinated an international report linking climate change to increasingly deadly extreme weather, summed it up this way: "It is hard to imagine a decision dumber than putting the short-term interests of oil and gas companies ahead of the long-term inters of our children and grandchildren." ___ Matthew Daly and Michael Phillis contributed from Washington. The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store