The account of a 1941 “hex party” convened with one aim in mind: “to kill Adolf Hitler by voodoo incantation.” According to LIFE, the party featured “a dressmaker’s dummy, a Nazi uniform, nails, axes, tom-toms and plenty of Jamaica rum,” and was inspired by a book by occultist and writer William Seabrook that was popular at the time: Witchcraft: Its Power in the World Today.

The ritual,” LIFE wrote, “prepared by Mr. Seabrook, began with the naming of the image: ‘You are Hitler; Hitler is you!’ Next the chief hexer intoned: ‘The woes that come to you, let it come to him!’”