THE COURIER-MAIL

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

5 December 1947

(page 1)

Claimed To Be “Invisible Man.”

LONDON, December 4 (Special).—Doctor William Brown Thomson, 68, who used to prescribe morphia tablets for the black magician, Aleister Crowley, has died within 24 hours of his patient.

Crowley, 72 the “most wicked man in Britain,” wore on the third finger of his left hand an emerald and diamond ring to two entwined snakes which, he claimed, was a powerful magic symbol. He was accused of black magic, and of being responsible for the death of a young man he employed as secretary.

Crowley was born of a Plymouth Brethren family, at Leamington, Warwickshire, and educated at Cambridge where he began studies in magic. He claimed he was able to make himself invisible.

His Chancery Lane “temple” in London had the walls lined with mirrors. It was here he “raised devils” so that “people passing in the streets fell down in fits.

Dr. Thomson was Crowley’s physician for three years and until three months ago got morphia for Crowley.

Then the supply was stopped and Crowley put a curse on the doctor—but Scotland Yard is sure that both men died from natural causes.

Police found Dr. Thomson dead in a bath in his Mayfair flat on Tuesday evening. Crowley died in Hastings on Monday.