Who Killed Jane Stanford? Inside A 120-Year-Old Mystery

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Stanford University on the San Francisco peninsula is a rarified place, so its intriguing that even 120 years after her death, there's still a mystery surrounding the death of Jane Stanford, the university's co-founder. It's a story full of tyrants, frenemies, poisoning and cover-ups that you won't want to miss. Additional Resources: Who Killed Jane Stanford? Inside the 120-Year-Old Mystery Read the transcript for this episode Spooky Bay Curious Spotify Playlist Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Carly Severn. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Gabriela Glueck and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ana De Almeida Amaral, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Transgender kids have been in the headlines a lot recently, but they rarely get to tell their own stories.
0:06.6	Join us on the California Report magazine for a limited series called Love You for You.
0:12.3	We'll listen to trans and non-binary kids talk with the adults in their lives about what it means to thrive with love and support.
0:18.9	Thanks for letting me be who I am.
0:21.2	Thank you for letting me be your parent and for letting me love you.
0:25.5	From KQED, Find the California Report magazine wherever you get your podcasts.
0:32.9	From KQED.
0:35.5	Stanford University is undeniably a Bay Area icon with the pedigree to match.
0:42.1	Founded back in the late 19th century, this private institution, sprawling over 8,000 manicured acres on the sunny San Francisco Peninsula, is famed for its world-class research in medicine, business, law, and the humanities.
0:56.7	It has 20 living Nobel laureates.
1:00.4	In short, not the kind of place you'd necessarily expect to harbor a century-old mystery,
1:06.7	full of skullduggery, lies, and poison.
1:13.6	But that's exactly what lies beneath Stanford's history,
1:16.6	because the woman who co-founded this place, Jane Stamford,
1:20.6	died in very strange circumstances in 1905.
1:26.6	And although the official verdict was natural causes, some suspect something far more sinister
1:32.7	happened.
1:35.2	Today on Bay Curious, we're following the historic breadcrumbs to discover who might have been
1:40.3	responsible.
1:41.8	Stay with us.
1:58.1	Support for Bay Curious comes from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, where pure ingredients and sustainable brewing meet a legacy of craft. Share one with a friend today
2:02.3	and taste for yourself. Sierra Nevada, taste what matters. Please drink responsibly.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 2 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.