Lilias's Bones

In this Bonus Episode I discuss what it took to get to Scotland, what it took to drive there, and beginning the journey in a place that was built when Lilias Adie was alive and the witch hunts were in full swing.

A group in Scotland discovers the unusual story of an 18th-century accused Scottish witch, named Lilias Adie. The group vows to clear Adie's name and find her remains. After being buried, her bones were taken by grave robbers, then passed between some of Scotland's most famous institutions, and then lost. American journalist and storyteller (and Scottish descendant) Breena Kerr reads an article about Adie and decides to investigate the story of her life and death and the fate of her missing skull. She has personal reasons, like her own kinship with the word "witch." And she has a desire to tell the story of the European witch hunts — events that are often spoken of and rarely understood — so justice can, in some way, be done.
For show notes, a contact form, and extras, check out www.BreenaKerr.com

We begin this episode with a commentary on murder mystery podcasts and on the history of witch hunting. Then we dive into the story of Lilias Adie. In 1704, she allegedly appeared to a neighbor in a dream, and was accused of witchcraft soon after. She was detained and tortured and eventually died in church custody. Adie may have been accused because she was different from other people in her community — or it may have been the result of long-simmering tensions. Host Breena Kerr goes to her grave to learn more.

In this episode, host Breena Kerr dives into some of the more lurid aspects of the witch hunts and attempts to separate what can so often be blended in pseudo-historical retellings and ghost stories: the horror of what witch hunters did on one side and the fearsome lore built up around witches on the other.
She interviews writer and witch-hunt artifact collector Leonard Lowe. And, she explains the origins of one of Europe's most famous and influential witch-hunting manuals, the "Malleus Maleficarum," also known as "The Hammer of Witches." Released at the dawn of book printing, the Malleus became a best-seller of its time, surpassed only by the Bible. Despite being printed more than 200 years before Lilias Adie was persecuted, the misogyny and fear-mongering in its pages cast a long shadow, one that potentially even reached Adie and generations beyond.

After Lilias Adie, an accused witch, dies in church custody, her body becomes a source of fear and foreboding. Some fear that she may become a revenant and rise from the dead. Then, 150 years later, she does. Men arrive and dig up her grave, then trade her bones around as curio treasure — objects of horror, fascination, and study. From there, Lilias's Bones begin their second life — popping up in art and museum exhibitions. We speak to Richard Sugg, author of "The Real Vampires" about the fearful power of revenants and their relation to witches. And we conclude our graveside interviews on the journey that Lilias Adie's bones took after death, before they mysteriously went missing.