The sorceress Catlyn Fiermoing was burned on this date in 1627 at the village of Wommersom.
A standard witch-hunt case, Fiermoing apparently got into hot water calling on the devil in a fight with her husband 19 years before her death, which summons Old Scratch duly answered and duly sealed the bargain with the usual promissory notes and carnal violations: this at least is the gist of what her interrogation records preserve us. (Dutch speakers can read a summary in here: part 1 | part 2.) She used her supernatural powers to get a little bit of money and kill some local rivals’ cows.
On this day..
- 1967: The USS Liberty attack ... after executions in El Arish?
- 1639: The Duke of Valette, in effigy
- 1658: John Hewett and Henry Slingsby, royalists
- 1743: John Breads, Rye killer
- 1953: Istvan Sandor, underground Catholic
- 1989: Stefan Svitek, the last in Czechoslovakia
- 1866: Anton Probst, "I only wanted the money"
- 1693: Elizabeth Emerson
- 1675: The murderers of John Sassamon, precipitating King Philip's War
- 1896: Bill Gay, prospector
- 1405: Richard le Scrope and Thomas de Mowbray, without color of law
- 1934: Three inept murderers (with a fourth to come)