Cruel and Unusual: Four Short Stories of Judicial Horror (Book One)

OTHER TITLES BY ERIK DEAN

CRUELER AND MORE UNUSUAL

GARBAGEMAN

CRYPTIC

Witch Tryals (1692)

While you were in school, you might have read about the Salem witch trials in your history books. You also might have searched online to learn more about the subject. It is a historical fact that nineteen people were hanged for practicing witchcraft in New England. An additional suspect was pressed to confess that he was a witch, and he died from the subsequent torture without admitting to any guilt. What you might not know is that nobody in what is now the United States was ever burned at the stake for witchcraft. That form of execution was practiced only in European countries.

Many years later, the people who were executed by hanging were exonerated of the charge of practicing witchcraft. These are the historical facts. But this isn’t the whole story. There were other witch tryals that are not written about in any history books. This is their story.

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Helen Dinsmore couldn’t sleep. Unable to quiet her mind, she was careful not to disturb the four women sleeping on the earthen floor as she paced back and forth within the small room. All she could think about was how she and the other prisoners would soon meet the same fate as Abigail Rouse—all were sentenced to hang for witchcraft.

Death did not frighten the seventy-two-year-old Helen Dinsmore. Although the last ten years had been rough for her, she had lived a long and fruitful life. After losing her husband to a brutal bear attack, Helen had to sell her property to survive. Five years later, the money from that sale was gone. Unfortunately for her, she had to resort to begging for food and shelter to survive. Some of the townspeople were kind, and others were not.

Forty-seven years prior, Helen and her twenty-eight-year-old husband, Henry, arrived in Salem Town. At that time, she was only twenty-five years old. Slightly older than the women with whom she now shared the cell.

Her husband was a carpenter by trade, and Henry built many of the buildings around Salem Town. While her husband was at work, Helen cared for the home and garden. During that time, they were a respected couple within their community. Although she and her husband did, in fact, practice witchcraft, they never used their powers for evil or personal gain. They practiced mostly white magic.

The spells and potions they made in their home were used to help people within their community. Those spells helped their friends’ crops grow, animals multiply, and minor ailments heal.

Helen and the other witches within Salem Town didn’t broadcast their beliefs or try to convert others to their way of thinking—especially after many of their kind were executed throughout Europe. They usually kept to themselves and tried to blend in with the townspeople, acting as if they were not witches.

For many years, it was peaceful within Salem Town until the Puritans arrived. They, too, had escaped religious persecution in Europe, so the witches and the others welcomed the newcomers to their community. Over time, however, Puritans outnumbered the original townspeople and took control.

The Puritans were a hyper-religious Christian sect that pushed their religious views on the non-Puritan population, expecting others to see things their way. Those who didn’t were looked down upon, or in severe cases, punished by being restrained in stocks and through public whippings.

Most Puritans could read, and, although they were educated, they were suspicious of anyone who wasn’t a Puritan. When they heard rumors of witchcraft being practiced among the townspeople, they went on a campaign to demonize the practice. While the devil was a product of their religion and not part of the witches’ ideology, the Puritans tried to link Satan to witchcraft to further their agenda.

When things went wrong in Salem Town—whether poor crops, sickness, or just plain bad luck—the Puritans used witches as scapegoats for their woes.

Most Puritans disliked their non-Puritan neighbors, not only for their religious differences, but also because their neighbors were more successful farmers and owned more land. Likewise, the Puritans were a male-dominated sect. Since the men ruled everything, they had tight control over their womenfolk and disapproved of how the non-Puritan women acted when in town. They found them to be disrespectful and unholy.  Also, the female witches did not act like second-class citizens – as the Puritan females did – but as equals to men. The younger female witches worked hard to appear like Puritans to avoid causing trouble.

In 1692, the trouble for the witches began when the Puritans started an anti-witch campaign. Poor Abigail was the first to endure the ordeal after some Puritan men arrested her in the middle of the night and accused her of malicious witchcraft. Sure, Abigail was a witch, but she would not have harmed the townspeople. But the Puritan men took a simple spell to foresee the future and turned it into something evil.

Unfortunately, at the request of  some Puritan girls, Abigail offered to show them the future. She cracked an egg to start the spell, but one of the girls claimed that she saw a casket within the yolk’s reflection. The girls became frightened and left Abigail’s home. At Abigail’s tryal, the girl and a friend testified about seeing the casket.

During the tryal, Abigail tried to explain what really happened. She told the magistrate, Amos Roland, that she hadn’t finished the spell, making it impossible for the girls to have seen the casket within the yolk. Then, in a long speech, Reverend Jasper Snyder told the magistrate how using witchcraft to see the future was the devil’s work. The reverend also said he was concerned that this evil could spread throughout the town if it wasn’t confined and eliminated. The magistrate, who was a Puritan too, agreed that the evil had to be stopped. He sentenced Abigail to be hanged for witchcraft. This marked the beginning of the witch hunt in the Salem Township.

Soon after, Patience Crockett and Primrose Crummey were also arrested, accused of causing afflictions upon Eleanor Erwin and Temperance Wallace. These were the same girls who had accused Abigail of witchcraft.

During Patience and Primrose’s tryal, Reverend Snyder had Bituba – a confessed witch who was never hanged – make a witch cake. This cake was made like any other cake, with the exception of an added ingredient. Bituba blended the accused witches’ urine into the batter. It was said that if the cake was fed to a dog, the witches would be in a lot of pain since the dog was eating a part of them.

Reverend Snyder brought a dog into the courtroom and placed the witch cake in front of it. He announced to the courtroom, This dog will be fed the witch cake, and we’ll see what happens.

When the dog started eating the cake, Patience and Primrose howled in pain. They fell onto the courtroom floor, shouting, It hurts! It hurts! Both were sentenced to be hanged for witchcraft and were thrown into jail until the time of execution.

*  *  *

Mary Ross and Esther Griffith accused Charity Whitelock of witchcraft. In this tryal, the young women testified that the specter of Charity appeared to each of them in the middle the night, warning them to leave her livestock alone or risk bad afflictions coming their way. Charity said she was not guilty and that she had never visited any of her accusers as a specter.

Reverend Snyder wanted to prove her evil intentions, so he used the touch test to see whether she was a witch. He blindfolded both accusers and had a line of townspeople, including himself, perform the test. Each person was asked to walk behind the blindfolded accusers and touch them lightly on their shoulders. If nothing happened, the next person would touch them. If a witch touched the accusers, however, they would, supposedly, cry out. There was a line of ten people for this test. One by one, they touched the young women on the shoulders, and nothing happened.

There were only three people left in line. The reverend was first, then Charity, and finally a townsman. The reverend walked between both girls and touched them on the shoulders. Nothing happened. Charity timidly approached her accusers from behind. The Puritans in the courtroom watched with anticipation as Charity touched their shoulders. Both Mary Ross and Esther Griffith screamed in pain. They fell to the floor, sobbing aloud. After seeing that spectacle, two Puritan men brought Charity closer to the magistrate. He sentenced Charity to be hanged for witchcraft and threw her in jail until her execution.

*  *  *

Comfort Parker was accused by Eleanor Erwin and Temperance Wallace of witchcraft. They testified that Comfort visited them as a specter, and soon after, they were afflicted with epileptic seizures. The reverend had the accusers come into the courtroom to testify. As they came closer to Comfort, the accusers fell to the floor and began to have convulsions. They babbled nonsensical words and said that they saw the devil in the courtroom. Soon after that spectacle, the magistrate sentenced Comfort to be hanged as a witch. She, too, was put in jail until the time of execution.

*  *  *

Helen Dinsmore reflected on her own tryal. Like the others, she was falsely accused of using black witchcraft. However, Helen felt she was smarter than Reverend Snyder, and she wasn’t going to allow him to get away with this false accusation. He claimed that Eleanor Erwin and Temperance Wallace accused her of coming to them as a phantom and putting an affliction on them.

Helen cursed the accusers for their false testimonies against her and the other witches, and explained to the magistrate that what they had accused her of was pure nonsense. She denied visiting the two liars as a spirit or putting an affliction spell upon them. Furthermore, she stated that she practiced so-called white magic, which was used only for good purposes.

So, you do admit that you are a witch! Reverend Snyder said.

Yes, I am. And I have never denied that I am, Helen said. I have never caused any harm to any of you, unlike the disdain you and your kind have shown to me and other townsfolk who don’t share your religious beliefs.

Of course we don’t like your kind. You are one with the devil. You and other ones like you do his will and spread evil among God-fearing people.

Nonsense! Witches do not believe in your devil. So how can we possibly do his bidding?

The townspeople within the courtroom were talking loudly to one another about the spirited exchange between Helen and Reverend Snyder.

The magistrate called the courtroom to order. I want to hear the young ladies tell their side of the story. Bring them in.

Reverend Snyder left the courtroom to retrieve his witnesses. Shortly, he returned with the two accusers. The young women slowly approached the magistrate. As they passed Helen and looked at her, they screamed in pain and fell to the floor. The women started having fits and saying words that nobody could understand.

See! She did this to them. She doesn’t want them to testify against her, Reverend Snyder shouted while pointing at Helen. She is an evil witch.

I did not do this to them! Helen said, but her protest fell on deaf ears. For no one would listen to her argument.

The magistrate agreed with Reverend Snyder’s assessment. He sentenced Helen to death by hanging. She was thrown in jail with the others until the time of execution. This morning was that time.

*  *  *

Helen Dinsmore heard the clickety-clack of hoofbeats outside her jail cell. A cart pulled by a pair of horses was approaching the jail courtyard. The other women were awoken by the echoing sounds, knowing they would be taken to Gallows Hill to meet their doom soon.

Please tell me that it isn’t time yet. I don’t want to die, the sixteen-year-old Patience Crockett said.

Helen Dinsmore put her arm around the young woman to comfort her. They won’t do anything to us until the sun has risen fully, Helen said in a soothing voice. We still have some time left.

Primrose and Charity got up to look through the barred window, just in time to see the horse-drawn cart enter the jail’s courtyard.

Is it that day? Primrose said aloud to no one in particular.

I think so, Charity said. I am afraid.

The two of you should get away from the window. Do not waste what little time we have left looking at the hangman’s cart, Comfort said.

What do you suggest we do? Primrose snapped back.

I’m just saying that we shouldn’t make things worse for ourselves thinking about what they’re going to do to us. We should think about our family and friends who have loved us, and not those despicable Puritans.

I agree, Helen Dinsmore said. Besides, if I’m going to die, I can’t think of anyone else I would rather be with than you good women.

The others agreed.

Will it hurt? Patience asked with tears in her eyes.

I heard that it is quick and with little pain, Helen said, trying to comfort her. Helen wasn’t sure if it