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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Aleister Crowley, serial murderer?

Aleister Crowley isn't exactly a magnet for good publicity, even in death, but this is still pretty starting: Right Where You Are Sitting Now webzine's head honcho, Ken Eakins, reports that a new book, London's Curse: Murder, Black Magic and and Tutankhamun in the 1920s West End by Mark Beynon, alleges that Crowley was a murder and Jack the Ripper copycat who sought to enforce the "curse" of the pharaoh's tomb after Howard Carter excavated it. Eakins reports that he has ordered a copy of the book, "so I will report back shortly; but it seems very odd to me that only now has an author and ‘historian’ (I can’t find any academic credentials for Mr Beynon) linked this together.

"Could it be that Crowley’s name is once again being used to sell books? We’ll have to see."

The Amazon blurb says the book is a "a blend of meticulous research and educated conjecture."

5 comments:

Oz Fritz said...

Crowley also supposedly ate one of his Sherpas on the K2 climb. I believe he started that rumour himself at a party - straight from the horses mouth, as it were. How could it not be true?

michael said...

If Crowley was alive while those charges were made, he'd have written something gnomic to the press that seemed to admit the charges were true, all the while evading authorities. I'll have to check the new book myself, but I've read so much on Crowley I have grave, dire doubts he ever killed anyone, despite what he'd love the Idiot Public to believe.

"I will admit to achieving contact with Higher Intelligences through magickal workings, and that your greatest fears about evil and myself are warranted. Just this morning before getting out of bed I have slain 1000 Beings. I am the Great Beast 666, and my books are still on sale at occult bookstores in Bloomsbury and many other fine establishments. Signed, 666."

Oz Fritz said...

@michael great quote! where is it from?

michael said...

@Oz Fritz: my own syphilitic mind, sorry to admit!

LJ said...

But there is famous quote about him killing children, meaning masturbation of course, but I forget the source.

I have read some reviews of this book. Raul Loveday did die on Cefalu but I'm sure Crowley didn't kill him. The book is all conjecture as far I can see- I doubt I will read it however.