Enter the darkest chapter of legal history, where witch trials transformed courtrooms into instruments of systematic terror. Part 1 of this two-part series explores how the pursuit of witches corrupted entire legal systems, abandoning every principle of justice to hunt invisible enemies.

From Salem's witch trials using spectral evidence that made defense impossible, to the Malleus Maleficarum's witch-hunting manual that created papal-sanctioned "commissions of fire and sword," witness how learned professionals deliberately corrupted judicial institutions to prosecute witchcraft. Discover King James VI's personal supervision of witch torture sessions, Richard III's theatrical use of witchcraft accusations for political murder, and the gendered violence that made women 80-90% of all witch trial victims.

Through accounts from the 1847 London Journal, explore how witch-hunting created "objective" evidence from shape-shifting accusations, how Scottish witch trials became royal entertainment, and how these prosecutorial innovations persisted into the Victorian era when fishermen still sought to draw witches' blood for protection.

This episode examines the systematic techniques developed specifically for witch prosecution—spectral evidence, enhanced torture, presumption of guilt—and how these innovations abandoned traditional legal protections as "obstacles" to hunting supernatural criminals. The witch-hunter's toolkit created frameworks for systematic persecution that could be revived whenever new enemies required elimination through judicial channels.

Part 1 of a 2-part series on how witch-hunting transformed European and American legal systems.

Content Advisory: Contains historical accounts of torture, execution, and systematic violence, particularly against women.