Dark History - 184: The Devil's Secretaries or Scapegoats? The Witches History Erased

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Hi friends, happy Wednesday! So the other night I was deep into my usual bedtime routine of doomscrolling, and I stumbled across this headline that said: “DID YOU KNOW: The Last Witch Trial Was in 1944.” And I was like… I’m sorry, what? 1944? Like while the rest of the world was fighting Nazis, someone was in a courtroom yelling, “She’s a WITCH”? Be for real. That sent me down one of the craziest rabbit holes yet. And I quickly realized… wow. Everything I thought I knew about witch trials… Changed. Forever. Not only was witchcraft something you could go to court for less than a hundred years ago, but the *FIRST* witch in America wasn’t even in Salem! The first witch trial in America happened DECADES before Salem! Yeah. So turns out, witches never really went out of style. And it all started way before you think. So I’m here to set the record straight on the witches no one talks about. Welcome to the dark history of Witches Who Got Away. ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail] Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail: Bailey Sarian 4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300 Burbank, CA 91505 ________ This podcast is Executive Produced by: Bailey Sarian and Joey Scavuzzo Writer: Katie Burris Research provided by: Xander Elmore Special thank you to our Historical Consultant: Professor Marion Gibson, author of "Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials" Director: Brian Jaggers Additional Editing: Julien Perez and Maria Norris Hair: Angel Gonzalez Makeup: Roni Herrera ________ Warby Parker has over 300+ locations to help you find your next pair of glasses. You can also head over to WarbyParker.com/DARKHISTORY right now to try on any pair virtually!  So stop putting off those doctor appointments and go to Zocdoc.com/DARKHISTORY to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.

So the other night I was deep into my usual bedtime routine of doom scrolling, and I stumbled across this headline that said, did you know the last witch trial was in 1944? And I sat there like, huh? 1944? And in my mind, I was like, don't you mean 1644? Like, is this some kind of typo? Because wasn't World War II happening in 1944? Huh? Well, turns out, 1944, it was not a typo. So I checked, and the internet was correct. The last woman tried for being a witch was put in jail less than a hundred years ago.

Now, she was a stay-at-home psychic who knew government secrets and spread them to the people. And to this day, we don't know how she did it. Now, this witch led me down a whole witch rabbit hole, and I ended up learning more about, like, a subject that you guys have been, honestly, begging me to do. since forever. You know, the Salem witch trials. So today I'm here to set the record straight on the witches no one talks about, including one of the first ever witches in America and the very last witch. So welcome to the dark history of the witches who got away. Hi, friends. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian, and I like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Here we believe history does not have to be boring. It might be tragic. Sometimes it's happy, but either way, it's our dark history. Now, before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe. I'm always posting new content. And let me know what you think down below in the comments section. I love hearing from you. And I read comments at the end. Plus, I want to know if you're watching over on YouTube, How do we look?

Yeah, I know. I was included in the group chat this time, so we decided to go with a little theme. I'm giving, is it Sarah Plain and Tall? We're giving a cute look today. Okay, we are. We got John Proctor, we got Susie Smith, and then we got me. Goody, Sarah, Ann, we look so cute.

I just, okay. Anyways, enough about that. Let's talk about the first witch trial in America. Now, it all started with a woman named Joan. I know. I was like Joan reincarnated? I don't know. Joan. Well, this Joan was, her name was Joan Wright. She was a midwife, a healer. And worst of all, she was left-handed. Yep. Now listen, this, at the time, this was said to be the mark of the devil, the devil's secretaries, as they say. I guess in Latin, the word for right was Dexter, as in Dexterous, which meant skillful and blessed. And the word for left was sinister, as in sinister. Cursed, evil. A little dramatic, okay?

So Joan, she was left-handed, and it really didn't like impact her life at first. She was born in England in 1580s and she worked as a dairy maid. You know, and no one was ever bringing up like, hey, why are you milking that cow with your left hand? You know, no one really said anything. anything but she would spend a lot of her time churning butter skimming milk milking cows making cheese i don't know hi mate but you know that's what she was doing now i guess over time jones butter hadn't been like coming out quite right and things were getting a little tense at work it's like joan what the fuck is up with your butter so there's this one day where jones she's

churning away while a woman shows up at her work asking for food. Okay? Now, back then, people were very paranoid that if you didn't give a beggar food, they might secretly be a witch who would then curse you. It's kind of snow-whiteish, you know? So people were like a little freaked out by beggars and would always give them something, anything. You didn't want to curse. So Joan, she's like churning her butter. And then she goes and she answers the door. But her boss, her boss was there. Her name was Dame. So very dramatic woman. She throws herself like in front of the door and is like, Jung! Wait! She might be a witch. She might be responsible for this like terrible butter that you've been producing. So the two of them

come up with a plan. The dame assumes that when the door opens, the beggar, aka secret witch, is going to try to get her spectral hand in Joan's butter and then curse it. Ooh. This part's a little funky, but this is what was said happened. As soon as the dame opens the door, she shouts at Joan to push down,

like on her butter, hard. Okay. So you know that part of the, when you're churning butter, it's called a staff. you know a very magical sounding really but i guess this move allegedly trapped the witch's spectral hand in the butter churn okay jones said in her diaries that this had like a crazy effect on the alleged witch um when this happened the witch woman she fell to her knees

and begged for forgiveness the woman said that her hand was indeed stuck inside the churn and she couldn't move it until like Joan lifted up her staff. Now the dame, she probably made the witch like swear to stop messing with their butter and to not come back. Now this whole event with the spectral witch hand, it stuck with Joan. Traumatic moment, you know. Not only was it her first encounter with like an alleged witch, but in her mind she had basically just used a butter churn to defeat Satan. You know, it's not really something you forget about. So fast forward, Joan moves to Virginia and she's in her late teens like early 20s. Once she's there, Joan marries a tobacco planter. She becomes a mom and she tries to settle down and live a nice little colonial life.

But all of that weird butter witchcraft comes back to haunt her. So listen, if you're looking for something truly spooky this Halloween season, like the kind of scary where you're questioning your life choices, like the second you step in, then you have to check out dark Harbor at the Queen Mary. It's back and it's absolutely terrifying. We're talking new haunted mazes that go through the actual Queen Mary ship, immersive add-on experiences, delicious food, and bars along with like secret speak-esies. Oh, carnival rides and like so much more. Dark Harbor is one of the largest Halloween events in the country right in Long Beach at the world famous Queen Mary. If you're going to be screaming for your life screams for your life. And hey, if you're looking for something different, you can

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all glowing and gorgeous, the artistry, it's beautiful. So yeah, whatever your vibe, terrified, or like cozy, spooky, LA has got you covered this season. All events are now open. By 1620, Joan is working as a midwife in Elizabeth City, Virginia. and she's living with her husband and their two kids. Apparently Elizabeth City was not like a nice place at the time.

People were getting murdered, there were diseases, you know, just everywhere, and many were starving. Then in 1622, something horrible happens. A group of Native Americans went through Elizabeth City and killed over 300 colonists in one day. Now it was brutal, it was bad. it was bad and the people who survived were very traumatized and very angry the colonists they couldn't accept that maybe they had like i don't know brought this on themselves by you know being assholes and like taking someone else's land so they decided the attack was the work of witchcraft

makes sense you know and it's a small town so everyone's talking you know and people started like whispering about that left-handed midwife who lived up the street, Joan. She's left-handed. What's up with her? Now the first guy to officially point the finger at Joan was this guy named Lieutenant Giles Allington. Now Giles was rich, he was from a wealthy English family.

He had over like a hundred acres of land and despite all that, you know, he was still an extremely insecure guy. First of all, it was said he couldn't shoot a deer to save his life and it like really pissed him off. So he started a rumor and told all his friends that the deer, they were extra twitchy because they were a bewitched. Yeah, obviously. He's like, that's why you guys. It's not because I suck at hunting.

It's because the deer are bewitched. So we already know that he was like the sort of guy looking to blame anyone but himself. Plus, Giles had a history with Joan. Mm-hmm. I guess Giles had originally hired Joan as a midwife. for his pregnant wife. But when his wife found out that Joan was left-handed, I guess she, like, freak the f-out.

So she's like, you need to get rid of her. That is Satan right there. So Giles, I guess, just fully, like, he goes to Joan. And he, like, silently lets her go. And he finds another midwife for the job instead. Which, fine, okay, but. Rude. Now, a few months later, his wife developed an abscess, and Giles got really sick, and I guess their baby died at just like four months old. So who did they blame? Any guesses?

No, not germs, not bacteria. Not the lack of medical knowledge or anything like that. Uh, witches. Yeah, Witches, specifically Joan, the midwife who he let go. You know, maybe she was mad that she got fired. Unfortunately, Joan also had a second job that put a bit of a target on her back. She was also a fortune teller. So everyone was like, okay, they're doing the math. They're like she's left-handed and she's a fortune teller. I mean, come on, that's a witch.

It's her. So Virginia was a colony, so it was operating under England's laws, which included the 1604 Witchcraft Act. Now, this act was passed by King James himself, who was obsessed with witchcraft and demonology. He even wrote a whole book about it. And this act made it illegal to, quote, consult, employ, or reward any evil and wicked spirit, end quote. And it banned anything from casting spells to using the bones of the dead in magic. Under this law, Joan was, you know, arrested and she was, like, being put up on trial. Looking at it now, she was really being put on trial for being different and a little outspoken.

I guess she was the type of woman who would say things that no one wanted to hear. Like, people would come to her and ask about their marriage, and she'd be like, you know, you'll be the one burying him. kind of dark. People wanted to hear something positive, you know? Am I gonna be, are you rich? She's like, no, you're gonna be the one burying him actually. And then the spookier part was that Joan would be right. So this would like freak people out even more.

So on September 11th, 1626, Virginia's general court assembled for a witch trial against Joan. You know, a woman who was left-handed and predicted the future a little too well. So she's put on trial, right? But then here's the weird part. We know the names of the men who put her on trial, but then after that, the records just stop.

We don't know the verdict. We don't know the outcome. We don't know what happened. It's like someone or something didn't want us to know what happened next. Sure, maybe Joan was just a misunderstood midwife caught up in the crossfire of paranoia. Or maybe, I don't know. Maybe she was just good at making, like,

Good guesses. Maybe she was a witch, whatever. What we do know is that Joan walked free. Which you probably already know from like if you watched our last witch episode we did on Dark History. Or if you read the crucible in ninth grade or you learned about the Salem Witch trials in school. You know that letting people go was rare. They didn't do that. Okay.

So it was odd. And no one knows why. I thought, I was like, maybe she had dirt on everyone. Maybe she was going to blackmail their ass. Maybe. I don't know. But then when that, I don't know. It's possible that, like, the court decided she was ultimately maybe too valuable to lock up.

Because at the time, midwives, they were pretty rare. And even if she was a witch, Joan didn't just get to, like, you know, skip away like nothing happened. Her freedom definitely came at a price. Her family had to live with this horrible reputation forever, and her life was never the same. Her husband had to get special permission to relocate the family to another city because life was just so rough after the trial. So Joan and her family ended up moving to Jamestown, Virginia, where they had to rebuild their lives basically from nothing. Now, Miss Joan Wright became the first woman officially tried for witchcraft in America. And the crazy thing is, she wasn't even convicted as far as we know,

and her life, though, was still destroyed. But, you know, at least she wasn't hanged or burned at the stake. I mean, she wasn't thrown in the river with, like, a Bible tied to her ankle. She wasn't even locked up. So for a left-handed fortune teller, especially at that time, I'd say she did pretty well. And then she just flew right under the radar of history. You ever walk into a glasses store? and immediately feel like either you're gonna leave broke

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Warbyparker.com slash dark history. Okay, so when I say witch trials, I know your brain immediately goes to Salem. Pilgrims, Pyrantons, the woods, the crows. The Crucible? Do you watch that with a Winona writer? In a bonnet? And we all think the Salem Witch trial started with some like Puritan girls freaking out in Massachusetts, right? But what if I told you?

The whole thing may have actually started with a woman from the Caribbean. This woman's name was Tichiba. Now, in a lot of these historical records, Tichiba is described as black, but her background was probably more complex, like a of African, indigenous, South American, and Caribbean. It's possible she was originally from South America, where she might have been kidnapped by Catholic missionaries, forced to be baptized, and then renamed. But it's hard to know for sure.

What we do know is that when Tichiba was really young, she wound up in Barbados. Now, Barbados is in the Caribbean, and, you know, it was not a vacation destination back then. In the 1600s, Barbados was the capital of the British slave trade. So most of the people living there were wealthy white men or enslaved people who were working on their sugar plantations. It was just a really brutal, violent place to be.

Tichiba is like a little toddler. She's in the Barbados, and I guess she ends up getting, like, snatched up to work on one of these sugar plantations. Now, at some point, she starts working for a businessman named San Francisco. Samuel, Paris. Samuel turned out to not be a great businessman, and he ended up leaving Barbados, totally broke, but not empty-handed, because he took Tichiba with him. And guess where he settled down? Salem, Massachusetts. Now, this is how Tichuba comes to be the only enslaved person of color working in this town, working for Samuel. Samuel ends up becoming the reverend in Salem, and he's like the most. moral hall monitor of the town. Now he was always preaching about purity, staying free from sin, and how everyone else needed to get their rack together. Cover your ankles, you slut. So he is like Mr. Moral police, right? Even though he himself had like no problem doing a little human trafficking,

but everyone else is a problem. Okay? And he was there to protect them and guide them. Now, Well, Reverend Paris was very obsessed with optics, you know, how he appeared to the town. He wanted his family to appear as this perfect model Puritan family that the whole church could look up to. So everything's great, right? No, it's not really, which is why it was incredibly embarrassing when his very own daughter and his niece claimed to be possessed. So fast forward, like a couple of years. We're there. Tichiba is living in Salem.

She's working in the home of Reverend Samuel Paris. And by this point, you know, Samuel has a wife. And he also has a young daughter named Betty. Also living with him is his niece Abigail. So Tichiba, she was like the one raising the girls, you know? So it's 1692 and it's wintertime. And people really aren't, they're not living comfortable lives in America, okay? There's barely any food.

No one is great at farming this new land. So people are hungry, and when you're hungry, they're getting angry. On top of all this, you know, the people are Puritans. And when you're a Puritan, you're very religious, like to the extreme. I mean, they literally left England because their religious views were to, extreme for mainstream society. So they were paranoid, extremely religious, hungry, cold, bored, desperate, right?

So at this point, this is when like Samuel Paris's daughter, Betty, and his niece Abigail, they suddenly start behaving oddly, like they were possessed. They were screaming, convulsing, claiming that there were things no one can see hurting them. Oh god. They probably just had like a migraine. You ever get really hungry and like thirsty and you get a bad migraine and you're just like kind of screaming and like something's hurting you and you don't know what it is because it's a migraine? I wonder if they thought about that. And that's not the point though. So this is happening. Migraines, huh? They'll get you. So when Daddy Samuel asked the children, like, who is behind all of this? Who's doing this to you? Where is this coming from?

They point to Tichuba. It's like, oh, no, no. So this is where you would like expect, you know, something terrible to happen, right? Like, Tichiba get dragged into court and for a man in one of those, like, curly white wigs to sentence her to be, like, burned alive. But Tiduba, she wasn't going down without a fight. People of Salem are accusing Tichiba of witchcraft, which was essentially like a one-way ticket. to the noose. But Tichiba knew what was up, okay?

And she wasn't just gonna stand there and let these people tell her what she did. So she's thinking, and she's thinking fast. Now instead of denying it, like most of us would do, I'm not a witch, no, I just, I like to go outside sometimes, I don't know. She was like, no, no, no, I'm not doing that. And she gives them everything.

She goes all in. She does exactly what she knows they want her to do. So they're making these accusations, you're a witch, you're a witch. And she's like, yes. And she starts talking about how she saw strange animals like wolves, birds, and even a hairy creature that walked like a man. She's like, are they believing me? Yeah? Okay.

It was crazy. You should have been there. She tells them, the devil came to me and he had a book with names in it. She then tells them that she saw other women in the village sign their names in the book in blood. Oh, yes. And she was like, but I didn't sign it. I saw them do it, but I said, no, I'm not signing that. That's crazy.

No, but I saw them do it. Then she tells them, because she's like, oh, plus I saw a lot more, you guys. Just wait. You know what else I saw? I saw these women flying in the air. Yeah, you guys were all asleep. The women are out there flying in the air. And then to top it off, guess what?

These women, they bewitched the children. That's right. It was me. I saw all this. So everyone's losing their minds. They're like, oh my God, what? What is happening? Flying in the air?

Signing a book in blood? What is happening in this town? And like, low-key, and this is why I love Tichibah. She's like, look, if I'm going down, you bitches are going down with me, okay? Yeah, I saw these. flying in the air and I saw demons and I saw blood and stuff. Yep, you're not going to blame me. I'm not going down for you dumbasses. I churn your butter. Okay, you need me. And that's, I love her for it because she's, she's like, you're all coming down with me. This whole situation was,

you know, it was pretty cinematic. It was very theatrical. And the Puritan authorities were eating it up. You know, they were sitting there like, what? You know, I knew it. There's proof now that Satan is here. And to them, Tichiba was like backing them up and proving that, you know, they were right to be paranoid. And maybe you haven't caught on by now, but Tidjuba, she wasn't possessed and she wasn't confessing to anything. She was playing the game, okay, and she was performing.

She was storytelling, and she was giving them what they want, okay? She knew what these people wanted from her, and she knew. how they viewed her, so she was like, you know what, you want to show? Fine, buckle up. Bitches be flying. But maybe you're thinking, Bailey, Bailey, Bailey, how was she so good at thinking up of like all these strange stories on the fly? Well, our expert for this episode, Marianne Gibson, points out that a lot of these images of the animals and the devil probably came from stories that Tichibu was told when she was young growing up. And she knew all about the devil. And she knew all about the because she was raised with religion.

Once Tichiba dropped the fact that she had seen other women in the village signing the devil's book, she had them eating out of the palm of her hand. They were like, Tichita, who, who was it? Tell us, who signed the devil's book? Now, one thing about, you know, working for everyone in this town was that Tichiba overheard a lot of gossip. So she had some things, you know, she knew some shit.

So Tichibah, she already knew who Reverend Paris didn't like, and she just, like, leaned into that. So she started naming those people. She's like, yeah, you know your neighbor, Sarah Smith, her, I saw her do it. Yeah. Remember that guy who did bad tiling in your bathroom? That guy saw him. Remember that woman who just, like, spoke?

she she did it so tichiba is just naming all these people and after this witch accusations started to like spread like wildfire people used any grudge they'd been holding on to as an excuse to like you know claim which and everyone just turned on each other like yeah remember when sarah borrowed your stockings and didn't give them back which remember when abigail like bit into an apple funny and And we were like, ew, which? Remember that one time when Susie, like, overslept? Witch? Or if like someone coughed funny? Which? It was crazy. They were bored.

They needed a hobby. I don't think coloring was invented yet. So, I mean, technically, Tichiba had confessed. You know, she handed the court this incredible demonic fever dream story of bloodos. a man in black, the devil, flying people, you know, she was technically guilty. But she doesn't get executed. Instead, the court keeps her around because her confession was useful and she was full of valuable information.

You know, she was given names. She was talking. So Tidjuba is put in jail. Now, jail sucks. you know, awful place to be. You're chained up. It's cold. It's awful, whatever. But at this point, it was better to be in jail than outside because at this point, the witch trials, it was out of control. It was spiraling. Dozens of people were getting accused. Neighbors were turning on each other. Children were testifying against their parents. Yeah. It was insane. And then the executions

begin. So people, you know, were being put to death for witchcraft. And Tidjuba? She's over there, like, just flying under the freaking radar. Now, I thought, like, maybe her boss slash trafficker Reverend Paris would bail her out. But no, he was too busy defending his own role in this disaster. He was trying to keep his job, his reputation, and his neck. So he doesn't visit. He's doesn't pay to get her out, he does not care. Now, the weird thing is we don't know exactly what happened to Tichuba next. Because eventually, someone, an unnamed person, pays her jail fees. Someone pays to get her out and she gets out and then she just disappears from the record. Boof, gone. Good for her. I mean, no one writes about what happened to her after.

There's no trial transcript, there's no execution notice, no burial even. It's very interesting. Some scholars believe that she was sold again. Others think that she may have died shortly after the release. I like to think she made it out of there and she just like laid low and went off and started somewhere else. Some people say Tichiba was just like, you know, the servant girl who told the girl,

told the girls scary stories. But the truth is, Tishabal was scapegoated simply because she was different and she was smart enough to dodge a crazy bullet. And that's where it's, you get a little torn because I respect what she did, you know? Like she was looking out for herself and she was like, I'm not going down,

you're all going down with me, like F you guys. But at the same time, she did unleash like this monsoon of hate that had just been like building up Salem for years. I think it would have happened regardless, you know? Because like at the end of the day in Salem, a total of 25 people died as a result of the witchcraft hysteria that started in Reverend Paris's house. 20 were executed, 19 of those were hanged, and one person was pressed to death with stones. And then there were five people who died in prison while awaiting trial. The last thing I'll say about Tichibah that makes me feel like she was special is her name.

Historians have apparently searched high and low, digging through dusty records, and guess what? Nothing. No other Tichibas exist, which made her records really stand out and really obvious when she vanished from them completely. You know that game, like, where in the world is Carmen San Diego? It's like, where in the world is Tichiba? I would love to know, like, what happened to her? What happened to her? I would love, yeah, we don't know, we don't know, the end.

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Zocdoc.com slash dark history. Let's jump ahead a couple hundred years to 1897. On November 25th in Calendar Scotland, a girl named Helen Duncan was born. Now, right from the beginning, you know, Helen, she was not like other kids. She was like a Scottish Wednesday Adams. Pugsley, what you're doing today? How was that? Anyway, Helen's different, okay?

Like, she's really into spooky stuff. And from a young age, she starts telling people that she can see things that no one else can. Like ghosts, shadows, you know, stuff like that. You know, classic horror movie stuff. And, you know, Helen is, like, really passionate about this. So she's seen shit. And once she's grown up and she gets married, she gets married to, like, this very sweet, supportive war vet named Henry, she decides to become a stay-at-home medium. So it's the 1920s.

Now, at this point, World War I had just ended, and it really hit the country hard. But for Helen, it was kind of perfect for her business. So Helen, she starts offering seances and fortune-telling out of her home. So people, you know, who they're grieving and they're desperate, for answers and closure, you know, they had lost their sons, their husbands, their brothers. They're all coming because they want answers, closure. And spiritualism was booming because people were desperate for just that, connection and closure. So Helen would be like, oh, I actually spoke to your husband, John, yesterday. He says to stop crying, and also he misses that soup you made.

You should keep making that soup. Maybe sell it. I don't know. He also said he need to clean up a little bit. The house is looking like a mess. Thanks, babe. So she's doing these seances. She's claiming to bring back voices from the trenches.

And people were, you know, they were eating it up. And I don't blame them when he lose someone. You just want that closure. So Ellen, she was famous for having these spirit guys spirit guides who would lead her to her client's loved ones and I guess one of them was this sassy dead nurse who spoke through Helen you know like a like a puppet they're in there you get it okay now here's a thing Helen wasn't just saying like super vague stuff like your husband loves you you know she would

actually like name names she would give dates she would mention nicknames things that were not public knowledge. And the people were very impressed. So of course, you know, people are talking and her side hustle is taken off. She wasn't just some, you know, weirdo telling fortunes out of her kitchen. She was the go-to woman you went to

when you needed to hear from the other side. So she's got like loyal clients and business is booming because grief, sadly, is everywhere. Now Scotland isn't that big And eventually Helen, you know, she starts to outgrow it. So she packs up, she grabs her supportive husband, and they move to England. So when she's there, Helen immediately starts performing seances for dozens of people at a time. But she starts to realize that she can't just rely on like her voice and, you know, a couple flickering candles anymore.

In these bigger cities, people wanted a show. and a little bit more proof. Like they wanted a ghost to like high-five them or something, you know? So Helen probably thinks to herself, you know, how do I give them something that they will never forget? Ectoplasm. Yeah. I know.

I was like, what's that? To me, I was thinking ectoplasma was something that comes out when you give birth. It's not that, Bailey. ectoplasm was really hot in the world of spiritualism at the time and listen it's weird it was basically believed to be like ghost gunk it was like a supernatural substance that would quote unquote ooze from the medium's body like it would come out from the nose the mouth any available hole at the time and this would happen during a seance so this ooze would come out allegedly float around the room and sometimes like morph into something like a face

or a hand before going back into the medium's body when the seance ended yeah it's giving flubber now we don't know exactly when or how helen made the leap to ectoplasm so we can only guess most likely helen saw like another medium use it and she was like oh i got to do that shit too like that's pretty sick. So she was like inspired, but it was like a thing at the time. So now she was like, it was part of her show. She claimed it was the literal fabric of the spirit world. So she would do this whole thing, the whatever. The crowds were very impressed. I mean, it flowed out of her mouth into the dark rooms. It became faces. People lost their their freaking minds.

The ectoplasm became Helen's trademark, and it really made her a star. And of course, it's also the thing that will lead to her downfall. So now, it's 1941. There's another World War happening, which is everyone's nightmare. I mean, they had just gotten through World War I, you know?

Damn, another? Yeah. But then, on November 25th, 1941, One, the Germans torpedoed a huge British battleship called the HMS Barham. On this battleship, they were over 800 sailors on board and the whole ship goes up in flames and sinks within minutes. Everyone was killed. It was tragic.

It was a huge tragedy. But at the time, the British government, they decide to cover it up. The news was like extremely censored, especially when it came to any type of military stuff. So they don't announce it to the public. Not at all. It's a total secret. So no one really knows. Okay. Now cut to a few weeks later. It's early December. And our girl Helen is doing a seance in a town called Portsmouth, which is like right near a major naval base. So the seance is going, you know, normal seance, when all of a sudden, Helen stops. And she says, a sailor is trying to come through. She's like, I'm getting something.

A spirit sailor. So Helen starts channeling the spirit of a man in uniform who said he had just died on the HMS bar him. What? What? Now listen, the people in the room, including mothers and wives of naval officers, are like, wait, wait, wait, wait, what? People are freaking out. Because the sailor tells Helen, and then Helen tells everyone in the room that the HMS Barham sank. Remember, people didn't even know about this yet. This wasn't public information. So this is like, what? What? So somehow. The British government got wind of this and basically went, okay, how does a middle-aged Scottish woman know our secrets? How does she know about this? So British intelligence, they start freaking out.

Okay, no one was supposed to know. So they're thinking, like, is she a fraud who has access to someone in the military who's, like, giving her information? Did she overhear it somewhere? Is she a spy? You know? Or, worst-case scenario, is she, like, Is she like a national security risk dressed like a medium?

So the British police, they decide to go undercover and they buy tickets to Helen's seances. Yeah, it sounds like part of a sitcom someone needs to write. Does it? Yeah, it's kind of funny. Not really. Is it? Kind of. I don't know.

Let me know. Yeah, so the British police, you know, they're going undercover to watch Helen's seances. Okay? They're like, we need you know what the hell is going on with this woman. And then instead of like investigating where she's like getting her information from, or I don't know, just like knocking on her door and asking her questions, instead they conduct a full-blown raid. Yeah, at one of her shows. So the police, they get in there, they pull back all the curtains. Oh, get on the ground.

Drop the crystal ball now. Slap that etoblasm back in your mouth. wench or search in the place but they don't find anything suspicious plus it's like what are you guys looking for exactly except what they do find is Helen covered in her signature ectoplasm

I don't know I think they just needed something because they see her like the ectoplasm or whatever and they're like that's enough and they decide to arrest her that very same night they're like that shit's weird you're arrested and guess what they charge her with I know I was thinking

fraud, espionage, um, I don't know, anything related to like government secret she was leaking. No. They go full-blown Salem 2.0 and prosecute Helen under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. Yeah, in the middle of World's War II. While Hitler is literally like blitz in London, British officials are leading a witch hunt. It's kind of weird. I was like, aren't there other things to worry about here, you guys? No?

Okay. The trial kicked off in 1944, and it was weird. Helen was accused of pretending to summon the dead to deceive his majesty's subjects. Now, the courtroom became like a total media circus. People were obsessed with this case. Helen, she had a super loyal fan base, and they were livid that this was, this was how. happening to her. Meanwhile, I guess military officials were just like freaked out by her. And in the government, they're trying really hard to not look like they're prosecuting a woman for being

like psychic during a war. Now, some reporters were calling her a fraud. Others said it was like a classic case of female hysteria. And others were just there for the show, I guess. Helen's defense team was led by a guy named Charles Lusby. Now, he was a former member of parliament, and And his stance was basically, are you guys like seriously doing this right now? Are we, are we doing this right now? Like this is a serious waste of resources. Now Charles claimed Helen never intended to deceive because she 100% believed in her powers. And under the law, intention is what matters.

He also told the court there really was a spirit world, so she was right to believe in her skills. But the prosecution was like not having it. They brought in doctors to testify about the ectoplasm, which, spoiler alert, turned out to be not what you think it is. Okay, I was imagining, again, flubber, goo, remember slime, Plato, I don't know, turned out to be a nasty combination of cheesecloth or tissues soaked in eggs or egg white. I was very confused by this because, look, if you're an audience member and you see this, it doesn't even look like goo. It looks like a tablecloth, okay? So I was like, people thought this was like real goo? Whatever, but it was revealed that, you know, it was cheese cloth.

Whatever that is. Anyways, I guess Helen, she would, um, she would like put it in her mouth and like barf it up on command during the. seances and then slurped it back into her mouth before the lights came up. She's kind of doing the most. And because of this whole reveal, it poked like a big fat hole in the defense. Because if Helen was like DIYing her ectoplasm, then to them, everything else must have been a lie too. The prosecution said Helen was manipulating vulnerable people taking their grief and turning it into a ticketed ghost show. Helen's team argued this was less about fraud and more about the British government trying to shut her up because she was,

you know, too accurate with her wartime revelations. I mean, the government didn't publicly announce the HMS Barham sinking for months after it happened. So to most people, it really did look like the government was just but her that someone was keeping the public informed. At the end of the day, the jury didn't convict her of all the charges. They let the state secret stuff slide, but they still found her guilty of pretending to conjure spirits under the Witchcraft Act. And Helen Duncan was sentenced to nine months in Holloway Prison. The conviction sparked even more outrage.

people were like, hey, aren't we in the middle of a war with like Nazis, you know, don't we have bigger fish to fry? You know? Your big national security risk is a psychic war widow whisperer. And honestly, like, if she is a psychic, why don't you use her to, like, win the war? I don't know. Maybe she could help.

Just thought. You know, when she was sentenced, though, Helen broke down in court and she begged them not to send her to, to prison because she said the spirits warned her that she would die behind bars. And sure enough, when she was in prison, her health collapsed. She didn't die, though. So she was wrong there.

Doesn't really help her story, but whatever. She didn't die. Okay, that's great. But her health did, like, go down hell. Thankfully, she got out early in 1945, and rumor has it. She believed in her powers until the very end. and continued contacting spirits. Quietly, of course, until she died 11 years later in 1956.

Her family and her fans always believe that the government killed her, not directly, but by publicly humiliating her, locking her up, and just breaking her spirit. Now, Helen's trial was the last of its kind, because in 1951, that crusty-dusty witchcraft act that took her down was finally repealed. In hindsight, Helen's trial became this weird, embarrassing moment for the British justice system that everyone could pretty much admit was insane. Even Winston Churchill allegedly called the whole thing tomfoolery.

To this day, spiritualist groups still fight to clear Helen Duncan's name. They say she was the last victim of the centuries-old fear of women who were different. someone who had power that couldn't be measured in a lab. I mean, besides the whole, like, ectoplasm thing, she was, I think she could see some shit. How'd she know about the ship? I believe it. I believe her.

Stories about people like Joan, Helen, and Tichiba, they make you realize that women are always taking the hit for a problem that is so much bigger than them. People are always looking for someone to blame, and unfortunately, it's always a fucking woman, huh? We're just out here minding our business, churning butter. Next thing you know, you're a witch. You're like, what the fun?

Get damn it. You know, at the end of the day, I feel like instead of people just looking internally at themselves, that maybe you're the problem. Instead, people like to point the finger at someone else and call them a witch because then they don't have to face the real issue. It's a lot easier. I mean, when things go wrong, someone's got to take the body. blame? Not I, of course. And it's way easier to call, you know, your neighbor a witch than fix your own mess. What a journey that was, huh? Witches. I mean, we can talk on and on and on about the witch trials because there were so many people involved. And we did do another dark history

episode about witches. I would check that one out too. But what a wild time, huh? Geez, mind in your business next thing you know you're a witch and you're being burned at the stake. Lame. I'd be so pissed. Couldn't do anything then. Jeez. Yeah. Anyways, next week, our next episode, yeah, we're going on another journey. And it's going to be cold. So pack your mittens. We're going to a place where planes vanish without a trace. Entire groups of people walk into the wilderness and are never seen again. This area is crawling with strange energy, magnetic anomalies, and more missing people cases than anywhere else. Locals say don't go in. The government says nothing at all. Next time on Dark History, we're diving into the eerie, the unexplained, the weird world of the Alaska

Triangle. Bum-pom-pom! Ding! Now I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story. So make sure to leave a comment below so I can see what you guys are saying and your comment might even be featured in a future episode. Now let's read a couple of comments that you guys have left me. Hot Redhead Wife, ooh, left us a comment saying, quote, your videos give my bed rot days a sense of productivity, end quote. Hot Redhead Wife, love your username. And listen, we all love a good bedrock day, but don't do it much, okay? Don't bed rot all the time. That's not good for you. Make sure to go outside sometimes too, okay? But I'm glad like you can learn something, maybe a little weird, a little

twisted, something unusual. I love that you can kind of learn while you're bed rotting, but don't get sucked into the bed rot era and just never leave your bed, okay? Okay? Make sure to go outside. Get some fresh air. Okay. But I appreciate you for watching. And learning. It's fun. Fun. Bed rot? Fun? Kind of. Okay. Alicia Taylor 973 commented on our bodybuilding episode, saying, quote, My great-great-grandfather was a strongman and acrobat for a circus here in Australia. I can't remember the name of this circus. I think he performed until he went to World War I and performed on and off over the years. My mom said even when he was elderly, he could do the whole ladder balancing act and would do it for the great grandkids just for fun. Wow. Alicia, that is so cool.

I love that. Because you just don't meet people like that these days who, like, performed in the circus or acrobatts or strong men, you know? I mean, personally, there are some days where I can barely touch my toes. You know, we did an episode on circus. back in season one. Damn, which is like crazy. I think that was a long time ago. But we did one in season one.

You should go back and watch that if you haven't because P.T. Barnum and Bailey was wild. But I love that story. That's cool. Because you just don't hear that that often, you know? Do you have any pictures to share? We'd love to see some pictures. Thank you for watching. I appreciate you.

Tell the family hi. And, um, hi Australia. Thanks for watching. Catherine Amdisson, 2973, gave us an episode suggestion. Bailey! You should do an episode on the dark history of the Appalachian Mountains. That place seems hella spooky and so many weird things seem to be happening, end quote. You know, I've thought about this.

But I have a hard time saying Appalachian Appalachian Mountains. So I was like, damn, it'd be a struggle episode. But I was on TikTok the other day and I can't. I kept seeing like all these spooky, scary stories about the Appalachian Mountains. And it did get me wondering, like, what's going on over there? Also, I watched this devastating documentary about how a lot of the people who live there have, here's like a big opioid problem. I know that's kind of taking like a left turn here.

But, and how, like, there's just a lot of people out there struggling. and it was sad, it was sad, it's sad. But also, I guess, spooky too. Oh, God, yeah, I think it's a good idea. Like, there's definitely something there, and honestly, we've never talked about it. And, yeah, I think it's a good idea. Thank you for the suggestion.

I'll look into it. Maybe I'll try and look at the spooky stuff. And not the sad, like, everyone's on opioids and dying side. Well, you can look into that, too. Anyways, you got me going, so let me marinate on it and see what I can put together, okay? Thank you for the suggestion, and I appreciate you for watching. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

We did it. We did it. Thank you for watching. I appreciate you. Keep on commenting because maybe your comment will be featured. Also, did you know you can join me over on my YouTube where you can actually watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs? Plus, you can come see how cute we all look. Come on, we look so cute.

And while you're there, you can also catch my murder, mystery, and makeup. So don't forget to subscribe. And hey, if you don't know, Dark History is an audio boom original. I want to give a special thank you to our expert, Professor Marion Gibson, author of Witchcraft, A History in 13 Trials. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I hope you have a good day today. You make good choices, and I'll be talking to you guys later. Goodbye.