Gavle Boy Collapses Swedish Witchcraft

In the 1670s, during Sweden’s great witch panic, a Swedish orphan known as the Gävle Boy stood in Stockholm and led groups of children in dramatic accusations that neighbors were witches. His stories helped ignite fear and drive a series of witch trials across the country. Eventually, he confessed that he had lied about the accusations. After his confession, other witch trials across Sweden collapsed, and authorities hanged him for perjury when he was just 13 years old.

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