THE LIVERPOOL POST AND MERCURY

Liverpool, Lancashire, Wales

9 November 1934

(page 10)

BLACK MAGIC CASE APPEAL

MR. ALEISTER CROWLEY LOSES

The Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed, with costs, the appeal of Mr. Aleister Crowley from the judgment of Mr. Justice Swift in the libel action he brought against Miss Nina Hamnett, authoress of “Laughing Torso”; Messrs. Constable and Co., publishers; and Messrs. Charles Whittingham and Briggs, the printers.

Mr. Crowley said that the book imputed to him the practice of black magic. Black magic, he declared, was “foul and criminal,” and he had never practiced it.

Mr. J. P. 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. It was because Mr. Crowley was said to have done something that he had been fighting against for years that he had brought this action.

Lord Justice Greer, giving judgment yesterday, said that the only possible result in this case, having regard to the evidence and admissions of Mr. Crowley, was a verdict for the defendants.

Lords Justices Slesser and Roche concurred, and the appeal was dismissed as stated.