Oh the sweethearts (my patients) I helped in their dying
when so gently with morphine I pushed them while crying
with joy and seduction, they praised how I nursed them
and I could continue to poison the daughters and mums.
I was said to be jolly. a nickname reflecting my pleasure
the process to slaughter with nursing, to kill in my leisure.
I loved to watch when they almost were dying and free
them a while just pretending, before they followed my plea.
In the end I was smiling at court and declared to be mad
and now i have aged like none of patients I’m glad.
forever I’m Jane, the jolliest nurse who murdered for fun
among serial killers I survived much better than men.
Jane Toppen
Today Kim want’s us to do a dramatic monologue poem inspired by Robert Browning’s “The laboratory” at dVerse. I have listened to a lot of podcasts recently while resting my eye, and I came across the terrible story of Jolly Jane at the podcast Criminal. I followed the anapest rhythm (almost) and rhyme scheme of AABB according to Kim’s guidelines.
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May 2, 2017
Oh, well done,Björn! I’ve read about lots of serial killers but i don’t think I’ve ever come across Jane the jolly nurse. She is creepy. Dd she really believe she was helping them, I wonder? That is some ending!
The podcast gave you an insight… including an imitation on how she was talking… but I think she might have done it for pleasure.
Me too.
I will have to keep an eye out for any jolly nurses (or doctors).
The way you write it, though — so sing-songy and nursery-rhyme-ish — I can’t help but like her. 🙂
“In the end I was smiling at court and declared to be mad” … How could she be anything but mad?
I think that every murderer is mad in some sense… 🙂
Would have to be ~
Oh, and I do really like what I’ve listened to of that album you recommended, by the by. The new Feist … Pleasure. You’re right; it’s totally me.
Jolly Jane. She should have been a pirate.
This is absolutely riveting and to think she was a nurse! Bravo!
Sadly, there is a nurse, here, in Ontario, who is facing several murder charges, for killing clients, in a nursing house. And no, she won’t escape on an insanity plea, like Jane did. Although, it does muddy the debate over the right to die, for those, who wish it.
I think there was a case of a male nurse as well. Nicely done, Bjorn!
She sounds like the spider waiting on flies. Glad I’m still in good shape. Yikes!
a fine retelling of the Jolly Jane story
What a tale. Thanks (I think)
Well told!
We actually have a real life story of a nurse who is charged with killing her patients ~ I don’t know if she did it for fun or amusement though ~ I enjoyed your story Bjorn of this jolly Jane ~
Creepy… terrifying actually that someone like a nurse would want to kill the sick…
I was just listening to your linked podcast, which is very engaging. How interesting that she used both morphine and atropine, the latter being what you’ve been putting in your eye(s) lately. I find that to be a lovely coincidence.
Gah. She’s terrifying. Your depiction of her is awesome.
Such an easy way to kill! I love the blandness of this. There’s no guilt at all, is there?
Jolly? How very contrary. Or maybe she really did love her ‘work’
Yowza.
You’ve caught the matter-of-fact, unremorseful time very well.
Dramatic, indeed…..another mad woman!!
terrible topic very well told
Eerie and dark. Good one, Bjorn.
I think that you were feeling the mood of the rooms. You relayed it to us very nicely. If I had to choose between being a mass murderer or a terrorist I am thinking even now it would be the terrorist. Most terrorist killers die with their prey. Glory amongst the tribe and no trial or jail.
..
Well, I’m a nurse. Its a terror to know such.
Female serial killers do survive better than men in the same profession. The world continues to be too blind to see what’s there… killing and smiling jollily right in front of it.
The anapest rhyme in this is brilliant – and mesmerizing. It really serves to amp up the ‘chill’ in this piece.