Who Killed Jane Stanford, founder of Stanford University?
Sept 18, 2019 0:18:28 GMT
CrepedCrusader likes this
Post by hi224 on Sept 18, 2019 0:18:28 GMT
There was a great deal of gossip in San Francisco when Mrs. Jane Stanford suddenly left her Nob Hill mansion for Hawaii on February 15, 1905.
Ill health was one theory. Low spirits another. But, most shocking of all, the persistent rumor that, one month prior, someone had tried to murder the co-founder of Stanford University.
By all accounts, Honolulu was just what Mrs. Stanford needed. She seemed to be shaking off her earlier melancholy and had enjoyed a charming picnic on the afternoon of Feb. 28. Held on the grounds of the Moana Hotel, Mrs. Stanford partook in the hotel’s packed lunch of cucumber sandwiches and gingerbread. She ate so heartily that, come dinnertime, she still wasn’t hungry. She asked her secretary Bertha Berner to bring her a laxative and bicarbonate of soda at 8:15 p.m., and retired to bed soon after.
What happened next was analyzed for months by detectives, the curious public and an official coroner’s inquest. According to Berner, she was sound asleep when she was awoken by the moans of her employer around 11 p.m. Berner looked up to see the outline of Mrs. Stanford clinging to the door frame.
“I have got no control of my body,” she said. “I think I have been poisoned again.”
Berner helped Mrs. Stanford back to her room, by which time she was undergoing full-body spasms. A doctor also staying in the hotel was called.
“Bertha,” Mrs. Stanford gestured to her secretary. “Tell the doctor what happened.”
Berner took her to mean the earlier poisoning attempt, and she informed the doctor of it. He had a stomach pump fetched, but it was too late. Mrs. Stanford’s body twisted with back-breaking convulsions for three straight minutes. During a brief break in the suffering, she groaned, “What a horrible death to die!”
At 11:30, Jane Stanford shuddered once more and died.
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/the-mysterious-murder-of-jane-stanford-university-12482745.php
Ill health was one theory. Low spirits another. But, most shocking of all, the persistent rumor that, one month prior, someone had tried to murder the co-founder of Stanford University.
By all accounts, Honolulu was just what Mrs. Stanford needed. She seemed to be shaking off her earlier melancholy and had enjoyed a charming picnic on the afternoon of Feb. 28. Held on the grounds of the Moana Hotel, Mrs. Stanford partook in the hotel’s packed lunch of cucumber sandwiches and gingerbread. She ate so heartily that, come dinnertime, she still wasn’t hungry. She asked her secretary Bertha Berner to bring her a laxative and bicarbonate of soda at 8:15 p.m., and retired to bed soon after.
What happened next was analyzed for months by detectives, the curious public and an official coroner’s inquest. According to Berner, she was sound asleep when she was awoken by the moans of her employer around 11 p.m. Berner looked up to see the outline of Mrs. Stanford clinging to the door frame.
“I have got no control of my body,” she said. “I think I have been poisoned again.”
Berner helped Mrs. Stanford back to her room, by which time she was undergoing full-body spasms. A doctor also staying in the hotel was called.
“Bertha,” Mrs. Stanford gestured to her secretary. “Tell the doctor what happened.”
Berner took her to mean the earlier poisoning attempt, and she informed the doctor of it. He had a stomach pump fetched, but it was too late. Mrs. Stanford’s body twisted with back-breaking convulsions for three straight minutes. During a brief break in the suffering, she groaned, “What a horrible death to die!”
At 11:30, Jane Stanford shuddered once more and died.
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/the-mysterious-murder-of-jane-stanford-university-12482745.php
