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hey weirdos I'm Elina I'm Ash and this is [Music] morbid no it's morbid in the morning
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again two in a row look at us two in a Rizzo waking up early it's that you might hear a little bit of light rain
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which I know some of you actually you dig hard prefer even prefer it's light might be a little TI a little pitter
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patter um cuz it's rainy here and it's windy but I woke up and it was so [ __ ] spooky this morning it was it's
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very spooky today and it's spooky in the Pod lab cuz we have very light lighting
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and we only have candle light mhm it's feeling right very like low lights yeah yeah [ __ ] the big light [ __ ] the big
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light yeah we need to get some lamps in here yeah be gorgeous it would be gor it
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would be gorina it truly would gorgia um but yeah I thought I had something else
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to say but but here I am you don't have anything no just that you should buy the
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butcher game which is coming out September 17th and you can get it at the butcher game.com you can pre-order it
00:01:28
right now it's going to be awesome pych she had something you get the advanced reader copies today and I get
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to oh I'm very excited I get to have one and read it on the plane cuz I haven't read it in in totality if you will the
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path of totality I haven't read it in its path of totality I'm excited I'm excited it's going to be
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wild curl up on the plane and read your scary ass book hell yeah uh but yeah pre-order it it's awesome and you guys
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have been great so far pre-ordering and I appreciate you endlessly keep it up um
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you are lovely and I see all those really kind things that you're saying and it's really nice because they get
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filtered over to me I love it and I say look at that I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate like keep buying it
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with like keep icing your front bum spelling continues if you do not ice guys did you ever watch that this is a
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[ __ ] left turn brain for you take it with us because Lind if Lind is listening Lind
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will appreciate that endlessly did you guys watch that movie and if you haven't go watch it it's one of those really
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nostalgic great ones so funny um get over it it has Ben Foster in it it has Kirsten dun it has Shane West yeah in it
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it's got all the hot people of the time all the hot people um that girl I can't remember her the actress's name but
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she's in like Soul Survivors oh hold on P the cast list she's like the hot girl she's Allison in
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this but uh it's it's got Martin Short in it [ __ ] munis is in this milakunis is in it so many people are in it Cisco
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Cisco is in it it's got yeah it's just it's right it's really right Mar yeah is the he's the one who says keep icing
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your front B swelling continu if do not ice if you do not ice are you thinking uh Melissa Sage Miller probably yes yeah
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she's Allison yeah so it's a great ridiculous oh and Colin um Hanks Colin Hanks and vitamin C and vitamin C
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now I want to watch this guys watch yeah I don't know what happened I I just started thinking like how do I say like
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keep ordering keep ordering the butcher game spelling continues if you don't order the butcher game honestly I think
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that's our marketing tactic here uh keep pre-ordering the butcher game swelling continues if you do not pre-order so
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that's going to be let zando know that's what we're going with letting zando know
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that's the direction we are going in uh just yeah swelling will continue if you do not pre-order so please do that thank
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you um so I know we're a little chaotic but it's morbid in the morning also when
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are we not chaotic oh the way that you just morning showed that I did you did morbid in the morning and then she
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reached for her coffee like so Wake Up San Francisco wake upir that and she has a ghost mug like um ghosts on a mug just
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to clarify I would like a ghost mug though that's one thing of ghost I do not have
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I'm actually shocked by that well I bet Etsy has ghost You' got a chalice so I have a chalice and I I have a chalice
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from actually Caleb got me a chalice and a big old Stein like a Stein kind of thing for your for your ale but I need
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like a coffee mug yeah and I think Mikey is already looking for one for me because he's a real one right now he's
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the realest um um they just launched loungewear I know I need the sweatpants they were cute
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they're like jogger style yeah I need to I need to get some I'm going to do that
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this is the most chaotic intro I think we might have ever had it really is you know what this is a very chaotic case so
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we're we're ready for the energy it's also a Massachusetts case it's a Boston case it's got our local hospitals in it
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what um it's got Mass General what what oh hey um it's got all that stuff and it's also terrible and uh this person is
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a a a Damon so awesome we're going to talk about a jolly Jane toppen something tells me that she's not so jolly no
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she's not she's not like she doesn't have like a Saint Nick Vibe nope she definitely doesn't she is uh what is
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commonly referred to as an angel of mercy killer uh I don't think that's the proper name for her she's referred to is
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that a lot but that's not even slightly what she did cuz she was a nurse so what
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we're going to be talking about is there's going to be a high count here as always with these kind of killers um she
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was really [ __ ] brutal like she she didn't do this for Mercy killings she did this cuz she liked to watch people
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suffer and die in front of her that's horrible and she liked having that like power that's not why you go into nursing
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yeah no and when you find out like who she you know how she grew up and what happened to her very early in her life
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you know she wasn't really going down a great a great path obviously you make a choice of course she made the wrong one
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evidently she's on morbid so yeah so that you never made a good choice if you're there if you're the the actual
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person we're talking about so she's actually considered among the first and definitely the most prolific American
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female serial killers um Jane toppin Killing Spree went actually unnoticed for more than 15 years 15 cuz that's the
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other thing she was a master manipulator wow she was she's one of those people that you go how the [ __ ] did no one
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realize this like how was she able to convince people I me she was 15 years that's crazy she would transition from
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One hospital to another these very highly regarded hospitals too like the biggest teaching hospitals in the nation
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at that point and still at that point um and she left an unprecedented trail of Carnage in her wake she was finally
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arrested in 1901 after killing the entire family of a man who she was hired to provide for what yeah and her arrest
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and her trial were just Sensational um because at that point especially because this is the early
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1900s murder and cruelty for cruelty sake was not something you associated with women no at all definitely not uh
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now we know better that everybody can be cruel for sake that now we know better but back then it was like no way can a
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woman do that mhm um but ultimately Jane toppen ended up confessing to 31 murders
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holy and that's only what she confessed to exactly we think there is probably many more she would she was Reckless
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like she would go hard so let's go back to the beginning who was Jane toppen I don't know so Jane toppen was actually
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born Anora Kelly not Jane toppen no relation no relation to to this one uh she was born
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in Boston Massachusetts on March 31st 1854 uh she was the youngest of three children born to Bridget Finn and Peter
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Kelly according to author Harold Sher who we will be referencing um his work a lot during this and you might recognize
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that name because in the edgein series we used his book deviant for a lot of that like mentioned him a lot during
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that too so he he knows a lot about old timey serial killers we love an author um according to Shear Kelly the father
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was a chronic drunk prone to Violent outbursts and so wildly eccentric that his neighborhood nickname was Kelly the
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crack as in crackpot it's a little iconic but it's a little iconic it's pretty horrible that
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he was a father he's also really [ __ ] terrible okay not iconic at all um he's terrible in fact in the years after
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Jane's arrest strange and outrageous rumors actually begin circulating about her father's bizarre behavior um
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including one where people said that while working at a tailor shop he seed his own eyelid
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shut what yeah nobody knows if that was true or not it was just a rumor but it was like people believed it because of
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who he was so you know what kind of person he is if people are like maybe he did like perhaps wow now on September
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25th 1859 Bridget the mother died from tuberculosis leaving the children in the soul care of Peter of Kelly the CRA C uh
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who was very unequipped to be a single parent to three small children very une quii to be any parent to three small
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children he very much struggled to provide for his three daughters for three years um until he gave up finally
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he just was like you know what no I can't do it and he brought 8-year-old Delila and six-year-old Anora to the
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Boston female asylum in February of 1863 and just beg them to take the children oh my god um this place was one of the
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very few Aid Societies in Boston at the time um it was called the Boston female Asylum but it was later renamed the
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Boston Society for the care of girls um it was a public charity that raised funds and provided support for female
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orphans in the city was it horrible though um from what I don't know a lot about this place I didn't look too hard
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into like what was cuz honestly like it's heart R this was awful anyways and I was like going into like looking into
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this place might send me over the edge at this point whenever you look into an orphanage it really brings you to like
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the depths of the of the human behavior I have a lot of trouble looking into those kind of places I can't handle
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reading about those children being orphaned children being treated it's like I can't I can't it's another level
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but from the moment one thing I will say about them is you know it did turn into
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a facility that people respected so from the moment they looked at Peter Kelly the managers of the female Asylum could
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tell that he was in absolutely no position to take care of these children they're like hand him on over we got
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this in their initial description Kelly was described as a man quote whose habits evidently rendered him an unfit
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protector for his little girls and noted that the appearance of both girls quote
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indicated that they had been rescued from a very miserable home oh no uh the surviving documentation of the female
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Asylum doesn't really provide a lot of details about their life before being surrendered to the Asylum uh it doesn't
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it also so really doesn't provide any insight into how they formed these opinions that they first formed upon
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seeing them yeah but sheer points out quote modern research has conclusively shown that brutalization is always a
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factor in the development of adult psycho psychopathy yeah um very evident in Jane toppen yeah um so Shear suggests
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that both girls probably certainly suffered from significant abuse at the hands of their father and it was bad
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enough that it was easily identified viable by strangers upon first seeing them as coming from a miserable home
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that's really really really sad so in fact based on that initial assessment the board voted unanimously to admit the
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girls that day wow that same day like right away yeah that tells across the board were like bring them in and Peter
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signed the papers surrendered his children and never saw them again never spoke to them never saw them again bye
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which obviously like was most likely a good thing the fact that AB like the abuse at least at his hand stopped there
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but then you think about the trauma that that creates like you just you have your
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dad for 6 to 8 years of your life and then you literally never see the [ __ ] again like that's as horrible as he was
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it's like that's all you know yeah that's that's a whole different kind of if that's like impounded impacted drama
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and it's like when that's all you know that's all you that's your dad that's also all you expect right out of life is
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when you for 6 years or eight years have been treated like that and then given up
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you just think that's what life is you're like well that's how I should be treated like that's just what you come
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to expect which is what forms these horrific things in adulthood sometimes because you are just going being like
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what like the world sucks everybody's horrible everything's cruel why would I expect or why would I be anything
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different like that's just putting that in that kid it's true it's like when you're in a horrible relationship as an
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adult and you just come to expect that's what I should expect from a relationship
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so you end up going into these cycles of being with these horrible people who treat you like [ __ ] cuz you're like well
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that's what a relationship is what else could it be yeah the expectation becomes
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like what accept yeah so nothing is known that and this is where this is probably a good thing at this point
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because like I I was like I don't want to know a whole lot of details about what happened there um really nothing is
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known of Delilah and anora's time at the Asylum like there isn't like a lot of Records i' say like this is what
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happened during that time that's probably good but for Anora that time was pretty brief and from the looks of
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it it wasn't super eventful it's not like you know we have a lot of medical records happening or anything like that
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it was just you know uh in November 1863 that's when a woman named Anne toppen of
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LOL Massachusetts appeared before the asylums board and expressed a desire to adopt Anora just Anora yes now after
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filling out all the paperwork she needed to the request was approved and custody
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of Anora was transferred to an toppen she immediately renamed the girl Jane and added the surname toppen so she went
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from Anora Kelly to Jane toppen and she's like at least 10 at this point probably she's definitely at least like
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eight I would say or like nine you know like she's or maybe you're right like maybe somewhere around the 10 she's a
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young to be dealing with that R after all she's been through I think um and and regarding the transfer of custody
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it's important to note here that although an toppen had expressed interest in adopting Jane cuz we're
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going to refer to her as Jane now cuz she did go through her adult life as Jane she like accepted that name there's
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no documentation showing a formal adoption ever occurred like there's no documented adoption here like she
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adopted her but not formally that's interesting did the process change maybe like throughout the years or no she
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should there should have been adoption documentation she just formally she just like got custody of the girl essentially
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weird um and later this was brought up in Jane's trial way later in her life by one of the psychiatrists who evaluated
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her um who thought it was pretty significant that Jane was adopted uh was was adopted quote unquote but was
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actually apprenticed to Mrs toppen on indenture papers so she worked for her is what
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we're really and they got that from the L historical society it's in basically in the simplest terms an toen didn't go
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to the female Asylum looking for a daughter that day she went looking for a servant yeah what F A Child servant so
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she was essentially like sold to this woman essentially now according to Harold sheer there's little documentation of
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what became of Delilah her sister after Jane left with the toppins right right um but he said as an adult
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she it was not a good life for her Delila Delila did not have a good life afterwards like they were obviously
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severely affected by what happened to them in childhood sad all around she ended up real like living on the fringes
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of society she fell into um like turning to alcoholism and other substances uh she became a sex worker out of
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desperation only and died in squalid circumstances that's really all that's known it's just really sad and it kind
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of shows you like that what happened really affected them both in different ways and it makes you wonder like first
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of all obviously what they we know what they went through in the beginning of their life with their dad being abusive
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like we can only imagine but then you wonder what yeah like the orphanage doesn't sound like it was the best no
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which usually they weren't no so now once settled in with the Widow and toppen and her young daughter Elizabeth
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Jane began attending public school and there she was identified very quickly as very intelligent and very quick to pick
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up on new skills and new ideas she was very smart um at home she appeared to get on pretty well with Elizabeth her
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like quote unquote new sister um but there was definitely a a difference in how they were treated by an uh Elizabeth
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was allowed to go out play with her friends do the normal things Jane had to stay in the home and she had to just
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help with the housework she was Cinderella a servant literally um also an often went out out of her way to
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remind Jane of her Heritage a lot um which like and she would remind her of it like as a way of kind of being like
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this is your station in life because you're Irish oh so and she would say to her
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like and she was this is a quote you can't help being Irish but that doesn't mean you have to act like a
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Patty oh [ __ ] it's on square up so she exactly Square the [ __ ] up [ __ ] like
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let's go in we are IR okay right in the chin right in the chinly but and to tell a child this a
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like to make her think that somehow she you aren't treated like my real daughter
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because I you're basically my servant and even out like what so in response to the poor treatment she received from an
00:19:28
um who Jane honestly didn't even call mother didn't call an she called her auntie oh wow Jane developed strangely a
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very cheery and gregarious personality and actually like ended up like going the opposite way for a little while um
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and she also became what everybody thought of as a very clever very fascinating Storyteller it really is
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interesting how how different households affect kids and like kids respond to trauma in so many different ways like
00:20:01
there are kids that like really go through like dark dark depression and really Retreat into themselves and then
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there's kids that when they're not at home just like really flourish yeah even though they've they've gone through very
00:20:14
similar treatments kids are so [ __ ] resilient yeah they are they absolutely are that's why when you see a child
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experiencing depression yeah you have to know that that is very difficult to do in the grand scheme of things that takes
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a lot of [ __ ] on that kid for them to be broken like that so like whenever you
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see that it's not like oh they're just dealing with some stuff it's like no that kid's been through [ __ ] we can't
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even imagine because for them to actually break it takes a lot kids are very resilient yeah and it shows right
00:20:49
here that she was just she was broken but man she she became a very mon human being very brutal monst
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adult um and actually like a lot of her childhood acquaintances would say if Jane toppen were there it wasn't
00:21:06
necessary to provide any other entertainment like she was she was a good time gal um and uh in hindsight
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it's pretty clear that her very outgoing personality was definitely partially a way for her to
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kind of like compensate for feeling so inferior in her own home she felt like she had to yeah she got
00:21:29
kind kind of like validation and this worked for her for a little while but eventually it actually led to the other
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way it pushed her into the other side because it led to this like this very much a complex of self-hatred and
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intolerance because then she was fighting these ideas that her Heritage yeah made her less than and that she was
00:21:51
treated less than all the time at home so it's like but you're being kind of like thought of as this gregarious
00:21:58
really entertaining person outside so I think those two things fighting just led
00:22:02
to her not understanding who she actually was and then there was this complex that was fighting against each
00:22:07
other yeah and she just went it again it's one it's like two two paths to virge in a wood and you took the wrong
00:22:15
one yeah and as she Grew Older Jane and the toppin would go out of their way to hide ignore or even downplay the fact
00:22:23
that she was Irish at all around other people like it was a total source of shame it's crazy how they lived in
00:22:30
Boston that we're hiding the think it now I'm like geez um and actually they used like a very they were relied upon a
00:22:39
story that they would say that she lost both her parents in an accident at Sea while they were traveling to the United
00:22:45
States from Italy oh okay so they would use that as the thing she's Italian and this also is what we're going to find
00:22:53
out is Jane is a liar in her entire life becomes a chronic pathological any kind of liar you can
00:23:04
think of she lies lies lies she lies right out of her face she lies like a liar all the livel long day for her
00:23:11
whole life and it's like because she was taught to lie she was taught that to in
00:23:17
order for you to be respected as a human being and to be treated as a human being
00:23:22
and for us even to deal with you as a human being lie about who you are to your very core as a child
00:23:29
so it's like she was just taught this [ __ ] yeah and then it turned her like she became a monster because of it and
00:23:36
while a lot of people around Jane when she was younger remember her as very pleasant you know pretty easygoing like
00:23:42
nothing crazy but even at a young age there were signs that beneath her cheery exterior there was definitely a
00:23:50
significant like um uptick in her being more selfish seemed like there was signs
00:23:56
of her being a deceitful person as well and as she got older those came out more
00:24:00
and more it was like she was pushing that down but she just couldn't according to Shear some of her
00:24:05
schoolmates described her as an encourageable liar prone to Wild Fabrications that she doggedly stuck to
00:24:13
even when they were proven to be fragant false that's the scariest kind of person
00:24:17
when you can look when like when they're lying to you and you're like no I literally have this proof right here and
00:24:22
they're like the scariest type of person it's you can't argue with somebody like
00:24:28
that cuz then they turn it around and make you feel crazy it's like that's the scariest thing is when you start
00:24:33
questioning your own Integrity Am I Wrong am I crazy am I I'm holding a movie ticket here and you're telling me
00:24:40
that it was printed wrong yeah but maybe I maybe it is who knows uh but Jane regularly claimed among other things
00:24:47
that her father was a world-renowned sailor who lived in China her brother had fought against the Confederates at
00:24:53
Gettysburg and was an awarded a medal by President Lincoln damn and that her sister sister's unrivaled Beauty had won
00:25:00
the heart of an English Lord oh which sounds all those things sad don't like offend me they make me think that she
00:25:09
has a a fantasy life that she wish she lived and she lived in this miserable life and she just wanted to escape
00:25:16
probably went to that fantasy land in her mind growing up which would be all right if she was just telling
00:25:22
Fantastical tales about her family and about herself who gives a [ __ ] let people live in their own [ __ ] fantasy
00:25:28
world as long as it's not [ __ ] with you let people live in their dulu but she takes it to a dark place yeah don't
00:25:34
let them live in the dark place yeah now these lies like we said pretty trivial they did serve several purposes for Jane
00:25:43
not only were they further attempts to cover her Irish heritage which she was being told was something to be shamed of
00:25:49
but they were also an attempt to compensate for her crippling feelings of inadequacy and to prove also her
00:25:55
superiority over the less glamorous and more around her as she Grew Older the lies became less like a fantasy kind of
00:26:03
thing like that is like my sister is so gorgeous that an English Lord fell in love with her like that kind of silly
00:26:09
stuff less trivial and much more pointed and much more cruel okay they became they took a very sharp turn in her teen
00:26:18
years Jane became known as a vicious gossip at school oh no spreading the nastiest rumors about the other girls I
00:26:27
mean she turned hard as a teen like I said it was like it went from that trivial little girl
00:26:34
fantasy world where you're like whatever man like live there like you've had a tough life mean girl and it just turned
00:26:40
into like well I want to hurt people and she would like and she would report like
00:26:44
this fake bad behavior to teachers about people that didn't happen trying to get
00:26:48
them in trouble and when she herself was caught or doing or saying something bad
00:26:53
she would invariably blame it on someone else and make herself out to be a victim
00:26:57
so she very much took on the victim role later in life and she used that as a crutch to do Despicable things makes
00:27:05
sense that's good now while most of her peers and teachers eventually kind of grew tired of calling out her lies and
00:27:10
bad behavior they were just like you're kind of annoying and toppen never tired of punishing
00:27:16
Jane uh whatever Jane did anything she did wrong or didn't complete her chores to an and standards cuz remember she's
00:27:24
just her servant at this point Jane would be beaten with a switch oh and like very brutally
00:27:31
bered so not surprisingly this abuse hardened Jane and it honestly made her [ __ ] hate an uh yeah I would think
00:27:42
and she would carry that for the rest of her life that hate stck you're not going
00:27:45
to you're not going to let go of something like that but while Jane definitely had no love for her foster
00:27:50
mother quote unquote uh she saved the darkest feelings of hatred and resentment to her foster sister I was
00:27:59
wondering if it was going to get there in Jane's mind Elizabeth was the embodiment of everything that Jane would
00:28:05
never have and could never be yeah she was beautiful she was popular with her peers and it all seemed to come so
00:28:12
effortless for Elizabeth but what Elizabeth represented most of all was Jane's failed or unrealized romantic
00:28:19
desires as well when she reached her late teens Elizabeth began you know she began dating a young Deacon named oramel
00:28:27
Brigham and their enduring relationship would stand as a constant reminder to Jane of her
00:28:34
inferiority as a narcissistic psychopath Jane was caught in an endless and she ended up being diagnosed yeah um Jane
00:28:41
was caught in an endless and endlessly frustrating cycle of desire for the Adoration and validation that comes with
00:28:48
love but would always kind of be thwarted by her truly profound egotism and her inability to form any kind of
00:28:56
bonds with people around her that were meaningful in anyway she just couldn't get there it just wasn't you know
00:29:03
she she is found to be like she has a lot going on she a lot and it's like so these kind of things were really
00:29:11
stopping her from ever forming a meaningful bond which is a sad thing to look at yeah just when you look at just
00:29:18
that you know like when you look at everything else you're like oh [ __ ] but that like knowing that people have to
00:29:24
live with that is tough that like something is just innately stopping you from being able to form those kind of
00:29:31
bonds but basically she desperately longed for the physical and romantic affection that she was reading about in
00:29:39
books yeah um but she was completely incapable of actually feeling those things for anyone else which made her
00:29:46
inherently undesirable to everybody else because she just wasn't showing it to anybody so it wasn't coming off as she
00:29:52
wanted it right you know this is such a such a tragic tale it is it's sad and as
00:29:58
she grew older and her romantic desires took on you know the the natural flow of
00:30:05
becoming you know more adult in in nature she stifled those feelings and she kind of like those
00:30:14
romantic failures and her inability to find that like a real the reality of that instead of just in a book or
00:30:20
something she heard about or seeing her sister have that it warped and it ended up twisting those desire s and causing
00:30:30
themselves to like kind of manifest in [ __ ] up ways like it was like these desires she was having to feel this
00:30:38
thing and to have this thing she couldn't have it wasn't happening she saw it wasn't happening she saw other
00:30:43
people having it couldn't get it so she took that desire and she just Twisted it
00:30:49
into like maybe I want to see people suffer maybe that's what I want because no one's giving me what I want and maybe
00:30:58
can take that from them maybe I can take the most important thing from them which
00:31:02
is their lives so when Jane turned 18 years old she received a $50 stipend from Ann
00:31:10
toppen um per her indenture contract and as a legal adult now she was free to leave the topen house but
00:31:18
with nowhere else to go and very few skills beyond that of a domestic worker at the time she chose to stay at the
00:31:24
topin house for nearly a decade more wow when an died a few years later bye and ownership of the house transferred to
00:31:33
Elizabeth and her new husband or mal briam the Deacon Jane stayed on acting as a domestic worker just as she always
00:31:41
had so now she's living in the same house she grew up in and I worked as a domestic worker in and now she's working
00:31:48
for the lady of the house which is Elizabeth and her husband who Jane is very jealous of this relationship right
00:31:56
so this is just this is recipe for [ __ ] disaster but when Jane did finally move out in 1885 she did so at
00:32:05
at a big personal risk at the time really because the only money she had was that which was given to her upon her
00:32:11
18th birthday 50 bucks at which like at the time that's a good chunk of change for the time but like not to go out and
00:32:18
strike out on your own and she had no family that she could turn to for support if things didn't work out she
00:32:24
really only had Elizabeth and she [ __ ] hated her um and also in the late 19th century jobs for women were
00:32:30
few and far between as it was and those who did try to seek Independence really just only at the time could end up as a
00:32:38
teacher a seamstress or a factory worker those were like your three options you know and even now teachers aren't paid
00:32:44
enough so it's like you know back then it wasn't enough and given that Jane is not your typical you know healthy minded
00:32:52
woman going out into the world she sure isn't her grandiose ego and inability to
00:32:58
form any kind of meaningful bond with another human being it's pretty likely that those jobs
00:33:04
weren't going to work for her right you know those weren't things that were going to work for her I don't really see
00:33:08
her as a school teacher but there was one job that was open to women and had a lower barrier to entry and it would have
00:33:15
given Jane exactly the kind of power over others that she'd been craving her entire life yeah throughout much of the
00:33:22
19th century hospital nursing was a thoroughly unglamorous job still is an unglamorous job I would say one would
00:33:30
say um but one of the hardest like truly like nurses out there snap snaps to you
00:33:36
honestly uh this was but back then they were staffed by untrained and kind of unsavory women at the time like the low
00:33:44
barrier was real imagine like that being the person that's taking care of you're
00:33:49
an unsavory character and at what like why why was that ever a thing I don't know um as Harold sheer points out quote
00:33:56
the wards of of you were staffed by former inmates of Blackwell's Island workhouse women generally arrested for
00:34:04
drunkenness or prostitution who were paroled on the condition that they serve a stint as a nurse what the [ __ ] real
00:34:11
life and this was true of hospital nursing in many other urban areas of the United States at the time including
00:34:17
Boston yeah until about 1950 and that's when the state legislature recommended that an
00:34:24
institution be established to properly educate and prepare young women for a career in nursing good call cuz like
00:34:31
look at how [ __ ] hard nursing is yeah you have to like you have to be very smart to be doing all the things all the
00:34:37
things literally all the things and it's like you need to be trained highly trained highly skilled highly evaluated
00:34:45
to do that in 1887 Jane applied and was accepted into the nursing school connected to Cambridge hospital which
00:34:53
was one of the few teaching hospitals established after the legislature's recommendation for that for Jane and the
00:34:59
other students the two years spent in the program would have been very grueling much like nursing school is now
00:35:05
yeah um most work 12 or more hours a day seven days a week often with little or no time or off or breaks wow um in her
00:35:14
first month Jane was a trainee which meant she was given the most unpleasant work of course I like cleaning the
00:35:19
floors emptying chamber pots all that good stuff despite the menial and very unpleasant work Jane did us she was she
00:35:28
had always done and she just approached the work and her colleagues with a smile
00:35:31
had a cheery disposition and her nickname was finally earned Jolly Jane so at this point she like stopped making
00:35:39
up nasty rumors about people she at least stopped being I I think this was always her her thing even when she was
00:35:46
nasty in making up nasty rumors she always had that like she's like the mayor in Nightmare Before Christmas uh
00:35:54
where she could switch that face really fast to be like it's fine everything's okay you know like she could put on that
00:36:01
like Pleasant cheery exterior and then she go behind your back and be like this [ __ ] hoe like super [ __ ]
00:36:07
manipulative exactly now given her background as a domestic servant and her ability to tolerate poor treatment and
00:36:14
backbreaking Labor uh Jane could have made a very good nurse at the time because that's what it was it was
00:36:20
backbreaking Labor and very poor treatment which she was used to yeah and especially at the time when qualified
00:36:26
women in this Fields were in short sply uh the problem was that Jane didn't like
00:36:31
to work she didn't like to work like she she was good at it she didn't like to work and she surely thought herself
00:36:39
better than the other trainees around her cuz remember she's got that ego yeah the superiority thing in fact just like
00:36:44
her experiences in school Jane was well-liked by many of the instructors and administrators but her peers found
00:36:51
her she could sometimes be this nice Jolly Jane that they got but like I said they found her to be a NY gossip who
00:36:59
often avoided consequences by blaming her mistakes and wrongdoings on everyone else oh those are like the worst kind of
00:37:06
[ __ ] people to work with when you're like that is literally your fault and you are not taking me down with you and
00:37:11
they're like yes see you at the bottom and then everybody they've manipulated people above them so they get out of it
00:37:16
oh according to Shar quote in at least two instances she spread slanderous rumors about fellow trainees that
00:37:23
ultimately led to their dismissal wow to be she showing her snake to be okay doing that to like watch somebody lose
00:37:30
their livelihood especially back then where it was like so hard to get a job and like make them make a living for
00:37:37
yourself to just be like yeah like lol especially as a woman yeah like she knows how hard it is she knows the The
00:37:44
Limited places that women have to go and how how hard it is to be taken seriously
00:37:49
she doesn't give a [ __ ] she's look at the power that this woman craved over other people because it seems like she
00:37:56
had a life that she was kicked around like a like a stray cat and it's like and so I think she turned and looked at
00:38:04
it and said well I'm going to do it right back yeah but I'm going to do it a 100 times worse and that's [ __ ] up of
00:38:11
course it is and that's that's sick and that's that's a twisted mind that's a broken mind that's not somebody who's
00:38:17
sitting there saying well I could I could do that or I could decide to make this life for myself and better myself
00:38:25
go this other other way because as We Know we've seen people go both ways so you can't blame it on that but it's
00:38:31
definitely something that that kind of influenced how she looked at people around her for sure right now if Jane's
00:38:38
devious and duplicitous Behavior wasn't bad enough she also continued her habit of telling wildly unbelievable lies
00:38:45
about her personal history and future endeavors on one occasion Jane told a group of other trainees that having
00:38:52
heard about the advancements in medicine being made by women in American nursing
00:38:57
the Zar of Russia had requested that Jane join the personal staff at an enormous salary his personal staff at an
00:39:04
enormous salary good for her yeah just like the lies she told about herself in school these Fabrications were
00:39:11
definitely to make her seem Superior make the other nursing trainees feel intimidated by her and also to
00:39:19
compensate personally for her own crushing feelings of inadequacy inferiority that she had always felt
00:39:25
imagine working with a woman who's like uh the Zar of Russia is gonna hire me and she it's like one of have you ever
00:39:31
worked with somebody that's like oh I have like much bigger better things going on that you're still here though
00:39:37
yeah and it's like years later she's literally saying the Zar of Russia wants me to join his personal staff for a much
00:39:44
bigger salary and they're like why aren't you doing that why aren you there she's like just you know cuz I'm so
00:39:50
above it not ready yet I'm just so above that you know it's not it's not the money for me it's like no it is it's for
00:39:56
everyone right now now almost from the start James Pierce disliked her because of her unfounded
00:40:02
and absurd suspicious tail bearing slanderous gossip and consequent Mischief making as well as her pleasure
00:40:09
in inventing fabulous Tales fabulous Tales fabulous Tales but in time her instructors and administrators had
00:40:16
become suspicious of her as well during this 2-year period of training she was suspected of reporting false information
00:40:23
about patients and also sending patients to other institutions without doctor's approval and also reporting false
00:40:31
symptoms that resulted in patients receiving the wrong treatment oh that's terrible and ultimately prolonging their
00:40:37
illnesses because of that these were there were also reports of various items and valuables going missing without
00:40:44
explanation which by the way she was a [ __ ] thief too um shre said during her term of service at one of the
00:40:50
hospitals many articles were missed sums of money stationary aprons uniforms Etc
00:40:56
and she was suspect of stealing all of them wow now Jane would often be confronted with these suspicions though
00:41:03
there was never any real proof so what were they going to do and she also seemed Adept at getting out of trouble
00:41:08
and avoiding consequences either by Charming her accuser they manipulators are always good at that or just throwing
00:41:16
the blame on someone else but the primary reason Jane was able to avoid responsibility and the reason many
00:41:21
people were willing to tolerate her behavior was that she was very popular with the patients
00:41:27
patience liked her she she flicked on that Jolly Jane she sure did that's why she was Jolly Jane um however while
00:41:34
there were many patients Jane did like there were just as many if not more who she [ __ ] despised I believe that was
00:41:41
very open about it yeah according to Shear there were more than one occasion where Jane Jane was overheard saying
00:41:47
quote there was no use in keeping old people alive oh okay wow and I was like nobody thought that was a a red flag the
00:41:57
the maroon of flags [ __ ] he despite how competent she may have seemed to her instructors and peers when it came to
00:42:04
actually providing treatment to patients she was quote extremely Reckless and frequently gave larger doses than had
00:42:11
been prescribed that's so bad years later after her arrest Jane actually admitted that during her residency
00:42:17
period at Cambridge hospital she frequently experimented on patients withholding medications or administering
00:42:26
larger do does of morphine or atropine just to see what would happen oh okay that's
00:42:35
literally what some of the worst serial killers have said that they've done like
00:42:40
Hillside Strang stranglers doing experiments I just wanted to see what would happen if I injected this person
00:42:46
with this it's also it's so chilling like like spine chilling because it's it's such a simple explanation for
00:42:53
something so remarkably [ __ ] up and that's it's honestly like I'm going to take it to a lighter place here it's
00:43:01
honestly like in scream when Billy Lumis says it's scarier when there's no motive
00:43:05
yeah that's true in life it's like I just wanted to that's the truest [ __ ] that statement is so [ __ ] true
00:43:11
because we said before when there's it's scary when there's a reason yeah but [ __ ] when there's no reason to point to
00:43:18
it's like oh you just did that cuz you wanted to right like that's way scarier and this is even worse she couldn't even
00:43:26
say with certainty but she said by her own estimation she killed about a dozen people during her
00:43:33
2-year training period what and each of those deaths was assumed to be from natural causes and she didn't even know
00:43:41
how many she lost count said byy her estimation but she couldn't be sure at least 12 that's so F so this lady later
00:43:49
when it's like 31 way higher yeah she's she's just guesstimating wow now it's important to note Jane's recklessness
00:43:58
wasn't a matter of sloppiness or inattention at all um each overdose or experiment as she called it was very
00:44:08
methodical very calculated the fact that she called them experiments she called them experiments like by during her
00:44:15
instruction periods she paid very close attention to her lessons and was known to ask tons of questions about all the
00:44:23
medications she took detailed notes like she was on it she knew everything about
00:44:27
these medications she knew what they would do right in the present day such curiosity about various poisons might
00:44:33
arouse suspicions or be flagged yeah maybe it maybe but as Shear points out at a time when substances from arsenic
00:44:42
to strick nine were routinely prescribed for a range of ailments Jane's interest
00:44:46
didn't really seem that unusual she was just learning about the medications right but it like it honestly probably
00:44:52
made her look like a really good bright student you know it's impossible a pinpoint when she began experimenting on
00:45:00
patients and ha that even Jane herself had actually forgotten when she had started she's like I don't know I just
00:45:06
been doing this point to it you said it was like she got away with it for like 15 years been a while my God but by the
00:45:12
time she was out of her 2-year training period and was on a regular rotation at the hospital she was already injecting
00:45:18
patients with a variety of substances oh At first she used morphine exclusively because it was regularly prescribed for
00:45:26
a range of illness so she could get away with it she just put more in there and see what happens she would inject the
00:45:31
patient with varying amounts and stand beside them to watch how the drug affected each person she never left
00:45:40
that's one of the changes too is she a difference with her she didn't do it leave and then be like whoop it wasn't
00:45:47
part of that she watched sometimes she would like Comfort them like fake Comfort them through it sometimes she
00:45:55
would just she would like touch them caress them hug them whisper in their ear as this was happening she was and so
00:46:04
she was always there when they actually to watch them take their last breath that was part of it for her it took 15
00:46:11
[ __ ] years for you guys to be like hey Jane's always in the room where people die yeah and the last person who
00:46:16
have injected them with something now in somewhat smaller doses the drug would cause their pupils to dilate their
00:46:23
breathing would get louder and their skin would become clammy as they started to perspire very heavily yeah in larger
00:46:30
doses the patient would simply slip into a coma very quickly and then they would
00:46:34
eventually stop breathing and die but Jane found one thing that was most satisfying to her and she said this she
00:46:42
said the most satisfying thing was when the patient's death would involve violent convulsions oh my God yes this
00:46:49
woman is one of the scariest serial killers genuinely truly like she didn't love to watch when it was a quick silent
00:46:59
relatively you know not terrifying death think about think about just the stress
00:47:05
that you see like seeing something like that happen on TV you're like oh wow like even in a in a movie or a
00:47:10
television show you're like oh that's very upsetting to watch like it's it's just very visceral and very jarring to
00:47:16
watch and it's I mean I can't even fathom that I've never personally seen like an adult have like a full seizure
00:47:27
of me like in real life like I can only like my youngest had a relatively small seizure in my arms and I can tell
00:47:36
you if that that will stick with me until the day I die and beond abely and it's like and that was a that was
00:47:43
luckily thankfully she's completely fine suffer nothing from it but it was a very
00:47:48
small seizure in comparison to what it could have been watching standing there and watching an
00:47:54
adult go through convulsions in front of me while they're struggling to breathe and in pain and and
00:48:03
terrified and you're just watching it like how I'm like what I I think part of me is like I wish I could I wish she was
00:48:13
hooked up to all kinds of things so we could witness what her vitals did in that moment cuz I'm like do you have the
00:48:20
same response internally as we do like do you that would trigger my fight ORF flight response in a mive I mean I would
00:48:28
go into [ __ ] the outer space like my whole body would be a live wire of just [ __ ] losing it but would hers like
00:48:36
I'm like would hers just be gone but or would hers go off like yours because she's excited by it that's the thing
00:48:42
like not a flight or uh fright or flight kind of thing just like an excitement excitement it's like would your brain be
00:48:48
lighting up would your what would be happening inside of you I I was just thinking that cuz I've never really
00:48:53
thought of somebody standing there watching someone deliberately die in such a violent way in so that
00:49:00
they did it and I'm like I would just be very curious to see we would never be able to see but it's like I would be
00:49:06
very curious to see that if there's just a different situation going on in there
00:49:10
yeah that's why like these brains are fascinating they're [ __ ] up like they are [ __ ] up but I do think it's more
00:49:20
important to study some of these brains and yeah cuz it's not the same create some kind of like situation like that
00:49:27
obviously without killing anybody like duh but just to see what happens in a in a psychopath's brain like that that's
00:49:34
the thing like it's just this is so different than anything you can conceive of that it's just it's got to be
00:49:40
something different here and then to know like is to when you find out what's happening in the brain when these things
00:49:48
are going on to find out is there a cure yeah for a serial killer for a psychopath it's not that's not a to
00:49:57
like wild thing to say it's like there's cures for so many it's a mental illness
00:50:02
like it's it's an amalgamation of mental illness something so what is it you know
00:50:07
what I mean like I wonder if someday there ever will be the cure for the the psychopath or like something
00:50:16
that you can you can do to to determine it early yeah before it becomes a thing you know I mean like become one of those
00:50:24
things where you can catch it and do something to it it's not totally out of the realm of
00:50:29
possibility you know like we who knows and who knows too like it might be something that like we're already doing
00:50:35
yeah who really knows we don't know when you know like when your kid is going through something and you take them to
00:50:40
therapy but like a previous serial killer their parent didn't take them to therapy because it wasn't a thing like I
00:50:46
do Wonder true there's at least that step being taken it's like could we take 15 more steps and like get higher on
00:50:51
here but it's like maybe that really is part of it it could be anyway yeah there
00:50:57
a little detour but in time Jane began to experiment with other drugs instead of morphine and eventually began
00:51:04
blending the morphine with atropine which is a painkiller derived from belladon and detura plants that if not
00:51:12
handled colle or properly handled can have significant toxic effects unlike morphine which caused a certain amount
00:51:20
of sedation atropine causes losers to lose control of their muscle coordination while also potentially
00:51:28
causing hallucinations and delirium in many cases patients will pick at real or imagine N Things From hairs and scabs on
00:51:37
their own skin to items on a nearby table or Phantoms only they can perceive in the room and Jane would inject
00:51:44
victims with various doses one after the other and watch the effect which satisfied her dark and sadistic desires
00:51:52
to watch them just lose all coordination and pain and Terror insane and it also helped her because it would create such
00:52:03
a perplexing set of symptoms that no one could figure out what these deaths were
00:52:08
and they certainly weren't weren't thinking they were intentionally caused so despite her unique choice of murder
00:52:15
weapon Jane toppen was like many other serial killers to come after her in that the pleasure she derived from murder was
00:52:22
in the feeling of power she had over another person acting as you know the acting as God essentially and watching
00:52:31
them die right and seeing the light go when she was later asked how she felt when she committed these crimes Jane
00:52:38
would describe her murders as quote Delirious enjoyment voluptuous delight and the greatest conceivable
00:52:49
pleasure I don't have words for how disturbing that is voluptuous Delight in the
00:52:57
greatest conceivable pleasure watching an elder and cuz I'm assuming like a lot of these people are elderly a lot of
00:53:03
them are elderly yeah just and people who are already like they're in the hospital to begin with they're already
00:53:09
going through something you know traumatic or something where they need attention and it's like and then you're
00:53:15
just causing so much extra disruption to their system and watching them die and when pressed further about this
00:53:25
she eventually did admit that she murdered because it gave her a sexual thrill I had a feeling so she's like a a
00:53:34
sexual SST essentially yeah absolutely uh oh gross one of Jane's surviving victims told police after Jane had
00:53:42
injected her with the poison Jane quote climbed into bed with her as she Lay Dying before being interrupted by
00:53:49
another nurse walking through so she would literally climb into bed with these people while they
00:53:56
were con convulsing and dying and struggling to breathe and this is just beyond in a in
00:54:03
a hospital in some of the in the best hospitals in the world as we'll see Mass General is one of these Hospitals
00:54:13
Massachusetts General Hospital one of the top hospitals in the entire world and you think about like
00:54:21
and the reason I say that is you think about all the activity going on in a hospital yeah and all the people in the
00:54:26
hallway like walking back and forth constantly going in and out of rooms and [ __ ] and she just she has so much G that
00:54:35
she just first of all does this and then second of all hops into bed with her victims just like not worried that
00:54:40
anybody's going to walk in like yeah and not worried that that's just like [ __ ]
00:54:44
up in and of itself and like Beyond but no thought of being caught by anything cuz I think that's crazy she has such a
00:54:51
high ego to She's So ego Centric that she truly believes that she can talk her way out of anything and to be honest got
00:55:00
every reason to think that because she does it is scary how some people really I think we already said it but how they
00:55:06
can talk their themselves out of things like that it's a power it is it really is it's a power it's inexplicable and
00:55:12
it's an awful power because it's like somebody who can do that is very dangerous too the most dangerous um and
00:55:20
again this is like the late 1800s so it's like hospitals are just such obviously such a different situation
00:55:25
than they are now right right like but for this for this to happen at Mass general you know like Cambridge hospital
00:55:31
like these are we know these Hospitals now and they were always well respected always well-run always well like these
00:55:38
are the top hospitals from the beginning yeah and even them even she was even able to do it to them like think about
00:55:45
what she could have done somewhere with less oversight but thanks to her ability to
00:55:50
charm the right people her entire life those with influence apparently in the late 18 in late 1888 Jane landed a
00:55:59
position at Massachusetts General Hospital no out of her trainee days this again was one of the most prestigious
00:56:06
training Institutes of the day and Remains the top Hospital one of the top hospitals in the world in addition to
00:56:13
providing nerv nursing services at the hospital she would also be able to continue her education with some of the
00:56:20
most well-respected doctors and surgeons in the entire country yeah whose recommendations she would rely on for
00:56:27
future employment yeah now at first Jane's supervisor objected her to her admission actually based mostly on the
00:56:35
fact that she was of Irish heritage that's [ __ ] but as she' done so many times in the past Jane managed to
00:56:43
thoroughly impress her superiors and made it through her probation period without any trouble so she was a and it
00:56:48
K these are the same kind of people we always say it the people who if they use their [ __ ] powers for good oh my God
00:56:55
they they could go off and do great things yeah climb right to the top in fact Jane had so impressed the hospital
00:57:01
uh administrators that when the head nurse took a temporary leave leave of absence Jane was named as her
00:57:07
replacement no goodbye despite only having recently come out of her probation period the [ __ ] that's how
00:57:13
manipulative She was That's Bonkers and how much of a charmer she was now unfortunately while Jane may have been
00:57:20
you know may have managed to fool the higher ups it wasn't long before she fell back into her old habits and her
00:57:25
peers labor labeled her a self-promoting liar who routinely disparaged the efforts of her colleagues while taking
00:57:32
the credit for herself yeah she's a true [ __ ] snake she really is there were other problems too incorrect information
00:57:40
being entered into patient charts records being falsified various items going missing around the hospital same
00:57:47
[ __ ] following her everywhere most importantly though Jane had once again become Reckless and others began
00:57:53
noticing that she was dispensing medic Pati at improper dosages putting patients at significant risk of
00:58:01
course now while her behavioral problems an occasional Reckless or careless in injection was caused for concern no one
00:58:09
would have thought much l much less believed that a nurse in a worldclass medical facility was actively murdering
00:58:18
patients cuz that's just like you your brain doesn't go there naturally no and yet there is documented
00:58:26
evidence that many people under Jane's care at this time did indeed die unexpectedly of course yeah clearly with
00:58:33
modern medicine still in its infancy though it's unclear how many of those deaths were actually
00:58:39
murders but testimony provided during Jane's trial strongly implies she had been perfecting her method and
00:58:45
practicing her craft while working at Mass General I would say so now in a statement provided by Amelia fenny who
00:58:52
was a patient admitted for treatment of abdominal cancer going in for abdominal cancer yeah like that's a that's huge
00:59:00
the woman claimed she had been having difficulty sleeping one evening due to her pain and laying on her cot in the
00:59:06
dark she came to realize someone was in the room with her oh the visitor lit the
00:59:11
lamp and cuz remember we're doing this by lamp light everybody remember that the way like that's so silly that that
00:59:17
just occurred to me but the fact that there's not even electricity no oh my God like there's no it's lamp picturing
00:59:24
a hospital with no electricity and lamp light like you picture a hospital you picture
00:59:31
like like [ __ ] beeping everywhere oh my God so this person lit the LMP and revealed herself to be Jane
00:59:40
toppen a nurse and said I'm the nurse no finny explained that she was in terrible
00:59:45
pain and asked Jane please get a doctor for me yeah but Jane replied there's no need for that I have something to make
00:59:51
you feel better after helping finny sit up on the cot Jane handed handed the woman a glass and told her to drink
00:59:59
which the patient did she is a nurse after all yeah and not long after after she drank it she began to feel her body
01:00:05
going numb and her throat became uncomfortably dry as she slipped into unconsciousness Amelia felt the sheets
01:00:13
and covers being pulled back and heard the cck creek as it shifted for years after finny would convince herself that
01:00:21
this was an hallucination caused by the medication and it was only after Jane was arrested Ed that she realized it was
01:00:27
real as Amelia Lay Dying on the cot Jane began caressing and stroking her hair and face gently then started kissing her
01:00:37
face all while Whispering that everything would be all right moments after this finny felt the
01:00:48
glass being pressed to her lips again as the nurse encouraged her to drink more but used and then but she said she
01:00:55
realized IED what was happening and used all her strength she had to keep her mouth shut and turn her head then very
01:01:03
suddenly the nurse jumped out of the cot as though she had been startled and fled
01:01:08
the room and that's when Amelia couldn't fight the effects of medication and just
01:01:12
went unconscious and this was she was literally laying next to her saying everything's going to be all right
01:01:18
stroking her [ __ ] hair K kissing this is deranged truly deranged now e this is so yucky it's so yucky now
01:01:32
wildly I guess it wasn't the nefarious experiments and bizarre behavior with the patients and people dying that led
01:01:38
her to be ousted from General from Mass General but it was her duplicitousness and her costic personality that ended up
01:01:46
getting her gone one or the other's going to do it something had to although Jane had managed to charm more than a
01:01:51
few of the higher ups in the hospital their character references weren't enough to shut down the number of
01:01:56
complaints about her unpleasant demeanor that her colleagues came forward to and
01:02:01
the growing suspicions that Jane was trying to blame people for items that had gone missing including supplies from
01:02:07
the store room a diamond ring from a patient oh my God and money that had been stolen from a cash box damn when
01:02:15
was when she was confronted Jane acted indignant and performed the role of the unfortunate victim just as she had done
01:02:22
every time before I but at a time when nuring was emerging as a legitimate field of study for women there was very
01:02:29
little room for error and the suspicions others had of Jane could have negatively
01:02:33
affected the hospital's reputation abut M General isn't going to put up for that
01:02:37
[ __ ] they said Jane toen not today baby they said no way um they were like we want to be iconic um however without any
01:02:44
evidence that she was responsible for the thefts her supervisors couldn't fire her without causing even more problems
01:02:49
for themselves their opportunity to get rid of her finally did come in summer of
01:02:54
1890 when Jane left her assed Ward without permission ooh that's all she did got her on a technicality it was it
01:03:02
was a minor infraction but they were like that's what we needed thanks Jane it was a documented violation of the
01:03:09
rules and exactly what they needed to get her the [ __ ] out of Mass General so they were like bye [ __ ] he said don't
01:03:14
let the door hit you on your way out yep see you see you later so see you never although she had already completed her
01:03:20
studies and her diploma was set to be awarded Jane was fired from the hospital and never receiv received her license
01:03:27
but she still went on to work in another hospital but like good Mass General was
01:03:32
like bye you're like yeah yeah yeah I was like General was like [ __ ] that I love it now after being dismissed from
01:03:41
Mass General Jane spent a year providing Nur private nursing services for prominent local families collecting
01:03:48
glowing letters of recommendations that by the end of the year allowed her to regain her employment at Cambridge
01:03:54
hospital okay of course Jane being who Jane was Jane just being Jane just being Jane it
01:04:00
didn't take long for her to fall back into those old nasty habits of hers from Gossip to theft and most importantly
01:04:08
murder this time however she didn't confine her experiments to just the patience her distaste for her co-workers
01:04:17
started to blend with her contempt for her patients okay but how did she poison them when one of the train e 19-year-old
01:04:27
Maddie Davis fell ill during a shift she laid down to rest in one of the beds and
01:04:33
she was tended to by nurse toppen no at one point Jane gave the girl some medication that according to the
01:04:40
official report caused Maddie to quote be seized with a sudden and violent collapse fortunately for Maddie a doctor
01:04:48
happened to be passing by the room at the time and intervened ultimately saving the girl's life Wow like so many
01:04:55
of the professional around Jane at the time the Doctor Who Saved Maddie never suspected that she would have been
01:05:00
intentionally poisoned by one of the [ __ ] Hospital staff nor did Maddie think that why would anybody think yeah
01:05:06
she just was like what the [ __ ] happened to me but there was at least one doctor
01:05:10
at Cambridge hospital who after noticing that several of his patients had died under Jane's watch became very
01:05:16
suspicious and reported Jane to the hospital Administration for what he believed was a reckless use of dangerous
01:05:22
drugs and I was like he said [ __ ] I have your number that's my guy right there given all the trouble that Jane
01:05:29
was suspected of causing you know thefts and strife among the nursing staff administrators use the doctor's
01:05:34
suspicions as a reason to fire Jane bye girl and she was fired from Cambridge hospital in the spring of 1891 get the
01:05:41
[ __ ] out that was a short stint for her entire life James Jane's worst instincts
01:05:46
and criminal Behavior had prevented her from forming any kind of bond with others and she spent every waking moment
01:05:52
trying to cover up her deeply held feelings of inadequacy with overcompensation and really dark
01:06:00
manipulation but now at age 32 those same instincts and behaviors had cost her not one but two jobs at two of the
01:06:08
most prestigious teaching hospitals on the East Coast also while she had invested four years of her life in
01:06:15
training she'd managed to get fired from both hospitals before receiving a license so she wasted a [ __ ] ton of time
01:06:22
because she's a [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] jeane now under these circumstances it seemed unlikely that Jane would find
01:06:28
more work in another hospital so she returned to private nursing where she could she knew she was going to make
01:06:33
more money there and really there was not going to be a lot of oversight for her mhm it was kind of perfect for what
01:06:39
she was doing yeah so for Jane the transition from hospital to private nursing wouldn't have been all that
01:06:45
arduous or uncomfortable because she' spent her entire Youth and then some tending to the needs of a wealthy Foster
01:06:51
mother and sister yeah which wasn't all that different from private nursing to be honest as a private contractor she
01:06:59
really would have been suspect expected to just sit with the patients in their homes administer medications provide
01:07:05
other treatments and kind of wait on them during periods of convalescing yeah for Jane those things would have likely
01:07:12
honestly been a cakewalk very easy the easiest Parts less easy would have been the constant interactions with doctors
01:07:20
and concerned family members who would have relied on Jane at various points during this of course for much of her
01:07:26
life she had struggled when it came to interpersonal Communications largely because she was a chronic liar who used
01:07:32
to manipulated people to get what she wanted or to make herself look or feel Superior and this caused endless
01:07:38
problems for Jane in a hospital setting because patience came and went quickly you know she was interacting with a lot
01:07:45
of people in those environments but it was really doubly challenging in a home environment because everyone talked to
01:07:51
one another regularly there and there were far fewer people on whom things could be blamed when they went wrong yet
01:07:59
Jane never seemed to lack employment and while there was occasional complaints about her behavior she managed to do
01:08:05
quite well for herself during this period according to Shear some of her employer employers were taken aback by
01:08:11
her tendency to spin elaborate lies about her life and accomplishments though for the most most part they
01:08:17
dismissed her fondness for extravagant storytelling as a function of her Irish ancestry she's really out here making
01:08:24
the Irish look I know I'm like damn like can you not Jane can you stop giving us
01:08:28
a bad name seriously now after her arrest Jane would confess to 31 murders and stand trial for 12 deaths but at
01:08:36
various points she was suspected of as many as 100 murders or more throughout her adult life that's believable she
01:08:44
only confessed and was stood trial for that amount of deaths they do believe it is over a hundred wow although some of
01:08:52
those victims were almost certainly killed during this early period of private nursing which is between 1891
01:08:58
and 1895 their identities and the details of their deaths remain pretty much unknown
01:09:04
that's so sad it is what is known is that Jane's most Reckless period of mass killing the one for which you would
01:09:12
eventually be caught and pro uh prosecuted for began very much in Earnest in the spring of 1895 and it
01:09:19
started not with a patient under her care but with her own landlord what Let's Start The Killing Spree portion of
01:09:28
this as a private nurse Jane was often required to provide livein Round the Clock care for her patients obviously
01:09:35
which took care of her housing needs so that was good for her but when she wasn't required to live with her
01:09:41
patients Jane found lodging with an elderly couple Israel and lovey Dunham yes don't even don't you dare
01:09:50
lovey don't you dare go near lovey Dunham she was living at 19 Wendell Street in Cambridge at a certain point
01:09:57
Jane began providing home care for the Dunhams who were nearly 80 years old at the time you live your whole [ __ ]
01:10:03
life just to come into contact with this on May 26th 1895 Israel Dunham died after 4 days of illness from what the
01:10:12
coroner identified as a strangulated hernia it was only after her arrest that the truth would be revealed Israel
01:10:20
Dunham had been poisoned by Jane toppen because he had become in her words quote
01:10:24
fee and fussy he's 80 and sick be as feeble and fussy as you'd like to be I'm going to
01:10:33
be the fussiest I am the fussiest I'm fussy at 38 so I'm fussy as hell it's going to get real bad when I'm 80 Jane
01:10:42
stayed on as a border with Mrs Dunham for more than two more years who had lovey had no idea that this woman had
01:10:49
murdered her husband for 2 years she lives there until September 19th 1897 when she decided that lovey the Widow
01:10:58
had become quote old and cranky and poisoned her with a combination of morphine and atropine dissolved in water
01:11:06
which remember atropine poisoning causes delirium and hallucinations and is very
01:11:13
scary yeah and she did this to this 80s something year old Widow who had already
01:11:18
lost her husband two years prior because of her yep throughout her adult life Jane's assaults and Mur were committed
01:11:26
against those with whom she either had a casual relationship the Dunhams M or a professional association as a healthcare
01:11:32
provider right this changed in the summer of 1899 when Jane murdered her foster sister Elizabeth
01:11:41
Brigham no since moving out many years earlier Jane had maintained a tenuous relationship with Elizabeth I knew that
01:11:50
was going to blow your mind oh she here's the thing Elizabeth was always very cordial and very welcoming to Jane
01:11:57
I thought you said like she was she was pretty nice to her she was not mean she was not she didn't treat her but she was
01:12:04
jealous of her it was the jealousy she was everything that Jane could never be and I think even that probably pissed
01:12:10
Jane off that Elizabeth wasn't a [ __ ] it's like that she wanted her to be this
01:12:17
what she was in her head why aren't you and honestly Jame was probably why aren't you like me I'm this angry
01:12:24
[ __ ] miserable off-putting liar snake manipulator murderer terrible person and
01:12:32
I don't have any of the things that you have and like you're this person who's like this good person on top of all the
01:12:39
other things that you have it probably pissed her off absolutely and so she was always very cordial very welcoming to
01:12:45
Jane despite Jane's very off-putting personality in fact Elizabeth and her husband had always had fond feelings for
01:12:53
Jane and were happy that she managed to find success in Boston as a nurse they were happy for her wow and like told her
01:13:00
as such they like congratulated her and celebrated her and we're like we're so glad you found this and Elizabeth it
01:13:07
sounds like she was probably trying to be the family that like her mom was never too to Jane to Jane Jane on the
01:13:13
other hand spent most of her life resenting Elizabeth who again she felt was totally undeserving of all the
01:13:19
things that Jane herself had been denied whether it was an toppen love and affection
01:13:26
Elizabeth's many close friends and acquaintances or her romantic relationships and her very successful
01:13:31
and loving marriage for Jane Elizabeth represented a constant reminder of all the ways that she believed she had been
01:13:40
failed by everything around her and that she didn't get that [ __ ] and not that
01:13:45
that's she couldn't look at it as I want to strive to be that I need to destroy that and I want to use her support to
01:13:53
like lift me up in that way and know that I have this person in my corner she looked at it and said I have to destroy
01:13:59
that to get it yeah and there's still there's people who think that all around that you have to destroy the thing
01:14:04
that's above you to get there instead of just grabbing someone's hand and standing up there with them let's do it
01:14:09
together right yeah and it's the grossest kind of thought process and it's like they're the most dangerous
01:14:16
kind of people and it doesn't get you anywhere look what look what happen to Jane topen exactly in August 1899 oramel
01:14:23
and Elizabeth planned AAC on Cape Cod and hoping to lift Elizabeth out of a recent bout of depression that she had
01:14:30
been suffering from orl suggested they invite Jane along to keep her company until he arrived a few days later oh God
01:14:38
because they loved Jane right and they thought that you he was like oh you love Jane make you feel like it's your sister
01:14:46
you know like that's your sister for all intents and purposes Jane arrived late on the evening of August 25th and the
01:14:52
following day the two enjoyed a picnic at the beach like sisters later that night Elizabeth
01:14:58
announced that she was feeling tired and went to bed early the following morning
01:15:02
when she didn't wake Jane claimed she went to check on Elizabeth and that she found her unresponsive in her bed yeah
01:15:08
because of what you did after making her sister comfortable Jane went next door and asked for help summoning the local
01:15:15
doctor later that afternoon oramel received a telegram informing him that Elizabeth his wife had become
01:15:22
dangerously ill oh no and he made immediate plans to get to Cape Cod but unfortunately by the time he arrived the
01:15:28
following day Elizabeth was in a coma after having suffered from what local doctors described as quote a stroke of
01:15:36
apoplexy what is that which would associate with stroke symptoms okay a little bit um and like it leads to
01:15:45
unconsciousness oh okay Elizabeth died the following day August 29th at age 70 oh my God she was 70 at this point in
01:15:53
time she killed her sister at 70 years years old what the [ __ ] she killed her sister at 70 years old after being
01:16:00
invited on a vacation with her and her husband to make feel better because her husband thought that her sister who she
01:16:08
loves so much will cheer her up wow like wow and again you live your whole [ __ ] life for your sister to kill you
01:16:18
yeah and then it's even worse a few days later as orl was packing up Elizabeth's
01:16:23
belongings at the vacation home home that they'd rented that he was now packing up after she died there all by
01:16:29
himself he was surprised to find that his wife's purse contained only $5 when they planned for the trip a few
01:16:35
days earlier Elizabeth had said she would be taking no less than $50 for her expenses because she was like [ __ ] that
01:16:41
I'm going to spend money yeah hell yeah go girl and it seemed impossible that she would have spent that much money in
01:16:46
a short period of time especially when she wasn't even feeling good exactly so orml asked Jane if she knew anything
01:16:51
about it but Jane was like I don't know what the [ __ ] you're talking about she
01:16:54
did however tell orl that just before Elizabeth died she had told her that it was her her dying wish that Jane take
01:17:00
her gold watch and chain as a Keepsake she's such a [ __ ] she's a [ __ ] she's a [ __ ] with a capital K in any
01:17:10
case of murder that isn't witnessed by others the only information we have available is from physical evidence or
01:17:16
obviously whatever details if any the Killer is going to choose to disclose yeah since poisoning tends not to give
01:17:23
you a whole lot in terms of evidence or Insight at all almost all the details known about Jan's murders were provided
01:17:31
by the killer herself and unfortunately those were sometimes vague and brief and
01:17:37
[ __ ] um but when it came to the murder of Elizabeth Brigham Jane not only confessed but elaborated on her
01:17:44
motive saying that Elizabeth quote was really the first of my victims that I actually hated and poisoned with a V
01:17:53
vindictive purpose I let her die slowly with gripping torture oh my God that is her words that's someone you literally
01:18:04
like however old she was like we're thinking like 10 8 to 10 when she was adopted she spent her whole life like
01:18:11
growing up with this this sister again for all intents and purposes they live treated her well who treated her well
01:18:19
who was kind to her who you know whatever had no control over how her mother exactly was or how she was
01:18:25
treated and I'm sure probably tried to like help when she could yeah I let her die slowly with gripping torture you how
01:18:34
do you do that to someone that like that you know how do you do that to anybody obviously but how do you do that to
01:18:41
somebody that like is your family it gets worse no it doesn't she told investigators that as her sister began
01:18:52
to slip into a coma Jane climbed into bed with her to be as close as possible when she died and she said quote I held
01:19:03
her in my arms and watched with delight as she gasped her life out I there's like no words it's like the
01:19:16
fact that she like hops into bed with people and holds them as they die you can't you can't picture in your mind
01:19:24
somebody doing that in an evil manner no you picture somebody trying to hold someone to comfort them right like I
01:19:30
can't picture her doing that just try to be there for them as they're dying like
01:19:33
being like you're not alone I'm here with you like you're not alone like somebody I've seen people do that of
01:19:38
course I can't picture her doing that happily this woman all I picture is this woman with a maniacal Chesire Cat smile
01:19:47
on her face just delighting in all of the throws of death that is happening that closer my brain can even picture
01:19:55
that like that's how just absolutely insane this idea is she is she's something totally different never I've
01:20:04
never heard of somebody who who does this she's a different Beast she really is to hold somebody to hold your family
01:20:13
as they're dying and to be happy yep while doing so is heinous and your sister who always treated you well I
01:20:21
won't do that to you thank you you're welcome same I got you now just a few months later in December 1899 Jane
01:20:28
killed again although this time she went back to her preferred victim profile oh
01:20:32
God on Christmas day no 70-year-old Mary mcneir traveled the short distance from
01:20:39
her home in Watertown Hey to her daughter's home in Cambridge and that day mary caught a chill and by the
01:20:46
evening she felt like she was coming down with a cold in the days that followed Mary developed a cough and
01:20:52
symptoms of a cold but as far as the doctor could tell it was nothing serious just a shitty cold you know it was
01:20:58
Winter yeah nevertheless her family was concerned about her health and insisted they hire a private nurse so the family
01:21:04
doctor recommended Jane toppen to the mcneir family Jane seemed more than competent in qualified and
01:21:11
within a day it seemed as though Mary was showing signs of improvement wow pleased that things were going so well
01:21:17
Mary's granddaughter Evelyn Shaw returned home for after a visit confident that her grandmother was going
01:21:22
to be well again in no time flat of course just a few hours later though Mary's Coachman appeared at Shaw's door
01:21:29
to tell her that her grandmother had taken a sudden and very serious turn and she should return to Watertown as soon
01:21:35
as possible Evelyn raced back to her grandmother's house and by the time she arrived the doctor was already there he
01:21:42
told the family Mary had quote suffered a stroke of apoplexy just like Elizabeth
01:21:47
which according to Jane had occurred just after she took her medication Jane immediately informed the staff of what
01:21:53
had happened but insisted it was nothing to be worried about and she would care for the woman despite Jane's insistance
01:22:00
the cook felt it appropriate to notify the family and sent The Coachman to the Shaw's home in Cambridge wow I'm glad
01:22:07
these other people are like get [ __ ] like no I'll tell who I want to unfortunately by the time the doctor
01:22:12
arrived there was literal he could do to help Mary and she died on December 29th without ever regaining
01:22:19
Consciousness so she just slipped into a coma and then died in the days after the
01:22:23
funeral while they were pack backing out Mary's belongings the family noticed many of her nicest clothes and jewelry
01:22:28
were missing and they asked the doctor whether he thought Jane might be to blame and giving how well they knew and
01:22:35
trusted the rest of the staff their suspicions weren't unreasonable because they were like nobody on this staff did
01:22:40
that yeah like we we let this new woman into our home our grandma dies and then all her nice stuff is gone but the
01:22:46
doctor was outraged by that accusation are you kidding me as far as he was concerned Jane toppen was one of the
01:22:52
best private nurses there was in Boston and he would not tolerate any arguments to the contrary the that's how well she
01:22:59
Charmed them the egg the egg on his face all his face is an egg at this point he
01:23:05
became an egg he that's that doctor honestly he had a great fall he sure did yeah now just as she had always done she
01:23:13
had managed to manipulate exactly the right person in order to avoid any detection wow because the details of
01:23:20
Jane's activity are based largely on self-reports it's difficult to Lish a timeline or a pattern in the frequency
01:23:27
with which she killed cuz remember there's so many more than what we even know of but there is a noticeable
01:23:33
increase in Murder beginning with another atypical victim huh in mid January 1900 just a few weeks after
01:23:39
killing Mary mcneir Jane paid a visit to to her foster sister's Widow oramel Brigham hoping to find him alone
01:23:48
no oh this is now that Elizabeth was out of the way it seems that Jane had intended to win Brigham's affection and
01:23:56
finally Reed the Romantic attention that she felt she deserved way more than Elizabeth what so now she's trying to
01:24:03
[ __ ] her murdered sister's husband blink blink blink blink but she was pretty upset when she
01:24:14
found that orl had hired a young woman named Florence Caulkins to help with the responsibilities of the house again not
01:24:21
in a relationship with her just hir her to help him take care of the house he's probably depressed now she later told
01:24:27
investigators Jane did I was jealous of her I knew she wanted to become Mr bram's wife I think she might have just
01:24:34
been that was just her job working whether or not that was true Jane had no intention of tolerating competition she
01:24:41
had gone through Great Lengths to get rid of the biggest competition as a matter of fact uhuh so on January 15th
01:24:47
Jane poisoned the 45-year-old housekeeper to ensure that she would be out of the way of her dead sister's
01:24:56
husband like orell's not going to be like wow it's weird that every time you're around someone dies like what the
01:25:04
[ __ ] you're the other thing is it's like she did that to take her dead sister's
01:25:09
husband the sister that she murdered and crawled into bed with and watched as she
01:25:12
breathed her last breath and also like you don't think he's going to start to suspect this you're supposed to be a
01:25:17
nurse but all these people just die in your care like you're not good at this job you suck less than 2 weeks later
01:25:25
70-year-old William Ingram a Watertown patient under Jane's care died on January 27th 1900 the doctor who
01:25:33
attended to the body after his death labeled the death the cause of death as degenerative disease of the heart which
01:25:39
Ingram was known to have suffered with but was nonetheless pretty suspicious that his death had come so suddenly nice
01:25:46
that he actually like was s he was like wait a second as far as the doctor could
01:25:50
tell the only thing that had changed in his care was the recent AR the recent arrival of his new nurse Jane toppen oh
01:25:58
I had a feeling once again those suspicions were shut down after Jane was arrested and more than a year after his
01:26:05
death Ingram's family released a statement insisting quote no suspicion was attached to topen and she proved
01:26:11
herself to be most capable wow like the few murders of intimate relations she'd already
01:26:18
committed the last grouping of murders committed by Jane broke from her established victim profile starting with
01:26:25
her friend Myra Connor what now it's unclear how the two women had met but by February 1900 they
01:26:33
known one another for about two years so that's a that's a long friend a friendship at the beginning of February
01:26:39
Myra was feeling unwell and called for a doctor who diagnosed her with localized
01:26:43
peritonitis which basically is inflammation of the lining of your abdomen it it's usually caused by some
01:26:49
localized infection like a perforation of the bowel or a burst appendix not great
01:26:55
um she was prescribed op an opium solution o you know the 1900s of uh a week later on February 7th Jane arrived
01:27:03
at her home insisting that she be allowed to care for her sick friend until that point Connor had been making
01:27:09
steady progress towards actually a full recovery but almost immediately after Jane arrived her condition took a strict
01:27:17
turn for the worse according to testimony provided by Connor's doctor during Jane's trial on February 11th
01:27:24
less than a week after Jane's arrival by the way Myra Connor's quote died in great Agony suffering such terrible
01:27:31
convulsions that her left arm was bent nearly double what yeah what bent nearly double
01:27:40
I don't understand it like literally she went through such convulsions that her arm broke oh my God like it threw her in
01:27:48
such convulsions that her arm broke in like two places oh my God was like bent the wrong way and this is supposed to be
01:27:57
her friend and you'll find out why she was going through such horrible convulsions here because once again Jane
01:28:04
was benefiting from modern medicine being in its infancy although the doctor was confounded by how peritonitis had
01:28:11
escalated to such a violent end he's like I've never seen this before but following Jane's arrest it occurred to
01:28:19
him that the symptoms Myra exhibited now strongly resembled the effects of strict
01:28:24
n poisoning strick nine poisoning causes horrible spasming so the back arches unnaturally enough to cause literal
01:28:33
damage to your back and spinal cord that's how violent the spasms are death from strick nine poisoning usually comes
01:28:42
only hours after being exposed to it and it's caused by either expiation caused by paralysis of the systems necessary to
01:28:52
control your breathing or you die from exhaustion from the convulsions that's how bad it is you can
01:29:03
die from the exhaustion of convulsing so violently what it is a nightmarish way to die yeah I would
01:29:14
say so I would absolutely say so what the [ __ ] and later it would be learned that that like Elizabeth Jane had been
01:29:22
so deeply en of Myra particularly for her job as a dining hall matron at St John's theological School although this
01:29:31
seems like clearly this is a weak motivation for [ __ ] horrible murders but she's this is her mindset this is
01:29:40
her mindset jealousy she is a jealous jealous woman and cannot handle it and to go to those lengths because of your
01:29:47
jealousy like whoo and it's clear at this point that Jane has spun wildly out of control I would say so to the point
01:29:56
that for it you know it's her ability to resist the urge to kill at this point is
01:30:02
non-existent she cannot resist the urge and yet this would be the last time that
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Jane killed for more than a year but when she resumed her activity it would be what one can only call Reckless
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abandon I mean it feels that way right now and that's where we're going to end part one cuz I think we need to take a
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[ __ ] second we do but like damn cuz all this time I'm like I need to breathe yeah I mean I don't blame you whoa Jane
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toppen and when we when we return for part two we are going to go through her final murder spree and what happens
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after all right it's a horrific tale we will see you then so we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it we not
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so weird as Jane no [Music]