Alan Turing, the computer science legend best known for his part in breaking the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park in World War II, may have died of an accident rather than suicide, according to a new claim.
Accidental cyanide poisoning? Do go on.
Professor Jack Copeland, director of the The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, claims in a new book that Turing may have died due to inhalation in amateur experiments rather than in a deliberate attempt to kill himself.
Theres more to the story, though. Turing was gay and was found guilty of gross indecency with another man in 1952. To avoid prison, he agreed to receive injections of estrogen for a year, which were intended to reduce his libido; a process known as “chemical castration”. Would that anxiety have made him more likely to conduct amateur chemistry experiments or more likely to commit suicide? Your call, I suppose, but I am betting most gay people would not think his oppression and induced chemical imbalances would lead to more science.
Copeland notes that police reported a strong smell of cyanide coming from Turing’s lab, where he used it in amateur experiments and that is reasonable doubt.
Turing suicide enigma challenged The Guernsey Press
