Ann Greenslit Pudeator

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Ann Greenslit Pudeator was a well-to-do septuagenarian widow hanged on charges of being a witch on September 22, 1692.

Thomas Greenslit was her first husband and they had five children (Thomas, Jr., Ruth, John, Samuel, and James). Ann's maiden name is not known, nor the place of her birth. After Thomas' death, she married Jacob Pudeator and took his name. Jacob died in 1682, leaving Ann well-off. Some have theorized that her likely occupation as a nurse and midwife, along with her being a woman of property, made her vulnerable to charges of witchcraft.

Goody Pudeator's alleged inventory of misdeeds included:

• Presenting the Devil's Book to a girl and forcing her to sign it.
• Bewitchment causing the death of neighbor's wife.
• Appearing in spectral form to afflicted girls.
• Having witchcraft materials in her home, which she claimed was grease for making soap.
• Torturing with pins.
• Causing a man to fall out of a tree.
• Killing her second husband and his first wife.
• Turning herself into a bird and flying into her house.

Many of these allegations were made by Mary Warren, one of the so-called "afflicted girls". Her other accusers were John Best, Sr., John Best, Jr., and Samuel Pickworth. Ann Pudeator was tried and sentenced to death on September 9, 1692, along with Alice Parker, Dorcas Hoar, Mary Bradbury, and Mary Easty. It is not known where she is buried. She was hanged on Gallows Hill in Salem Town.

Ann's son Thomas testified against George Burroughs at his trial for witchcraft.

In October 1710, the General Court passed an act reversing the convictions of those for whom their families had pleaded, but Ann Pudeator was not among them Ann was exonerated in 1957 by the Massachusetts State Legislature, partly because of the efforts of Lee Greenslit, a Midwestern textbook publisher.