Mary Kay McBrayer - Americas First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster

Praise for Americas First Female Serial Killer

Mary Kay McBrayers Americas First Female Serial Killer brings the horrifying true story of Jane Toppan to lurid, novelistic life, and forces the reader face-to-face with the thoughtlessness and cruelty that helped turn a gifted, damaged child into one of Americas most legendary killers. A heartbreaking page-turner of a book, and a story as sadly relevant today as it was a cen tury ago.

Shaun Hamill , author of A Cosmology o f Monsters

Jane Toppans legacy may have been written in strychnine, but it is Mary Kay McBrayer who finds Jolly Janes voice in this captivating, empathetic exploration into one of Americas most prolific serial killers.

Clay McLeod Chapman , author of The Tribe trilogy and Th e Remaking

In Americas First Female Serial Killer , Mary Kay McBrayer brilliantly presents one of the most fascinating serial killers in American historyand not just because the killer was a woman. McBrayer digs into the troubled life of Jane Toppan, who is by far one of the most disturbing angels of death found in the annals of murder. What McBrayer offers us is a complexand terrifyingportrait of a killer who seemed almost doomed fr om birth.

Kate Winkler Dawson , author of American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of Am erican CSI

Mary Kay McBrayer has written a thoughtful and inspired take on one of the greatest poisoners in history. Americas First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster seethes with rage, compulsion, and a righteous condemnation of the servitude of the underclass. A chilling and sober ing read.

Robert Levy , author of The Glittering World and Anas Nin at the Gra nd Guignol

I love this book; its like Stephen Kings Misery as told by Shirley Jacksona book as steady, precise, and twisted as Toppans murders. And somehow its laced with whimsy too. At the heart of the mystery, and the core of the books tantalizing design, is the question: how did she get by with it? The answer lies, wickedly, in a story of trust and service, and the invisibility that comes wit h it all.

Timothy Schaffert , author of critically acclaimed Devils in the Sugar Shop and The Singing and Dancing Daught ers of God

I found it difficult to put down this cinematic retelling of a troubled and murderous (yet charismatic and scientifically bright) mind from Americas Gilded Age. Using vivid scene work and insight, Mary Kay McBrayer shows us more than just a portrait of a killer; she argues, with deft and horrific storytelling, the most extreme effects of our class systems tendency to marginalize, and ultimately de-humanize, so many of its citizens.

Elena Passarello , author of Animals Strike Curious Poses and Let Me Clear My Throat

Jane Toppan should be known as well as Jack the Ripper: Americas first female serial killer and an angel of death with dozens of victims, but also a victim herself. Mary Kay McBrayers novel gives voice to Toppan, never apologizing, but explaining how this invisible woman refused to be ignored by racking up a body count. Her story has become as neglected as her life, but McBrayer restores her to her place in our history of complicated, upsetting women who refused to comply with their own oppression, often v iolently.

Grady Hendrix , author of The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires, My Best Friends Exorcism , and Horrorstr

Americas First Female Serial Killer sheds light on the horrifyingbut long neglectedstory of Jane Toppan, the nurse with the dubious honour of being Americas first female serial killer. Toppans own confession stated that she had dispatched over thirty victims through poisoningbut her motives are contradictory and unclear. In this compelling and creative book, McBrayer unravels the threads of Jane Toppans narrative to see what we can discover of the woman beneath. Its a startling picture of sociopath quite unlike any other, told through the fragmented stories of those people who were unfortunate enough to cross paths with Jane Toppan. Complex, contradictory and cold, these stories offer the reader a chance to look behind the curtain and see what turned Honora Kelley, a young girl of Irish heritage left in the care of the Boston Female Asylum, into Jane Toppan, one of the most prolific and complex serial killers in Americas history.

Dr Hannah Priest , Manchester, editor of She-Wolf: A Cultural History of Female Werewolves

Americas First Female Serial Killer is more than a book about murder; its a recipe for creating monsters. McBrayer has turned knowledge into a gripping narrative and cold facts into a full, painful life to show us how wanting to be needed can turn a normal person into a heartless fiend. This is Capotes In Cold Blood for serial killer enthusiasts: meticulously researched, superbly written, and incredibly vivid. Dont miss it.

Gabino Iglesias , author of Zero Saints and Co yote Songs

Americas
First Female
Serial Killer

Americas
First Female
Serial Killer

Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster

Mary Kay McBrayer

Coral Gables

Copyright 2020 by Mary Kay McBrayer.
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover Design: Elina Diaz

Cover Photo/illustration: New York American Journal and American Magazine Supplement, copyright by W.R. Hearst, New York, NY.

Layout & Design: Elina Diaz

The Confession of Jane Toppan copyright, 1902, by W.R. Hearst, English rights reserved.

The following is a work partially of fiction. This book aims to provide an imagined retelling of true historical events and, in that respect, many names, characters, places, opinions, thoughts, and events are products of the authors imagination. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used for this purpose. Any resemblance of the private thoughts and/or opinions of the fictionalized individuals in this book to their real-life counterparts, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

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Americas First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2019954727
ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-207-7, (ebook) 978-1-64250-208-4
BISAC category code TRU002010TRUE CRIME / Murder / Serial Killers

Printed in the United States of America

We know how to make serial killers. You just take a Type-A kid whos fairly bright and just beat the crap out of him day after day. Thats how its done.