← Back to the front page

The 1970s Witchcraft Trial and Other Oddities in Witch History

Khalid Elhassan March 15, 2022 25 min

20. An Ultimate Sacrifice to Save the World?

Margaretta Peter told her followers that she would return three days after they killed her – she did not. Ancient Origins

After she killed her sister, Margaretta Peter ordered her followers to crucify her. They were reluctant at first, but she insisted that it was necessary to combat Satan, demons, and witchcraft. She also assured them that she would return to life in three days. So they made a cross, and as the prophetess urged them on, they nailed her to it by her hands, elbows, feet, and breasts. She then ordered them to stab her through the heart. They tried, but couldn’t get it right.

So after multiple failed attempts, they took a hammer and crowbar and smashed her head. Then the congregation gathered around the bodies and prayed while they waited for the corpses to come back to life in three days. Needless to say, three days came and went, but the deceased Margaretta and her equally lifeless sister stayed that way. Her disciples were tried for murder, and eleven were convicted and given prison sentences ranging from six months to sixteen years.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.