The Murder at the Moana Hotel | Jane Stanford’s Unsolved Poisoning in Honolulu In 1905, Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, arrived in Honolulu and checked into the Moana Hotel in Waikiki. She was one of the most powerful women in America, a widow, a grieving mother, and the woman who had fought to keep Stanford University alive after the deaths of her husband and only child. Then, on the evening of February 28, she became violently ill after taking bicarbonate of soda, an ordinary household remedy meant to soothe the stomach. In her final hours, Jane said the words that would travel around the world: “I have been poisoned.” Hawaii’s coroner’s jury later ruled that Jane Stanford died from strychnine poisoning, administered with felonious intent by a person or persons unknown. More than 120 years later, no one has ever been convicted. This episode of Beneath the Palms follows the life, grief, power, and final mystery of Jane Stanford. From the death of her son, to the founding of Stanford University, to the first alleged poisoning attempt in San Francisco, to her death at the Moana Hotel in Honolulu, this is one of Hawaii’s oldest unsolved murder mysteries and one of the most overlooked true crime stories in American history. This is not just a story about wealth, legacy, or a famous university. It is the story of a woman who carried unbearable loss, built something meant to outlive her, and died trying to tell the people around her what she believed was happening to her. Sources Our Heritage, Our Mission | Stanford Magazine - https://stanfordmag.org/contents/our-heritage-our-mission Founding Mothers: Jane and Jane | Stanford University Libraries - https://exhibits.stanford.edu/stanford/founding-mothers-jane-and-jane Stanford Special Collections and University Archives - https://library.stanford.edu/spc Library of Congress, Chronicling America Historic Newspapers - https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Newspapers.com Historical Newspaper Archive - https://www.newspapers.com/ Additional contemporaneous newspaper coverage reviewed from the Honolulu Commercial Advertiser, Hawaiian Gazette, Hawaiian Star, Evening Bulletin, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Call, Oakland Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, Oregonian, Buffalo Courier, Syracuse Herald, Coshocton Daily Age, Fresno Morning Republican, The State, and other historical newspaper archives covering Jane Stanford’s death, the Moana Hotel poisoning, the coroner’s jury verdict, and the later public dispute over the finding. #JaneStanford #MoanaHotel #StanfordUniversity #HawaiiTrueCrime #UnsolvedMurder
