The Stanford Mausoleum lies a few steps off of Palm Drive, the majestic roadway designed by Frederick Law Olmsted that leads to the university’s main quad. Tucked behind eucalyptus trees and a cactus garden, the mausoleum is among the more obscure attractions on campus and by far the weirdest. I visited it as a freshman, to attend the dance party held there every Halloween, and never went back.
Like most Stanford students, I was vaguely aware that the crypt held the remains of Leland Stanford Jr., after whom the school is named, and his parents, Leland and Jane Stanford. What none of us knew is that the mausoleum also concealed a dark secret: that Jane Stanford, who outlived her son and husband, didn’t die of natural causes in Honolulu on February 28, 1905, as the inscription on her tomb suggests. She was murdered.
