Welcome to a macabre tour of history’s most unsettling courtroom dramas. In this collection of 10 curious tales, we delve into the grisly world of bestiality accusations that ended in the noose, the gallows, and often the slaughter of the animal involved. From piglets that looked eerily human to courtroom spectacles that would make modern juries wince, each story is a testament to how societies once dealt with what they deemed a heinous breach of natural order.
10 Curious Tales: Grim Executions For Bestiality Crimes
10 George Spencer
In the spring of 1642, the New Haven settlement witnessed a most peculiar case. George Spencer, a laborer employed by a local farmer, found himself under the magistrate’s gaze after a sow gave birth to a piglet that bore an uncanny resemblance to a human infant. The creature was hairless, soft, and possessed a reddish‑white head, a tiny chin, and a single eye protruding from its forehead—features that sent shivers through the community.
John Wakeman, the sow’s owner, brought his grievance before Stephen Goodyear, the town magistrate, describing the abnormal offspring in vivid detail. Spencer matched the description perfectly: he, too, had protruding eyes and a history of working for the sow’s previous owner. When summoned, Spencer denied any illicit liaison, insisting his innocence. However, Goodyear, already convinced of his guilt, invoked Proverbs 28:13, suggesting that confession would earn mercy.
Believing a confession might spare his life, Spencer reluctantly admitted paternity, only to retract his statement later when it became clear the confession would not buy him freedom. The magistrate, unmoved, sentenced him to death by hanging. On April 8, 1642, as Spencer awaited his fate, the sow was dragged to the gallows and slaughtered before his eyes. In a final, desperate twist, Spencer again confessed—this time claiming genuine impregnation—yet the confession came too late. He was hanged, marking a grim end to a case driven more by fear of the bizarre than concrete proof.
9 Thomas Hogg
Three years after Spencer’s fate, another New Haven resident, Thomas Hogg, found himself accused of a similarly strange crime. In the winter of 1645‑46, Margaret Lamberton discovered her sow had birthed two abnormal piglets: one unusually white, the other bearing a bulging right eye and a disturbingly human‑like head. The townsfolk, already primed by Spencer’s story, immediately suspected Hogg, a caretaker of the sow who shared the piglets’ pale complexion and eye anomaly.
Lamberton’s suspicions were further inflamed by Hogg’s habit of walking with his privates exposed—a result of an inguinal hernia and a steel device meant to keep his genitals from re‑entering his body, which often tore his breeches. Though Hogg suffered from Graves’ disease, giving him a pallid appearance, he denied any sexual misconduct. To prove guilt, Governor Theophilus Eaton escorted Hogg to the sty, observing the sow’s apparent “lustful” reaction upon his touch. Eaton then repeated the test with a different sow, which remained indifferent, casting doubt on Hogg’s alleged animal magnetism.
Without any witnesses, the court acquitted Hogg of bestiality, though he was still found guilty of public indecency and theft of food, resulting in whipping and hard labor. Hogg’s narrow escape illustrates how flimsy evidence could swing a verdict either way in a time when appearances and superstition often outweighed reason.
8 Thomas Granger
The year 1642 also saw the tragic downfall of Thomas Granger, a young servant in Plymouth. While attempting to consummate his illicit desire with a mare, another servant caught him in the act and reported the transgression to the colonial authorities. Granger, unflinching, confessed not only to the mare but also to a litany of other animal partners, including a cow, a turkey, two goats, two calves, and five sheep.
The magistrates, faced with a litany of bestial acts, compiled a staggering list of the species involved, each deemed a separate offense under the colony’s strict moral code. Granger was sentenced to death by hanging, a punishment meant to serve as a stark warning to the community. In a chilling finale, the accused animals—cow, turkey, goats, calves, and sheep—were marched to the gallows and slaughtered while Granger watched, his fate sealed alongside the very creatures he had violated.
7 Claudine De Culam
Crossing the Atlantic to early‑17th‑century France, the case of 16‑year‑old Claudine de Culam stands out for its bizarre courtroom theatrics. Accused of bestiality with a dog, Claudine vehemently denied any sexual relationship. Yet the magistrates devised a peculiar method to determine the truth: they escorted both Claudine and the dog to a room adjacent to the courtroom, ordered her to disrobe, and observed the animal’s behavior.
When presented with the naked Claudine, the dog immediately leapt onto her and attempted to mount, an act the prosecutors declared as proof of prior illicit relations. The court argued that had there been no previous intimacy, the dog would not have displayed such eagerness. Consequently, both Claudine and the dog were sentenced to death; their bodies were bound together, burned, and the ashes scattered—a grim conclusion to a case that hinged on animal instinct rather than concrete evidence.
6 John Taylor
Fast forward to the American colonies of the 1770s, where John Taylor—also known as John Philip Snyder—met a violent end in Burlington, New Jersey. On October 2, 1774, farmhand Orpha Emlay caught Taylor in the act with one of her cows. Startled, Taylor seized a knife and a hammer, chased Emlay, and in a brutal frenzy, bludgeoned her head with the hammer before slitting her throat.
Taylor’s crimes did not stop at bestiality; he was also convicted of murder. He was slated for execution alongside Peter Galwin, a man accused of raping—or attempting to rape—four girls. The public’s fury was palpable; the crowd, enraged by both men’s transgressions, attempted to lynch them before the official hanging could take place. Ultimately, both men were hanged, their deaths serving as a stark reminder of the severe penalties for sexual deviance in the fledgling colonies.
5 Jacques Ferron
Returning to France in the mid‑18th century, Jacques Ferron found himself on the wrong side of the law in 1750. Charged with bestiality involving a jenny—a female donkey—Ferron’s case was notable for the community’s defense of the animal. Citizens of Vanvres petitioned the magistrate, arguing that the jenny was a gentle, well‑behaved creature and an unwitting victim of Ferron’s depravity. Their plea was signed by the local parish priest, emphasizing the animal’s innocence.
Despite the public’s sympathy for the donkey, the court deemed Ferron’s actions unforgivable. He was sentenced to death by hanging, while the jenny escaped the gallows. Ferron’s execution underscores how, even when the animal was spared, the human perpetrator could still face the ultimate punishment for violating societal norms.
4 Benjamin Goad
In 1674, 17‑year‑old Benjamin Goad—also recorded as Benjamin Gourd—met his fate in Massachusetts. Caught in the act with a mare, Goad confessed that he had been engaging in sexual relations with the horse for a full year. Unlike many earlier cases, there was no record of the mare’s behavior; nevertheless, the animal was slaughtered in front of Goad as part of his punishment.
The execution itself held a unique distinction: it marked the first occasion in the colony where a sermon was delivered at the gallows. Reverend Samuel Danforth, who had known Goad since infancy, preached a fiery sermon linking Goad’s crime to the biblical sins that led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—masturbation, prostitution, adultery, fornication, and bestiality. After the sermon, Goad was hanged, his death serving both as retribution and moral instruction for the community.
3 Walter Robinson
In 1654, fifteen‑year‑old Walter Robinson, a shepherd in New Haven, Connecticut, faced the gallows after a fisherman—some accounts say a sailor—spotted him in a compromising position with a dog. The fisherman shouted, alerting authorities, and Robinson fled, only to be captured later.
Initially, Robinson denied any wrongdoing, but eventually confessed to having sexual contact with the dog, albeit claiming he had not fully penetrated the animal. The court, unmoved by the nuance, sentenced him to death by hanging. In a grim twist, Robinson was forced to watch the dog being stabbed to death before his own execution. Both he and the dog were interred together in the same grave, a macabre reminder of the era’s harsh moral code.
2 William Potter
New Haven’s dark legacy continued in 1662 with William Potter, one of the colony’s original founders. Ironically, his respectable reputation—anchored by his involvement in John Davenport’s stringent church—could not shield him from scandal. Potter’s own son discovered him in the act with a sow, prompting a swift investigation.
Initially denying the accusation, Potter eventually confessed, admitting not only to the recent act but also to a lifelong pattern of bestiality dating back to age eleven. He recounted attempts to suppress his urges, even describing an incident where he nearly engaged with a dog and, in desperation, strangled the animal. Over fifty years, his compulsion persisted, culminating in his public confession.
The church, outraged, convened a “Solemn Day of Humiliation” to purge Potter’s sins from its ranks. As he was led to the gallows, Potter wept, and the authorities slaughtered several cows, sheep, and sows he was suspected of consorting with—all before his eyes. His execution cemented the colony’s unforgiving stance on sexual transgressions.
1 John Farrell And Gideon Washburn
The final chapter of our grim anthology arrives at the turn of the 19th century. In 1796, John Farrell, a Massachusetts farmer, was sentenced to death after being caught in a compromising act with an unnamed wild animal. Three years later, Gideon Washburn faced a similar fate in Connecticut for bestiality involving two mares and a cow.
Both men were octogenarians—a stark contrast to the youthful victims of earlier centuries. Their sentences astonished historians for two reasons: the advanced age of the defendants and the fact that, since the Revolutionary War, no American jurisdiction had carried out a capital punishment for bestiality in over a hundred years. Scholars Doron Ben‑Atar and Richard Brown explain that the post‑war uncertainty, coupled with lingering Puritanical influence, drove authorities to reassert moral authority through these extreme verdicts.
In a twist of fate, Governor Samuel Adams granted Farrell a pardon, sparing him from the gallows. Washburn, meanwhile, died of natural causes just days before his scheduled execution, avoiding the rope altogether. Their stories illustrate how the law, even in a fledgling nation, could still wield the death penalty to enforce prevailing moral standards.
These ten accounts, spanning continents and centuries, reveal a dark undercurrent of fear, superstition, and the relentless pursuit of moral order. While modern sensibilities may balk at such punishments, they serve as stark reminders of how societies have historically grappled with acts they deemed abominable.