To Wilkins's presumed dismay and embarrassment, in the summer of 1952 she posted a mock notice around the King's physics department that said: "It is with great regret that we have to announce the death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of D.N.A. helix... . It is hoped that Dr. M.H.F. Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix."

The outcome of all this was that in January 1953, Wilkins showed Watson Franklin's images, "apparently without her knowledge or consent." It would be an understatement to call it a significant help. Years later Watson conceded that it "was the key event ... it mobilized us." Armed with the knowledge of the DNA molecule's basic shape and some important elements of its dimensions, Watson and Crick redoubled their efforts. Everything now seemed to go their way. At one point Pauling was en route to a conference in England at which he would in all likelihood have met with Wilkins and learned enough to correct the misconceptions that had put him on the wrong line of inquiry, but this was the McCarthy era and Pauling found himself detained at Idlewild Airport in New York, his passport confiscated, on the grounds that he was too liberal of temperament to be allowed to travel abroad. Crick and Watson also had the no less convenient good fortune that Pauling's son was working at the Cavendish and innocently kept them abreast of any news of developments and setbacks at home.