From the archives: Law and the supernatural

The trial of the ghost murderer, ghost marriage, combined werewolf / witch hunts, and the strange case of the New Haven piglets.

Hammersmith Ghost
Hammersmith Ghost [CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

If you kill someone you believe is a ghost, is it murder or self-defence?


Ghost
A man in armour is confronted by a ghost and a skeleton. Aquatint. [CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

In France, China, and South Sudan, you can legally marry a ghost.


Peter Stumpp
Lucas Mayer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It’s bad enough to be accused of being a witch, but what if you’re accused of being a witch and a werewolf at the same time?


Piglet
Petr Kratochvil [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

In the old New Haven Colony, two men were tried for bestiality on the basis that they fathered piglet offspring.

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