This is just fascinating. I’m doing read-throughs of chapters of my book and I needed to double check something minor about Jane Stanford, the co-founder of Stanford University. A routine Nexis search revealed a book I didn’t know about “The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford” by Robert Cutler, a retired Stanford professor. It turns out that Stanford was probably murdered by the Progressive first president of the University, David Starr Jordan. The reviews make it sound like Cutler’s case is very solid (though a century later, ultimately unprovable). I’ve ordered the book.

Update: Here’s a good summary of the tale.

Update II: Now having read the above summary all the way through, I should say that I spoke too soon when I said Starr Jordan “probably” murdered her. We should say “may have murdered her.”