1614: Magdalena Weixler, “my innocence will come to light”
Add comment October 10th, 2020 Headsman
From Servants of Satan: The Age of the Witch Hunts:
Another surviving letter from a condemned witch to her husband comes from Ellwangen in 1614. Magdalena Weixler wife of the chapter scribe Georg, wrote shortly before her execution: “I know that my innocence will come to light, even if I do not live to see it. I would not be concerned that I must die, if it were not for my poor children; but if it must be so, may God give me the grace that I may endure it with patience.”
Weixler’s case was especially horrible because her jailer had tricked her into turning over her jewelry and granting him sexual favors in return for a false promise to spare her from torture. Soon afterward, the jailer was caught and tried for bribery and breaking the secrecy of court proceedings. His trial revealed widespread rape of imprisoned women and the existence of an extortion racket whereby guards sold names to torture victims who desperately needed people to accuse of complicity in witchcraft. Such corruption among jailers must have been common when prisons themselves were a kind of torture [“when” -ed.], especially for those too poor to buy food and warm clothing from the turnkey.
The October 10 execution date comes from this pdf roster of German witchcraft executions.
On this day..
- 1983: Waldemar Krakos, Dekalog inspiration - 2019
- 1796: Claude Javogues - 2018
- 1989: Jimmy Chua and his Pudu Prison siege accomplices - 2017
- 1783: Jacques Francois Paschal, rapist monk - 2016
- 1867: Not Santa Anna - 2015
- 1932: Lee Bong-chang, would-be Hirohito assassin - 2014
- Corpses Strewn: The Streltsy - 2013
- 1698: The Streltsy executions begin - 2013
- 1987: Eshan Nayeck, the last executed in Mauritius - 2012
- 1707: Johann Patkul, schemer - 2011
- 1800: Prosser's Gabriel, slave rebel - 2010
- 1923: Susan Newell, the last woman hanged in Scotland - 2009
- 1911: Several revolutionaries on Double Ten Day - 2008
Entry Filed under: 17th Century,Burned,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,Germany,History,Public Executions,Torture,Witchcraft,Women,Wrongful Executions
Tags: 1610s, 1614, ellwangen, magdalena weixler, october 10
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