10. John Fian
In the 1500s, John Fian was a young man who became a Scottish schoolmaster just outside Edinburgh. He was a bit of a genius, earning a doctorate degree when he was still in his early 20’s. The only problem was that he spent so much time reading books, he didn’t know how to court a lady. He met one of his student’s older sisters, and he was very attracted to her. He bribed the boy to bring him three of his sister’s hairs and tried to cast a love spell on the young woman.
The boy gave him the hair of their family cow, instead. The next morning, the cow burst through the door of the schoolhouse, and jumped into his lap, licking and cuddling up against him. The cow continued to follow him around the town wherever he went. The local authorities spotted this strange behavior and brought Fian in for questioning. They tortured him by twisting his legs and neck with rope until he confessed that he got his magic powers from the Devil.
After getting a confession from Fian, they demanded that he write down the names of other people in the town who were witches, too. He did not write down any names, and fell asleep. When he woke up, he told the guards that the Devil appeared in his dreams and said how displeased he was. If he confessed the other names, he would die. That night, Fian managed to escape out of prison. When he was caught again, he said that he lied about working with the Devil, because they tortured a confession out of him. After this, they tortured him again, breaking all of his limbs, so that he was completely paralyzed. Then, they burned him in a fire.