Stanford University Press
The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford
About this book
Jane Stanford, the co-founder of Stanford University, died in Honolulu in 1905, shortly after surviving strychnine poisoning in San Francisco. The inquest testimony of the physicians who attended her death in Hawaii led to a coroner’s jury verdict of murder—by strychnine poisoning. Stanford University President David Starr Jordan promptly issued a press release claiming that Mrs. Stanford had died of heart disease, a claim that he supported by challenging the skills and judgment of the Honolulu physicians and toxicologist. Jordan’s diagnosis was largely accepted and promulgated in many subsequent historical accounts. In this book, the author reviews the medical reports in detail to refute Dr. Jordan’s claim and to show that Mrs. Stanford indeed died of strychnine poisoning. His research reveals that the professionals who were denounced by Dr. Jordan enjoyed honorable and distinguished careers. He concludes that Dr. Jordan went to great lengths, over a period of nearly two decades, to cover up the real circumstances of Mrs. Stanford’s death. The late Robert W. P. Cutler, M.D. was a Stanford Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. His historical writing includes The Tin Box: Keepsakes of a Civil War General (1999) and Red Mountain: The Rise and Fall of a Magnesite Mining Empire, 1900–1947 (2001).
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Preface
ix -
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Introduction: The Founding of Leland Stanford Junior University
1 - PART ONE
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1 The Death of Mrs. Stanford
9 -
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2 The Poland Water Poisoning
20 -
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3 The Police Investigation
26 -
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4 The Honolulu Inquest
34 -
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5 The Stanford Party in Honolulu
46 - PART TWO
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6 The Stanford Party Returns Home
61 -
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7 Bolstering Dr. Jordan's Diagnosis
70 -
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8 The Cases of Shorey and Humphris
79 -
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9 The Other Physicians
88 - PART THREE
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10 Perpetuating the Myth
97 -
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11 Summing Up
102 - APPENDIXES
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APPENDIX 1 Dr. Shorey and the Experiment Station
111 -
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APPENDIX 2 The "Ross Affair"
114 -
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APPENDIX 3 Professor Julius Goebel
122 -
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Notes
129 -
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Select Bibliography
149 -
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Index
157