The chapter opens with an account of Victoria Helen MacFarlane (known as “Hellish Nell” or Helen Duncan), who was born in the late 1800s in England and claimed to have psychic abilities, such as talking to the deceased and seeing into the future. Helen married a man named Henry who also claimed to have visions and encouraged Helen to begin holding seances. Helen would climb into a cabinet and come out with what was supposedly “ectoplasm” in her mouth. The material turned out to be just white cloth, and after first being fined, Helen was later arrested in 1944 after claiming to speak to a deceased soldier from a ship that the public was not meant to know about. She was then charged using the Witchcraft Act of 1735, for the use of fraudulent witchcraft. She became the last person to ever be charged under the act, as it was repealed in 1951. Helen was used as an example to ensure that the public would be too fearful to try anything like it again, and was sentenced to nine months in prison.

While this was going on, the Spiritualists’ National Union (SNU) took the opportunity to prove the legitimacy of spiritualism and push for it as part of British culture. After two world wars, people were understandably desperate to reconnect with lost loved ones, and were thus eager to go along with spiritualism as an idea. The SNU backed Helen during the trial, while the Crown used John Maude KC, an M15 officer and lawyer. Helen denied the charges laid against her, though her fraudulent acts were likely the result of pressure to prove and keep her reputation. The goal of the Crown was to prove that Helen had made fraudulent attempts at witchcraft, while the defense claimed she was a genuine medium. Helen was found to be performing seances again after her release, and died in 1956. 

Helen’s case continues to hold public fascination and speculation today, and reflects a seemingly undying desire to condemn the vulnerable members of society.

The chapter opens with a passage from the UN’s Human Rights Council, which universally condemned accusations of witchcraft and their associated atrocities, citing that countries who continued to allow it were violating human rights. Countries such as Ghana, China, India, Nigeria, and more still face major issues related to witchcraft accusations and even executions. Poverty, a lack of healthcare, and civil unrest also contribute to the issue. 

A man named Leo Igwe works out of Nigeria for the Advocacy for Alleged Witches group to educate villages and school-age children in critical thinking, in the hopes they will question commonly held beliefs about witchcraft. He also challenges the idea that witchcraft is simply “part of African culture,” arguing that Western influence is responsible for the strong negative emphasis on it in Africa today and that Africans used to look upon healers favorably. Leo’s group also intervenes in accusations with the hope of saving peoples’ lives, helping them reconcile with the community or helping them escape, exposing the story on social media and to law enforcement, and educating the community.

A professor named Charlotte Baker studies albinism and the persecutions against people with albinism, and began a network of experts to advocate and educate in order to protect those affected. People with albinism are targeted in various African countries and elsewhere, primarily due to spiritual beliefs that they are evil or that their bodies are useful in occult practices. 

The authors end with the reminder that history continues to repeat itself through these examples of brutality and targeting of vulnerable people, and that all that can be done, should be done to prevent them from occurring again.

The Afterword opens with the account of Miss B, an adolescent girl in Nigeria who was accused of witchcraft in 2023. She was tortured with fire by members of her own family, and though the incident was reported, it took the fighting power of the AfAW to assure that her case led to an arrest. The organization also helped pay for her medical bills.

The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft is a massive database online dedicated to the Scottish witch trials and bringing a voice to those affected. The people who work to build the database gather articles and information from a wide array of sources, such as church records and government databases, as well as news articles and more. Though much of the information is missing or partially given, they are slowly piecing together a picture of the trials and providing a way for people in Scotland and elsewhere to learn about them.

The authors reiterate that more must be done to remember those who were affected by the Scottish witch trials, including memorials to educate and remind people of how easily a society can fall into a state of panic and blame. One memorial exists in Edinburgh, but it directly implies that many of those accused were in fact evil witches and is thus not sufficient at all. 

The authors point to the Steilneset memorial in Norway, which draws school groups, tourists, and all kinds of other people to learn about the trials that took place there. They explain how easily a country could fall into a state of witch panic today, with the rise of extremism, social media, and the continuation of targeting vulnerable people. They end by encouraging women everywhere to be “quarrelsome dames” and refuse to allow patriarchal ideals to hold them down.