Today in Salem: Yesterday the constable was deeply uneasy watching his mother, the flamboyant Sarah Wilds, be carted off to jail for witchcraft. Today another constable enters the picture, one who is just as uncomfortable. He’s sure that some of the women in jail – whom he himself arrested – are actually innocent. After several sleepless nights, he’s quit his position in protest.
Unfortunately for the former deputy John Willard, it’s becoming clear that people who say the girls are lying end up being accused themselves. And now – it’s happening. He doesn’t know it yet, but the girls’ leader, 13-year-old Ann Putnam, is crying out against him this very minute. Her worried parents are watching as she falls to her knees and begs his specter for mercy as he tries to make her sign the Devil’s book.
Ann’s parents aren’t just worried. They’re angry. John had been involved in the mysterious death of their baby three winters ago. It doesn’t surprise them one bit that he’s aligned himself with the Devil.
WHO was John Willard?
John Willard was 35. At the time of the first allegations of witchcraft Willard was serving as a constable, and had arrested some of the accused. When he quit his position in protest, the afflicted girls accused him of being a witch himself. Not only that, but they said he’d murdered 13 people.
Unfortunately he’d made powerful enemies in the Putnams. When he first arrived at Salem Village, John Willard worked as a hired hand on the Putnam farm. One of his many tasks on the farm was looking after the young children living there, including a newborn baby girl. When the baby died, the distraught parents blames Willard.
John was also unpopular with his wife’s family, who also made several accusations against him: that he beat his wife, caused business failures, and that he caused illness and even death by looking at people with an “evil eye.” Case files: John Willard
Tomorrow in Salem: The cantankerous Giles Corey writes a new will