Half-Hanged Mary of Hadley

In Episode 261, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger explore Old Hadley Cemetery, in Hadley, Massachusetts, which is the final resting place of accused witch, Mary Webster. A ward of the town, Webster was accused of witchcraft in 1683 but found innocent. Though the court’s verdict wasn’t good enough for the people of Hadley. When a prominent church deacon fell under a strange illness in 1684, some locals were sure he was under a spell of Mary Webster, and they took matters into their own hands. They attempted to hang Webster, but she survived to go on an inspire author Margaret Atwood to write The Handmaid’s Tale.