THE YORKSHIRE POST

Leeds, Yorkshire, England

2 December 1947

(page 4)

     Aleister Crowley Dies at 72

Edward Alexander (Aleister) Crowley, 72-year-old author, poet, explorer, magician, mystic and mountaineer, sometimes described as “one of the mystery men of Europe,” died suddenly at Netherwood, a guest house in Hastings, yesterday.

Mr. Crowley, in the years between the wars, was the centre of fantastic stories, and began a series of autobiographical articles in a Sunday newspaper in 1933 by saying: “They have called me the worst man in the world, they have accused me of doing everything from murdering women and throwing their bodies into the Seine, to drug-peddling.”

In the same article Crowley wrote that “at birth I had three of the distinguishing marks of the Buddha,”

One of his magical claims was that he “had found the key to illimitable knowledge and power.” He also declared that he had prepared the elixir of life, and that when he first took it 40, “no feat of strength was too great for me.”

Eighteen years ago he was refused the right to continue living in France, where he had been for seven years. He then denied practicing black magic.

He was made bankrupt in 1935 with liabilities of £5,000. A first and final dividend of twopence in the £ was declared in 1939.