Witches & Warlocks X-Files

October 31, 1962. Salem, Massachusetts became a burial ground for assumed witches. Twenty-three witches were ties up and burnt alive. They were then buried in a single mass grave.

The events of that dreadful night began with Jane Hanley. She seemed like a regular person. Jane worked at a local grocery store. She was the mother of an eight-year-old little girl named Crystal. Her husband Tony died in a car crash two years earlier. She seemed like a good person and struggled from time to time to keep up the bills and put food on the table. Occasionally she would borrow money from a friend for food.

One day while playing in the park, Crystal ventured off to close to the edge of the pond. Oddly, the chain of an anchor that was on display got wrapped around her leg. Jane, who was sitting with her friend Jody talking turned around to witness both her daughter and the anchor falling into the pond. She screamed and instantly ran to rescue her daughter from drowning. Jane dove in and swam to the very bottom of the pond which was about twenty feet deep. With great strength and courage she loosened the chain and freed Crystal from her watery grave.

Once at the top, some people in the park pulled out Jane and Crystal. She sat there in shock clutching her daughter. She looked over to see her friend staring blankly at her. "Witch," Jody whispered. Then she said it again and again getting louder and louder each time she said it until she was screaming the words at the top of her lungs. She later explained to authorities that Jane could not swim. She was completely terrified of water. So there was no way she could have swam twenty feet underwater, loosen the heavy chain and swim the both of them back up.

With witchcraft being a crime in that part of town, Jane and Crystal were arrested. After a full-scale investigation a total of twenty-three men, women and children were arrested including her Jody who was presumed to have close ties with her. All people arrested were either friends of Jane or were associated with her. They were all charged with witchery and given the death penalty, which was being burnt alive at the stake.