Episode #189- What Bewitched Salem? (Part III)

Our Fake History

PodcastOne

Education, Talk Radio, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2023

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Salem witch panic of 1692 can sometimes feel more like a natural disaster than a human event. When the crisis reached its peak in the late summer of 1692 it had become as chaotic and destructive as any extreme storm. The return of Governor William Phips from England with a new colonial charter in May 1692 meant that the official proceedings of the witch trials could finally get underway. However, the prosecution and execution of the first batch of Salem witches didn't seem to slow the rate of accusations. The more people who were hanged in Salem, the larger the Satanic conspiracy seemed to grow. Before the crisis was over the even the Governor's wife would be accused of consorting with the devil. Tune-in and find out how spectral evidence, a dude named Cotton, and a 300 year curse all play a role in the story.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, everyone. Sebastian here just a reminder that the intelligent speech conference is just days away.
0:06.3	Get yourself a ticket and join us on November 4th online to hear talks from all your favorite history
0:13.5	podcasters including yours truly. Just go to IntelligentSpeechOnline.com now and enter promo code fake to get 10% off your ticket. See on November 4th.
0:30.0	In 1978, the sheriff of Essex County, Massachusetts, was forced to take an early retirement.
0:43.0	Robert E. Cahill had held the post of sheriff for just four years before he was stricken by a heart attack and a stroke,
0:52.1	both brought on by a rare blood condition that puzzled his doctors.
0:57.4	Cahill survived the ordeal, but he became convinced that his ailment may have had a supernatural explanation.
1:06.6	You see, Robert Cahill was not the first Essex County sheriff to retire under strange medical circumstances.
1:16.0	According to Cahill, the sheriff before him had also, quote, contracted a serious blood ailment while in office that forced him to retire.
1:25.8	That sheriff, in turn, had inherited the post from his father after the elder man died of a heart attack while serving as sheriff.
1:34.9	The previous sheriff had suffered heart problems as well. And quote, this sent Cahill on a hunt through the archives.
1:44.6	And what he discovered was that every man who had held the position of sheriff in Essex County from 1692 to 1991,
1:55.4	had either died in office or had been forced to vacate the position because of a heart attack, stroke, or some other, quote, ailment of the blood, end quote.
2:08.2	In other words, for 300 years, the office of sheriff had been cursed.
2:15.1	And you see Essex is the county that's home to Salem, Massachusetts.
2:21.4	And for 300 years, the sheriff's office and the local jail was located in Salem.
2:28.2	In 1991, a new prison was built in nearby Middleton, Massachusetts, and the sheriff's office was moved into that facility.
2:37.5	According to Cahill, this relocation finally broke the curse.
2:44.5	Now, it's worth noting that our narrator here may have some reason to exaggerate.
2:52.6	After retiring as the sheriff of Essex County, Cahill went on to have a fairly successful career as an author,
3:01.0	penning compendiums of New England lore and spooky stories.
3:07.0	That's not to say that Cahill is lying to us.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PodcastOne, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of PodcastOne and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.