BRUISED BRAINIAC (Cops investigate mysterious assaults on crippled astrophysicist Stephen Hawking)

NY Post ^ | January 20, 2004 | BILL HOFFMANN

[presidio9]

Cops have launched an investigation into a series of mysterious assaults on crippled astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. The probe reportedly began after the author of the best seller "A Brief History of Time" was left stranded in his wheelchair in the garden of his country home last summer on the hottest day of the year.

[presidio9]

SUSPICIOUS PATTERN: Stephen Hawking at his 1995 wedding to wife Elaine, one of the people police now want to question about the wheelchair-bound scientist's history of injuries and mistreatment over the last year.

[lilylangtree]

His present wife is a nurse. Hawking is suffering from mysterious injuries and not talking. Sounds mighty suspicious.

[Guillermo]

Good thing no one defended him, otherwise they'd be facing serious criminal charges!

[xJones]

Hawking met Elaine when she cared for him as a nurse. Her then-husband made the voice box that Hawking uses. In 1990, he stunned the world when he dumped his wife of 26 years for Elaine.

Elaine is ....interesting. Hawking's first wife stood by him, took good care of him, and he left her on Christmas Day, 1990. It didn't help that his wheel chair got stuck in a muddy flower bed as he was leaving their home. He'd better get away from that second wife, because if nothing else, she's not watching out for him.

[presidio9]

http://www.hawking.org.uk/disable/dindex.html

I am quite often asked: How do you feel about having ALS? The answer is, not a lot. I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many.

It was a great shock to me to discover that I had motor neurone disease. I had never been very well co-ordinated physically as a child. I was not good at ball games, and my handwriting was the despair of my teachers. Maybe for this reason, I didn't care much for sport or physical activities. But things seemed to change when I went to Oxford, at the age of 17. I took up coxing and rowing. I was not Boat Race standard, but I got by at the level of inter-College competition.

In my third year at Oxford, however, I noticed that I seemed to be getting more clumsy, and I fell over once or twice for no apparent reason. But it was not until I was at Cambridge, in the following year, that my father noticed, and took me to the family doctor. He referred me to a specialist, and shortly after my 21st birthday, I went into hospital for tests. I was in for two weeks, during which I had a wide variety of tests. They took a muscle sample from my arm, stuck electrodes into me, and injected some radio opaque fluid into my spine, and watched it going up and down with x-rays, as they tilted the bed. After all that, they didn't tell me what I had, except that it was not multiple sclerosis, and that I was an a-typical case. I gathered, however, that they expected it to continue to get worse, and that there was nothing they could do, except give me vitamins. I could see that they didn't expect them to have much effect. I didn't feel like asking for more details, because they were obviously bad.

The realisation that I had an incurable disease, that was likely to kill me in a few years, was a bit of a shock. How could something like that happen to me? Why should I be cut off like this? However, while I had been in hospital, I had seen a boy I vaguely knew die of leukaemia, in the bed opposite me. It had not been a pretty sight. Clearly there were people who were worse off than me. At least my condition didn't make me feel sick. Whenever I feel inclined to be sorry for myself I remember that boy.

Not knowing what was going to happen to me, or how rapidly the disease would progress, I was at a loose end. The doctors told me to go back to Cambridge and carry on with the research I had just started in general relativity and cosmology. But I was not making much progress, because I didn't have much mathematical background. And, anyway, I might not live long enough to finish my PhD. I felt somewhat of a tragic character. I took to listening to Wagner, but reports in magazine articles that I drank heavily are an exaggeration. The trouble is once one article said it, other articles copied it, because it made a good story. People believe that anything that has appeared in print so many times must be true.

My dreams at that time were rather disturbed. Before my condition had been diagnosed, I had been very bored with life. There had not seemed to be anything worth doing. But shortly after I came out of hospital, I dreamt that I was going to be executed. I suddenly realised that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do if I were reprieved. Another dream, that I had several times, was that I would sacrifice my life to save others. After all, if I were going to die anyway, it might as well do some good. But I didn't die. In fact, although there was a cloud hanging over my future, I found, to my surprise, that I was enjoying life in the present more than before. I began to make progress with my research, and I got engaged to a girl called Jane Wilde, whom I had met just about the time my condition was diagnosed. That engagement changed my life. It gave me something to live for. But it also meant that I had to get a job if we were to get married. I therefore applied for a research fellowship at Gonville and Caius (pronounced Keys) college, Cambridge. To my great surprise, I got a fellowship, and we got married a few months later.

The fellowship at Caius took care of my immediate employment problem. I was lucky to have chosen to work in theoretical physics, because that was one of the few areas in which my condition would not be a serious handicap. And I was fortunate that my scientific reputation increased, at the same time that my disability got worse. This meant that people were prepared to offer me a sequence of positions in which I only had to do research, without having to lecture.

We were also fortunate in housing. When we were married, Jane was still an undergraduate at Westfield College in London, so she had to go up to London during the week. This meant that we had to find somewhere I could manage on my own, and which was central, because I could not walk far. I asked the College if they could help, but was told by the then Bursar: it is College policy not to help Fellows with housing. We therefore put our name down to rent one of a group of new flats that were being built in the market place. (Years later, I discovered that those flats were actually owned by the College, but they didn't tell me that.) However, when we returned to Cambridge from a visit to America after the marriage, we found that the flats were not ready. As a great concession, the Bursar said we could have a room in a hostel for graduate students. He said, "We normally charge 12 shillings and 6 pence a night for this room. However, as there will be two of you in the room, we will charge 25 shillings." We stayed there only three nights. Then we found a small house about 100 yards from my university department. It belonged to another College, who had let it to one of its fellows. However he had moved out to a house he had bought in the suburbs. He sub-let the house to us for the remaining three months of his lease. During those three months, we found that another house in the same road was standing empty. A neighbour summoned the owner from Dorset, and told her that it was a scandal that her house should be empty, when young people were looking for accommodation. So she let the house to us. After we had lived there for a few years, we wanted to buy the house, and do it up. So we asked my College for a mortgage. However, the College did a survey, and decided it was not a good risk. In the end we got a mortgage from a building society, and my parents gave us the money to do it up. We lived there for another four years, but it became too difficult for me to manage the stairs. By this time, the College appreciated me rather more, and there was a different Bursar. They therefore offered us a ground floor flat in a house that they owned. This suited me very well, because it had large rooms and wide doors. It was sufficiently central that I could get to my University department, or the College, in my electric wheel chair. It was also nice for our three children, because it was surrounded by garden, which was looked after by the College gardeners.

Up to 1974, I was able to feed myself, and get in and out of bed. Jane managed to help me, and bring up the children, without outside help. However, things were getting more difficult, so we took to having one of my research students living with us. In return for free accommodation, and a lot of my attention, they helped me get up and go to bed. In 1980, we changed to a system of community and private nurses, who came in for an hour or two in the morning and evening. This lasted until I caught pneumonia in 1985. I had to have a tracheotomy operation. After this, I had to have 24 hour nursing care. This was made possible by grants from several foundations.

Before the operation, my speech had been getting more slurred, so that only a few people who knew me well, could understand me. But at least I could communicate. I wrote scientific papers by dictating to a secretary, and I gave seminars through an interpreter, who repeated my words more clearly. However, the tracheotomy operation removed my ability to speak altogether. For a time, the only way I could communicate was to spell out words letter by letter, by raising my eyebrows when someone pointed to the right letter on a spelling card. It is pretty difficult to carry on a conversation like that, let alone write a scientific paper. However, a computer expert in California, called Walt Woltosz, heard of my plight. He sent me a computer program he had written, called Equalizer. This allowed me to select words from a series of menus on the screen, by pressing a switch in my hand. The program could also be controlled by a switch, operated by head or eye movement. When I have built up what I want to say, I can send it to a speech synthesizer. At first, I just ran the Equalizer program on a desk top computer.
However David Mason, of Cambridge Adaptive Communication, fitted a small portable computer and a speech synthesizer to my wheel chair. This system allowed me to communicate much better than I could before. I can manage up to 15 words a minute. I can either speak what I have written, or save it to disk. I can then print it out, or call it back and speak it sentence by sentence. Using this system, I have written a book, and dozens of scientific papers. I have also given many scientific and popular talks. They have all been well received. I think that is in a large part due to the quality of the speech synthesiser, which is made by Speech Plus. One's voice is very important. If you have a slurred voice, people are likely to treat you as mentally deficient: Does he take sugar? This synthesiser is by far the best I have heard, because it varies the intonation, and doesn't speak like a Dalek. The only trouble is that it gives me an American accent.

I have had motor neurone disease for practically all my adult life. Yet it has not prevented me from having a very attractive family, and being successful in my work. This is thanks to the help I have received from Jane, my children, and a large number of other people and organisations. I have been lucky, that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope.

-Stephen Hawking

[brbethke]

Nothing suspicious here. He just doesn't want to admit that he's having some trouble getting into and out of his new wheelchair:

[William Tell]

From Hawking's behavior, it sounds as if he knows full well who is injuring him.

If I were that person, I would be very troubled by the fact that Hawking is among the most intelligent people alive today. If anyone can figure out a way to ensure that a tormenter is identified and punished if something happens to him, it would be Hawking. He certainly has email and records his scientific work in his computer.

[Guillermo]

I didn't know he was British either, as I never noticed the British accent...

[FroedrickVonFreepenstein]

I never noticed the accent either, I always thought he sounded a lot like my old MacIntosh.

[NYer]

The probe reportedly began after the author of the best seller "A Brief History of Time" was left stranded in his wheelchair in the garden of his country home last summer on the hottest day of the year.

With a little tweaking, this scenario might be compared to Terri Schiavo. Anyone want to play along!!

Man "finds" Wife unconscious.

Man keeps Wife unconscious.

Man gets malpractice money for Wife.

Man wants Wife's money.

Man wants Wife dead so Man can have money.

Man gets Lawyer.

Lawyer is/was Hospice Board Member.

Lawyer promises Man that Wife will die at the Hospice...

[PatrickHenry]

Earlier thread on this topic: Police reportedly probe Stephen Hawking assaults.

[Burn24]

There's many different types of intelligence, and the story about his first wife indicates he's a little deficient in one type. Perhaps, like a blind person with extraordinary hearing, his academic ability comes at a cost to his emotional good sense.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[presidio9]

I never noticed the accent either, I always thought he sounded a lot like my old MacIntosh.

I was always happy he was able to make a few extra bucks recording forcasts for the weather band.

[dfwgator]

He also made an appearance on Pink Floyd's last album.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Daily Telegraph - Hawking's nurses questioned over 'assaults'
By David Sapsted
(Filed: 20/01/2004)


A second inquiry has been launched into alleged assaults on the scientist Stephen Hawking.

Four years ago detectives investigated claims that the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge had suffered similar attacks, resulting in minor cuts and bruising. But the inquiry was dropped after the millionaire scientist declined to discuss the matter with them.


Now a similar investigation by police is underway following an allegation that Prof Hawking, 62, who has suffered from motor neurone disease for the past 40 years, had been assaulted at his Cambridge home.

Detectives have interviewed nursing staff who provide him with 24-hour care but have yet to speak to Prof Hawking or his second wife, Elaine.

"It is one thing to receive a complaint of assault," a police source said yesterday, "but quite another to try to prove it if the alleged victim even refuses to substantiate that it has happened. Sometimes the very fact that the police are investigating can help resolve matters."

Cambridgeshire detectives had planned to interview the author of A Brief History of Time in December but were prevented from doing so when he was admitted to hospital suffering from an unrelated bronchial problem. They will now speak to him when he is eventually discharged from Addenbrooke's Hospital.

Prof Hawking's first wife, Jane, said the allegations were having a "devastating" effect on the couple's three grown-up children. "I'm very worried," she said from her Cambridge home. "We're all very worried. I'm particularly worried about the devastating effect on my children."

Officially, Cambridgeshire Police would only say: "We are investigating an allegation of assault on a 62-year-old Cambridge man." But it is understood that several of the medical team that nurses Prof Hawking have been spoken to by a team of detectives led by Det Supt Michael Campbell.

Elaine Hawking, the scientist's former nurse whom he married in 1995, said yesterday: "He's safe and well in hospital where he's suffering from pneumonia. He is better than he was."

Asked if she was aware of the police investigation, she said: "No."

Prof Hawking is planning to travel to the US in March as part of a continuing round of worldwide lectures that he delivers using a specially made computerised voice box.

[Born Conservative]

He has ALS? I get the impression from reading this that whatever it is that he has, he has had it for a while. I did a search and found this about ALS survival: 50% of ALS patients die within 18 months after diagnosis. Only 20% survive 5 years and 10% live longer than 10 years.

[Varda]

Let's see... he was dumped outside last summer on the hottest day of the year and they want to question his wife? I wonder why....

"THE SMUTTY PROFESSOR
Jul 8 2003

Hawking and bad boy Farrell in wild nights at lap dance club
From the 3am girls

ONE'S a wealthy, intelligent lady-killer... and the other's Ireland's bad boy actor Colin Farrell.

Unlikely duo Professor Stephen Hawking and sexy Colin were big hits when they visited Stringfellows gentlemen's club in London over the weekend.

Father-to-be Colin, 27, caused a stir when he and a group of mates - including George Best's son Calum - spent a raucous few hours in the club on Friday night.

But Cambridge cosmologist Stephen - who has been married to second wife Elaine for eight years and has three children - was an even bigger hit with the club's dancers, dubbed the Cabaret Of Angels." (Mirror, UK)

[pabianice]

This is grotesque. Perhaps the greatest mind since Newton and he has to live like this.

[presidio9]

He also made an appearance on Pink Floyd's last album.

Actually, I think his finest performance was as Joshua in Wargames.