The Story Behind This Evil Place In Massachusetts Will Make Your Blood Turn Cold

Taunton State Hospital was founded as the State Lunatic Hospital in 1854. It operated for decades as a repository for individuals suffering from mental illness and, in at least once case, a true monster.

Though Taunton did not suffer the same overcrowding and terrible living conditions as other New England asylums of the era, it did have brushes with evil that not many other places can match. Read on to learn more about this hospital with a dark history.

Before its closure in the 1970s, staff and patients reported feeling uneasy in the lower levels of the hospital. After digging around in the hospital’s records, a group of staff allegedly uncovered evidence that an inner circle of doctors and nurses were conducting experiments on patients in the basement of the hospital. Staff notes were reportedly found indicating that some patients were taken from the wards by certain doctors and not seen again. While this story has all the trappings of an urban legend, explorers of the abandoned hospital claimed to have felt an evil presence in the building.

Of course, the most disturbing connection with true evil that Taunton State Hospital can claim is its most notorious resident - Jane Toppan, one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. When interviewed by police, Toppan stated that her aim was "to have killed more people — helpless people — than any other man or woman who ever lived."

Jane Toppan was born Honora Kelley in 1857. Her parents were Irish immigrants, though Jane’s mother died when she was very young. Her father was an alcoholic and rumored to be insane, and local rumors even stated that his madness drove him to sew his own eyelids shut while working as a tailor.

When Jane was six years old, her father deposited his two young daughters at the Boston Female Asylum orphanage and never saw them again. Eventually Jane was placed as an indentured servant with the Toppan family in Lowell, and adopted their last name as her own.

In her early years, Jane was described as "brilliant and terrible." She was reported to be very intelligent but unsociable and unkind. The Toppans already had a young daughter, Elizabeth, when Jane arrived in the household, who was apparently quite beautiful and kind. Many believe Jane’s envy of Elizabeth first triggered her homicidal tendencies. When Jane grew up, her personality seemed to shift almost overnight. She began training as a nurse at Cambridge Hospital in 1885, and had many friends. During her time at Taunton, she was nicknamed "Jolly Jane" due to her perpetually cheerful and good-humored demeanor.

However, the sunny disposition was hiding a horrible nature. During her time at Cambridge Hospital, Toppan started using her patients as guinea pigs, experimenting on them with morphine and atropine just to see what different doses would do to them. She would make up fake medical charts and even get into bed with her patients as they died from the drugs she had given them. Some reports stated that she derived sexual satisfaction from feeling the life ebb from their bodies.

Toppan went on to kill 31 people over her career as a hospital and private nurse. She eventually became fond of poisoning people who were not her patients, including her foster sister Elizabeth.

After a toxicology report uncovered the presence of strychnine in one of Toppan’s patients, she was arrested and tried for murder in the Barnstable County Courthouse in 1902. She was committed to Taunton State Hospital after being found not-guilty by reason of insanity. Toppan stayed at Taunton for the rest of her life.

An interesting note: local folklore often cites Taunton State Hospital as the temporary home of notorious Massachusetts resident Lizzie Borden. However, during the trial concerning the vicious axe murders of her family, Borden was never held at the hospital itself but at the jail on Hodges Avenue near the hospital.

Taunton State Hospital is definitely one of the darker spots on the Massachusetts map. If spooky stories appeal to you, check out our list of the 15 most terrifying places in Massachusetts that will give you chills.