This episode was suggested by Marie, Taylor Treat, and Annabelle. If you'd like to make a suggestion, you can do so on Facebook and Instagram at Morbid Curiosity Podcast, on our website, www.MorbidCuriosityPodcast.com, on our Discord server, and on Patreon. This episode contains graphic descriptions of executions, self-harm, imprisonment, and torture of both adults and children. If these topics are triggers for you, this might be a good episode to skip.
Humans are fascinated by gore and violence, but even more so the mysterious and unsolved. Interest in these disturbing and unpleasant subjects is called Morbid Curiosity, and it has gripped millions of people throughout the ages. I am one of those people. My name is Hallie, and this is the Morbid Curiosity Podcast.
Last time, we discussed the Christian belief that witches are servants of the devil, the extreme belief of the Puritans that everyone is damned, the tense situation in Salem between strict and moderate Puritans that manifested as pro- and anti-reverent Paris factions, the feud between the Putnam and Porter families that was closely tied to these factions, and the strange symptoms exhibited by the young women of Salem that resulted in a wave of witchcraft accusations and arrests. In mid-May 1692, the court of Oyer and Terminer, the official criminal court of the province of Massachusetts, assembled for the first time. Its main task was to bring every accused witch to trial using several types of evidence, most of which would not have been accepted in any modern criminal court. Because witchcraft didn't require the accused to be physically present at the scene, there was no alibi, no real defense against the accusations.
The first person to be tried was Bridget Bishop, a single older woman who was outspoken, quick to anger, and owned land due to the death of her husband. Bridget fit the stereotypical profile of a witch, female, elderly, and non-conforming to society. On June 8th, Bridget was the first to be found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to execution. It was only weeks before that a law had passed allowing executions for witchcraft.
One of the judges, Nathaniel Sultonsall, resigned from his position as a judge directly after the sentence was passed. He was replaced by John Foster. On June 10th, sometime between 8 a.m. and noon, Bridget Bishop was taken from jail to Proctor's Ledge at Gallows Hill in Salem.
Either a temporary structure or a tree served as the gallows, as Salem had no permanent execution site. Reverend John Hale of nearby Beverly Village was present and likely read out her last rites. Bridget maintained her innocence to her last moments. She was blindfolded and guided halfway up a ladder.
Her hands were then tied behind her back, her legs and petticoat tied closed, and a noose was placed around her neck. Then she was either pushed or the ladder was kicked out from under her. It's unknown if her neck broke from the fall or if she strangled at the end of the rope until she died. Her body was buried nearby, possibly in a ditch.
Whether it remained there or was moved later is unknown. On June 15th, 12 ministers from the province of Massachusetts advised the court of Oyer and Terminer not to rely entirely on spectral evidence to obtain convictions. The court chose to ignore this advice and spectral evidence became the primary evidence used for conviction going forward. The trial of Sarah Good occurred on June 28th at 9 a.m.
She was so angry that everyone in attendance was frightened. Her young daughter was in prison with her, her infant daughter Mercy had died after being born in jail, and her husband was testifying against her. One of the afflicted girls stated suddenly that Sarah had stabbed her in the chest with a knife and that the blade tip had broken. She then produced the tip of the blade.
However, a boy in the courtroom came forward to say he had broken his knife in the girl's presence recently. When brought together with the boy's knife, the tip fit perfectly. Despite this, the boy was dismissed and the afflicted were allowed to continue their testimony. This was not the only time one of the afflicted girls would be caught out in a lie.
Sarah Good was found guilty and sentenced to execution, as was Rebecca Nurse who was tried after her, despite 20 depositions from friends, families, and neighbors defending her. Initially, the jury found her not guilty, but as soon as this verdict was read, the afflicted girls cried out, vomited, and screamed. The jury reconsidered, taking this reaction into account, and found Rebecca Nurse guilty. On June 30th, Elizabeth Howe was found guilty, despite 12 people testifying to her innocence.
Sarah Wilde was also found guilty, mostly due to testimony from Deliverance Hobbs, another accused witch. Susanna Martin was also found guilty. In early July, Rebecca Nurse was excommunicated by her congregation. The next day, 39 neighbors petitioned on her behalf.
Her family traveled to Boston to petition Governor Phipps for a reprieve. He granted one, but the afflicted were so tormented when they heard the news that the reprieve was quickly revoked. On the morning of July 19th, the high sheriff of Essex County, George Corwin, transported the condemned through the streets of Salem by cart. Like Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, Susanna Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good, and Sarah Wilde were taken to Proctor's Ledge.
It's not known if they were hanged all at once, or individually. When Sarah Good ascended the gallows, Reverend Nicholas Noyes, the official minister for the trials, encouraged her to confess and save her soul. It said she angrily replied, You are a liar, I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take my life, God will give you blood to drink. This phrase was based on a Bible verse from Revelations.
Mysteriously, Reverend Nicholas Noyes would later die from a burst blood vessel in his head, which caused him to bleed from his mouth. After death, the bodies of the hanged women were cut down and placed in a nearby crevice, which acted as a shallow grave. It's thought that Rebecca Nurse's family waited until dark, took a boat along the North River, exhumed her body, and buried it with proper rights somewhere on her land. Imagine the terror and desperation of those still in jail.
At every trial, the accused witches related more and more elaborate stories to try and avoid execution. Many inconsistencies were recorded in their testimonies, but magistrates only seemed to pay attention to them when it suited their needs. It's likely the rise in outlandishness was due to the intense pressure placed on the accused to confess and reveal other witches. In prison, many of the accused were interrogated using torture.
John Proctor wrote a letter to Increase Mather, a high-ranking reverend in Boston, revealing the horrible methods by which the accused, including accused children, were tortured. The methods included hanging upside down for hours, cutting off circulation to fingers and limbs, screaming leading questions in their faces, and reminding them they would hang if they didn't cooperate. The only way to avoid execution seemed to be to implicate more people, either by joining the afflicted or breaking under interrogation. The mere prospect of the forced confessions caused many to confess quickly, either to escape the pain they might suffer, or because they really did think they were guilty.
In his letter to Increase Mather, John Proctor pleaded for a more objective jury. He invited Mather to come to Salem and see how ridiculous the trials were, with their heavy reliance on spectral evidence. The letter reached Mather in Boston on August 1st. He called a meeting of ministers in Boston to discuss the letter.
The ministers agreed that spectral evidence shouldn't be the only evidence. Previously spectral evidence had been taken more seriously, as it was believed that the devil could not impersonate an innocent person. But after consideration, the ministers agreed that the devil could appear in the guise of anyone, even someone innocent. Therefore spectral evidence wasn't valid on its own.
However, the council of ministers still left it up to the head magistrate, William Stoughton, to decide how to run the trials. Unfortunately, the court ignored the advice of the Boston ministers. John Proctor and his wife were tried on August 2nd, along with Martha Carrier. The Proctors pleaded not guilty, but the afflicted seized and screamed more than ever.
Twenty neighbors defended the Proctors, including kin from Ipswich as well. These petitions didn't help. Both the Proctors were sentenced to hang. However, Elizabeth Proctor was granted a stay of execution as she was pregnant.
Once her child was born, she too would hang. Many people testified against Martha Carrier. She had survived a bout of smallpox when no one else had, and was the sister-in-law of Roger Toothacker, another accused witch. The afflicted shouted that she was twisting their necks during the trial.
She responded angrily by saying that their necks were already twisted off. At this point in the trials, the afflicted began appearing in court with pins pushed under their skin, pins pushed through their lips, as well as other injuries supposedly caused by the accused witches. They wanted so desperately to be believed that they were harming themselves. I wonder if they really believed they were revealing witches in the community, or if they kept up the charade for fear of suffering extreme consequences for all the harm they had already done.
On August 5th, three of the accused men were tried, George Burroughs, John Willard, and George Jacobs Sr. Reverend Burroughs' trial especially drew a huge crowd, including many reverends who had previously worked alongside him. He was accused of being the leader of a satanic plot to destroy Salem. Eight other accused witches had implicated him.
He called them all false witnesses, and was eventually found guilty. The afflicted were even more tormented than usual during his trial, revealing bite marks on their arms and hands. Burroughs replied that the devil was tormenting them, not him. One by one, the afflicted fell into a silent trance, then suddenly shattered the silence with chaotic screams and seizures.
They were separated from one another and brought in individually to be questioned, and each described the same four ghosts tormenting them at the behest of Burroughs. By mid-August, the panic was quickly spreading to other villages in the area. Young girls were becoming afflicted and accusing people in Andover, Ipswich, Beverly, Gloucester, and many more small towns. In Boston, government officials including Increase Mather began to vocalize that the trials were getting out of hand.
On August 19th, George Jacobs, Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Proctor, and John Willard were hanged. All of them claimed innocence until their last moments. George Burroughs recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly on the gallows, a task that witches were allegedly unable to do, shocking the crowds in attendance. Cotton Mather, the son of Increase Mather, attended the execution, and prayed with the condemned.
He was heartbroken at what he saw, and prayed that these were the last to be executed. However, he insisted that, quote, the devil has often been transformed into an angel of light, end quote, suggesting he believed that Burroughs was indeed a witch. The bodies of the condemned were once again placed in a crevice at Gallows Hill. They were very poorly buried, with limbs and chins still visible above the dirt.
The bodies of John Proctor and George Jacobs Sr. are thought to have been secreted away on a cover of darkness for proper burials on family property. As for the bodies in the crevice, no one knows what happened to them. According to archaeologist Emerson Baker from Salem State University, quote, there are no human remains in the very shallow soils of Proctor's Ledge, end quote.
During his trial on September 9th, Giles Corey pled innocent, but refused to answer a formality question, how will you be tried? He was supposed to say, by God and my country, but instead, he stood silently. Officially, his trial couldn't proceed until he spoke that phrase. Under English law, this refusal to speak was punishable by pressing under heavy weight, until he cooperated.
When he was retried on September 15th, Corey again stood mute. On the same day, several children of accused witches were implicated. Justice Dudley Bradstreet, a magistrate of Andover, refused to issue the arrest warrants, and the afflicted accused him and his wife of murder. The Bradstreet's fled the area, but they had made a mark.
It's likely this refusal was the first real loss of power for the afflicted and the court. As for Giles Corey, it's been speculated that he realized he would likely be convicted, so decided to play the court. If he couldn't be properly tried, it was more likely the property he had left for his daughter's families wouldn't be seized. If he knew about the punishment of pressing, perhaps he thought the court wouldn't dare go through with it.
He thought he was calling their bluff, but the court wasn't bluffing. On September 17th, around noon, Giles Corey was taken to an open field across the street from Salem Jail. A large board was placed over top of him as he lay on his back. Stones were added to the board, as court magistrates encouraged him to plead or say the phrase.
Giles Corey was known as a stubborn old man and proved it during this torture. Over a period of two days, more and more stones were added to the board, and still Corey refused to recognize the authority of the court. It's said the last words he gasped before he was pressed to death were This is the first and only time this method of torture was used in colonial New England. Judge Jonathan Corwin ordered Corey to be buried in an unmarked grave, supposedly near Tapley Brook, a location usually reserved for suicide victims and criminals.
The next day, Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Eastie, Alice Parker, Dorcas Hoare, Anne Pudater, Wilmot Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker were all found guilty. On September 22, eight of them were hanged. This was the last execution of the Salem witch trials. Dorcas Hoare was granted a temporary stay of execution after extensive and intense repentance.
This shows that the intense grip the witch panic had on the court was loosening. On September 29, Governor Phipps' wife, Mary, was accused of witchcraft after signing a release order for one of the prisoners in Boston. This accusation was brushed off as ridiculous. Another accusation from a group of Andover afflicted against a gentleman in Boston resulted in a defamation suit against him.
The girls backed down quickly. The final blow against the trials came in early October. Increase Mather gave a speech at a meeting of ministers in Cambridge. He denounced the court's reliance on spectral evidence.
What the afflicted said during their fits was not proof of guilt, because if they were possessed by demons, not witches, then those words were the devils. A copy of his speech was circulated by Governor Phipps among the public. Mather added that, quote, It would be better that ten suspected witches should escape, than one innocent person should be condemned, end quote. Not long after, several of the afflicted from Andover admitted that they had fabricated their accounts.
They were scared witless and admitted to whatever was expected of them when accused. Petitions began to flood into the court, defending accused witches who were imprisoned. Increase Mather visited Salem prison, and many who had confessed recanted those confessions. Governor Phipps soon ordered the court of Oyer and Terminer to stop using spectral evidence in the proceedings.
On the 29th, he dissolved the court and ordered for some of the accused to be released. On December 10th, little Dorothy Goode, who'd been arrested at age four, was released when her prison bond was paid. She was the youngest person to be jailed during the Salem witch trials. While in jail, she had watched her mother, Sarah Goode, give birth, her newborn sister, die, and her mother be executed.
At five years of age, Dorothy was severely psychologically disturbed. At five years of age, Dorothy went to jail, and her mother be executed. on december 14th a law was passed that maintained that while witchcraft was a felony punishable by death minor acts of magic such as attempting to find love tell the future or unsuccessfully trying to harm another person by magical means warranted lesser penalties two days later governor phipps and the general court of massachusetts agreed to try the rest of the individuals still in prison but that this new court would not accept spectral evidence this new court met in january of 1693 49 of the accused were released as their cases relied on spectral evidence alone chief justice still convicted six people and signed death warrants for five others previously convicted by the court of orion terminer in 1692 the next date of execution was set for february however governor phipps pardoned all of the condemned countering staughton's orders furious staughton resigned in may governor phipps formerly pardoned all those still in prison from the salem witch trials effectively ending the trials conflict within salem village continued reverend paris apologized to his congregation for his part in the events of 1692 but many members remained opposed to his ministry he stepped down as minister in 1696 and was forced out of the church completely in 1697 that same year the general court of massachusetts ordered a day of public fasting and prayer in atonement for the errors made by the colony including the witchcraft trials the 12 jurors of the court of orion terminer signed a statement of apology on august 25 1706 14 years after the witch trials ann putnam junior publicly apologized quote for the accusing of several persons of a grievous crime whereby their lives were taken away from them whom now i have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent persons end quote she was the only afflicted to publicly acknowledge her wrongdoing on october 17 1711 the massachusetts legislature approved the reversal of the convictions of 12 of those individuals who were executed and seven of those who were condemned but not executed in 1692 while an important step not all those convicted of witchcraft were recognized by this resolution in 1945 a bill was introduced into the legislature to clear the six remaining names of those convicted and executed during the salem witch trials this bill was championed by the descendants of ann putater 12 years later in 1957 a resolution was passed that pardoned ann putater and certain other persons however these other persons were not formally named in october 2001 the known missing names were finally added to the 1957 resolution susanna martin bridget bishop alice parker margaret scott and wilmot redd were formally cleared of all witchcraft charges it wasn't until august 2021 that all those wrongly convicted of witchcraft in 1692 were officially cleared of all charges most had been cleared in 1945 and 2001 but one remaining person was discovered and cleared thanks to the work of historian richard height and an eighth grade class from north andover massachusetts 20 communities were involved in the salem witch trials 70 people were considered afflicted 162 people were brought in for questioning 52 were tried and around 210 defended accused witches 30 people were condemned 19 were executed five died in prison and one was killed during torture two dogs were also killed in connection with the trials and for what why did this happen basic human emotion was at the core of this incident greed envy fear shame rage paranoia blind righteousness hope desperation and the need for control these emotions plus the inclusion of deeply held religious beliefs into the legal system salem's events are a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolation religious extremism false accusations and lapses in due process the tension in town was central to who was accused the factions disputes and vendettas are covered in detail by historian carol carlson in her book the devil in the shape of a woman her hypothesis is that the salem witch panic outbreak was due to these socioeconomic factors salem was a powder keg and would have exploded no matter what why witchcraft became the flood through which all that tension was channeled has to do with the plight of the afflicted carlson points out that the possessed accusers were usually subordinate members of society such as servants women and orphans totally dependent on the will of others their discontent and anxiety would have been extreme puritan society had no place for complaints or assertiveness from women and subordinates but it did have a place for bewitchment therefore their anxiety was expressed as a belief that they were either witches or possessed by witches the tiny tensions and squabbles were filtered through this lens creating paranoia fear and mass delusion carlson also suggests that the afflicted used their dramatic possession performances to quote focus the community's concern on their difficulties end quote be it consciously or subconsciously this was one of the only situations in which the afflicted girls had ever been shown respect by the community carlson thinks this was their way of dealing with the oppression they felt within puritan society paul boyer and stephen nissenbaum also interpret the trials in socioeconomic and political terms in their book salem possessed they argue that many members of the more rural and agricultural salem village the putnam family and their allies felt threatened by those with economic and political connections to salem town the porter family and their allies which was quickly becoming the center of emerging capitalism in the area salem village had been attempting to gain independence from salem town by establishing its own church salem villagers with ties to the town were therefore seen as a threat to this move for independence this may be why the majority of the afflicted accusers were from the village and the majority of the accused had closer ties to salem town related to this is the theory that the more traditional rural puritan villagers were noticing that the puritan influence in the area was dwindling with the growth in population from colonists moving down from further north and from overseas there were fewer people who ascribed to their strict faith new ideas were being spread and social and societal rules were changing according to some scholars such as historian mary beth norton in her book in the devil's snare local leaders in salem were so receptive to the accusations of witchcraft and with implementing draconian laws and policies because of the precariousness of their own positions boyer and nissenbaum agree stating that quote what was going on was not simply a personal quarrel an economic dispute or even a struggle for power but a moral conflict involving the very nature of the community itself the fundamental issue was not who was in control of the village but what its essential character was to be end quote on top of all this during the trials the legal process changed the preliminary actions occurred during the suspension of the massachusetts colony charter which had occurred due to political and religious tension between the colony and england a new governor and a new charter arrived just as the accusations were ramping up and the jails were filling the court of was formed before the general court had time to create any new laws or review old ones without specific colony laws the judges of the court of oyer and terminer set their own rules such as accepting spectral evidence emily oster of the university of chicago suggested another factor in the ramping up of the situation was the little ice age temperatures all over the world began to drop at the beginning of the 14th century with the coldest periods occurring from 1680 to 1730 the economic hardships caused by failing crops could have caused widespread anxiety which manifested as the persecution of so-called witches as an explanation for the downturn oster argued that in general witchcraft trials may be large-scale examples of violence and scapegoating prompted by deterioration in economic conditions brought on by the severe winters and food shortages outside of social environmental and political factors some researchers think that psychological and medical factors could also have contributed to the situation the cause of the symptoms displayed by the afflicted is a subject of intense interest one of several psychological theories holds that the trials were the result of a mass psychogenic illness or mpi mpis involve the spread of a set of physical symptoms through a population that have no physical infectious cause it usually spreads rapidly through members of a cohesive group originating from a nervous system disturbance in one individual that causes excitation loss or alteration of function their physical symptoms are then exhibited unconsciously by other members of the group despite having no organic cause mpis usually arise in times of extreme stress on the group and most often occur in young women or other oppressed groups as an expression of emotions that are deemed socially unacceptable another theory is that contaminated rye caused the delusions of the afflicted linda cabareil argues that the girls suffered from convulsive ergotism a condition caused by ergot a type of fungus found in rye and other grains ergot contains alkaloids that are chemically similar to lysergic acid diethylamide or lsd when ingested it can produce a variety of neurological symptoms including convulsions giddiness fatigue depression the feeling of ants crawling all over the body spasms and catatonia after seizures apparently underage individuals are more susceptible as they tend to eat more and their bodies are smaller making the concentration of the alkaloid higher for them ergot grows in cold and humid conditions such as rye that is stored over the winter due to the little ice age the conditions for ergot growth were met as well as crop failure of other grains making the villagers depend more on rye than they would normally however nicholas p spanos and jack gottlieb dispute this theory as many of the symptoms of ergot poisoning were not present in other members of the community nor in the youngest children who would have been the most affected one of the more controversial medical theories set out by laurie wynn carlson in her 1999 book a fever in salem suggests that the girls suffered from an outbreak of encephalitis lethargica an inflammation of the brain spread by insects such as mosquitoes symptoms include fever headaches lethargy double vision abnormal eye movements neck rigidity behavioral changes and tremors however as the symptoms began manifesting in winter a time when there are no mosquitoes this theory appears unlikely the salem witch trials have captured the human imagination for centuries as have other historic witch panics there are three consistent factors that come into play in most instances of witch panics christianity and its ideology of the witch as a servant of satan interpersonal tensions between villagers and gender inequality these were all present in salem in 1692 add in crop failure societal changes and perhaps physical and mental illness and the stage is set for a witch hunt the exact cause is woven amongst these factors making it difficult to unravel the strangeness violence and lingering mystery is why the salem witch trials ignite our morbid curiosity the morbid curiosity podcast is produced by h lloyd if you'd like to get in touch or suggest a morbid topic you can do so on facebook and instagram at morbid curiosity podcast or on our website www.morbidcuriositypodcast.com if you like the podcast please share it with your friends and give us a rating on whatever podcast app you use this helps the mcp reach new listeners and expand this wonderfully creepy community thank you to everyone who has 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