Salem's Original Ghost Tour Started During the Witch Trials of 1692

Discover the shocking truth about ghosts in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. This isn’t your typical ghost story. These supernatural encounters were used as courtroom evidence that sent innocent people to the gallows. Join hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack as they explore the different types of apparitions that appeared in Salem testimony, from murdered wives seeking vengeance to protective angels revealing hidden crimes.

Some Featured Historical Cases- George Burroughs. Former minister accused by ghostly wives appearing in winding sheets

- Ann Putnam Jr.’s Testimony: Multiple ghost sightings including murdered wives, children, and victims

- Martha Carrier’s Examination. Thirteen ghosts appearing as evidence against her

- Spectral Evidence. How ghost testimony became critical courtroom evidence leading to convictions

Learn how supernatural testimony functioned in 1692 trials.

Historical Figures Mentioned

George Burroughs, Ann Putnam Jr., Bridget Bishop, John Willard, Martha Carrier, Rebecca Nurse, Mary Bradbury, Giles Corey, Mary Easty, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard

The ultimate twist: In 1692, innocent people were executed for supposedly appearing as ghosts. Today, tourists pay for ghost tours hoping to encounter those same spirits. Salem, Massachusetts—where historical tragedy became supernatural entertainment.

- Josh Hutchinson- Co-host, The Thing About Salem

- Sarah Jack - Co-host, The Thing About Salem

Salem Witch Trials, ghost evidence, spectral evidence, 1692 Salem, Ann Putnam Jr., George Burroughs, Salem ghosts, witchcraft trials, historical ghosts, Salem Massachusetts, witch trial testimony, supernatural evidence, colonial America, Salem history, ghost tours Salem

Keywords

#SalemWitchTrials #HistoryPodcast #TrueHistory #SalemMassachusetts #SpectralEvidence #ColonialAmerica #HistoricalGhosts #Halloween

Links

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Salem Website

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube⁠

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts Website

Sign the Petition: MA Witch Hunt Justice Project

www.massachusettswitchtrials.org

Support the nonprofit End Witch Hunts Podcasts and Projects

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, Josh, It's so exciting to start our Halloween topics on
this podcast. Yeah, What did we get to talk
about today, Sarah? Ghosts.
I have a little cat ghost here. Scary, yeah.
Well, Salem has become ghost hunting central, but our

(00:24):
listeners have to hear about what ghost actually meant in
1692. Because the people of Salem
didn't just believe in ghosts, they used them as evidence.
They testified about them in court.
They hanged people because of their belief in ghosts.

(00:44):
So let's break down exactly whatkinds of supernatural beings
were showing up in those Salem courtrooms and what they were
there to do. By the way, welcome to the Thing
about Salem. I'm Josh Hutchinson.
And I'm Sarah Jack. Happy Halloween season.

(01:04):
Happy Halloween season, everybody.
We'll begin with a ghost story. So one evening, Ann Putnam
Junior is at home when the spectre of former Salem Village
minister George Burroughs appears unto her.

(01:24):
He tortures her. Ouch.
He's choking and pricking and poking and pinching, and he's
got something with them. A book.
It's red, has a strange little glow to it.
The devil's book. And he has a message.

(01:49):
And my first two wives will appear to you now, and they will
tell you lies. With that, two women in winding
sheets, their funeral clothes with napkins on their heads as
it's described in the record, appear in the room along with

(02:10):
George Burroughs. Jan was so scared.
Ghosts. Not only is it a witch in the
room, there's ghosts. The ghosts turn their faces
towards Mr. Burroughs. They turn red with anger,
literally red ghosts full of anger, and they tell him he'd

(02:33):
been a cruel man to them, their blood cries for vengeance
against him, and they will be clothed with white robes in
heaven when he should be cast into hell.
And immediately George Burroughsvanished away, and the two women

(02:53):
turned towards Anne, their facesnow white and pale.
They were Mr. Burroughs's first two wives.
They say he murdered them. One says, Anne, I was his first
wife until he stabbed me under the left arm.
He sealed it with a piece of waxon the wound to cover up his

(03:16):
crime. And the ghost pulls aside her
winding sheet and shows, here's where I was stabbed.
And the other one says, Anne, I'm the second wife, and he

(03:37):
killed me with the woman who's now his third wife while I was
in a vessel coming up to see my friends because the two of them
wanted to be together. Now both ghosts tell Anne to
tell these things to the magistrates.
Walt Burroughs is in the room with them, and if he doesn't own

(03:58):
his murders, his dead wives are going to appear to him in court.
And then the next morning, what happens?
More ghosts come to Anne, MissusLawson and her daughter Anne.
This is the wife of another former minister, Diodat Lawson,
with her daughter appearing to Anne Putnam Junior and saying

(04:20):
Burroughs murdered us too out ofjealousy.
And then another woman appears to Anne in a winding sheet and
says Anne, I was Goodman Fuller's first wife and Mr.
Burrows killed me because he hada difference with my husband.

(04:40):
And the ghost went away and Annewent to court to proclaim bloody
murder. What book did you read this in?
This comes right from the records of the Salem witch hunt.
This is a deposition that Anne Putnam Junior gives on May 9th,

(05:02):
1692. She's telling this fresh story.
It just happened that night. And then that that very morning
that she gives the testimony, these other ghosts appear to her
and they're all crying for vengeance.
They're raging against their murderer.

(05:22):
So there were different kinds ofapparitions that were showing up
in those Salem records. One that was in the story was
George Burroughs coming as a spectre, which is the spectral
form or shape of a living accused witch appearing to
torment victims. This is also known as a shape.

(05:44):
This is just another word for spectre.
It says that, oh, George Burroughs appeared in his shape.
That's the same as saying that his specter showed up and it
wasn't actually his physical body.
It was something that had left from him to go and torment
people. Moving over to another woman who

(06:07):
was accusing during the witch trials, Susanna Sheldon
testified that a shining man, also called a white man and
later identified as an Angel from heaven, appeared to protect
her from John Willard's threats.So if this was a protective

(06:28):
heavenly figure who was helping the afflicted, this figure
banishes Willard's apparition soit intervenes in just by holding
up its hand. And then it revealed murder
victims wounds by lifting winding sheets, even opening his

(06:50):
own winding sheet. So this murdered person pulls
out a pitchfork from his left side, showing how he'd been
murdered. There's also a report of a white
man appearing as a sort of spectral vision apparition.

(07:12):
This is reported by Mary Walcott.
When Elizabeth Proctor and SarahClois are being examined.
The magistrate asked her, have you seen a white man?
And she says, yes, he's a fine grave man.
And when he came, he made all the witches to tremble.

(07:33):
So we had the shining man, the white man, and then the
apparition of Satan they referred to as the black man,
and it was Satan himself appearing to lure and make
covenants, offering books to sign or assisting the accused
witches in their tormenting. We.

(07:54):
Also had another great Halloweenphenomenon.
In the Salem Witch Trials, therewere reports of a haunted house.
George Burrows denied that his house in Maine was haunted, but
he admitted that there were toads.
And then, of course, we've been talking about these murder
victims appearing to accuse their killers and demand

(08:18):
justice. They're usually dressed in
winding sheets. Those are ghosts.
Ghosts, just straight up ghosts and they get to tell you about
the witch that killed them. Apparently that's that's all
they care about is vengeance andjustice.
One of the big ghost sightings that's reported fairly early in

(08:39):
the actual trial phase of the sandwich trials.
Susanna Sheldon, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Anne
Putnam Junior all agree that they're seeing 13 ghosts lying
dead before Martha Carrier, the Queen in Hell during her
examination. And 13 corresponds with the

(09:01):
number of people who died in a smallpox outbreak in 1690 that
Martha Carrier is blamed for. So they're saying that all of
those people that died because she brought smallpox to the town
are back in the courtroom denouncing her.
And Putnam Senior was a believerin ghosts.

(09:25):
They're all throughout her testimony against accused
witches, including against my 9th great grandmother, Rebecca
Nurse. Anne Putnam Senior claimed that
her six deceased nieces from Boston came calling her auntie,
so she knew it was her nieces. So these ghosts are speaking

(09:45):
from the invisible world to the visible world.
Auntie Anne. Rebecca Nurse murdered us.
We've already heard from Anne Putnam Junior about a few ghosts
she also claimed to see along with Mary Walcott.
Anne Putnam Senior's uncle John Carr's ghosts in a winding sheet

(10:07):
accusing Mary Bradbury of his murder.
When Hannah Putnam gave her ghost story as testimony, she
said that Samuel Fuller and Lydia Wilkins appeared and
threatened to tear her to pieces.
And then Mary Walcott testified that 8.

(10:29):
Not just six or seven, but 8 apparitions and winding sheets
appeared before Job Tuki, who was one of the accused, looking
pale upon her, but red when theylooked upon him and crying out
for vengeance. So you have that detail again.
They're pale when they're talking to somebody, but then

(10:49):
when they look at whoever murdered them, they turn red.
Now this one is really juicy. This comes right out of a letter
from Thomas Putnam and Seniors, husband, father of Anne Putnam
Junior. They testified that a ghost in a
winding sheet appeared revealingthat Giles Corey had murdered a

(11:10):
man years earlier by pressing him to death with his feet.
This apparition appears and the letters written right when Giles
Corey is about to be pressed to death because he's refusing to
stand trial. Giles Corey, allegedly,
according to this apparition of the man that he killed, pressed

(11:34):
him to death with his feet. So therefore, it's almost
appropriate that Giles Corey is getting pressed.
It's like karma coming back for vengeance against him.
Did you know that after a victimwas hanged, she turned up as a
ghost? That's right.

(11:55):
Mary Herrick, who was aged 17, testified that Mary Este's ghost
appeared after her execution saying I am innocent.
Vengeance, Vengeance. That's intense.

(12:16):
All these ghosts are crying out vengeance apparently, like
murdered by witchcraft was believed to be very common back
then, or at least after the fact.
After the witch trial started, they start looking back at all
these suspicious deaths and thinking, oh, maybe the witches
had a hand in it. Yeah, so this is one of the role

(12:38):
of ghosts alleging magical murders.
Yeah, it's more bad evidence against the people accused of
witchcraft because murdering someone with witchcraft is
definitely a capital offense andit's absolutely the worst thing
that you can do, whether with witchcraft or without.

(13:00):
So, you know, other things like cursing somebody's livestock
aren't as serious as saying, hey, you were guilty of 13
murders or 8 murders or however many murders all these people
are being accused of, who of course had nothing to do with
these deaths. It's just remarkable how many of

(13:23):
these allegations there are in the Salem witch trials.
It definitely helped the jurors find the accused guilty by
putting blood on their hands. Ghosts are aggressively
demanding the afflicted testify to the magistrates.
Some ghosts even promised that they would appear directly to
the magistrates if their word wasn't believed, and the

(13:45):
accusations of past murders wereused to establish patterns of
witchcraft securing convictions.Yes, so it was impactful, all
these ghost stories that were being shared.
It wasn't just for kicks that they're sharing these stories.
They're sharing them as evidence.
Like you said at the beginning, see secure convictions.

(14:09):
Now tourists hunt for Salem ghosts on paid tours.
People put up money saying I want to know about these ghost
stories. There's so many about different
inhabitants of Salem over the hundreds of years.
It's celebrating its 400th anniversary next year.
So 400 years of people living and dying in the city.

(14:31):
That adds up to a lot of ghosts,apparently, because there's so
many tours. That is the thing about Salem.
Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween.