Salem's Sheriff's Curse (Content Warning: Medical, Death)

The witch trials didn't always discriminate against women. One man by the name of Giles Corey, and his wife, Martha Corey, were accused of witchcraft in 1692. He was a wealthy farmer with a large estate. He refused to make a plea. If he made a plea, his entire estate would belong to the government and his sons wouldn't be able to inherit. 

The sheriff decided to torture Corey into a plea. He rested a large plank of wood on Corey's stomach and chest. He added rocks on top of the wood to crush Corey and force him to make a plea. Corey did not submit. Whenever he was asked to make a plea he would demand for "more weight!" The sheriff did as he was asked. They kept putting weight on Corey's body until he was inevitably crushed to death. This torture went on for two days.

In his last breath, Corey cursed the sheriff. 

300 years later (1978), Sheriff  Robert E Cahill of Salem, Massachusetts was forced to retire because of a rare blood disease that caused a major heart attack. This heart attack hospitalized him. He was a man in perfect health who shouldn't have developed these conditions. He did some research into the past sheriffs of Salem, not trusting this was of natural causes. 

He found the sheriff before him had the same condition. 

The sheriff before him too.

And the sheriff before that sheriff. 

Over 300 years, each sheriff who held office after Corey's death developed rare blood conditions and died of heart attacks. 

In order to prevent the curse from continuing, Cahill decided to move the Salem Sheriff's Office to Middleton, a town next to Salem. It's remained there to this day and so far the curse has not continued.

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I hope you guys enjoy that! There is another Salem curse that I can tell if you all want to hear it. I just wanted to gush about it since who irl is really gonna ask about Salem curses?