3. Anna Göldi, the ‘last witch in Switzerland’, died by beheading in 1782
Anna Göldi is known as the last witch in Switzerland. In 1765, she became a maidservant to a magistrate. 17 years later, her employer claimed to find needles in his daughter’s food, and accused Göldi of putting them there by magic. Göldi escaped, but was caught, confessed to clichéd witchcraft after brutal torture, and was beheaded. But where did the allegations come from? Historians suspect she had an affair with the magistrate, who had political ambitions and wanted to hush the relationship up. The Glarus parliament exonerated Göldi in 2008, and there’s even a museum named after her in Ennenda.
