10 ‘Witches’ Who Were Famously Killed For Their Alleged Crimes

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1. Hypatia (370-415 AD)

Who she was: A Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, Hypatia is thought to be the first person killed by a Christian lynch mob in history.

What she was accused of: Detractors described her as a “pagan woman who had beguiled the people of the city and the prefect through her enchantments.”

How she died: The mob kidnapped her, brought her into a church, stripped her naked, and ripped her flesh off using oyster shells. After she died, they burned her corpse. (source)

2. Angéle de la Barthe (c. 1230–1275 AD)

Who she was: An eccentric French noblewoman whom Catholics deemed a heretic because she belonged to a non-Catholic sect of Christianity.

What she was accused of: Having nightly sexual intercourse with a male demon, giving birth to a half-snake/half-wolf creature, and causing children to vanish.

How she died: Burned at the stake. (source)

3. Anne Boleyn (1507-1536 AD)

Who she was: The second of King Henry VIII’s six wives.

What she was accused of: Because she had a sixth finger on one hand and also failed to bear any children for the King, he accused her of being a witch.

How she died: Beheaded at the King’s orders (source)

4. Agnes Waterhouse (c. 1503-1566 AD)

Who she was: The most famous witch in English history.

What she was accused of: Speaking personally with the Devil, using a cat she called Satan to kill the livestock of her enemies, and using black magic to curse people. Unlike most of the others on this list, she never denied the allegations against her. Unlike all of the others, she was sentenced to death by a secular court.

How she died: Death by hanging. (source)

5. Walpurga Hausmännin (?-1587 AD)

Who she was: A widowed Austrian midwife who is commonly thought to have actually been a child murderer.

What she was accused of: In addition to the plausible child-murder charges, she was charged with having sex with a demon as well as signing a contract with the Devil to save her from poverty. She was also accused of crushing children’s foreheads and sucking the blood out of them. She also claimed to have visited Satan in hell, where they had sex and feasted on roasted babies.

How she died: Marched through the city while having both breasts and both arms ripped off her body. She was then burned at the stake and her ashes were thrown into a nearby stream. (source)

6. Agnes Sampson (?-1591 AD)

Who she was: A Scottish midwife and healer.

What she was accused of: Gathering together with other witches on Halloween night in 1590 and casting a spell on Mother Nature which led to a storm that nearly sank the ship on which King James VI was sailing.

How she died: Tortured, sleep-deprived, and wearing a “witch’s bridle” that had four prongs lodged in her mouth and attached to a wall, she finally confessed to being Satan’s ally and conspiring to drown the King. After her confession, she was strangled to death and then burned. She was the first of an estimated 70 “Berwick Witches” to be killed in King James’s purge. (source)

7. Merga Bien (c. 1560-1603 AD)

Who she was: A German heiress.

What she was accused of: When she unexpectedly became pregnant while married to her third husband, she was accused of murdering her second husband and having sex with Satan to conceive her child.

How she died: Burned at the stake. She was the first of an estimated 250 “Fulda Witches” to die in this German purge of the early 1600s. (source)

8. Sidonia von Borcke (1548–1620 AD)

Who she was: A German noblewoman who lived in the Duchy of Pomerania.

What she was accused of: Known as “Sidonia the Sorceress,” she was charged with multiple murders, having sex with the Devil, soothsaying, and “crossing brooms beneath a kitchen table.”

How she died: She was tortured with pliers to the point where her body “ruptured” in four places. Then she was decapitated. Her corpse was immolated (source)

9. Märet Jonsdotter (c. 1644-1672 AD)

Who she was: The first Swedish woman to be targeted for witchcraft during “The Great Noise” of 1668-1676, during which an estimated 280 other Swedes were put to death for allegedly witchery.

What she was accused of: Having sex with Satan, writing her name in the book of the Devil using her own blood, and walking on water.

How she died: Decapitation followed by burning at the stake. (source)

10. Catherine Deshayes (c. 1640-1680 AD)

Who she was: Wife of a French jeweler and self-admitted “sorceress.”

What she was accused of: When her husband’s jewelry business was failing, she supplemented their income by face-reading, celebrating the Black Mass, and providing clients with powders, potions…and poisons. Some of her potions allegedly included human remains. She was linked to an alleged plot to poison King Louis XIV. She was convicted of poisoning and witchcraft.

How she died: Burned alive in the center of Paris. (source)