As a result of Shaw's list, a council was set up to look into the matter. One of the first to be arrested was a woman named Elizabeth Anderson. It's not clear whether she was tortured or just traumatized over the arrest herself, but she quickly confessed to witchcraft and then started to name others who had done the same. Those others were already on the list, but hearing it from a self-proclaimed witch made it that much easier to go after them. Anderson's confession earned her a lot of company in jail. All told records show that in January of 1697, 35 people were arrested and held for trial. Evidence was heard, neighbors were brought in to speak to the character of the suspects, stories were told, and these stories weren't nice. Guess, there were the main issues of Christian Shaw being sick in bed in her father's house, and they covered that. But other items came up as well. It was as if the town had been given a platform to air all of their grievances, and they wanted to take full advantage of that. They might not have had buses back then, but they acted like it, throwing people under them with every word they uttered. The trial stretched on for months. Elizabeth Anderson's elderly father died in jail while awaiting a verdict. Others were released as stories revealed their innocence. In the end, seven suspects remained, including Agnes Naismith. By June of that year, after five months of imprisonment, they were all sentenced to death. One of them, John Reed, took his own life in jail before they could carry out his execution. On June 10 of 1697, the final six were hanged in Gallo Green, in the West End of Paisley's Italy. After the accused witches had been killed, their bodies were piled together and set a flame. Superstitions of the time told people that even after being hanged, the witches might still be alive, so the fire was a precaution. Even still, they didn't know when to let down their guard. Vocal legend says that's just what happened there in Paisley that day. One of the executioners actually borrowed a cane from someone in the crowd, and after using it to nudge an arm back into the fire, tried to hand it back. The villager refused to touch it. After the flames died down and there was nothing more than a pile of ash, the remains were gathered together and buried. A ring of cobblestones was arranged around the burial site, and a horseshoe, an ancient symbol used to ward off magic and protect specific locations, was placed in the center of the ring. They did this because of something that happened before the execution. Here in the center of town, Agnes Naismith was said to have addressed the crowd that had gathered to watch. She had cursed all of them, and all of their descendants after them. She cursed the town of Paisley, and the shaws, and the trial, and everything about it. The horseshoe was meant to act as a seal, locking in that curse and preventing it from escaping. Sadly, it was all a lie. Every last bit of what happened in Paisley was built on a foundation of fraud and make believe. Agnes Naismith knew it, that's why she cursed them after all, and if it wasn't for the irrational panic that had swept through the community, the villagers might have known it too. They knew what we all do, that there's no such thing as a witch who flies on a broomstick and turns neighbors into animals with a word. No one can make a young girl sick cause her to vomit up feathers and pins. It's not logical or rational. It's not real. We can see now looking back how this mess got out of hand so quickly, lie upon lie upon lie. The human desire for self-preservation is a powerful weapon, and it was used to justify behavior that wasn't normally acceptable. It always has been. It still is. I wish I could tell you that this story ended justly, that Shaw was caught in her lie and punished for building such a deadly hoax. But that itself would be a lie. She grew up and eventually pioneered the manufacturing of thread, something that fueled her town's economy for generations. As much as possible, Shaw got away with it. But lives were lost. People were tortured and killed. Families were torn apart and forever altered. Shaw had spread lies that hurt others. Then those people told lies that hurt still more. And finally the rest of the town lied to itself and accepted it all as gospel truth. Because of fear, because of social pressure, and because sometimes it's easier to let the current wash you away than it is

to swim against it toward the

truth.