Jane Toplin

Aileen Wuornos is often cited to be the first female American serial killer. While it may be true that she is the first acknowledged female serial killer, there are accounts of many women prior to Aileen Wuornos who would fit the definition of serial killer, even if they were not acknowledged as such when their crimes occurred.

One such woman is Jane Toplin, a Massachusetts nurse during the 1880s and 1890s who accumulated 31 known victims and possibly dozens more. Jane Toplin is considered to be one of the most dangerous women in American history, and definitely one of the most prolific “killer nurses” to ever exist.  

Jane Toplin began life as Jane Kelly, the only daughter of Peter Kelly. A mean alcoholic who was charged with raising little Jane on his own, Peter Kelly resented his daughter and wanted nothing more than to be rid of the burden of raising her. In 1863, when Jane was just 6 years old, Peter Kelly left Jane at an orphanage and never returned. A couple years later, Jane was taken in by the wealthy family, the Toplins. Although Jane took the Toplins’ name, she was never adopted by the family, nor was she ever treated as family. She was considered nothing more than an indentured servant. What was particularly difficult for Jane is the fact that the family that had taken her in had a daughter, Elizabeth, who was the exact same age as Jane. As Jane grew up watching her foster sister being doted on and living the grand life that Jane would never have, resentment and hatred grew. Something snapped inside Jane Toplin’s mind, and a monster was born.

By the 1880s, Jane was studying to be a nurse. Although many thought Jane to be a kind and compassionate caregiver, the truth is that Jane chose a career as a nurse in order to have access to helpless victims. Jane would frequently perform experiments with various poisons on her patients. One such victim, Amelia Finney, lived to tell the tale of her encounter with Jane Toplin. It was 1889 at Massachusetts General Hospital. Finney had been admitted to the hospital in extreme pain. In the middle of the night, Nurse Jane Toplin offered Finney a dose of medication to ease the pain. Little did Finney know, however, that Toplin’s real goal was to slowly kill Finney by overdosing her with a toxic cocktail of morphine and tranquilizers a little at a time. As Finney becomes partially paralyzed by the concoction, Jane Toplin crawls into bed with the victim. Toplin straddles Finney and sexually assaults her as she waits and watches for the last signs of life to leave her victim. Finney is saved, however, when someone else enters the ward and Toplin is forced to relinquish her activities.

Toplin’s victimology was varied. She killed men, women, young, old, close acquaintances, and complete strangers. She was not picky. And most of her victims were chosen by pure chance and access. Only one victim was chosen specifically: Toplin’s foster sister, Elizabeth. In her eventual confession, Toplin stated that Elizabeth Toplin (Elizabeth Brigham by the time of the murder) was the only victim she actually hated. Toplin had resented her foster sister all her life because Elizabeth had been able to live a better life. Toplin was consumed with getting revenge.

Toplin was eventually caught when she killed an entire family over the course of 6 weeks. Toplin had been contracted as a caretaker for the Davis family, but over the course of 6 weeks, she slowly poisoned and killed each family member. The brazen arrogance of this act was what finally led authorities to suspect her. Once arrested for the murders of the family, Toplin took pleasure in shocking the police and others by confessing to a total of 31 murders.

What is most interesting about Toplin is the way in which she is different from most other killer nurses. Where most killer nurses are either “mercy killers” who euthanize people to relieve their suffering, or women who suffer from munchausen by proxy and kill almost accidentally as a result of placing people in life-threatening situations in order to “save” them and become heroes, Toplin was a true sociopath. She was a sexual sadist who liked to prolong the pain and stretch out the deaths over a course of days or even weeks. She felt no empathy and only felt pleasure when inflicting pain.