History consists of heroes and villains (and, I suppose everything in between)... but it's usually the villains who are the most interesting: Their flaws, their quirks, the voids in their hearts that force them to do the unthinkable. These are the characters that fascinate us, that pull us in, that compel us to watch and don’t let us look away. And these are the characters that Scoundrel: History’s Forgotten Villains is all about. Scoundrel, is a new bi-weekly anthology podcast from Kast Media and the award winning creators of Myths & Legends, that tells the stories of the rapscallions through time who were just a little more adept at hiding their evil from historians than others. By joining them on their treacherous journeys, we not only learn about what makes them tick, but more importantly, the times that created them. Sidney Gottlieb, George Remus, Thomas Blood, James McClintock. They’ve all done horrible things...on varying scales...
https://kastmedia.com/podcasts/scoundrel-historys-forgotten-villains/
episode 26: Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General
In 1645, the English Civil War caused a great divide in England - on both sides, the destruction, violence and famine were all blamed on malevolent witches, cursing towns and villages all throughout the countryside to fulfill their pacts with the devil. Thankfully, King Charles I endorsed a duo of witch-hunters, led by Matthew Hopkins to identify and condemn as many accused witches as they could lay eyes on, leading to national and international fame and infamy. Over their careers, Hopkins and his partner John Stearne torturously forced confessions and sent more people to the gallows than all witch-hunters for the prior 160 years combined, and Hopkins’ book ‘The Discovery of Witches’ eventually became the inspiration for the Salem Witch Trials when it arrived on American shores. History may have forgotten about Matthew Hopkins’ insidious influence, but we sure haven’t!
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