Murder With My Husband - 136. The Salem Witch Trials Murders

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the Salem Witch Trials. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Links: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Ads: Simpli Safe: https://simplisafe.com/mwmh Butcher Box: www.butcherbox.com/HUSBAND and use code BONUS100 Rocket Money: www.rocketmoney.com/husband Case Sources: https://mrnussbaum.com/life-in-puritan-massachusetts Smithsonianmag.com, “A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials,” by Jess Blumberg, October 23, 2007 History.com, “Salem Witch Trials,” by history.com editors, November 4, 2011, updated October 5, 2021 History.com, “Before America Had Witch Trials, Europe Had Werewolf Trials,” by Melinda Beck, October 15, 2021 History.com, “Why Do Witches Ride Brooms?” by Sarah Pruitt, updated October 29, 2021 Salemwitchmuseum.com, “Proctor’s Ledge Memorial” Salemwitchmuseum.com, “Path from Jail to Execution” Salemwitchmuseum.com, “Salem Witch Trials Memorial” Brittanica.com, “Salem witch trials,” by Jeff Wallenfeldt, last updated August 22, 2022 Time.com, “The Last of the Witch-Trial Hangings,” by Jennifer Latson, September 22, 2014 Reference.yourdictionary.com, “The Salem Witch Trials: Real Facts That Will Haunt You,” by Jennifer Gunner Salemnews.com, “Accuser’s descendant leaves note on memorial to victim of Witch Trials,” by Dustin Luca, October 14, 2022 Mtsu.edu (The First Amendment Encyclopedia), “Salem Witch Trials,” by Elizabeth R. Purdy Danverslibrary.org, Danvers Archival Center, “Portrait of Samuel Parris” Gallowshillsalem.com Allthatsinteresting.com, “20 Accusations and 20 Deaths: What Caused The Salem Witch Trials?” by All That’s Interesting, checked by John Kuroski, December 18, 2021, updated September 21, 2022 Owlcation.com, “The Salem Witchhunts: A History of Witches, Trials, and Witch Hunts,” by Angela Michelle Schultz, March 24, 2022 Healthline.com, “What is Mad Had Hatter Disease?” Wikipedia, “Salem witch trials,” image used Assisted research and writing by: Diane Birnholz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Happy Halloween everyone! I have to rotate literally. Well not for us but this will literally be going out on Halloween. What are the chances of that? Very spooky. That's pretty cool. I hope everyone's gonna have a good Halloween at whatever time you're listening to this. I hope you're trick or treating. I hope you're partying. I hope you're staying at home and watching spooky movies.

I hope you're doing all of it. Okay, Garrett, what's your 10 seconds for this Halloween episode? So it was snowing, dumping snow outside today. And it was kind of nice just to not being the blazing heat for a second. All I know is the amount of people that think Peyton is pregnant sometimes is pretty

overwhelming. Everybody does be thinking I've got a little pumpkin in there. I'm a little scared that if you ever get pregnant and then we're still doing the podcast and everything we're telling all these stories that baby's gonna come out, you know. Loving murder? Exactly how? I mean not loving murder, but loving true crime, exactly how we hope they come out. How many have been pregnant that I've listened to the podcast and their babies are okay?

All of them, their babies literally fall asleep to us. I'm serious, I've conmessages about it. That would be a good thing. The babies like first words are strangey-dainty. I know, right? Or I love it and I hate it. Guess a couple quick things for my 10 seconds. I've been trying to get motivated to start working out.

It's so hard with the ball. It's hard to start working out, pumping some iron, going on a run. I will keep everyone updated, But right now I'm just I'm trying to get motivation. If anyone wants to send me motivation, feel free to send up my way. But I'll get there pretty soon and maybe I'll update everyone on my journey. You fitness journey? My fitness journey. All right. Is that it for you? That's my 10 seconds for this week. Hope everyone has having an amazing Halloween. I will be eating a lot of candy, a lot of a lot of candy, probably 15 to 100 pounds of candy.

That's how we're starting off the fitness journey. Yep, and on that note, let's hop into it. I'm gonna save the case sources for the end of the episode because I think they'll give a little bit too much away at the beginning. Okay. Before we start off, I just wanna say, I have wanted to cover today's episode

since we started this podcast. I just didn't know how. It seemed so big. It seemed like most people already know about this. Every time I sat down to write, I was stumped. Where do I begin? How do I even do this? But alas, it's October 2022 and up to this point, all of our episodes have been Halloween

based. And it just so happened that today's episode would drop on Halloween. I knew it was now or never. There is no other case I think more appropriate for Halloween than this one. Today, we are covering the Salem Witch Trials. How they came to be, how many women were actually murdered accused of being witches. Wow. And how could this travesty of justice actually have happened? Now don't worry, I know we learned about the Salem Witch Trials in high school, but this isn't going to be your boring history teacher mumbling

on about supposed hysteric women. This is murder with my husband. We are going there. We are talking about these trials as they were, which was murder, straight up murder. Paying his throwing shots at all the history teacher out there. Hey, I love, I, I loved studying less in high school, but I will say, I think they could have kind of read it a little bit more interesting way, which is what we're going to do today. But we can't get to that point though without discussing where witches, or at least the kind that the public grew to fear came from. And before we go any further, I do want to say something that we are discussing witches that have become normalized in the

media and history. The witches' children dress up for as a spooky Halloween character, this type of witch, and modern witchcraft, pagans, or wica are different. So I just wanted to clarify that moving forward, we are talking about two different types of witches. Although, the persecution between the two blurred this line and it still happens today. So going back as far as the 1300s, superstitious and religious people of the Christian faith and other faiths in Europe believed that the devil had evil powers and people who were loyal to him.

These Satan worshipers, the followers of the devil, became known as witches. So I want to point out here that witches, as we've seen in the media, became about from religious people claiming they were overcome by Satan. So these religious people pointing the fingers at other people and saying, you're overcome by Satan and that is what we are calling witches. This type of witch started with pointing fingers. They were thought to have supernatural powers with the ability to harm others and were believed to even be able to change shape and form. According to an article in the Smithsonian magazine, tens of thousands of people were executed in

Europe for being witches. Most of those killed were women. This craze went on through the end of the 1600s in Europe according to one source and continued even later according to another. According to Britannica.com says the very last European witchcraft execution that we know of took place in Switzerland in 1782. Just as the centuries-old witch craze was finally winding down in Europe, a similar witch craze in the colonial settlement of Salem began.

As a further backdrop, it's important to note that it wasn't just witches who were being tried and executed. Religious Europeans were also accusing their fellow countrymen of being werewolves as well. During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, werewolf trials were being held in Europe as well as witch trials. Superstition and religion likely contributed to the accusations. And, in a common theme, these accusations were mostly leveled against people who lacked the resources, power, or education to know how to defend themselves.

I can understand, I think, which is a lot more than a werewolf. Like a werewolf just seems really far-fetched. Well, it's because it wasn't like there were women actually practicing witchcraft and then they were put on trial for it. It was that these religious people looked at their enemy or homeless poor people, immigrants, those and said, oh, I think they're of the devil. So I think they're a witch. Maybe this is a conversation for them another time then. So then do you think these witches were real?

I think there are witches. I don't think the witches in our story today were witches. Were of the devil. I also don't think witches are of the devil. This is just the definition that was used in the witch trials. There were some people at this time who confessed to being a werewolf, but generally only after being subjected to torture. And I can't help but draw the parallels between this and the modern day persecution we see. Authorities might not call it witches and werewolves anymore, but this type of elitism and abuse of power still happens. As an example of this in old time,

according to history.com, one individual named Peter Stump was executed in Germany in 1589 for being a werewolf. Quote executioner strapped accused werewolf Peter Stump to a cartwheel, which is like a machine that rotates, removed his skin with hot pinchers and chopped off his head before burning his body at the stake. Stump's head attached to a wooden pole carved into the likeness of a werewolf was later displayed as a warning to others tempted to carved into the likeness of a werewolf, was later displayed as a warning to others tempted to consort with the devil. So this is just all very, hmmm, I'm religious and I'm better than you, that's what it's giving.

This execution was a very public affair just as the Salem Witch Trials would go on to be. The purpose in Salem was to send a strong warning to others what could happen, not only if they practiced witchcraft, but also if they dared anger anyone in the town sufficiently, enough to find themselves being the next to be accused. And this is what brings us to where our story takes place. In the colony of Massachusetts Bay in the 1600s, Men are walking around in a long shirt, stockings, a waist coat, a neck cloth, a knee length coat, and shoes. Women wore dresses and bonnets and aprons. Why did they

layer so much back then? As I was doing this research, I'm like, I know we have the luxuries nowadays, heat, for instance, which is probably why they layered so much, but oh my gosh, it gives me anxiety to know how much clothes they were wearing. Now, pilgrims landed in Plymouth in 1620, where they were essentially starting over with life. They, that meant cold, long, dark winters and land that they knew nothing about. Eventually, the colony of Massachusetts Bay was settled, and there were actually two different towns going by the name of Salem at this point. The first was Salem Town, which today is simply known as Salem. The other was Salem Village, better known today as Danvers Massachusetts. Salem Village is the focal point of the Salem Witch Trials. Now Salem Village was by far the poorer of the two rival

salums in the 1600s. About 16 miles northeast of Boston, it was a small farming town of about 500 people. Salem Village, which was located about 10 miles inland from Salem Town, seems to have suffered from an inferiority complex relative to the more well-to-do Salem Town. Essentially, on one side, you have the richer Salem Town have suffered from an inferiority complex relative to the more well-to-do salam town. Essentially, on one side, you have the richer salam town on the other side, you have the

poor salam village. Salam town, in contrast, was a much busier port town and was home to many wealthy merchants. Needless to say, there was bad blood and rivalries between the two towns. And on top of that, beginning in 1689, England and France went to war in the American colonies, fighting over territory in North America. The American colonists called it King William's War. Many countries became involved in these wars,

which were also known as the colonial wars or the Seven Years War. As war always does, it had a profound effect on those living where it was taking place. The war always does, it had a profound effect on those living where it was taking place. The war forced residents to flee northern areas of New York, as well as parts of Canada. Some of these refugees came to Salem Village, which caused tensions and difficulties and a lack of resources. Having an influx of refugees put a strain on the village. By 1692, life in Salem village was difficult. There were many economic and physical hardships.

For one, the area was filling the after-effects of the war between England and France that we just talked about. The villagers were also suffering from their own epidemic widespread smallpox and living with the stress of ongoing battles with the local Native American tribes who these colonists were now living on their land. Additionally, the year 1692 was in the middle of an unusual 50 year cold spell in the area. So everything that could be going wrong is essentially going on. Cold spell, what do you mean? I did not know this. Yeah, so it's just unusually cold. The winters are bitter. It's staying colder for longer. Not like year round, correct? Just not year round,

but it's not getting as warm as it normally would. And this cold put various pressures on their food supplies as crops couldn't survive. Local fish, such as cod, wouldn't migrate as far north as the Boston area because of the colder waters. So it was just affecting the land that they were now trying to basically build a life on. These challenges, rivalries, and resentments helped set the groundwork for the Salem Witch Trials. Now, as we talked about earlier, when it comes to the history of the execution of witches or werewolves, it all stemmed from religious power, a form of superiority and ego.

So religion has to play into the Salem Witch Trials, and that it does. It was a group of 1,000 Puritan refugees who originally settled Massachusetts Bay colony back in 1630. So Puritans believed that it was necessary to be in a covenant relationship with God in order to be redeemed from one's sinful condition. The God had chosen to reveal salvation through preaching and that the Holy Spirit was the energizing instrument of salvation. It was a religious reform movement that began in the late 16th and 17th centuries that sought to purify the Church of England of remnants of the Roman Catholic Church. So basically, you know, the Catholics come over, they try to convert everyone, the Church

of England is like, no, no, no, please let us be. And then eventually we have people coming over to North America to try to gain this religious freedom. The Puritans are part of this group. According to Britannica.com, there was a sense of themselves as the elect chosen by God to live godly lives as individuals and a community. Back in 1689, right in the middle of the war, a man named Samuel Paris becomes the first Puritan minister of Puritan Salem Village. So Salem

Village is all Puritans basically at this point, and Samuel Paris becomes the first minister. Puritan life in Salem Village looked as such. A typical Puritan family lived a humble existence in a small house with one room. Within that room was a fireplace that was used for cooking and for warmth. Because the family lived in a single room, it was often very smoky, particularly during the winter. All members of the family would usually sleep and make shift mattresses near the fire. During the winter, finding and carrying firewood was one of the most important jobs in Salem Village. Puritan

families treated their children differently than those do today. Puritan parents had children so that they could help tend to the work. And such children learned the various jobs required of them at a very early age. So it's almost like having children was to help make the house. Puritan parents made education in Bible study a high priority and actually the literacy rates among those living in New England were unusually high. So like these kids were actually very very smart. The Puritans were an industrious people and virtually everything within the house was made by hand including the clothes. The men and boys took charge of farming, fixing things around the house and caring for livestock,

while the women made soap, cooked, gardened, and took care of the house. Puritan society and politics were strictly dominated by men. Puritan men believed that they were the stronger gender. When Puritan settlers weren't at work, they were likely at church or at prayer. Church was an extremely important part of their daily lives, and attending church was mandatory. There could be severe punishments for those who fell to attend church. Puritans believed that they were doing God's work, and that those who disobeyed or strayed from Puritan teachings were sinners. What if they just wanted to, like, go do something on their own? So isn't this funny because they left?

That's what they did, correct? Yes. They left their land for religious freedom, and then moved into a town where if you didn't abide by their religion, you were in trouble. You were cast out. You were homeless. Hypocrisy at its finest. Right. Public whippings and humiliations were commonplace for transgressors in Salem Village. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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or pastor of the church. His position as a minister caused already existing tensions in the town to flare. Samuel Paris arrived in Salem Village from Boston after spending time in Barbados. He left Barbados after Hurricane damaged his property there. He had originally been a merchant but attended Harvard College to pursue studies and theology. When he arrived in Salem Village, he met the beautiful Elizabeth Eldridge who he married.

Their family included their three children, Anise and two slaves. Now these two slaves were John Indian and Tichuba. They were possibly both from Barbados as well and traveled over with the family. John Indian was male and Tichuba was female. According to Britonica.com, there is uncertainty regarding the relationship between the slaves and their ethnic origins. Some scholars believe that they were of African heritage while others think they may have been of Caribbean Native American heritage.

It's also noted that John Indian and Ticuba might have been husband and wife. Again, they didn't have much of a voice. They were slaves. They didn't have a say, so their history isn't as documented. After his arrival, Paris angered the residents in Salem Village by quickly asking for a raise and for ownership of the percentage. So he moves in, he becomes minister, and then he starts making changes. He's like, I need a raise, I need to own this land. Through his actions and

abusing his power, Paris also divided the town into two factions, those whom he allowed to take communion in church and those who he wouldn't allow to take communion. According to Smithsonian, he was disliked because of his rigid and greedy nature. Half of the Puritan villagers believed all of this quarreling was the work of the devil through the minister. So he came in basically and started taking over everything. Taking over? That seems surprising, like how, how did he do that? Well, it's small. There's only about 500 people here.

Still, I'm surprised they all agreed to it. Right. Well, I don't think they got much of a choice once he was the minister. It's like he has this power. And also, he has half of the congregation backing him because he's like, you have, or the holy ones, you get to participate in everything, and you have, or kind of the sinners ones you get to participate in everything and you have

or kind of the sinners you need to work your way up. So this is what's going on and has led up to January of 1962 in Salem Village. It was around this time that Samuel Paris's daughter Elizabeth Betty Paris who we will call Betty who was was nine years old, and his niece, Abigail Williams, who lives with him, who's 11, started having what was popularly described as fits. According to Smithsonian Mag.com, they screamed, they threw things, they uttered peculiar sounds and contorted their bodies into strange positions. So like being possessed. Like being possessed. Okay. And a local doctor blamed all of this on the supernatural. This was nothing that was happening on Earth. This was nothing that the girls were doing willingly, that someone else was making them do

this was of supernatural causes. A third girl living in Salem named Ann Putnam, who was 12 years old, also began exhibiting the same unsettling and frightening behaviors. Weird, okay. Now, these three girls would hang out together. 12 years old also began exhibiting the same unsettling and frightening behaviors. Weird, okay. Now, these three girls would hang out together. Nine-year-old Betty, 11-year-old Abigail, and 12-year-old Ann Putnam would hang out together and then Ann starts exhibiting this behavior.

And they for sure were actually acting possessed or were they just, I don't know, I know what I'm saying. I guess I'm trying to figure out. Well, that is the question. That is the question in the Salem Witch Trials. Not that I don't like, look, I'm open to everything. I really am, I'm an open person. So I'm just curious, like, were they possessed,

were they just throwing fits and being crazy? Like, what's going on? Well, if you're asking Salem Village back in 1692, they're possessed. Okay. It even got to the point where the girls would bark and run around on all force, like a dog. Oh, so that's a little weird. I will say this does seem like odd behavior. You just said it.

It's weird. But on the other hand, has anyone been around nine to 12 year olds these days? Sure. I mean, I don't have kids and I'm not here to judge, but I think barking and running around like a dog seems almost on par for what I've seen from these young kids who are just trying to figure out who they are and where they belong. Some theories about Betty Abigail and Anne's behavior is it's possible that this strange behavior could be traced back to the girls interactions with Tichuba, who is the family slave.

The girls apparently began talking about and possibly became obsessed with voodoo and fortune telling, which Tichuba did talk about. And after hearing innocent stories from Tichuba, they may be started acting like this. And I will say these stories are innocent from Tichuba, just her talking about her culture, what she was into. The girls may have been scared or filling guilty for engaging in such unperioded activities and may have started acting out as a result. So like they are talking about this in private and then as a way to combat it, they start acting like this. That's just a theory. I'm not saying this is what happened. According to all that's interesting.com, quote, that's why some believe that their involvement in these

forbidden activities and a combination of guilt and fear they felt from participating in them may have been the real cause of their strange behavior. Either way, this behavior becomes the talk of the town. And at this point, no one is pointing the finger at anyone in particular, just working under the assumption that the girls have been bewitched by some supernatural power, aka possessed. According to Britonica.com, at the suggestion of a neighbor, a witch cake made with the urine of the victims, so of the three young girls, was baked by Tichiba to try to figure out the supernatural perpetrator of the three young girls was baked by Ticuba to try to figure out the supernatural perpetrator

of the girls illness. What is it? What is that? So it was basically a test they would do. They would make the cake using the urine and then they would either feed it to a dog or to another person. And if that person or dog started exhibiting that behavior as well, they would know for sure that it was supernatural powers because it was like passed down.

This is a mid-sense. That's just who they would work on, think like a lab rat. Oh, like testing it out. So they just give it to anyone and if that person starts going crazy then. They believe that that was confirmation that there was someone who would play supernatural power on these. I mean, wouldn't you assume that you'd maybe throw up a couple of times if you're eating someone else's piss?

Yes. I'm just saying. You would. You wouldn't. That's the issue here. That's so crazy. If this dog starts throwing up or a human starts throwing up, they're going to be like, see?

It is supernatural, but also like... It's like, you tried drinking someone's piss. So although this witch cake provided no answers, it's baking outraged Paris who saw it as a blasphemous act. So he's this minister, right? He's like, all these are holy and all of you are bad. And now these holy people in my own slave, Titchibud just made this witch cake with my daughter and Nese's urine. So now he's like freaking out. He's like, what are we getting into? This is awful.

So I just need everyone to picture this. It's 1692. Abigail and Betty, who live in the Paris home, the preacher's home, begin contorting, speaking in circles, and walking on all fours while barking. Then their friend, who has most likely heard about this and also been around the girls,

begins doing the same. And then, like some type of virus, the more the news begins to spread through the town about the girls, wouldn't you know, more young girls begin exhibiting the same behavior as the highly talked about Betty, Abigail, and Anne, like just their behavior begins spreading. And all these young girls in this small village begin doing this. Pretty soon, Salem Village is full of 12-year-old girls walking around on their hands and feet in backbends while speaking in voices that sounded like the Grinch. They were in backbends, too.

I don't know, for sure. But that's just what I'm trying to get you picture here. I'm painting a picture for you. The entire Putnam house at this point, including the mother and servant, begin exhibiting the same behavior, telling anyone who will listen that they too are victims of witchcraft, that witchcraft

has taken over Salem Village. By February 29, after chaos has spread, and the illness becomes more and more exaggerated, the three young original girls are under pressure from every adult, including the all-powerful preacher Paris to accuse someone. Tell us who's done this to you. Who is the witch who has done this to you? A reminder that Paris's father and uncle to two of the girls and has been in their ears

suggesting who could have done this. Was it this person? Was it this person? Was it this person? Maybe this person. And the girls finally open up about which witches have, for no reason, cast them with their dark satanic power. These young girls, Betty, Abigail and Anne, point their fingers at three grown women, three particularly vulnerable and powerless women in the community.

The Paris family slave, Tichuba, a woman named Sarah Good and another woman named Sarah Osborne. Now Sarah Good was a homeless woman and Osborne was an old and poversed woman. The girls accused the three of which craft of bewitching them and said that these women had made them become possessed by the devil. There's no way they did this on their own. It seems like there's got to be some third party involved. Like these kids all of a sudden just said, these are the three people that bewitched us. Absolutely not. You are, you are correct. There was definitely adults in their ears pointing the

fingers at who to say. Warrants were issued for the arrest of these three witches. The three were easy targets for the villagers as none of the three were considered to be friendly women or to be upstanding church-going women. So all three of these women didn't go to church, it was an easy target. On March 1st, 1692, based on the girls' accusations, the three women were hauled into the village meeting house and interrogated for days by the local magistrates. It's possible they were also beaten and tortured. Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good denied the accusations and said they weren't witches. Tituiba initially said she was innocent as well.

However, according to Smithsonian magazine, Tituiba confessed that the devil came to her and bid her to serve him. She described elaborate images of black dogs, red cats, yellow birds, and a black man who wanted her to sign his book. She admitted that she signed the book and said there were several other witches looking to destroy the Puritans. That's a little creepy. Well, there's an explanation.

History.com provides an explanation for why Tichiba would have falsely confessed. The men in power told each woman who came in accused of witchcraft that if she provided an explanation or a name of another witch, she would receive a lesser punishment. So, by the being by the boom, all you have to do is say your neighbor is also a witch and you avoid being publicly hanged. So teach about wished to have the system go easier on her by being an informant and providing the names of other guilty parties and an explanation for where this all started.

They literally said, if you can explain to us how witchcraft entered Puritan culture will save your life. And she said, okay, so yeah, I, this man came to me, I was seeing all of this stuff, I signed his book and that's how it came to be. And they said, okay, now you don't have to be publicly hanged. Which is obviously a lie. I would assume. Obviously, like if it's life or death, and they just say all you have to do is say this, of course she's going to say it. Obviously, any others would follow Sue and accuse and blame others as a way to avoid the ultimate punishment of being hanged. Again, this strategy of being an informant is still alive and well today.

Point the finger at someone else and you get a lesser sentence. All three women, Tichibas, Sarah Osborne, and Sarah Good were arrested and imprisoned for being witches. Even though all three of them originally said they weren't. Authorities went so far as to question Dorothy Good, which was Sarah Good's four-year-old daughter. Quote and her timid answers were construed as a confession to being a witch. So even a four-year-old was locked away accused of being a witch. Per History.com, quote,

the three accused witches were brought before the magistrates, Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne, and questioned, even as their accusers appeared in the courtroom in a grand display of spasms, contortions, screaming, and writhing. The accusers would say that the specter of the accused women would physically hurt them. So they were called specters because no one else could see them.

Basically, the specter is the word they're using as the thing possessing them, the demon possessing them. These accusations began feeding on themselves and led to more and more accusations against more people. Again, mostly against women, it began turning into mass hysteria in Salem Village. Even women who were considered solid, church-going folk were eventually accused, including a woman named Martha Cory. Chargers against Martha Cory, a loyal member of the church in Salem Village, greatly concerned the community, if she could be a witch, then anyone could. Along with Cory, the upstanding

church-going Rebecca Nurse was one of the first to be accused. As the weeks passed, many of the accused proved to be enemies of the Putnams. The Putnam family members and in-laws would end up being accusers in dozens of cases. Yeah, it just seemed like at this point they were just pointing their fingers at people they don't like and their which let's kill them. You just said my next sentence. Almost like the Putnams began using witches as a way for them to further their power by eliminating people in the community who they didn't like or didn't like them. That's so dumb. This witchcraft frenzy continued snowballing and getting even more serious. In April of 1692, even the deputy governor, Thomas Danforth and his underlings began attending the witchcraft hearings with the magistrates and judges.

So literally the governor is involved. These hearings started out as more of an informal type hearing, but as time went on became more official. By May 27, 1692, the newly appointed governor of colony of Massachusetts Bay, William Phipps, established special courts to hear and decide the witchcraft cases, giving them a more formal process. So there was now so many women were being accused that they created a whole entire process for it. The structure of these special courts was that they were comprised of seven judges and were overseen by the lieutenant governor of the colony of Massachusetts. The accused were not provided attorneys and so they were forced to defend themselves.

Keep in mind we're in colonial times pre the US Constitution so there's no like America as we know doesn't exist. The way it often happened is that the accuser who was mostly young girls would be on the stand testifying against the accused and then these young girls would break into their fits in the courts in front of the judges. So they'd start bending over backwards and mumbling and contorting and everything. It's just so planned. There would be other members or even young girls in the court who would witness these fits. And then what do you know?

Next week, they are doing the same exact thing and pointing their fingers as someone else, their family needs. They're kids. It's course that's going to happen. People who confessed to witchcraft were spared execution by hanging. Quote those who confessed or who confessed and named other witches were spared the courts of engines, owing to the Puritim belief that they would receive their punishment from God. So as long as you said, oh, well, my next door neighbor, she's also a witch, again, they was a lesser punishment. An atmosphere of fear, gripped Salem village

as people were afraid they'd be the next to be accused. This contributed to the silence of members of the community who might otherwise have stood up against such a travesty of justice. If they stuck their next out on behalf of these people being accused, then they'd likely be accused as well. As written in Time.com, quote, it was easy to be declared a witch in Salem in 1692. All you had to do was deny that witch has existed.

Bidget Brishup was the first woman to be brought forth before the special witchcraft courts, and she denied the accusations. On June 2nd, 1962, she is convicted of witchcraft despite her denials. Eight days after being convicted on June 10th, Bridget Bishop becomes the first woman in Salem Village who is publicly hanged for being a witch. Her hanging took place on June 10th at a location that would later become known as Gallows Hill. I want to note here that Gallows Hill, the Lost Museum, is now a tourist attraction in Salem, Massachusetts that you can visit.

It is open mid-March through mid-November with after-hour ghost hunt weekends from June to September. So you can go up to where all these women were hanged, do ghost hunts, and walk around. By June 15th, a legal issue was developing as to whether or not the special courts should be allowing testimony concerning spectral evidence. By June 15, a legal issue was developing as to whether or not the special courts should be allowing testimony concerning spectral evidence.

Now spectral evidence was testimony concerning dreams and visions. The courts were allowing such testimony, but not everybody agreed that that was just or fair. Essentially, spectral evidence consisted of claims by the victims that they had seen and been attacked, pinched, bitten, or contorted by specters of the accused whose forms Satan allegedly had assumed to work in his evil. So basically the young girls would get up and say in a dream or a vision. I was pinched, bitten, or contorted by a witch's specter.

Okay. This specter is basically an invisible force that Satan had possessed to work his evil. The specter was Satan's crutch and the witch was the specter's crutch. So Satan would work through the witch, which would work through the specter to attack these young girls.

A lot of times, this was the evidence the young girls would produce in court to convict the woman they had pointed the finger at so they would get up and say I Think it was my neighbor and then the judges would say okay 12 year old girl Why what proof do you have that it's your neighbor and she would say well in a dream? I saw my neighbors Spector come up to me and then it bit me and it pinched me. It just seems like it's one big game to all the kids

it bit me and it pinched me. It just seems like it's one big game to all the kids. It is. And they don't have no idea that they're literally getting people, they probably do, but they don't care. If the adults don't care. If the adults don't care. So strange. Jumping into an ad and it is native.

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The president of Harvard College, whose name was increased matter, had a son named Cotton Mather, who was a well-respected minister in Salem around this time. On June 15, 1692, Cotton Mather, who was a well-respected minister in Salem around this time. On June 15, 1692, Cotton Mather wrote a letter to the courts imploring them to not accept spectral evidence in these witchcraft proceedings. The courts did not follow his advice and allowed spectral evidence to condemn the accused women because this was basically all the evidence they had. Later, on October 3, 1962, the elder mother, increased mother, also denounced the use of

spectral evidence. So, these two scholars who have attended Harvard College come forth and say, hey, we don't think you should be using this as evidence. It doesn't seem like logical, reliable evidence in the court said, thanks for letting us know, we're still going to use it. The elder mother actually said, quote, it were better that 10 suspected which is should escape than one innocent person be condemned. And this notion is a critical backbone of our criminal justice system today and traces back centuries, if not even all

the way back to biblical times. In slightly more modern terms, in 1769 the doctrine was written as follows, the law holds that it is better that 10 guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer. And even more modern language, our criminal justice system now says, it is better that 10 guilty persons go free than one innocent person be convicted. So this notion has lasted all the way up till today,

it's taught today. Which is probably true. Oh, 100%. It's true. I mean, you'd never want someone innocent being put to death. Yes. Oh, 100%. It's true. I mean, you'd never want someone innocent being put to death. That's something they didn't do. Another piece of evidence used in the Salem Witch Trials besides spectral evidence was something known as witch tests, which we kind of already talked about with the cake that

Titsuba baked. Backing up a minute here, witch tests were originally devised in Europe during its own witch craze, and were later imported into the Salem Witch Trials because these people came from Europe. There were many different tests the public would perform. People would perform these tests on accused witches to determine if they were really witches or not. But these tests were basically designed for these accused women to fail. One of the

more infamous tests was the swimming test. The accused witch would be bound and dropped in water. If the accused floated, they were a witch. If they sank, they were innocent. But then they would die. They would drown. Majority of them would drown because they're tied up and dropped into water. Where is the logic? Right. Well, I mean, I think it was meant to be that way. It's just this is comical, I guess. We have the witch cake test, which I already talked about the tichiba tried. It said that if such a cake were fed to a dog, the dog would show bad effects of being

possessed, and that meant the accused was a witch. The skin test was to look for any abnormality like moles, birthmarks, scars, etc. Oh, I'm a witch. Literally. If you had one, then that was a sign you were a witch. I have so many moles and I've gotten so many removed. Right. And that was about it as far as evidence was concerned in these trials.

They would perform a witch test. They would ask if there was any spectral evidence such as dreams from the victim, quote, unquote, victim. And that was it. In July of 1692, five more supposed witches were publicly hanged. Five in July, these were Sarah Good, one of the original three, Elizabeth Howe,

Susanna Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wildes. When Sarah Good was convicted, she said that she was no more a witch than the judge was a wizard. True, but she was hanged anyway. In August, five more were hanged. Jeez. Keep in mind, these were public hangings. Crowds of people were gathering to watch these women be hanged for being witches.

The Salem Witch Museum wrote the following about the executions. In 1692, convicted witches would be picked up at the jail, loaded into a cart, and escorted to the execution site. The cart would have passed within view of the meeting house where some witch examinations took place, and the townhouse where the trials took place, and passed the homes of Judge John Hawthorne, Court Clerk, Steven Soule, and Judge Johnathan Corwin.

So basically, they would just put these women in a cart and then drive them all through the town to pass by everyone and people would gather and follow them up to the gallows. The cart would then cross a bridge and turn left to the execution site. Crows would gather for the executions both along the way and on the bridge. According to SalemWitchMuseum.com, these executions in August drew one of the biggest crowds, partly because it wasn't all women who were hanged. Cotton Mather arrived from Boston for these executions to witness the execution of Reverend George Burrows, who he considered to be the king of the witches.

Martha Carrier thought to be the queen of the witches, and three other men named George Jacobs, John Proctor, and John Willard. So this is the first time we're seeing men be convicted in the Salem Witch trials for standing up for these women. It's like they never took a second to think, what are the chances that just our little town happens to have all of these witches? Right. I just don't understand.

Accusing condemn George Burrows had previously been a minister in Salem Village in the early 1680s. He had since moved to Maine but was hauled back to Salem Village to face charges of being the Witch's Ring Leader. So think about this. This guy is a minister. He's powerful. He's political, right?

He leaves Salem Village and then someone's daughter says, remember that guy, that old minister, he was the king of the witches, and they haul him back and kill him. That is crazy. According to Britannica.com, as he stood on the gallows, he recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly, something no witch was thought to be capable of doing, raising doubts about his guilt for some in attendance, though their protests were refuted, most notably by Cotton Mather, who was present. Now, it's important to note here that Cotton Mather's role in all of

this is complicated. On one hand, he fought to keep out spectral evidence, but on the other, he seemed to approve of the trials. Accusing condemn John Proctor got involved in all of this and hung for his efforts because he didn't believe all of the girls Is accusations of witchcraft so he spoke up said I don't believe it and they hung it So there's hanging there's hanging people for no reason right he thought that the girls were faking these physical manifestations of being victims of the accused so he was like I think all these girls have just watched each other and in

And are now doing it because it's the hype. Like it's the popular thing to do. Because he spoke out about this, in turn, a couple girls accused his wife and so he ended up getting hung for defending his wife. So he speaks out, says, I don't think this is true. Then some girls say, well, your wife is a witch and that's why you're saying that. And then his wife gets brought in and he says, no, no, no, my wife is not a witch. And then he gets executed. After 10 had been hanged in Salem village the accusations started to spread to other nearby towns as well. In the next month of September 8 more were publicly murdered in the Salem Witch

Trials. On September 19th 1962 Giles Corey is pressed to death with heavy stones according to one source for two days until he died. He was in his 70 or 80s, depending on the source. He was executed after refusing to enter a guilty plea at the time of his arrangement. According to Time.com, when Corey was asked as he lay under a pile of stones, whether he now confess he yelled back more weight, which is just such a like, stick it to the man. He's literally getting pressed to death

in front of people for sticking up for these women, for sticking up for his own wife, who had been accused, and then when they're like, are you gonna say, are you gonna confess now to being involved? He says, not just put more weight on it. Just kill me. The final Salem Witch trial executions were carried out on September 22nd, 1692. The people hanged were Martha Corey, who was Gile Corey's wife, the man who had just

been pressed to death. Mary E.C., Alice Parker, Mary Parker, and Anne Pudietter, William Red, Margaret Scott, and Samuel Wardwell. So all of these people are executed. So after these final executions, which has just happened to disappear from the town? I'll tell you how we get there. OK.

While these last executions were going on, a reverend named Nicholas said, quote, what is sad thing it is to see eight fire brands of hell hanging there? So these eight people have just been hanged and he calls them fire brands of hell hanging there. So these eight people have just been hanged and he calls them fire brands of hell. And I add this because this quote gives me a visual of how horrific this all was,

that some of these people, either one, believed those being hung were taken over by Satan or two, were using that as an excuse to act this way to other human beings. And I don't know which is worse. I don't know which is worse. I don't know which is worse. Once the victims were hanged, the executed were not afforded proper burials, but were instead cut down after death

and placed into a nearby crevice which acted as a shallow grave. Some people believe that the victims' families would then go out at night and gather their loved ones remains to be buried in a more respectful way elsewhere. Now, if you are wondering why or how all the sudden the trials ended when just the month before eight were hanged, it was because eventually the wrong woman was accused of witchcraft.

OK. It took for governor Fips' wife, Lady Mary Fips, to be accused of witchcraft for the governor to put an end to these special courts. On October 29th, 1692, Governor Fyps' wife was accused of witchcraft by a young girl, and he decided at that point to prohibit further arrests. He released many accused witches and dissolved the special courts. There we go.

See, why couldn't that have happened a long time ago? Someone should have dis... Because it wasn't have happened long time ago someone should just because it wasn't his wife that it was the government powers wife that's crazy sir william thips governor of massachusetts bay colony then replace the special courts with the slightly more professional superior court of judicature which did not allow spectral evidence so he replaces the special courts and says no we're gonna need further evidence to say that these women are witches. Because of course, now his wife is in danger of being hanged. According to Smithsonian Mag.com, this court in 1963 condemned only three out of 56 people before it who were accused of witchcraft. So you have five people hanged,

five people hanged, then eight people hanged, and then in the next month with the following months of the next year, only three people are condemned. But the damage had been done. 19 people had been hanged on Gallows Hill involving witches. A 71 year old man was pressed to death with heavy stones. Several people died in jail and nearly 200 people overall had been accused of practicing quote the devil's magic in the year 1692. None

of the Salem witches were burned at the stake, but many in Europe had been, which is where that comes from. Some of the people who perished in jail died from malnourishment or from injuries they'd sustained during torture or the witch tests. Sarah Good had a baby while in prison and that baby died shortly after she was born because they weren't taken care of it. Two dogs were executed during this time for their alleged activities involving witchcraft. They said two dogs were involved in witchcraft. They said two dogs were involved in witchcraft. By 1693 the executions had held off. The Salem Witch trials resumed under the new superior court, like I said, and continued through early 1693. Again, only three of the 56 individuals charged with witchcraft were convicted at this time. The craze was ending. And by the end of the Salem witchcraft trials, 150 people

in the small town of Salem village had been arrested for witchcraft. 150 of 500 evidence. What's crazy is whoever is leading these Puritans were just saying, well, all the witches are gone. Crazy. All that happens. They just happen to disappear all of a sudden. I'm so glad our children no longer have to be subjected to witchcraft. According to most sources, years of soul searching followed the Salem witch trials and executions. I mean, you just killed basically 20 people. In a matter of, it was like three months.

One of the judges, Judge Samuel Suel, who had pronounced people guilty of witchcraft, leading to their executions, later admitted to his own culpability in the tragedy. He was the only judge to make his own confession and admit wrongdoing. So he later came out and said, this was wrong. We were just making all of this up. These male judges who were condemning mostly women to death for being witches were educated men.

Like, for instance, Judge Suol had graduated from Harvard College and even went on to become an overseer of Harvard. Harvard College hadn't yet become Harvard University at this point. Five years after the trials had started, the Massachusetts General Court pronounced that January 14, 1697 would be a day of fasting to a tone for the sins of the Salem witch trials. So just five years later, they say that they're gonna atone for what they did.

By 1702, the courts in Massachusetts declared that the Salem witch trials had been unlawful. In 1706, Ann Putnam Jr. apologizes for the accusations she made as she had been one of the original three girls and said they were all lies and her family and her family in those months went on to be the bulk of accusations like it we didn't have enough time to get into these details but the putt numbs were literally pointing fingers and causing stirred they were the mastermind in the middle of all of this. And their daughter, who was one of the original three girls to point fingers, later came out

and said she lied to all of it. Yeah, it was just one big game to them. Yes. In 1711, the colony of Massachusetts paid restitution to the heirs of some of those who were accused, convicted, and executed during the Salem witch trials. Massachusetts also formally restored the good names of 22 of those who were convicted. The remaining 11 were finally officially cleared in 2001. So this is sort of like a pardon. They're just basically clearing their names saying they did nothing

unlawful. They were not witches. This was all a lie. In 1752, Salem Village changed its name to Danvers, which is what it's known as today. In 1953, almost 200 years later, Arthur Miller wrote about the Salem Witch Trials in his famous play The Crucible, which is what I read in high school. In 1957, what is now the state of Massachusetts formally apologized for the Salem Witch Trials that had taken place more than two centuries earlier. The Salem Witch Trial was established on April 22, 1986. The memorial is to remember and honor the victims of the Salem Witch Trial. The Salem Witch Museum's website described the memorial as follows, quote, simple yet dramatic memorial to the 20 victims of the witch trials of 1692. Four foot high granite walls surround three sides, with granite benches representing each

victim. Etched on each bench is a name, means of execution, and execution date. One can read, on the stone threshold of the memorial, words of the accused taken directly from court transcripts. Visitors will note that the words among them, God knows I am innocent, are cut off in mid-sentence, representing lives cut short and in difference to the protestations of innocence during that time. As written by Smithsonian Mag.com, quote, numerous hypothesis have been devised to explain the strange behavior that occurred in Salem in 1692.

One of the most concrete studies published in science blamed the abnormal habits of the accused on the fungused urgit, which can be found in rye wheat and other cereal grasses. Toxicologists say that eating urgit contaminated foods can lead to muscle spasms vomiting, delusions, and hallucinations. Also, the fungus thrives in warm and damp climates, not to unlike the swampy meadows in Salem village, where rye was the staple grain during the spring and summer months. This kind of reminds me of how mercury poisoning led to the expression, mad as a hatter, hat makers use mercury as part of the process, which over time could lead to poisoning

and symptoms such as tremors, twitching, and behavioral changes. Other possible explanations for the strange behavior of the accusing girls is Lyme disease and other medical conditions. Basically, a bunch of scientists have just come out trying to find a physical medical reason that the young girls would have been acting like this. I personally don't find these medical explanations to be very convincing, giving that the behaviors seem to spread primarily to other young girls and women. Why wouldn't boys and young men have been affected as well if this was the reason for the behavior?

It seems that something else was at work here, something psychological rather than some kind of physical poisoning. There are many theories as to why the young girls here would make the accusations that led to the Salem Witch Trials. One theory is essentially teenage rebellion against the Puritan Authority. Again, that kind of happens today. I mean, teenagers need to find a way to be like, I don't want to be under these constraints. Basically, warning to women in Puritan Salem conform or else you might be accused of witchcraft. All that's interesting.com says, while mass hysteria is usually associated with the time that the trials were happening,

some have proposed that it may have caused them as well. Mass hysteria has been defined as the rapid spread of conversion disorder, a condition involving the appearance of bodily complaints for which there is no organic basis. In such episodes, psychological distress is converted or channeled into physical symptoms. Some have argued that this is exactly what the girls who were first bewitched were experiencing. The stress of living in such a rigid and religious society on the dangerous wilderness frontier may have led these girls to convert their stress into

physical symptoms. Most of the accusers were young girls under the age of 20. Even today, we will hear the term witch hunt from politicians accusing their competition of accusing them. This derives from the witch trials. Today, those who are interested in learning more about the Salem Witch Trials can visit two museums in Salem. Ancestors of accusers and ancestors of those accused and condemned still live in the area of Salem, Massachusetts.

An article written just this week in the Salem News details how a visitor to the Salem which trials memorial saw a note left on the memorial to Martha Carrier, one of the women who was hanged written by a descendant of one of her accusers. So just this week, there was a note found from yeah, from the genealogical line of two people involved. Yeah. And the note read, quote, two Martha, I'm so sorry that my eighth great uncle Benjamin Abbott accused you and had you hung for witchcraft all over a property dispute. So there must have been evidence and journals or somewhat that they were fighting over property. And so he a user and she was hanged. Martha Carrier was hung on August 19, 1692.

She was not living in Salem. She was in nearby and over Massachusetts. She was the first and over resident to be accused of witchcraft. And that was our summed up version of the Salem witch trials that happened in 1692. You know, I always thought that the Salem witch trials, Salem in general, I think just from movies and TV shows. I thought there was actual witches there

Mm-hmm, and that's why I clarified at the beginning that like we're not talking about Witchcraft as a religion or whatever you want to refer it like this was just by far obviously the most The I don't know what to say the fakest the bad word but like Obviously, just not it's not real right. They were just pointing fingers trying to get things trying to get people killed It's so obvious that it was all so fake and I think a big point that plays into this is power Ego for sure you are founding a new area in America I mean there you are battling there are wars going on back in Europe with

this. And in all of this, you have men who are trying to rise the ranks. They're trying to gain power in this new land. They're trying to be the governor, be the minister. So how do you do that? You tear other people down. I mean, that's just how it is. And I think that was a big part of, I'm going to exercise my power here by pointing my finger at a woman and calling her a witch. Okay, you guys, well, that was our last Halloween episode. The next time we're here, our set will be back to normal, our music will be back to normal, and we can't wait till then. We'll see you next time I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.