Stories of the Paranormal, Supernatural, Legends, Lore, Mysterious Macabre, Unsolved and Unexplained
In 1895 Ireland, a modern, independent woman named Bridget Cleary fell ill—and her husband became convinced she’d been replaced by a fairy changeling. What followed was two nights of ritualistic torture ending in her brutal murder by fire, all witnessed by her own family who believed they were saving her soul. This is the horrifying true story that became a children’s rhyme and the last time Irish courts would ever accept “fairy beliefs” as a legal defense for killing your wife.
A religious Irish man murdered his wife in front of witnesses and showed no remorse — because he genuinely believed he was killing a fairy changeling while his real wife remained trapped in another realm.
From Salem’s gallows where twenty innocent people swung in 1692, to modern Tanzania where elderly women are butchered with machetes for having red eyes, the pattern of witch hunts remains horrifyingly consistent: torture until confession, murder for being different, and children weaponized against their own families. What most people don’t realize is that these brutal executions never stopped; they simply evolved, moved to new countries, and learned to hide behind the masks of religion, justice, and mob rule while continuing to claim thousands of lives every year.
Between the 15th and 18th centuries, approximately 50,000 people died accused of witchcraft across Europe and America. Most of what we think we know about these executions is wrong. And sadly, the killing never stopped.