[Cryptography] Farewall, Alan Turing

Henry Baker hbaker1 at pipeline.com
Mon Jun 8 20:41:14 EDT 2015


At 11:33 AM 6/8/2015, Tom Mitchell wrote:
>On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 11:48 AM, Grant Schultz <gschultz at kc.rr.com> wrote:
>Dave Horsfall wrote:
>>Died 1954, from a cyanide-laced apple.
>....
>Another theory is that it was accidental, as he apparently had an electroplating apparatus set up that used potassium cyanide.  Fumes perhaps got him, or some got on his hands.  He may have thought it was mere food poisoning, until it was too late.
>
>cyanide solutions are very dependant on pH management for safety even when
>well diluted. The gold mines around the world have troubling events from time
>to time that make this point despite the very dilute nature of these leach solutions.
>
>Apple naturally seeds do contain cyanide at levels easy to detect so a good
>chemist would report positive if asked to test. Modern chemistry tools are
>so improved that our expectations are a long way from 1954 reality.
>
>Knowing the truth is not going to happen so I am willing to give him a pass
>and would be happy with an electroplating accident.

I lean towards the suicide theory, since Turing was incredibly bright,
and very well aware of the poisonous nature of the chemicals he was using.

J. Edgar Hoover's FBI tried very hard, but unsuccessfully, to get Martin
Luther King to commit suicide.  Given the close working relationship of
the U.S. FBI and the British government, and the incredible embarrassment
of having gay Brit spies who also spied for the Soviets & absconded to
Moscow, it isn't much of a stretch to think that Turing was pressured into
committing suicide by the British who were themselves being pressured by
the Americans in order to protect their "special relationship".

Given Turing's precarious legal position and his state of mind, it might
not have been that difficult to convince him that his life was already
over, and that any subsequent existence would be hell on Earth.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/18/the_fbi_vs_martin_luther_king

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Five



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