# Petition seeks apology for Alan Turing

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-seeks-apology-for-alan-turing/508491>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 1, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-seeks-apology-for-alan-turing/508491 "2009-09-01T15:29:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-seeks-apology-for-alan-turing/508491/21 "2009-09-01T22:19:57Z")

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> [@bup](#):
>
> What do you think about his wondering if the signatures would pass the Turing test?

Your name wouldn’t happen to be Eliza, would it? 😉

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-seeks-apology-for-alan-turing/508491/22 "2009-09-02T23:58:29Z")

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There has been some speculation that he was murdered by British Intelligence. Gays were considered ipso facto security risks. He died apparently from eating a poisoned apple, but who poisoned it?

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-seeks-apology-for-alan-turing/508491/23 "2009-09-11T07:02:44Z")

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Update: it worked!!!

[Gordon Brown personally apologises for Turing’s treatment](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8249792.stm).

Wow, that’s the first time I’ve seen an online No. 10 petition have an effect. Amazing.

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**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-seeks-apology-for-alan-turing/508491/24 "2009-09-11T08:41:27Z")

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> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> There has been some speculation that he was murdered by British Intelligence. Gays were considered ipso facto security risks. He died apparently from eating a poisoned apple, but who poisoned it?

I don’t think there’s any real reason to believe he was murdered. His letters to others before he committed suicide make it clear he’s depressed, and he was obsessed with the film “Snow White”, and its poisoned apple. James Atkins, probably Turing’s first boyfriend, received a letter from Turing in 1937 about a means of suicide involving an apple and electrical wiring (both of which were involved in the real suicide, see below), too.

Turing also probably realised that poisoning himself with an apple would allow some deniability. His mother refused to accept that he’d committed suicide until she died, as he was also a keen amateur chemist, and she thought the apple had become contaminated by cyanide in an accident (going so far as to set up a “fake” electrolysis experiment, IIRC).

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**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-seeks-apology-for-alan-turing/508491/25 "2009-09-11T14:53:56Z")

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> [@jjimm](#):
>
> Update: it worked!!!

Fantastic. I hadn’t heard. Thank you for the update.

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