Sorry, I can’t resist this one .
According to a new book “London’s Curse : Murder, Black Magic and Tutankhamun in the 1920s West End”, author Mark Benyon claims that seven deaths attributed to the Curse of Tutankhamun was not down to King Tut but was actually the work of bete-noire Aleister Crowley .
Six of the deaths occurred in London in the 1920s and were committed by Crowley in revenge for the opening of the pyramids by Howard Carter which, according to Benyon, had angered Crowley .
From Mail Online, the victims were :
Raoul Loveday who died on February 16, 1923. The 23-year-old Oxford undergraduate was a follower of Crowley’s cult at a Sicilian Abbey. He died on the same day at the very hour of Carter’s much-publicised opening of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber after drinking the blood of a cat sacrificed in one of Crowley’s rituals. Mr Beynon argues that he was deliberately poisoned.
Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey who died on July 10, 1923. The Egyptian prince, 23, was shot dead by his French wife of six months, Marie-Marguerite, in London’s Savoy Hotel shortly after he was photographed visiting the tomb. Mr Beynon says that Crowley and Marie-Marguerite had been lovers in Paris. She was working as a hostess at the Folies Berghre and he was a regular patron at the same venue. He suggests that Crowley put her up to the shooting.
Aubrey Herbert, died September, 23, 1923. Shortly after Marie-Marguerite’s acquittal, Aubrey Herbert, the half-brother of Lord Carnarvon, died of blood poisoning after a routine dental operation went suspiciously wrong at his private hospital in Park Lane. He had only recently returned from his own trip to Luxor. Mr Beynon speculates that Crowley was behind the death and may again have used Marie-Marguerite to do his dirty work.
Captain Richard Bethell, died November 15, 1929. Howard Carter’s 46-year-old personal secretary was found dead in his bed at Mayfair’s exclusive Bath Club. Bethell was said to have been in perfect health. It was initially thought that he died of a heart attack but his symptoms raised suspicion that he was smothered to death as he slept. Crowley had only recently returned to London and was often a guest of novelist W. Somerset Maugham at the club.
Lord Westbury, died February 20, 1930. Bethell’s father, Lord Westbury, 77, was believed to have thrown himself off his seventh floor St James’s apartment. But Mr Beynon found that it was practically impossible for an elderly man to have climbed out onto the window ledge and suggests that Crowley threw him off.
Edgar Steele, died February 24, 1930. Only four days after the death of Lord Westbury, Mr Steele, 57, died at St Thomas’ Hospital after a minor stomach operation. Mr Beynon speculates that Crowley was behind the death. He was in charge of handling the tomb artefacts at London’s British Museum.
Sir Ernest Wallis Budge, died November 23, 1934. A former Keeper in the British Museum’s Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, he was found dead in his bed in Bloomsbury aged 77. A friend of Lord Carnarvon, he had been responsible for displaying the artefacts from Luxor. Mr Beynon says there is evidence that Budge and Crowley were associates on the London occult scene.
Benyon argues Aleister Crowley was obsessed with Jack the Ripper and that the murders inspired Crowley . He, also, claims that the sites of five of Crowley’s murders formed a pentagram . As well, he says there is circumstantial evidence linking Crowley to the deaths and that there are clues in his books and diaries .
Call me an old cynic, but if I was thinking of a sure fire story line for a successful book, it may include Aleister Crowley, the curse of Tutankhamun and Jack the Ripper . The book can’t fail !
Source : Mail Online .
Hilarious stuff if a little frustrating. It’s hard enough to piece together Crowley’s life (he doesn’t help matters one iota!) without “a blend of meticulous research and educated conjecture” by the feverishly imaginative historian Mark Beynon. Of course Crowley would have approved,he courted publicity and notoriety the more salacious the rumours the better! He made most of them up himself! Oh well I shall read it for fun and enjoy the old chestnuts-he was a Master Mason(He wasn’t they wouldn’t let him in),he was a Satanist(No he wasn’t bowing down to anyone),he was Jack the Ripper(No he was 13 years old and had to go to bed) well actually that’s a safe bet, the other two probably and anything else I wouldn’t put past him frankly. I wouldn’t even put it past him to have come back from the Shadow Realm and written this book! That’s the eternal fascination of the man a massive intellect,excessive personality,a self mythologiser,revolutionary Occultist and possessing a knowing (camp even) sense of humour. Simultaneously the Absolute best and Catastrophically Worst possible dinner guest rolled into one. Time to hide the Cutlery Methinks!
Hi G – thanks for the comment . It shows the fascination of Crowley even now . I do wonder if Mark Benyon was looking for any wild idea to see whether he could create a bestseller . I like your idea of Crowley somehow channelling the book – it has a bit of The Trickster archetype in it .
This allegation against Crowley is simply nonsense. Learn the complete truth here:
http://www.saff.ukhq.co.uk/crowleybollocks.htm
Hi Frank the link above is a cracker! Belly laughs aplenty although it shows the mileage you get from a notorious Victorian gentleman! It’s a shame that when excellent sites like the above state clearly and loudly the truth of the man the Fundies keep dragging Uncle Al into every abominable act ever imagined! He told them then and if he was able he’d tell them now-You’re nothing but a pack of cards!
Hi SWAL & G – its obviously a load of rubbish but good for a laugh .