Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy, in opening the case, said that Laughing Torso purported to be an account of the authoress’s own life, with intimate studies of her friends and acquaintances. Mr. Crowley complained that in that book he was charged with having practised that loathsome thing known as Black Magic. There was another passage in the book to which Mr. Crowley objected. It was a mere piece of vulgarity, and he (counsel) did not propose to embarrass the jury with it.

There is White Magic which is on the side of the angels, and rests on faith in the order and uniformity of Nature. Black Magic is a degrading thing, associated with the degradation of religion, the invocation of devils, evil in its blackest forms, and even the sacrifices of children.

Mr. Crowley had fought black magic for years, stressing the importance of the Will. He was so serious, in fact that he started a community in an old farmhouse at Cefalù, Sicily in 1920 to study this principle. Hamnett's description of the abbey however, was damaging:

Crowley had a temple in Cefalù in Sicily. He was supposed to practise Black Magic there, and one day a baby was said to have disappeared mysteriously. There was also a goat there. This all pointed to Black Magic, so people said, and the inhabitants of the village were frightened of him.

This is quite inaccurate. No child disappeared mysteriously, and the only goat on the premises was kept for milk.

Mr. Crowley:

The villa which I took at Cefalù was situated on a hillside. The summit was at a height of 4,000 feet. The villa faced an immense rock, like Gibraltar, and dominated the cathedral city of Cefalù. I decorated it with frescoes similar to religious paintings in Notre Dame. There were fantastic gargoyles—any odd thing that came into my mind. People said they looked like nightmares, and the room was inscribed as such.

Mr. Eddy:

What was the guiding principle of the household?

Mr. Crowley:

Good manners.

Mr. Eddy:

Are you familiar with the words 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law'?

Mr. Crowley:

I am.

Mr. Eddy:

Did they have any reference to this house?

Mr. Crowley:

They are the general principles on which I maintain all mankind should base its conduct.

Mr. Eddy:

What do they mean?

Mr. Crowley:

The study of those words has occupied the last thirty years of my life. There is no end to what they mean, but the simplest application to practical conduct is this: That no man has a right to waste his time on doing things which are mere wishes or desires, but that he should devote himself wholly to his true work in this world.

Mr. Eddy:

Have those words anything to do with black magic?

Mr. Crowley:

Only indirectly. They would forbid it, because black magic is suicidal.

Mr. Eddy:

What is the difference between black and white magic.

Mr. Crowley

In boxing you can fight according to the Queensberry rules or you can do the other thing.

Mr. Hilbery

Does that mean that his definition of black magic is the same as all-in wrestling?

(Laughter)

Mr. Crowley:

I approve some forms of magic and disapprove others.

Mr. Eddy:

What is the form you disbelieve?

Mr. Crowley

That which is commonly known as black magic, which is not only foul and abominable, but, for the most part, criminal. To begin with, the basis of all black magic is that utter stupidity of selfishness which cares nothing for the rights of others. People so constituted are naturally quite unscrupulous. In many cases, black magic is an attempt to commit crime without incurring the penalties of the law. The almost main instrument of Black Magic is murder, either for inheritance or for some other purpose, or in some way to gain personally out of it.

Mr. Eddy:

Is murder of children associated with black magic?

Mr. Crowley

It is most common. Alleged black magicians have been condemned to death. I say black magic is malignant.

Mr. Eddy:

Did you ever practise black magic at Cefalù?

Mr. Crowley

Never.

Mr. Eddy:

How did this household at Cefalù pass their time?

Mr. Crowley

Each person had a certain duty connected with the house. I had a secretary there. There was a magnificent rock which I took children to climb. There was the sea and a secluded cove, where one could spend the day without any interference from the inhabitants. There was also a beautiful sandy beach for swimming, and one could walk across the mountain. The people in the house mostly helped me with my work.

Mr. Eddy:

Did they pursue their studies?

Mr. Crowley

Some did. Visitors came from all parts of the world for the purpose of learning what I had to teach.

Mr. Eddy:

It is said that the inmates of the Abbey had to sign a book.

Mr. Crowley

There was a visitor's book.

Mr. Eddy:

Did they give an undertaking to obey your will?

Mr. Crowley

No.

Mr. Eddy:

Did you supply the inmates with razors, commanding them to gash themselves whenever they used the word 'I'?

Mr. Crowley

That is a foolish fabrication.

Mr. Eddy:

Is it true that men shaved their heads, leaving a symbolic curl in front, and that the women dyed their hair red for six months, and then black for the rest of the year?

Mr. Crowley

It is not correct.

Mr. Eddy:

It is said that everyone was instructed to enter their innermost sacred thoughts in a magical diary. What do you say about that?

Mr. Crowley:

Mr. Crowley explained that, for training in self-control and the development of little-used powers of the mind, he gave certain exercises. It was convenient, both to the students and the instructor, to record their progress.

Mr. Crowley denied telling Miss Hamnett any of the things which he now complained. No baby disappeared, and, although a goat was kept for milk, the neighbours were not frightened by it. The inhabitants were all my very good friends.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy read from Miss Hamnett's statement:

Every day, after tea, the plaintiff performed a ceremony known as Pentagram. The plaintiff entered robed into a room decorated with cabalistic signs, and seated himself on a throne before a brazier containing charcoal fire, around which were hung sacrificial knives and swords, and surrounded by a magic circle.

 

The adult inmates were required to attend, and when all were assembled the plaintiff rose from his seat, and taking one of the swords from the side of the brazier held it pointing to the altar, while he intoned an invocation in a strange language. Following this he would walk over to members of his congregation and utter a further incantation whilst resting the point of the sword on his or her forehead.

 

The plaintiff then proceeded to execute ecstatic dances, lashing himself into a frenzy, brandishing his sword, and leaping the magic circle.

Is that an accurate account of what was done at Cefalù?

Mr. Crowley

It is not accurate.

Mr. Eddy:

Was there a throne?

Mr. Crowley

There were chairs.

Mr. Eddy:

Were there any sacrificial knives?

Mr. Crowley

No.

Mr. Eddy:

What is the Pentagram?

Mr. Crowley:

It is a ceremony which invokes God to afford the protection of His Archangels. Mr. Crowley emphasized that all members freely attended the ceremony. It was not obscene; no animals were sacrificed nor their blood offered to drink. He neither intoned incantations, performed ecstatic dances, nor lashed himself into a frenzy. No cabalistic signs decorated the room.

Mr. Hilbery:

From 1932 to the present time, you have it on record that you have suffered in your reputation because the book imputed to you that you were a person who used coarse and vulgar conversation?

Mr. Crowley:

I believe there is something in the statement of claim.

Mr. Hilbery:

Are you asking for damages because your reputation has suffered?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

For many years you have been publicly denounced as the worst man in the world?

Mr. Crowley:

Only by the lowest type of newspaper.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did one newspaper call you a monster of wickedness?

Mr. Crowley:

I do not know. There were only about two of them altogether.

Mr. Hilbery:

Have you, from the time of your adolescence, openly defied all moral conventions?

Mr. Crowley:

No.

Mr. Hilbery:

And proclaimed your contempt for all the doctrines of Christianity?

Mr. Crowley:

That is quite wrong. I don't have contempt for all the doctrines of Christianity.

Mr. Hilbery:

You have practised magic from the days when you just down from Cambridge?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

And you went by the name Frater Perdurabo?

Mr. Crowley:

That is correct.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you take to yourself the designation of 'The Beast 666'?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do you call yourself the 'Master Therion'?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

What does 'Therion' mean?

Mr. Crowley:

Great wild beast.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do these titles convey a fair impression of your practise and outlook on life?

Mr. Crowley:

It depends on what they mean.

Mr. Hilbery:

The Great Wild Beast and Beast 666 are out of the Apocalypse?

Mr. Crowley:

In only means sunlight; 666 is the number of the sun. You can call me 'Little Sunshine'.

(Laughter)

Mr. Hilbery:

You have written one or two novels?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes, and about 18 short stories.

Mr. Hilbery:

You have written a number of books and many poems. Have nearly all of your poems been privately printed?

Mr. Crowley:

Certainly not.

Mr. Hilbery:

Would it be true to say that practically all your poems are erotic in tendency and grossly indecent in expression?

Mr. Crowley:

It would be entirely untrue to say anything of the kind. I have published a collection of 52 hymns to the Blessed Virgin Mary which were highly praised in the Catholic press.

Mr. Hilbery:

Have you published material too indescribably filthy to be read in public?

Mr. Crowley:

No. I have contributed certain pathological books entirely unsuited to the general public and only for circulation among students of psychopathology.

Mr. Hilbery:

Is it true that in more than one country you have acquired notoriety?

Mr. Crowley:

What is notoriety?

Mr. Hilbery:

Evil repute.

Mr. Crowley:

Then how can I tell you? No sensible person thinks anything bad about me. It is only a small group of persons quite unworthy of contempt.

Mr. Hilbery:

Were you finally expelled from Cefalù by Fascists?

Mr. Crowley:

Like Mr. H.G. Wells and many other distinguished Englishmen, my presence was not desired by Mussolini.

Mr. Hilbery:

In 1929, did the authorities in Paris refuse to renew your identification card so that you had to get out of France?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

They would not have you there?

Mr. Crowley:

A discharged employee [Carl de Vidal Hunt] was blackmailing me and he used his pull with the Stavisky gang, or whatever it was, and got my card refused.

Mr. Hilbery:

Have you been attacked in unmeasured terms in the Press of many countries?

Mr. Crowley:

I am not so familiar with the gutter press as that. Mr. Crowley explained that some of America's Hearst papers, England's lower papers, a paper in France and one in Italy had attacked him. The decent newspapers, however, all treated him properly.

Mr. Hilbery:

They have all accused you of black magic, haven't they?

Mr. Crowley:

I don't read such stuff as a rule. I am a busy man, and don't waste my time on garbage.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery brings up the subject of Crowley's publication The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.

Mr. Crowley:

Mr. Crowley states that while there might be inaccuracies in the book there are no false statements.

Mr. Hilbery:

You say in the book that you were a remarkable child?

Mr. Crowley:

I must have been.

Mr. Hilbery:

You assert that you had the distinguishing marks of a Buddha at birth?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do you believe that?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes. I have got some of then now?

Mr. Hilbery:

And you continue in your claim to be a master magician?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes, that is a technical term. I took a degree which conferred that title.

Mr. Hilbery:

Does your magic, like your poetry, involve a mixture of eroticism and sexual indulgence?

Mr. Crowley:

It does nothing of the kind.

Mr. Hilbery:

Is the gratification of your own sexual lusts one of your principal interests and pursuits?

Mr. Crowley:

No. Mr. Crowley denied that in his published works he had advocated unrestricted sexual freedom. He had protested against the sexual oppression that existed in England

Mr. Hilbery:

Is White Stains a book of indescribable filth?

Mr. Crowley:

The book is a serious study of the progress of a man to the abyss of madness, disease and murder. There are moments when he does go down into all those abominations, and it is a warning to people against going over.

Mr. Hilbery:

Have you made sonnets about unspeakable things?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes. I have described in sonnet form certain pathological conditions.

Mr. Hilbery:

White Stains is described as 'Being the Literary Remains of George Archibald Bishop, a Neuropath of the Second Empire.'

Mr. Crowley:

Yes. I think only 100 copies were printed and handed to some expert on the subject in Vienna.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was that done because you feared there might be a prosecution if they were published in this country?

Mr. Crowley:

It was not. It was a refutation of the doctrine that sexual perverts had no sense of moral responsibility and should not be punished. I maintained that they had, and showed the way they got from bad to worse.

Mr. Hilbery:

You know it is an obscene book.

Mr. Crowley:

I don't know it. Until it got into your hands, it never got into any improper hands at all.

(Laughter from the back of the courtroom)

Mr. Justice Swift

If there is any more laughter at the back of the court, the back of the court will be cleared.

Mr. Hilbery:

Is it technically an obscene book?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes, technically I think it is, and I should not write a book like that today. In describing a disease you have to describe it in proper terms.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do you agree that it would be quite impossible to paraphrase what these poems really were about in open court?

Mr. Crowley:

These subjects were all for the clinical wards, mental hospitals, and such places.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do you think the sonnet is a particularly suitable form to employ when the book is for clinical purposes?

Mr. Crowley:

I should not do it now. At that time it was the only form of expression I had. That was my preternatural innocence.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery reads a "highly sexual and indecent" extract from "Madonna of the Golden Eyes" from Crowley's The Soul of Osiris:

How we clave together! How we strained caresses!

How the swooning limbs sank fainting on the sward!

For the fiery dart raged fiercer; in excesses

Long restrained, it cried, "Behold! I am the Lord!"

O Madonna of the Golden Eyes!

Is what I have read indecent?

Mr. Crowley:

But you have read it out of its context. It is an expression of passion such as you find in Romeo and Juliet.

Mr. Hilbery:

Decency and indecency have nothing to do with it?

Mr. Crowley:

The law has laid it down that art has nothing to do with morals.

Mr. Hilbery:

May we assume that you have followed that in your practise of writing?

Mr. Crowley:

My view has nothing to do with it. I have always endeavoured to use the gift of writing which has been vouchsafed to me for the benefit of my readers. You can find indecency in Shakespeare, Sterne, Swift, and every other English writer down to Thomas Hardy if you try.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery then brought up Crowley's book Clouds without Water, whose preface referred to "disgusting blasphemies and revolting obscenities which defile these pages."

Mr. Crowley:

In defence of his book Mr. Crowley countered that the book was not a mockery of Christian faith, but a comment on the viewpoint of a certain type of clergyman.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do you agree that there is much in that book which any ordinary, earnest Christian would call disgusting blasphemy?

Mr. Crowley:

No.

Mr. Hilbery:

It contains a series of sonnets entitled 'Black Mass'?

Mr. Crowley:

There is one series with that title.

Mr. Hilbery:

That is certainly—all of it—blasphemous!

Mr. Crowley:

The Black Mass is blasphemy, and I am exposing and denouncing it. I am the modern James Douglas.

Mr. Hilbery:

James Douglas happens to have said of you that you were the worst man in the world.

Mr. Crowley:

I never heard him say it. I think it was Mr. Horatio Bottomley; one of that gang, anyhow.

The hearing is adjourned until 11 April.

Day 2 (11 April 1934)

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery continues reading from Crowley's book Clouds without Water to which Mr. Crowley complains of Mr. Hilbery's tone. When Mr. Crowley declines to recite the text himself, Mr. Hilbery continues on.

Isn't that filthy?

Mr. Crowley:

You read it as if it were magnificent poetry. I congratulate you.

Mr. Hilbery:

Is the meaning of it filthy?

Mr. Crowley:

In my opinion, it is of no importance in this matter. You are reading this sonnet out of its context as you do everything.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery reads "The Initiation" from Crowley's book Clouds without Water.

Still we can laugh at burgesses and churls

In our excess of agony and lust.

We pity these poor prudes, insipid girls

And tepid boys, these creatures of the dust.

We pity all these meal-mouthed montebanks

That prate of Jesus, ethics, faith and reason,

These jerry-built dyspeptics, stuccoed cranks,

Their lives one dreary plain, one moist dull season

Like their grey land  . . .

Did you write that?

Mr. Crowley:

I should like to point out that the author of those words has been dead for years.

Mr. Hilbery:

Is the Aleister Crowley who wrote it dead?

Mr. Crowley:

Do I look like it? It is not Aleister Crowley who wrote that; it is an imaginary figure in a drama. I created the drama.

Mr. Hilbery:

And you created the poem.

Mr. Crowley:

I created the work of an imaginary author.

Mr. Hilbery:

Haven't you been well known for years as the author of all these things which I have been putting to you?

Mr. Crowley:

Not generally. I regret that my reputation is not much wider than it is.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do you want your reputation to be wider?

Mr. Crowley:

I should like to be universally hailed as the greatest living poet. Truth will out, you know.

Mr. Hilbery:

That's your view, is it?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

The defence reads from the Winged Beetle, calling its verses disgusting. Mr. Crowley replied to the effect that they were literary masterpieces.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Mr. Justice Swift interrupted to say that he'd heard enough poetry.

Mr. Hilbery:

Before America came into the war, when the affairs of the Allies were in great jeopardy, did you contribute to a Chicago magazine?

Mr. Crowley:

I did.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery quotes from "The New Parsifal." Did you write that against your own country?

Mr. Crowley:

I did, and I am proud of it.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was that part of German propaganda in America?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes

Mr. Hilbery:

And written as such?

Mr. Crowley:

I endeavoured successfully to have it accepted as such. What I wanted to do was to over-balance the sanity of German propaganda, which was being very well done, by turning it into absolute nonsense. How I got Mr. Carus to publish that rubbish I cannot think. He must have been in his dotage.

Mr. Hilbery:

That is your explanation now, after the Allied cause is safe and no longer in danger?

Mr. Crowley:

Lots of people knew it at the time.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery quotes from Crowley's articles in the Sunday Dispatch. "I have been shot at with broad arrows. 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." Is that true?

Mr. Crowley:

I hear a new canard about me every week. Any man of distinction has rumours about him.

Mr. Hilbery:

Does any man of distinction necessarily have it said about him that he is the worst man in the world?

Mr. Crowley:

Not necessarily: he has to be very distinguished for that.

(Laughter)

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you say "James Douglas described me as 'a monster of wickedness' . . . Horatio Bottomley branded me as 'a dirty degenerate cannibal' ?"

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

You never took any action against any of the persons who wrote and published those things about you, did you?

Mr. Crowley:

No.

Mr. Hilbery:

But because of this silly little paragraph in this book, you run to your lawyer with it, according to you, to bring an action for injury to this reputation, that reputation of being the worst man in the world. Is that the case?

Mr. Crowley:

I also have the reputation as being the best man in the world.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you say, "Practically my whole life has been spent in the study of magic"?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you have a flat in your early days in Chancery Lane?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you have two temples in that flat?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes, but one was not really a temple. It was just a lobby which was not used.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery, referring to Mr. Crowley's Confessions, You said: "I constructed a temple in the flat. It was a hall of mirrors, the function of which was to concentrate the invoked forces"?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery continued reading from the Confessions: "I had two temples: one white, the walls being lines with six huge mirrors, each six feet in height; the other black, a mere cupboard, in which stood an altar, supported by the figure of a negro standing on his hands. The presiding genius of this place was a human skeleton. . . ."

Mr. Crowley:

Yes. Milikin and Lawley, £5.

Mr. Hilbery:

". . . which I fed from time to time with blood, small birds, and the like."

Was that true?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

That was White Magic, was it?

Mr. Crowley:

It was a very scientific experiment. Mr. Crowley stated that he had read about it in medieval books.

Mr. Hilbery:

"The idea was to give it life, but I never got further than causing the bones to be covered with a viscous slime. . . ."

Mr. Crowley:

I expect that was the soot of London.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery then read an account from the Confessions of how unseen assailants attacked visitors to Crowley's flat.

Was that the result of the spirits which your magic had brought to the place?

Mr. Crowley:

That is the theory of certain people. I had not the experience to control the forces then. I was trying to learn how to do something and made a lot of blunders, as beginners always do.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was that your black magic or your white magic?

Mr. Crowley:

It is white magic in which you protect yourself from such things.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery then read an account from the Confessions: "By invoking the God of Silence, Harpocrates, by the proper ritual in front of a mirror, I gradually got to the stage where my reflection began to flicker like the images of one of the old-fashioned cinemas. . . . I was able to walk out in a scarlet and gold robe with a jewelled crown on my head without attracting any attention. They could not see me."

Was that true?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do you think that any ordinary person might suppose that that was black magic?

Mr. Crowley:

I cannot tell what any ordinary person would suppose about anything.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery then mentioned occasions on which Mr. Crowley had sacrificed a goat and a toad.

Do you advocate, as a magician, sacrifice and bloody sacrifice?

Mr. Crowley:

Not in the sense in which you mean it.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do you believe in the practise of bloody sacrifice?

Mr. Crowley:

I believe in its efficacy.

Mr. Hilbery:

If you believe in its efficacy, you would believe in its being practised?

Mr. Crowley:

I do not approve of it at all.

Mr. Hilbery:

Do not approve it?

Mr. Hilbery then read from Mr. Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice:

"Those magicians who object to the use of blood have endeavoured to replace it with incense. For such a purpose the incense of Abramelin may be burnt in large quantities. Dittany of Crete is also a valuable medium. . . . But the bloody sacrifice, though more dangerous, is mort efficacious; and for nearly all purposes human sacrifice is the best.

     

"For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim

     

"It appears from the Magical Records of Frater Perdurabo that he made this particular sacrifice on an average about 150 times every year between 1912 and 1928."

Mr. Crowley:

Mr. Crowley argued that the passages were historical statements about ancient practises, and not meant seriously.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery then proceeded to questions on Cefalù.

Mr. Crowley:

Mr. Crowley said that he named his house there the "Abbey of Thelema" after his magical system and to the best of his ability turned the main room into a temple.

Mr. Hilbery:

If a person arrived there, did you not meet him on the threshold with the greeting, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law'?

Mr. Crowley:

That was the normal thing to do. I am accustomed to say that every morning on waking.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was he not required to answer with the appropriate formula, "Love is the law, love under will"?

Mr. Crowley:

I object to the word "required."

Mr. Hilbery:

Was he expected to do so?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Would he get into the house if he did not?

Mr. Crowley:

Of course he would.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery asks Mr. Crowley about the temple.

Mr. Crowley:

Mr. Crowley denies there was a pentagram and circle on the floor of the temple, although there was some mystical polygon on the floor.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you use a seat, sometimes within this figure, as a throne on which you, as presiding magician, sat?

Mr. Crowley:

If you like to use the word "throne," I do not see how I can object to it.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was there an altar?

Mr. Crowley:

There was a sort of square box on which were kept things, and there was a cupboard in which were kept things.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was it an altar for the purpose of the ceremonies?

Mr. Crowley:

If you like, yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did it have on it a book which purported to contain the laws?

Mr. Crowley:

I expect so, yes. I do not remember minute details after ten years.

Mr. Hilbery:

Were there candles upon it which were used for ceremonial purposes?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was incense used at the ceremonies?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was this altar seven-sided?

Mr. Crowley:

I believe it was not.

Mr. Hilbery:

Seven sides would have a magical significance?

Mr. Crowley:

So would any number.

Mr. Hilbery:

Seven would have a particular significance?

Mr. Crowley:

So would any other number. The reason I doubt whether it was seven is that it was a most unlikely number for me to chose.

Mr. Hilbery:

For the purpose of ceremony did you require a knife?

Mr. Crowley:

No, there were no knives, magically speaking, but there was a dagger and a sword.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you wear an appropriate robe at the ceremony?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

In some of the ceremonies, were you endeavouring to get concentrated spiritual ecstasy?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you keep hashish and other drugs at Cefalù.

Mr. Crowley:

There was no hashish.

Mr. Hilbery:

Opium?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Strychnine?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you advise that drugs should be employed for the purpose of increasing or helping the spiritual ecstasy?

Mr. Crowley:

No. Nothing would be more inappropriate at a ceremony.

Mr. Hilbery:

When do you advise the use of them?

Mr. Crowley:

Under skilled supervision, but to a very limited extent.

Mr. Hilbery:

Are you skilled to administer hashish?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes. I can get the desired results in ten minutes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was there heroin used at the villa?

Mr. Crowley:

It had been prescribed for me by a Harley Street doctor for asthma.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was not one of the rules which you enjoined in the Abbey that nobody should use the first person singular "I" except yourself as a master?

Mr. Crowley:

That is not true at all.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was it with your approval that an inmate had a razor or a knife with which to cut himself if he stumbled into using the forbidden word?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes, but it didn't cause gashes. They are minute cuts. You can see marks of them on my own arm. This is a general practise, by which any man may learn to control his actions and thoughts.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was that the practise which you advised students at Cefalù to adopt?

Mr. Crowley:

No, because there was no student who was in a state of knowledge in which I could give him advice. During a student's first year it was my business not to give advice, but to let the student choose his own practice from the large number at his disposal.

Mr. Hilbery:

Were the inmates required to bathe outside in the courtyard?

Mr. Crowley:

No.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did they do so?

Mr. Crowley:

Not to my knowledge.

Mr. Hilbery:

Have you looked out of the window yourself when one of your female inmates was bathing?

Mr. Crowley:

I did not.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was there talk—ignorant, perhaps—by some of the population round concerning a child disappearing?

Mr. Crowley:

I did not hear any.

Mr. Hilbery:

You told Miss Hamnett once that there had been silly gossip of that sort?

Mr. Crowley:

Not to my knowledge.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery then asked Mr. Crowley about the ceremonies that he had performed.

Did you raise your voice as your ecstasy increased?

Mr. Crowley:

I hate raising my voice.

Mr. Justice Swift:

So we have observed.

Mr. Hilbery:

In the circumambulation did you use a dancing step?

Mr. Crowley:

There is a three-fold step which somewhat resembles a waltz, but it was not done as a dance. Mr. Crowley added that his pace was more like that of a tiger stalking a deer.

Mr. Hilbery:

Did you sometimes perform a ceremony naked?

Mr. Crowley:

Never in the presence of another person.

Mr. Hilbery:

Have you been called "thoroughly pernicious and exposed Aleister Crowley"?

Mr. Crowley:

I don't think I know that one. I cannot read everything.

Mr. Hilbery:

In March 1923, did a Sunday newspaper publish about you an article headed "Black Record of Aleister Crowley. Preying on the Debased. Profligacy and Vice in Sicily"?

Mr. Crowley:

Mr. Crowley agreed.

Mr. Hilbery:

Have you taken any action about that?

Mr. Crowley:

I have not. Mr. Crowley explained that he did not have enough money to begin proceedings and that he considered it a compliment to be blackguarded in such an obviously filthy way.

Mr. Justice Swift:

When you read, "it is hard to say with certainty whether Crowley is man or beast," did you take any action?

Mr. Crowley:

It was asked of Shelley whether he was a man or someone sent from Hell.

Mr. Justice Swift:

I am not trying Shelley. Did you take any steps to clear your character?

Mr. Crowley:

I was 1,500 miles away. I was ill. I was penniless.

Mr. Justice Swift:

I didn't ask about the state of your health. Did you take any steps to clear your character?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes. Mr. Crowley explained that his solicitor advised that action would last 14 days and cost £10,000, thus he could do nothing.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Now you see how absurd that advice was, because this case won't take anything like fourteen days. It has now taken two whole days, and it will probably take the whole of tomorrow. It may go into Friday, though I am not sure about that. It won't last more than four days. I imagine you have not found £10,000, have you?

Mr. Crowley:

No.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery asked Mr. Crowley about his friendship with Miss Hamnett.

Mr. Crowley:

Mr. Crowley said that he'd known her for some years and they were always on friendly terms. He knew no reason she'd intentionally try to harm him, and believed the statements in Laughing Torso, which he first saw in 1932, were written in error, not malice.

Mr. O'Connor:

You are a "master magician"?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes. Go on.

Mr. O'Connor:

And a person with supernatural powers?

Mr. Crowley:

No.

Mr. O'Connor:

What's the good of being a master magician without having more power than your learned counsel or I have got?

Mr. Crowley:

There is no such thing as supernatural power. Nature includes the totality of all things.

Mr. O'Connor:

How have you been living?

Mr. Crowley:

Virtuously. Mr. Crowley admitted no knowledge of incurring room and board debts.

Mr. O'Connor:

Were you summoned for the amount of your bill by Mrs. Lewis in the Westminster County Court in April 1933?

Mr. Crowley:

I do not know. People do all sorts of things like that, and I never hear of them.

Mr. O'Connor:

That is peculiar, and I will tell you why. County Court Summonses have to be served personally.

Mr. Crowley:

Yes, but I do not know. Someone gives me a paper, and I put it in my pocket. I think no more about it. A fellow gave me a Judgment Summons only yesterday. I have never seen one before. It was a very nice shade of yellow.

(Laughter)

Mr. O'Connor:

Have you got it here?

Mr. Crowley:

No, I gave it to someone. I didn't want it.

(Laughter)

The hearing is adjourned until 12 April.

Day 3 (12 April 1934)

Mr. O'Connor:

You said yesterday that as a result of early experiments you invoked certain forces with the result that some people were attacked by unseen assailants. That is right is it not?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. O'Connor:

Will you try your magic now on my learned friend.

(Mr. O'Connor pointed to Mr. Hilbery.)

Mr. Crowley:

I would not attack anybody.

Mr. O'Connor:

Is that because you are too considerate or because you are an imposter?

Mr. Crowley:

I have never done willful harm to any human being.

Mr. O'Connor:

Try your magic now. I am sure my learned friend will consent to you doing so.

Mr. Crowley:

I absolutely refuse.

Mr. Justice Swift:

We cannot turn this court into a temple, Mr. O'Connor.

Mr. O'Connor:

There is one other question. You said, Mr. Crowley, "On a later occasion I succeeded in rendering myself invisible." Would you like to try that on? You appreciate that if you do not I shall denounce you as an imposter.

Mr. Crowley:

You can denounce me as anything you like. It will not alter the truth.

Mr. Hilbery:

On one occasion, was an animal killed in the course of a ceremony?

Mr. Crowley:

No.

Mr. Hilbery:

A cat?

Mr. Crowley:

No, not to my knowledge.

Mr. Hilbery:

Was some of the blood of the cat drunk by one of the people taking part in the ceremony?

Mr. Crowley:

No. There was no cat and no blood and no drinking. The whole thing is a fabrication.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy asked his client about the questions which the defence had put to him.

Mr. Crowley:

Mr. Crowley stated he had written and published over 100 books, thousands of poems, nearly 100 hymns, and over 80 short stories.

No objection has ever been taken on moral grounds to any books of mine except in one case of James Douglas' disgraceful attack on The Diary of a Drug Fiend, which was published by one of the greatest publishers in London. . . . and one of the strictest from a moral point of view.

Mr. Eddy:

If there was German propaganda, why did you indulge in it?

Mr. Crowley:

To destroy it. I reported my activities to the chief of our organization, Captain Guy Gaunt, and was in communication with the Honorable Everard Feilding. I came back immediately after the war, and if I had been a traitor I should have been shot, and a good job too,.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Were you not in prison in America?

Mr. Crowley:

I was not in prison there or at any other place or time in the whole of my life.

Mr. Eddy:

If you have enemies, have you also got friends?

Mr. Crowley:

I trust so.

Mr. Eddy:

Did one gentleman think it right to write a book about you in your defence?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Is that book called The Legend of Aleister Crowley.

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Have you at any time practised black magic?

Mr. Crowley:

No. I have always written in condemnation of black magic.

Mr. Eddy:

What is the object of the magic in which you believe?

Mr. Crowley:

My particular branch is the raising of humanity to higher spiritual development.

Mr. Justice Swift:

I would like to ask if Mr. Crowley could give the court the shortest and, at the same time, most comprehensive definition of magic which he knows.

Mr. Crowley:

Magic is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformation with the Will. It is white magic if the Will is righteous ands black magic if the Will is perverse.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Does it involve the invocation of spirits?

Mr. Crowley:

It may do so. It does involve the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel, who is appointed by Almighty God to watch over each of us.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Then it does involve invocation of the spirits?

Mr. Crowley:

Of one spirit. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Is magic, in your view, the art of controlling spirits to affect the course of events?

Mr. Crowley:

That is part of magic, one small branch.

Mr. Justice Swift:

If the object of the control is good then it is white magic?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Justice Swift:

And if the object of the control is bad, it is black magic?

Mr. Crowley:

Yes.

Mr. Justice Swift:

When the object of the control is bad, what spirits do you invoke?

Mr. Crowley:

You cannot invoke evil spirits; you must evoke them or call them out.

Mr. Justice Swift:

When the object is bad, you evoke evil spirits?

Mr. Crowley:

You put yourself in their power. In that case, it is possible to control, or bind, evil spirits for a good purpose, as we might if we use the dangerous elements of fire and electricity for heating and lighting, and so on.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Thank you.

Karl Germer:

I have known Mr. Crowley since 1925 and am a believer in magic in the sense in which he has defined it. I know many people who admire him very highly in Germany and many in America.

Mr. Gallop:

Throughout the whole of time you have known Mr. Crowley, has he ever advocated or practised black magic?

Karl Germer:

Not at all; just the opposite.

Mr. Gallop:

Do you believe there is black magic.

Karl Germer:

Yes.

Mr. O'Connor:

Have you ever seen Mr. Crowley invoke spirits?

Karl Germer:

Yes.

Mr. O'Connor:

What spirits?

Karl Germer:

The spirit of magnanimity.

Mr. O'Connor:

How do you know it was the spirit of magnanimity?

Karl Germer:

I suppose you have got to be sensitive in order to perceive.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Can you point to any difference between the spirit of magnanimity and the spirit of hospitality?

Karl Germer:

I think that is very easy.

Mr. O'Connor:

You are sure it was the spirit of magnanimity which came, and not the spirit of hospitality?

Karl Germer:

I believe so.

Mr. O'Connor:

Where did it come from? How long did it stay? Where did it go? Tell me; where did it come from first?

Karl Germer:

It probably came from Heaven; I don't know.

Mr. O'Connor:

How long did it stay?

Karl Germer:

I don't know. I did not have a stop-watch with me. I think you are joking.

Mr. O'Connor:

I am.

Karl Germer:

I am giving a joking reply.

Mr. O'Connor:

Have you seen Mr. Crowley invoke any other spirits?

Karl Germer:

I have seen him invoking the sun.

Mr. O'Connor:

I hope the invocations was on a very foggy day

(Laughter)

Mr. O'Connor:

What did he say to the sun, and to what effect?

Karl Germer:

I don't remember the words.

Mr. O'Connor:

What was the result of the invocation?

Karl Germer:

Nothing.

Mr. O'Connor:

That does not help very much. He didn't make much progress in the invoking business. Are you acquainted with invisible planes?

Karl Germer:

Yes.

Mr. O'Connor:

Where could I find one?

Karl Germer:

The musical plane. Music is invisible.

Mr. O'Connor:

Have you ever seen any persons on an invisible plane?

Karl Germer:

No.

Mr. O'Connor:

I should like to learn a little black magic. Tell me how I can.

Karl Germer:

I cannot instruct you on it.

Mr. O'Connor:

Do you know any back magician in England who specialises in killing babies?

Karl Germer:

No.

Mr. O'Connor:

At this point Mr. O'Connor tried to get Mr. Germer to read a poem that Mr. Crowley had written in French.

The prosecution rests and the defence takes its turn.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Crowley has asked the jury to say that he has been defamed and that his reputation has been injured. You must decide if, with regard to what you know to be Mr. Crowley's general character and repute, the words complained of would be read by any ordinary person as defaming him in a way which would entitle him to an award of monetary damages.

Since 1898, he has written and published books and poems which he has himself described as "the excreta of Aleister Crowley." He has put himself before the public with challenge after challenge to all those standards of decency, conduct and morality to which ordinary people subscribe in their daily lives, reserving to himself, presumably, a freedom which might be described as unbridled license. Having put himself before the world in that light, can he complain if the world regards him in the light of that reputation which he has so proclaimed?

In the course of years he has gained the reputation of being the worst man in the world, but he now complains that a passage in a book of gossipy trifles by a woman who is a sort of clearing-house for the news of the artistic world has made people think worse of him. He has been bitterly attacked in the Press for his "orgies" at Cefalù, but he has, until the present moment, stirred neither hand nor foot to vindicate his character.

If any ordinary person were to read the chapter in the Laughing Torso which included the one paragraph of which Mr. Crowley complains, and was asked whether it cast a serious imputation on him, he would answer, "Nonsense! It's all nonsense and chatter. there is nothing unkindly in it and nothing which bears a trace of malice."

You know that Mr. Crowley fitted the large room in the house at Cefalù as a temple, so far as he was able—a temple for magic and magical ceremonies. He named the house the Abbey of Thelema, after a known magic rite. Has the jury any doubt that, if ceremonies were performed with the paraphernalia that was provided, Mr. Crowley was "supposed to practise black magic"? Have you any doubt that, in a peasant countryside, that place would be shunned?

Mr. Crowley has himself said that he performed the Rites of Eleusis and that in the course of the ceremonies a being took human form and was seen among them. And he admitted that he had once kept a skeleton and fed it with dead animals. He described how, both in London and Scotland, the practise of his magic resulted in the presence of spirits which made people go into fits, or darkened the sunshine in a room    . In view of that, how can he say that he has been defamed by that one paragraph in a volume of chitter-chatter? What he has done would lead any ordinary person to suppose that he had practised black magic at Cefalù.

Mr. Lilley:

Mr. Lilley calls his first witness Mrs. Betty May Sedgewick.

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Mrs. Sedgewick testified that she was the former wife of Frederick Charles Loveday [Raoul Loveday], who was known as Raoul. They met Crowley in 1922, and Raoul saw him against her wishes. In November, 1922, they went to stay with Mr. Crowley in Cefalù.

Raoul knocked at the door. Crowley came to the door just as it opened, and said, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." Raoul answered, "Love is the law, love under will. Crowley said to me, "Will you say it?" I said, "I will not." Crowley said, "You cannot come into the Abbey unless you conform to the rules of the Abbey. This is the beginning: the first rule of the Abbey." I had eventually to make the reply. Then I was admitted. I refused to sign [an agreement to abide by the rules of the Abbey]. My husband did. I was ordered out of the Abbey unless I signed the book. I had no money. Ultimately I had to sign.

Mr. Lilley:

Where did you sleep that night?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I was told I had always, from that moment, to sleep by myself in a room next to Mr. Crowley's bed room. The rules for the day were typed by the secretary of the Abbey and pinned on the door. We knew they came from Mr. Crowley.

She then stated that the Abbey had no accommodation for washing. She said that water was scarce and, generally, no one washed. Typically, one took a pail of water into the courtyard and sponged off there.

About half past five in the morning the household was aroused by the banging of a tom-tom and had to go out and face the sun. It was called "adoration." Between four and 4:30 every day the children had to stand and put their hands up to the sun.

The evening ceremony was the great thing of the day. It was called "Going in to Pentagram." Mr. Crowley slept the whole day and lived at night. We had high tea, and Mr. Crowley would come and ask for a pail of water to wash his hands. After tea, during the Pentagram ceremony, the women sat on boxes around the circle. Mr. Crowley was the head of the ceremony, and wore a robe of bright colors with a cowl. A scarlet-robed woman name Leah [Leah Hirsig] took part in the ceremony. She was the spiritual wife of Mr. Crowley.

Mrs. Sedgewick then described the main ritual room as having a large red circle on the floor, in the center of which was painted a pentagram. Wooden boxes were arranged around the circle, and in the circle was a seven-sided white altar which held the book and candles.

People assembled in the room. In one corner was an old-fashioned-looking chair in which Mr. Crowley sat in front of a brazier in which incense was burned. Passes were made with a sword, and then Crowley would go up with the sword and breathe a person into him and then out of him. There was only one big ceremony at the villa, and that was for money. It lasted about 24 hours.

There was a sort of hysterical business. They called on gods. There was an invocation which was first of all done in English. It was done in a room that had two long closed doors. There were two narrow beds. On one there was Mr. Crowley's sleeping bag. There were enormous paintings in the room.

Mr. Lilley:

What was it like?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

It was terrible.

Mr. Lilley:

Do you mean it was indecent?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Most.

Mr. Lilley:

Was there a rule about the use of any particular word?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes, the word "I." Raoul was told he was on no account to use the word "I." If he did, he was to cut himself in order to remember.

Mr. Lilley:

Did you ever see any sacrifice during a ceremony?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I saw a very big sacrifice, a terrible sacrifice—the sacrifice of a cat. Mrs. Sedgewick explained that the cat had scratched Mr. Crowley who ordered its sacrifice within three days.

Mr. Lilley:

Where was it sacrificed?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

On the altar. Everybody was excited because they were going to have a big sacrifice. Mr. Crowley had a knife with a long handle. It was not very sharp. The cat was crying piteously in its bag. It was taken out of the bag and my husband had to kill the cat. The knife was blunt and the cat got out of the circle. That was bad for magical work. They had to start all over again, with the cat having such a hash in its neck that they could have killed it shortly. Finally, they killed the cat, and my young husband had to drink a cup of the cat's blood.

Mr. Eddy:

I suggest you have given evidence which is untrue, and which you know to be untrue.

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

How many times have you been married?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I think four times.

Mr. Eddy:

How many times have you been divorced?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Three.

Mr. Eddy:

Before you went to Cefalù, were you a decent citizen or not?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I was, I think. Yes, of course I was.

Mr. Eddy:

You have written a book called Tiger Woman?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Does it purport to be an autobiography of yourself?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Is that true?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

My whole early life and my latter life is very true, but there is one little thing that is untrue. Mrs. Sedgewick admitted to further untruths in the book: She had never been a member of an Apache gang in Paris, nor did she brand an English undergraduate with a red-hot dagger.

Mr. Eddy:

Are you here because you wanted to make money out of this case and to sell your evidence?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

But I have been subpoenaed to come here.

The hearing is adjourned until 13 April.

Day 3 (13 April 1934)

Mr. Eddy:

Immediately before your marriage to Raoul Loveday, would your life be fairly described as drink, drugs, and immorality?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

Is there any part of that statement which is inaccurate?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

It is all inaccurate. I have not drugged for years. Mrs. Sedgewick explained that she started taking cocaine at age 18, but stopped by the time she turned 25.

Mr. Eddy:

Drink?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Not more than anyone else. . . . with my dinner.

Mr. Eddy:

Persistent immorality?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

Living a very fast life in London?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

When you married your husband was he in a poor state of health?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

He had been very ill six months previously, but he was getting quite fir. He had great nervous energy.

Mr. Eddy:

Did he have a serious accident at Oxford?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I believe it was rather bad.

Mr. Eddy:

Did you try to embark him upon the life you were leading in London, whatever it was?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I was a model and I sat to keep both of us. I was sitting hard because we had no money. We were living in a furnished back room, and I earned £1 a day. I sat every day until we went to Italy.

Mr. Eddy:

Did your husband tell you that Mr. Crowley wanted to give you both a change in Sicily and to enable you to live a clean life there?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

You know that after your arrival in Sicily articles about Mr. Crowley appeared?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Did you supply the information?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

Have you not supplied information to the Sunday Express?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Have you not been paid for it?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

When did you supply that information?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

On the day I arrived in England from Sicily.

Mr. Eddy:

What were you paid for it?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I cannot remember. It was a long time ago.

Mr. Eddy:

I am suggesting that you are the source of all these stories about "The Worst Man in the World." 

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Mrs. Sedgewick agreed that she was paid for the information used for the 4 March 1923 Sunday Express article headed "Young Wife's Story of Crowley's Abbey."

Mr. Eddy:

Did you write this article?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

Did it surprise you to see what had been happening—according to you—at Cefalù when you read the story, purporting to be your story?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No, it did not.

Mr. Eddy:

While you were in Cefalù there was no other visitor at the house other than you and your husband?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Not living there, except the people of the Abbey.

Mr. Eddy:

No journalist came to Cefalù to see what the facts really were?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I did not see anybody.

Mr. Eddy:

At the Abbey, on your arrival, there was a woman named Leah?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Was there another woman name Jane [Jane Wolfe]?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Based on yesterday's testimony, Mrs. Sedgewick agreed that, when they arrived at the Abbey, Leah opened the door. Mr. Crowley appeared shortly thereafter. Mr. Eddy quoted a conflicting passage from Tiger Woman: "Raoul rapped on the door; we waited a few moments; the door was flung open; there stood the mystic in all the glory of his ceremonial robes. He had evidently prepared for our arrival."

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I have mixed this up. I am wrong there.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy then quoted the Sunday Express article. "We knocked at the door and it was opened by a woman whom we were to know later as Jane"

Which of these stories is right?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Well, the journalist did it. I told him it was Leah.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy pointed out that in Tiger Woman, after their arrival at Cefalù, they slept on a mattress on the floor.

Yesterday you said you were told to sleep by yourself

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes. My husband and I did not sleep together.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy quotes the Sunday Express article which stated: "Mr. Crowley said we had better retire early after our journey. No beds were ready for us, so Jane gave up her room to us and spent the night in the temple."

Is that correct?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

The journalist must have written that.

Mr. Eddy:

Look at your book again:

We gathered that it was time to get up. Raoul was something of a dandy, and was horrified at the absence of toilet apparatus. "Monstrous!" he exclaimed several times, tramping up and down the room.

Is that all an invention?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

There were two mattresses in the room. He had a mattress to himself. He was not allowed to be my husband.

Mr. Eddy:

Were the children at the house at Cefalù well cared for?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

Were they ill-treated?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No. I do not think that they were very well brought-up and well looked after. They had to fend for themselves. They lived with the peasants most of the time.

Mr. Eddy:

Are you trying to tell us the truth about Cefalù?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I am.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy read another passage from Tiger Woman:

"They were delightful children, healthy and well-fed, and with no appearance of being oppressed by their unconventional surroundings."

Is that true?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I don't say they were underfed. I didn't approve their upbringing.

Mr. Eddy:

Is there a word of truth in your evidence regarding the "terrible sacrifice of a cat"?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Everything about the cat is true.

Mr. Eddy:

Are the cats in Sicily—or any of them—wild and destructive animals?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I only knew two and they were very charming cats.

Mr. Eddy:

I am suggesting that if there is any basis for this story, it is merely that a wild cat was shot.

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No, no.

Mr. Justice Swift:

If that suggestion is being put forward, let us have it more precisely. When, where and by whom was the cat shot?

Mr. Eddy:

I am suggesting to this witness that wild cats are a pest in Sicily, and if there is any foundation for her story it can only relate to the destruction of one of these destructive animals, and had no reference to any sacrifice at all.

Mr. Justice Swift:

I do not understand. Was there a cat shot or was there not?

Mr. Eddy:

Did Mr. Crowley shoot a cat himself?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No, but he shot a dog outside in the courtyard.

Mr. Eddy:

Then I suggest that this statement of yours about the sacrifice of a cat, and of your husband drinking the blood of the cat, is pure fiction.

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No. Every word is absolutely true.

Mr. Eddy:

You were living in the house from November 1922 to March 1923?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Was your husband well treated in his illness?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I suppose he was in a way.

Mr. Eddy:

What was he suffering from?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I have no idea. I thought it was laudanum poisoning.

Mr. Eddy:

You have stated in your book that he had enteric fever as the result of drinking impure water. Why this suggestion today that it was laudanum poisoning?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

That is true. After he drank the cat's blood he was violently ill and sick, and Mr. Crowley gave him laudanum, a lot of it, as medicine. I told Scotland Yard at the time I thought it was laudanum poisoning.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy read from Tiger Woman where it stated Raoul, despite Mr. Crowley's instructions, drank some spring water.

Had the drinking of this water anything to do with his illness?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I should think not.

Mr. Eddy:

Were you ordered to leave Cefalù, or did you leave of your own accord?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I asked to go.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy then read from Tiger Woman:

He (Mr. Crowley) ordered me to go and there was a terrific scene. I should have said before that there were several loaded revolvers which used to lie about the Abbey. They were very necessary, for we never knew when brigands might attack us. . . . I seized a revolver and fired it wildly at the Mystic. It went wide of the mark and he laughed heartily. Then I rushed at him, but couldn't get a grip of his shaven head. He picked me up in his arms and flung me bodily from the front door.

Is that little melodrama true?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

It is absolutely true.

Mr. Eddy:

Did your write this book (Tiger Woman)?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

A few facts—and somebody has done the rest, is that it?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes. Mrs. Sedgewick admitted the book had been written by a journalist.

Mr. Eddy:

Did all these little touches in this book come from the journalist?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

It was copied from the articles I wrote in the World's Pictorial News.

Mr. Eddy:

They contain inaccurate statements?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I gave them the facts. They "worked round them" and got their data a little wrong.

Mr. Eddy:

You saw these wild statements in the original articles?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

They are not wild. They are true.

Mr. Eddy:

But the statements about the undergraduate at Cambridge?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

That was not true.

Mr. Eddy:

It was in the original article?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Eddy:

Why did you allow that utterly untrue story to be reproduced in a book which goes out to the public as your story?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

It didn't seem to me to matter much, and as it had appeared in the article it didn't matter if it appeared in the book. It certainly made the book a little more exciting.

Mr. Eddy:

Is it to make your evidence a little more exciting that we are hearing all these things?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

Are you utterly reckless about what stories are communicated to the public as representing the facts?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

Yesterday I suggested that you are not here merely out of a sense of duty, to assist my lord and the jury to get at the truth, but that you had regarded this case as a means of getting money.

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. Eddy:

How much have you made out of Cefalù up to date?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Nothing.

Upon further questioning Mrs. Sedgewick admitted that she received £100 for newspaper articles.

Mr. Eddy:

In regard to your position in this case, I put it to you plainly that you are here as a "bought" witness.

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I am here to help the jury.

Mr. Eddy:

I am suggesting, without making any imputation against the solicitors, that you were obviously unwilling to come unless you were paid to come.

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mrs. Sedgewick explained that at most she had received £15-20 from the defendant's solicitors.

Mr. Eddy:

What was it for?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

It was for my expenses.

Mr. Eddy:

What expenses?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I live in the country and they wanted me in London, and they had to pay my expenses.

Mr. Eddy:

In reply, she received a letter stating, "I am afraid I cannot send you as much as another £5. I am grateful for your help, but I thought previous remittances covered a great deal."

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Mrs. Sedgewick admitted she received £5 from Messrs. Waterhouse, the solicitors.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy produced another letter.

Are you known as "Bumble Toff"?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Lots of people call me by that name.

Mr. Eddy:

Do you know anyone by the name of "Poddle Diff"?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes, he is an old friend of mine.

Mr. Eddy:

Is that letter signed by an old friend of yours?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I don't know, I have not seen him for so long.

Mr. Eddy:

Do you swear you have not received that letter addressed to "Dear Bumble Toff"?

Mr. Hilbery:

Objection!

Mr. Justice Swift:

Sustained. The witness says she does not remember receiving the letter. There the matter must stop.

Mr. Eddy:

Did you not discuss with "Poddle Diff" the question of your giving evidence in this case?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No. He had enough troubles of his own without troubling about mine.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy rested his cross-examination of Mrs. Sedgewick.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery questioned Mrs. Sedgewick about the letters and she stated that she had not seen them for a long time and they'd been removed from a small box of her personal papers.

Did you ever authorise anyone to extract those documents from your box of private papers and give them to Mr. Crowley?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Certainly not.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Are these the ones produced by Mr. Crowley?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Do you know how Mr. Crowley got possession of your letters?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I cannot imagine how he got them.

Mr. Hilbery:

Were there other letters in the case?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes. Everything was taken from the case but the case was left. The contents were all stolen.

Mr. Hilbery:

Until they were produced here with the suggestion that it was documentary evidence that your evidence had been bought, did you know they had got into Crowley's possession?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

I didn't know at all.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Where were they stolen from?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

From my little cottage or from my hotel when I was in London. I always took the case about with me everywhere. I think it was in London that I missed them.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery asked Mr. Eddy to produce the letter from Messrs. Waterhouse to Mrs. Sedgewick, dated 24 February 1933, so that he could read its entirety.

Mr. Justice Swift:

He clearly has no right to have it. Whoever has possession of those letters is in possession, according to this lady's evidence of stolen property. We shall never know in this case how, because we shall have no opportunity to find out, but it would be very interesting to know how Mr. Crowley came to be in possession of letters between the defendant's solicitors and this witness. Do I understand that you do not object to Mr. Hilbery reading his copy?

Mr. Eddy:

Not in the slightest.

Mr. Hilbery:

Mr. Hilbery quoted from the letter:

"We (the solicitors) should be pleased to pay any expenses to which you are put in this matter, and hope to hear from you. . . ."

You came to London and asked for your expenses?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

Yes.

Mr. Hilbery:

Have you ever made any sort of condition about giving evidence that you should be paid anything?

Mrs. Sedgewick:

No.

Mr. O'Connor:

It is appalling that, in this enlightened age a court should be investigating magic which is arch-humbug practised by arch-rogues to rob weak-minded people. I hope this action will end for all time the activities of this hypocritical rascal. As to his reputation, there is no one in fact or in fiction against whom so much inquiry has been alleged. I suggest the jury stop the case, say they have heard enough of Mr. Crowley, and return a verdict for the defendants.

Mr. Justice Swift:

After noticing two jurors talking, Mr. Justice Swift interrupted Mr. O'Connor's statement.

Members of the jury. I thought that you were speaking to each other. There is no reason why you should not whisper to him.

Jury Foreman:

May I be given an opportunity to do so?

Mr. Justice Swift:

I have stopped learned counsel [Mr. O'Connor] so that you might speak to each other, if you want to do so.

Jury Foreman:

After the jury conferred the foreman addressed the bench.

It is unanimous amongst the jury to know whether this is a correct time for us to intervene.

Mr. Justice Swift:

You cannot stop the case as against defendants. You may stop it against the plaintiff when Mr. Eddy has said everything he wants to say.

Mr. Eddy:

Mr. Eddy proceeded to argue Mr. Crowley's case. He pointed out that no evidence supported the allegation that a baby had disappeared from the Abbey, or that local peasants were afraid of Mr. Crowley. Moreover, Mrs. Sedgewick's testimony on the events at Cefalù was wholly unreliable.

No reasonable jury can do other than find a verdict in favor of Mr. Crowley. The defendants' views notwithstanding, the law of libel is available to everybody, whether he is of good or bad character.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Members of the Jury, a little over thirty-five minutes ago you intimated to me that you had made up your minds about this case, and that you did not want to hear any more about it. I pointed out to you that before you could stop it Mr. Eddy was entitled to address you. I also pointed out to you that you could only stop it in favour of the Defendants, and not in favour of the Plaintiff; that is to say, you cannot stop it an find a verdict against the Defendants until they have completed their cases. I also pointed out to you that before I took your verdict I must be satisfied that you understand the issues that you are trying.

If you are still of the same mind, and think that you have heard enough of this case all that I have got to say to you about the issues is that the Plaintiff has got to prove that he has been libelled. The Defendants have got to prove that the libel was justified. The Plaintiff has got to prove that his reputation was damaged. If you think that the Plaintiff fails on the ground that he was never libelled, or if you think that he fails no the ground that his reputation was not damaged, or if you think that the Defendants have justified, then your verdict should be for the Defendants. You cannot, at this stage, give a verdict against the Defendants. You may, at this stage, give a verdict against the Plaintiff.

I have nothing to say about the facts except this: I have been for over forty years engaged in the administration of the law, in one capacity or another, I thought that I knew every conceivable form of wickedness. I thought that everything which was vicious and bad had been produced, at one time or another, before me. I have learned in this case that we can always learn something more if we live long enough. Never have I heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous, abominable stuff as that which has been produced by the man who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet. Are you still of the same opinion, or do you want the case to go on?

(The Jury conferred.)

Mr. Eddy:

Your Lordship will not have forgotten what Lord Justice Scrutton said . . .

Mr. Justice Swift:

Nor now, Mr. Eddy.

(The Jury again conferred for a few minutes.)

Jury Foreman:

My Lord, may we retire for a moment?

Mr. Justice Swift:

No, I do not think so. If there is any doubt about the matter the case must go on. Unless you are in perfect unanimity now the case must go on.

(The Jury again conferred.)

Jury Foreman:

My Lord, the Jury is unanimous.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Then I will take the verdict.

Associate:

Members of the Jury, are you agreed upon your verdict?

Jury Foreman:

Yes.

Associate:

Do you find for the Defendants?

Jury Foreman:

We do.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Is that the verdict of you all?

Jury Foreman:

Yes.

Mr. Lilley:

My Lord, I have to ask for Judgment for the first and second Defendants, with Costs.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Yes.

Mr. Lilley:

Would your Lordship allow me to add one word? It is this: Mr. Harper . . .

Mr. Justice Swift:

No.

Mr. Lilley:

If your Lordship pleases.

Mr. Justice Swift:

There is no reflection on Mr. Harper.

Mr. Eddy:

I made that perfectly plain, I hope.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Mr. Eddy made it as plain as he could, the Jury has made it equally plain, and if it is any satisfaction to you to know it I see no reflection whatever on Mr. Harper.

Mr. Lilley:

If your Lordship pleases.

Mr. O'Connor:

I ask for Judgment for the Defendant Hamnett.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Yes. Members of the Jury. I can discharge you nor from any further attendance upon your present Summons. You can go, and not come back again, and I thank you for having come to assist me in the administration of justice.

Mr. Eddy:

In order that we may consider the position will your Lordship give me a stay upon the terms that the costs be taxed and paid on the usual undertaking? I ask your Lordship to give the ordinary stay. I could indicate my grounds, but I will not bother to do so now.

Mr. Justice Swift:

No, Mr. Eddy. It was a pure question of fact for the Jury.

Mr. Eddy:

I was desirous of pointing out, before the Jury gave their decision, exactly what had to be done before a verdict could be returned at all, and I desired to call your Lordship's attention—it is no use my doing it now—to what was the form of the Summing-up to be administered, the particular need of calling attention to the cross-examination, and so forth.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Very well. You shall do that in another place when it seems convenient to you to do it.

Mr. Eddy:

If your Lordship pleases.

Mr. Justice Swift:

I thought I had followed the instructions of Lord Justice Scrutton. I still think that I did, but you can go and point out to him that I did not, and then some day another Jury will re-investigate this matter.

Mr. Lilley:

My Lord, may I mention the documents which your Lordship has kept in your custody up to this point? Your Lordship indicated some little difficulty as to the proper ownership of those documents. If your Lordship thinks it right to allow those documents to remain in the custody of the Court pending an application for them to be made on behalf of one party or the other in this case, either the Plaintiff or the Defendants, we should be very glad if they might stay in the custody of the Court.

Mr. Justice Swift:

What do you say about them Mr. Eddy?

Mr. Eddy:

I do not mind, so long as they stay either in the possession of my Solicitors or in Court.

Mr. Justice Swift:

The Court does not want them, and you are in some little danger with them, are you not?

Mr. Eddy:

I do not know. It is not for me to enquire. My position quite shortly is that I do desire to consider the Jury's verdict. If, in fact, we should, rightly or wrongly, decide to go elsewhere then these letters ought to be available.

Mr. Justice Swift:

Very well, We will keep the letters in Court, and you shall certainly have them in proper custody to take them to another Court. The Associate will retain those letters in Court.

Mr. Eddy:

If your Lordship pleases.