The Official Receiver and the Crowley Estate

On 1 December 1947, Aleister Crowley died as an undischarged bankrupt. The Official Receiver assigned to manage his affairs accepted a claim of £450 made by Karl Germer on behalf of the O.T.O., an unincorporated association, as property held in trust by Crowley for the organisation. In his Last Will and Testament of 9 June 1947, Crowley did not mention Grady Louis McMurtry (1918–1985) and invalidated all previous wills. He appointed journalist John Symonds (1914–2006) and novelist Louis Wilkinson, also known as Louis Marlowe (1881–1966), as literary executors. Karl Germer (1885–1962) and painter Frieda Harris (1877–1962) were made responsible for Crowley’s personal belongings, while Germer assumed leadership of the O.T.O.

After Crowley’s death, Germer, Wilkinson and Harris questioned whether the Official Receiver was truly the legal inheritor of Crowley’s copyrights by virtue of Crowley’s bankruptcy. A long correspondence continued over the following years, all parties being certain that the Crown, represented by the Official Receiver, did not in fact possess the copyrights. On 1 January 1948 Wilkinson wrote: “I am puzzled that the St. Leonard’s solicitors did not inform Mr. Crowley that he could not make his Will with any effect until he was ‘discharged’. He had told them that he was an undischarged bankrupt.” They were also concerned about Gerald Yorke (1901–1983), who might have been planning to purchase all of Crowley’s remaining manuscripts at a public auction. In February 1948, they offered to pay the Official Receiver enough to cancel Crowley’s debts. Initially, the Official Receiver ignored Germer & Co.’s offer, but in June 1948 a response was received: “The Official Receiver has decided to make no claim to the moneys deposited with Lloyds Bank, Hastings […] The Official Receiver waived claim to all personal property of the late Mr. Crowley […] The only claim that he did make was on the books and manuscripts […] for which he accepted £25 from my co-executor Mr. Germer.” Germer therefore believed: “I hold the Copyrights for the late Aleister Crowley.”

Kenneth Grant (1924–2011) was not involved in these discussions. In August 1948, Gerald Yorke even considered him to be used as “a slave” within the context of the A∴A∴.

On 24 January 1949, the Lewes and District Probate Registry granted probate of Crowley’s will to Harris and Wilkinson, with the exception of the deceased’s professional property and effects, including copyrights as an author.

Either on 12 or 13 September 1966, Louis Umfreville Wilkinson, who was Kenneth Grant’s superior in the O.T.O., died at Westcott Barton in England. On his deathbed, he transferred all his entitlements in the Crowley inheritance to his fellow literary executor, John Symonds.