Killing the Witches summary

Bridget Bishop was no stranger to gossip and suspicion in Salem. The thrice-widowed resident had a taste for colorful clothes that did not fit the Puritan mold. Rumors she had killed her last husband trailed her for years. 

In 1692, gossip turned to formal charges. Some of the “afflicted” young girls claimed Bridget's specter had choked and pinched them. Their ringleader was twelve-year-old Ann Putnam. Over the next few years, she would testify against over sixty people. Her mother, her step-cousin Mary Walcott and her servant Mercy Lewis all joined in. Her father Thomas Putnam drafted the legal complaints. 

Bridget Bishop was far from the only casualty of Salem’s witch hunt hysteria. Between February 1692 and May 1693, more than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of which were executed by hanging – 14 of them women. The victims included outcasts but also some respected community members. One old farmer, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea. 

As the death toll mounted, some began questioning the witch hunt hysteria. But there was a prominent Puritan voice silencing the dissenters and reassuring the believers: Cotton Mather.

By autumn 1692, the zealous frenzy fueling the trials in Salem was waning. 

Several events combined to halt the deadly prosecutions. For one, the hysteria was raising concerns abroad. News of the injustice reached England, alarming King William and Queen Mary. They began questioning the competence of the colonial leadership that had permitted such brutality.

Though the Salem Witch Trials ended, dangerous religious divisions remained a part of American life. As the nation slowly secularized, the Puritan old guard clung to rigid orthodoxy. This tension would soon contribute to the American Revolution.

In the middle of this struggle was Benjamin Franklin. Once a loyal British subject, Franklin had seen the Crown's contempt for colonists firsthand. After spending several decades in London, Franklin returned to America in 1775, his allegiance shifting.  

Ronald Hunkeler was an ordinary American teenager. But in 1949, terror invaded his suburban life. The thirteen-year-old lived with his family in Maryland, where his eccentric aunt introduced him to séances and summoning spirits.

Strange events began plaguing Ronald's home. Scratching sounds and footsteps tormented him at night. Furniture shook violently around the frightened boy. After seeking psychiatric help to no avail, Ronald's Lutheran parents turned to the Catholic church for a last resort: an exorcism.