This popped on Facebook tonight — Craig the blind tarot card reader at his vending table on Telegraph in the 1980s (photo by Robert Toren).
Craig had some kind of crazy messianiac complex, and was “inspired” by the Biblical passage “If thine eyes offend thee pluck them out” — which he took literally and pulled his own eyes out. He had this crazy fantasy that after pulling his eyes out, he would rush to Sproul Plaza and deliver a soapbox sermon and humanity would finally recognize that he was the true prophet who had been sent to earth to save the world. He didn’t figure that the ambulance would take him for a long stay at the hospital instead. . . After leaving the hospital he came back to Telegraph and continued doing readings with a braille set of Tarot cards for awhile. Lived quietly at the Amherst Hotel on Shattuck for many years until he finally moved up north and disappeared. But lives on to this day in Berkeley lore.
Ace Backwords Photos 