Women’s History Month
“Jolly Jane” — The Story of Serial Killer Jane Toppan
Killer women throughout history
Jane Toppan was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1854, as Honora Kelley, the daughter of Irish immigrants. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was barely one year old. Her father was an abusive alcoholic known to most as “Kelley the Crack” — a reference to him being a bit of a “crackpot” in the town.
Among the rumors about Kelley was that he had crossed the threshold into insanity years ago and that madness had driven him to sew his eyelids shut while working as a tailor. While it is unknown if the rumors are true, what is known is that after the death of his wife, Kelly took his 8-year-old daughter, Delia, and his 6-year-old daughter, Honora, to an orphanage for penniless girls.
After surrendering his youngest two children to the Boston Female Asylum, he never saw them again. While there are no records in existence for how their life was at the orphanage, the documentation from their acceptance into the asylum says they were “rescued from a very miserable home.”
