Criminologist Cesare Lombroso once remarked: "The favorite weapon for murder for men is a dagger, for women - poison." Indeed, history knows many famous poisoners who killed their enemies: Locusta, Lucrezia Borgia, Maria Lafargue, the Marquis de Branville, Ekaterina Lisichkina. But Jane Toppan belonged to a completely different category …
In the middle of the 19th century, a large number of Irish families moved to the New World, fleeing the lawlessness of the authorities in their homeland. Among them were the Kellys, who settled in the small town of Lowell. Here in 1854 a girl was born to them, who was named Honora. She had an older sister, Delia Josephine.
Orphanage girl
Alas, family life in the new homeland lasted only a few years, and relative prosperity ended with the death of Mrs. Kelly. After that, the head of the family, who for a long time did not care about anything except a bottle of whiskey and drunken fights, saw a burden in the daughters and handed them over to an orphanage in Boston, after which he ceased to be interested in their fate.
And soon he ended his life during an attack of "delirium tremens" from a heart attack, chasing devils with an ax. By the way, Delia, who was on the panel, also died of alcoholism. The fate of Honor was a little different. At the orphanage, she was taught to read and write and arithmetic, as well as home economics. Therefore, in accordance with the prevailing order, girls after graduation were assigned as servants. Honora was no exception - she was taken into the care of the Toppan wife from her native Lowell, who had known her since childhood. And then the girl's life went like in the movie "Frost". Toppanov's own daughter Elizabeth, like Marfushka, cracked nuts and licked candy canes, and the "stepdaughter" from dawn to dawn worked around the house.
But in public, Mrs. Toppan emphasized her affection for the girl in every possible way. And she even boasted that she had given her her last name. However, she also insisted that Honora change her name to Jane. And she even agreed that her pupil received a decent education. True, Jane graduated from evening school only at the age of 30 and immediately entered nursing courses, and after graduation she received a place in one of the city's hospitals. However, the neighbors were gossiping: here are the cunning Tramples, if before they had a housekeeper, now, in their old age, they got a family nurse. And this was, apparently, true, since Jane did not have her own home and in this regard continued to depend on her own - however, already former, - official guardians.
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Anger flared up
And in her personal life, Jane had problems. Even before the orphanage, she had a childhood love for the neighbor boy Tom, who reciprocated her. But my friend died of leukemia. After that, there were no men in Jane's life. She was unprepossessing in appearance, and besides, she was too fat. And finally, a possible chosen one appeared. He was a positive person, non-drinking, worked as a mechanic at a factory, but was older than Jane. Nevertheless, the wedding was not far off, but the groom suddenly disappeared without a trace. It was rumored that an envious Elizabeth Toppan had a hand in the marriage disorder. Outwardly, Jane has not changed - a smile never left her face. But inside … Inside her hatred was accumulating, first to the Toppan family, and then to all the people around her, and first of all to the patients. Moreover, this hostility towards helpless people was expressed in a rather peculiar way. The nurse injected the men with sleeping pills, and when they fell asleep, she lay down on their bed, enjoying, according to Freud, contactless sex. Just like meeting Tom. And then she remembered how once, after a quarrel with Elizabeth, she poured some medicine into her plate and gloatingly watched as the offender suffered from diarrhea for several days.
And now she began her terrible experiments with patients, injecting them with uncontrolled and arbitrary doses of drugs, gradually increasing the dosage. And naturally, the patients began to die, but for some reason the hospital management did not conduct any checks. Mainly because the deceased were elderly people. And then fate finally smiled at Jane. She was offered a place in a clinic in Boston. After accepting the offer, she killed two birds with one stone: firstly, the salary of the head nurse in the state capital is much higher, and secondly, it became possible to leave the hated Toppan house. The choice was correct, because after working in Boston for two years (and without stopping her experiments), Jane received an offer from a British clinic in Cambridge and moved to the shores of Albion.
No matter how much rope twists …
But here her terrible hobby did not go unnoticed. Pharmacists drew attention to the uncontrolled consumption of potent drugs. However, it was in no way connected with the growing mortality of patients. It was believed that the new nurse was simply stealing drugs with the aim of selling them on the black market, and with this wording, Jane was fired. The poisoner had no choice but to return to Lowell and try to find a nurse. The locals were delighted with her return, and most of all Mrs. and Mr. Toppan, due to their age, have a whole bunch of diseases. They rejoiced early, because by that time Jane remembered a book about famous poisoners that she had read in her youth. And two months after her return, Mrs. Toppan went to the next world. Six months later, her husband, who was also healed by Jane, set off on the same path. And finally, it was Elizabeth's turn, who not only continued to persecute her almost half-sister, but also married a certain Mr. Foster, whom Jane tried to scowl.
Since Elizabeth was distinguished by enviable health and injections of drugs, unlike her parents, she did not need, she received a solid portion of strychnine in coffee. Mrs. Foster, who died of a "heart attack", was buried, but the widower remained indifferent to the signs of attention from Jane. Then the irritated woman decided to direct her anger towards the patients whom she looked after as a nurse. In 1901, a nurse with a smile on her face was invited to look after the elderly Mrs. Davis, who soon died. Then, with a short interval, her husband and two quite healthy daughters went to the forefathers. It seems that the "American Locusta" simply believed in its impunity. But four deaths in one family at once in such a short time aroused suspicion among relatives. Therefore, they insisted on the exhumation of the bodies and the conduct of a toxicological examination, which was entrusted to the famous scientist-professor Edward Wood of Harvard University. And he gave a categorical conclusion: all four were poisoned. The same fate may have awaited Mr. Foster, who nevertheless decided to tie himself "by the knot of Hymen" with Jane. But she ended up behind bars. During the investigation, Jane Toppan reluctantly confessed to 11 murders. However, it seemed to the investigators that the person under investigation was not very frank, and they did not stop the investigation. Their painstaking work gave amazing results: 20 more cases of premeditated murders came to light!expected and Mr. Foster, who nevertheless decided to tie himself "the knot of Hymen" with Jane. But she ended up behind bars. During the investigation, Jane Toppan reluctantly confessed to 11 murders. However, it seemed to the investigators that the person under investigation was not very frank, and they did not stop the investigation. Their painstaking work gave amazing results: 20 more cases of premeditated murders came to light!expected and Mr. Foster, who nevertheless decided to tie himself "the knot of Hymen" with Jane. But she ended up behind bars. During the investigation, Jane Toppan reluctantly confessed to 11 murders. However, it seemed to the investigators that the person under investigation was not very frank, and they did not stop the investigation. Their painstaking work gave amazing results: 20 more cases of premeditated murders came to light!
And during the hearing of the case in court, the number of victims reached fifty. Toppan herself convincingly explained the purpose for which she committed the murders: "To kill as many helpless people as possible, more than any other man or woman who has ever lived …" And by the verdict of the court, the poisoner went to a hospital for the mentally ill for the rest of her life. Moreover, the medical staff observing her noted: their patient is panicky afraid to take food, believing that she was poisoned. Therefore, she had to be force-fed. Nevertheless, one of the most "productive" poisoners in later history lived a long life and died at the age of 84.
Leonid LUZHKOV