Conference hydra::dejavu

    Here is some more of the story from the UPI newswire.

				    Topher

==============================================================================
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.news.interest.quirks
Subject: Purported ``warlock'' sentenced for bilking woman
Keywords: criminal proceedings, legal, quirks, human interest, cults,
	religion
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 5 Mar 92 20:55:39 GMT
Lines: 50
Approved: [email protected]
Location: new england states, massachusetts
ACategory: regional
Slugword: ma-witchcraft
Priority: regular
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 485; Id: z5787; Sel: xbnla; Adate: 3-5-4pes
Codes: ynlarxb., ynhorma., ynrcrma.


	SALEM, Mass. (UPI) -- Three-hundred years after the Salem witch trials
cast an indelible mark on history, a jury Thursday convicted a man of
conning his mistress out of $500,000 after convincing her he was a
warlock.
	The Essex Superior Court jury found Richard Leno, 46, of North
Andover, guilty on one count of larceny and two counts of perjury after
deliberating 5 1/2 hours over two days. Leno was ordered to return to
court on March 19, when he will face up to 15 years in prison.
	Assistant District Attorney David Swartz said he will recommend Leno
serve five years in prison and pay restitution to Susan Rogers
Panagakos, 36. Swartz told reporters outside the court that Leno was 
``no more of a (male) witch'' than he, but was adept at perpetrating a
con.
	``She was a simple, innocent person who was taken advantage of by a
scheming, manipulative, controlling man. He took her trust and used it
to his financial advantage,'' Swartz said.
	Panagakos, 36, formerly of Boston, testified at trial that she met
Leno in 1979, when they worked as security guards at the same firm. She
said Leno knew she was interested in the occult, and he would read to
her from The Necronomicon, a book of witchcraft.
	Panagakos said Leno convinced her of his ``power'' by making paper
ignite during a ceremony.
	``He lit candles and made symbols in the air. I wrote down questions
and, if the answers were 'no,' the papers would burst into flame,'' she
said.
	Panagakos said Leno held her in his power from 1979 to 1985. He once
used a red-hot coathanger to brand the letter ``L'' on her breast, and
told her that her family would come to ``great harm'' if she disobeyed
him.
	She also said he falsely told her he was a member of Italian
nobility, and a bachelor. Unaware he was married, Panagakos became his
lover.
	The district attorney's office said Leno knew Panagakos owned $500,
000 in Time-Life stocks, and that they were held by her mother in
Wisconsin. He convinced Panagakos that her mother was a witch using her
powers against her. He also convinced Panagakos to sue her mother for
control of the stocks, which she did successfully.
	Panagakos promptly sold the stocks and put $400,000 in an account in
Leno's name and the rest in a joint account. Swartz said Leno used the
money to buy a $155,000 home and a $64,000 used Rolls Royce. The rest he
spent on ``living expenses.''
	The amount of restitution Leno will pay has yet to be determined, but
Swartz said it is unclear how much, if anything, he will be able to pay.
The home, Swartz said, is under foreclosure and the town of North
Andover has placed a lien on it for unpaid taxes.
	Panagakos now lives with her husband in Greenville, S.C., Swartz
said.
	The perjury charges against Leno stem from false statements he made
when he appeared before a grand jury, Swartz said.

    Some people have very interesting taste in love poetry !
    
    Don't his activities technically make him more a 'sorcerer' than
    a witch ?
    
    							todd

Re .2 (todd):

Technically, a sorcerer is one who uses evil spirits to do work (I clarify this
by observing that "evil spirits" refers to maleficent supernatural entities
rather than just bad people).  I suppose he could have been called a magician
(though that's usually reserved for folk like Davis Copperfield and Doug 
Jennings).  The reason he was termed a witch (or "warlock") was because, according
to the testimony, that's how he characterized himself.

According to the trial, the technical term for Leno is "fraud."

Any discussion or witches and the various types thereof has been covered in
other notes in this conference.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

    >Technically, a sorcerer is one who uses evil spirits to do work (I clarify 
    >this by observing that "evil spirits" refers to maleficent supernatural 
    >entities rather than just bad people).  I suppose he could have been 
    >called a magician
    
    Thanks, Steve.  I guess I was under the mistaken impression that
    'sorcerer' was synonymous with 'evil magician.'  I must have missed
    the terminology discussion around that.
    							todd

Re .4 (todd):

I prefaced the definition by "technically."  Language evolves, particularly when
terminology gets sloppy.  The proliferation of the fantasy-fiction stories 
termed "swords and sorcery" has pushed the layperson to consider "sorcery" and 
"magic" to be synonyms.  This in turn has blurred the disdtinction between 
"magician" and "sorcerer" in the public mind (note that the "sorcerer" of _The
Sorcerer's Apprentice_, as inj the _Fantasia_ sequence is really also technically
a magician -- at least as much of his actions as we see).

There are equivalent corruptions:  technically, a "necromancer" is someone who
calls up spirits of the dead in order to foretell the future; in the popular
mind, a "necromancer" has the same functions as a "magician."  Oddly, Crowley
suggested calling a magician a "nigromancer," which at best would mean fore-
telling the future through the color black or via a river (or African country).
I suppose he was trying to equate it somehow with "black magic."

Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Steve and the rest of you,
    
    Just checked sorcery in the dictionary as I was having a problem
    with the evil part.  American Heritage Dictionary's definition is
    The use of supernatural power; witchcraft.  
    
    How did you feel that evil powers were the only ones used?
    
    Joanne

    re: .6,
    Hi Joanne,
    	I'll reply, since I brought up the 'sorcery' thing.  
    
    	Regarding the base topic, I'll have to agree with Steve
    	that the best term for the individual is probably 'fraud.'
    	The use or purported use of magic or supernatural agents appears to be
    	secondary, and the nature of the 'evil' in fraud is
    	probably not all that fruitful a topic, IMO.   Legally, he
    	did something wrong.
    
    	Regarding the terminology, which personally interests me
    	more, it was my distinct impression that some of the sources 
    	I've used to study the history of witchcraft and magic considered 
    	sorcery to be 'evil' magic, in some sense.   Since there is
    	disagreement on this I'll obviously have to go back and check the
    	sources.   Maybe they take more a radical view than I realized.
    
    	Some seemed to take a more moderate stance and make a distinction 
    	between 'Thaumaturgy' as coercive magic (coercive of the spirit agents
    	anyway, if not human targets), and 'Theurgy' as God-centered 'mystical 
    	union' magic.  In general, Sorcery was equated more with Thaumaturgy 
    	than Theurgy.
    
    	If this is getting too far off-topic, someone please point me
    	to the best place to bring the discussion.
    
    								todd

Re .6 (Joanne):

The technical differences I've gotten out of books on the subject; however:

The initial definition of "Sorcery" in the _Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary_
is, "the use of power gained from the assistance of or control of evil spirits
esp for divining: NECROMANCY"

The definition you supplied from _American Heritage_ was in the (simplified)
paperbacck version.  In the hardcover unabrisded version of the _American
Heritage_, the definition is, "The use of supernatural power over others
through the assistance of evil spirits; witchcraft."  It adds to see sysonyms
under the entry, "magic."

Under "magic," the unabridged _American Heritage_ says, "Black magic, which is
practiced with the intent to do harm, is the approximate equivalent of sorcery."

Beware pocket disctinaries.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

Re .7 (todd):

"Thaumaturgy" is really more or less "magic," no positive or negative value.

I think you were trying for "Goetia," which is more or less the "dark" 
equivalent of "Theurgy."

Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Thanks for the info.  Since it's not an area I've researched,
    I wasn't sure but I never thought of evil associated with it.
    
    I was referencing the paperback.  It does leave one short.
    
    Joanne

    re: Steve (and Joanne),
    
>Beware pocket disctinaries.
    
    The best bet in this case seems to be to refer to a copy of the 
    Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, which appears
    to have the fairest and best supported definition of the terms.
    
    Checking a number of unabridged dictionaries, I got different
    senses of both 'sorcery' and 'magic,' in their description of
    certain traditional arts relating to the supernatural.
    
    Goetia (black magic) does express 'black magic' a lot better 
    than thaumaturgy (wonder-working, magic).  I think that sense of
    thaumaturgy came from a GD source like Regardie who may have been
    trying to make a distinction between God-working and wonder-working
    as motivations for magical study.  I was dead wrong in using it the
    way I did.  Note, though, that the Oxford (dictionary, not shoe) I 
    referenced had goetia as obsolete except for archaic usage, which was
    not true of theurgy.  So a specific term is still missing, unless 
    that one has been revived.
    
    My Funk_and_Wagnall's Standard from the 1960's actually did define
    'sorcery' in the way I intended it, as the *pretended* use of
    supernatural powers.  However, that disagrees with my more recent
    New Lexicon Websters', which defines it in the same way as your
    Webster's Ninth Collegiate, as powers gained from *evil* spirits.
    
    Sorcery and witchcraft are in general considered synonymous, and
    apparently have a cast to them of being pretended or evil arts.
    
    Historians of the subject provide some illumination, as
    Grillot DeGivry for example calls sorcerors 'priests of the
    demoniacal church,' and makes clear that the term was very 
    broadly applied to a number of different classes of people whose
    only real common theme was that they were 'unsociable' in some way.
    
    Given what is known of the subject, most of the dictionaries seem
    in error to define these terms solely or primarily as referring to
    pretended or evil arts.
    
    The Oxford Dictionary on Historical Principles, a very authoritative
    dictionary of English, seems to equate sorcery simply with magic
    or enchantment, and witchcraft.  The etymology is 
    derived through middle English, to old French, to Latin Sortiarius,
    (hypothetically) formed from 'sors' which seems to refer to fate or 
    destiny.  Certainly no evil per se implied there.  The word came in 
    transferred and figurative use in 1576, where Malory uses it to refer to 
    women who enchanted various Knights.  The definition of witchcraft is then
    explicit that witches were *purported* to make use of evil
    supernatural powers.  
    
    						regards,
    							todd

    Dragging the string kicking and screaming back to the original point...

    It is an excellent example of what can happen to someone who blindly
    accepts everything without question. 

    Jamie.

	:-D 
	
	Someone hadda say it, ey Jamie??
	
	HA!  :-)  :-)
	
	Jay

    
    Jamie keeping_us_honest_and_on_the_topic Anderson, ever 
    vigilant!
    
    Hey, we missed you at Alf's going away party on Saturday.  
    We gave him a good sendoff.  ['Nother notes file gathering.]  
    
    Cindy

  
  Re .12
  
  I think we have a real live case of possession here ... an entity has
  taken over the username of HOO78C::ANDERSON but has erred and revealed
  itself by the grave mistake of bringing a note BACK to the original
  topic ... totally out of character ...
  
  Frank

    I only do it to confuse you.
    
    Jamie.