THE LIVERPOOL ECHO

Liverpool, Lancashire, England

10 April 1934

(page 12)

Author in Black Magic Libel Suit.

WOMAN SUED BY WRITER.

Aleister Crowley’s “Abbey.”

AMAZING PASSAGES.

Story of Dead Baby and “Black Magic.”

AUTHOR’S DENIAL.

Remarkable statements were made to-day when Aleister Crowley, the author, alleged in the King’s Bench Division that passages in a book imputed the he practised “black magic.”

Mr. Crowley sued Miss Nina Hamnett, authoress of “Laughing Torso,” the publishers, and the printers for alleged libel.

A passage in the book stated that Mr. Crowley “had a temple called the Temple of Thelema at Cefalu, where he was supposed to practise black magic. “One day a baby was said to have disappeared mysteriously.

Mr. Crowley, in evidence, said that when he was young he rebelled against the “general atmosphere of the Plymouth Brethren.” He inherited between £30,000 and £40,000.

The villa of Cefalu, he said, was known as the Abbey of Thelema, and there were up to eleven in the household, the guiding principle of which was good manners.

Asked whether he had been for many years publicly denounced as the worst man in the world, M. Crowley replied: Only by the lowest kind of newspaper.”

The hearing was adjourned.