While nowhere near as famous as the Salem witchcraft trials that took place in 1692, the great Connecticut witchcraft panic, which lasted intermittently from 1647 until 1697, set a precedent in American history. Of course, these trials presaged the later series of events in Salem. But the manner in which the trials came to an end opened the door for more rational and logical examinations of supposed supernatural phenomena.

10 The First Recorded Confession

In the mid-17th century, a single witness was all it took to get someone tried for witchcraft. Sometimes, all that was needed was one accusation from a prominent member of society. In 1648, Mary Johnson was tortured into confessing that she was involved in witchcraft.

Two years earlier, Johnson, a servant, was accused of theft. A local minister named Samuel Stone believed that Johnson was guilty of much more, so he whipped her until she said that she had trafficked with the Devil. In particular, Johnson claimed that she had conspired with the Devil to complete her household chores, sleep with several men, and even kill a child. In December 1648, Johnson was executed for these crimes.

While in prison awaiting her trial, Johnson gave birth to a son who was quickly indentured as a servant to Nathaniel Rescew. The boy would remain under Rescew’s tutelage until he turned 21.

9 The First To Die

It is widely believed that Mary Johnson was the first accused witch to die in Connecticut (if not America). However, a woman named Alse (Alice) Young is the rightful holder of this ignominious title. On May 26, 1647, Young was hanged at Meeting House Square in Hartford (the site of today’s Old State House) following her brief trial.

Little is known about Young. It is believed that she was born in England around 1600. Her husband was a man named John Young, who settled in the town of Windsor sometime between 1630 and 1640. It likely that Young was executed for the crime of making herbal folk remedies for her fellow settlers. Alice Young Beamon, Young’s daughter, would later be accused of witchcraft while living in Springfield, Massachusetts.

8 The Peculiar Town Of Wethersfield

During the early 1650s, several individuals were hanged for supposedly practicing witchcraft throughout Connecticut. The convicted included John and Joan Carrington (both executed in 1651), Goodwife Bassett and Goodwife Knapp (executed in 1651 and 1653, respectively), Lydia Gilbert (executed in 1654), Rebecca and Nathaniel Greensmith, and Mary Sanford and Mary Barnes (all hanged in 1662).

Although some of these individuals came from places like Hartford, Fairfield, and Windsor, some came from or had connections to the town of Wethersfield. A later “witch,” Katherine Harrison, was a medical practitioner in Wethersfield.

Because of this fact and because Wethersfield was the hometown of Mary Johnson, the term “Wethersfield witches” has been used by historians and amateur scribes alike. Interestingly, the Carringtons and Johnson, all of whom were from Wethersfield, were active members of their community prior to the allegations levied against them.

In colonial America, many accused witches were neither fringe members of their community nor easily classifiable as “outcasts” or “misfits.” This was certainly the case in Wethersfield.

7 The Great Hartford Panic

Between 1662 and 1663, the city of Hartford fell under the spell of an intense anti-witchcraft hysteria. Beginning in March 1662, Anne Cole found widespread support from her community when she accused Rebecca Greensmith and Elizabeth Seager of using magic to torment her. When an eight-year-old Elizabeth Kelly died after suffering prolonged stomach pains, her parents accused a woman named Goody Ayres of strangling their daughter through the use of black magic.

Many of the stories from Hartford were incredibly bizarre. One woman claimed that Satan had caused her to speak with a Dutch accent, while one eyewitness claimed that she saw her neighbors transform into large black hounds during the nighttime. All told, three accused witches were executed.

6 The Saga Of Katherine Harrison

As previously mentioned, Katherine Harrison was a practicing physician in Wethersfield at the time that she was accused of being a witch. Harrison was accused of practicing astrology and using her spectral familiars (including a black dog and a calf’s head) to visit the houses of her neighbors on moonlit nights. Harrison was formally indicted in May 1669.

Amazingly, despite being accused of witchcraft by approximately 30 witnesses, Harrison was acquitted after a jury could not reach a verdict. She returned to Wethersfield, but several residents signed a petition urging that she be sent back to prison. Finally, in May 1670, Harrison was once again released from prison after the colonial governor and several clergymen challenged the evidentiary standards used in Harrison’s case.

5 The Importance Of John Winthrop Jr.

Also known as John Winthrop the Younger, Winthrop was the son of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Prior to becoming the governor of the Connecticut Colony, the younger Winthrop had been educated in England and had traveled extensively in Europe. According to one historian, Winthrop learned alchemy in Europe and practiced folk magic for much of his life.

As such, Governor Winthrop knew firsthand how difficult practicing “natural magic” could be. As governor, Winthrop began to question the flimsy evidentiary standards of his colony’s witchcraft trials. In particular, Winthrop grew to question the legitimacy of “spectral evidence,” or eyewitness claims about being “tormented” by spirits or seeing spectral familiars.

4 New Standards Emerge

Because of Governor Winthrop’s hesitancy to accept “spectral evidence,” he played a major role in the two acquittals of Katherine Harrison. Indeed, following the conclusion of the Hartford panic in 1663, Winthrop, along with several magistrates and clergymen, established new guidelines for future witchcraft trials.

First and foremost, Winthrop clearly defined what constituted diabolism. Winthrop believed that only pacts, or sealed contracts made with the Devil, made someone a witch. Crop failures or sudden deaths did not necessarily mean that witchcraft was afoot.

More importantly, Winthrop decreed that for a witchcraft trial to proceed, two people had to see a witch’s specter at the same time. This ruling drastically reduced the number of witchcraft panics for almost three decades.

3 Witch Hunting Moves To Massachusetts

The standards set by Connecticut held for many years. In 1688, however, a new witchcraft panic gripped Boston, the largest and most important city in Puritan America. Following the death of Winthrop in 1676, New England lost the greatest champion of a rational approach to the supernatural.

Winthrop was replaced by Increase Mather, a Harvard-trained theologian and the author of “Remarkable Providences.” Mather believed strongly in the existence of witches. Although he accepted many of the dictates established by Winthrop and the Connecticut magistrates, he nevertheless oversaw the execution of Goodwife (“Goody”) Ann Glover.

Ann Glover and her daughter worked as housekeepers for the family of John Goodwin. Following a dispute over some missing laundry, the Goodwin children began acting strangely. A local doctor diagnosed them as being bewitched.

Soon enough, Glover, an Irish Catholic who probably only spoke Gaelic, was accused of being a witch. Mather himself deduced that the Goodwin children were bewitched. Glover was hanged in November 1688. She would be the last “witch” to be hanged in Boston.

2 The Stamford Panic Of 1692

During the same year as the Salem witchcraft trials, a servant named Katherine Branch mysteriously fell ill. For weeks, she suffered convulsions and mused wildly about her affliction. At one point, Branch began telling people that a cat often spoke to her about possessing the finer things in life. Branch also said that this cat would sometimes transform into a woman.

Following a flurry of accusations, two women—Elizabeth Clawson of Stamford and Mercy Disborough of Fairfield—were formally accused. Fortunately, many people were suspicious of Branch’s story. Following a series of experiments (including dunking the accused witches in a Fairfield pond), both Clawson and Disborough were ultimately acquitted.

1 The Last In Line

While Sarah Spencer and an unknown individual named Norton were the last accused witches in the history of Connecticut (they were accused in 1724 and 1768, respectively), Winifred Benham and Winifred Benham Jr. were the last two accused witches of the 17th century.

Almost five years after the conclusion of the witchcraft panic in Salem, the Benhams of Wallingford (some documents say that they were from New Haven) were tried for making a pact with the Devil to gain the power of transformation. Similarly, both Benhams were accused of using their spirits to inflict bodily harm on their neighbors.

Luckily, both Benhams were acquitted. It’s likely that early criticisms of the proceedings in Salem helped to save these two women from the gallows.

Benjamin Welton is a freelance author based in Boston. His work has appeared in The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, , and other publications. He currently blogs at literarytrebuchet.blogspot.com.

Clinical trials are the most important step in getting a drug approved by the FDA. Without them, no one would know if their medicines were safe. The vast majority of the time, these trials go well, and the medicine is approved for general use. But every once in a while, a clinical trial goes horribly wrong. Keep reading to learn about 10 of these famous incidents that medical companies try desperately to hide.

READ MORE: 10 Terrible Ideas In Medicine From The Past 100 Years

10The University of Minnesota Seroquel Experiment

“My son Dan died almost five years ago in a clinical study at the University of Minnesota, a study he lacked any diagnosis for, and a study that I tried unsuccessfully to get him out of for five months.” Ever since her son’s untimely death, Mary Weiss has been trying to spread this message to the world.

In 2003, her delusional son, Dan Markingson, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and admitted to the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Fairview. Shortly after, he was put into a clinical trial testing three different types of schizophrenia medications: Seroquel, Risperdal, and Zyprexa. Very quickly, his daily 800mg doses of Seroquel started to worsen his delusions.

In response, his mother frantically sent letters, emails, and called the study coordinators to try and take her son out of the program. But the administration banned Dan from leaving the study, threatening to put him into a mental facility if he tried to drop out. Weiss was shocked by this until she learned a key fact about the program: her son’s participation was worth $15,000 to the school.^[1]

Unable to leave the program, Markingson’s delusions became worse until he eventually committed suicide by stabbing himself to death in the shower. A suicide note read, “I went through this experience smiling!” Devastated, his mother sued the school, which refused to take responsibility for its actions. Markingson was one of five trial subjects to attempt suicide, and one of two who succeeded in taking their own lives.

9French Biotrial Tragedy

In January 2016, the French company Biotrial recruited 128 healthy volunteers to take part in a clinical trial of a new drug designed to combat anxiety related to cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Under the influence of small doses of the drug, the patients reported no side effects. But when the doses began to escalate after the first week, problems started to surface. In particular, six of the participants became sick and were immediately sent to the ER.

One of these patients, a healthy man in his late 20s, was declared brain dead just one week after being admitted to the hospital and two weeks after starting the trial. The five other patients remained in a stable condition, but doctors predict that many will have suffered irreversible brain damage and mental handicaps.

Even though this was the first time the drug had been tested on humans, the trial administrators knew that there were serious issues with the drug. One French news source uncovered a pre-trial that had similar effects on dogs, killing several and leaving others with brain damage.^[2] Yet the trial was still conducted on humans, and with horrible results.

8The Thalidomide Trials

The drug Thalidomide was first manufactured in Germany, primarily for the purpose of treating respiratory infections. Today, many people know about this drug because of its adverse effects on pregnancy. Over 10,000 children born during the 1960s suffered serious impairments, such as missing limbs and cleft palates, as a result of this drug.

Unlike the other trials on the list, the eerie part of the thalidomide clinical trial was that everything went horribly right. During the patenting and approval phase, researchers tested the drug on animals but neglected to observe the effects on their offspring. Since it was impossible to die from an overdose of the medicine, it was deemed safe, and it hit the shelves in 1956.^[3]

It was not until 1961 that Australian doctor William McBride discovered the link between Thalidomide and the deformities. Until then, every clinical trial came to the conclusion that thalidomide was a safe over-the-counter medicine although10,000 people paid the price.

7Gene Therapy Clinical Trial

Jesse Gelsinger was 18 when he entered a study that tested the safety of gene therapy in kids with severe genetic mutations in the liver. Like the other children in the study, he had been born with a condition called OTC that prevented his liver from eliminating enough ammonia, which the researchers tried to fight by injecting him with a cold virus. But one high dose of the medicine would be Gelsinger’s last. On September 17, 1999, his symptoms quickly spiraled from jaundice, to organ failure, to brain death.^[4]

The FDA dug into this death and found a few eerily irresponsible actions on the part of the administrators. First, Gelsinger was in the final group of patients, and every group before him had suffered severe reactions to the drug. Yet the study continued. Secondly, Gelsinger’s levels of ammonia were so high that they should have disqualified him from the trial in the first place. He was originally intended as an alternate, but a patient dropped out, and he was hastily included in the study.

6Anil Potti’s Miracle Cancer Drug

Throughout the 2000s, Anil Potti was an up-and-coming medical star. He promised cancer treatments with an 80-percent cure rate, and medical professionals believed that his discoveries could save 10,000 lives a year, but in 2015, this all changed. Potti was found guilty of including false data in a manuscript, nine papers, and a grant application, so the results of his studies were voided.

One woman who was particularly affected by this fraudulence was Joyce Shoffner,^[5] patient No. 1 in a July 2008 trial done by Potti. Under the guarantee that Potti’s therapy cured 80 percent of cancers, Shoffner eagerly signed up to join the study to help cure her breast cancer. She underwent a painful biopsy, in which doctors took tissue samples by inserting a long needle from under her arm and up into her neck. She then went through a regimen of Adriamycin-Cytoxan (AC) chemotherapy, only to be told two years later that the study’s results had been voided due to Potti’s involvement. Today, Shoffner does not have breast cancer, but she lives with the blood clots and diabetes caused by the AC regimen, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the trial itself.

READ MORE: 10 People With Shocking and Extreme Deformities

5Stem Cell Vision Treatment

In January 2017, three women entered a study with their vision and left without it. Their ages ranging from 72 to 88, all three of these women suffered from macular degeneration, an eye disease closely related to old age. The patients each paid $5,000 to have both eyes treated with stem cell therapy, a process that was “both atypical and unsafe” according to several ophthalmology experts.^[6]

Just days after the procedure, all three women reported severe side effects, including bleeding and retinal detachment. One patient entirely lost her eyesight, while the other two lost most. None of the patients are expected to recover their sight. But scientists knew that this trial had flaws from the beginning. First and foremost, the patients were required to pay for their own procedures, which is a flagrant sign of illegitimate research. Additionally, medical professionals have tried to erase the history of the trial; when you visit government records of the trial online, it only says that the study was “withdrawn prior to enrollment,” which clearly was not the case.

4Leukemia CAR-T Trial

In July 2016, three adult leukemia patients died in a trial of a new cellular-level medicine by Juno Therapeutics. Nicknamed CAR-T, Juno’s new treatment option was supposed to attack the malignant cells until they appeared to have vanished.^[7] The technology was an up-and-coming phenomenon that many researchers called the “fifth pillar” of cancer treatment, but hopes were soon dashed by the results of the 2016 study.

The cause of death for the three patients was swelling in the brain, medically known as cerebral edema. Representatives from the sponsoring medical company Juno admit that cerebral edema is rather common in patients who have been given CAR-T treatments, as are immune system reactions and increased neurological toxicity.

After the news of the deaths had been released, Juno’s stock fell 27 percent. Their practices are under FDA review, and it is unclear whether they will be allowed to continue their studies.

3New York Lidocaine Disaster

In 1996, Hoi Yan “Nicole” Wan, a healthy sophomore at the University of Rochester needed some pocket money. So she decided to sign up, without her parents’ permission, for a clinical trial that paid $150.^[8] The researchers inserted a tube down her throat and into her lungs to see the effects of pollution on her respiratory system, a common procedure called a bronchoscopy.

But what Nicole did not know was that they took far more cell samples than originally outlined in the proposal. And as they took more samples from her lungs, they increased the dose of her anesthetic, Lidocaine, far above the levels approved by the FDA. She was released feeling incredibly weak and in enormous amounts of pain, and two days later was found dead. An autopsy revealed that lethal levels of Lidocaine, due to malpractice in the study, had caused her heart to stop beating and the rest of her body to fail along with it.

2John Hopkins Asthma Trial

Ellen Roche, a technician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, volunteered to take part in an asthma trial for healthy individuals. The trial’s goal was to discover what mechanism kept healthy people from developing the symptoms of asthma, so the doctors induced a mild asthmatic reaction and then treated it with hexamethonium.

At first, inhaling this medicine simply caused Ms. Roche to develop a cough. But as time progressed, she was put on a ventilator as her lung tissue broke down and her kidneys began to fail. She died one month later, on June 2, 2001.^[9] Medical officials from the trial admit that the hexamethonium “was either solely responsible for the subject’s illness or played an important contributory role.” To make matters worse, participants learned after the trial that hexamethonium is not even an FDA-approved drug. This fact was not included in the consent form, so Johns Hopkins has been forced to take full responsibility for Roche’s death.

1The Elephant Man Trial

The most famous clinical trial of all time, The Elephant Man Trial took place in London in 2006. The trial, which was testing a new cancer treatment called TGN1412, seemed harmless to the eight men who took part in it; medical professionals had assured them that the worst symptoms would only include a headache and nausea.

But the results were much more gruesome than that. Shortly after they were given the doses, all of the patients began writhing in pain and vomiting.^[10] One of the participants lost his fingers and toes, while another had to have his foot partially amputated. The trial earned its nickname, The Elephant Man Trial because one participant’s head swelled up so large that his girlfriend teased him about looking like an elephant.

No one is completely sure what went wrong, but the patients have a few ideas. One suggests that the timing of the dosage made it dangerous; researchers spent 90 minutes slowly injecting animals with the drug, but took a mere six minutes to inject it into the human subjects. Another claims that the preliminary animal testing was inaccurate because instead of testing on a bonobo, whose DNA is a 98 percent match to humans, the agency cut costs and used a macaque, whose DNA is only a 94 percent match. These men may never know exactly what went wrong that fateful day, or how it will continue to affect their lives.

Sydney is a part-time content writer and a full-time student.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft in Europe. Then as now, witches were typically thought of as female, and most of the victims in the witch trials were women.

However, men were occasionally accused and executed for witchcraft as well. Sometimes, they were linked with a female witch. Other times, they were accused independently. In a few areas of Europe, such as Estonia and Normandy, men actually made up the majority of the accused.

10 John Fian

In late 1589, the Scottish king James VI traveled to Scandinavia to marry Princess Anne of Denmark. While sailing home, James and his new queen were stalled by terrible storms. Instead of bad luck, the Danish authorities blamed the weather on witchcraft, duly arresting and executing six supposed witches. Back in Scotland, some of James’s subjects were accused of a conspiracy to magically sink the king’s ship.

John Fian, a schoolteacher, was allegedly one of the plot’s ringmasters. According to the many wild legends surrounding him, Fian could fly and unlock doors by blowing on their locks. In one bizarre story, Fian asked a local boy to steal pubic hair from his sister. The hair was an ingredient for a love charm. But Fian was tricked and given cow hair, making a cow fall in love with him instead.^[1]

After being taken into custody for treason and witchcraft, Fian was tortured and interrogated. He confessed that the charges were true, escaped from jail, and then ended up being tortured again. This time, Fian recanted his confession and refused to budge, even after having his nails pulled out and his legs crushed. Despite Fian’s resilience, his interrogators and King James VI weren’t convinced. Fian was strangled and burned at the stake in Edinburgh in January 1591.

9 Thomas Weir

Thomas Weir was probably the last person anybody would suspect of being a witch. He was an elderly veteran of the English Civil War, a stern, religious man who was greatly respected in Edinburgh. In 1670, however, Weir suddenly suffered a kind of breakdown. He’d been harboring a lifetime of guilt and wasn’t nearly as saintly as everybody believed.

From the time his sister, Jane, was 16 until she was 50, Weir had repeatedly slept with her. He’d also had sex with his stepdaughter, his maid, and some mares and cows.^[2] After the secret was leaked, Weir and his sister were arrested for incest. Jane not only confirmed her brother’s claims but told the authorities that she and her brother were witches.

Weir freely admitted to being a witch. He claimed that he’d slept with the Devil and that his walking stick was actually a wand. In the end, Jane was repentant about what she’d done. On the other hand, Weir refused to apologize. Both brother and sister were sentenced to death, although curiously, only Jane was convicted of witchcraft.

8 John Walsh

Not everybody who used magic in Early Modern Europe was considered evil. In England and Wales, for example, the “white witch” used its magic for good. Since the label “witch” was a negative one, these benevolent magicians went by other names, like cunning-man, wise woman, or conjuror. Though they might have been popular with the ordinary people, these folk healers and seers weren’t always safe from the law.

In August 1566, an English white witch named John Walsh was arrested and questioned in Essex about his powers. Walsh claimed that he was in contact with fairies and that he could tell when a person was bewitched. He also had a familiar, a supernatural creature said to help witches with their magic.

Walsh’s familiar would come to him in the shape of a dog, bird, or cloven-footed man. It could identify thieves and tell Walsh where the guilty had hidden what they’d stolen. Walsh swore that he never hurt anybody with his magic, but what ultimately happened to him is unknown. Witches were hanged rather than burned in England. Convictions were rare, so there is a chance that Walsh was acquitted and let go.^[3]

7 Thomas Looten

In September 1659, a merchant named Thomas Looten was plagued with gossip that he’d killed a neighbor boy. Looten had given the boy a plum. When the boy died a few days later, some neighbors believed the plum was bewitched. To clear his name, Looten asked the town bailiff to arrest him and give him a trial.

Looten was apparently confident that the judges would take his side, saying he didn’t need a lawyer or counterevidence to prove his innocence. As it happened, things turned out the exact opposite. His neighbors testified against him, and a torturer claimed that there was a Devil’s mark on Looten’s body. After being strangled with a garrote, Looten told his interrogators that he attended sabbaths and earned his wealth from money that the Devil gave him.^[4]

A witchcraft confession was exactly what the authorities wanted. A day after his confession, Looten died in jail from his wounds. His corpse was burned and then publicly displayed. To cover the rest of his court costs, Looten’s property was also seized and sold off.

6 Quiwe Baarsen

The Sami, the indigenous people of Scandinavia, had a rich tradition of shamanism. Since ancient times, Norwegians had consulted Sami shamans, who maintained that they could tell the future and travel out of their bodies. The shamans used a special drum for their rituals, which put them in a trance and allowed their souls to roam around.

In 1625, the shaman Quiwe Baarsen was paid by a Norwegian named Niels Jonsen to summon wind for a voyage to the village of Hasvag.^[5] A while later, the wife of a man who left with Jonsen paid the shaman again, asking for good wind that would bring her husband’s ship home. This time, the spell went awry and Baarsen was afraid the wind was too strong.

Coincidentally, Jonsen and his crew drowned during a storm on their way back. Two years later, in May 1627, Baarsen was brought to trial by a court in Hasvag. He admitted to creating wind for Jonsen’s ship and explained how a Sami drum worked. The Christian court took Baarsen’s words as proof of witchcraft, ruling him responsible for the drownings and sending him off to be burned at the stake.

5 Andrew Man

Today, fairies are regarded as harmless, fictional creatures, but some witchcraft interrogators believed that they were demons in disguise. Other interrogators figured that they were delusions caused by Satan. But whatever the cause, people who claimed to be involved with fairies were sometimes tried for witchcraft.

In Scotland, several witch trials mentioned a figure known as the Queen of Elphame, a fairy queen who had an angel husband named Christsonday. Andrew Man, an elderly man who went on trial in 1597, said that he had a sexual relationship with the fairy queen.^[6] Man had first met the Queen 60 years earlier when he was a little boy. She later gave him the power to heal any animal or human.

Man had other magical powers as well, such as being able to steal a cow’s milk and tell the future. Christsonday acted as his familiar, and Man could summon the angel by uttering the word “Benedicite.” Man called Christsonday his lord and king, and he also said that he kissed Christsonday’s bottom. To the authorities, the bizarre story reeked of the Devil, and Man was burned for witchcraft.

4 Johannes Junius

Between 1624 and 1631, nearly 300 people were burned for witchcraft in the German city of Bamberg. The city was gripped with paranoia, and even government officials were suspected of being witches. In June 1628, the mayor Johannes Junius was questioned after he was allegedly seen at some sabbaths.

As with many other witch trials, Junius swore he was innocent until he finally broke down after being tortured. According to his confession, Junius met a demon woman who turned into a goat and threatened to break his neck unless Junius gave himself up to her. The woman disappeared and came back with more demons, and Junius was forced to renounce God and worship Satan.

Junius took the new name of Krix, and the demon woman who converted him became his lover. The demon encouraged Junius to kill his children. But he refused, leading her to beat him on one occasion.^[7]

A few weeks before his death at the stake, Junius sent his daughter a secret letter from prison. He said that his words were “sheer lies” and “made-up things” to keep himself from being tortured. He also mentioned his accusers, who admitted to lying and apologized to Junius before their own executions.

3 William Godfrey

In 1609, the farmer William Godfrey rented out a house to John and Susan Barber in New Romney, England. While living there, the Barbers would hear inexplicable dripping and knocking sounds on the ceiling, making them afraid that the house was haunted. After having a baby, Susan swore that three familiars sent by Godfrey tried to steal her child. The Barbers ended up leaving the house. The Holtons, the next couple to take the house, experienced ghostly phenomena, too.

It wasn’t only Godfrey’s house that weirded out his neighbors. The Barbers had terrible luck after moving to a new house and suspected that Godfrey was the cause. Strangely, the Holtons’ son, who suddenly fell sick in 1614, died an hour after Godfrey paid a visit to the house one day. After years of reputedly bewitching people and animals, Godfrey’s neighbors finally took him to court in April 1617.

William Clarke, a man who thought Godfrey had bewitched his ducks, was the first to testify. The trial lasted months. During the wait, Clarke and Godfrey got into a brawl after Godfrey joked about bewitching Clarke’s mare. Other neighbors were brought in as witnesses, but the court ultimately acquitted Godfrey in February 1618. The only person charged with anything turned out to be Clarke, who was fined for assaulting Godfrey.^[8]

2 Chonrad Stoeckhlin

Chonrad Stoeckhlin was a healer and horse wrangler who lived in the German town of Oberstdorf. In 1579, Stoeckhlin met a guardian angel who took him on a nocturnal journey to a “strange and distant place.” Stoeckhlin and his angel would go on these trips several times a year, accompanied by other travelers known as night phantoms. The night phantoms helped turn Stoeckhlin into a powerful healer, and he also learned how to identify witches.

Based on information from his night phantoms, Stoeckhlin accused a woman named Anna Enzensbergerin of being a witch in 1586. Enzensbergerin was arrested, but Stoeckhlin was also taken into custody. His stories about the night phantoms roused the authorities’ suspicion, and soon Stoeckhlin was being investigated as a witch, too.

During his trial, Stoeckhlin’s night phantoms were interpreted as witches. His guardian angel was seen as a demon, and the “strange and distant place” was theorized to be a sabbath. Furthermore, Enzensbergerin and another woman accused by Stoeckhlin confirmed that his mother was a witch.

After the usual bout of torture, Stoeckhlin confessed that everything was true. Ironically, the man who cried “witch” was sentenced to burn at the stake in January 1587.^[9]

1 Louis Gaufridi

In 1609, the French priest Father Romillon became convinced that two nuns, Madeleine and Louise, were possessed by demons. The women would go into horrible convulsions and cried and screamed when Romillon attempted to exorcise them.

Madeleine told Romillon that a priest named Louis Gaufridi had raped her when she was nine years old and that the same man had used spells to fill her body with demons. Months passed without the nuns getting any better, and they made more accusations against Gaufridi when another priest exorcised them.

In February 1611, Gaufridi was arrested and interrogated. He admitted that he was a witch, explaining that he had found a magical book in his uncle’s possessions years earlier.^[10] As he read the book, Gaufridi inadvertently summoned a demon. The demon made a deal with Gaufridi. In exchange for his body and soul, the demon would advance Gaufridi’s career and make any woman he wanted fall in love with him.

Madeleine was questioned as well, and both she and Gaufridi said they attended sabbaths together. In April the same year, Gaufridi was strangled and burned at the stake. Unsurprisingly, Madeleine was eventually accused of witchcraft herself. She was sentenced to life imprisonment but was let out early after serving 10 years.

Tristan Shaw runs a blog called Bizarre and Grotesque, where he writes about crime, folklore, and unsolved mysteries.

Witch hunts and the ensuing witch trials, be they for political or religious reasons, have always been truly dark and nightmarish things. Throughout the history of the world, innocent people, overwhelmingly women, have been interrogated, punished, tortured, raped, and even murdered, all under the presumption that they practiced some sort of occult sorcery, or witchcraft. The twisted, bizarre, strange, and unusual punishments for these people were often painfully slow and equally cruel.

One thing is for sure: For a very long time, societies have been struggling to overcome their more superstitious natures, and thousands, if not millions, of people have lost their lives in this fight. Perhaps someday we can overcome this instinct toward superstition and belief in the supernatural and give in to reason, at least to the extent that we don’t kill innocent people. (Witch hunts still happen today.) We’re all extremely familiar with the Salem witch trials of Massachusetts, but such trials have a long and deeply disturbing history. Here are ten chronological moments in the history of the witch trial, from its inception as mere laws against witches to the height of the most torturous of trial proceedings.

10 Witchcraft In Prehistory

Up until the establishment of dominant and especially monotheistic religions, what we might call witchcraft today was just an accepted practice: Everybody did it, as everybody believed in the supernatural. Witchcraft has existed since the dawn of the human species. In fact, we can actually prove that witchcraft was a thing before civilization and recorded history through the examination of cave paintings, which have depicted various rites being conducted for various reasons, like a bountiful hunt. We also know that shamans were said to have special contact with the gods, the spirits, the forces of nature, you name it, and wielded considerable social power for their perceived abilities.^[1]

Rock and stone art tells us what these people were like, and it’s safe to assume that, while they were highly revered, they weren’t infallible, which means that they had to produce results. If they didn’t, it’s not a far stretch to assume that, in a bloody, prehistoric world, these people would sometimes be killed.

9 Ancient Babylon

Like so much of the story of civilization, from beer to sex rituals to the beginnings of documented prostitution, the history of the witch trial begins in ancient Babylon, and we know this from the Code of Hammurabi. Etched during the reign of King Hammurabi of ancient Babylon, who ruled from approximately 1792 to 1750 BC, the code contains 282 separate laws which governed the conduct of the day.

Among them is possibly one of the earliest laws against witchcraft to ever exist, which set the stage for more laws to come later:

If anyone brings an accusation [of witchcraft] against a man, and the accused goes to the river and leaps into the river, if he sinks in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river proves that the accused is not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.^[2]

This was not the first known instance of the trial by water, where a witch is forced to jump into or was even thrown into water to test and see if he or she survives. The ancient Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu (pictured above) contained the same law, and these were the humble beginnings of several nightmarish things which would continue on for centuries, namely the trial by water and the witch trial.

8 Ancient Rome

Let’s skip forward to 331 BC, in the up-and-coming world of ancient Rome, where some 170 or so women have been tried and found guilty of witchcraft, and are now about to die for the crime. Back then, Rome was superstitious and not quite the world power it would eventually become. The humble roots of medicine, mainly consisting of herbs and other plants, weren’t exactly anywhere near scientific at all, and there was a lot of guesswork and trial and error involved in their medicine.

But over 100 years before, around 450 BC, the Law of the Twelve Tables, the first known written legal system of ancient Rome, had been created. This was, of course, the beginning of the entire legal structure that would become that of the Roman Empire which grew around it. And included in the Law of the Twelve Tables, much like the Bill of Rights in the United States or the Ten Commandments in the Holy Bible, were fundamentals of conduct. And in these codes of conduct were laws against witchcraft.

These laws from over 100 years before would be used in 331, and after an unknown epidemic of deaths struck Rome suddenly, 170 women would be tried and executed for conspiring to commit a mass poisoning.^[3] This is one of the first known recorded mass witch trials in history.

7 The Bacchanalia

In ancient times, there were cults and broader groups of people who worshiped the god Bacchus in ancient Rome and, before him, Dionysus in ancient Greece. The two gods served to represent many things, chief among them wine, sex, debauchery, and orgiastic hedonism. Massive drunken orgies were carried out in their names from the times of ancient Greece up until the rise of the coming Roman Empire, where they were called Bacchanalia.

This was until Rome passed laws against them in 186 BC. The cults and anyone else who partook in the Bacchanalia festivals faced instant, steep, and heavy consequences: They’d be condemned for sorcery or witchcraft and executed.^[4]

This seemed to be the second great known witch hunt and series of witch trials of ancient Rome, though many more probably took place, as claiming someone was a witch with powers over the supernatural was always a politically savvy way to weaken opponents. And ancient Rome was a place of political strife. The Bacchanalia was forced underground through the passage of witchcraft laws, which attempted to snuff out the cults, though they would be revived when Julius Caesar was in power.

6 The Middle Ages

Contrary to popular belief, the people of the Middle Ages were not so extremely aggressive toward witchcraft and hardly even took the idea of witches seriously, initially.^[5] St. Augustine of Hippo (depicted above), who lived in the fifth century, was a powerful and influential thinker who rose with the rising tides of Christianity, and he truly believed that anything pagan was not only ungodly but of Satan, and thus, the link between anything occultist or outside of the general framework of the Christianity of the day with evil was solidified. This idea still persists in Christianity to this day. This was a pivotal moment, as the rising Christians were soon to become the group of people who were synonymous with terrifying witch trails.

Even still, it wasn’t until the seventh through the ninth centuries that more laws against witchcraft and witches began to take root in medieval Europe. For a few centuries after St. Augustine, nobody really cared, honestly, and most people thought it was superstitious nonsense. After the laws were passed, however, people began starting to believe in magic, witchcraft, and especially sorcery, or maleficium, and practitioners of such were increasingly thought to be possessed by the Devil.

5 13th Century

Unlucky 13. The 13th century saw a very sharp increase in superstition surrounding witches and the real beginnings of their persecution at the hands of the Church. Popes and religious figures began attacking and demonizing anyone who practiced any sort of magic or ritual outside of Christian prayer. The Roman Catholic Church began the Inquisition officially in 1184 under Pope Lucius III, and a new set of laws would be erected to combat any religious dissent throughout Europe.^[6] This gave judicial power to hunt and prosecute witches. And then Pope Gregory IX (depicted above) erected the first judges in 1227, giving them power over almost everything in the name of the Inquisition.

This is when the real torture of the heretics would begin. The Inquisition would roll into the 14th century and start off with a Church political maneuver in 1307: the trial of the Knights Templar. At this point, heretics were tried here and there, but the witch trial as we know it, in all of its horrors, was still in its infancy. The Spanish Inquisition would take things up a notch and began using brutal torture methods to draw out confessions from suspected witches, but even this was just the beginning of what was to come.

4 The Early Modern Period

The early modern period of Europe, spanning from roughly 1450 to 1750, saw a massive increase in witch trials. During this time, around 100,000 people, mostly women, were suspected of witchcraft. Half of them were executed, typically by burning at the stake.^[7] Many of these murders took place in Germany, with two particularly brutal areas being Trier and Wurzburg, and in 1589, 133 people were killed by the hands of the state, at the behest of the Church, in one single day. Germans were killing those they feared were witches ruthlessly. In 1629 alone, 279 people were executed for being witches in these areas.

The idea that any witch, no matter who they were or what they looked like, needed to be executed, spread through Europe like wildfire. Soon, every country from Scotland to Switzerland was killing people en masse. Dozens of massive witch trials took place throughout Europe as the fever of doing so set in. Tragically, thousands lost their lives for so much as being suspected of witchcraft. This spawned a new profession of witch-hunters, who looked for the supposed Devil’s Mark on people, and anyone with any sort of markings could never truly be safe. The state and Church combined, at the time, were mad with power.

3 Connecticut

Persecution mania soon spread to America, and witches were being sought out, witch-hunters employed, Devil’s Marks being supposedly found on just about anyone, and executions carried out, mainly, again, by burning at the stake. Connecticut was the first area particularly hit hard by this hysteria and bloodlust.^[8] Alice Young became the first known victim in Hartford in 1647, and from there, the people of Connecticut began killing others like had happened across the Atlantic in Europe for centuries.

Several towns started mass hunts and witch trials, complete with executions and purges. Pretty much anyone could level an accusation at someone else of being a witch and, with the requirement of only needing one witness, push the state to its methods of scare tactics and torture to obtain a confession. The first recorded witchcraft confession in Connecticut came from a woman named Mary Johnson in 1648. The subsequent years saw many more brutal executions following confessions made under extreme duress.

This went on until Governor John Winthrop enacted a new law in Connecticut in 1662, stating that two, not one, witnesses were necessary to secure a conviction of witchcraft. Up until this point, people were frequently drowned in trials by water, an echo of ancient Babylon. People had been burned alive. The witch trials of Connecticut were the stuff of horror movies. Fortunately, no one suspected of being a witch was killed after 1662.

2 Massachusetts

From Connecticut, witch trial fever spread to Massachusetts, culminating in what’s arguably the most famous massive witch hunt ever, the Salem witch trials.^[9] In 1692, paranoia ran high, and over 200 people were accused of being witches and practicing witchcraft, conjuring the forces of nature to do ill will. Of them, 20 were executed, including small children. This will forever be a dark stain in the history of humanity. Everyone believed deeply that the Devil was trying to destroy them and their families and looked at everyone else around them with grave suspicion. Six quite young girls made accusations which started the firestorm, and the whole town believed it.

In total, between 1692 and 1693, 19 people were hanged for the crime of witchcraft, and another was tortured to death. Somewhere in between 140 and 150 people were arrested in this event of mass hysteria, and it ultimately subsided suddenly. The residents of Salem suddenly began to feel profound guilt, looking around at one another, wondering what they had done. And thus, one of the darkest chapters in human history came to a close.

1 Aftermath

After nearly two years of fear, panic, paranoia, trials, people being placed in torture chambers, and murder, the last of the so-called witches were released, and the witch hunt fever subsided.^[10] Of those six girls who started the hysteria, only one of them came forth and apologized for the lie which caused the chaos, and basically, everyone just went back to their ordinary lives as if nothing had happened. This was pretty much the end of witch hunts and subsequent trials, after thousands of years of pain and punishment in the name of superstition. But that doesn’t mean that this was the end of witch hunts altogether.

Many nations still have issues with witch hunts taking place, usually in deeply religious and superstitious areas, meaning that witch hunt fever isn’t forever done with; it only lies latent in the tendencies of the believing mind, fearful and willing to strike out at perceived threats. As recently as within the past decade, witch hunts have taken place—and gotten people killed—in places like Indonesia, Cameroon, Ghana, and more nations. There is another list on those witch hunts here, which is definitely an interesting read.

Still writing about dark stuff and history. Here’s a fun little thing about the history of the witch hunt.

When Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off in court in 2022, it seemed like the world was watching. Live video feeds captured every second. Blogs and YouTube channels dissected each day’s proceedings. Viewers watched thousands of hours online. No one wanted to miss a salacious moment. However, trial journalism has a winding history that began ages before Johnny and Amber. In fact, today’s frenzied court coverage all links back to one case: the 1935 trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the man convicted of kidnapping Charles Lindbergh’s baby.

Media coverage was overwhelming in that trial. Journalists from hundreds of news outlets descended on the courthouse. Photographers climbed over tables, and flashbulbs exploded in witnesses’ faces during testimony. The coverage was so intense that the American Bar Association banned cameras from courtrooms. For four decades, the ban mostly stayed in place. But as time passed, judges slowly began to re-grant access. In 1991, federal courts started allowing cameras in civil trials. Months later, Court TV was formed and immediately began wall-to-wall coverage.

Today, almost every state allows cameras in court with varying rules. Ever since, television viewers have flocked to watch real-life courtroom drama. And here are ten of the most-followed TV trials ever.

Related: Top 10 People Found Guilty At Trial Due To Surprise Evidence

10 Ted Bundy

Serial killer Ted Bundy’s 1979 trial was the first one televised nationwide. A month before he took the stand to face murder accusations in Tallahassee, the Florida Supreme Court decided to allow journalists to film trials in the state. So when Bundy went on the stand, the courtroom was filled with more than 250 reporters from across the world.

The murderer was handsome and charismatic, and news agencies couldn’t get enough.

Bundy’s outward charm may have hidden his horrific and murderous desires, but it also made for great TV. Shocked at the scene inside his courtroom, Judge Edward Cowart likened the cameras to “a space center.” Bundy was eventually found guilty of the two murders with which he was charged and later sentenced to death. Along the way, millions of people tuned in to watch the case. Today, experts point to Bundy’s public spectacle as the birth of salacious true crime news coverage.^[1]

9 The Menendez Brothers

Lyle and Erik Menendez were attractive, athletic, and rich. So when they were accused of murdering their parents in 1989, the brothers quickly rose to infamy. Detectives said the pair shot their wealthy parents and then spent their money before being arrested. The boys countered with claims that they had been victims of sexual abuse. The story resembled a soap opera, and television producers pounced.

When the case first went to trial in 1993, Court TV cameras showed it all. Jurors were deadlocked during deliberations, and the judge declared a mistrial. Both sides prepared for a second showdown. Court TV was happy to air that one, too, after the network gained three million subscribers during the first trial. The public was so invested in the spectacle that the LA District Attorney’s Office was getting dozens of calls every day from viewers with ideas on how to prosecute the brothers.

By the time Lyle and Erik were convicted at the second trial in 1996, millions of people followed along. Court TV’s ratings win encouraged other networks to air trial content. Fortunately for producers, the perfect case was right there for the airing…^[2]

8 O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson had it all: The former college football sensation and pro football star was a successful actor with a big bank account and a beautiful family. So when he was accused of murdering his ex-wife in 1994, his fall from grace shocked the world. His bizarre slow-speed police pursuit was broadcast live on TV and set the tone for the public’s fascination. When he went on trial in 1995, attention quickly trumped the Menendez case, and Simpson became the biggest media spectacle ever.

When the jury declared him not guilty of murder, more than 150 million Americans—almost 60% of the country—watched on TV. Telecom companies nationwide recorded a 50% drop in phone use during the verdict. Water companies saw usage decline as viewers delayed bathroom breaks to watch. After the trial ended, CNN and Court TV saw viewer declines for non-O.J. content.

Concern over the fall in ratings pushed news outlets to cover more trials. O.J.’s public interest never waned. Two decades later, nearly 14 million people watched the ex-football star’s parole hearing following a nine-year prison sentence for armed robbery.^[3]

7 Adolf Eichmann

While Ted Bundy’s 1979 murder rap kicked off the true crime craze in America, it wasn’t the world’s first televised trial. That dark distinction belongs to war criminal Adolf Eichmann. In his military life, Eichmann was responsible for transporting millions of Jews to Holocaust death camps during World War II. After the war, he escaped to Argentina and went into hiding. Fleeing kept him from consequences at the Nuremberg Trials after the war. Eichmann’s luck didn’t last forever, though.

In 1960, Israeli special agents tracked him down in South America. A year later, he went on trial for war crimes related to the genocide. Israeli courts allowed the entire trial to be televised, becoming the world’s first courtroom TV event. Millions of people tuned in to watch the shocking testimony of Holocaust survivors. The broadcast proved extremely significant: it was the first time much of the world learned about what happened in the concentration camps. Eichmann was found guilty of war crimes and executed by hanging in 1962.^[4]

6 William Kennedy Smith

William Kennedy Smith was a medical student in 1991 when he visited Florida with his uncle. At a bar one night, he met a woman named Patricia Bowman. The two went back to William’s place. Once there, something went wrong, and Bowman accused him of assault and rape. Smith wasn’t just any medical student, though. He was John F. Kennedy’s nephew. And the uncle with whom he’d been traveling was Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. So when Smith went on trial later that year, Court TV was ready.

The network covered every moment of the trial and saw its ratings surge. Every night, non-24-hour entertainment news shows like Inside Edition aired key moments from the testimony. Media interest was so intense that tabloid shows took unethical steps for access. One prosecution witness admitted she was paid $40,000 to take part in two TV interviews on A Current Affair.

As for Smith, he was acquitted of the charges against him. Journalists offered the acquittal as a victory for having television cameras in court since the coverage allowed millions of Americans to see the justice system at work.^[5]

5 Jeffrey Dahmer

Like Ted Bundy more than a decade earlier, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer drew a macabre following once his crimes came to light. When Dahmer was charged with 15 murders and ordered to stand trial in 1992, 24-hour news channels were relatively new. When looking to fill time around the clock, networks jumped at the opportunity to cover Dahmer’s shocking exploits. In Milwaukee, where many of his murders took place, interest was particularly high.

But Dahmer’s violent acts proved a bit too disturbing even for tabloid TV coverage. Court TV aired the trial on a 20-second delay as producers rushed to edit out grisly testimony about the victims’ remains. Other networks weren’t able to sanitize their footage as quickly. The disgusting content didn’t damage viewership, though. When the jury’s guilty verdict came back, more than 60 news organizations aired it around the world. Dahmer was sentenced to 957 years in prison for the murders. Two years later, he was killed by another inmate.^[6]

4 Rodney King

The 1992 trial of four Los Angeles police officers over the brutal beating of Rodney King didn’t garner as much of a worldwide following as some on this list. But no trial in American history has had as violent an aftermath as this one. It started in 1991 when King was attacked by several LAPD officers after a pursuit. A witness secretly recorded a video of the beating. When it aired on news networks, people nationwide were outraged over King’s treatment at the hands of the cops.

Four officers were ultimately charged with assault and excessive use of force. Tensions were so high that their 1992 trial had to be moved to nearby Ventura County. Courtroom coverage proved lucrative for networks, with viewers in southern California especially interested. That was nothing compared to what happened after the verdict, though.

When the officers were acquitted of the assault charges, frustrated Angelenos erupted. Five days of rioting throughout the city resulted in more than $1 billion in property damage, 63 deaths, and more than 2,300 injuries. With the horrified nation looking on, President George H.W. Bush had to send in the National Guard to restore order.^[7]

3 Casey Anthony

It’s impossible to hear Casey Anthony’s name without thinking of Nancy Grace. A former prosecutor, Grace was a popular TV commentator on HLN when Casey’s two-year-old daughter Caylee was found dead in Florida in December 2008. On her primetime show, Grace seized on the case. She famously called Casey “Tot Mom” on air and obsessively analyzed evidence. The TV host slammed Casey for allegedly misleading police about Caylee’s last-known whereabouts. After pictures of the mom partying after her daughter’s death were uncovered, Grace erupted.

As Casey’s trial began in 2011, HLN went into overdrive. Grace’s fanatical coverage paid off for the network. HLN viewership nearly doubled during the six-week trial. On the day of the verdict, 5.2 million people tuned in live—the channel’s highest ratings ever. When the jury unexpectedly announced Casey’s acquittal, audiences watched as Grace memorably fumed, “the devil is dancing tonight,” and “Caylee’s death has gone unavenged!”^[8]

8 Jodi Arias

Police suspected Jodi Arias of murder after her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander was brutally stabbed to death in 2008. It took more than five years for the legal process to run its course, though. During that time, sordid details about the former couple’s life made it one of the first true crime stories to go viral online. The case was complicated, and Arias’s first two trials ended in hung juries. She eventually admitted to killing Alexander but claimed it had been in self-defense.

In court, prosecutors presented evidence that Arias took pictures of her ex as he was bleeding to death. Just as she did with Casey Anthony, Nancy Grace hammered home shocking details about Arias’s love life and mindset for the entire 19-week trial. HLN’s viewership skyrocketed on the day Arias was sentenced to life in prison following a guilty verdict in May 2013. Her lawyers were shocked by the “circus-like atmosphere” of the television coverage at the trial. They filed an appeal, arguing the court failed to protect their client from the relentless media coverage. Thus far, her conviction has been upheld.^[9]

1 Lindsay Lohan

Former child star Lindsay Lohan’s 2010 trial didn’t cover the same level of crime as the rest on this list. In her case, the Parent Trap star was called in front of a judge after two drunk driving arrests and multiple probation violations. But the Hollywood star was an emotional wreck in court. Viewers watched as Lohan sobbed uncontrollably while addressing the judge. The media frenzy increased after cameras picked up a profane message subtly painted on her fingernails.

In the end, Lohan’s sentence was relatively minor. The judge ordered her to spend 90 days in jail and another 90 days in rehab. Her story drew a new kind of attention, though: TMZ streamed the July 2010 verdict live online and drew nearly 2.5 million website hits. With that threshold crossed, online virality quickly began to usurp must-see TV. But no matter the broadcast technology, the public’s interest in scandal has never slowed. From Hauptmann to Heard, viewers are as interested in high-pressure trials today as they’ve ever been.^[10]