Stanford's history is a little shocking. Founder Amasa Leland Stanford, a robber baron, the 8th Governor of California and subsequent US Senator, died of heart

Stanford's history is a little shocking. Founder Amasa Leland Stanford, a robber baron, the 8th Governor of California and subsequent US Senator, died of heart failure, but had locomotor ataxia, a symptom of tabes dorsalis, which is a late consequence of neurosyphilis. His wife, cofounder Jane Sanford, died of strychnine poisoning, murdered by... we're really not sure, but my money's on her late husband's syphilic lover.