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1929 Kalamazoo, Michigan witch killing...
1929 Kalamazoo, Michigan witch killing...
Item # 723284
July 21, 1929
CHICAGO SUNDAY TRIBUNE, July 21, 1929
* Etta L. Fairchild murder
* Witch's spell killing - wicca
* Eugene & Pearl Burgess
* Kalamazoo, Michigan
The top of page 6 has a one column heading: "WIFE ASSUMES ALL BLAME IN WITCH KILLING" with subhead. (see images) Coverage on the killing of Etta Fairchild by Eugene and Pearl Burgess at Kalamazoo, Michigan. This would end up to be the last 'witch trial' in America.
Complete 1st section only with 22 pages, rag edition in very nice condition.
AI notes: In July 1929 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Etta L. Fairchild, a widowed woman in her mid‑70s, was brutally murdered by her neighbors, Eugene and Pearl Burgess, who believed she was practicing witchcraft and had cursed their family. The Burgesses lured Fairchild to their home under the pretense of a friendly dinner, then attacked her with a lead pipe and hammer, crushing her skull, breaking both arms, and fracturing nine ribs, before wrapping her body in a rug and dumping it in a backyard cistern. The couple’s belief in supernatural harm motivated the crime, reflecting the persistence of superstition in small‑town America even in the 20th century. Police discovered blood and evidence of the struggle at the Burgess home, leading to their arrest; Eugene later died by suicide in jail, while Pearl was convicted of the murder. The case, widely referred to as the “Hex Murder”, became infamous as one of the last American murders explicitly motivated by fear of witchcraft, and Fairchild was subsequently buried at Riverside Cemetery in Kalamazoo.
Category: The 20th Century
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