Would you please either cite the source for your recollection or retract it? Hal had always denied being bitcoin's author:

   "he confirmed that he had corresponded with Bitcoin's creator, but denied any connection to the invention of Bitcoin"[1]

Hal's family has had to endure threats of violence because people surmise they have control over millions of bitcoins. To fuel that speculation puts a very large, very violent target on their back. They deserve more respect -- especially because of the selfless contributions Hal made to cryptography and the cypherpunk movement.

[1] >In the mean time, I emailed Finney a few times. When I didn't hear back--he's been mostly absent from the Internet as his paralysis deepens--I called his wife, Fran, who now works as Finney's full-time caregiver. She explained her husband's medical situation, and patiently relayed my questions to him. Using his eyebrows and eye movements, as she described to me over the phone, he confirmed that he had corresponded with Bitcoin's creator, but denied any connection to the invention of Bitcoin or the Dorian Nakamoto Newsweek had named, just as he would when I visited a week later. "For all Hal knew, Satoshi Nakamoto could have been next door, or he could have been in Japan," Fran said.

source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/03/25/satosh...