WITCHCRAFT IN THE WORLD TODAY by C.H. Wallace

Crowley misspent his lifetime trying to prove himself a magician and leader of a black magic cult. Time has proved him to have been a mere amoral charlatan, a debauchee, and, in all mystic connotations, a failure.

Author C.H. Wallace comes out swinging! But right off the bat, we should know that "Wallace" is actually writer Rosaylmer Burger, using a pseudonym for this dense witchcraft reader.

Par for the course for midcentury witchcraft books, Burger takes the "witch cult" hypothesis as read. And like Today's Witches by Susy Smith this is a globetrotting affair, with highlights around Papa Doc's Haiti, merc wars in the Congo, and a swatch of European witchery through the UK, France, Germany, and Italy! New York and the West Coast are also represented, of course, with Anton LaVey receiving mercifully brief coverage. Regarding another black magic superstar as quoted above, Crowley deservedly gets his licks. Some of the theorizing is definitely of the time:

Is there a connection between this form of German witchcraft and the murky Nazi mentality? Psychiatric experts firmly believe so; the link is said to be the deeply hidden but firmly embedded homosexual nature of those who follow either the devil sex cult or the Nazi political philosophy. This links them to the witch-hunters of yore, who also displayed manifestations of suppressed homosexuality. Yes. The links are there without a doubt.

While other portions are surprisingly levelheaded: as mentioned, there's a beefy chapter on black magic's role in the '60s Congo wars, and Burger impresses with her measured appraisal of how both Simba rebels and white mercs utilize juju to gain an edge in their bloody battles. Here's where Burger's background as a Men's Adventure writer shines - oh yeah, it turns out she also wrote a series of hard men action thrillers, including 1965's Crashlanding in the Congo!

Oh bingo bango bongo, I GOTTA leave the Congo ...

The website for Spy Guys and Gals lists the Steve Ramsay spy fiction written by Burger, which were also released under her Wallace pseud.

More intriguing nonfiction titles, oddly 
described as novels ...

Wallace ends things with digressions into ESP and alternative healing, her own personal views on magic, and a few more anecdotes, including some spectral revenge for the gruesome "Handkerchief Lady" murder case. Lest we think she's pulling a fast one a la Brad Steiger on a slow day, this was a real murder and a "real" (at least, claimed and documented at the time) revenge from beyond the grave on the killer of Elsie Litt:

From the Cincinnati Post, 1967

That "B-girl" trick mentioned on the inside cover, by the way? Filing your nails into a guy's drink! It's sure to drive him off, especially if he catches you in the act! What other wonders lurk in these pages? Find out for yourself: Witchcraft in the World Today is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Award Books, 1967

ARCHIVAL UPDATES: MORE STRANGE STEIGER

Three more strange Brad Steiger volumes are now available to read and download on archive dot org:

The Unknown

Beyond Unseen Boundaries

Strange Men and Women

This marks the digital debut of all three titles! Reacquaint yourself with such luminaries as the hideous Monster of Glamis, history mysteries like Edgar Allan Poe's missing bones, and dangerous adventure like Dr. Jeanne-Marie-Therese Koffman's search for the Abominable Snowman! These strange tales and many, many more are packed into these early titles from Steiger. Previous reviews are here, here, and here.

A bonny lass who knows how to get ahead!

All three titles are courtesy Popular Library, 1966-1967.

ARCHIVAL UPDATES: STRANGE TIMES THREE!

Sure is strange! These three classic Forteana mixers for the Popular Library by Brad Steiger and Warren Smith are now available to read and download at archive dot org:

Strange Powers of Prophecy, by Brad Steiger

Strange Powers of Healing, by Brad Steiger

Strange Hexes, by Warren Smith

This marks the digital debut of all three titles!

For an example of Smith and Steiger's strange shared universe, psychic Al. G Manning is featured in Steiger's Strange Powers of Healing, and would later appear on Warren Smith's roster of psychic prognosticators in his Predictions for 197X series. Manning wrote bold (and sometimes ribald!) self help/psychic titles such as Eye of Newt in My Martini (1981) and The Miracle of Universal Psychic Power (1974).

Author photo for Manning (1927-2006)

Says the back cover of Eye of Newt: "If you like excitement, intrigue, sex, magic, prosperity and real enjoyment of life, this is a must for YOU!" Well, you don't hafta twist my arm!

Manning is just one of the countless psychic landmines awaiting the reader in this trio of bizarre bricolage from two of the hardest working writers in the field. Doc Anderson and John Pendragon, two other frequent flyers on the Steiger/Smith Express, also turn up in these pages, alongside psychic superstar Jeane Dixon and ... Oral Roberts!? Previous reviews are here, here, and here.

All three titles are courtesy Popular Library, 1967-1970.

"MONSTER" HUNTING by Ivan T. Sanderson

This piece about North American lake monsters by Ivan T. Sanderson spends a good amount of space on the Loch Ness Monster and Tim Dinsdale, for purposes of context and word count.

Otherwise, Sanderson plucks out some interesting midcentury monster sightings such as the Black River Monster of Lyons Falls, NY (nicknamed Lyonesse, natch), and the (relatively) giant lizard/frog/whatsit of New Hamburg, Ontario, estimated at 50 pounds of unknown ferocity. Big shots like Champ and the Lake Iliamna Monster round out the roster.

Dig the ads for a genuine imported switch blade and a PI badge right next to each other ... if the cops want to hassle you about your pocket knife, just flash your badge at 'em!

Also available to read and download at archive dot org.

Courtesy Saga magazine, Vol. 33 - No. 4, January 1967.

TREASURE HUNTING by Brad Steiger

Hot on the heels of Warren Smith's Finders Keepers, ol' reliable Brad Steiger delivers his own treasure hunting text with the bold, fresh title of ... well, Treasure Hunting. Steiger thanks Smith for the use of his treasure archives, and I'm assuming they collaborated on writing their respective volumes because there's very little overlap between them. Steiger tackles the Oak Island mystery that Smith preferred to leave out, and the chapter here would show up slightly abbreviated in Steiger's pseudonymous 1972 Eric Norman title Beyond the Strange. Treasure Hunting is structured like any of Steiger's classic Forteana titles, just one short chapter after another, onward to the end, with plenty of cheesy dialogue and fictionalized reconstructions. Steiger also reuses the list of metal detecting/treasure hunting companies that Smith assembled in Finders Keepers. That humorously vague "tip" about some streams in some parts of South Carolina showing "good color" is also present in both volumes - don't make it too easy for us, guys!

Venturing abroad, Steiger gives us a pair of lost underwater nazi jackpots with Erwin Rommel's Corsican fortune and the lethal treasure of Lake Toplitz, which claims the life of diver Alfred Egner in 1963 as well as two unnamed men, brutally murdered, who may very well be completely made up for Steiger's storytelling purposes. Rumor and legend cloud the waters of the mind and provide Steiger with lots of plausible deniability ... he's not always sure if a treasure even exists at all, but he's just doing his part passing on the info! Again, these volumes are for daydreaming dads to fall asleep reading in their easy chairs, or maybe drum up a little business for Gardiner Electronics and the like when dad plunks down part of the vacation fund on a metal detector - "It'll be fun, Junior!"

The backpage ads cover some UFO/Forteana and Old West titles, along with a classic treasure hunting title, Lost Mines and Hidden Treasure by one Leland Lovelace, originally published 1956.

Ace Books, 1967

FINDERS KEEPERS by Warren Smith

Another anonymous diver worked the American, Feather, and Yuba rivers in the heart of the California Mother Lode country. Fourteen thousand dollars in rich nuggets and flake gold was popped out of these streams during clandestine weekend forays. "The guy even had his wife and kids helping out," laughed Stillson. "His name? Wouldn't Uncle Sam's income tax boys like to know?"

Our man Warren Smith put together this slick little treasure hunting guide, aimed straight at the dark heart of midcentury suburban dads dreaming of easy money. The table of contents lays it out: first is a section of real life finds like the $50,000 in "Spanish treasure" found off the coast of Florida by one Jack Steffney and friends:

This AP clipping is from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 

November 1966, though for some reason Smith dates

the story to February of 1967, his year of publication. 

These early chapters are meant to whet our appetite for treasure, and Smith follows them with the second section of the book, how-to chapters on various types of treasure hunting: gold dredging, salvage diving, metal detecting, and even guided expeditions - this last option being a little bit more than a weekend lark, as Smith even titles this chapter "The Man Who Brings You Back Alive!" - that man being Ray Dorr, of Coronado Expeditions, who takes paying guests into the wastes of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico for $50 a day on the promise of big strikes. Dorr says the cost is worth it, as he knows the country and the people, and that without his guidance "the average American insults the rural Mexican [even] by the way he shakes his hand!" Smith lists off some manufacturers of treasure gadgets in their appropriate chapters. Gold dredge manufacturers include:

Western Sports, 3030 East 15th St., Spokane, Wash.

Gold Divers, 3534 Rosecrans Avenue, Hawthorne, Calif.

Keene Engineering Company, 11483 Vanowen St., North Hollywood, Calif.

While metal detecting companies include:

Fisher Research Laboratory, 1975 University Avenue, Palo Alto, Calif.

Underground Explorations, Box 793, Menlo Park, Calif.

The Goldak Company, 1544 West Glenoaks Blvd., Glendale, Calif.

Rayscope Company, P.O. Box 715, North Hollywood, Calif.

Gardiner Eectronics [sic] Co., 4729 North 7th Avenue, Phoenix, Ariz.

Art Howe and Company, 811 Kansas Avenue, Atchison, Kans.

John Green, 337 First Parish Road, Sciture, Mass.

D-Tex Electronics, 3326 Broadway, Garland, Texas.

White's Electronics, 1218 Main St., Sweet Home, Ore.

Relco Company, Box 10563, Houston, Texas.

Karl Von Mueller, Examino, Weeping Water, Nebraska.

Smith also advises readers to write Mr. von Mueller for a copy of his Examino Express, a metal detecting newspaper. Metal detecting takes up a lot of space in this section, and for good reason: it's the most accessible kind of treasure hunting, done as Smith says on weekends or short vacations, in parks, beaches, or even your own backyard! Smith also recommends dragooning your wife and kids into treasure trips! There are some great vintage ads for metal detectors compiled in a thread on the Detector Prospector forum:

Plus, a treasure hunting funny:

Fate magazine also sometimes featured ads for metal detectors, an example of the crossover in self-help/get-rich-quick ideas and the paranormal/occult field. The ad below looks to be for some kind of dowsing rod device, which means your mileage may vary if you want something that actually works as advertised!

From the December 1975 issue of Fate

Cheapie publisher Belmont Books let a few typos slip through here and there, including "mind" for "mine" (as in an army surplus mine sweeper, which Smith advises is a poor investment!) on page 37. They and author Smith were assembling pure product here, and after his how-to section Smith pads the book's third section with his patented quick shot stories, which make up a full 2/3 of the text! These stories just happen to be about treasure hunting instead of his usual paranormal mix, and are framed as potential fortunes to be found by the reader. Oddly enough, the classic Oak Island Money Pit doesn't make it into the text, though we do get an unsettling chapter on hunting pandas:

We also get prices for baby elephants, tigers, zebras, camels and more ... talk about a different time! This chapter also showcases another editing gaffe, wherein Smith doesn't introduce the Englishman who gives some obviously made-up line about the "bloody big" panda mating operation. Later on page 135 the steamer ship Goliath typos as "Goliah" several times. After this big chunk of treasure tales Smith ends with a list of additional potential finds state by state, and then an index for each state's treasures. Some of the entries are a little thin: in South Carolina, we're told, gold panners have reported "good color" in "streams along the border of North and South Carolina." Thanks, Warren! 

Nevertheless, I have to credit Smith in one regard: all of his entries appear to cite true events, rumors, and legends. That is to say, he doesn't appear to have manufactured any of these treasures out of thin air, even if some of them might truly be phantoms, and others exaggerations - maybe that's why he left out Oak Island this time around, as it's such a nonstarter for real treasure hunting. The tales Smith did include are all good enough for his purposes: that we want to believe we might be one of the lucky ones, that we might find one of these lost treasures and strike it rich. Whether or not we even ever pick up a metal detector, or simply daydream in our easy chair about a million dollar windfall, we paid the 60 cent cover price!

Finders Keepers is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Belmont Books, 1967