Helen Duncan, a medium, was the last person to be convicted under the Witchcraft Act, 1735 (9 Geo. 2) C A P. V, in 1944. She was jailed for nine months to protect the secret of the timing of D-Day. Really! The Witchcraft Act was repealed 1951. The Act under which she was convicted was nicer than the Act it replaced, 1541 (33 Hen. 8) C A P. VIII, which made death the penalty for consorting with evil spirits.
--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Another question for all you polimaths:
>
> When was the last person tried/executed for
> witchcraft
> in Europe? I've been trying to find this info for
> Russia but haven't been able to dig it up -- it must
> have happened, since Sholokhov describes the
> attempted
> lynching of a suspected witch "after the war with
> Turkey" in the first chapter of "Quiet Flows the
> Don."
>
> Relatedly, when was the last European Blood Libel
> trial of a Jew for allegedly killing a Christian
> child
> for religious purposes? (Outside Russia, I mean. The
> last one here was in 1913.)
>
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