Matthew Hopkins 1600s Witch Hunter
Proclaimed Witch Hunter General
Superstar status sending scores of
Innocent man and women to the gallows
Using forbidden torture and heinous trickery
Turned witch hunting into lucrative enterprise
Incentivized to find and hang more innocents
The elderly often easy marks and easy money
People in towns and villages didn’t mind the killings
Social cleansing of those they didn’t like or need
Eventually the costs became Hopkins undoing
Taxes raised too high to pay for his infamy
Demand for his costly skills evaporated
1647 the Witch Hunter General died
Probably of a disease like tuberculosis
Never taken to task for the deaths
Of 100 innocent people. More’s the pity.
Bob Boyd