Must be the season of the witch.
Massachusetts politicians, historians and schoolchildren have joined forces to exorcise the state of a history that has haunted it for more than 300 years, and clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr. — the last guilty witch of Salem.
“It’s the time of year to get this done,” Massachusetts State Sen. Diana DiZoglio (D-First Essex) told The Post Saturday. She filed a bill earlier this year to clear Johnson’s name by the people of Massachusetts and, she hopes, in the eyes of history.
Her district includes both North Andover, where Johnson lived, and Salem, where she was convicted of “covenanting with the devil” in January 1693.
“(Johnson) remains the only condemned witch who was not exonerated from the 1692 witch trials in the last 300-plus years,” the blog Witches of Massachusetts Bay reported.
The examination of Elizabeth Jonson Jr.
Massachusetts State Sen. Diana DiZoglio filed a bill this year to finally clear Johnson’s name. AFP via Getty Images
Johnson has remained the only person not exonerated from the 1692 trials. Bettmann Archive“On 10 August 1692, 22-year-old Elizabeth Johnson Jr. of Andover, Massachusetts, was arrested for witchcraft … she told Justice Dudley Bradstreet that she too … participated in the big witch meeting in Salem Village,” the report states.
Johnson was condemned to death on Jan. 11 before getting a stay of execution from Gov. William Phips.
DiZoglio was inspired to file her bill by eighth-grade students in North Andover Middle School, under the tutelage of teacher Carolyn LaPierre, who studied Johnson’s case as a part of a school project this year.
The bill currently sits in committee.
