8 People Who Were Brutally Executed During The Salem Witch Trials

Published September 4, 2023
Updated September 11, 2023

Giles And Martha Corey: The Couple Killed Within Days Of Each Other

Giles Corey

Wikimedia CommonsGiles Corey was crushed to death with stones after refusing to cooperate during his trial.

Like many of the victims of the Salem witch trials, Giles Corey was an outsider. But he suffered an especially gruesome death. After refusing to plead guilty to practicing wizardry, he was “pressed” to death with stones.

Before his death, Giles had something of an infamous reputation in Salem. The 80-year-old farmer had stood trial for killing a farmhand years earlier, and church records even referred to him as a “scandalous person.”

Nevertheless, Giles reacted to the Salem witch trials like most other people in town. Curious and frightened, he attended many of the early examinations. Giles even felt hysterical enough about potential witchcraft that he agreed that his own wife, Martha, was probably a witch.

He testified against her, acknowledging that he’d had some animals fall mysteriously ill and that he had seen his wife behave strangely near a fire.

But then suspicion fell on him. A number of young women claimed that he’d bewitched them. And just like in Bishop’s case, they went into violent fits almost as soon as he walked into the courtroom.

“All the afflicted were seized now with fits, and troubled with pinches,” Reverend Samuel Parris wrote. “Then the court ordered his hands to be tied.”

The magistrate demanded: “What, is it not enough to act witchcraft at other times, but must you do it now in the face of authority?”

“I am a poor creature, and cannot help it,” Giles responded, but as he moved his head, the young women he’d “bewitched” echoed his movement.

Perhaps sensing the futility of defending himself, Giles eventually stopped cooperating. But because he refused to talk, he was given a sentence of peine forte et dure. In other words, he’d be pressed to death.

In September 1692, that’s exactly what happened. Giles was stripped naked and laid on the ground with a board covering his body. One by one, stones were stacked onto the board as Corey cried out, “More weight!” while he was crushed to death. It took him days to die on September 19, 1692.

In the end, his only goal was stopping authorities from taking his land so that his two sons-in-law would at least be left with something. And although he was able to ensure the prosperity of his surviving family members, he suffered an agonizing death in order to make that happen.

Martha Corey avoided this terrible fate. But she too was executed for being a witch. On September 22, she and seven others were hanged.

author
Kaleena Fraga
author
A staff writer for All That's Interesting, Kaleena Fraga has also had her work featured in The Washington Post and Gastro Obscura, and she published a book on the Seattle food scene for the Eat Like A Local series. She graduated from Oberlin College, where she earned a dual degree in American History and French.
editor
Jaclyn Anglis
editor
Jaclyn is the senior managing editor at All That's Interesting. She holds a Master's degree in journalism from the City University of New York and a Bachelor's degree in English writing and history (double major) from DePauw University. She is interested in American history, true crime, modern history, pop culture, and science.