The Attic Files: The Accused

An accusation of witchcraft could destroy a life long before guilt was ever proven. In the return of The Attic Files, The House of Strange explores three stories shaped by fear, suspicion, and the deadly power of accusation: the Pendle witch trials of 1612 in England, the persecution of Anna Göldi in 18th-century Switzerland, and the case of Bridget Bishop during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Across different countries and nearly two centuries, accusations of witchcraft turned neighbors against one another, transformed suspicion into evidence, and sent the accused toward imprisonment, torture, and execution. From the Pendle witches and one of England’s most infamous witch trials to Anna Göldi, often called Europe’s last executed witch, and the hysteria of Salem, these stories reveal how quickly an accusation could become a verdict, and how difficult it was to escape once suspicion had taken hold.