|
Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation, Washington.
Address Reply to Director Bureau of Investigation and Refer to Initials. FEH-MPB
January 7, 1920
MEMORANDUM FOR MR. HOOVER
In re ALEISTER ST. EDWARD CROWLEY
Aleister Crowley was born in Leamington, Warwickshire, England, and is still a British subject. He resided in England up to the beginning of November 1914. He came to the United States on the steamer "Lusitania".
He came first to the attention of the police in London in 1900, while conducting a series of mystic rites meetings, at which improper activities occurred.
He has represented himself to be a member of the British Mission in the United States and to have been wounded in military service in the British Army. This is denied by the British Military Intelligence, which states that if re returns to England he will be detained. (O'Donnell - July 8-19, 1919)
According to a letter received from J. W. Norwood, Secretary, The International Magian Society, Louisville, Ky., Crowley explained his connection with the British Government as follows:
Crowley was examined by Mr. William Johnson, Assistant to the Attorney General of the State of New York on July 17, 1918, for the purpose of ascertaining connection with Edward A. Rumley, editor of the New York Evening Mail, who had purchased the paper with German money. He was also examined again on October 11, 1918 relative to his connections and activities as a German propaganda agent.
In a brief summary of examination of Crowley, Agent Frank X. O'Donnell, New York City states that Crowley made the statements in his examination that soon after he entered the United States he found himself in financial difficulties and secured employment on the staff of the magazine "Vanity Fair" and also submitted articles to a number of other magazines. He has also been associated with George Sylvester Viereck, former editor of the pro-German newspaper, "Vaterland" [The Fatherland].
Crowley also stated that he was the Grand Master of a fraternal organization known as "Ordo Templi Orientis", which he represents is a very old organization and which has branches in various parts of the British Empire.
Crowley admitted in his examination that the actual head of his fraternal organization in on Theodor Reuss, a German, and who was reported during October 1918 as being the head of the Continental Times, an American newspaper published in Berlin. Crowley also admitted that the Ordo Templi Orientis went under a different name in Switzerland, issued manifestos which were pacifistic in their tone. He also admitted that the lodge of the organization had been raided in England and that the head of the organization, a woman [Mary Davies], had been arrested. It should be noted that Theodore Reuss, the official head of the organization in Germany, left England with the German Embassador [sic] on England's entrance into the European War.
He explained his alleged connections with the British Secret Service by stating that he had attempted to join the service but never succeeded in obtaining an official position with them. He states throughout his communications for a position he dealt with Commodore Gaunt [Guy Gaunt] of the British Intelligence office. (O'Donnell - July 19, 1919).
The British Military Intelligence on July 8, 1919 in a report on Crowley stated that:
Respectfully,
T. E. Haynes.
|