Pardoning A Witch (And you thought this ended in Europe with the Enlightenment)

[rpannier]

Helen Duncan was a Scottish housewife, a mother of six and Britains last convicted witch. 50 years after her death her granddaughter Mary Martin is determined to clear her name.

That was the introduction to a video on the story from CNN-International.

facts about the story:

Ms. Duncan was convicted of being a witch in 1944.
Helen Duncan was seen by many in the government as a threat to the nation.
Ms Duncan had revealed the deaths of servicemen to family members that the government had withheld.
Weeks before D-Day, some in the government were afraid that Ms Duncan's powers would allow her to pass on secret information to the enemy.
She was convicted under a law passed in 1730.
Interestlingly, one of Ms Duncan's clients was Winston Churchill. (He called her trial absolute Tomfoolery)
Former Home Secretary Jack Straw refused to grant the pardon because, "...it was in no one's best interest."

this is a CNN video. To get the full story you have to watch it.

http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/

the title of the video is "Pardoning a Witch."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. sounds more like she was psychic

if she "saw" the deaths of people and told their families. Interesting that, once again, psychic phenonmenae are mixed up with witchcraft.

[CBGLuthier]

2. wikipedia link for those who don;t want to watch CNN

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Duncan

[REP]

3. Interesting!

It sounds as though she was neither a witch nor a psychic but a common, run-of-the-mill spiritualist (and a fraud at that; neither was uncommon at the time). The archaic law did include a section for false mediums, and that was the section under which she was charged (if Wiki can be believed; it sounds logical since no acts of witchcraft, ie, healing, bondings, etc were cited).

[Solly Mack]

4. Unreal

[Breeze54]

5. You haven't been

to Salem, Massachussetts, I gather. ;)

Ending in Europe?? :rofl: Hardly!



http://www.salemweb.com/guide/witches.shtml


The Witch House, Salem. MA.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. BBC History link

On the 19th January 1944, one of Helen’s séances was interrupted by the loud blast of a whistle coming from a plain-clothes policeman and a naval lieutenant. They attempted to stop the ectoplasm then issuing from Helen’s mouth, but failed. After some order had been restored, Helen and three members of her audience were surprised to be formally arrested.

It has often been alleged that the reason for the raid was a fear that the date of the D-Day Normandy landings might be revealed. The original charge laid against the spiritualists by the Portsmouth magistrates was that of vagrancy. Although the maximum fine for the offence was a mere five shillings, Helen Duncan was refused bail. Instead, she was sent to spend four days at London’s Victorian Holloway prison. The alleged crime was then changed to one of conspiracy, which was still a hanging offence in wartime. By the time the case came before the judge at the Old Bailey, however, it had been altered yet again. The defendants were now accused of a different kind of conspiracy: that of contravening the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

In particular, the medium and her three sitters were accused of pretending "to exercise or use human conjuration that through the agency of Helen Duncan spirits of deceased dead persons should appear to be present". The authorities also laid charges against Helen under the Larceny Act. She was charged with taking money "by falsely pretending that she was in a position to bring about the appearances of the spirits of deceased persons". A fund was immediately established by her supporters in order to pay for the expenses of defence witnesses. As the trial proceeded, it caused a sensation in the newspapers.

At one stage, the defence announced that Mrs Duncan was prepared to demonstrate her abilities in the witness box. This amounted to conducting a séance in the court while in a state of trance. After considering the proposal throughout the night, the prosecution refused the offer.

The jury found Helen Duncan guilty under the terms of the old Witchcraft Act. She was found innocent of all the other charges. The defence’s right to appeal to the House of Lords was withheld. After being sentenced to nine months imprisonment, all she had to say was "I never hee’d so mony lies in a’ my life".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/modern/oddities_modern.shtml

[wicket]

7. kick

:kick: