Infamous America - SALEM Ep. 3 | "Wildfire"

Episode Date: October 16, 2018

Witchcraft spreads rapidly through Salem Village and the surrounding towns. The number of afflicted rises, and so does the number of accused. Fear races through the community as it becomes clear that anyone could be a witch. No one is safe as the afflicted girls are now haunted by ghosts of the dead. And the crisis claims its first life. For more details, visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quote, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1-7. If the villagers of Salem felt they were descending into a deep, dark well as the plague of witchcraft that gripped their community worsened, that may have thought they had reached the bottom. They might have thought there were no more horrors to experience.

If they had these thoughts, they were wrong. By the beginning of May 1692, the well must have seemed bottomless. Witches now lived in every corner of the village. The outbreak had spread like a violent infection to every town in the area. The afflictions suffered by the girls, the seizures, the convulsions, the non-stop attacks, intensified by the day. As winter gave way to spring, there were new terrors in store for the women and girls of Salem.

Assults by the spectres of the living were bad enough. But then the girls began to commune with the same. spirits of the dead. As Anne Putnam Jr. would learn in early May, not only were witches loose everywhere, murderers were as well. Welcome to infamous America, a show that explores some of the darkest and most controversial people in events in American history. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and in season one, we're telling the story of the Salem Witch Trials. Previously, magistrates from Salem Town conducted public examinations of the first three women accused of which Afterward, the crisis escalated as more people saw spirits and were attacked by specters.

In Chapter 3, accusations of Witchcraft infect all of Salem Village, and then they reach beyond the borders of the small farming community to the towns and cities nearby. The next two months will be devastating. This is Salem, Chapter 3, Wildfire. In mid-March, 1692, while the troubles in Salem Village worsened, witchcraft spread to the town of Ipswich. Ipswich was 10 miles north, and Sarah Good had spent three nights in jail there before being moved to Salem town. Soon after her move, a young man rushed up to his uncle crying that his sister was dead.

The man ran to the girl's side and found that she had just fainted, but she appeared dead. It took her three or four hours to wake up, and when she did, she said she'd seen something in the corner that was so terrifying she tried to run away. It had chased her and knocked her down. And now, witchcraft was often running in Ipswich. In Salem Village, the number of afflicted rose again. Tichiba's husband John began to suffer fits, and Mary Warren, the maid for John and Elizabeth Proctor, worsened. Her case would be unique in the history of the Salem Witch Trials, as you'll see in a little

while, but for now, she was still pestered by a shape she believed to be Martha Corey. But John Proctor was highly skeptical of all the witchcraft business, and he was not shy about voicing his opinion, or taking action as he saw fit. In this case, he decided to work the witchcraft out of Mary. He kept her working hard at the spinning wheel and threatened to beat her if she had any more fits. Miraculously, she was fine, until he left for a day. Without him in the house, her afflictions came back. The specters of Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse continued to harass the four original girls and Ann Putnam Sr.

In addition to Bethshua Pope, who had been struck blind during Sabbath lecture, there were now two more women showing signs of witchcraft. The afflicted now numbered six girls, four women, and one man, not including the people who had seen various strange things all over the village. With that, a member of the Putnam clan rode to Salem Town to file compliance, with the magistrates. Two days later, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin were back in Salem Village to convene the examination of Martha Corey. The setting was identical to the first hearing. The Salem Village meeting house was packed with spectators. The magistrates sat under the pulpit

with the afflicted in front of them. Reverend Paris was appointed to take notes. John Hathorne called Martha Corey forward, and it was clear from the beginning that this hearing would be more exciting than the first. Martha denied all allegations of witchcraft, but as Hathorn questioned her relentlessly, her answers became confused. She still denied being a witch, but she contradicted herself on specific points. She became exasperated. In her frustration, she bit her lip. When she did, the girls cried out in pain as if they had been bitten. When Martha slumped forward in her seat, she hurt the girls. When she clenched her fists, they screamed and showed bruises to the court. If she just simply shifted her feet, the girls stamped their feet on the floor in a thunderous chorus. To the audience,

the afflicted girls were now puppets in the hands of a witch. The magistrates ordered Martha's hands to be tied, and the girls finally calmed down. This was another benchmark in the Salem witch trials. From that point forward, the reactions of the girls in court would now grow more fantastic and damning. To no one's surprise, the magistrates sent Martha Corey to jail in Salem Town. But the astonishing day was not over. By nightfall, another girl had fallen ill. This time it was Mary Walcott, the 18-year-old niece of Anne Putnam Sr. and the cousin of Anne Putnam Jr. Mary said Sarah Good's five-year-old daughter Dorcas attacked her. This was another benchmark. as the youngest witch in the Salem witch trials had just been named.

Three days after the examination of Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse took the stand to defend herself against accusations of witchcraft. She was in her 70s and her health was failing. She was hard of hearing and she hadn't been out of bed in eight or nine days. But she had been accused by the Putnam mother and daughter and Abigail Williams and others. So she sat before the congregation and proclaimed her innocence. After denying any part in witchcraft several times, Hathorne actually asked her if she was innocent. But before she could answer, Anne Putnam Sr. shouted from the crowd and accused her of helping the devil.

Rebecca was taken back. She spread her hands as she spoke. In response, the girls mimicked her motions and cried out in pain. Then Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard, two of the older girls, were suddenly stricken by Rebecca Nurse. They had never seen her spirit before, but now they were hurt like everyone else. The girls convulsed and shrieked at Rebecca's every move. They said they saw the devil whispering in her ear. Their screams and tortures became such a riot that Reverend Paris could no longer hear the questions that the magistrates continued to throw at Rebecca. Rebecca, who had trouble hearing anyway, struggled to understand the questions. Anne Putnam, Senior suddenly became paralyzed. She couldn't move her hands or feet. In the chaos,

her husband Thomas rushed her outside. As soon as she was away from Rebecca's presence, the spell was broken and she could move again. Hathorn and Corwin had seen enough. Despite Rebecca's repeated claims of innocence, the magistrates believed the afflicted girls. They ordered Rebecca to jail to await trial. And then they called five-year-old Dorkas-good to the stand. When Sarah Good's young daughter took the stand to answer for the charge of witchcraft, the afflicted girls could now be injured by a mere look from the accused. They reacted to every motion and gesture from Dorcas,

and when she looked in their direction, they experienced crippling torments. An officer of the court had to hold little Dorcas's head still so that her roaming gaze wouldn't sweep the girls and cause them agonies. But that didn't help the girls who were stuck in her line of sight. they still suffered, and the magistrates sent the five-year-old to jail with her mother. In the aftermath of the hearing, a shudder ran through Salem Village. If two elderly women, who were full members of the church, and a child who couldn't possibly understand the gravity of the situation,

could be accused of witchcraft, who would be next? John Proctor, who didn't know he was about to be accused himself, fateful and ironically, answered that question. We should all be devils and witches quickly, he said. He was nearly right. At the next Sabbath lecture, the villagers of Salem returned to the meeting house to hear Reverend Paris's sermon. They were treated to yet another amazing sight when a woman named Sarah Cloice took offense to the sermon and stormed out of the building. Sarah was Rebecca Nurse's sister, and she thought the sermon was an indictment of her family.

Sarah's reaction was noted by the afflicted girls who were present. In the meantime, Betty Paris suffered terrible seizures in the home of her relative in Salem town. The specter of Elizabeth Proctor continued to haunttum's maid, Mercy Lewis, but for the first time, someone really challenged the afflicted. One of Rebecca Nurse's sons-in-law showed up at the Putnam House. He demanded to know who accused Rebecca of Witchcraft. Despite the fact that Anne Putnam Jr., Ann Putnam Sr., and Mercy Lewis were all on record as being afflicted, Anne Jr. said she was the only one in the house who was being tormented.

Anne told the man about the apparition she had seen sitting in her grandmother's chair. She couldn't identify it. The man demanded to know how, then, she accused Rebecca. At that point, Anne Sr. and Mercy Lewis started pointing fingers at each other. She said it was Rebecca. No, she said it was Rebecca. And back and forth they went. This encounter didn't amount to anything at the time, but it was an early crack in the armor of the afflicted girls. Then, on the final day of March, Abigail Williams described a horrible scene she had witnessed, one that would become a running theme of the examinations. She had seen upwards of 40 witches congregating for a meeting in a field behind Reverend Paris's home. They drank blood and ate

bread that was stained red, and Sarah Cloice, the woman who had stormed out of church, was a deacon at the devil's meeting. By the close of March, five new people had been accused of witchcraft. In April, that number would jump to 25, and it began with Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor. The second week of April 1692, Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin issued arrest warrants for Cloice and Proctor, and this time the examinations would take place in Salem Town instead of Salem Village. of witchcraft infiltrated every corner of Massachusetts colony, and now the Governor's

Council in Boston needed to get involved. Acting Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth and four assistants rode up to Salem Town to closely observe the examinations. Hathorne and Corwin would still conduct the questioning, but the big dogs were watching over their shoulders. The meeting house in Salem Town was twice the size of the one in Salem Village, and it was was still crowded to the rafters for the examinations of Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce. Thomas Danforth was a grave man, a no-nonsense man of impressive stature. He was 69 years old, the treasurer of Harvard College and a legislator as well. He chose Reverend Paris as clerk of the court, and this was a Herculian task. The men who took notes during the hearings and trials

found it impossible to record everything that was said and done in the proceedings. They used quills and ink pots to scribbled notes, and with the frenzied and frantic testimony, they couldn't write fast enough to record every word or action. Sometimes they explained the events in detail, but most times they were forced to summarize. When the girls suffered afflictions, Paris would call them horrible or dreadful or grievous. What exactly did those descriptions mean? Unfortunately, we'll never know. But on Monday morning, April 11, 1692,

Paris settled into his chair to document the examination of Sarah Cloyce. Tichiba's husband, John, was called to the stand to testify against Sarah Cloice. The girls had been agitated since they entered the building, all except Elizabeth Hubbard. She sat motionless and stared at nothing, as if in a trance. John described attacks by Cloice and Proctor, and then Mary Walcott began to convulse. She stated Sarah Cloyce tortured her at that very moment.

Abigail Williams told her story about having seen the meeting of witches behind Paris's home. Mary Walcott chimed in and said she'd seen it also. And worse than the group of witches, there had been a frightening man there as well. His presence was so ominous, he made the witches tremble. The girls said Cloice and Proctor were deacons at this witch's Sabbath. And at that point, Sarah Cloice became overwhelmed. She asked for water and then fainted. As she slumped in her chair, the girls winced in pain and exclaimed that her spirit had flown away to be with her sister Rebecca in jail.

And that was the end of Sarah Cloice's examination. Next came Elizabeth Proctor. The hearing of Elizabeth Proctor presented yet another turning point in the Salem Witch Trials, and it was an absolute circus. The magistrates fired questions and... every direction. They asked the girls if Elizabeth had hurt them. The girl said yes. Elizabeth said no. The girls suffered fits and seizures. The men asked who was attacking them. The girl said Elizabeth. Elizabeth said she wasn't. Around and around it went. Then Anne and Abigail shrieked

and pointed at the ceiling. They saw Elizabeth's spirit up there on a beam. They blamed John Proctor, calling him a wizard. The girls saw the spirits of the Proctor, all over the meeting house. Elizabeth Hubbard didn't see anything, though. She was still stuck in a trance. The officers of the court grabbed John Proctor, and now came the turning point. One of the girls cried, there is Proctor going to take up Mrs. Pope's feet, and immediately Beshuah Pope's feet rose into the air. The girls had discovered the ability to predict their afflictions. The magistrates commanded John Proctor to answer for his actions. He said he was innocent, but then Abigail shouted that he was going to attack a woman named Sarah Bibber, and Sarah instantly suffered convulsions.

John's spirit rampaged through the court, attacking various girls. It was chaos. The girls tried to fight off Elizabeth Proctor's spirit. Anne and Abigail threw punches at the woman, but their hands were stopped in mid-air by an invisible force. They howled in pain. The audience watched in amazement, they were seeing witches in action right in front of their eyes. There was no debate by the men who sat in judgment that Sarah Cloyce, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor should be taken to jail for witchcraft. By nightfall of April 11, 1692, all of the suspected witches who had tormented the men and women of Salem Village were in jail. But if anyone thought this would bring peace to the community, or at least provide a lull in the action,

They were sorely mistaken. The bodies of the witches might be in jail, but they could still send out their spirits to terrorize the afflicted. The specters of Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, and Elizabeth Proctor continued to attack Abigail Williams. Anne Putnam Jr. was now besieged by two new spirits, those of Giles Corey and Abigail Hobbs. Giles was the 80-year-old husband of Martha Corey,

and they were a bickering, combative couple. In simple terms, Giles was a mean old man. In his past was a list of serious allegations and crimes. Thief of dry goods, theft of apples, and John Proctor accused him of setting his house on fire. And he had been found guilty of murder 17 years earlier. He had beaten one of his farm workers to death, and to make the crime worse, the worker had been mentally handicapped to some degree. With his shady past and his marriage to a suspected witch, it wasn't difficult to imagine that he would send his spirit out to do evil deeds.

Abigail Hobbs was a wild young woman who lived straight north of Anne Putnam Jr. So her specter would not have had to travel far to attack Anne. Abigail was far more cavalier about the devil than anyone else in the area. The 14-year-old was publicly rebellious and had joked for more than a year that she had sold her to Satan. The two new specters had stepped up their attacks. The spirit of Abigail Hobbs attacked Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis, and Elizabeth Hubbard after it finished with Anne, and the spirit of Giles Corey nearly killed Mercy Lewis. According to Mercy's account, the specter of Giles Corey beat her until her back nearly broke. Two days later, the number of new spirits doubled, and now they

included someone from outside Salem Village. Another elderly woman, Bridget Bishop of Salem Town, was accused by the afflicted girls. And in a stunning twist, the girls now accused Mary Warren of being a witch. Mary, the maid of John Proctor, had suffered her own afflictions until John had threatened her and possibly beaten her. Now, with John and Elizabeth Proctor in jail, she was caring for their children and had stopped suffering fits. The Putnam clan filed official complaints against the four new witches, and Constable Joseph Herrick arrested all of them before the day was done. The next day, Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin convened court in the Salem Village Meeting House to examine Giles Corey, Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, and Mary Warren. Giles Corey took the stand first. Hathorne confronted

him with a list of accusations, and Giles denied them. but he grew frustrated with the continuous badgering and eventually waved his arms in anger. The afflicted girls immediately felt pinched, and the court ordered Corey's arms to be tied so he couldn't hurt them further. While answering another question, he cocked his head to the side. The girls tipped their head sideways to mimic his movement. He sucked in his cheeks, and they sucked in their cheeks. Giles continued to deny any wrongdoing, but he was remanded to jail to stand.

trial anyway. Abigail Hobbes took the stand next and her examination was entertaining in a much different way. She freely admitted that she had cavorted with the devil. She admitted to all kinds of wicked acts, but she did not admit to afflicting her stepmother recently. Deliverance Hobbs, Abigail's stepmother, had been afflicted right there in the meeting house two days earlier during Sabbath lecture. She had confided in her stepdaughter that she thought it was Sarah Wildes of Topsfield, who had whispered in her ear and shown her the spectre of birds, dogs, and cats that were running around the meeting house. The name of Sarah Wilde was added to the list that would be examined at a later date. For now, the magistrates kept questioning Abigail, but suddenly

she could no longer hear them. Five afflicted girls could see the spectres of Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne standing on either side of Abigail and jamming their fingers into her ears. Interestingly, the girls were never attacked by a specter during Abigail's testimony, and she was the only one who had freely admitted to witchcraft. Mary Warren was next, and her testimony was another unique and terrifying moment in the saga. She pleaded innocent to the charge of witchcraft, and all the girls collapsed into seizures, except Elizabeth Hubbard. Elizabeth testified for the group. John Hathorne questioned Mary about the obvious problem. She was one of the afflicted girls not long ago, and now she was not suffering fits and had also been accused of witchcraft herself.

How did she explain that? She said it was thanks to the mercy of God. Elizabeth Hubbard then quoted Mary as having said, The afflicted girls did but dissemble. Essentially, Mary called them liars and actors. As soon as Elizabeth said the words, the girls dropped into convulsions. Even Mrs. Pope and Tichibah's husband, who had never suffered fits before, began to convulse. The pandemonium was too much for Mary. She crumpled to the floor.

The girls shouted that Martha Corey and the Proctor's had attacked her. Mary convulsed violently and screamed to the Lord for help. She tried to speak, but could only manage a few words before the seizures took her again. Finally, the court officers took her away so she could recover. They moved on to Bridget Bishop. Bridget had been married three times and had been held on a charge of witchcraft 13 years earlier, but nothing had come of it. She denied the charge then, and she denied the charge now as well.

The afflicted girls were racked with their usual pains, and they were hurt by every movement of Bridget's head and eyes. John Hathorne pressed her with questions about the devil's book, and her previous accusation, and her current attacks on the girls. Bridget denied all of it, but the girls yelled accusations. The hearing became contentious as Hathorne fired questions and Bridget snapped answers in return. It ultimately ended in the same stalemate as so many others. Bridget said she was innocent and the magistrates sent her to jail.

After the hearing, the magistrates continued the procedure of questioning the accused in jail. Mary Warren's examination had been bizarre and now she changed her tune again. In the meeting house, she first said she was innocent of witchcraft and suggested the girls were lying. Then she had seizures as though she were afflicted again and had to be taken out of court. The magistrates brought her back later, but with the same result, the afflicted girls cried and wailed, and Mary collapsed into a heap. Hathorne and Corwin had then questioned her alone, and she appeared to be attacked by a specter. She held a strange one-sided conversation until they finally gave up and sent her to jail.

In prison, she officially accused John and Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail Hobbs also added to her confession. She said the devil wanted to recruit witches in Maine, where gruesome Indian attacks were still happening. And she had been at the meeting of witches in Reverend Paris's pasture. Not long after Abigail revealed that the devil wanted allies in Maine, Anne Putnam Jr. revealed a startling piece of information. Reverend George Burroughs, a former minister of Salem Village who now lived in Maine, had worked with the Indians by bewitching the British troops.

Burroughs had been Salem's second minister, but like all the others, he had departed abruptly under a cloud of turmoil. He had been in Falmouth, Maine before moving to Salem, and Mercy Lewis, the Putnam's maid, had actually lived with him there before her parents had been killed. He had been the minister in Salem for four years, during which time he battled the Putnam's over his salary until he finally just left. He moved back to Maine to preach to citizens on the frontier. But the most damning thing in his past was suspicion, and it would come back to haunt him

soon enough. He was on his third wife, and he was suspected of killing his two previous wives. This was just speculation, but it would be powerful speculation in the near future. Anne Putnam Jr. was too young to have known Burroughs personally, but that didn't stop his specter from assaulting her. She choked and gagged and shouted that she would not sign the devil's book, even if he tore her to pieces. She was shocked when she recognized the spirit was a minister. She asked his name, and he gave it freely, George Burroughs. And then there was more, much, much more. He bragged of having killed his wives, and he went on to say that he'd killed.

killed the poor wife and child of Salem's third minister, Deodot Lawson. He had bewitched the soldiers in Maine so they would fall victim to the Indians, and it was he who had recruited Abigail Hobbs to join the evil legions, not the devil. Four men, including two Putnam's, rode to Salem town and swore complaints against nine new suspects. Several lived north of Salem Village in the hometown of Abigail Hobbs, which had suddenly become a hotbed of witchcraft. But George Burroughs was not on the list. His accusation had to be handled carefully.

Anne's father wrote a letter to Hathorne and Corwin that hinted at other suspicious activity but stopped short of naming Burroughs as a witch. Before the next round of examinations began, the spirits that antagonized Salem Village took their attacks to new levels. Mary Walcott and Abigail Williams saw a swarm of specters at Ingersoll's Tavern.

They shouted and pointed at all directions. The men in the place swung their swords and stabbed the air where the girls directed them in attempts to destroy the witches. And the warriors won a small victory that day. Mary and Abigail declared that the men had killed a great black woman from Stonington and the Indian man who was with her. And the floor at their feet was covered in blood, even though the men couldn't see it. There were more specters from Connecticut that escaped the tavern, but Mary and Abigail saw them die on a nearby hill. The girls still saw a great company of witches on the hill, but at least they had dispatched a few of them when they had the chance. The following day, residents of Salem Village began to gather at the meeting house for the next round of examinations.

They were greeted with an alarming scene that developed just up the road at the parsonage. The afflicted girls were there to witness a huge meeting of witches in the pasture behind Reverend Paris's home. A crowd began to form around the girls. The girls yelled that the witches were trying to drag up. them into the meeting, and the men struck the air to fight off the specters. Abigail Williams ran out of the parsonage to speak to the crowd. It was a wild spectacle that could only be understood in the aftermath when everyone was able to confer and put the pieces together.

There was a mass migration of witches from all over the region. Whole families flew in on poles from Andover, northwest of Salem. They were led by a woman named Martha Carrier, who flew on a pole with Anne Foster and Mary Lacey. The witches kept assembling and their numbers grew to astounding proportions. Witches who had been arrested were there. Witches who still roamed freely were there. Then three ministers arrived, led by George Burroughs. As more people than ever crowded into the meeting house,

outside, in the pasture, George Burroughs called the meeting of witches to order with a trumpet blast. Burroughs preached a sermon to the witches that reminded them of the work ahead. they were to tear down God's church and replace it with the devils, and they were to start right here in Salem where the people were already divided. Burroughs had four female deacons for this ceremony, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Sarah Wilds. Also present was a man in a white-crowned hat who might have been the devil himself. Satan announced that he had a list of 72 recruits from Andover alone, and the total membership was now over 300.

Satan ended with a flourish. George Burroughs and Martha Carrier would be crowned king and queen of hell. To our modern years, this story probably sounds so insane that it can't possibly be believed. But it's the story that has been assembled from the documents written by people who were actually there. They genuinely believed it happened.

And there was still a full day of examinations yet to come. As a massive body of witches congregated outside, the villagers of Salem crammed into the beating house for another round of examinations. By this point, the examinations were mostly predictable. Eight of the nine accused were sent to jail to await trial for witchcraft. The lone exception was a man named Nehemiah Abbott. For the first time, the girls were not coordinated in their accusations. Some named him as an attacker. Others admitted to seeing a shape, but they couldn't be certain it was him.

Still others denied he was an attacker altogether. Nehemiah Abbott was allowed to go free. Of the eight taken to jail, there were a couple notable highlights. William and Deliverance Hobbs, the father and stepmother of Abigail Hobbs, who had brazenly admitted to working with the devil, and Mary Easty, or sometimes spelled Mary Esty, who was the sister of Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloice. The three sisters would now share a cell block.

In the wake of the examinations and the spreading witchcraft crisis, another girl became severely afflicted. 18-year-old Susanna Sheldon suddenly saw a throng of specters around her. The spirit of Philip English crawled over a pew during Sabbath meeting in Salem town to torment her. He continued to harass her on the way home. Then the specters of Bridget Bishop, Martha and Giles Corey and others attacked her. The devil himself even made an appearance. Susanna's affliction might have seemed routine by this time,

but it represented another pivotal point in the process, as did the confrontation that Anne Putnam Jr. was about to have. Until this time, the girls had only been afflicted by the spirits of the living. Now they would be haunted by the ghosts of the dead. Anne Putnam, Jr., the poor soul, received no peace. Each new witch that went to jail was replaced by another. Her torments were endless, and now they somehow got worse. The very next day after eight accused witches had been sent to jail,

the specter of John Willard had infiltrated Anne's home and tried to get her to sign the devil's book. With great effort, she resisted. Willard had helped her family in the early days of the crisis. He had served as a deputy to arrest several suspects, but then he resigned his position as he saw more and more people accused who he thought were innocent. He was now skeptical of the outbreak and wanted nothing to do with it. A few days after his specter first appeared to Anne, it returned, and this time with two ghosts.

He told Anne they were his murder victims. One was his first wife, and the other was Anne's own baby sister. Anne Putnam Sr. had given birth amidst the chaos of the outbreak, but the child had died after just six weeks. It was a tragic but common occurrence in the 1600s. Now the spirit of the baby appeared to Ann Jr. and John Willard Spector claimed responsibility for its death. On the final day of April, another round of arrest warrants was issued for new suspects, though John Willard was not among them, yet. On behalf of Ann Putnam, Jr., Abigail Williams, Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Susanna Sheldon, four women and two men were arrested for witchcraft.

Most of them lived outside Salem Village. The warrants proved witchcraft could be anywhere or everywhere. In fact, 250 miles away in Stamford, Connecticut, a girl had fallen ill, and her symptoms had progressed until there were a full-blown case of witchcraft. But back in Salem, the most prominent name on the list was the man accused of being the king of hell, Reverend George Burroughs. His case was so severe that the arrest warrant had come from the very top, the governor's counsel. The elite of the colony accused him of a confederacy with the devil. His case would be mesmerizing. The month of May, 1692, picked up where

April left off. While the constables were out rounding up the latest batch of witches, a new one attacked Elizabeth Hubbard. It was the specter of Rebecca Jacobs, the daughter-in-law of of old George Jacobs, who would soon be accused as well. When the new session of examinations convened at the Salem Village Meeting House, not all the suspects were there. George Burroughs was up in Maine, and the other man, Philip English, fled to Boston to hide in the home of a business associate.

That left the four women to stand at the bar of justice. As expected, all four were sent to jail to await trial. But there was one spectacular moment. 67-year-old, sharp-tongued widow Susanna Martin did something no one else had done. She stood in the chamber and accused the afflicted girls of being witches themselves. She actually laughed at their afflictions. It was a brave act of defiance, but instead of causing people to think twice about what was happening, it made her look heartless.

The day after the examinations, ghostly revelations began to ramp up. Elizabeth Hubbard was tormented by the specter of Rebecca Nurse, and this time the witch admitted to murdering four people. The specter of George Burroughs appeared to Anne Putnam Jr. and warned her that she would see visions of his two dead wives. They would tell her many lies and she should not believe them. Sure enough, the two women appeared. The ghosts of the women saw Burroughs and became angry. They accused him of murdering them and they wanted vengeance. Then Burroughs disappeared.

The two women stuck around and gave Anne a detailed account of how Burroughs had killed them. The first wife said Burroughs had stabbed her under the arm, but the wound had never been discovered because Burroughs had sealed it with wax right after her death. The second wife said she'd been killed in a boat, and Burroughs' current wife had helped him do it. George Burroughs, in the flesh, arrived in Salem two days later for his examination. In the meantime, the specter of George Burroughs had been particularly hard on Mercy Lewis, the Putnam's maid who had lived with him in Maine. He appeared one night with a mysterious book that she didn't recognize.

He said there was no harm in touching it, and he bragged about his evil power. She resisted his temptations, but she said he nearly racked her to pieces in the process. Then, just before the examination, he reenacted a famous biblical event. His specter abducted Mercy Lewis and flew her up to the top of a high mountain. He showed her all the kingdoms of earth, just as Satan had done for Christ. He offered them to her if she would only serve him. She defied him, and he threatened to throw her down on 100 pitchforks for her insolence. But he didn't.

His specter was apparently busy that morning, because it also appeared to Susanna Sheldon and said he had killed three children in Maine, two of which were his own. The spirit also admitted to killing his two previous wives, though this time it said one was smothered and the other was choked. The village meeting house was crowded again to see the momentous examination of George Burroughs, but he wasn't alone on the docket. Five more women were examined after him, and most were held for trial. But Burroughs was a special case,

and assistant's William Stoughton and Samuel Sewell had made the trip to help Hathorne and Corwin. The four men questioned Burroughs alone before the formal examination began. Of the many topics discussed, the most pressing was that of his wives. He vehemently denied hurting them. Then he was led into the courtroom, and the show began. The magistrates read the depositions of the afflicted girls, and the audience heard for the first time all the horrible things his spirit, had said to them. The girls convulsed and seized. In the riotous atmosphere, the magistrates

didn't connect the dots about the conflicting stories his specter had told. The tortures of the girls dominated the proceedings. Burroughs was bewildered. He didn't understand any of it. And in addition, three militia officers, one of whom was Anne Putnam's uncle, testified to incidents of great strength performed by Burroughs. Burroughs was a small man and feats of great strength beyond a person's normal capabilities were known to be tell-tale signs of witchcraft. Like nearly all the others, he was sent to jail to await trial. It was May 9, 1692. On May 10th, the witch trials claimed their first victim. The accusations and examinations continued for several days after George Burroughs was sent to jail. But they stopped.

stopped in mid-May with the triumphant return of Increase Mather and William Phipps. The men presented the new charter to the colony, and then learned there was mayhem and witchcraft everywhere. One of Governor Phipps' first acts on the job was to appoint a special court to hear the cases of all the people who had been sent to jail. The Salem Witch Trials were about to begin. That's next time on Infamous America Season 1, Salem. If you enjoyed the show, please give it a rating and a review wherever you're listening. You can check out our website at blackbarrelmedia.com and follow us on social media. Our Facebook page is Black Barrel Media, our Twitter handle is at B Barrel Media, and our Instagram handle is at Black Barrel Media.

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