Alan Turing's 100th Birthday and Questions on His Death

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Vikki
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Alan Turing's 100th Birthday and Questions on His Death

#1

Post by Vikki » 23 Jun 2012, 14:42

Alan Turing: Inquest's suicide verdict 'not supportable'
By Roland Pease
BBC Radio Science Unit


Alan Turing, the British mathematical genius and codebreaker born 100 years ago on 23 June, may not have committed suicide, as is widely believed.

At a conference in Oxford on Saturday, Turing expert Prof Jack Copeland will question the evidence that was presented at the 1954 inquest.

He believes the evidence would not today be accepted as sufficient to establish a suicide verdict.

Indeed, he argues, Turing's death may equally probably have been an accident.

What is well known and accepted is that Alan Turing died of cyanide poisoning.

His housekeeper famously found the 41-year-old mathematician dead in his bed, with a half-eaten apple on his bedside table.

It is widely said that Turing had been haunted by the story of the poisoned apple in the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and had resorted to the same desperate measure to end the persecution he was suffering as a result of his homosexuality.

But according to Prof Copeland, it was Turing's habit to take an apple at bedtime, and that it was quite usual for him not to finish it; the half-eaten remains found near his body cannot be seen as an indication of a deliberate act.

Indeed, the police never tested the apple for the presence of cyanide.

Moreover, Prof Copeland emphasises, a coroner these days would demand evidence of pre-meditation before announcing a verdict of suicide, yet nothing in the accounts of Turing's last days suggest he was in anything but a cheerful mood.

He had left a note on his office desk, as was his practice, the previous Friday to remind himself of the tasks to be done on his return after the Bank Holiday weekend.

Nevertheless, at the inquest, the coroner, Mr JAK Ferns declared: "In a man of his type, one never knows what his mental processes are going to do next." What he meant by "of this type" is unclear.

The motive for suicide is easy to imagine. In 1952, after he had reported a petty burglary, Turing found himself being investigated for "acts of gross indecency" after he revealed he had had a male lover in his house.

Faced with the prospect of imprisonment, and perhaps with it the loss of the mathematics post he held at Manchester University, which gave him access to one of the world's only computers, Turing accepted the alternative of "chemical castration" - hormone treatment that was supposed to suppress his sexual urges.

It is often repeated that the chemicals caused him to grow breasts, though Turing is only known to have mentioned this once.

The authorities' continuing interest in Turing became apparent in 1953 when a gay Norwegian acquaintance, Kjell, announced by postcard his intention to visit him at his Wilmslow home, but mysteriously never arrived.

Turing told a friend, by way of explanation: "At one stage, the police over the north of England were out searching for him."

With six decades of hindsight, these oppressive attentions, the nation's failure to appreciate his wartime contributions, his apparent sidelining at the Manchester computer department, have led to a tragic picture of Turing being hounded during his last years, and suicide being a natural outcome.

But Prof Copeland argues that on the contrary, Turing's career was at an intellectual high, and that he had borne his treatment "with good humour".

Of the Kjell affair, Turing had written that "for sheer incident, it rivalled the Arnold [gross-indecency] story"; and immediately after his conviction had told a friend: "The day of the trial was by no means disagreeable.

"Whilst in custody with the other criminals, I had a very agreeable sense of irresponsibility, rather like being back at school."

On the face of it, these are not the expressions of someone ground down by adversity.

What is more, Turing had tolerated the year-long hormone treatment and the terms of his probation ("my shining virtue was terrific") with amused fortitude, and another year had since passed seemingly without incident.

In statements to the coroner, friends had attested to his good humour in the days before his death.

His neighbour described him throwing "such a jolly [tea] party" for her and her son four days before he died.

His close friend Robin Gandy, who had stayed with him the weekend before, said that Turing "seemed, if anything, happier than usual".

Yet the coroner recorded a verdict of suicide "while the balance of his mind was disturbed".

Prof Copeland believes the alternative explanation made at the time by Turing's mother is equally likely.

Turing had cyanide in his house for chemical experiments he conducted in his tiny spare room - the nightmare room he had dubbed it.


Bombe decryption machine: We should focus on Turing's genius, says Prof Copeland He had been electrolysing solutions of the poison, and electroplating spoons with gold, a process that requires potassium cyanide. Although famed for his cerebral powers, Turing had also always shown an experimental bent, and these activities were not unusual for him.

But Turing was careless, Prof Copeland argues.

The electrolysis experiment was wired into the ceiling light socket.

On another occasion, an experiment had resulted in severe electric shocks.

And he was known for tasting chemicals to identify them.

Perhaps he had accidentally put his apple into a puddle of cyanide.

Or perhaps, more likely, he had accidentally inhaled cyanide vapours from the bubbling liquid.

Prof Copeland notes that the nightmare room had a "strong smell" of cyanide after Turing's death; that inhalation leads to a slower death than ingestion; and that the distribution of the poison in Turing's organs was more consistent with inhalation than with ingestion.

In his authoritative biography, Andrew Hodges suggests that the experiment was a ruse to disguise suicide, a scenario Turing had apparently mentioned to a friend in the past.

But Jack Copeland argues the evidence should be taken at face value - that an accidental death is certainly consistent with all the currently known circumstances.

The problem, he complains, is that the investigation was conducted so poorly that even murder cannot be ruled out. An "open verdict", recognising this degree of ignorance, would be his preferred position.

None of this excuses the treatment of Turing during his final years, says Prof Copeland.

"Turing was hounded," he told the BBC, adding: "Yet he remained cheerful and humorous."

"The thing is to tell the truth in so far as we know it, and not to speculate.

"In a way we have in modern times been recreating the narrative of Turing's life, and we have recreated him as an unhappy young man who committed suicide. But the evidence is not there.

"The exact circumstances of Turing's death will probably always be unclear," Prof Copeland concludes.

"Perhaps we should just shrug our shoulders, and focus on Turing's life and extraordinary work."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18561092

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Re: Alan Turing's 100th Birthday and Questions on His Death

#2

Post by David W » 24 Jun 2012, 01:16

Thanks for that. it was very informative.

It's nice to see Google honouring him today (June 23rd) as well.
"Perhaps we should just shrug our shoulders, and focus on Turing's life and extraordinary work."
I couldn't agree more! Let's raise a glass to Alan!
"To Alan!"


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Alan Turing finally receives a Royal Pardon

#3

Post by sunbury2 » 24 Dec 2013, 04:16

Alan Turing, one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century and considered one of the founding fathers of modern computing has finally received a Royal Pardon from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. His crime was he was gay in 1951 and that was an offence in the UK at the time. So 63 years after his conviction and approx. 60 years after his suicide, the British finally make a meaningless gesture to right a terrible wrong.

Turing's work at Bletchley Park during WW2 was pivotal in breaking the Enigma codes. His treatment post war was beyond disgusting.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/ ... 6789302426
A MAN often referred to as the father of modern computers who ended World War II early by his cracking of the Enigma code has today been given a posthumous royal pardon for a conviction of being a homosexual.

British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing was a hero when he was pivotal in cracking the Enigma code that arguably ended WWII two years early.

But in 1952 he was chemically castrated on court orders after being convicted for gross indecency for having a homosexual relationship with a 19-year-old man.

The conviction ended his career with his security clearance cancelled, barring him from contact with Bletchley Park where the German encryption machine was cracked during the war and the later Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

He committed suicide two years later aged 41 years.

Dr Turing, often described as the father of modern computing, was today granted a pardon by the Queen under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, after a request from the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling. The pardon takes effect today.

Pardons are normally only granted for overturned convictions or when requested by family on the grounds of innocence. But a justice minister has the power to ask the Queen under royal prerogative when these two avenues are not available.

"Dr Alan Turing was an exceptional man with a brilliant mind," Mr Grayling said today.

"His brilliance was put into practice at Bletchley Park during the Second World War where he was pivotal to breaking the Enigma code, helping to end the war and save thousands of lives.

"His later life was overshadowed by his conviction for homosexual activity, a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory and which has now been repealed.

"Dr Turing deserves to be remembered and recognised for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science. A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man."

There has been a public campaign for many years to clear Dr Turing's with support from the likes of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and leading scientist Stephen Hawking.

In 1999, Time magazine named Turing one of the 100 most important people of the 20th Century for his contribution to the development of artificial intelligence and the modern computer.

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Queen pardons computing giant Alan Turing 59 years after his

#4

Post by Vikki » 24 Dec 2013, 08:29

Queen pardons computing giant Alan Turing 59 years after his suicide

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News

Queen Elizabeth II granted a rare "mercy pardon" Monday to Alan Turing, the computing and mathematics pioneer whose chemical castration for being gay drove him to suicide almost 60 years ago.

Turing was one of the leading scientific geniuses of the 20th century — the man who cracked the supposedly uncrackable Enigma code used by Nazi Germany in World War II and the man many scholars consider the father of modern computer science.

By the time he was 23, Turing had hypothesized what would become today's computers — the Turing machine, which could emulate any computing device or program. Almost 80 years later, Turing machines are still used in theoretical computation.

In 1950, Turing came up with the famous Turing Test to determine whether a computer can be considered to have attained artificial intelligence.

But Turing was also gay at a time when that was a crime in Britain, and instead of being hailed as one of the crucial figures in defeating the Nazis, he was convicted of "gross indecency" in 1952 for having had sex with a man.

His security clearance was revoked, he was barred from working for the government and he was chemically castrated with massive injections of female hormones. Less than two years later, in 1954, he killed himself with cyanide, an inquest found. He was just 41 years old.

In recent decades, as Turing's ideas and work have come to be recognized as the foundations of today's technology-driven world, scientists and technology leaders lobbied for him to be pardoned.

In 2009, the British government issued a posthumous apology, but scientists and gay-rights advocates wanted the government to clear him completely of the gross indecency conviction. More than 37,000 people — many of them eminent scientists, led by Stephen Hawking — signed a petition last year urging Elizabeth to remove the scar from the name of "one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the modern era."

In his book "God Created the Integers," Hawking counted Turing among the most important mathematicians in history, alongside Euclid, Kurt Gödel and Bernard Riemann.

In a decree dated Tuesday but released Monday by Justice Minister Chris Grayling, Elizabeth said she was "Graciously pleased to extend Our Grace and Mercy unto the said Alan Mathison Turing and to grant him Our Free Pardon posthumously in respect of the said convictions."

In a statement, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Turing "saved countless lives" and "played a key role in saving this country in World War II by cracking the German Enigma code."

In a statement of his own, Grayling declared, "A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man."

The rare pardon was issued under the "Royal Prerogative of Mercy," which has been exercised only three other times since 1945, the British newspaper The Independent reported.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013 ... icide?lite

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Re: Alan Turing's 100th Birthday and Questions on His Death

#5

Post by David W » 24 Dec 2013, 10:09

Very unusual to see a guilty person pardoned.

One should I think try to view the individual person and their achievemennts, and their crimes as two different subjects.
For instance, I abhor Gary Glitter's Crimes, but still find myself humming one or two of his tunes.

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Re: Alan Turing finally receives a Royal Pardon

#6

Post by Marcus » 26 Dec 2013, 13:05

Two posts discussing politics related to homosexuality was removed. This forum is not the place for political discussions.

/Marcus

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Re: Alan Turing's 100th Birthday and Questions on His Death

#7

Post by Marcus » 26 Dec 2013, 13:08

[Two threads discussing Turing and the pardon has been merged]

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Re: Alan Turing's 100th Birthday and Questions on His Death

#8

Post by little grey rabbit » 03 Jan 2014, 14:38

While there is no evidence for it I would not rule out murder on the belief he might have been selling secrets. There was a lot of suspicion of gay people in intelligence circles as being born traitors and/or susceptible to blackmail. This doesn't mean I think there was any foundation for this suspicion in the case of Turing - at least I have seen absolutely no evidence of it.

But the poisoned apple - riffing on forbidden fruit - seems too symbolic to be real. Why would you not just take your cyanide neat anyway? And the accidental poisoning theory seems too disingenuous to be credible and rests too much on assertions that I havent seen documented. Did Turing really wile away the wee hours electroplating spoons?

I note Prof Copeland is careful not to rule out murder. Perhaps we should treat it like those cases of "prisoners shot while trying to escape", we can't disprove the documentation that the killings were legitimate, but we can certainly assume that there is a very high chance that in most cases they were not.

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