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

ESP AND PSYCHIC POWER by Steven Tyler

The mysterious Steven Tyler returns with a text on ESP, running through the big names and big ideas of the midcentury psychic scene! This one is an odd duck, not quite a straightforward skeptic text like his UFO volume, Are The Invaders Coming? but not one of the myriad psychic hagiographies that cluttered the market back then (and now). Tyler goes over wannabe psychic detectives like the dual Dutchmen Peter Hurkos and Gerard Croiset, giving credence to the idea that they could possibly be receiving clues from the other side, though he's forced to admit they have their share of misses and Hurkos especially does not acquit himself well:

Even his devoted admirers became suspicious. The year before the Boston fiasco, Jeane Dixon had been discussing Hurkos with Dr. Regis Riesenman, a psychiatrist with an interest in psychical research. Dr. Riesenman had once brought Hurkos to Virginia to solve a grisly child-murder. Mrs. Dixon told him that Hurkos was headed for trouble. It was a safe prediction. A short while later Hurkos was arrested for impersonating an FBI officer and for carrying a small arsenal of guns. He was later freed and is still active today, giving readings on a circuit of spiritualist churches.

Psychic titan Eileen Garrett admits with some equivocation that law enforcement should probably not be relying on psychic detectives for reliable information. Tyler devotes considerable space to superstar psychic Jeane Dixon, and just as in Jeane Dixon: Prophet or Fraud? her supposed powers of prognostication don't hold up to scrutiny.

Tyler notes that Dixon's so-called prediction of JFK's assassination is "more intricate than inspired," based on continually rewriting her words from years before: her early '50s predictions of a blue eyed democrat "dying in office" becomes an assassination after the fact, for example. She also thinks the USSR had something to do with it, despite all real evidence pointing squarely at a domestic obscenity ... but that's nothing new for Dixon. Tyler also makes note of the obsessive doom and gloom of Dixon's predictions, stoking mainstream American fears over racial strife, labor strife, and all those goddamn crazy foreigners.

Some history of psychical research follows, with stuffy old Nandor Fodor, Eileen Garrett, and J.B. Rhine among others attempting to quantify the unknown under laboratory conditions. Tyler is bullish on what may yet result from their early probings of mysterious forces.

Highlights of the obligatory witchcraft chapter include W.I.T.C.H, the Women's International Terrorist Corp from Hell, though wikipedia lists the C as standing for Conspiracy, not Corp! Anton LaVey makes his usual slimy appearance, complete with a nude redheaded altar. Way to freak out the squares, Anton.

The final chapters detail how to develop your own ESP, which Tyler says is inherent in all of us. There's a little self help action at the end with using your new psychic powers for wealth and wellbeing - that's kind of silly, Steven! Still, altogether not a bad ESP primer from Tyler and Tower Books.

This title is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Tower Books, 1970

WITCHCRAFT IN AMERICA TODAY by Emile C. Schurmacher

Dig that title font! Just a few years shy of the bicentennial, here's a book that examines America's homegrown Sturm und Drang of witchcraft and scientific achievement, at a time when technological society looked about ready to shake itself apart into a morass of irrationalism. It's moonshots and black masses, swinging sorcerers and zapped out zombies, as Emile C. Schurmacher shows us WITCHCRAFT IN AMERICA TODAY!

There's no slacking on our magical mystery tour, with Schurmacher binging through some black magic barnstorming cross country, from "The Official Witch of Los Angeles County" Louise Huebner to New York City's resident witches uptown, downtown, and Harlem besides. Down to Haiti, and the Everglades, and over to Pennsylvania, with a checkup on Southwestern Amerindian magic courtesy late ethnographer Washington Matthews. Anton LaVey makes his obligatory grubby cameo, with Schurmacher keyed in on his advertising/showbiz background and none too overawed at the overstuffed and oversexed state of his Satanic Church. Schurmacher has some fun riffing on the poor state of mail order witchcraft guides and "plastic magic" in Chapter 21 - The Charlatans and Chapter 22 - Packaged Witchcraft. Pound for pound you can't beat the density of his reporting, and at some point you have to just relax and let the tidal wave of witchcraft wash over you. A word of advice - Schurmacher says that "witch" is the proper title for both women and men, and that "warlock" is a term only posers use! 

Looking at his career background, you can see why author Emile C. Schurmacher delivers the goods. He made his bones as a newspaper columnist and freelance writer for men's adventure magazines, in this latter role dispatching hard boiled reportage on "The Free Love Kashgai Tribe" and other such sexed up subjects. Some of his stories were collected into themed books:

Like other witchcraft explainers of the time Schurmacher takes a chapter to rubberneck on the Manson murders, though he manages to have his satanic cake and eat it too by tsk-tsking the media's salacious coverage. His background does him well in reciting the most ghastly occurrences with clinical detachment.

Schurmacher wraps it up by circling back, repeating his theme of the friction and frisson between witchcraft and science in our modern schizoid times with the near-disaster of Apollo 13. Could this high tech chain of catastrophe have been put into motion via ... witchcraft? 

Well, probably not.

But ... what if?

Paperback Library, 1970

BLACK MAGIC, SATANISM & VOODOO by Leo L. Martello

Time capsule of witchery circa 1972. Delves into the divisions between the trio of titular traditions and their intersection with the political liberation movements of the time. Martello delivers some dishy gossip as well, and the obligatory interview with Anton LaVey doing his usual shtick.

Available to read and download at archive dot org.

HC Publishers Inc., 1972