

“The OTO’s Court dates against Marcelo Motta were scheduled for May 13th thru the 17th (1985) in San Francisco. The trial had lasted only five days before the Judge retired to contemplate his final decision. During the trial Grady was hospitalized twice. The Magickal Link reported that, despite his hospital stays, “he kept coming back [to the Court] like the old war-horse he is! His health remains poor, but his spirit strong.” However, Grady’s health seriously began to weaken and, by late June, he had to be hospitalized again. The Supreme Council, fearing the worst, issued a special OTO Bulletin titled Grady’s Situation. It was dated June 24th. It began by stating that Grady had been admitted to Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley on the 20th. “His condition is extremely serious, and his chances to continue this incarnation are not good.” Throughout the evening, during the peak of the crisis, over twenty-five people took turns, three at a time, to sit by Grady’s bedside to hold his hand and quietly talk with him. The Official letter also stated that Grady “can often recognize people, but still spends much time on other planes. His lucid moments come and go. Much of his present is being spent in re-living and resolving past unfinished business. Grady is making his peace with his incarnation, and there is no hope that he will return to good health by any foreseeable time or means.” After a few days he improved and was removed from intensive cardiac care but, this was a foreshadowing of things to come. Although extremely weak, there seemed to be no damage done to his thinking ability or memory. The only permanent damage was to his heart. …… On July 10th the United States District Court issued its finding against Marcelo Motta in favor of the OTO. At the very end of the Court’s judgment it briefly states, “Plaintiffs are to submit to this court, within twenty days of the date below [i.e. being July 10th], a proposed for of judgment incorporating these findings and conclusions. Plaintiffs are to simultaneously submit the proposed form of judgment to defendants, and within ten days thereafter defendants are to advise the court in writing what objections they have to the proposed form of judgment prepared by plaintiffs. Judgment will then be entered by the court.” The final Court judgment would not be issued until September. Sadly, Grady would not live long enough to learn the final fate of Marcelo Motta. On July 12, before most members of the OTO had received their copy of the July issue of The Magickal Link, Grady Louis McMurtry died. He was sixty-six years old. He was lying in his hospital bed at Brookside Hospital in San Pablo, discussing forms of meditation with a friend when he softly said, “I think my path is more the Sufi Path.” When questioned what he meant, he simply looked up and said, “I don’t know.” He then closed his eyes and quietly passed away. Grady once wrote that; “The moment of ultimate self-embarrassment is when you die. That is when you wake up.” In other words, you get to review your whole incarnation for all its good and bad, shake your head and then prepare for the next.”
The above quotes taken from
RED FLAME, A Thelemic Research Journal, Issue No. 13 IN THE NAME OF THE BEAST, A Biography of Grady Louis McMurtry, a Disciple of Aleister Crowley, Volume No. 2 – 1962-1985 by J. Edward Cornelius