Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard goes over the Salem witch trials of the late 1600s. I’ve always been fascinated by the witch trials, even going back to when I was a kid. Even though we were obviously taught that the accused were actually innocent, it still gave me horrors and goosebumps just thinking about it. It was not just the thought of imagining what horrors the accused women had to go through but also having to imagine just what type of insanity would drive a community to go through such lengths to persecute so many of their own. Killing the Witches seems like a decent enough starter book on this topic and one that likely would satisfy my curiosity.

I went into the book, like many others I assume, believing that the entire book would be dedicated to the Salem witch trials. However, the book is divided into three sections instead. For the first part, we get a prelude of things to come. We learn how the Protestants first settled in the Americas in the early 1600s. From there, the book is dedicated to the actual witch trials of Salem. We get to learn about the many harsh living aspects of the colony and especially how religion played a role. After the witch trials, the book takes an odd turn and delves into the topic of the Founding Fathers of the United States and how the United States of America was formed after securing independence from England. Finally, several chapters toward the end of the book are dedicated to the exorcism of Ronald Hunkeler, on which the popular movie The Exorcist released in 1973 was based. While the author does interconnect the story of each and link it back to the Salem witch trials in some ways, it was still a bit off-putting to realize that such a huge chunk of the book strays away from the actual topic of which this book is supposedly titled. Once the story about the witch trials is over, the author rarely goes back to it. Therefore, if one is looking for an in-depth study of the witch trials, this is not the book for you.

Nonetheless, when the focus was on the witch trial itself, there were a lot of things I learned. I also appreciated a lot of the footnotes that had many useful and interesting tidbits of information. While I admit it was pretty trippy to have learned in the past that Bill O’Reilly has written so many non-fiction books, Killing the Witches I believe is my first of his that I have chosen to read. Known for his TV show on Fox News in the past and leaning more towards the conservative side, I am at least happy that he mainly kept the book free from his political views and opinions until the very end. He has a very small section where he writes about how accusations during the Salem witch trials of the late 1700s are still ongoing today that are ruining the lives of the accused via social media and the media in general. It’s interesting to note that he himself has settled various lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct, which led to his firing and the cancellation of his popular talk show.