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Who Was Really Evil?
Paperback
Medieval & Renaissance HistoryOccultWomen's Studies
Publisher: Wayne C. Robinson
Published: Sep 25 2026
Pages: 242
Weight: 0.72
Height: 0.51 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
For centuries, witches were put on trial. This book puts their accusers on trial.
Imagine being dragged from your home because a neighbor's cow died. You are stripped, searched, and tortured. You are told the pain will stop when you confess. So you confess. Then you are burned alive in the town square while a crowd watches.
This happened again and again. Between the 1400s and the 1700s, tens of thousands of people were executed as witches in Europe and colonial America. Most were women. Many were poor, widowed, elderly, or simply unpopular with their neighbors.
Their accusers were never judged. They called themselves servants of God. They said they were fighting Satan. And for hundreds of years, history took their word for it.
Now the tables are turned.
In Who Was Really Evil?, Wayne C. Robinson reopens the case. This time, the bishops, judges, witch hunters, and church leaders sit in the dock. The same questions they once asked their victims are now asked of them. What did you do? Who did you harm? And where is your evidence?
Why this book is different
Most books on the witch hunts tell you what happened. This one asks who was guilty.
Academic histories often bury the answer under theory and footnotes. Occult books often turn the accused into legends. Religious books often defend the church or skip the hard parts. This book does none of that.
Instead, it weighs the evidence the way a courtroom would. It looks at what the accused actually did, and what their accusers actually did. Then it lets the record speak.
It is written by a former U.S. Navy journalist, not a professor. That means plain language, clear chapters, and no hidden agenda. You don't need a history degree to follow it. You only need an open mind.
The case for the prosecution includes:
- How the idea of Satan grew over time, and how it became a tool of fear and control
- Why the witch hunts so often targeted women, healers, and outsiders
- How church and state leaders turned rumor into law and torture into proof
- What witch-hunting manuals like the Malleus Maleficarum taught judges to do
- How ordinary neighbors were drawn into accusing one another
- Why the accused left behind so little evidence of harm, while their accusers left behind thousands of victims
Why it still matters
The witch hunts did not end with the last fire. People are still accused of witchcraft in parts of the world today. And the same pattern still shows up in modern life: fear, a scapegoat, and leaders who gain from both. Understanding who was really evil then helps you recognize it now.
This is not an attack on faith. It is an honest look at what people did in the name of faith. That difference matters.
This book is for readers who love history, question what they were taught, and want the truth told plainly. If you have ever wondered how people who claimed to be good came to do terrible things, and why their victims still carry the blame, this book is for you.
The evidence is in. The accusers are on trial. You are the jury.
Who was really evil? You decide.
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