CRIMES BY WOMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11872, 25 January 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

CRIMES BY WOMEN.

NURSE CHARGED WITH A SERIES OP MURDERS. Is* a gaol some miles from Boston a stout, pleasant-fa woman of 45, is awaiting trial for an appalling series of crimes. It is believed that this woman, Jane Toppan, a professional nurse, has murdered by poison no fewer than 12 persons, a majority of whom she was attending in her professional capacity. Las summer she was living in a cottage at Cataumet, on the coast south of Boston, and the members of the Davis family were her neighbours. Mr. _ Davis owned a small hotel there. ; His wife was /ailed to Cambridge by the illness of a friend. 1 here she also was taken ill, and this nurse was summoned to attend her. A day or two after the nurse's arrival Mrs. Davis died, and then the nurse returned to Cataumet with the body. Presently the dead woman s daughter, Mrs. Gordon, was mysteriously ill, and she died under Nurse Toppan care. A week later Mr. Davis was in his grave, and four days after his funeral the remaining daughter, Mrs. Gibbs, died suddenly. Her husband, the skipper of a coastwise schooner, was at .sea.\ When, he returned and ascertained that all of the four members of the Davis family had been under the care of this nurse he began an investigation. Two bodies were exhumed, and in both of them arsenic was fouud. r lhen Jane loppan was arrested. At once the mysterious deaths of other patients of the nurse were recalled. She had been employed two years earlier m the family of Mr. 0. A. Brigham, in Lowell. Her "home had been with this family, for Mrs. Brigham's mother had taken her in her youth from a foundling asylum, educated her, and enabled her to study for her profession in the hospitals. It appears that this woman who is now in gaol undertook to murder all the Brighams, as she afterwards murdered the Davises. Mrs. Brigham was the first victim in that group ; then the housekeeper's . life was taken a few months later Mr. Brigham's sister, while visiting in her brother's house, died suddenly and then Brigham himself was seized with a' violent and alarming illness, from which he recovered, probably because the nurse, who had attended all these persons, herself became disabled. But before she took to her bed a neighbour named Churchill died suddenly while he was the subject of her professional services. It is now known that Toppan, soon after Mrs. Brigham's death, urged the bereaved husband to marry her, but met 110 encouraging response. This was a few days .before his alarming illness; and it is now disclosed that at this time the woman twice attempted to commit suicide. The motive in the case of the Davises is more obscure; but Toppan had borrowed money from Davis, and owed him a few hundred dollars when he died. The daughter, who was the last of the prisoner's victims in this family, had refused to cancel the debt. In the case of several other patients who were probably killed by this woman her purpose seems to have been merely to gain opportunities for robbery, or to kill those who could have proved that she was a thief; for in each instance money was missed, or evidence of her own indebtedness had been destroyed. It comes to light now that to some she had beci an object of suspicion ; but she was so genial and light-hearted, and so competent in her profession, that sh? . went safely on her way until the. bereaved sailor, Captain Gibbs, set out to bring her to justice.

Insanity will be the defence, it is announced, and it will be shown that her sister has for years been in an asylum for the insane. The woman's real name is Nora Kelly, and her present name was given to her by her foster mother. The prosecutors may find it difficult to prove-if her guilt bs not admitted the arsenic found was administered by her; for the undertakers in embalming used arsenic in considerable quantities. The same difficult}' is encountered in preparing for the prosecution of Mrs. Mary Belle Witmer, of Dayton (Ohio), who is now accused of murdering 14 persons by poison. This woman, who is 47 years old, and has been a member in good standing of the United Brethren Church, is held for the murder of Mrs. Anna Pugh, whom she was attending as a nurse, and who had made a will in her favour. But not until evidence as to this crime had been procured was it recalled that Mrs. Witmer's four husbands, several of their children, and four men by whom she had been employed as housekeeper had died suddenly, and from causes that were not clearly ascertained. The Toppan woman's crimes appear to surpass in number, if not in revolting character. those of Mrs. Sarah Jane Robinson, who is now serving a life sentence in the prison to which this wicked, nurse will be sent if convicted. Mrs. Robinson killed by poison her sou, her daughter, her nephew, her husband, her landlord, and three other persons, for the money, in the form of life insurance and other property, which these dreadful crimes brought to her.