Day 9 - Witch's Lake & Twick or Tweet

Jon Grilz (0:00)

I'm Jon Grilz from Creepy, and I listen to the Be Afraid Podcast Network. Creepy Presents The 31 Days of Horror Day 9 Now.

SPEAKER_2 (0:19)

This is Creepy, a podcast dedicated to sharing the most famous chilling and disturbing creepy pastas and urban legends in the world. Whether these stories truly happened or are simply fabrications is for you to decide.

These stories may contain graphic depictions of violence and explicit language. Listener discretion is advised.

Owen McCuen (0:59)

Hey Jon, what you doing out here? Little cold to take a swim, isn't it? And murky.

You aren't going skinny dipping in that, are you?

Jon Grilz (1:09)

I think you have me confused with a different horror narrator.

Owen McCuen (1:12)

What you doing all the way over here, Jon? Isn't the lake on the other side of the field?

Jon Grilz (1:16)

I like it here. It's peaceful.

Owen McCuen (1:19)

Oh, I gotcha. Building your alibi.

You know I've got your back, right Jon? I mean, I have a shovel and lime, and I know that-

Jon Grilz (1:28)

Thank you, Owen.

I know I can always count on you. But let's put that on the back burner for a bit, shall we?

Owen McCuen (1:36)

Oh, okay. So you want to go fishing or something?

Jon Grilz (1:40)

There aren't any fish in this lake.

Owen McCuen (1:42)

Yeah, I don't know if this is big enough to be a lake.

Jon Grilz (1:45)

It's really just a name people gave it. It used to be a lake, until-

Owen McCuen (1:53)

Until you set up an introduction to another story about this town?

Jon Grilz (1:57)

Of course.

Owen McCuen (1:58)

What's it about?

Jon Grilz (2:00)

Why do they call this place Witch's Lake?

This is Witch's Lake. Okay, lake is a bit of a stretch, given how big it is, but honestly, as a Minnesotan, I'm not even entirely sure what qualifies as a lake versus a pond. I think it has something to do with the depth or plant growth or something. But there's a so-called lake near my house that's really covered in lily pads in the summer, so I really have no idea. I'm not here to play semantics with the town folk. Plus, if the stories are true, then this is definitely a lake. Or at least it was. You can see where the stream used to feed into here, but they dammed it up. The lake proper on the other side of town didn't used to be here. This is actually the only standing body around, fed in by the river. But after what happened, I think they did what they could to forget about things.

People use the term witch hunt a lot these days. Usually wrong. Usually very wrong. Okay, almost always wrong. You know the last traditional witchcraft trial that resulted in an execution happened in 1682? Three women, Temprance Lloyd, Susanna Edwards and Mary Trembles were all hanged. The last witchcraft trial in England period was in 1717, but she was acquitted, thankfully. America took a little longer, with the Salem witch trials happening between 1692 and 1693 resulting in 20 executions, all thanks to some bored teens.

It always comes back to that, doesn't it?

Then, in 1735, the Witchcraft Act was passed in England, which made pretending to be a witch a crime. Now, it was just fraud, instead of being guilty of sorcery. The last person tried under the Witchcraft Act was Helen Duncan. Any guesses when? 1944 Yes, during World War II. She was sent to prison for it.

That's all the kids reported, at least. This town, though? Well, this town kinda did things their own way. Even after Salem, there was still a lot of fear here. Fear that needed a face and a name. Because darkness and hate and all that can't possibly be a conscious choice of human beings, right? It had to be the devil and the dark arts.

In 1774, just two years before the Declaration of Independence, almost forty years after the Witchcraft Act of England, the townspeople here had an issue with one Abigail Miller. At 26, Abigail was the town spinster, being an unmarried woman at such an advanced age. Abigail was what some referred to as strong-willed, or even obstinate, because she wasn't the sort to abide by the sort of behavior that women in that time were subject, or victim, to. She didn't like being told what to do by someone just because that someone was a man. It was one thing to follow the rules and the laws of the town. It was another to be held in lower regard just because of her gender.