128 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
128 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
"THE GREAT OREGON WITCH HUNT"
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A high school girl commits suicide and a small town falls victim to
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fears and hysteria right out of the Middle Ages...
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By Stephanie Fox
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OAKRIDGE is a little town nestled in the green mountains of the Pacific
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Northwest. It's a typical small Oregon lumber town, the sort of place where
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people still talk about the day the town's brothel burned down back in 1928.
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In the spring of 1983, a politically ambitious police chief and a
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fundamenalist minister managed to stir up enough excitement to last the town
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through another 60 years.
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Durring the winter of 1982 a young girl named Ginny Walker* killed herself
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in a fit of adolescent despair, leaving behind two shocked parents. But the
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Walkers' grief was disturbed only a week after her death, when they were
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approached be police chief John Schurz who said he had evidence that Ginny
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had been involved with witches. These witches, Schurz claimed, were responsible
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for the girl's suicide.
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Before her death Ginny had told some friends how she had rescued the head of
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a childhood doll from a trash fire and how she found a coyote's skull in the
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forests surrounding Oakridge. In going through Ginny's possessions after her
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death, her parents found the scorched doll's head, the coyote's skull, an
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incense burner, and buttons of various rock groups. Her friends later recalled
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Ginny's mundane explanation of these items, but to the police chief they were
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proof of her involvement with witchcraft.
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The police began an investigation of the girl's friends and found that
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Ginny's best friends mother , Susan Newell,* was calling herself a witch.
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Newell actually knew nothing about modern-day Withcraft or Pagan beliefs.
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She was not aware of the basic tenets of modern Witches--that the earth is
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sacred,that everything is connected to everything else,and that each person
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is responsible for his own actions.**
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Newell had no notion of witchcraft's origins in the ancient nature-worshipping
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religions of pre-Christian Europe. All she knew she had learned on the
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late-late show and in cheap Gothic novels. But that was sufficient for the
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police.
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Newell was taken to the police station for interrogation, where for several
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hours police chief Schurz asked her questions.
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Schurz: "In my line of work, I work with alot of people. Sometimes I can tell
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alot about people. You know what I think? I think that you're a high priestess.
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Newell: "What?"
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Schurz: "You're a witch,aren't you?"
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Newell: "I guess you could call it that."
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When further questioned in the manner, Newell claimed that she was the high
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priestess of the Golden Dawn, the name of her coven, so Schurz related.
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That she was an actual member of the Golden Dawn is highly unlikely. This was
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a notorious group of early-20th-Century British occultists who included
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Aleister Crowley as well as the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. It disbanded
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in 1947. It may have been the only real occult group Newell had ever heard of
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and was probably the first name that came into her mind.
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Under the pressure of the interrogation Newell named six other witches
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residing in Oakridge. Several of these people had been friends of Ginny Walker.
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Selected portions of the tapes of Newell's interrogation were played to the
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city council and local ministers. Durring these selected playings only two of
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the accused witches' names were mentioned. The newly accused were two young
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women, Betty Taylor* and Jennifer Lindsay.* Both attributed the public relase
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of their names to Schurz's personal dislike of them.
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"I'm an uppity woman," said Taylor. "I live with my boyfriend and I don't
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wear a bra. I don't have church connections. I'm not one of them." She said
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that since the tapes were released publicly indicating that she was a witch,
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"grocery store people whisper and scurry away, pointing fingers."
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Lindsay left town to avoid the harassment to which she was subjected. Taylor
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continued to live in her Oakridge home, spied upon by neighbors.
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MEANWHILE, Dave Stewart, a minister and part-time police officer, took the
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doll's head and other "evidence" of witchcraft to show his and other
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congregations.
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Witchcraft had caused Ginny's death, the people were told. No other reasons
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were advanced as causes of her suicide. Never mentioned were the rumors of the
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Walkers' marital problems, Mr. Walker's failing health, of Ginny's possible
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lack of adult guidance.
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Public meetings were schedualed, led by Schurz and a fundamentalist minister,
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the Rev. C. E. Thomas. The first meeting attracted only a handful of people
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but the second drew nearly 40, quite a crowd for the small town. And the press
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was there in force.
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Although state law says that public meetings must be opened to all, announce-
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ments distributed in the churches contained this sentence:"Unwanted people
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will be excluded from the meeting." The meetings were advertised to "discuss
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witchcraft, sexual abuse, child abuse and pornography," but witchcraft was the
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only topic ever spoken of at the meetings.
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Dispite the "evidence," the Walkers doubted that witchcraft had any part to
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play in their daughter's suicide. "We'er not blaming anybody," they told
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the press.
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The Walkers' doubts notwithstanding, Thomas and Schurz were riding high on the
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wave of hysteria. They called a third meeting at the high school. Three
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hundred persons showed up. The press, too, arrived but television and tape
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recorders were banned from the auditorium in direct violation of state law.
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The meeting opened with a plea to bring Christianity and prayer back into the
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schools. Ministers told the crowds that the only protection they had against
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the evils of witchcraft was "to come to church." The ministers advised them
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that there would be counseling and classes taught by the ministers themselves.
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Another former Oakridge police officer, who claimed to have had ties with the
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occult but who recently had been "born again," testified. He, too, had a
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late-late-show view of witchcraft. Not everyone in the audience believed his
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stories about witchcraft.
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But most accepted what the ministers told them. One man asked Reverend Thomas
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for his credentials to discuss witchcraft. Thomas raised a Bible over his
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head. "This is my credentials!" he shouted. And the crowd cheered.
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"We used to be able to burn them or cut off their heads," said the reverend
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of witches. "We can't do that now, but we can sure stop them."
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Newspapers, television and radio all over the state were covering the story.
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Although Thomas wanted the public to be aware of the existence of witches, he
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was not happy with the media coverage. It had made the town the laughingstock
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of the state.
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Besides the public meetings, the city council, school board and police
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advisory board convened in secret.
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* All names with astericks are pseudonyms.
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**See Bjom Thorsson's "The Rebirth of Witchcraft," April-May 1988 FATE magazine.
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---= Part 1 of 2 =---
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