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Witchfinder General: Low budget but highly accurate

Witchfinder General: Low budget but highly accurate: ”
Technically, torture was illegal in England by 1645. The film follows the real Hopkins in applying a very broad definition of what isn’t torture, putting suspected witches through sleep deprivation and ducking in water. The only thing Hopkins did that probably isn’t on the menu at Guantanamo Bay was to find and pierce the devil’s mark. This was supposedly a teat that witches used to suckle imps, usually concealed as a mole or wart. It was said the mark would not hurt or bleed if pricked with a pin. The film shows Hopkins’s assistant going at people’s freckles with a dagger, but the fact that they’re yelling and bleeding all over the place would have been little use. The real Hopkins facilitated matters by having a special retractable pin made, ensuring a very high conviction rate.”

(Via The Guardian UK.)

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