More than 250 items belonging to super-Brit Alan Turing, including his OBE medal, that went missing decades ago were found hidden behind a bathroom wall in America, according to new court documents.
The items, which include photos of the revered mathematician and school reports from his teenage years, vanished 36 years ago from the Sherborne boarding school he attended in Dorset, UK. Turing’s mother had, a few years prior, donated the belongings to the school. Turing died in 1954 from cyanide poisoning although suicide is strongly suspected.
The woman accused of the theft, Julia Mathison Turing, visited the school in 1984, and when left unattended, it is claimed, stole the items, leaving a note that read: “Please forgive me for taking these materials into my possession. They will be well taken care of while under the care of my hands and shall one day all be returned to this spot.”
In 2018, she approached the University of Colorado, claiming to be Turing’s daughter, and offered the possessions for display, alongside artwork she made based on the documents, it is alleged. But investigations by the university quickly revealed Turing had no daughter – he was gay and persecuted as such in the UK – and raised the alarm.
Armed with a federal search warrant, US Homeland Security agents raided her house and, it is claimed, uncovered a treasure trove of Turing memorabilia, including letters that she had exchanged over the years with the bursar of the boarding school.
According to court documents filed by the American government, it appears she had been carrying the belongings with her for the past 30 years as she moved from Arizona to California to Colorado, and had got away with the theft in large part because she returned some items to the school [after] a few years and claimed to have retained only a single photograph.
The school did not have an inventory of the memorabilia, and took her at her word, we're told. But the 256 items belonging to Turing, allegedly found by agents stashed in a leather briefcase hidden behind a removable piece of wall in her bathroom, tell a different story.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @09:22AM (1 child)
i feel sorry for her. it sounds like she disconnected from reality at some point.
hopefully she'll be properly cared for, rather than just punished.
it's not the first time I think of MDC making a valuable contribution, but this certainly feels like a situation where he may understand more than boring people like myself.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday January 24 2020, @06:51PM
I think she should return those items to a museum, then give special concierge-level tours and answer questions about the items with interested visitors who pass a gatekeeping quiz and join the Alan Turing fan club, of which she's the president. That sounds fair enough.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Friday January 24 2020, @09:35AM (3 children)
Probably because there was Turing Machine spinning in her head telling her to pick an item at every step it took. Being 1984 it only had a capacity of 8 bit.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday January 24 2020, @10:58AM (1 child)
Only the true daughter of Turing could decide to keep 2^8 items. Turing, it's about time you came out and spill the truth. It's ok to be straight, your contributions will be remembered no matter what. Knock 1 time to admit you are straight, twice for bisexual.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @01:08PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @01:09PM
doesn't require a turing mind to draw a drop of blood (hair?) and shot it thru a paternity test machine? sheesh!
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 24 2020, @11:27AM (4 children)
Seriously, my first thought was some dude who wanted to be Turing's lover. But, some chick? That's gayer than gay.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday January 24 2020, @01:42PM (3 children)
Considering he was engaged to a women, I assume to try and keep up appearances which was a lot more important back then compared to today, it might not be to far fetched that he also decided to take one for the team. That said he broke of the engagement since he didn't feel like he could live with it. So perhaps the experience was just to horrid to live with for him. That or he had morals of some kind.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday January 24 2020, @03:39PM (2 children)
Heck, even today lots of gay people have children for a wide variety of reasons - though pretending to be straight is likely the leading one. And it's not even like "gayness" is binary - there's a whole spectrum between "straight" and "gay", and almost no one falls at either extreme.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @11:56PM (1 child)
My pastor said that is 100% false. Lucifer and his dark materials are trying to lead God's children astray through temptation. He told us so while vividly describing the depravity all men are tempted by in their darkest thoughts. And he should know, since he was caught blowing a gentleman while on uppers at the local glory hole. You just need to pray until the gay goes far away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 25 2020, @05:10AM
I was going for humor and debated marking it as such but thought I was obvious enough that it was unnecessary. Guess not.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday January 24 2020, @01:06PM (2 children)
I think this story about Julia Mathison Turing is completely fake.
Alan Turing's father was Julius Mathison Turing.
https://www.geni.com/people/Julius-Turing/6000000000688592974 [geni.com]
Either you guys have a very bad bug in current timeline of mātṝkā, or this story is a social probe in some kind of project researching fake stories.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @01:14PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @10:27PM
Yep, just about to point that out. There is a reason why a number of services allow you to track name changes across the entire U.S. and why more courts are getting the power to require a psychiatric exam before granting one. It isn't that uncommon for people who are obsessed with someone to change their name into something close to the target of their affections, like taking their last name or a relative's name.