She left the coven and never came back. After Doreen's departure, Cochrane committed adultery with a new woman who had joined the coven, and, according to other coven members, did not care that his wife Jane knew. In May 1966, Jane left Cochrane, initiating divorce proceedings and considering performing a death rite against her husband involving the sacrifice of a black cockerel. Without her, the coven collapsed. Cochrane was also aware of Charles Cardell, who ran his own coven in Suffolk, but disliked him. In December 1965 to April 1966, Cochrane corresponded with an American witch named Joseph Wilson. Wilson formed a new tradition, known as the 1734 Tradition based upon teachings of Ruth Wynn Owen, a tradition taught by a man he refers to as Sean, and Robert Cochrane's teaching. The numerological number '1724' (a possible misprint in the book), was explained by Doreen Valiente in her 1989 book "The Rebirth of Witchcraft". Valiente claimed that Cochrane had given the American witch Justine Glass a photograph of a copper platter with '1724' printed on it for her 1965 book "Witchcraft, the Sixth Sense – and Us". He had told Glass that it depicted a witch's ritual bowl that had been in his family for many centuries. Valiente revealed that this was a lie by Cochrane – she had herself, in fact, bought that very item for him only the year before in a Brighton antiques shop to be used in a ritual. Cochrane ingested belladonna and Librium on Midsummer eve 1966, and died nine days later in hospital without recovering consciousness. He left a suicide note expressing his intent to kill himself "while of sound mind". Valiente described Cochrane as "a remarkable man", asserting that he "had something" which could be termed "magical power, charisma or what you will. He may have been devious; but he was no charlatan." According to Jonathan Tapsell, Cochrane was "an unsung giant of modern Wicca" due to the fact that he "gave inspiration to those who came later to escape the narrow confines of Gardner's philosophy". Michael Howard considered him to be "one of the most fascinating, enigmatic and controversial figures of the modern Craft revival". John of Monmouth claimed that Cochrane was "the man behind, what is now called, 'Traditional Witchcraft. Historian Ethan Doyle White asserted that Cochrane left behind "an ever-expanding legacy", noting that by the 21st century, he had become an "almost tutelary figure" within the Traditional Witchcraft movement, and warrants the title of "Father of Traditional Witchcraft" more than any other occultist.