THE LEICESTER EVENING MAIL

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

8 November 1934

(page 1)

BLACK MAGIC APPEAL

JUDGE’S “BURNING AT STAKE” JOKE

The appeal in the “Black Magic” libel action was dismissed to-day by the Court of Appeal.

Giving judgment, Lord Justice Greer said the court had come to the conclusion that though there might be something to be said in favour of the view that the summing-up was not as full as it ought presumably to have been, the only possible result was a verdict for the defendants.

Mr. Aleister Crowley appealed from the judgment of Mr. Justice Swift in a libel action he brought against Miss Nina Hamnettt, authoress of “Laughing Torso,” Messrs. Constable and Company, publishers, and Messrs. Charles Whittingham and Briggs, the printers.

Mr. Eddy, for Mr. Crowley, said that though there was much to suggest that his client had practiced magic, there was a vital distinction between white and black magic. The court might take cognizance of an Act of Parliament passed in 1735.

Lord Justice Green: “If you go back so far as that, he would probably have been burned at the stake whether he called his magic white or black.” (Laughter.)