Communications of the ACM
Devotee Accused of Stealing From Alan Turing's Archive
Julia Schwinghamer, who changed her name to Julia Mathison Turing, said she wanted to loan Alan Turing's memorabilia to the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Credit: The Times
Federal officials in Colorado say they recovered mathematician and World War II-era codebreaker Alan Turing's doctoral degree, knighthood medal, and other pieces of memorabilia in 2018, almost 36 years after they were stolen.
In filings this month in the U.S. District Court of Colorado, federal officials say they seized the British mathematician's Princeton University degree, his Order of the British Empire medal, as well as photos, school reports, and letters from his time at Sherborne School, a boarding school in Dorset, England.
According to the seizure notices, a woman named Julia Turing approached the University of Colorado Boulder in January 2018, saying she wanted to loan Alan Turing's memorabilia to the library. Archivists at the library determined that the items were stolen from Sherborne in 1984.
Investigators and Sherborne records state that Julia Turing had visited the school and asked to see Alan Turing's archive, which was stored in a wooden box in a laboratory. School officials said they found a note underneath the box after the theft, reading: "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."
Julia Turing isn't related to Alan Turing, but she changed her last name from Schwinghamer in 1988, according to the complaint.
From BizWest
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