After long-serving its purpose as a jailhouse, the Salem Jail closed up. Years later in 2009, it was converted into condominiums, with 24 residential units available for housing. Its remaining empty section was made into a prison-themed eatery in 2010 called the Great Escape Restaurant.

The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate and public opinion turned against the trials.

Witchcraft in Salem On March 1, 1692, Salem, Massachusetts authorities interrogated Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and an Indian slave, Tituba, to determine if they indeed practiced witchcraft. So began the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692 .

All told, at least twenty-five people died: nineteen were executed by hanging, one was tortured to death, and at least five died in jail due to harsh conditions. Over 160 people were accused of witchcraft, most were jailed, and many deprived of property and legal rights.

10 signs that she’s a witch

1. Is the suspect a woman? Women, as we know, are morally weaker than men, and so more susceptible to temptations into sin.
2. Does she have a pet?
3. Does she have a wart?
4. Is she irritating?
5. Is she weird around your kids?
6. Is she middle-aged?
7. Is she pissed?
8. Has she stopped going to church?

1735

As 1692 passed into 1693, the hysteria began to lose steam. The governor of the colony, upon hearing that his own wife was accused of witchcraft ordered an end to the trials. However, 20 people and 2 dogs were executed for the crime of witchcraft in Salem.

In 1542 Parliament passed the Witchcraft Act which defined witchcraft as a crime punishable by death. It was repealed five years later, but restored by a new Act in 1562.

James VI and I: the king who hunted witches. The witch-hunts that swept across Europe from 1450 to 1750 were among the most controversial and terrifying phenomena in history – holocausts of their times.

1. Children were also accused of witchcraft.
2. To identify witches, authorities used the “touching test”, in which victims of witchcraft would become calm upon touching the culprit.
3. No one was burned at the stake in the Salem witch trials.