How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women

Lilias Adie was an elderly woman accused of witchcraft in Torryburn, Scotland, in 1704, near the end of the Scottish witch-hunting era. She was possibly as old as 80, unusually tall, and physically distinctive, and as a result Lilias stood out in her community. These traits made her vulnerable in a society quick to equate difference with something threatening. Her story is the most closely examined of the women affected by the witch trials.

Lilias was accused by a neighbor during a period of heightened religious anxiety. She was imprisoned and reportedly confessed to witchcraft before torture ever occurred, though the authors argue that her confession may have been entirely fabricated, suggested by the presence of identical confessions in other towns. Lilias died in custody before she could be tried, creating a problem for authorities who still feared her supposed powers and believed it was possible for the Devil to reanimate her body and continue using it for evil.

Rather than bury her in consecrated Kirk grounds, Reverend Logan of Torryburn ordered her body interred near the shoreline. Due to fear of her rising again, her grave was weighed down with a stone slab so her body would remain underwater.