[net.motss] the Biology of Killer Apples

andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews) (02/18/86)

In article <1401@ames.UUCP> eugene@ames.UUCP writes:
>...what I heard from what was "a reliable source...." was that Turing
>refined the poison, coated an apple, and took a bite.

     This is the theory of Andrew Hodges, the author of Turing's biography,
_Alan Turing:  The Enigma_.  If I remember correctly, Hodges believed
himself to be the first person to put forward this theory.  We know that
there was a half-eaten apple beside Turing's bed, and that he died of
poisoning, but no one bothered to test the apple for poison.

     There is still some question of whether Turing committed suicide, but
finding poison on the apple would seem to confirm this.  The connection
between eating apples and the sexual "sins" for which Turing was vilified is
just too strong to be coincidental.

--Jamie.
...!ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!andrews
"Dr. Parkinson declared 'I'm not surprised to see you here'"