His wife, Betty May, variously blamed the death on his participation in one of Crowley's rituals (allegedly incorporating the consumption of the blood of a sacrificed cat) or the more probable diagnosis of acute enteric fever contracted by drinking from a mountain spring.
His wife, Betty May, originally blamed this on his participation in one of Crowley's rituals. Later, however, she accepted the doctor's diagnosis of acute enteric fever contracted by drinking from a mountain spring.