Dead Pool 18th August 2024

Sadly no points scored this week, even though we had a couple of big hitting actors and a centenarian bite the bullet. Perhaps it’s time to let fly those evil monkeys… 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Phyllis Furness, 109, Irish centenarian, oldest person in Ireland. 
• Gena Rowlands, 94, American actress (A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria, The Notebook), four-time Emmy winner, complications from Alzheimer’s disease. 
• John Aprea, 83, American actor (The Godfather Part II, Full House, Matt Houston). 
• Peter Marshall, 98, American game show host (Hollywood Squares) and actor (Annie, Ensign Pulver), four-time Emmy winner, kidney failure. 
• Afa Anoaʻi, 81, Samoan-American  professional wrestler (WWF).  
• Alain Delon, 88, French actor (Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard, Le Samouraï). 

In Other News

Trisha Goddard was praised as she made her debut as a guest presenter on Good Morning Britain. The TV star, 66, joined Richard Madeley to host ITV’s breakfast show, days after she spoke about her terminal breast cancer diagnosis on the programme. Trisha – who fronted her own talk show in the ‘90s and 2000s and now lives in America – was a guest presenter, filling in for Kate Garraway. Trisha opened up about her diagnosis with secondary breast cancer earlier this month. She discovered that the incurable cancer had returned, this time to her hip, when she had a serious fall at her home in Connecticut, in 2022. However, she chose to keep the news of her stage four cancer private from her colleagues and the public. ‘I was grappling with how to deal with it myself. Plus I just wanted to work and be me, with CNN and my colleagues there, they didn’t know that I had no hair, that I had no feeling in my legs from the treatment, because I had chemo every week for four and a half months.’ She previously said, ‘My worry is that people will start seeing me as a frail little thing, and that if it got out, I’d be judged, or people would change the way they are with me, or that I wouldn’t work.’ But she admitted that keeping the ‘difficult secret’ became ‘tough’ as time went on. ‘I can’t lie; I can’t keep making up stories. It gets to a stage, after a year and a half, when keeping a secret becomes more of a burden than anything else,’ she added. ‘It’s not going to go away. And with that knowledge comes grief, and fear. But I must keep enjoying what I have always enjoyed,’ she told the Flying Monkeys. Trisha is determined not to be ‘a poster girl for cancer’. ‘It’s not who I am. It’s not why I’m here,’ she said. ‘Also, I didn’t want to read words like ‘dying’ and ‘terminal’ or ‘battling’. Or ‘inspirational’ because it’s all bollocks.”  

Sir Rod Stewart has been issued a further medical warning after being forced to cancel his concerts due to battling a string of health conditions. Last week we reported that Rod had been struggling with Strep Throat, but now he’s also contracted Covid-19! He was due to perform at Stateline in Nevada, followed by a show at Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln, California on Saturday night. However, an Instagram post to his 1.4million followers late on Friday confirmed he was once again cancelling. A statement read: “We regret to announce that tonight’s Rod Stewart concert in Stateline, NV and his August 10 show in Lincoln, CA have been postponed, as the singer recovers from a summer strain of Covid-19.” The post also gave details of rescheduled dates for the two cancelled concerts which will now take place on August 18 and 20. Whilst Stewart is keen to return to the stage, the musician has been issued a stern warning over his recovery. Dr Chun Tang, a GP and Medical Director at Pall Mall Medical, claimed Stewart will need “significant rehabilitation” for his voice to return to normal following his illness. He told the Flying Monkeys: “Covid can have several long-lasting effects on the vocal cords, especially for those who experienced severe symptoms. The virus can cause persistent inflammation of the vocal cords, leading to ongoing hoarseness, a reduced vocal range, and a weak or breathy voice.” In some cases, Covid can cause nerve damage that affects the control of vocal cords. Tang added: “This can make it difficult to speak or sing normally and may require significant rehabilitation.”  

John Farnham’s sons Rob and James have spoken about their father’s cancer battle, as the Australian music icon continues to recover from throat cancer following a devastating 2022 diagnosis. The 75-year-old underwent 12-hour surgery after being diagnosed with throat cancer, with doctors removing a tumour from his mouth and reconstructing his jaw. He has since received an “all clear” regarding the cancer. “He’s doing really well,” Rob said. “Every day is another step forward, as it is for everyone with cancer. He’s just gotta keep moving forward and keeping positive, and you know, keep driving forward. That’s what it’s about.” The boys went on to praise their mother, saying she had held the family together for the past two years, and also reflected on comments from global superstar Celine Dion, who paid tribute to Farnham in her own documentary I Am: Celine Dion, calling him one of the greatest singers of all time. “He was pretty impressed — it was pretty cool for him to see it,” James said. “He was quite surprised she spoke about him for so long, and he was the only singer he spoke about in the whole documentary.”

On This Day

• 1612 – The trial of the Pendle witches, one of England’s most famous witch trials, begins at Lancaster Assizes. 
• 1958 – Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
• 1977 – Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under Terrorism Act No. 83 of 1967 in King William’s Town, South Africa. He later dies from injuries sustained during this arrest, bringing attention to South Africa’s apartheid policies.

Deaths

• 1998 – Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress, Femina Miss India 1965 (b. 1948).
• 2004 – Elmer Bernstein, American composer and conductor (b. 1922).
• 2017 – Bruce Forsyth, English television presenter and entertainer (b. 1928).
• 2018 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1938).

The Pendle Witches

On August 20th 1612 ten people convicted of witchcraft at the Summer Assize held in Lancaster Castle went to the gallows on the moors above the town. Among their number were two men and a woman in her eighties. Their crimes included laming, causing madness and what was termed “simple” witchcraft. In addition to this some sixteen unexplained deaths, many stretching back decades, were laid at their door. 

Lancashire, in the early years of the seventeenth century, was remote, its roads poor, its people ill-educated. Throughout the county there were places where the outside world hardly intruded, and one such area was Pendle Forest. It was here, among stark hillsides, infertile valleys and scattered hamlets, that the story of the Pendle Witches had its beginnings. 

On March 18th 1612 a young woman by the name of Alison Device was out begging on the road to Colne. She stopped a peddler from Halifax, John Law, and asked him for a pin. He refused her request and walked away. According to Alison’s own testimony her ‘familiar spirit’ in the shape of a dog, appeared to her and asked if she would like him to harm Law. Alison was new to the art of witchcraft, indeed she seems to have resisted being indoctrinated into what was in effect the family business. But now she agreed that Law must be punished and she told the dog to lame the peddler. No doubt to her great surprise, the curse took immediate effect and Law fell to the ground, paralysed down one side (presumably by a stroke) and unable to speak. He was taken to a local inn and later Alison was brought to his bedside. She admitted her part in his illness and begged his forgiveness, which he gave. However, Law’s son Abraham had become involved, and he was far from satisfied. He took the matter to Roger Nowell the local magistrate, and from there things snowballed at an alarming rate. After hearing the most awful admissions from those he interviewed, Nowell made many arrests. By the end of  April nineteen people (including a group from Samlesbury and Isobel Roby from Windle) were incarcerated in Lancaster Castle, awaiting trial at the August Assize. 

The most famous of the Pendle witches actually died before coming to trial. Elizabeth Southernes (“Old Demdike”) had admitted to Nowell that she was a witch. In so doing she also implicated many of her co-accused, as did Anne Whittle (“Old Chattox”) who was herself accused of the murder by witchcraft of Robert Nutter. Also implicated were members of both their families: Elizabeth Device, Demdike’s daughter, was accused of two murders, as was her son James, while Alison was to stand trial for what she had done to John Law on that fateful spring day five months before. Anne Redfearne, Chattox’s daughter, stood accused of the murder of Christopher Nutter eighteen years previously.

Others were dragged into the affair: John and Jane Bulcock, a mother and her son, were tried for causing madness, and for being at a so-called Witches Sabbath held at Malkin Tower on Good Friday 1612; Alice Nutter from Roughlee Hall, was accused of killing one Henry Mitton because he refused to give Demdike a penny; Margaret Pearson was accused of bewitching one of her neighbour’s horses to death, and Katherine Hewitt was accused of the murder of Ann Foulds. 

Lancaster formed part of the Northern Circuit, and the Assize Court judges visited the town twice a year. The trials commenced on Tuesday 18th August with Sir Edward Bromley presiding. First into the dock was Old Chattox. She was accused of the murder of Robert Nutter some eighteen years previously. She pleaded not guilty, but eventually confessed when confronted by evidence given by Demdike and James Device to Roger Nowell back in April. Elizabeth Device followed her into court. She stood charged with three counts of murder, accusations she vehemently denied. However, the Prosecution had a star witness in the form of Elizabeth’s own nine year old daughter Jennet. Her evidence was devastating, and Elizabeth was so overcome with anger that she had to be removed from court. Jennet told of familiar spirits, of the making of clay images in order to cause death, of the Sabbath supposedly held at Malkin Tower on Good Friday, where it was decided to blow up the castle and kill the Governor, Thomas Covell, in order to free those imprisoned there. She spoke of witches mounting ponies and flying off on them before vanishing into thin air. Inevitably, Elizabeth was found guilty as well.

James Device was tried next. He was in a pitiable condition, and may even have been physically ill-treated during his imprisonment. However, there was little sympathy for him and after more hearsay evidence, and his own testimony, he was found guilty along with Elizabeth Device and Anne Whittle. 

Anne Redfearne had already been acquitted of one murder. Now she was tried for killing Christopher Nutter eighteen years previously. The evidence hinged on Nutter’s daughter remembering that her father believed he was the victim of a curse. She had also been seen making clay images by James Device. Anne was found guilty. Next into the dock was Alice Nutter. She was a gentlewoman, and the evidence against her was flimsy. However, her fate was sealed by Jennet Device, who identified her as being present at the infamous Sabbath. Alice too, was convicted. The trial of Katherine Hewitt “Mouldheels” went much the same way, with little Jennet again the star witness. Katherine was convicted as well. Jennet’s evidence against John and Jane Bulcock was even more slight: she remembered John turning a spit on which they had roasted a lamb that  Good Friday. It was illegal to aid or assist a witch, and this was enough in 1612, along with other hearsay evidence, to seal the fate of both defendants.

Margaret Pearson was tried for killing a horse by riding it to death (“Hag Ridden” from which we get the modern word “haggard”) She was convicted, although ultimately not condemned.

Alizon Device was the last of the Pendle witches to be tried. Unusually, the key witness against her was also the victim: John Law. He was the object of much pity, as his brush with Alison had left him crippled. When he was assisted into court Alison rushed to him and begged his forgiveness once more, which he again gave. The court was moved to ask her if she could help restore him to health. She told them she was not powerful enough, but that Old Demdike, had she lived, could have done so. Alison was found guilty.

Isobel Roby, from Windle, also stood trial on charges of witchcraft at this Assize, and she too was convicted.

All that remained was for the sentences to be handed down. Bromley had little option: under the terms of the 1604 Witchcraft Act all the accused had been found guilty of crimes punishable by death. On August 20th 1612 the ten condemned prisoners were taken to the moors above the town and hanged. 

The trials in Lancaster in August 1612 are among the most famous witchcraft trials in history. This is mainly due to the fact that we have a very full (albeit biased) account of them, left to us by the Clerk of the Court, Thomas Potts. In 1613 he published his account of these events in a book entitled “The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster.” This is our only real primary source for what was going on in the more remote areas of Lancashire over all those years, and Potts was writing for an audience which included King James I himself, and one which was more than ready to believe in the existence of such evil. This was also a time of great tension, and of anti-Catholic rhetoric. The Gunpowder Plot was still fresh in the memory, and Potts chose to dedicate his book to Lord Knyvett, the man who had actually arrested Guy Fawkes in 1605. Politics and religion played their part in the prosecutions and convictions in Lancaster in 1612, but the inescapable fact remains that at the end of the day ten people lost their lives, found guilty of a crime that no longer even officially exists.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Christian Slater (55), Edward Norton (55), Robert Redford (88), Roman Polanski (91), Huw Edwards (63), Austin Butler (33), Robert De Niro (81), Sean Penn (64), Belinda Carlisle (66), Taika Waititi (49), Steve Carell (62), James Cameron (70), Julie Newmar (91), Madonna (66), Jennifer Lawrence (34), Ben Affleck (52), David Zayas (62), Natasha Henstridge (50), Jim Dale (89), Tony Robinson (78), Mila Kunis (41), Halle Berry (58), Steve Martin (79), Joseph Marcell (76), Sebastian Stan (42), Cara Delevingne (32), and Jim Beaver (74).