31 Days of Halloween | Day 9: The Witches of Pendle Hill

In 1612, a young woman named Alizon Device asked a traveling peddler for some pins.

He refused.

A short distance down the road, the man collapsed.

Today, a doctor would probably call it a stroke. Alizon believed she'd done it with witchcraft.

And she confessed.

Within months, accusations had spread through two feuding families living beneath Pendle Hill. Elderly women described spirits that appeared as dogs and hares. Neighbors accused neighbors. Family members turned on one another.

And when the trials finally began, one of the prosecution's most important witnesses was a nine-year-old girl placed on top of a table so the courtroom could hear her accuse her own mother and brother of witchcraft.

Ten people would be hanged.

One more would die in a dungeon before reaching trial.

And four hundred years later, people still climb Pendle Hill in the dark on Halloween night.

Tonight, we're heading to Lancashire for the story of the Pendle witches—and the accusations, confessions, family feuds and frightened children that sent them to the gallows.

Welcome to Day Nine of 31 Days of Halloween.