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THE EMPIRE NEWS Manchester, England 12 October 1930
FAMOUS MYSTIC OR HIS DOUBLE?
Message Pinned To Mouth Of Cave: Vanished Couple.
A mysterious note pinned to the entrance to a cave known as Hell’s Mouth, 20 miles from Lisbon, and the disappearance of a beautiful girl figure in the mysterious case of a man believed to be Aleister Crowley, the notorious English mystic, who is well known in London and Paris.
Special To “Empire News.”
The mystery of the disappearance in Portugal of a man giving the name of Aleister Crowley deepens every day.
The real Aleister Crowley is known as an author and a poet, and also a kind of mystic and magician. He has been much criticised, and has been described by some of his critics as “the worst man in England.” The French police ordered him to leave France last year.
A man purporting to be Aleister Crowley recently turned up in a hotel at Estoril, near Lisbon, accompanied by a beautiful young German girl, who gave the name of Miss Hanni Jaeger.
One night there was a terrible scene in the hotel, the lady having hysterics and threatening to kill herself. Both were requested by the hotel management to leave the next day.
The Passport.
Since then both the supposed Aleister Crowley and the fascinating Hanni Jaeger have disappeared from the public view, although the police have tried to find out what has become of them.
They discovered that a man with a passport bearing Crowley’s name and description, actually crossed the Portuguese frontier.
Yet, a few days later, further discoveries caused the mystery to deepen. The missing man is believed to have been seen, still on Portuguese territory. Nothing so far has been heard of the lady, who is presumed to be still in Portugal.
What has added to the mystery is the discovery of a letter, said to be from Crowley, and addressed to Hanni Jaeger.
Pinned To Rock.
It was found pinned to a rock at the entrance to a cave, known as Hell’s Mouth, twenty miles from Lisbon. It said :-
What all this means nobody can guess. Are there two Crowley’s, one genuine and one an impostor? Enquiry at some of the real Aleister Crowley’s favourite resorts in London reveals that he has not been seen at them for some time, and is presumed to be out of the country.
Is the mystical letter a fake or a practical joke put up by someone who has borrowed Crowley’s name for the occasion?
A Portuguese gentleman named Senhor Fernando Pessoa has made a statement to the effect that last year he had some correspondence with the real Crowley on literary matters, and that on September 2 he met a man, representing himself to be Aleister Crowley, who arrived at Lisbon on the steamship Alcantara, with the object of spending some time on the Portuguese coast. This man was accompanied by a Miss Hanni Larissa Jaeger. The couple went first to a hotel in Lisbon, and then to Estoril.
Hysterics.
“On September 18, I received a letter from Crowley,” stated Senhor Pessoa, “saying that Miss Jaeger had a terrible attack of hysterics, and had disappeared, leaving merely two lines in pencil, that she was going to return.”
“On September 23 he told me that he was going again to Sintra, which had enchanted him, and that he would spend some days there. He authorised me to receive his correspondence, forwarded to Cook’s Agency, so that I could get some books intended for me. He did not leave me any instructions concerning the rest of his correspondence.”
“After this I swear that I saw Crowley twice, on September 24—once in the Rossio Street, and once on the Cais de Sodre, entering the English tobacco shop.
“Nevertheless, the police state that he crossed the frontier on September 23. Did he actually cross, or did he both cross and return?”
The Portuguese Police are doing their best to clear the whole matter up. |