England's Worst Witch Trial: Pendle Witches

Bootleg liquor. Tommy guns. Gangs ruling the city with crooked cops.The Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 Chicago sounds cinematic, but the fear and the bloodshed was very real.What was the perfect storm that created this horrifying moment? How did it unfold? And how did the cops ...  Show more

Julia Pastrana was a Mexican woman exploited as a sideshow attraction in life and grotesquely exhibited even after her death because of her appearance. Her story is part of the dark history of the Victorian 'freak show'. Anthony tells Maddy the story.This episode was edited by Ha ...  Show more

More than 200 accused, 20 executed and a village plagued with hysteria. Were the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 the work of superstition, a power struggle, fungus or actual witchcraft? What makes them stand out in the history of witch trials?

In this episode, Do ...

It’s that time of year again, Halloween. A word which conjures up images of pumpkins, ghosts, and of course…witches.

But have you ever wondered what the ancient origins of witchcraft is? How did the black-hat-broomstick stereotype emerge? And what causes the waves of ...

Forty years before the infamous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, Hugh Parsons stepped out of his dirty, disease ridden prison cell in Boston and was carted off towards the courthouse in order to stand trial as a witch. He’d come from a small settlement named Springfield over ...  Show more

Helen Duncan is sometimes described as Scotland’s last witch, or the last person imprisoned for witchcraft in Britain, or the last person to be tried under the UK’s 1735 Witchcraft Act. None of those are quite accurate.

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