The Great Milan Poisoning Scare
Accused poisoners included passesrby on the streets, nobles, France’s Cardinal Richelieu, and General Wallenstein, commander of the Holy Roman Empire’s armies in the Thirty Years War. Early victims included an elderly man who wiped a church bench before he sat down. Crazed women accused him of poisoning the seat, and seized and violently assailed him in church. They dragged him to the magistrates, but continued to beat him so severely on the way that he died en route. More tragic was the case of a pharmacist who was accused of being in cahoots with Satan when he was found with unknown potions, and stretched on the rack. After prolonged torture, he changed his protestations of innocence to an admission of guilt, and repeated whatever his torturers wanted to hear in order to stop the pain.
The pharmacist confessed that he was in league with the Devil, that he conspired with foreigners to poison Milan, and named other accomplices who were innocent of any crime. They in turn were arrested and tortured, and to end their agonies, they named yet more innocents. Wash, rinse, repeat. They were tried, convicted based on confessions extracted under torture, and executed. As the mass hysteria mounted and insanity tightened its grip on the fevered city, many Milanese stepped forward to accuse… themselves. People went to the magistrates and voluntarily confessed to spectacular supernatural deeds, and described meetings with Satan, sorcerers, witches, and sundry black magic practitioners, in which they plotted to poison the city. As reported, “The number of persons who confessed that they were employed by the Devil to distribute poison is almost incredible“. Many were executed based on their voluntary false confessions.