The Yorkshire witch: A story of murder and witchcraft

The Yorkshire witch: A story of murder and witchcraft.

In 1809 Mary Bateman, aged 40 years, was hanged in front of thousands of people. Her body was put on public display with over 2500 people going to see it. Strips of her skin were made into leather and sold as magic charms to ward off evil spirits.

Some people believe that the spirit of Mary Bateman still haunts the halls of Thackray Medical Museum, where her skeleton was on display for many years.

But why was her skeleton on display there?

What did she do to gain the name ‘the Yorkshire witch’?

And why was she executed?

Mary Bateman started her criminal life early. She was born in 1768 on a farm in North Yorkshire and became a servant girl but was sacked because she was caught stealing. In the 1780s she became a minor thief and con artist.

She convinced lots of people that she had supernatural powers. She became a fortune teller in Leeds and sold potions that she said would ward off evil spirits.

In the late 1700s Mary was responsible for many frauds, petty thefts, poisonings and deaths but she managed to avoid being caught.

In 1806 William and Rebecca Perigo came to see Mary because they thought that Rebecca had been cursed.

She had been having chest pains and asked Mary to help lift the curse. Over several months Mary tricked the couple into giving her more and more money.

She prescribed a pudding secretly laced with poison. But it was only Rebecca that ate the pudding. Her condition got worse as the poison took effect and she died in May 1806.

William Perigo continued to pay Mary for more than 2 years until he discovered that one of the “charms” he had bought from her was worthless. He went to the police who arrested Bateman the next day.

Mary claimed that she was innocent but during a search of her home poison was found along with many of her victim’s personal items. In March 1809 she was tried and found guilty of fraud and murder.

She was sentenced to death and tried to avoid execution by falsely claiming she was pregnant. She was hanged at York Castle.

After she was hanged her body was put on display and then given to Leeds Infirmary for dissection.

Her skeleton was loaned to Thackray Medical Museum to be part of an exhibition there. Her skeleton is now at Leeds University.

Comments

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF LT. COL.RONALD SPEIRS.

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF LT. COL.RONALD SPEIRS. Lt. Col. Ronald Speirs, one of the toughest soldiers in Easy Company (Band of Brothers) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, April 20, 1920. His family moved to Boston, Mass, when he was 7. He enlisted in 1942 & trained as a paratrooper, becoming a platoon leader in Dog company and later company commander of Easy Company, both of 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. In January 1945, when Easy Company's initial attack on the German-occupied town of Foy bogged down due to the commander 1st Lieutenant Norman Dike, being wounded, battalion executive officer Captain Richard Winters ordered Speirs to relieve Dike of command. The selection of Speirs was incidental; Winters later stated that Speirs was simply the first officer he saw when he turned around. Speirs successfully took over the assault and led Easy Company to victory. During this battle, Lt. Dike had ordered a platoon to go on a flanking mission around the rear of the town. To countermand th

femina agabbadòra hammer

“In Sardinia, the use of the "femina agabbadòra hammer" was a women's practice. Whenever an elderly man or woman of a given family was dying and in great pain, the family would call for the Accabadòra or Lady of the Good Death. She would usually be a widow dressed entirely in black, who likely inherited her role from her own mother or grandmother. The title Accabadora means "She is the One Who Ends." She arrives with a large hammer of carved olive wood wrapped in heavy wool, and is left alone with the individual who may yet be screaming in agony and terror. A witness testimonial of the practice translates: "It was dark. The room was illuminated by a single wick in mastic oil. The Accabadòra entered the house -- the door had been left open for her. She passed no one as she enters her patient's room at at the bedside. "She caressed the face of the dying person, chanted the rosary, sang one of the many lullabies usually sung to children. Finally s

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years.

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years. Montgomery was the first female prisoner to be executed in by the US government since 1953. Montgomery, 52, was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital. The US government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle by overturning a stay. Challenges were fought across multiple federal courts on whether to allow the execution of Montgomery, 52, who was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate in the Justice Department`s execution chamber at its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. The U.S. Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, cleared the way for her execution after overturning a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kelley Henry, Montgomery`s lawyer, called the execution "vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power." &quo

WORLD OF ALL

Search This Blog