Rotten Mango - #108: The Angel of Death (Serial Killer Jane Toppan)

Episode Date: October 24, 2021

You look around - you’re in the hospital but you feel trapped. Why can’t you talk? Why can’t you move? You start to feel your body involuntarily shake… The nurse noticed and rushed to your bedside. Good, someone is coming to help. She pulls back your covers and crawls into the bed with you. She’s stroking your hair, kissing your face, and wants to look you directly in the eye as your pupils dilate, violently convulse, and you take your last breath. You were always her favorite patient… right? Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. We are inhaling and long exhale out. Peloton is for all of us, Wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today.

Peloton app available through free tier or pay subscription starting at 12.99 per month. Butterbeam Butterbeam. Welcome to this week's mini soda rot mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue, and today, we've got a crazy story. Okay, so we've always heard the saying, don't drink the cool aid.

We're also very skeptical of leaving our drinks at bars unattended, but with Halloween coming up. Do we really know what's in our Halloween candy? What about the bucks of chocolates that you got as a gift? The one that you've been passing around all your family members after dinner? Ooh, try this one, I think this one's caramel! They take a bite.

What about that oatmeal? Your best friend made for you, for breakfast. Do you really know what's in there? Because for the longest time, candy, chocolate, food, tea, these were the best ways to murder people. One serial killer in particular used this method to murder over 100 different people. She would spike their food or their tea, maybe even their water. She'd say, here drink this, you look thirsty. Then as they're slipping out of consciousness, she would pull back

the covers, slide into bed with them. She would hold them tight as she watched excitedly. She watched their pupils dilate. That was one of her favorite parts before they slipped away. She would feel their body convulsed. Sometimes if she was lucky, the convulsions were violent, they would shake. They would have seizures in her arms and she would say, that's good.

That's good. I'm here to protect you. And right when they were on death's door, she would jump out from their beds. Doctor, doctor, we need you in here! They would rush in as a team, what is it, Nurse Jane? I don't know, she's having a seizure or something. Nurse Jane? She would wait in the corner as she watched the doctors unsuccessfully try to revive her victims.

As always, full source notes are available at rotinmangopodcast.com, but there's two really good books on this case. So the number one is a fatal, the poisonous life of a female serial killer by Harold Schechter. This is one of my favorite true card authors of all time. He's written so many amazing books on Edgene, Belgenus, H.H. Holmes. I tell you, he has this talent, this skill that, I mean, for a lot of older cases, sometimes it's hard for me to relate. Because I'm like, a telegraph, why don't they just text the police? Why don't they just call their best friend and ask them what's poppin', okay?

But with these, he just, it makes you feel like you're watching a movie. Then there's another book called Dying for Chocolate by Carrie Seagriff. These are both really good, they'll be in the source notes. Now let's get into the main story. Did you note that one of the first sensational most notorious serial killers in the United States happen to be a woman? By the name of Jane Topant. Yes, the woman did it first.

I'm kidding, I don't think she was the first, but she was one of the most notorious back then. Jane Topant, now there's not a lot about her childhood, but we do know that it's rough. Her mom died when she was really young. Her dad was super abusive. Now it's hard to say what kind of abuse because it was, it's rather harsh, harsh at the time, but everyone that knew her dad so that he was a terrible person. He was a renders.

But then there was another thing that the family kept harsh about. The fact that Jane's older sister was committed to a mental asylum for the rest of her life, for being and I quote, violently insane. You might be imagining a woman running down the street with a knife in her hand, just screaming, trying to stab anyone, poke anyone that walks by, but the Victorian era was wild.

The 19th century was crazy. Most of the time psychiatric wards were where men would just get rid of their woman. I'm talking daughters, I'm talking girlfriends, wives, your daughter is acting up. She's questioning the idea that you could potentially be wrong about something? No way, because you're a man. This girl has obviously lost her marble, send her to the ward. Violently. She's violently insane. Your wife is masturbating because you can't get her off. What kind of lunatic behavior is that? Of course you can get her off. You can do anything. You're a dude. Sender to the ward. She doesn't know what she's talking about. She's crazy. Violently insane. She's violently insane.

You can be admitted to a ward for just a list of things. So I found a medical list from like back in the 19th century and this is literally what it said. Ego Tissot. Here's another one. Fell from horse in war. That's very specific, okay. Seduction and disappointment. They're the same thing. So whether you are seduced and disappointed or maybe you tried to seduce and you were disappointed disappointed you got to go to the ward. Hey, did you hear that rumor that your husband was murdered? But he's not right, he came home an hour later, you should probably still go to the ward. Deranged masturbation, excessive masturbation, bad whiskey, you went to the bar, it wasn't good, uh, astromatic, you should come in, she should come into the ward. You could literally be admitted for bad whiskey. I don't

know if that means food poisoning or alcohol poisoning. But just straight up, what are the listed like there's a list that I think doctors would go by and where them was just bad whiskey. Bad habits. Parents were cousins. So they sent you to the work. Yes. To fix your parents that are cousins. Cousins, yeah. Got it. Hey, reading novels was one.

Let's say your son just got married, go to the ward. And just the war. So typically it was used for women who would speak out of turn or argue with their father or husband. So they would automatically be considered hysterical. They need treatment ASAP. How dare they question a man. If woman wanted to learn how they could read or how they could learn more about life and get an education,

they could be admitted for a quote-unquote over-action of the mind. That's why novel reading was listed as a reason to be admitted. So by the time that Jane is six, she's living without her sister and her mom, because her mom is dead and her sister is allegedly violently insane, so she's just with this horrible abusive father and finally he had enough I can't do this anymore. I gotta get rid of you. I want to be a free man. I think you're a little bit hysterical Jane So she gets adopted by a foster family named the Topans now the Topan family sure They're a little bit of a step up from her super abusive dad, but they weren't necessarily the nicest family, okay?

It seemed like they kinda took Jane in for the money. They made her feel lesser than they would constantly tell her, you're an outsider! You know you're not actually part of the family? You're the least favorable child. You don't even know how to do anything. Don't you say you come from Irish heritage? Disgusting.

They, I don't know. They had something against the Irish. I don't know what that deal was, but they felt like the Irish were socially inferior to them. So they constantly made Jane feel miserable. Sure, is she a little bit less miserable than if she had stayed with her abusive dad? But she still had a miserable childhood. She was always incredibly jealous of her half-sister, foster sister Elizabeth, the golden child, the one that got all the love,

all the affection from the family, and Jane is off to the side just feeling like cold rice. Even when her foster mom died, Jane got nothing. Every little penny was left with Elizabeth. Which you're like, wow, that sounds so spoiled, but back then, I mean, you really needed money to survive as a woman. Like you didn't have much choices in the 19th century. So, maybe in order to offset all of this, or maybe it was like to build self-esteem, I have no idea. Jane starts developing these peculiar habits. Just strange habits. She would start making up these grand stories about her biological parents.

Listen, my dad's a war hero. Well, of course, my sister married an English nobleman. With these types of connections. A warrior's daughter! Are you kidding? Everyone at school knew she was lying. They're like, were you with the topons? Then your dad gave you away. What kind of warrior does that?

She would just brush it off and immediately she would turn around and start making up lies about her fellow students. Teacher, did you not kelly over there with stealing from your purse train lunch? So she quickly went from being the bullied to the bullied. And once she's old enough to leave the house get married she falls in love with this man. She's thinking this is great. I finally have someone who's going to love me, who's going to care for me, who's going

to put me first. That's what she was looking for all this time. But almost immediately after they get married, he falls in love with someone else and he leaves Jane to pawn. And she realizes, oh my god, even in this romantic relationship, I am second place to yet again another woman. Now with no job, no money, no husband, she really has no idea what to do. The only person that she can think of is her foster sister Elizabeth. So she rushes to her door and she's like,

listen, I'm so jealous of you, but can I work for you? Can I be your housekeeper? It's said that Jane had a miserable time working for Elizabeth that they were always bumping heads, but Elizabeth never really felt like that. Even when Jane threw her arms up in the air and said, I quit, she always told her,

hey, if you ever need a place to stay, you're always welcome here. So Elizabeth is very nice to her? Very nice. But she felt otherwise. Yeah. So now that Jane's almost 30 and completely alone in the world with no resume had never worked out the house, I mean her job opportunities are incredibly limited.

She felt her best bet was to become a nurse. Side note about nursing back then. Did you know most healthcare was practiced by unqualified nurses in the 19th century? It wasn't until the late 19th century that there was any formal training required. So Jane applies to the nursing school and Cambridge Hospital in Boston, which by the way, this is like one of the first to open up in Boston to train future nurses. And I'm really glad that they started training these nurses because a lot of women at the time they were illiterate, so a lot of the nurses therefore couldn't read the instructions on medicine bottles

Which I don't know could result in things like death casually Just casual death because you couldn't read the bottle so she starts applying and the conditions there are Brutal this is not a nice place. This is not like a little summer camp. He he ha ha I'm in college you had to work seven days a week, 50 weeks a year, no Christmas, no Easter, no Thanksgiving, no holiday, of any sort. All of the students were forced to sleep in this cramped, dark, cubicle, not even a room. There were three women to each cubicle, and here were the rules. You have to be at work by 7 a.m. You have to work these 14-hour shifts. You only get a small break to eat as fast as you can standing up, which by the way,

the food that you're able to eat during these breaks, tasteless, nutritionless, disgusting. So any extra money that you have, you spent it all on food. The first month of quote unquote school, you're on probation the whole time. You're only allowed to scrub floors. Do laundry for 12 to 14 hours a day. If you complained about anything and I'm talking anything at all, like you almost died on behalf of the school's fault. Regardless, you were labeled a troublemaker.

So once you make it through this probation period, you still have to stay another two years in the training school for nurses as a pupil nurse because they make you sign this contract. You get paid next to nothing, you got to pay for your own uniforms, books, everything else. You're living in complete poverty. You're working your butt off. You will be in charge of 50 patients.

Whatever they need, you better do it. And on top of that, you have to keep the entire place clean when you're not nursing your 50 patients. You've got to sweep, dust, mop, cook food, do the laundry. And then once you're done with all of that, you have to pass an exam. This is the environment that Jane is entering because she felt, you know, I was a housekeeper.

I knew the harsh routine. I knew these types of conditions. I have a lot of energy. I'm only 30. She thought it was going to be a perfect fit. And when she gets there, the rest of the nursing students almost instantly hate her guts because she goes back to her high school habits. She becomes this annoying

teacher's pet she would spread rumors about everyone especially to the teachers and they were always evil rumors. They weren't like oh I saw her and she she had big boobs like they were just really mean rumors like things that just were not harmless. She even got two nurses expelled for these rumors. They were innocent of whatever she had accused them of but Jane was absolutely freaking jolly when she found out that they had been expelled. She constantly lied to everyone saying that, well, once I'm done with this, I'm going to Russia. What's in Russia? Well, this very famous Russian czar offered me a fat salary to join his personal medical staff She just wasn't likable. I mean if that were true. It just comes off very like okay done go to Russia, you know

It's just like not a very it's very braggie She had a habit of stealing from other nurses purses and she would point the finger at whoever she hated most at the time Like I saw you. I saw you steal from her, but the patience Now that was a different story people loved her the patients absolutely love Jane I mean they called her jolly Jane most of the time the feeling was mutual So Jane really liked the patients back sometimes if she liked them a lot she would tamper with their medicines So that they could stay a bit longer and joy there trying together a little more because you said you liked her right? You like Jolly Jane. Didn't you?

So why wouldn't you want to spend more time with her? That's true. That's true. The patients she hated taking care of, though, were the elderly patients. She thought that they were a waste of time. She would always joke around. There's just no use in keeping old people alive.

They're just spaceholders. They're taking up space. They're taking spaceholders. They're taking up space. They're taking up resources. They're taking up my time. And everyone assumes she was joking because, I mean, they do see a lot of annoying elderly people in their hospital. Besides, Jane's duty is a nurse. She's to serve the patients not to hurt them.

So in her own sick twisted way, when she stood over the bodies, watching the pupils contract, listening to their slowing breathing, sweat dripping down the victim's faces. Sometimes they would instantly sink into a coma and stop breathing, that was satisfying for her. But the best, like I said, was in their last moments when they had these violent convulsions, she felt like, wow, I'm really helping them, aren't I? Because she wanted to make sure that they had the best care. That was all. So much so that she wanted to mix up these different medicines in order to experiment on her patients. Just to see if she could help. Who would want them to sit and agony for the rest of their lives, not Jolly Jane? So she would inject them with things like morphine. Now morphine was one of her favorite drugs to mess around with.

It is considered at the time and over the counter medicine back then, which is kind of wild because it's a highly regulated drug now, but back in the day. In the 19th century, it was used for everything. If your period is coming, you got cramps. Morphine, you have a headache. Your doctor is going to give you some morphine. Your stomach feels sick.

Morphine. Oh, never mind. You're pregnant, and your stomach has morning sickness. That's what's been going on. Morphine. You're coughing a little morphine. Is your child teething morphine? Give your child morphine.

So it was as easy as getting Advil back in the store today, potentially even cheaper back then to get morphine than it is to get Advil today. If you are struggling with alcohol addiction, the doctor is actually recommended switching to morphine because they consider it the less of two evils. Now if you know what morphine is, this is surprising, because it's a heavy-duty painkiller, strong sedative, highly addictive. It makes you feel happy, it triggers these feelings of pleasure, but it's a type of

opioid. A lot of people are dying from morphine overdoses and addictions. It's still used today with only a tiny bit more regulation. I'm going to be honest with you. But this is not the only one of the very, very legal drugs that were given out, Willie Nilly back in the Victorian era. Do you know about radium energy drinks? I just learned about this. This is crazy. So you know how we have like monster we have bang energy red bull, right? But back then they had a radium energy jinx. I'm talking radioactive water It's just straight up radium, which is radioactive a highly radioactive element that's extremely dangerous Because you know radiation poisoning comes from radioactive material. Yeah, but I supposed to give you energy

That's what they said so they wouldn't mix it with water. And they would just give it to people. It was sold in the 1920s in these little one ounce bottles for $15. One of the biggest companies producing it and this sounds like a dystopian movie was called Raid-A-Thor. Okay, Raid-A-Thor. The owner advertised it as a cure for the living dead. Yeah, because you're gonna be dead soon. Perpetual sunshine in the grave. Okay, I'm adding my little twist,

but they called it Perpetual Sunshine. It's gonna give you all the energy in the world, but it's also gonna cure you of even impotence. You hear that guys? Line up. This was the Viagra of the Victorian era. Hey, your bond bonds a little bit lazy. Come on, drink this radioactive water.

You're gonna turn into the Joker,'re going to turn into the Joker. You're going to turn into the Hulk. Down there. I don't know. Didn't he jump into a Vatavacid? I don't know. Okay. Now the strangest thing about all of this is that the science was there at the time that

radium ingested goes into the bones. And when it does that, it can cause bone necrosis and ulcerations, but also just gaping holes in your skull. So the science was there. But the FDA was like, well, let's don't worry about it. We'll think about it later. Now, many known radium drinkers had to be buried in lead-lined coffins

so that the radiation wouldn't even see bad into the world. Yes, they had to be buried in lead-lined coffins. And even decades later, when an MIT scientist dug up their bodies, they still had the same amount of radium on their bones than as the same day that they died. So the radium just never disappeared. It has like a shelf life of like a quichillion years.

That's a fact. Quote me on it. Don't. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us? What a police! It was the height of the crack era and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them.

I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Aut an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your shows I'm not a big guy, man

But I love being that dirty mother You like why didn't I hear about this? This probably killed so many people will thinkfully not because most of the companies that were selling radioactive water were so cheap that they didn't actually care to put radium in the water because radium is a very expensive element. So they just wanted to make money. They would just season the drinking water and call it radioactive water.

I can't believe this. No, the ones that did actually have radium in them will only the super wealthy were able to drink it on a constant basis. See, you guys always say it's a bit... See, this is almost like a conspiracy. Yeah, this is how you do it with radioactive water, because can you imagine all of the Beverly Hills moms

after their yoga class drinking radioactive water? I could see it. I can totally see it. Yep, good air of wine. Air of wine. Yep. And so once the wealthy started dying, the government made sure it wasn't sold anymore. Now there was a strange story written about one of the wealthy socialites that died.

The radio, this is the title, okay? The radium water worked fine till his jaw came off. So the year was 1927. Eben Byer's a wealthy industrialist was having chronic pain in his arm and his doctor was like, hey, I've got a powerful new drug to cure your pain. Have you heard of Raida Thor? Okay, so it's Raida and Water. It's not only going to fix your bond bond issue because remember you've been telling me

you can't get a bond bond and you're in potent and all of these things impotent, so hard to say that. You know, all of these things, I can fix that. Drink some Raida Thor and he became hooked. Buyers became so hooked. I mean, it appeared not only to heal his pain, but he had this crazy sexual drive afterwards. And this was an amazing option because back then, if your penis was considered lazy, if you couldn't get it up, they would just shock your junk.

They would pound an electric belt. They would just shock it because they kind of considered your Penis lazy so they said let's just shock it back alive Okay, right so he's like well at least I don't have to get shocked I can just drink this water. That's expensive. It sounds like a very extreme torture This also sounds like something that would happen in 2022 I feel like I can totally I feel like I can already read an article about Billionaire doing this, like shocking their junk and drinking radioactive water and I feel like you know what that does sound like Jeff Bezos. It does.

Allegedly, I don't know. His lawyers probably work overtime, okay? So he sent it to his girlfriends. Yes, he had many, okay, even in the 1900s. He sent it to his business partners. He even fed it to his racing horses. He drank this practically every single day for two and a half years on a regular basis. Until he started complaining of chronic headaches and weight loss shortly after his teeth fell out. Then his mouth literally collapsed because most of his lower jaw had disintegrated. Oh my gosh.

There were actual holes forming in his skull that they later found out after he died, and all the remaining bone tissue in his body was just melting. And then he eventually died without most of his teeth or his jaws. Radiant water, guys. Find it at your local air wand. But that wasn't just it. There was cocaine and Coca-Cola. I can't believe you didn't know this. was cocaine and Coca-Cola. I can't

believe you didn't know this. So yes, Coca-Cola was founded by a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia, and it was marketed as an energy drink at one point. And an ad shows tired, then drink Coca-Cola. It relieves exhaustion and headaches, upset stomach and fatigue because it had cocaine. They used to put heroin in kids' cough syrup. Okay, the more you know, this is the medicine back then. So now let's get back to Jane. She starts experimenting with these different drugs, mainly mixing morphine with something called atropine, now which is essentially fentanyl, another potentially deadly drug, still legal to this day as a controlled substance for medical use. That's it. Very illegal if you use it for recreational purposes, but it's a heavy duty pain killer.

Even at low doses, you can have like a paralyzing effect. Like you're just laying there. Higher doses causes quote unquote euphoria. And back then it was used for any small thing like asthma, earring, night sweats, wicking cough, whipping cough, fentanyl it is. Did you know this was actually famously used by clear patria to dilate her pupils? asthma, earache, night sweats, wicking cough, whipping cough, fentanyl it is. Did you know this was actually famously used by clear patria to dilate her pupils? So do you know what dilated pupils look like? It's like when the black part of your eye gets bigger. That's actually considered a very attractive thing.

So when you are sexually attracted to someone, your pupils naturally dilate when you're thinking very sexual thoughts. So a lot of the times when people look at you and your pupils look dilated, you become attracted to someone your pupils naturally dilate when you're thinking their sexual thoughts. So a lot of the times when people look at you and your pupils look dilated, you become attracted to them because your brain is thinking this person is attracted to me. Are you serious?

Yes. You don't think I ever notice your people. It's really weird, do you not look into my eyes lovingly enough? But you can also get dilated pupils when you're on drugs, when you have like a brain injury, an eye injury, all of these things. But also when you're sexually attracted to something or someone. So clear patria used to take atropine on a daily basis to dilate her pupils so she could be perceived as an attractive woman. Very smart, honestly.

I think a business woman, you know. Keep in mind, atropine poisoning is very possible and it's a horrible way to die. You start noticing that your mouth is dry, then your pupils start dilating. Suddenly it feels like you can't control your muscles. And why does it sound like you're speaking that language that doesn't even exist? Why can't you? Why can't you articulate properly? What's going on? Do you start feeling the world's zone out? Maybe you start frantically picking out your clothes, your fingers, or what's out in the air? How come nobody can see these things but you? You start muttering, uncomprehensible words, maybe you need help, but you can't talk.

And that was one of Jane's favorite parts about Atropine. She would experiment with the morphine and Atropine ratio. She thought it was fun. It would spice up her job. She would dose the patient with morphine, then then right after right before they fall into a coma She'd say hey sweetie. Why don't you drink this glass of water? Now the water would be spiked with atropine, but on days that she's feeling extra spunky No, she wouldn't give them a glass of water instead

She would wait for them to fall asleep from the morphine and she would give them a rectal anima Laced with atropine Atropine. Do would give them a rectal animal laced with atrophine. Atrophine. Do you know what a rectal animal is? Yes, he just made up the butt motion. Yeah. Exactly. Precisely, okay. It helps absorb into the body faster. That's why a lot of people do, um, not a lot. Some people do quote unquote butt chugging. But chugging is when you put an alcohol soaked tampon up the rectum because you don't have to metabolize it first. It's just introduced straight into the body.

It bypasses your liver, your stomach straight into the bloodstream. It's incredibly dangerous because you have no idea. I mean, just the tiniest bit of alcohol can make you feel like you're drunk for light years. So when people are trying to save up on money for the alcohol, they put a blood soaked tampon on the rectum. Now this is... I mean an alcohol soaked tampon.

Now this is really dangerous because you're asking for infections, you're asking for alcohol poisoning. I mean you're just asking for a lot of trouble and I'm just gonna say it right now. You don't look cool but chugging. I've never looked at someone and said, you know what? You look even cooler if you just butchugged a little. So don't do it. That's my disclaimer for that one. Now, she would give them atropine enemas

and she would wait until the patient was right on death store and she would roll up her sleeves and cough for the doctors. Suddenly, she would do everything in her power to save them. And this happened for God knows how long. Patients started dropping like flies, but because it was a Victorian era where most people were already dying, drinking radium water and the likes, Jolly Jane was never really questioned. It was just the way the world worked.

Besides, most of her victims couldn't be witnesses because they were already dead. Well most. There was a woman named Mrs. Amelia Finney. She was 36 years old and she had been up all night in the hospital. Tossing, turning. I mean, she just had these intense stomach pains. She didn't know what was wrong with her. And when she flipped over, she sees the nurse just eerily standing by the bed. Oh my God, what are you doing here? Jane, what are you doing? How are you feeling, Amelia?

Uh, actually, can you call the doctor? I'm went such intolerable pain. I just need something done. Oh, there's no need for that Amelia. Here, I have something for you. Drink this. And she started lifting the cuff to Amelia's mouth. And when Amelia took one sip, she knew it was weird. It was so bitter and when she finished drinking almost instantly, she started feeling numb. Her mouth was going dry. She was so sleepy. She felt the covers come off of her body and the bed started moving. And Jane had crawled under the covers to lay with her. She would start stroking Amelia's hair.

It's gonna be okay. She would kiss her on the face. Everything's gonna be alright. Remember, I'm here to take care of you and Jane forced Amelia to stare at her. Look at me, look at me, so she could see her pupils dilate. Come on, dear, just one more sip. Take a little more of this, more of this medicine. It's gonna help you, but Amelia resisted. She was like, that's disgusting. I can't do it. And she had her lips tight. She refused to let any liquid in her mouth, before Jane could force it down her throat they had heard a noise outside

And immediately Jane runs out of the room with the cup in hand But even after this happened Amelia believed for a long time. She was delirious from the pain No way no way a nurse is gonna do that to me. I must have envisioned it But eventually Jane's shadiness starts catching up to her Nobody accused her of being a killer, but they felt like she was a reckless nurse, okay? You don't wear a card enough, you don't really do enough, your patients are always dying. Come on, more so than us! So when she was let go from the hospital, she thought, well, I'll just be a private nurse.

Sounds like a promotion, right? It's not. So when you're a private nurse, you actually go to someone's house and you live with them and you take care of them full time time But you have to be absolutely perfect. You have to stay awake as long as your patient stays awake or if not longer If you're lucky you could get two to three hours of sleep a night and it was just a demanding job You are making a little bit more than a hospital nurse, but still you are not living a comfortable life She starts going to wealthier homes taking care of sick rich people and the patients always loved her.

The rest of the house staff, yeah, they had house staff. They hated her. They thought that she had a nasty temper. She kept stealing things from them, but she was a pretty good nurse. They had to give her that. For the next 10 years, Jane became one of the most successful private nurses in the area. Sure, most of her patients died, but they were going to die regardless okay. She helped them be as strong as possible. She took good care of them. Now it's unclear during her time how many people she truly killed at the

hospital as a private nurse but it's estimated to be over a hundred people. She would later tell the police that she would just kill off patients because they were being fussy or old and cranky. She would steal clothes from them, jewelry nobody noticed, and during this time she had massive supporters, families of the patients that she had to help take care of even after they died. And in addition, her foster sister Elizabeth and Elizabeth's husband, Oremel. Now they called her Jenny and they were just so proud of her, they were like our Jenny so successful. I heard everyone in town is calling her the best private nurse I love Jenny. I can't believe now anytime Jane would stay over. She was so fun to be around

She was so fun bubbly. I mean just an absolute delight now What's interesting is that Jane did not feel the same way about them. She never forgot how she felt as a kid with Elizabeth being the favorite child So one summer she she asked Elizabeth, why don't you come to vacation with me and Cape Cod? It'll be fun! I'm gonna rent this little cottage, like I always do, it's the same cottage every year, it's a seashore town, come on, it'll be great.

Now, Elizabeth, she didn't really wanna go, but her husband was like, come on, you gotta do it. It'll be sister bonding time, besides you've been feeling a little melancholic. You've been feeling a little depressed recently. So you should go. Okay, I mean, I guess I wouldn't hurt, right? So she ends up going and the first day they get there

to Cape Cod, it's beautiful. I mean, they're laying out by the beach, they're eating, they're snacking, they're talking, enjoying the view, having a blast. And she felt like, you know what, I made the right choice. I'm so glad that I came to Cape Cod, but by that nightfall, Elizabeth starts feeling sick. Jane calls a doctor, even sent a telegraph to Oraml that your wife is sick and he's upset he's rushing to a train and he gets there the next morning, but Elizabeth was already

in a coma. She had suffered what the doctors believed was a stroke. A what? Now Oraml was so shocked. I mean, he didn't even realize that all the cash was missing from Elizabeth's purse. Who could blame him for missing such a detail? And when he looked to Jane and said,

well, I better get going. The doctors say she's not going to make it. I have to start prepping for her funeral. And he's crying. Jane comes up to him, puts her hand on his arm. Orma, I'm so sorry. Elizabeth expressed to me that I should have her gold watch and chain to remember her buy.

And he starts sobbing harder. It's just like my wife to make such a sensitive and beautiful gesture on her deathbed. Yes, warm-mail. Yes, it is. It's so Elizabeth, isn't it? Where is her watch? And so Jane, Jolly Jane, pondered sister's pieces for money, and she would actually later say that Elizabeth was the first of her victims that she actually hated, and poisoned with a vindictive purpose, and she said, and I added more fiend to it. I held her in my arms and I watched with delight as she gasped for her life. What about the other victims in the hospital?

Did you hate them too? No, I just thought it was fun to watch them die. And I guess the feeling must have been so great for torturing Elizabeth because after that, Jane wanted to kill anyone that she felt any bet of negative feeling for. There was a woman by the name of Myra Conners, that annoying annoying Myra. So Myra was a 40 year old widow and she worked as a matron at St. John's Theological School in Cambridge. They really only didn't get along because Jane wanted her job. She wanted to be the matron. So one day Myra gets sick. Well this was perfect. Jane offers to take care of her

ominous. You know me. We're friends. She takes care of her and you know the rest. Myra drops dead. And as soon as Myra's body is buried, just as they shovel the last piece of soil on top of her coffin, Jane is like, well, I think I should get her job. Because here's the thing. She told me before she died that I'm the best, best successor. The one that needs to take over, you know? I mean, there's so many perks to the job, but that's not why I wanted it. It's not because I get my own apartment that's paid for with a private maid. That's not why. It's also not why, because I can see the daily food intake of dozens of theology students And you know what I'd like to do with food, right? Well, that's not why she told me she told me I'd be great for the job

So she tells the boss is this and nobody else wanted the job so she just got it They were like, okay, you're the mattron now. And that's how she became the Maytron. But almost immediately, people were upset with her performance. The dining hall was a wreck that not running smoothly. There were strange financial irregularities that nobody could put their finger on. And before she could get fired, Jane finds a new job as a maid for her landlord. She's like, I don't want to be a Maytron anymore. I don't want to get fired. Now, how does she get the job? Her landlord's most likely already have a maid. Most likely already have a housekeeper. So she does this by drugging their food, making them feel sick, but not dead, just a little sick. Oh, are you guys feeling okay? You know, I hate to bring this up, but I actually saw your maid. I think she's

an alcoholic. I don't think I think she might be poisoning you in the food or maybe she's just incompetent because she's always drinking No, that's not right. I mean yeah, we're sick, but we've worked with her for so long Here, why don't you guys come take a look? I really hate to be the one to show you this and Jane would lead the landlords to the maids room and sure enough She was passed out on her back to look like she had a rough day with drinking But she had been drugged. But at least she got the job, right? Now income the Davis family, they come knocking at her new door.

Okay, this is a little side story, right? So whenever she went to Cape Cod where Elizabeth was murdered, she would stay at the same place, a beach house rented by Alden Davis, the Davis family. Now, this is not pertinent to the story, but the Davis family actually belonged to a very interesting church. It was a cult. And one of the church members had a murdered one of his daughters. So he had these two kids, his absolute pride and joy, but one day he woke up and said,

God told him that he has to make a sacrifice in the name of faith. So he chose his favorite daughter, four-year-old Edith, which like I don't know how I would feel if I was the other daughter, and then to prove his faith, he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her with it while she was asleep. And he called over all of his besties from church. Hey, you gotta come over, you gotta see something. She displayed the daughter's body and said, well, she's gonna be resurrected in two days.

She was not. He was arrested. So back to all of them, right? He's going to this church, he's wrenching out his little beach house. Now he's 65 years old and him and his wife are just too old to run this rental place. The kids had moved out, they're just living in it, they thought okay, well maybe we'll

rent it out to one of our regulars once in a while, like just a room. They'll stay with us, it'll be fine. And one of those guests was Jane, who was still renting a room with them. And she was lovely, she was probably easy to talk to. I heard she's a nurse. Yeah, the neighbors love her. I mean, they said that she even offers to babysit when they're in a pinch.

But the thing with Janice, she's always laid on rent, which is fine back then because they were generous people, but now that they're unemployed, now that they're getting old, they kind of need the money. And eventually Mrs. Davis was over it. She was behind on rent by $500. In perspective, Jane only made $600 a year as a private nurse. Wow. So maybe she was living way above her means, okay? Because the beach house does sound fancy.

So Mrs. Davis travels all the way to Boston to get the money from Jane. And when Jane opens the door, where she's made at her landlord's place to see who it is, she's like, oh! Mrs. Davis, you should have sent a telegraph. Why don't you come in? I can whip you up a drink. You're sweating. It was a long trip, huh? She hands her a glass of water and she watches Mrs. Davis down the whole thing Perfect. Well, why don't we walk to the bank so I can take the cash to pay you? But Mrs. Davis never made it to the bank. She was one brick. She's dizzy

She's weak and later Jane tells the police So I gave her a little morphine. And that kind of quieted her up. She lays Mrs. Davis down, she calls the doctors and she calls Davis' children, and they rushed to her and they insist Jane, we need to do something, okay? Why don't know what came over your mom? She decided to have a naughty slice of cake

and you guys know she's diabetic. I don't know why she wanted to have the cake, then she collapsed. Was it my fault? The doctors agreed. I think Mrs. Davis might be in a diabetic coma He prescribed some medicine and left now. What's interesting about this doctor side note not pertinent to the story is that he actually was involved in another serial killer case back then He had been the doctor of a victim who was poisoned with arsenic But he did not notice it. At all.

Just a sh**y doctor. Yeah, and then this one, he was like, you're right, definitely diabetes. For the next week, Jane tortured Mrs. Davis, giving her varying levels of morphine and atropine, pushing her all the way, then bringing her back, spending every ounce of energy she had to save Mrs. Davis before repeating the process. And after she had all her fun, she gave Mrs. Davis her final dose of morphine, and she died. The Davis children, I mean, they were so worried about their poor father, who is now a widower, and they begged Jane, can you please just stay

at the beach house with him? Please, can you take care of him? He knows you, he's used to you. But instead of taking care of him, she tried on three separate occasions to set the house on fire. And that's... That failed. Yeah, every time she failed. Okay, once was because he's an insomniac, so we smelled the smoke, then the next time a neighbor had seen, I mean, this is bad. That's when she noticed that Mrs. Davis' daughter, 31-year-old Genevieve, was devastated by her mom dying. She felt like as a nurse, it's kind of her duty to ease pain, right?

I mean, she'd have to kill her. You don't really get over a trauma like that. And the only thing is though, that she's 31 years old, and she's never really had any health problems. So to ease this suspicion, she pulls aside Genevieve's sister, Minnie. Minnie. Listen, I don't know if I should talk to you about this, but I caught your sister eyeing a bag of rat poison.

You know, arsenic copper all up in there. It's deadly to rats and sex, but also humans. I think we should keep an eye out for her. I think she's suicidal. Now Minnie, the sister didn't think that it was impossible because depression did run in their family. She really was sad about her mom's passing, and then one day after dinner, Genevieve just starts throwing up violently, and Jane is staying by her bedside to nurse her back to health with

her special medicine, when she was dead by the morning. And Jolly Jane went to her funeral, with the rest of the Davis family, while the remaining two, and she said, and I quote, I went to the funeral and I felt as Jolly as could be, and nobody suspected me in the very least. Then it was time for the dad to go. He was sick, he was always sad, God, it's like a mercy killing. He's so annoying, right? The doctors had diagnosed him of having a cerebral hemorrhage, so it was perfect.

Nobody suspected Jane. Now, the only person left in the Davis family was Minnie, and Jane just wanted to kill her off, because how fun would it be to kill off an entire family? Which is, I mean, this was kind of sad for Jane because if you asked her, hey, what's the closest thing to a best friend you have? It would be Mini.

They got along so well. They hung out, their personalities matched. It's just the same. She had to die. So she poisoned her with morphine and atropine, and as she was laying on the couch dying, Jane went upstairs to cuddle Minnie's ten-year-old son to comfort him, while she knew that Minnie was dying downstairs. And then eventually she would get into bed with Minnie and caress her hair and held her

while she died. Now, Minnie's father-in-law is a former Marine. His name is Captain Paul and he starts getting suspicious, especially because Jane just kept trying to weasel her way into her son's life. His son's life, Minnie's husband's life, you know? Let me help you. You and your two motherless children need a woman to care of you! He just thought it was weird!

So Jane moves back to her hometown with nothing else to do in this beach town, and she realized she had forgotten someone. She had tasted the feeling of killing off an entire family, and Elizabeth's husband was still alive and kicking her brother in law. Now what's confusing is because I think that she was conflicted herself on what to do with him. What's the biggest spit on Elizabeth's grave?

Is it to kill or amount? Is it to kill Elizabeth's husband? Or is it to marry him and to become his new wife? So she goes back to the hometown and she starts visiting Oramal, trying to seduce him. She poisons his housekeeper, a middle-aged widow named Florence. She drops dead. And she said, in a quote, because I was jealous of her, I knew that she wanted to become Mr. Briggum's wife. Then there was another problem. Or or a mouse sister came to visit. She was 77 years old and she had a heart condition. Now when she died, the doctor assumed it was a heart condition that took her.

But the weird thing about this is there was no reason to kill her. She was only staying for a few days. She wasn't jealous of her because obviously she didn't want to marry her own brother. She was in a romantic threat. She was literally leaving in a few days. So why? It's so much easier to wait a few days than have the doctor come, that have a dead body in the house,

to murder someone. But a lot of psychologists believe it's because she had gotten away with it for so long that she just had this loss for killing. And it was growing. And she felt like she needed to feed it. And maybe she felt that this was the easiest way to get rid of a problem.

And so the next day, while she was prepping to get rid of her next target, someone in the town, there was a newspaper article that was released. Angry Underway, investigation of deaths of Davis family, wife and daughters died suddenly. Their bodies are being dug up to be autopsyd, and even in the article that listed Jane Tapon as the family nurse during their tragic deaths. Okay. So Jane was living in absolute anxiousness.

She actually went to go live with a different friend of hers because Oramal was kicking her out, and she was really upset by that she even tried to commit suicide by injecting morphine into herself. To get Oramal's sympathy, she was like, oh yeah, this is going to make him fall in love with me, right? But for two months, nothing happened. Jane starts feeling comfortable again. She's staying at her friend's house when the police come knocking. And they arrest her for murder.

Now, this was October 31st, 1901, so Halloween night. Yeah, 1901. And she straight up told the police, you know what, I was going to kill my friends too, whose house I've been staying at. But I'm glad you guys arrested me. I'd already started dragging them a little bit. They're like, what is going on? She starts laughing, joking with the police, and the press were going crazy because they felt like, well, we gotta look for any lead. We gotta make sure that she was purchasing rat poison

or arsenic. That's the typical murder weapon for women back then, right? But there was no record of that. So everyone was like, is she a witch or something? So in prison, while she was waiting for trial, she was bombarded with letters from former patients saying, I have faith in you. I know that you would never kill anyone. This is a witch hunt, you're totally innocent." And then during the trial, the expert tried to argue that she's not fully sane because

she had tried to take her own life, but her defense attorney argued that she has great mental strength. See, this is what I don't know, okay, because he was trying to plea insanity, but he also argued to the psychologist that she's not insane. So the psychologist, they interviewed Jane, and during these sessions, she admitted to her crimes, not all of them, because she couldn't remember all of them, because there were over a hundred, but she said that she felt an erotic pleasure. She liked to watch them die. You know, just like how most male serial killers would often rape their victims, she was

sexually satisfied by watching her victims die. You know, just like how most male serial killers would often rape their victims, she was sexually satisfied by watching her victims die. Now in the book it mentioned, and now be warned, there's a bit of stereotyping in this, of gender norms, and boxing in these two genders, but from a psychological standpoint, it's kind of fascinating. Typically, a lot of male serial killers are stimulated by graphic, quote unquote, raw imagery, and their murders kind of show that it's gruesome, it's gory, it's bloody, there's mutilation involved. But with female serial killers, again, very stereotypical,

oftentimes there's a bit of a deeper psychological undertone. And she wanted to kill people that trust her with their lives. Wow. She wanted to kill people and have them die in our arms while getting in bed with them. And the victims always felt like she's the one that's helping me get better. She's the one that's healing me.

And so the psychologists, they deemed her morally insane, a psychopath diagnosis in today's time, but they didn't have that back then. And Jane would, when she's asked about her killing, she would say things like, well, something comes over me. I don't know what it is. I seem to have some sort of paralysis of thought and reason.

I have an uncontrollable desire to give poison without regard to consequences. And I have no objection against telling my feelings, but I don't know my mind. I don't know why I do these things. And instead of going to the trial, she didn't go because she didn't know what to wear. She couldn't make a pre-mind. And she also was working on a book that she wanted to release called Sweet Blue Eyes. So in the end, she didn't show up to her own trial and she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She was sentenced to life in tauntin insane hospital, which, side note, horrible place to be. I mean, everyone was humiliated,

non-stop. The conditions are awful. The patients are dehumanized. Patients have to have constant enemas. Weird surgical procedures. they were forced fed cocktails of drugs, they had these mechanical restraints to make sure that you never move, like even 24 hours a day, you can't move, you can't even scratch your face. And so the worst part is, well I guess like the good part is that Jane was somewhat sane. So she'd probably be worse off than many of her counterparts at the institution. And when they sentenced her, she was ecstatic. She said, isn't it strange that I don't feel bad? But I can't help it. I can't cry. People say I have no heart, but I have. While I've been in jail, a friend of mine set me some forget-me-nots, some flowers, and I cried. They were the flowers that my first

lover used to send me when I was a little schoolgirl. I think, if I had been a married woman, I probably wouldn't have killed all these people. I would have my husband, my children, and my home to take up my mind. But I get it, I have to be punished for all these murders. But I have hopes of getting out in 10 to 15 years. When the doctors will say I'm cured of insanity. Now, Jane had a lot of fun at the facility.

She loved watching other patients act out and get punished. She would sneak into other patient's beds. She loved watching other patients act out and get punished. She would sneak into other patient's beds. She was curious to learn about everyone's mental states. She felt like she was in school. She was studying all these quote unquote crazy people. But soon, even in a place like that, no matter how strong minded you are, she started deteriorating. She started getting paranoid that everyone was out to get her.

She believed someone was poisoning her food. She lost weight. She never washed up or cleaned, which is weird because Jay loved being clean and properly dressed all the time. She started becoming delusional. She felt her dead victims were coming to poison her, poison her food. And when the nurses brought her her food and tried to feed her, she would scream at them. It's poisoned!

She would hide her face between her arms so that she couldn't be forced to eat it, and she grew increasingly violent. She ended up spending most of her years in a straight jacket, where she couldn't even move her arms. Now this is an alleged story that a lot of true crime writers kept in their books and their articles and their research, and it's potentially true. So it said that Jane would read a romance novel in her free time and everyone's in a while she'd call for her nurse. Nursey! Get the morphine darling! We'll go out into the ward, you and I will have a lot

of fun seeing them die. So she's probably hallucinating and she lived another 31 years like that at the facility before she died. And that is the story of Jane Topon. Now, think about what's in your Halloween chocolate. Think about what's in your oatmeal or your drink, because I tell you, as I get older, I become a lot more skeptical about free food. I really do. Why is it free?

Go to cheesecake factory, slam that free bread down on the ground. We're not doing that, not today. I'm kidding, they're the bread is amazing, you gotta eat their bread, okay? But let me know, what are your thoughts on this case? Do you think it's strange? I mean, did you know also a lot of people say

that poison is a woman's weapon of choice, but it's actually not. Statistics show a lot of men, poison other people. More than women. So, like I said, who's really feeding you? I'm gonna be staring my fiancee down during dinner tonight. Mm-mm. Don't touch my food.

But I hope you guys enjoyed this week's Spooktober mini-saudit, and I will see you guys on Wednesday for a main episode. Bye! Bye!