SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Our host; Dr.G had his first paranormal experience at only eight years old. With over five decades of storytelling, magic and paranormal story collection he is an award winning story teller on a mission to revive firelight and the telling of stories!
SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Whispers from the Witch Trials
Unravel the shadowy secrets of Salem and probe the question: What ominous forces shaped this storied town's dark history? Join us as we unlock the mysteries behind Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, explore the chilling murder of Captain Joseph White, and ponder the cultural reverberations of Salem's tales on literary giants like Edgar Allan Poe. Our journey through Salem will also lead us to the Peabody Essex Museum, where crucial documents from the infamous witch trials offer a haunting glimpse into the lives forever altered by the hysteria of falsehoods.
The specter of false accusations looms large as we recount the tragic story of Ann Dolliver, whose life was irrevocably changed after a night with friends ended in unjust imprisonment. Her tale serves as a somber reminder of the dangers lurking behind a seemingly innocent façade. Through these narratives, we urge listeners to remain vigilant and mindful, embracing life's adventures with caution and responsibility. This episode challenges you to reflect on the fine line between myth and reality, as we navigate the haunted streets of Salem and beyond.
Good morning everybody. It's Dr G. Spirit, tales and Magic. And you know, we always say there is indeed a world unseen, a world that exists all around us all the time and every now and then, for whatever the reason, we catch a glimpse of it and the dead get in. The reason we catch a glimpse of it and the dead get in, if the magic of time, delay and radio is working correctly. You're hearing this as Cassandra and I are on one train that leads to a bus that leads to another train and will take us into Rhode Island. But I wanted to talk for a minute about Salem and even after Doctober's, over which two episodes of the Doctober promise is fulfilled. This is the second to the last episode, just for that. But you're going to hear more about Salem, especially when we get back and unravel all of the things that we've done. So we all know Salem has a darker side, but we should try and separate the facts from lore as we walk through the city's beautiful tree-lined streets and some of their historic neighborhoods. Salem's history is filled with enterprising people who brought riches and opportunity to the citizens. People who brought riches and opportunity to the citizens. But let's bypass those good folks for just a minute and peek at the rest of the story.
Speaker 1:Matthew Molls and forgive me if I'm pronouncing the name wrong bloody cursed at the House of Seven Gables. Nathaniel Hawthorne's descriptions of the house of seven gables in his novel of the same name. They're dark and kind of ominous. His fictional house is old, it's weather beaten, it's really in terrible disrepair. So it's a place you wouldn't want to go into in the first place. But you won't see that in the version of the house today as you take your guided tour. But you will hear about the awful curse that animates the dark underbelly of Hawthorne's story. He called a romance begins with scenes describing how the Gables had been built upon the raised home of Matthew Maul. When the entire entitled I believe it was Colonel Pynchon decided he wanted the property, he joined others and he accused Maul of witchcraft. And just as Maul was about to be hanged he pointed to Pynchon and said God will give him blood to drink. Pynchon goes on to obtain the land that he coveted and he built the mansion. A similar curse was said to have been delivered to John Hawthorne, that's Nathaniel Hawthorne's great-great-grandfather, who, by the way, was one of the judges in the Salem Witch Trials. So where in the gables do you think the fictional Colonel Henschen took his last blood-stained breath?
Speaker 1:Not far from there is Captain Joseph White, who was murdered at the Garner Pingree House. Who would imagine that the Garner Pingree House? It's a masterpiece of architecture by Samuel I'm sorry, samuel McClinter. It's the setting for a savage murder of a rich old sea captain. You can tour the elegant townhouse now. It's part of the Peabody Essex Museum's architecture collection and you can hear all the details of his grisly murder. They called it the trial of the century, prosecuted by the great orator Daniel Webster. How about that? The murderer's influences on the authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Before you climb the elegant staircase to Captain Joseph White's bedroom. Before you climb the elegant staircase to Captain Joseph White's bedroom, you will learn about the McLintock Harving the parties that didn't end till dawn and White's illegal slave trade.
Speaker 1:This impulsive and unpleasant 82-year-old was not beloved in Salem. His iron chest containing gold doubloons and his decision to disinherit his niece, mary Beckford, prompted Beckford's new husband Joe Knapp and his brother Frank to hire brothers Richard and George Crowningshield to kill White. And on May 6th of 1830, richard killed White in his bed. Richard later hanged himself in a jail and Joe and Frank Knapp were found guilty and also hanged at 128 Essex Street. You can read all about that. It's about a 12-minute walk from there to the gables. But one of the things I wanted to say about Salem and, like I said, you'll hear many more things about Salem that murder that we just talked about resulted in a pretty scandalous trial and it is said to be the inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's Telltale Heart, as well as the board game Clue.
Speaker 1:But I want to talk a minute about the museum, because we have a lot of fun in Salem. We go there and we dress in costumes and we get to be who or whatever we want to be and have complete and total anonymity, to do whatever it is that you're going to do, and then return to your life as you at some point later. So sometimes we tend to forget, but the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem holds 511 original documents from the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. They're documents like letters, trial transcriptions and court orders that were entrusted to the museum by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for safekeeping. Now some can be viewed and read online keeping. Now some can be viewed and read online, while a few works of art connected to the trials are on view in the American Art Galleries of the PEM. Look for the dramatic painting Trial of George Jacobs, august 5th 1692. 1692. Jacobs pleads the court on his knees for his life his walking stick nearby that very walking stick is also in view.
Speaker 1:Between May of 1692 and March of 1693, 200 innocent people from the Salem region were accused, 25 sentenced to death, 19 were hung and one man was pressed to death. So if you visit the museum, the Phillips Library Reading Room is also nearby and it's a special occasion for authors or researchers or history buffs. Check out the hours and make an appointment to visit the PEM, which is the Peabody Essex Museum. It's 161 Essex Street in Salem. You can get them online at pemorg or, if you want that whole thing, wwwpemorg the Phillips Library Reading Room. If you make it to 306 Newberry Turnpike in Rowling, massachusetts, you can find that Some of the documents there are available online. So that address would be wwwpemorg. Forward slash. Visit forward slash library PEM, which trial documents and transcriptions and images.
Speaker 1:Pm is about a 15-minute walk from the Gables and definitely worth a stop. We all get caught up in the fun of Salem while we are there and in truth Salem has overly commercialized, shall we say, the incidents and witches and things like that. You mustn't forget that several of our brothers and sisters that do lost their lives, and even people that didn't lost their lives. It didn't take much to be on trial there. If you have a cool Salem story, I'd like to hear about it, or you can tell me how Salem affected you in one way or another and you will hear more from us about Salem coming up in the near future and about the rest of our adventures on this season of what they now refer to as Doctober.
Speaker 1:If you get the chance to sit and be calm for a minute, maybe you have something that you or someone you know was accused of that they positively didn't do, and how easy it works for someone to do that. You've heard me talk about Ann Dolliver many times. Ann was a self-proclaimed witch. What Ann was not was crazy, but she wound up in the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Her crime was going out with her girlfriends and drinking for the first time and passing out in a graveyard. That got her life imprisonment in Trans-Allegheny and you'll hear more about that later. So go out there, be very safe, have some fun Not trying to be a buzzkill kind of Dr G, but I do want you to be safe and I do want you to remember at any given time there are four serial killers trolling for new victims. Stay with your tribe, know the area around you, have some fun, but remember what started it all. We'll talk again tomorrow, my friends. Good night from Boston.
