WEBVTT

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My ambition is to have killed more people, helpless

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people, than any other man or woman who ever

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lived. That quote just, it stops you cold, doesn't

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it? It really does. It's not just the ambition

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to kill, it's the qualifier, she adds, helpless

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people. Exactly. It completely removes any idea

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of a challenge or a fight. It's pure predation.

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This isn't, you know, a general on a battlefield.

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It's not a gangster taking out a rival. No. This

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was a woman named Jane Toppin. And what makes

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that, quote, infinitely darker, just so much

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worse, is her job. She's a nurse. The ultimate

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betrayal. I mean, you go to a nurse when you

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are at your absolute weakest. You're literally

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putting your life in their hands. Right. You're

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trusting them completely. And this woman, everyone

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knew her as Jolly Jane. She was, by all accounts,

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bright, friendly, well -liked. If you were sick

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in Massachusetts in the late 1800s, she was the

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person you wanted by your bedside. Lovely, competent,

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and underneath it all. A monster who is quietly

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trying to become one of the most prolific serial

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killers in American history. And maybe she was.

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I mean, given the timeline and the gaps in the

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records, she might have been one of the most

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successful if you define success by just how

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long she got away with it. So that's our mission

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for this deep dive. We're going to unpack the

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life of Jane Toppin. But we're not just going

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to run through a list of victims. Honestly, the

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list is terrifyingly long. And at a certain point,

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it just becomes. Yeah, it becomes a statistic.

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Exactly. We want to get at the how and the why.

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We want to look at the psychology, the systemic

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failures that let her operate for so long. And

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we've pulled a lot of material for this. We have

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biographical details, court records, asylum intake

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logs from the time, and some really incredible

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newspaper accounts. Yeah, the newspaper stuff

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is fascinating. We're looking at the Indianapolis

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Journal, the Lowell Sun, and, of course, the

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Hearst papers like the New York Journal. And

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those papers give you the real -time reaction.

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You see a world just struggling to understand

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how a nurse, a sister of mercy, as they called

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them. A sister of mercy. Yeah. It could be this.

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This predator. They didn't even have the term

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serial killer back then. They were trying to

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map a new kind of evil. So we're going to trace

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her story from this just... Dickensian horror

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of a childhood in Boston, through the hospitals

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in Cambridge where she learned her dark trade,

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and then finally into her private practice where

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the whole thing just imploded. It's a story of

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manipulation, of madness, and a terrifying ability

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to hide in plain sight. But to understand Jane

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Toppin, the killer, you really have to go back.

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You have to start before she was Jane Toppin.

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You have to start with Honora Kelly. That's where

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it all begins. Okay, so Honora Kelly. Born March

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31st, 1854 in Boston. And before we even get

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into her family life, which is a whole other

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thing, we need to talk about Boston in the 1850s.

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Yeah, you absolutely have to set the stage. This

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is post -famine. The city is flooded with Irish

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immigrants and the social climate is, well, it's

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incredibly hostile. No Irish need apply. That

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wasn't just a slogan on a sign. It was economic

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reality. Poverty was rampant. Living conditions

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were awful, squalid. So she's born into this

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marginalized, struggling community. And then

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her home life. Struggling doesn't even come close.

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No, it was a catastrophe. Her mother, Bridget,

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died of tuberculosis when Honora was really young.

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TB was just, it was the scourge of the tenements.

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So that leaves Honora and her sisters alone.

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With their father, Peter Kelly. And the sources

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on Peter Kelly are, well, he was known in the

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neighborhood as eccentric. Which feels like a

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massive understatement. A huge one. He was known

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as Kelly the crack, as in crackpot. He was an

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abusive alcoholic, but his behavior went so far

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beyond that. There's one detail that just. It

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encapsulates the chaos of that home. I know exactly

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the one you're talking about. It's the kind of

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thing that once you hear it, it just sticks in

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your brain. He was a tailor. Right. And the story,

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which seems to be corroborated by the historical

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records, is that in some kind of fit, a psychotic

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break maybe, he took his needle and thread and

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sewed his own eyelids closed. Let's just pause

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on that. I mean, just picture it. A man in a

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tenement with a tailor's needle, mutilating himself,

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and his young children are right there. Think

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about what that teaches a six -year -old. It

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teaches you that the human body is a moment.

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It's just material. It's fabric. It can be altered.

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It can be controlled. It can be mutilated. It

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totally desacralizes the body. If your own father

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can do that to himself, what are the rules? What

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are the boundaries for what can be done to other

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people? There are no boundaries. It establishes

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this baseline of extreme violent instability.

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And then in 1860, Peter Kelly just... checks

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out. He takes Anora, who's six, and her sister

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Delia, who's eight, and he walks them down to

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the Boston Female Asylum. Which was an orphanage,

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not a mental institution. And the intake records

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are just so heartbreakingly bureaucratic. They

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just say the girls were, quote, rescued from

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a very miserable home. And the abandonment is

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total. Complete. He signs the papers, surrenders

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his rights, walks out, and never sees them again.

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He just erases them from his life. And we should...

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Probably talk about the other siblings here because

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it brings up that whole nature versus nurturer

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question. Was there some kind of madness gene

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in this family? Well, it's a tragic story for

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all of them. The older sister, Nellie, she wasn't

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put in the orphanage, but she ended up being

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committed to an insane asylum later in life.

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And Delia, the one who went into the asylum with

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Honora, she reportedly fell into prostitution

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to survive after she aged out. So it's just a

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string of tragedies. But Honora's path is different.

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On the surface, it almost looks like she got

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a lucky break. It looks that way. Two years later,

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1862, she's placed out. She becomes an indentured

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servant for a woman named Anne C. Toppin in Lowell,

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Massachusetts. And this is the pivot point. This

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is where Honora Kelly effectively dies and Jane

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Toppin is born. She takes the name Toppin. She

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eventually starts going by Jane. She's shedding

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that Kelly identity, the poverty, the madness,

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the father with the sewn eyes. But there's a

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huge catch. She was never adopted. Never. That

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distinction is everything. She was a servant.

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She lived in the house. She used their name.

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She called Mrs. Toppin mother. But legally, socially,

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she was the help. And the Toppins had their own

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biological daughter, Elizabeth. Right. So Jane

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and Elizabeth grow up together, side by side.

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And by all accounts, they got along. They were

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like foster sisters. But you have to imagine

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the constant daily psychological friction of

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that. Absolutely. You're at the same dinner table.

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You might be wearing her hand -me -down clothes.

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But you always know. And everyone else knows.

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She's the daughter, the heir. And you're the

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charity case. It's proximity without belonging.

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She's close enough to see the life she wants,

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the status, the security, the love, but she's

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fundamentally locked out of it. And that kind

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of status anxiety can breed a very specific,

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very cold kind of resentment. It fuels this idea

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that you've been cheated, that you're owed something.

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And it can lead you to see other people not as

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people, but as obstacles. Or tools. And yet,

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for a while, she plays the part. She keeps it

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all under wraps. So let's fast forward a bit.

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It's 1883. Jane's in her late 20s now. She leaves

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the Toppen house and decides to become a nurse.

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She starts training at Cambridge Hospital. And

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this is where that persona, Jolly Jane, really

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gets perfected. It's a total reinvention, isn't

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it? Completely. Her childhood teachers described

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her as brilliant and terrible, a liar, a troublemaker.

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But at the hospital, she's bright, friendly,

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and well -liked. She constructs this perfect

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mask of the bubbly, caring, competent nurse.

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It sounds so harmless. It's the name of the nurse

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you'd want if you were sick. But while she's

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building this reputation with the staff, she's

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starting her experiments with the patients. This

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is where the profile really starts to take shape.

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And it's specific. She didn't just target anyone.

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She would bond with them, especially the elderly

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and the very, very sick. She chose her favorites.

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Favorite in Jane Toppin's world is a very dangerous

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thing to be. A very dangerous thing because it

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meant you were selected to be one of her guinea

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pigs. She started using. for these bizarre pharmacological

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experiments. She wasn't just killing them outright,

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not yet. She was testing things. Let's get into

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the specifics of that because the how is so important

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here. She was fascinated by a very particular

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combination of drugs. Morphine and atropine.

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Okay, so for those of us who aren't doctors,

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break that down. Why that combination? What does

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it do? It's basically a physiological tug of

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war. Morphine is an opioid, a depressant. It

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slows everything down, your heart rate, your

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breathing. It constricts your pupils. It basically

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puts your body to sleep. Okay. Atropine does

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the exact opposite. It's a stimulant. It blocks

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the nerve that slows the heart so your heart

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rate speeds up. It dilates your pupils. It wakes

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everything up. So you have one drug telling the

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body to shut down and another one screaming at

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it to rake up. Precisely. She was creating a

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chemical war inside her patients. She'd give

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them a dose of morphine and watch them drift

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toward death. And then she'd hit them with a

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shot of atropine and yank them back. My God.

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She was coggling them on and off like a light

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switch. She wanted to see how close to the line

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she could take them. She was mapping the nervous

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system by torturing people to death. She'd spend

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hours alone in their rooms, falsifying the medical

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charts so no one would see the wild swings in

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their vitals. And then there's the intimacy part

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of it. Yeah. The sources say she wouldn't just

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sit by the bed. No. She would get into bed with

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them. Just... Try to process that image. You're

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a patient, you're drugged, you're fading in and

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out of consciousness, and your nurse is climbing

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into your bed and holding you as you die. It

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breaks every boundary imaginable. Professional,

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social, physical. It speaks to this profound

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need for absolute control and this really perverse

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desire for closeness with... death itself. She

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wanted to feel the life leave them. She wanted

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to be the only person in their world at that

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final moment. It's predatory in a way that's

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hard to even comprehend. And somehow, despite

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all this, despite patients crashing on her watch,

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she manages to fail upward. That's shocking.

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In 1889, she gets recommended for a position

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at Massachusetts General Hospital. Mass General,

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a top tier prestigious institution. But she doesn't

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last there. She's fired the next year. She claimed

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later she killed people there, but there was

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no proof at the time. So she goes back to Cambridge

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Hospital for a bit. And gets dismissed from there,

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too. This time, the official reason is administering

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opiates recklessly. Okay, we have to talk about

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that. Administering opiates recklessly. Today,

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that would be a career -ending event. You'd lose

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your license, there'd be an investigation, a

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huge paper trail. How does she just walk away

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from two major hospitals with that on her record?

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Because it's 1890. There's no central nursing

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board. There's no digital database. There are

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no background checks. Right. Hospitals were just

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these independent islands. If a nurse was a problem,

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the hospital just wanted to get rid of her quietly

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to avoid a scandal. So they'd fire her. She'd

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walk out the door. And in the next town over,

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she's basically a clean slate. It's the pass

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the trash phenomenon, but with lethal consequences.

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And honestly, getting fired was probably the

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best thing that could have happened for her,

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quote unquote, ambition. Because she moves into

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private nursing. The perfect setup. No supervising

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doctors, no head nurse checking the charts at

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the end of a shift. It's just her, alone in a

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house with a vulnerable person. It was the ideal

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hunting ground. She was charming. She was available.

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She was Jolly Jane. Families loved her because

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she seemed so devoted. Of course they did. She'd

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stay up all night with the patient. They just

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didn't know why she was staying up all night.

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And she flourished. Even with these constant

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complaints of petty theft that seemed to follow

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her everywhere, she built a successful career.

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But then, around 1895, something shifts. The

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goal changes from, you know, curiosity and experimentation

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to just destruction. The sources all point to

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1895 as the year her spree began in earnest.

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She stops just toying with people and starts

00:12:00.940 --> 00:12:03.500
killing with clear intent. And her first major

00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:06.179
targets were her landlords. Israel and Lovely

00:12:06.179 --> 00:12:09.320
Dunham, an elderly couple. And their age is key.

00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:13.700
Israel was 83. Lovely was 87. When an 83 -year

00:12:13.700 --> 00:12:16.120
-old man dies, nobody asks questions. Nobody

00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:18.360
demands an autopsy. Jane knew that. She used

00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:20.720
their age as a shield. So she was there for both

00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:22.950
of their deaths, playing the role of the... grieving

00:12:22.950 --> 00:12:25.830
devoted nurse. She was. Israel died in May of

00:12:25.830 --> 00:12:28.809
95. Lovely followed him in September of 97 and

00:12:28.809 --> 00:12:31.950
Jane just keeps going. But then in 1899 she does

00:12:31.950 --> 00:12:33.830
something that I think reveals the true depth

00:12:33.830 --> 00:12:36.330
of her psychopathy. It goes beyond the angel

00:12:36.330 --> 00:12:38.509
of mercy theory. She kills her foster sister

00:12:38.509 --> 00:12:41.169
Elizabeth Brigham. This is the murder that complicates

00:12:41.169 --> 00:12:44.950
everything. Elizabeth wasn't a patient. She wasn't

00:12:44.950 --> 00:12:47.169
a landlord. She was her childhood companion.

00:12:47.509 --> 00:12:51.669
They were by all accounts friends. So. Why? What

00:12:51.669 --> 00:12:54.070
was the motive? Jane went to visit her on Cape

00:12:54.070 --> 00:12:56.450
Cod, a little vacation. They had lunch, went

00:12:56.450 --> 00:12:59.129
for a walk on the beach, and then Jane gave her

00:12:59.129 --> 00:13:02.019
a dose of strychnine. And let's talk about strychnines

00:13:02.019 --> 00:13:04.139
for a second. That's a departure from her usual

00:13:04.139 --> 00:13:06.940
morphine and atropine cocktail. It is a brutal,

00:13:07.019 --> 00:13:10.179
brutal way to die. It's a convulsant. It causes

00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:12.419
every muscle in your body to contract violently

00:13:12.419 --> 00:13:15.000
and at once. The victim is fully conscious. Their

00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:17.240
back arches. They can't breathe because their

00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:19.940
diaphragm seizes up. It's absolute torture. So

00:13:19.940 --> 00:13:22.860
this wasn't a gentle drifting away. This was

00:13:22.860 --> 00:13:25.980
rage. This was cruelty. It suggests a very different

00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:29.409
emotional state. And the motive. The most common

00:13:29.409 --> 00:13:32.809
theory is just pure distilled jealousy. Elizabeth

00:13:32.809 --> 00:13:35.190
had the life Jane always felt she deserved. She

00:13:35.190 --> 00:13:37.710
was a true top end. She had the status, the security.

00:13:37.929 --> 00:13:40.129
So killing her was the ultimate act of leveling

00:13:40.129 --> 00:13:42.309
the playing field. If Jane couldn't have that

00:13:42.309 --> 00:13:44.759
life, then neither could Elizabeth. Or... Maybe

00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:47.019
the urge to kill had just become so overwhelming

00:13:47.019 --> 00:13:49.759
that things like friendship or family didn't

00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:51.940
even register as concepts anymore. Which fits

00:13:51.940 --> 00:13:53.980
with what she said later about that paralysis

00:13:53.980 --> 00:13:56.720
of thought. Exactly. After Elizabeth, it's like

00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.899
the dam just breaks. The body count skyrockets.

00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:04.019
Between 1899 and 1900, you have Mary McNear,

00:14:04.100 --> 00:14:07.919
a patient, William Ingram, another patient, Sarah

00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:11.629
Connors, who was a patient and a friend. The

00:14:11.629 --> 00:14:13.370
Sarah Connors one is interesting because Jane

00:14:13.370 --> 00:14:15.889
wanted her job. Yes. Sarah had a good position

00:14:15.889 --> 00:14:18.230
at a theological school and Jane coveted it.

00:14:18.269 --> 00:14:20.250
So she just eliminated the competition. It's

00:14:20.250 --> 00:14:23.769
ruthless. But the most calculating Machiavellian

00:14:23.769 --> 00:14:26.149
plot has to be the one involving Florence Culkin.

00:14:26.210 --> 00:14:29.120
Oh, this story is. It's just next level manipulation.

00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:31.480
It shows that she could be so incredibly strategic.

00:14:31.659 --> 00:14:34.159
It's amazing. So Florence Calkins was the housekeeper

00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:36.980
for a wealthy family. Jane wanted that job. But

00:14:36.980 --> 00:14:39.200
she didn't just walk in and kill Florence. No,

00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:41.259
she did something much more subtle. She started

00:14:41.259 --> 00:14:44.019
giving Florence small doses of poison, just enough

00:14:44.019 --> 00:14:46.710
to make her seem drunk and incompetent. Slurring

00:14:46.710 --> 00:14:49.429
her words, stumbling. So the family sees this.

00:14:49.549 --> 00:14:51.730
They assume their housekeeper is a secret alcoholic

00:14:51.730 --> 00:14:53.870
and they fire her. And it was right there to

00:14:53.870 --> 00:14:56.929
step in and save the day. Jolly Jane. She says,

00:14:56.970 --> 00:14:59.269
oh, you poor dears, let me help you out. She

00:14:59.269 --> 00:15:01.590
takes the job, gets inside the house. And then

00:15:01.590 --> 00:15:03.590
starts killing the family she's now working for.

00:15:03.809 --> 00:15:08.210
It's just so predatory. She's using poison as

00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:10.509
this multipurpose tool. She used it to kill,

00:15:10.690 --> 00:15:13.690
to disable, to frame people. And the sources

00:15:13.690 --> 00:15:16.899
say she even used it on herself. The self -poisoning.

00:15:16.899 --> 00:15:19.259
That's a whole other layer of pathology. Oh,

00:15:19.259 --> 00:15:20.879
yes. It's like a form of Munchausen syndrome.

00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:23.299
Yeah. If she was dating a man and wanted attention

00:15:23.299 --> 00:15:26.179
or sympathy, she'd ingest a little poison herself.

00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:28.460
Just enough to make her look sick and frail.

00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:31.580
Exactly. To trigger that protective instinct.

00:15:31.860 --> 00:15:35.299
She weaponized sickness in every possible direction.

00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:38.500
It shows you that she viewed bodies her own and

00:15:38.500 --> 00:15:41.320
everyone else's as nothing more than props in

00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:44.419
her own personal drama. Which brings us to 1901.

00:15:45.159 --> 00:15:47.919
And the Davis family massacre, and I use that

00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:49.740
word massacre because there's really no other

00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:51.460
way to describe it. This is where she goes from

00:15:51.460 --> 00:15:53.980
being a serial killer to a family annihilator.

00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:57.100
It's the climax of her killing career, and the

00:15:57.100 --> 00:15:59.580
speed of it is just breathtaking. This is where

00:15:59.580 --> 00:16:02.299
the organized, careful killer starts to become

00:16:02.299 --> 00:16:05.779
disorganized and frantic. So set the scene. How

00:16:05.779 --> 00:16:07.340
does this all start? It starts with the death

00:16:07.340 --> 00:16:10.720
of Maddie Davis in July of 1901. Maddie was the

00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.480
wife of an elderly, respected man named Alden

00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:16.440
Davis. Jane was caring for Maddie and murdered

00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:20.279
her. And then in a move that is just pure horror

00:16:20.279 --> 00:16:23.460
movie stuff, she moves in with grieving widower

00:16:23.460 --> 00:16:25.860
Alden. Moves right into the Davis home to take

00:16:25.860 --> 00:16:28.379
care of him. The fox is officially in the hen

00:16:28.379 --> 00:16:30.500
house. And within weeks, that entire family is

00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:33.220
just gone. The timeline is insane. It is. Maddie

00:16:33.220 --> 00:16:35.659
dies on July 4th. Then one of the daughters,

00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:37.620
Genevieve Gordon, comes to visit her grieving

00:16:37.620 --> 00:16:40.279
father. She dies on July 30th. Less than a month

00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:42.360
later. Then the patriarch, Alden Davis himself,

00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:45.039
he dies on August 8th. And finally, the other

00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:47.460
daughter, Mary, who they called Minnie Gibbs.

00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:50.879
She dies on August 13th, just five days after

00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:53.299
her father. So that's four members of one family

00:16:53.299 --> 00:16:56.340
in about six weeks. Not to mention a sister -in

00:16:56.340 --> 00:16:58.759
-law. Edna Bannister, who had died a couple of

00:16:58.759 --> 00:17:00.879
months earlier in June while Jane was around.

00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:03.879
She just wiped out an entire family tree in one

00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:05.960
summer. And that's often what gets them, isn't

00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:08.559
it? That acceleration, they get sloppy, or maybe

00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:10.960
the high from the kill becomes so addictive that

00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:13.619
the cooling off period just disappears. She was

00:17:13.619 --> 00:17:15.160
killing them faster than they could hold the

00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:17.880
funerals. And that's what finally did it. The

00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:20.279
surviving family members, the husbands of the

00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:22.920
dead sisters, they finally looked at this string

00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:25.200
of bodies and said, this isn't possible. This

00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:27.500
is not bad luck. It's statistically impossible.

00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:30.519
So they ordered a toxicology exam on Minnie Gibbs,

00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:34.039
the last one to die. And by 1901, toxicology

00:17:34.039 --> 00:17:36.460
is a real science. It's not guesswork anymore.

00:17:37.099 --> 00:17:39.220
They tested her tissues and the results came

00:17:39.220 --> 00:17:41.980
back positive. Morphine and atropine. The smoking

00:17:41.980 --> 00:17:45.180
gun. The Angel of Mercy mask finally slips off

00:17:45.180 --> 00:17:48.299
and the authorities get involved. She's arrested

00:17:48.299 --> 00:17:52.180
on October 29th, 1901. So she's arrested. She's

00:17:52.180 --> 00:17:55.160
in custody. And this takes us to the interrogation.

00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:59.059
Now you'd expect denial, right? I didn't do it.

00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:00.859
They were old. It was natural causes. That's

00:18:00.859 --> 00:18:03.640
what you'd expect. But Jane Toppin, she couldn't

00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:05.799
wait to talk. She starts confessing. Oh, yeah.

00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:10.259
She confesses to 31 murders. 31. And let's be

00:18:10.259 --> 00:18:12.599
clear. The number they could actually prove in

00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:16.460
court, the confirmed count, was 12. 12. But she's

00:18:16.460 --> 00:18:19.039
claiming 31. And the suspected number, based

00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:20.859
on her time in the hospitals and her private

00:18:20.859 --> 00:18:24.160
practice, is well over 100. It's just staggering.

00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:26.779
So, OK, we have the confession. We have the famous

00:18:26.779 --> 00:18:30.099
ambition quote that we have to really dig into

00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:32.519
the why. We've touched on it, but let's unpack

00:18:32.519 --> 00:18:35.180
the psychology here because she doesn't fit neatly

00:18:35.180 --> 00:18:37.759
into any one box. No, she doesn't. She fits the

00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:40.359
broad angel of mercy archetype, the caregiver

00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:43.380
who kills. But that's usually about power, about

00:18:43.380 --> 00:18:46.819
playing God. With Jane, there was this very prominent,

00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:49.799
very disturbing sexual component. The sources

00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:51.980
are pretty explicit about this part of her confession.

00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:55.599
They are. She told investigators she derived

00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:59.059
a sexual thrill from the murders. She said she

00:18:59.059 --> 00:19:01.779
would fondle her victims as they died. She got

00:19:01.779 --> 00:19:03.779
a thrill from watching them get close to death,

00:19:03.940 --> 00:19:06.079
bringing them back with the atropine, and then

00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:08.500
letting them go again. It's that yo -yo effect

00:19:08.500 --> 00:19:11.339
again. The ultimate power trip. And the intimacy.

00:19:11.779 --> 00:19:14.299
The act of getting into bed with them, holding

00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:17.480
them close as they died. She wanted to feel that

00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:20.319
final spark go out. And there's that other quote

00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:22.440
about wanting to see the inner workings of their

00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:25.160
souls through their eyes. It sounds almost poetic,

00:19:25.220 --> 00:19:28.039
but it's really just profound narcissism. It

00:19:28.039 --> 00:19:30.539
is. The victim stops being a person. They become

00:19:30.539 --> 00:19:32.859
a mirror, a window for her to look through. They're

00:19:32.859 --> 00:19:36.079
just props in her private psychodrama. And when

00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:38.460
she was asked about her motivation, she didn't

00:19:38.460 --> 00:19:41.519
talk about rage or anger. She used a very strange

00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:44.740
phrase. A paralysis of thought and reason. What

00:19:44.740 --> 00:19:46.440
do you make of that? I find that fascinating.

00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:49.619
She described it as this simple, overwhelming

00:19:49.619 --> 00:19:52.940
urge to poison, like a compulsion she couldn't

00:19:52.940 --> 00:19:55.039
resist. It wasn't that she was angry at Alden

00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:57.119
Davis or Minnie Gibbs. They just happened to

00:19:57.119 --> 00:19:59.200
be there when the urge struck. It sounds like

00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.539
an impulse control disorder mixed with extreme

00:20:01.539 --> 00:20:05.099
sadism. So the trial becomes this huge media

00:20:05.099 --> 00:20:08.019
circus. William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal

00:20:08.019 --> 00:20:10.660
is all over it. The headlines are just sensational.

00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:14.640
The modern Borgia, the poison fiend. And Jane

00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:16.720
is eating it up. She's loving the attention.

00:20:17.079 --> 00:20:20.599
But she also has this really bizarre legal strategy.

00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:24.059
The insanity. Defense. But she tries to use it

00:20:24.059 --> 00:20:26.680
in reverse. Exactly. Normally, the defense team

00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:29.619
pleads insanity to avoid the death penalty. Jane's

00:20:29.619 --> 00:20:32.259
great fear wasn't execution. It was the asylum.

00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:34.380
Because of her sister Nellie and her father.

00:20:34.539 --> 00:20:37.259
The asylum was the ultimate family curse in her

00:20:37.259 --> 00:20:39.599
mind. It was failure. Total failure. She was

00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:41.799
terrified of being locked away forever with no

00:20:41.799 --> 00:20:43.980
hope of release. She actually thought that if

00:20:43.980 --> 00:20:45.680
she were found sane and convicted of murder,

00:20:45.859 --> 00:20:47.680
she might eventually get pardoned. At least she'd

00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:50.079
be in a prison, not a madhouse. So she gets up

00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:52.779
in court and basically argues. I can't be insane

00:20:52.779 --> 00:20:54.900
because I knew what I was doing was wrong. She

00:20:54.900 --> 00:20:57.420
tried to use her own moral culpability as proof

00:20:57.420 --> 00:21:00.660
of her sanity. It's a logic pretzel. I'm not

00:21:00.660 --> 00:21:03.680
crazy. I'm just evil. It's a bold move. Did it

00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:06.059
work? Not at all. The jury looked at the evidence,

00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:08.539
the sheer scale of the killing, the wiping out

00:21:08.539 --> 00:21:11.319
of entire families, the sexual component. And

00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:14.940
on June 23, 1902, they came back with the verdict.

00:21:15.339 --> 00:21:18.119
Not guilty by reason of insanity. So she gets

00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:20.460
the one thing she feared most. She gets exactly

00:21:20.460 --> 00:21:23.000
what she feared. committed for life to the Taunton

00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:25.599
Insane Hospital. And she lived there for a very,

00:21:25.660 --> 00:21:28.339
very long time. She did. She lived until August

00:21:28.339 --> 00:21:32.059
17, 1938. She died at the age of 84. She spent

00:21:32.059 --> 00:21:34.640
almost four decades locked away. And the accounts

00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:38.339
from her later years are just... Sad. And strange.

00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:41.579
She became intensely paranoid. She was convinced

00:21:41.579 --> 00:21:44.160
the staff was trying to poison her food. Which

00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:46.740
is just a classic case of projection, isn't it?

00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:48.799
Of course. She knew what nurses were capable

00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:50.940
of, so she assumed everyone was just like her.

00:21:51.289 --> 00:21:53.509
She died a heavy, delusional old woman completely

00:21:53.509 --> 00:21:56.089
cut off from the world she terrorized. So when

00:21:56.089 --> 00:21:58.490
we look back on this whole story, what's the

00:21:58.490 --> 00:22:00.750
big takeaway? I mean, beyond the obvious, you

00:22:00.750 --> 00:22:02.490
know, don't let your nurse climb into bed with

00:22:02.490 --> 00:22:04.529
you. I think the biggest takeaway is about the

00:22:04.529 --> 00:22:08.910
camouflage of care. Jane Toppin understood instinctively

00:22:08.910 --> 00:22:12.150
that society has this built in bias. We see a

00:22:12.150 --> 00:22:14.750
nurse's uniform and we think benevolent, trustworthy.

00:22:15.250 --> 00:22:18.880
She used that bias like a weapon. It's the ultimate

00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:22.119
cognitive dissonance. The idea of a killer nurse

00:22:22.119 --> 00:22:25.160
is so hard to process that people just, they

00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:27.019
don't see it. Even when it's happening right

00:22:27.019 --> 00:22:29.220
in front of them. And she exploited the lack

00:22:29.220 --> 00:22:31.220
of institutional memory. The fact that she could

00:22:31.220 --> 00:22:33.400
get fired from Mass General for being reckless

00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:35.420
with opiates and then just walk into a private

00:22:35.420 --> 00:22:38.920
home and kill an entire family. It's a stunning

00:22:38.920 --> 00:22:41.519
indictment of the system at the time. It really

00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:43.099
makes you think about the vulnerabilities of

00:22:43.099 --> 00:22:45.759
that pre -digital age. Which brings us to a really

00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:48.960
uncomfortable closing thought. Yeah. Jane Toppin

00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:51.500
was caught. But she was only caught because she

00:22:51.500 --> 00:22:54.079
got sloppy. She got greedy. She killed too many

00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:57.880
people too fast in one place. But she operated

00:22:57.880 --> 00:23:01.039
for nearly 20 years before that. And her stated

00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:03.460
ambition was to kill more helpless people than

00:23:03.460 --> 00:23:06.299
anyone who ever lived. She was stopped. But you

00:23:06.299 --> 00:23:09.140
have to ask yourself. In an age before digital

00:23:09.140 --> 00:23:11.960
records, before background checks, before toxicology

00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:14.180
was standard. How many other Jolly Janes were

00:23:14.180 --> 00:23:16.119
out there? That's the question, isn't it? How

00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:19.559
many other caregivers in 1890 or 1920 or even

00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:23.019
1950 sat by a bedside, gave a little too much

00:23:23.019 --> 00:23:25.859
morphine, held a hand and just got away with

00:23:25.859 --> 00:23:27.900
it? Their ambitions quietly fulfilled in the

00:23:27.900 --> 00:23:30.460
privacy of a sick room with nobody ever knowing.

00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:32.619
We will never know the true number. And that,

00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:34.400
I think, is the most terrifying part of this

00:23:34.400 --> 00:23:37.279
whole story. Well, on that note. i think that's

00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:39.200
all for this deep dive thanks for listening