Case file · Witch trials
Rosaleen Norton, the 'Witch of Kings Cross'
In 1955–56 the occult artist Rosaleen Norton was hounded by Sydney tabloids after police raids on her Kings Cross flat; the scandal ended the career of conductor Eugène Goossens, her associate.
1955 CE · -33.87, 151.22 · status: official
The account
Norton had already faced obscenity charges over her 1952 book of paintings. Goossens was caught in March 1956 at Sydney airport with photographs and ritual masks and left Australia. The case shows how 'witchcraft' was policed through obscenity laws in 1950s Australia.
The sceptical view
Norton worshipped Pan in a self-styled pagan practice; tabloid claims of black masses and orgies were embellished.