THE LEICESTER EVENING MAIL

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

6 December 1947

(page 4)

LEICESTER WOMAN’S FLOWERS

FOR ALEISTER CROWLEY

As the coffin containing the body of Aleister Crowley—self-styled “The Great Wild Beast”—moved slowly into the furnace of Brighton Crematorium, a pretty young woman, dressed in furs and stated to be Mrs. Hilda Johnson, of Leicester, dashed forward from among the mourners and placed a bunch of pink carnations on the casket.

She was one of the group of mourners, including long-haired men and well-dressed women, who gathered for the cremation.

Crowley, whose real names were Edward Alexander, died at Hastings last week, aged 72, having shocked the world in the ’thirties with his stories of black magic.

There was no religious ceremony, but Mr. Louis Wilkinson (Louis Marlowe, the novelist) read extracts from Crowley’s book “Magick in Theory and Practice.” Crowley claimed part of the book was written at the dictation of a supernatural being.