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Page 2
Many of Roman's books were confiscated and were given to the judge as evidence of the family's practicing witchcraft.
A woman in Northampton County was accused of bewitching a white horse. The court paper omitted the exact dates. She maintained her innocence, but the judges convinced her she was guilty and she finally confessed to being a witch. She could not say how she charmed the horse, though. She was sentenced to a year in prison and to stand in the pillory for six hours every quarter. In the early part of the 1900s, a woman in Lehigh County practiced homeopathy. She was accused of being a witch. Fortunately, no injustice befell her. In 1934, Albert Shinsky admitted to killing Mrs. Susan Mummey in self defense because she was a witch. This happened in Schuylkill County. Warden William of the county prison said that Shinsky believed his killing Mummey was justified in the Bible because she was a witch. Philadelphia Dr. A. I. Baron, a highly respected psychiatrist examined Shinsky in jail. The session was intense and delved into the man's earliest memories. Although Shinsky was 23, the doctor believed that he was talking to an emotional and mental infant. He also said Shinsky was an adolescent in the most primitive development. Dr. Baron said that Shinsky had been five different people, each at war with each other. The doctor called him and imaginative, emotional extrovert who had schizophrenic reactions. Whether or not Mummey was a witch was not determined. Shinsky was committed to a mental institution. The Rehmeyer murder trial was in 1929. Evidence of witchcraft was quashed. Could this have influenced inquiry as to whether or not Mummey was a witch? Please refer to my articles, The Voodoo Murder of Pennsylvania, Background and The Voodoo Murder of Pennsylvania, Crime and Trial, for details of the Rehmeyer case. There are some who would say that the Rehmeyer murder was the death blow to PowWow. The practice did not die, it simply went underground. The Governor of Pennsylvania, John S. Fisher, sent a missive to school administrators that superstition, meaning witchcraft, be banned from all schools. One room school houses were eliminated and consolidated in order to ensure this. Fisher also met with county medical society officials in the areas where PowWow was practiced. He ordered the state police commissioner to immediately take action against "witches," specifically hexers. The witch hunt of Pennsylvania beginning in the 20th century.... The PowWow doctors laid low. Mainstream society, for the most part, ignored them.
The copyright of the article Witchcraft Wars, Trials and Hunts in Pennsylvania - Page 2 in Paranormal Behaviour is owned by Jill Stefko . Permission to republish Witchcraft Wars, Trials and Hunts in Pennsylvania - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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