Table of Contents
Introduction vii
1 Greater Boston 1
A Necromancer in the Harbor (Boston) 2
The First Witch Executed in Massachusetts (Boston) 4
Alice Lake (Boston) 6
Ann Hibbins, the Wealthiest Witch in Town (Boston) 7
Mary Hale and the Poisoned Sailor (Boston) 9
Goody Glover (Boston) 12
The Possession of Mercy Short (Boston) 14
Margaret Rule and the Devil (Boston) 15
Stranger Than Fiction: Lovecraft and the Witch (Boston) 18
Elizabeth Kendall and the Lying Nurse (Cambridge and Watertown) 20
Sued by a Witch (Cambridge) 21
Raising Hell at Harvard (Cambridge) 23
The Haunted Church (Cambridge) 24
Graveyard Grass (Chelsea) 27
Ephraim Gray, the Man Who Wouldn't Die (Maiden) 28
2 Cape Cod and the Islands 31
Was Patience Gershom the Devil's Herbalist? (Aquinnah) 32
Aunt Betsy (Aquinnah) 34
Liza Tower Hill (Barnstable) 36
Maria Hallett and the Pirate (Eastham and Wellfleet) 39
Raising Demons (Martha's Vineyard) 42
Sarah Screecham Falls in Love (Mashpee) 43
Crookjaw (Nantucket) 46
The Sweet Milk of Satan (Truro) 49
Never Steal a Witch's Doughnuts (Truro) 51
3 Essex County 53
Witches Woods (Beverly) 53
John Godfrey, the Wandering Warlock (Essex County) 56
Peg Wesson and the Crow (Gloucester) 58
The Dogtown Witches (Gloucester) 59
Colonel Buck's Curse (Haverhill) 63
Aunt Mose (Haverhill) 65
Hiding the Necronomicon (Haverhill) 67
Ann Burt: Healer or Witch? (Lynn) 69
Moll Pitcher Tells the Future (Lynn) 70
Wizard Dimond (Marblehead) 72
Witch House #1 (Nahant) 74
The Ghostly Twins (North Andover) 75
Elizabeth Morse (Newbury and Newburyport) 77
Witch Rock #1 (Peabody) 80
Witch House #2 (Rockport) 82
John Bradstreet's Magic Book (Rowley) 83
Taken to the Devil's Sabbath (Salisbury) 85
A Satanic Hog (Topsfield) 87
The Ghosts of Witch Hill (Topsfield) 88
4 Salem and Danvers 91
Trouble in the Parsonage 91
Tituba 96
Deals with the Devil 101
George Burroughs the Conjuror 109
A Summer of Hangings 113
The Fall of 1692 121
Blood to Drink 127
The Legend of Giles Corey 129
Moldy Grain? 132
A New Witch in Town: 1811 134
The Witchcraft Trial of 1878 135
Witch City 137
Witch House #3 141
5 The South Shore and Southeastern Massachusetts 143
Dr. Perry (Fall River) 143
The Freetown Forest Witch (Freetown) 144
Dinah Sylvester and the Bear (Marshfield) 147
Witch Bridge (Norton) 149
Kidnapped by Witches (Plymouth) 150
The Devilish Bee (Plymouth) 152
Aunt Rachel's Curse (Plymouth) 154
Witch Rock # 2 (Rochester) 155
6 Metrowest 157
The Witch Caves and Salem End Road (Ashland and Framingham) 157
The Hauntings on Dudley Road (Billerica) 158
Elizabeth Knapp Meets the Devil (Groton) 160
Three Bewitched Sisters (Littleton) 163
Witchcraft at Dinglehole (Millis) 166
7 Central and Western Massachusetts 169
A Liar and the Son of a Witch (Hadley) 169
Half-Hanged Mary (Hadley) 170
Mary Bliss Parsons: Slander and Witchcraft (Northampton) 173
The Cursed Village (Pepperell) 176
A Witch, a Horse, and Animal Magnetism (Pepperell) 180
James Fuller: The Witch Who Bragged (Springfield) 183
Hugh and Mary Parsons: From a Cursed Pudding to Murder (Springfield) 184
The Haunted Room (Springfield) 188
The Witch with Twenty Cats (Sutton) 189
The Cat Which Lost a Claw (Western Massachusetts) 191
Cheating the Devil (Western Massachusetts) 192
Further Reading 195
Acknowledgments 203
About the Author 205
