THE MERCURY

Hobart, Tasmania

2 March 1949

(page 9)

Worst Man in World Leaves £18.

LONDON, Tues. (A.A.P.)—Aleister Crowley, mystic and author of books on black magic, who was once expelled from Italy for practising private rituals and rites, left only £18 in his will published yesterday.

Crowley, who styled himself “the worst man in the world,” died in December, 1947, aged 72. During his lifetime he inherited £30,000, travelled in the Orient, and ran a “temple” in the city of London, where he claimed to raise devils in its mirror-lined walls.

He went bankrupt in 1934 after losing a libel action.