You're listening to the Parallel UK Reunion work. Hello. My name is Kerrie
and I am from Equilibrium Collective and I'm here today to talk to you a
little bit about the things that I find interesting. Hopefully you will feel the
same way. But I intend to take you on a little journey looking at
the UK and some of the pockets of history and story and mystery and in
this case, in this particular instance, witchcraft. I hope that I'm able
to do that in a way that you the listener, is able to take
some information and have a little bit of food for thought about how far we
have come from the mentality of the years that have come before us, whether
we have or not. But before I do that, I want to talk
to you a little bit about who I am, as this is probably the
first time that you might have experienced me or come across me. Maybe not
so, but if it is, this is me. I am Kerry Anne.
I am from the self East parts of the UK, in a place
called Essex. I consider myself a paranormal researcher investigator. I tend to steer
away from the word hunter, although I will say that many many years ago
I would have proudly proclaimed myself as one. But knowledge is power, So
a paranormal researcher, I believe that I am a sensitive to energy and I
incorporate that into some of the workings that I do when it comes to the
paranormal. And I am also a psychology graduate, So within itself, you
can imagine the conundrum that might kind of spearhead within me. So to categorize
myself outside of that, I find it very hard. I like to say
that I am a believer in the paranormal. However, I understand the constructs
that we have the framework to belief, the influences in our environment and our
home and our body that might create susceptibility to believe or interpret. But that
doesn't mean that I believe that it doesn't exist. I do very much.
So, so what do I like about the paranormal and the things that I've
done so far? So I've been very fortunate. I've been within paranormal teams
for the last ten years or so. It's been a I started a long
time ago where I would say it wasn't as popular as it is today,
or maybe it was, and I just didn't realize because I hadn't seen it
for myself. However, I'm aware now that there's a lot more conversations about
it and a lot more a lot more people are interested. I have seen
some amazing places, and I've investigated some amazing places, and one thing I
have loved about the paranormal as is that I have been fortunate to meet the
most fascinating people along the way. And for those that happened within the paranormal
being a year, two years or more will say the same. These people
are very unique. And when you have conversations that involve active listening, you
learn a lot about the word world around you that you might not have knowledge
of previous. So that's one thing I enjoy the most. That is something
I hope to bring if you enjoy listening to this podcast and you wish to
join me on future ones, it is something that I wish to bring to
any of the podcasts that I do in the future. I hope to speak
about things and speak to people that talk or share in information I had no
prior knowledge of before. I hope that expands my experience and my understanding to
the paranormal world or the world in which I live. And I hope that
I am able to do that for those that listen as well. So I
hope that you stay on this journey with me, and if you feel like
you're a person that can enable me to do that, then you're always welcome
to come along and have a chat with me. Please feel free to get
in touch with the show, the show's platform, or or with myself.
So what am I going to speak about today? I have a real affinity
with the history around witchcraft and the women that get lost in he said.
She said, you know, narratives looking at what happened and who done it,
rather than who were they and what lives are they live in? How
did this event happen? That's kind of what I've spent a long time doing
well for the last few years. What I absolutely love about the UK is
that there is so many nooks and crannies of history and pockets of people that
get lost amongst the everyday life of the conundrum of the area, that if
you just spent a moment and stood still in those places, you can instantly
be taken back in time because that story is still so loud and clear,
and it's carried for generational through families of If you want to talk about the
nuclear family, you know, the grandmother looking after the children, who then
look after the children, who look after the Children's stories are then shared through
generational and then it gets part of the identity of that community. But as
a passer by, as a traveler moving through, just to take a moment
to stop and stay still, instantly put in that moment in time, and
you're able to understand and hear those that remain as an imprint along with it.
That is my passion, and that is what I've been focusing on for
the last city January, and I've been very fortunate that I've been able to
travel and see some of these places for myself. What I hope to do
is talk a little bit about those experiences. But as well as that,
I want to talk about take your little journey through the UK. I want
to talk about three cases in particular that I found interesting, and each within
their own right, are focused on a individual, but it's the story of
the people that are around them that make up the story of the individual themselves.
That is what I find so fascinating. It's almost like I think,
therefore I am, but in the concept of they are because I say they
are, which is so important when we do investigations. This place is haunted
because I say it's haunted, and sometimes it's not even because we say it's
haunted, it's because we've heard so many times that it is. Therefore we
think, therefore it is. We find what we seek, almost like a
self fulfilling prophecy. I always find it's so important to be the open minded
to those kind of aspects of investigation because we are influenced in such a way
that could be so slight that we don't realize that we've been influenced by him.
This is a whole topic for another show, hopefully, so I won't
go too much into that, but that's kind of what the focus is today.
So I asked, before I carry on, I want you to have
a think about your local witch, your story that's associated to your town or
a town close buyer of your local witch. What do you know about them?
Because it's a he or a she or are they child? What do
you know about them? What have you heard about them? Because it's two
different things to know and to hear and to assume. And then what I
would like for you to do is just take a moment and actually research what
was happening at the time of the allegation. Who was that person that was
accused and what happened to them? And remind yourself that this is a loved
one. This is a grandmother, a grandfather, a mom, and Nan
a dad. I repeat myself with Nan or child, a human being,
a sentient human being with feelings and faults, and more time than not they
give in because I cannot handle or they cannot cannot no longer take the pain
and the torture that they're going through. It Why, I want you to
think about that a little bit before I carry on, and if you wish
to share your story with me afterwards, its absolutely if I am, I
welcome it. I'm always interested in expanding my knowledge and knowing more about an
area. I'd like to feel I have some kind of understanding of so less
about me. I'm going to discuss the cases that I feel are good examples
in different contexts of the impact misinformation has on a society, the effect that
has on the individual, the demonization, the prosecution, and the ill theorized,
and how that still has left a mark in the town that it belongs.
It still affects people today, and the reason why it affects people today
is because those stories still are still alive, very much so, and they
are tend to have been passed down and those stories themselves within that narrative,
the fear still remains because a lot of the time these stories that are remembered
are are false. And the reason why there I remember the way they are
is because they're attached to stereotyping, because it's just our natural way to be
able to remember things when we associate things to a stereotype. Because of that,
a lot of the true information it gets left by the wayside, and
the less true information, even if there is scientific evidence to dismiss it,
are usually the ones that stay rooted. And it's because of those that the
stories and the injustices still remain today. But what I find so sad,
and the reason why I'm talking about the cases the way that I am,
is because it is the injustice that he is missed that is not where the
focus is laid. The focus is laid within the ghost story and the torment
and the torture and the pain and the heartache. But the injustice is what
is left to one side, in my opinion. So the first case study
I want to speak about is a place that I've visited myself. It is
called the Old Oak Tree or the Chained Oak Tree. Is situated in private
grounds. You are able to stay there because this private grounds happens to also
be a farm that has a Airbnb a place to stay, and it's beautiful
there as well. It is directly opposite Autumn Towers. Autumn Towers has a
ride that has been created because of the ghost story that is attached to the
land, and it's called the Hecks. I don't know if anyone's been there
and roade it, but I see it and it looks I'm more scared of
that ride than I am about the ghost story. But it is a fascinating
story. So the lad tell you a little bit about the train. The
tree is situated in a privately owned wood, and this wood was the road
home for the Earl of Shropshire. And what happened was one day this Earl
of Shropshire, who happens to be known as the Good of Shopshire, so
he must have been having a really bad day this day he was driving home
and he got stopped by a they referred to as a hag or a gypsy
or as a witch. There's lots of different same connotation, different words using
a negative way. And she asked for some change, and he kind of
shunned her and went on her way. And with that she cursed him,
and she said, for every branch that fell from this tree, this huge
oak tree, for every branch that fell from this tree, a member of
your family would die. To that extent, there will be misfortune, ill
fortune at your doorstep. And with that he just went on his way home.
And that's where it was, to the tower in autumn, that's where
he lived. And with that, there's lots of different kind of stories.
But whether it was the next day or a couple of weeks, there was
a massive storm and a lightning struck the tree and one of the branches fell,
and with that, within a matter of days, he is six month
old son passed away. Now he went or the wife commanded that the tree
would be chained up and that would stop any more misfortune, and it is
still chained to this day. The reason why I find this story is so
fascinating isn't so much the story itself, but the imprint that that has left
within the community. Is a small village, a farming village made up with
farms mostly. It's not far from the castle in Alton, which overlooks the
land itself where the tree is, and it's very rustic and rural, and
it still is today this day, beautifully beautiful village, but a lot of
the people that live within Alton still tell the story with a lot of fear.
The lady that and the farm, the landowner. When I spoke to
her about it, she told me that she once went she studied at Catholic
school, and the Mother of Mercy would call that tree the druid tree,
and would say that druids would go there on their sabbaths and create rituals,
and they would perform human sacrifices. There is no documentation of this, there's
no evidence of this is not really I'm not saying it doesn't. I'm not
going to say that none of this is true. However, there is nothing
documented that I was able to find that such things happened at this location.
So before it was called the old Oak Tree, it was referred to the
locals as Druid tree. Another local I spoke to had actually taken at a
branch sapling was created from this branch, and he has one growing in his
own land and he refuses to cut and he had the branches off because of
the superstition that's attached to it. So what I want to look at?
When I went there, I was very confused what level or aspect of that
investigation was I had to focus on. Was I to focus on the story
of the witch or the cunning woman, or the gypsy or the hag,
the lady that was had ill fortune and needed help, which is what,
if ever this happened. Was more so the case was I had to investigate
the death that occurred the earl, the wife who was associated so much with
that tree, that that would be a place that I would investigate. When
I started communication, I did make contact with a spirit and this wasn't a
hag, wasn't a child, It wasn't earl, it wasn't the wife,
but someone completely different that had their own story that they were able to tell.
From my research of looking this location, I haven't been able to find
anyone that has made communication with any of those with sufficient evidence, not suggested
sufficient class a communication beyond reasonable doubt, which I know it's hard to ask
for, But how is this story still alive to this day when it happened
to the fourteenth century, I could be wrong. How is it still alive
today? How is the tree still bound with chains? What would be associated
to that tree? The tree is quite a feet to get to. It
is quite high up on a bank, and there's very steep little steps you
can take to go up there. And I'm not easy on my feet,
and I'm scared of huts, so I didn't have the best time. But
even there's lots of aspects of that tree is very omnimous. Without without the
which thinking wherever I pronounced like creeping, without the other elements to it,
It's huge, absolutely huge, and blocks out a lot of light with the
chain, the huge iron chains hanging off of it, quite high up on
a hill. When you stand at the base looking up it tower was over
you. What is that going to do for your flight of fight? There
are so many people that won't go near that tree. There's so many people
that won't go on the land. I did whilst I was there, order
food, and when the local delivery person come onto the grounds, he said,
is this named after the tree? I said, oh, yeah,
it's just over there is oh I'm staying here. I'm going You're actually staying
here. I'm like, yeah, I am, You're like now, I'm
going. So even to this day, it causes so much fear. The
farm itself is absolutely stunning, and not one part of it even made me
for uneasy. I will say being presented and standing at the foot of the
tree will obviously awaken a fear of or an overwhelming sense of dominance. I
think all these things need to be considered, and its perpetuation of stories that's
added to it with no clear understanding what really happened. Who really are we
to be afraid of? What should we be investigating? What part of the
story is fact? Could it be that the farmers there could have been something
that was around that tree that if it felt it would harm or break or
damage, and it was done so that it wouldn't cause any more any further
damage to it. It also is sitting opposite a beautiful little stream, And
when I was there at eight o'clock in the morning, with no one us
around, the sound of the water and the tree whistling in the wind,
and the birds, that's the moment that I wanted to remember. The communication
had nothing to do with any of oursociation to tree. That's what I wanted
to remember. Non real idea of who the woman hag the witch was.
That is something to remember. So if you have any information about the old
chained oak tree or the Juria tree that's situated on private land in autumn in
the UK, then I really do encourage to get in touch. I would
love to know more. Tell me about this story, help me understand why
this fear is carried through the years and who should we be investigating there?
Who is it that we need to make contact with? That's my question.
So the next case that I wish to talk about I find quite interesting on
a personal level because it looks at the person who is accused of witchcraft and
then explain the environmental, sociological, and economical factors that influence the people behind
the accusing, the perpetrators, the abusers, the tortures. It explores how
does someone have the capability to turn someone or think about them in an inhuman
way to perform inhuman acts upon them. We explore this in so many different
contexts. How is an individual able to sit at a table with their family
and then go out and harm someone and then just return like nothing's happened,
and it's an occurring theme that people are a bit able to dehumanize someone.
So we're going to look at that massive area that produced this mentality. So
we're starting at Suffolk and the witch trials of Suffolk, but more so we're
going to look at the Ipswich witch trials. Happened in the sixteen hundreds and
it was conducted and led by the witch Finder General Matthew Hopkins. Now this
was at a time where there was a lot happening. We had the Cold
War. We had people's ships, so Ipswich at that time was a coal
merchant, so people were coming from Europe and coming back out and traveling all
over bringing coal over. So we had a time where there was a Cold
War, so these these ships that belonged to people were being taken and taking
people out to war, and the ships wouldn't come back or the people wouldn't
come back. We had a king who was ruling without parliament at the time,
who believed that he was going to be overruled by Catholics. It was
very paranoid. We had the Black Plague at the same time as this,
so what we had was a lot of things happening to a group of people
for a good food few years and what was happening amongst these people was this.
What did we do to deserve this? What did we do? What
can we do to fix it? There was a lot of harsh oppression of
women and children. Poverty was at his peak. It was a time of
rising of the church, and you would find that the everyday living life was
very much conformed to the churches understanding of how life should be structured. There
would be three hour lectures that would happen twice a week and during these times
life would stop for the people that lived in this area and for a lot
of people that followed this religion at that time. There isn't a real understanding
of how many people lived in Ipswich at this time. The way that they
would do it was since this would be that there would be a head of
the household, and each head of the household would be counted the assumption that
there would be a typical amount of people living in a house, so for
example, of parents and children, two parents two children. So there was
a guestimation based upon how many heads of households there were, and so there's
no real understanding of how many people were living in this one area, but
they do believe it's the low thousands. You can imagine this had a very
kind of like small village mentality and the fact that everyone knew everyone, everyone
was aware or had made contact of other people that lived in that village.
So there was a lot of this why what is the message God is trying
to give me? And then projecting that because obviously it's with the outside of
their means of fixing. There's greater forces that are playing a hand here,
So who is to blame? Why is this happening? This meant that many
would project and blame on people that didn't fit within the societal norms of what
they accepted within that community. And what did it mean to fit within those
societal norms. Well, it mean that you were married, you wasn't widowed,
you had children, if you was a woman, didn't read, you
didn't attend church without your husband, you stayed at home looking after the children
whilst your husband worked, and you took very good care of your husband.
So for those that lived or outlived without their husband, who never got married,
the Wenches or the Crones, well they didn't quite fit within that subtle
norm. So if you didn't fit into the solution of the way how life
should be lived, then we're all being punished for your misdoing. And that's
what created this us and them dehumanization. It's either you or it's even my
family. And that's kind of what you can identify here. What they did
do for widows who couldn't attend church because their husbands had passed away, was
that they found a really old piece of land within Ipswich and he had been
passed down from company to company, governing body to governing body and council,
and he had really poor house on there. And they decided that what they
were going to do was they were going to take all the widows and they
were going to move them onto this area of land, and each widow,
just to keep them out of trouble, would be given a spinning wheel to
keep them proactivity. Devil makes use for idle hands apparently, So all this
was happening at the same time Mary Luckland or Widow, finding her voice and
her path into being her true authentic self. Now, as far as the
documentation goes with understanding who Mary Luckland was, she was a very confident,
spoken woman who lived intos seventies so exceeded life expectancy. She outlived lived sorry
her husband John Luckland, and she would often read the Bible to other women
who were unable to attend church because they didn't have an husband to take them.
Mary Mary Luckland, got accused of witchcraft, and because of the timing,
there was a bishop that was in power that wasn't pushing these cases forward
the way that well, the which finer general would like. At this time,
there was a change of bishop which meant that a lot of these cases
were pushed forward quite quickly, and there was eight mass hearing for those that
were accused of witchcraft. Now, out of the many that was accused,
there was only two people that were found guilty, and that was Mary herself
and a lady called Alice Desim is my understanding her last name. Now Mary
had been found guilty of petty treason. It was believed that Mary had killed
her husband twenty years prior with witchcraft, and not even that the main focus
there was that she had allegedly killed her husband. Why was she put to
stand to court in the first place? Well, I shall tell you the
other allegations. Should I say was that she fed her familiars, numerous familiars,
and more importantly, she confronted and upset William Lawrence and son. Now
William was a lecturer. What does she do to upset him? I hear
you say. Will she accuse William of oppressing the poor, faining to support
orphans and widows, stealing the spirit of children through abuse, through putting them
into work too early and not allowing them to enjoy their childhood, giving poor
provisions including food and support to orphans and widows, and profiting offered them both.
It is alleged that a week after this happened, his son fell ill
and soon after that passed away. So that is really what she had been
accused of witchcraft four. But the interesting fact about Mary Luckland was this,
that is not what she was found guilty of. Essentially, she was found
guilty of petty treason, which meant that she was accused of killing her husband.
Now, at this time King Henry the Eighth for little Paranoid decided that
he was going to put in a law that basically said, therefore a woman
was to be found to plus against killing her husband or killing her husband,
she is to be boiled in a vat of oil or be burnt at stake
to ash, and that is what happened to Mary Luckland. She got burnt
to the stake to ash. She was the last woman to be accused of
witchcraft in Ipswich and she was the last woman to stand trial in that area.
And she's one of two women in the UK to be burnt at the
steak for witchcraft. As witchcraft, burning at steak is an American thing.
For the UK, they would either hunk and then burn afterwards just to being
sure that they had passed away, or they would be swum. And to
be swam means that you have your thumb tired to your opposing from to your
opposing toe, and you are then placed into water with ropes holding your either
side and dunked continuously. And it is said that if you reject the water,
then that is the devil rejecting the body of Christ, your Holy Baptist
commune, and you are a witch. However, if you die from being
swamp and sink, then you're not a witch and you die a noble death.
A lot of these women were men and children were tortured to the point
that they begged for this to happen because they needed the suffering to stop.
So there is a story of Mary Luckland and I hope this highlights some of
the ingredients needed for such an accusation to take place. And to this day
you can find where this happened in Ips which there was a shop that situates
where Mary Luckland was burnt at stake. I haven't been yet, and I
hope to go and visit, but I hope this shines a light on the
fundamental aspects of the accusing and the impact that has an individual who is already
suffering at the hands of the tea of lack of social resource, just already
having a really hard time. It's just such an easy escapegoat. When fear
has no place to be put, they always finds somewhere else to go as
soon as what it's felt is done is dumb. It's very sad. And
now for the third case study, I have chose this case study. I've
chose it to go last as well because although it is about witchcraft, that
isn't the focal point of the story. However, the common theme that can
be found in all three of the stories is that fear unexplained phenomena unresolved conflict
that can't be analyzed or equated to something that is within human realm, human
means of understanding. All paths lead to witchcraft, and that is what's happened
here. So there's been a murder in the Scottish accent. This particular case
is set in nineteen forty five in Warrickshire in the UK. Now this is
in a village and this case is called the Witchcraft murders. Now the reason
why it's called murders is because there was two similar murders that had taken place
not far from one another, but with a large amount of time, a
significant amount of years in between, and they were allegedly conduct by two different
people. But the one that we're going to talk about happened in nineteen forty
five. It happened to Charles Walton. He lived in Lower Quintin and he
worked on a farm that was and I think i've I'm pronounced this correct me
on Hill. He worked on a farm there and he worked as a hedge
cook, a hedgecutter, that's what he would do. And he has been
there for about nine months. He lived in this village all his life and
he'd lived there with his wife, who sadly passed away, so he's now
a widow. And he lived there with his adopted niece, so should I
say she lived there with him as they addopted their niece around the age of
three because her mother passed away. So when looking at this case, there's
lots of media attention. This was really thrown in the limelight when it comes
to the media. Was a really essential sensational peace which made it a very
high profile case. So it meant the way that it was investigated attracted a
lot of people of notoriety within the police force, within forensic science and also
within discovery. To Charles Wharton, he was murdered on the fourteenth of February.
Now this particular fourteenth of February, on Valentine's Day or nineteen forty five,
landed on ash Wednesday. He went to work. He was seen by
two witnesses at nine am walking to the walking through the churchyard towards his work
place of work, and he was seen by his employer at twelve pm working
on the hedges, and that would be the last anyone saw Charles water alive.
Now, his niece, who is known as Miss good, she had
gone to work as her uncle had done that morning. When she returned from
work at four o'clock and realized that he hadn't returned, she began to panic.
He was a creature of habit, quite a solid solitude gentleman, didn't
really socialize with anyone. There wouldn't have been any reason for him to illogical
explanation for his lateness, so she naturally panicked. She went to a neighbor
and they traveled to Newham Hill where he was working. They managed to find
the employer and together with the employer who had last seen him at twelve pm
working Hedges, had gone to the last location that he had been seeing and
they found a gruesome discovery. Charles Walton had been murdered hit. They're due
to its own gardening tools to kill him. The pitchfork that he used had
pinned him to the ground through an either side of his neck. He'd been
beaten to death using his walking stick, and this has not been proven.
It's not really in his report. However, there has been stories that this
has happened. A cross had been etched into his chest using his gardening tools,
and there were such deep lacerations that it is said that the tool that
was used to make these lacerations were so deep that he'd dug into the ground
underneath him and the handwood bent. Miss Good, obviously overcome with grief,
was scorted and the police recalled him Professor James Webb so was forensics and he
was the one who established that a time of passing was between noon and two
PM, which made sense because the last time he had been seen was at
twelve. Now there was a number of stories of how this come about.
Who killed Charles Walton. One story was that he was killed by two local
men and this was due to money being owed. However, the identity of
these people had not been confirmed. Another was not so far from this location,
was a prisoner of war camp. During this time, there was lots
of different category of prisoners in this location. It was often that some of
these prisoners were allowed to leave the camp and they would either go and watch
the go to a theater, or go to the movies and watch the show.
And it just so happened that a bus had taken some of the prisoners
into town that day. However, after the police had done some investigations and
questioning, they felt that the suspects were not viable, but it would be
the alleged link to witchcraft that made it such a high profile case, and
it was the most serious theory that police took. It was investigated by the
infamous Robert Fabian, Fabian of this yacht of Fabian of the yard Fame apologies.
He was against the witchcraft at the angle, so much so that he
was trying to look for other explanations. However, what he did say was
that he found that the members of the community within that village were so quiet
about the situation that he really felt there was more to this case and that
something was being hidden from him. Margaret Murray, the archeologist, also come
to the village to stay and to investigate the murder herself. She was about
ninety at this point and she was about nine sure witchcraft was the reason for
the killings. Now, the reason for this is numerous. Ash Wednesday is
obviously linked to Christians beliefs. However, there isn't a link to Juadism,
and ash Wednesday is meant to be observed as a sabbath that that is held
quite high within that community. Within that belief system. It is alleged that
ash Wednesdays are often the time human sacrifice happens. Now, I say edge
because I hear this a lot when I talk about witchcraft, and people that
are uneducated about such belief systems come to conclusions like this without really understanding.
It's fear driven. So I'm aware of this. However, the argument here
is that the less orations were so deep that the blood would have drained from
Charles Walton's body. Now I hear you ask why why is this? Very
Well, it is believed that Charles Walton is a witch, and they argue
that Charles Walton cast a spell hex on the land on the village and it
made the fields barren. Now, I will say they is documented that that
particular season was really unfruitful when it comes to the fields and lands producing produce.
So it was argued that they did this to soak his blood into the
land to release the hex. Now, I will say, I have done
research around this area before, and I did a little bit of a I've
done some studying on how people would back in the Many Many seventeen hundred and
sixteen hundredth century when there was witchcraft and the trials wasn't going to trial quick
enough. So what people would do if they feel like they've been hexed upon,
they themselves would make witches bottles and it would be a stone cup with
items it's sharper items like folks and owls and stuff, and they would urinate
in them and they'll boil it. And it's alleged that if a witch had
hexed them, it would make him feel feel so uncomfortable that they would have
to reveal themselves to this person, and then this person would have the opportunity
to release the hex by bartering or receiving a little bit of blood to break
the curse. So there is this link, this familiar I won't say theme,
but it comes from historical, deep rooted belief systems that are scare mongering
and built on fear. Is still carried on throughout the generation a generation.
You can still see it. They're hiding and lurking. So this is what
they believed had happened. Now, one a reckoned one source said that he
had cast the plague of toads across the land to barron the fields. But
the most favorable one that I come across so far is that he had a
pet toad who he tied a I can't remember what they're called. Now,
a rake of some sort tied and he and this toad went up and down
the fields and polluted the soils. That's one of my favorite ones that I've
read so far. Nevertheless, there is a link so that I said,
before the witchcraft murders, there was a lady who was murdered many many many
years before that. Her name was an tenant, and she was murdered by
a man called James Hayward. Now James Hayward is recognized as being or believed
to be disturbed an alcoholic as well, and he had killed he had attempted
to kill an tenant, which he did in the end three days later she
passed away from her injuries. However, he had actually attempted or a plan
to kill up to sixteen different women that he believed or witchcraft. Witch is
sorry, sixteen different women who believed to be witches in his area. And
when he went to court, because he went to court for the murder,
he said he did it to rid the area of witchcraft. So this is
why it's called the witchcraft murders. Even then, they've linked the murder I
suppose to be fair. The only difference between the two murders. Actually thinking
about it was the pitchfork. Everything else was very similar and how she was
murdered and how he was murdered. So, to be fair, I can
understand why they've made that link and why they call it the witchcraft murders.
Hmm, that's fair. But yeah, so here we are. Here's the
story of Charles Wolton. Now you can the good thing, will say the
good thing. I take that back. The thing about this particular story is
that you can actually go back and see how the media constructed this into creating
this fear mongering. They really went for this angle, and honestly the police
were before it as well. They were going for it as well. Maybe
it kind of helped them a little bit because it put ease the pressure off
them somewhat too. I have an unseen force as a reason. Who you
in prison? Unseen force like police, I mean, so maybe that's why
they did it. You can trace the story yourself from news paper articles to
TV interviews, the news interviews with Miss Good herself, and Miss Good disputes
any link to witchcraft, any link to witchcraft, her uncle taking part in
it, participating in or even having witchcraft as part of the history of the
area. In fact, she even goes as far as then, I had
no knowledge of witchcraft until we having this, until the conversation we're having right
now, which I find very interesting. So those are my free stories that
I've shared this evening, and I hope that you've enjoyed them. I know
it's not it's not an easy topic, and I find that sometimes a topic
can be quite a motive. But it's something that I feel if we speak
about enough, helps raise awareness, helps educate, and it also allows people
that are around us to have the opportunity to look deeper into beliefs. I
know that there was a time where I undoubtedly believed in a story because my
teacher told me it. I truly believe that an infamous spiritualist medium has come
to her own demise, or come to her demise because she was disrupted giving
evidence to entrance. I later found out that she was the last last woman
in Scotland to be found guilty onto the Witchcraft Act and was very much alive.
So I think education is always good. We get to expand our borders,
and we move our walls, and we are able to look at things
with new eyes. And that's the most important thing for me. Education is
power, so his knowledge. I hope that you've enjoyed listening to things that
I've spoken about this evening. I look forward to being back next month,
and I really do hope that you'd like to join me. So until then,
take care, I ha