The Yorkshire Killer Witch Pt. 1
Update: 2025-01-06
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Mary Bateman was an accomplished liar from a young age, and when she grew up, she started using that talent as a way of making money. Passing herself off as a witch, she tricked paranoid and gullible customers into handing over their hard-earned money in exchange for predictions and potions. But unfortunately, not every one of the Yorkshire Witch's customers lived to tell the tale.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Due to the nature of this case, listener discretion is advised.
00:00:05
This episode includes discussions of murder.
00:00:08
Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen.
00:00:17
In 16th century England, some people believed witchcraft was behind any bad fortune, like plagues, poor harvests, or even death.
00:00:27
It went so far that Parliament passed a law that made witchcraft a crime.
00:00:33
Between 1560 and 1700, 513 people, usually poor women, were put on trial for witchcraft, 112 of which were put to death.
00:00:46
The laws were repealed in 1736, but sorcery was still in the public consciousness nearly 60 years later, when a woman named Mary Bateman became known as the Yorkshire Witch.
00:01:00
The charms she crafted certainly convinced many of her magical power, but was Mary a sorceress?
00:01:10
Or just a scammer.
00:01:13
I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast.
00:01:18
You can find us here every Monday, be sure to check us out on Instagram @SerialKillersPodcast.
00:01:24
We'd love to hear from you.
00:01:26
If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts.
00:01:30
This week we're examining the story of Mary Bateman, known as the Yorkshire Witch.
00:01:36
Mary started out innocently enough, telling fortunes to wealthy women in her village, but soon Mary learned how she could use her supposed powers to lie,
00:01:49
steal, and even kill.
00:01:53
Stay with us.
00:01:59
I'm going to tell you now, Mary Bateman's death is well remembered.
00:02:05
But despite this, the details surrounding her birth are frustratingly vague.
00:02:11
All we know is that she entered the world in December 1767, or January 1768.
00:02:19
Let's imagine that the winds blew a bit more ominously that day, as the people of Asin B.
00:02:25
England welcomed the wicked cries of a future witch.
00:02:30
In childhood, Mary was nothing if not mischievous.
00:02:34
Born to farmers, she was the third of six children, which might have left her feeling overlooked as she tended to her wide array of daily chores to support her family.
00:02:45
Perhaps it was a reaction to a lack of parental attention and frustration with her tires of life that led Mary to wickedness at a young age.
00:02:54
Like another certain well-known witch, Mary couldn't resist a beautiful pair of shoes.
00:03:01
In 1773, when she was just five, she laid eyes on a particularly stunning leather pair.
00:03:08
She promptly stole them, then stashed them in her father's barn.
00:03:13
Her efforts to hide her loot suggest that Mary understood what she did was wrong, so we know she had a moral compass.
00:03:20
It's just that she didn't ever seem interested in following it.
00:03:25
Months later, young Mary retrieved the loafers from her secret storage spot and brought them to her parents.
00:03:31
She acted like she just happened to find them and picked them up.
00:03:35
Of course, that was a total lie.
00:03:39
Even at this young age, Mary was already displaying some worrisome tendencies.
00:03:44
For three days every July, Mary's parish was transformed by the toply fair.
00:03:51
Visitors and locals alike, loitered down cobbled streets between the troves of trinket stalls, food vendors and street performers.
00:03:59
Usually buttoned up people tossed aside their regular ethics to make the most of the frivolity.
00:04:05
Men fought in public brawls and boisterously corded maidens.
00:04:10
Meanwhile, the streets teamed with merchants, eager to make a quick buck.
00:04:16
Among them were a few who fascinated Mary.
00:04:19
Every year, these visitors traveled to the annual event to help others spend their money.
00:04:25
Mary watched enchanted as they sold potions and told fortunes.
00:04:31
These were tricks of a trade Mary didn't yet fully comprehend, but she did understand that their exaggerated stories were lucrative.
00:04:40
So Mary started telling myths of her own.
00:04:44
We don't know exactly what kinds of stories she told the locals in her small town, but by the time she was 12, she'd earned her reputation as one of Asinby's most notorious liars.
00:04:55
Eventually, her lying got so bad that her parents didn't know what to do with her.
00:05:00
At their wit's end, they sent Mary off to the bustling town of Thursk to work for a family as a maid in 1780.
00:05:09
But Mary, who was around 12 years old, had no intention of changing her ways.
00:05:14
In fact, her new job did little to incentivize any improvement in her behavior at all.
00:05:21
She woke every day before sunrise.
00:05:24
She washed floors, lit fires in all the rooms, emptied chamber pots, fetched hot water and prepared the kitchen for breakfast, all before her employer woke up.
00:05:36
She had to complete her chores without question, and if she didn't do them properly, Mary faced the risk of a beating.
00:05:44
Other girls of Mary's station accepted these terms in exchange for room and board.
00:05:49
For them, such difficult circumstances were simply a fact of life, but Mary wasn't so resigned to such an existence.
00:05:57
She tended to her responsibilities well enough, but when no one was around, she likely stole things.
00:06:04
And if her mistress ever questioned her about it, she lied to weasel her way out of punishment.
00:06:10
It was a repeat play out of the shoe incident from years earlier, only the stakes were far higher.
00:06:18
After several years, it's possible that her thieving ways became so bad that the family fired Mary, so she went to another family, then another after that.
00:06:29
Each time she was supposedly dismissed for the same reasons, she was a liar and a thief.
00:06:36
In 1787, 19-year-old Mary found one final job as a maid, but perhaps when she was caught stealing from her mistress, she was fired again,
00:06:47
and this time she was forced to leave without packing, which meant she had no money and no clothes.
00:06:55
The dead end marked a turning point for Mary.
00:06:58
While she didn't enjoy working as a maid, it had at least been a living.
00:07:02
Now without recommendations from past employers, she needed to find a new job, something in a field where she hadn't blackened her name.
00:07:13
So in 1788, 20-year-old Mary moved yet again.
00:07:18
This time, to Leeds, a town about 40 miles southwest of Thursk.
00:07:23
Similar to the toply fair she loved in her childhood, there was a sense of boisterous freedom to Leeds growing metropolis.
00:07:31
What's more, a reputation would take far longer to tarnish in such a big town.
00:07:37
That idea might have occurred to Mary as she desperately searched for a job.
00:07:41
Luckily, she found one, when one of her mother's friends referred her to a seamstress who specialized in making manchwas, a kind of fashionable overgown.
00:07:52
Mary likely learned how to sew in early childhood, but now at 20, she finally had the opportunity to put that skill to use.
00:08:00
Recognizing it was her way out of a life of servantry, Mary treated the new gig with more respect and diligence than she showed in her old jobs.
00:08:10
At least, it certainly seems that way, because as far as we can tell, Mary was never caught stealing from this boss, though that might be because she decided her deceptive smarts were better applied elsewhere.
00:08:25
Not long after she started her new job, Mary took up a side hustle, telling fortunes for servant girls who came into the shop.
00:08:34
Twenty-year-old Mary copied the fortune tellers she'd watched during childhood, spinning eccentric stories to convince gullible maids that she had special abilities.
00:08:45
In turn, the young women gushed about Mary to their wealthy mistresses, who came to witness the magic for themselves.
00:08:52
Doing this, Mary learned how to best exploit the fears and biases of others in her favor.
00:09:00
She liked to tell some of her clients that someone in town had placed an evil wish upon them.
00:09:05
She promised that she could remove the curse for a price.
00:09:10
Eager to rid themselves of any dark magic, Mary's clients usually paid up.
00:09:15
For other seekers, Mary relied on old wives' tales to peddle magical advice.
00:09:21
For example, she might tell a woman who wanted to get pregnant that she should rock an empty cradle to make her wish come true.
00:09:28
These kinds of superstitions had floated about England for centuries, and now they provided a reliable way for Mary to convince others of her mystical powers.
00:09:39
So in this way, Mary spent her first few years in leads perfecting her cons.
00:09:45
The result was that by late 1792, the 24-year-old enjoyed a good reputation as a witch.
00:09:53
However, the nature of her cons shifted slightly when she met John Bateman, a well-mannered wheelwright in early 1793.
00:10:03
Though Mary's witchcraft side hustle was certainly controversial, John didn't seem to mind.
00:10:09
Either that, or he didn't know about it.
00:10:12
So the two hid it off rather quickly.
00:10:16
After only three weeks of courtship, the couple married in February of 1793.
00:10:22
They promptly moved into a furnished room at High Court Lane and were happy for a spell, but before long Mary's darker side emerged.
00:10:32
According to Summer Streven's author of The Yorkshire Witch, the life and trial of Mary Bateman, within two months of the wedding, Mary broke into a man's private box at their building and stole his watch,
00:10:45
some silver spoons, and two guineas.
00:10:49
It didn't take long for the man to confront Mary and threaten to bring the matter to authorities.
00:10:54
In the 1700s, theft of more than 40 shillings in value from a dwelling house was a capital offence, and Mary risked hanging if found guilty, so she had little choice but to return the pilfered items.
00:11:08
It wasn't ideal.
00:11:10
Mary knew that if she wanted to continue enriching herself with other people's money, she'd have to be more clever about it in the future.
00:11:18
So with that in mind, she turned her sights to linen stores.
00:11:23
She'd visit the merchants, claiming that her employer had instructed her to select three silk pedicodes.
00:11:29
Of course, her "employer" didn't exist.
00:11:32
Mary gave the shop owners a made-up name.
00:11:35
With the valuable garments in hand, Mary assured the merchants that her mistress would look them over, then return to and pay for the other one.
00:11:44
After leaving the shop, Mary's plot was half done.
00:11:48
She'd returned days later with two of the pieces, as promised, then direct that the third be charged to the account of the made-up mistress.
00:11:57
It took quite some time for the cashiers to realize they'd been tricked.
00:12:02
That only happened once they asked around and learned that Mary's mistress wasn't real.
00:12:08
By then, Mary was long gone, able to wear or sell her expensive new pedicode.
00:12:15
It was her most elaborate swindle to date, and it was so successful that she started thinking about new schemes she could carry out.
00:12:24
Mary Bateman was just getting started.
00:12:36
By 1793, 25-year-old Mary Bateman had spent four years in leads establishing a reputation for herself as a soothsayer, but she returned her focus to petty theft and cons when she married John Bateman that same year.
00:12:53
Perhaps his financial support meant she no longer had to maintain her seamstress job, so left to her own devices, Mary reverted to old habits.
00:13:03
Her husband further enabled Mary's thievery by moving across town with her every time she fell out of favor with their neighbors, but around 1795,
00:13:14
27-year-old Mary faced a new kind of dilemma.
00:13:18
That year, one of her victims threatened to expose her as a thief, so she cut a deal with him.
00:13:24
If he stayed quiet, she'd make it worth his while.
00:13:28
There was just one problem.
00:13:31
She didn't have any money to pay him off.
00:13:33
Desperate to save herself, Mary decided she'd sell the furniture in the lodging room that her and John rented.
00:13:40
Mary knew John wouldn't be on board with her plot, so she devised a plan to get him out of the way for the time being.
00:13:48
She forged a note claiming that John's father was on his deathbed, then she found John at work and handed him the letter.
00:13:56
Distraught, John rushed to his father's side in a neighboring town, a full 40-mile trek.
00:14:03
When he arrived, John was relieved to see his father up and about, but relief turned to confusion when his bewildered dad revealed that he'd never been sick in the first place.
00:14:14
Mary's letter had been a cruel trick.
00:14:17
When John returned to Leeds, he was shocked to find that all of the furniture from their room was gone, Mary had sold it all.
00:14:26
Like in childhood, Mary's willingness to wrong others, as long as it benefited her, suggests that she still paid no attention to her moral compass.
00:14:35
Now older, however, Mary's actions were harder to excuse.
00:14:40
Still, when John asked her about the furniture, Mary explained that she'd owed money to someone, and she had no choice, selling their belongings was just the quickest way to pay off the debt,
00:14:51
she said.
00:14:52
The incident with his father likely put a strain on their marriage, but John apparently remained true to his wedding vows.
00:14:59
He stayed with Mary despite her faults, perhaps believing that she'd see the error of her ways and do better.
00:15:07
He had no idea that Mary's long list of deceitful acts was only going to grow, and all it took was a small spark.
00:15:18
On February 13th, 1796, a fire started at a flax mill in an industrial district on the edge of leads.
00:15:27
Firefighting teams showed up, but there wasn't much they could do.
00:15:31
10 people died in the blaze, and still more were injured and had to be rushed to nearby hospitals.
00:15:38
After the tragedy, locals hurried to support those affected.
00:15:42
They saw an opportunity to help their neighbors, but 28-year-old Mary saw an opportunity to make a profit.
00:15:50
Pretending to be a charitable volunteer, Mary went to the doors of aristocrats, asking them to donate bed sheets to lay the dead upon.
00:15:59
She also pretended to be a nurse and asked for fine linens, claiming they'd be supplied to the wounded who were stuck in the infirmary.
00:16:07
Once she had the linens, Mary took the fabrics to a local pawn shop, where she sold them for a tidy sum.
00:16:14
No one ever noticed what she did.
00:16:17
They only remembered her selfless efforts to collect the sheets.
00:16:21
So, whenever people thanked her for her service, Mary acted as though she was genuinely devoted to the cause.
00:16:28
Still not everyone ignored Mary's cons.
00:16:31
People definitely talked, and she faced her share of derision over the years.
00:16:36
Eventually, it got to be too much for John.
00:16:39
His wife had sullied their name with her schemes.
00:16:42
When it was just the two of them, he might have put up with it, but they'd had two children recently, and he wouldn't have wanted them saddled with Mary's baggage.
00:16:52
So perhaps seeking to leave behind Mary's burned bridges, John made an executive decision.
00:16:59
In 1796, he enlisted in the armed forces.
00:17:02
Specifically, he joined the Supplementary Militia, which aimed to protect England from various threats.
00:17:09
Mary had little choice but to follow John and stay in military quarters.
00:17:15
While there, she might have dabbled in witchcraft and fortune-telling to make a little extra money, but it's also likely she kept herself busy raising their children.
00:17:24
Caring for the kids would have consumed much of Mary's time while John was with the military, but before she knew it, John was ready to return to Leeds.
00:17:34
In 1799, he left the militia and moved 31-year-old Mary and their two children back to the city.
00:17:42
Maybe John thought that enough time had passed for his wife's reputation to recover.
00:17:47
Maybe people had forgotten about Mary's schemes and cons, but it wasn't to be.
00:17:53
As soon as she got back to her old haunts, Mary conjured up her old business.
00:18:01
It started small.
00:18:03
She prepared love spells, sold trinkets, and told fortunes for eager customers.
00:18:09
She also advertised herself as a professional agent for "screwer down charms."
00:18:15
Mary explained the term like this.
00:18:17
In a world where people lurked around every corner, wishing to do harm to others, Mary had access to someone who could screw them down with a magic spell.
00:18:27
It was a sort of preemptive strike, and it preyed on her customers' paranoia and gullibility.
00:18:34
If anyone ever did question her, Mary had an answer ready.
00:18:38
She told skeptics that much of her power and the knowledge she had came from a mysterious woman known only as Mrs.
00:18:46
Moore.
00:18:47
According to Mary, Mrs.
00:18:49
Moore was the seventh child of a seventh child who possessed the gift of second sight or divine intuition.
00:18:57
She was the one advising Mary from the shadows.
00:19:00
She saw all.
00:19:02
She knew all.
00:19:04
She didn't exist.
00:19:07
Most ate up the lie, believing that Mary's source was as powerful as she claimed.
00:19:12
Eventually, young maids whispered to their mistresses and friends, spreading the word about Mary's services once again, now with an added element of mystery.
00:19:22
In short, Mrs.
00:19:24
Moore was Mary's masterstroke.
00:19:26
She manipulated her clients, playing them for fools, watching as they danced to her tune.
00:19:33
And as she pulled in more and more believers, it occurred to Mary just how powerful she was becoming.
00:19:40
She could make people do anything she wanted.
00:19:45
And who was there to stop her?
00:19:48
No one.
00:19:50
After returning to leads with her family in 1799, 31-year-old Mary Bateman began practicing witchcraft again,
00:20:01
or so she claimed.
00:20:03
Just like she had when she worked as a seamstress, Mary found that people were easy to dope with a well-told lie.
00:20:10
When fearful customers came to her for advice, she eagerly answered, citing the mysterious and fictitious Mrs.
00:20:18
Moore as her source.
00:20:20
And some fell helplessly under Mary's spell, with disastrous consequences.
00:20:27
Around 1800, a woman by the name of Mrs.
00:20:30
Greenwood came to Mary with grave marital concerns.
00:20:34
She told Mary she'd been worried for her husband's safety since he'd left for a trip.
00:20:39
Playing on Mrs.
00:20:40
Greenwood's fears, Mary announced that Mr.
00:20:43
Greenwood had in fact been imprisoned during his travels.
00:20:47
According to Mary, his only hope was Mrs.
00:20:50
Moore, only she could secure his release.
00:20:54
And her help?
00:20:55
Well, it didn't come cheap.
00:20:59
In order for Mrs.
00:21:00
Moore to properly screw down the jail guards, Mary requested four pieces of leather, four pieces of blotting paper, four brass screws,
00:21:10
and four pieces of gold.
00:21:13
It's likely that Mary only cared about the gold, but she had to convince Mrs.
00:21:16
Greenwood there was a recipe that would save her spouse.
00:21:20
But providing a specific recipe for success, likely instilled in her victim a temporary sense of power over her fate as well.
00:21:29
Dr.
00:21:29
Ellen J.
00:21:30
Langer termed this very phenomenon the "illusion of control."
00:21:37
Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Langer's research explains how people are able to expect a higher likelihood of a positive outcome than logic would allow.
00:21:48
In other words, during situations where the outcome is unknown, illusions of control grant people a greater sense that they have influence over what happens to them.
00:21:58
Though Mrs.
00:21:59
Greenwood couldn't personally control what happened to her husband, she could fulfill Mary's request, thinking it might help him.
00:22:07
So, with her instructions clear, Mrs.
00:22:10
Greenwood leapt into action.
00:22:12
But she wasn't fast enough, and Mary was eager for her payday, so she announced that Mrs.
00:22:19
Greenwood would take her own life if she didn't save her husband.
00:22:24
Now terrified for her own life as well as her husband's, Mrs.
00:22:27
Greenwood secured most of the ingredients for Mary's spell, but she couldn't get her hands on the gold.
00:22:35
That's when Mary encouraged her to simply steal it.
00:22:38
Luckily, this particular request triggered Mrs.
00:22:43
Greenwood's better judgment.
00:22:45
She realized Mary was tricking her and walked away.
00:22:49
Maybe a little humiliated, but somewhat wiser, too.
00:22:54
Mary's next victims wouldn't be so lucky.
00:22:59
Larzelie Stead was a nervous man.
00:23:01
After failing in the business world, he worried that his creditors would soon come to his door, seeking money he didn't have.
00:23:09
With no where else to turn, Barzelie brought his concerns to Mary.
00:23:14
Of course, she had little interest in helping him find solutions to his problems.
00:23:18
True to form, Mary exploited Barzelie's fears, charged him for mystical advice, and then convinced him to join the army.
00:23:29
But like every great magician, Mary was a master of misdirection.
00:23:34
As it happened, Barzelie wasn't her main priority.
00:23:37
The real subject of her latest scheme was the desperate man's pregnant wife, who will call Roberta.
00:23:44
Shortly after convincing Barzelie to enlist, Mary told Roberta that her husband was having an affair.
00:23:50
She claimed to know that Barzelie had impregnated this woman and that he would soon run away with her.
00:23:58
Roberta was mortified and heartbroken.
00:24:01
Naturally, Mary promised her that mystical intervention was the answer to her woes.
00:24:07
To seal the deal, Mary called in the help of Mrs.
00:24:11
Moore.
00:24:11
Mary told Roberta that Mrs.
00:24:14
Moore would screw down Barzelie's lover, so she was no longer in the picture.
00:24:19
But it could only happen if Roberta paid three crowns.
00:24:23
According to author Summer Stevens, this would have been over a week's wages for a skilled craftsman at the time.
00:24:31
And, impatient as ever, Mary told Roberta that she only had until Barzelie left for the military to act.
00:24:39
Otherwise, all hope would be lost.
00:24:43
Though Roberta and her husband were already struggling financially, she decided it was best to invest into the help of Mary and Mrs.
00:24:50
Moore.
00:24:51
So, she scraped together the cash.
00:24:54
Then there was just one other ingredient, the witch needed, two lumps of coal.
00:25:00
According to Mary, they were to be placed on the doorstep of Barzelie's mistress.
00:25:05
Mary told Roberta that when the other woman found the coal at her door, she'd bring them to her fire.
00:25:11
That's when magic smoke would rise up and taint all of the woman's fresh clothes.
00:25:16
With nothing to wear, she'd be unable to pack a bag to elope with Barzelie.
00:25:21
And with that, Roberta's marriage would be saved.
00:25:26
Obviously, it was all nonsense.
00:25:29
A tale that Mary made up as she went along, but Roberta was totally convinced.
00:25:34
So, she supplied the coal and the money just in the nick of time.
00:25:40
To be satisfied with her payment, Mary told her client that the spell was complete.
00:25:45
And the next morning, Barzelie's stead left for the military without taking on a new bride.
00:25:52
Roberta was overcome with a sense of relief.
00:25:56
In Roberta's mind, Mary had saved her from ruin, and her gratitude was a dangerous weapon.
00:26:03
One she unwittingly handed to the so-called witch.
00:26:07
And Mary, she fully intended to use it against the poor woman.
00:26:13
We're not sure how, but Mary somehow convinced Roberta to pawn off various items from around her marital home and give her the profits.
00:26:22
Apparently, the original payment of three crowns hadn't been enough.
00:26:27
It's entirely possible that while grateful for the witch's help, Roberta was also scared of Mary's powers.
00:26:33
And with her husband away, there was no one to notice or intervene as she steadily sold off every last belonging until she was almost destitute.
00:26:46
Weeks later, nearly penniless, Roberta felt hopeless.
00:26:49
No matter how much she gave Mary, it seemed it was never enough.
00:26:55
Seeing no way out, she attempted suicide.
00:26:59
But she didn't die.
00:27:01
Mary was relieved.
00:27:03
She wasn't done exerting her wicked influence over the vulnerable woman.
00:27:09
Following her brush with death, Roberta managed to get financial assistance from a charity known as the Leeds Benevolent Society.
00:27:17
Mary took part of the payment.
00:27:19
Then she told Roberta that her father-in-law was out to murder her, but that Mrs.
00:27:24
Moore could stop him, so the desperate woman pawned off her remaining possessions to pay for magical protection.
00:27:33
Even then, Mary wasn't done.
00:27:36
She convinced the fretful woman that her eight-year-old daughter would soon take her own life or be killed by a seducer.
00:27:44
Unless she wore a special charm bracelet, Mary just happened to be offering for sale.
00:27:50
By this stage, Roberta was in too deep to see reason, to afraid to understand she was being conned, and when she was completely tapped out,
00:28:01
Mary lost interest.
00:28:03
That's when Roberta began to finally question Mary's powers.
00:28:06
When she told neighbors everything that the witch had done for her, they didn't believe Mary was the real deal.
00:28:13
They urged Roberta to run from the nefarious con artist, but she just couldn't do it, so they suggested she try a smaller act of defiance instead.
00:28:23
Each day, Roberta wore charms on her clothing that Mary insisted would keep her alive.
00:28:29
Roberta's neighbors told her to remove them, just to see what would happen.
00:28:35
The poor woman was terrified.
00:28:37
For weeks, she'd followed Mary's domineering instructions.
00:28:41
Now, as she reached to take off the charms, her hands trembled.
00:28:46
She removed one trinket from her pocket, another from her blouse, terrified she'd fall ill at any moment, until finally, with a final held breath,
00:28:57
she took off the last bobble.
00:29:00
A long silence followed as she waited.
00:29:05
To her surprise, nothing happened, and suddenly it was as though she'd snapped out of a trance.
00:29:11
Angry, Roberta threatened to have Mary arrested, unless she returned all the household items and money that she'd given her in the preceding months.
00:29:22
Mary reluctantly agreed.
00:29:24
What choice did she have?
00:29:26
But as you can probably guess, she didn't have the money to repay her latest victim.
00:29:32
So, Mary moved to her next victim.
00:29:35
A pregnant woman will call Elizabeth.
00:29:38
The father of Elizabeth's child had run away.
00:29:41
Knowing this, Mary figured she had a perfect victim.
00:29:45
People who were uncertain about the future were always easiest to manipulate.
00:29:50
So, keeping with tradition, Mary treated Elizabeth's fear with prescribed superstitions.
00:29:57
For the price of several charms, Mary assured the young woman that she could bring back her absent lover.
00:30:04
Of course, she could do no such thing.
00:30:06
The charm failed.
00:30:08
The man did not return.
00:30:10
But Mary had no shame.
00:30:13
She assured Elizabeth that for an additional payment, she could secure her the love of an affluent suitor.
00:30:20
Shockingly, that spell failed, too.
00:30:24
Determined to squeeze more blood from this stone, author Summer Streven's rights that Mary offered the woman medicines that would induce an abortion.
00:30:34
Daunted by the prospect of raising a kid on her own, the woman accepted Mary's concoction.
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It did the trick.
00:30:42
She miscarried.
00:30:43
However, it also made her gravely ill.
00:30:47
Emaciated and weakened by the potion, Elizabeth died.
00:30:51
She was possibly Mary's first murder victim, and no one thought twice about it.
00:30:58
Perhaps most affected by the death was Mary.
00:31:01
She couldn't extort money from a dead person.
00:31:05
So, on she went, in search of new prey, desperate to pay off Roberta's stead before she was exposed.
00:31:13
She found her next target when a vulnerable woman came to Mary begging for guidance.
00:31:19
It was a familiar story.
00:31:21
Mrs.
00:31:21
Cooper was anxious about her husband's loyalty.
00:31:26
Hearing Mary could predict the future, she sought mystical answers, but Mary's prophecies were anything but comforting.
00:31:34
Mary told Mrs.
00:31:35
Cooper that her husband would soon leave her.
00:31:38
Worse than that, she claimed he would sell all of their home furnishings in secret, then leave her behind with no wealth to support herself.
00:31:48
The only way Mrs.
00:31:49
Cooper could remedy the situation was to keep her belongings with Mary until Mr.
00:31:55
Cooper changed his mind.
00:31:57
Mary would know when it was safe, of course, and promptly return the furniture to her customer.
00:32:03
Unwilling to risk losing her marriage and her money, Mrs.
00:32:07
Cooper did as Mary advised.
00:32:09
She moved her furnishings to Mary's place.
00:32:12
In reality, the most dangerous spot she could have left them, and as soon as Mrs.
00:32:17
Cooper left, the witch started selling the lot.
00:32:22
With the cash she made, Mary quietly paid off her debt to Roberta's stead.
00:32:27
Now in the perverse game of musical chairs, it was the Cooper's left standing.
00:32:33
But as far as Mary saw it, they were lucky.
00:32:36
They had gotten away with their lives.
00:32:39
Elizabeth hadn't had that privilege, not that Mary cared.
00:32:44
Death was nothing when there was money to be made, and though the death of the expectant mother had been an accident, Mary's next kill would be anything but a fluke.
00:32:55
Thanks for tuning into serial killers,
00:33:06
a Spotify podcast will be back Monday with another episode.
00:33:10
For more information on Mary Bateman, amongst the many sources we used, we found the book The Yorkshire Witch, The Life and Trial of Mary Bateman, by Summer Streven's extremely helpful to our research.
00:33:22
Stay safe out there.
00:33:24
This episode was written by Lauren DeLill, edited by Joel Callan, fact-checked by Bennett Logan, researched by Mickey Taylor and Chelsea Wood,
00:33:37
sound designed by Alex Button, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Katovich.
00:33:45
Our head of programming is Julian Barrow, our head of production is Nick Johnson, and Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor.
00:33:53
I'm your host, Vanessa Richardson.
00:33:59
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