Brita Zippel - Trial

Trial

Inspired by the Gävle-Boy, Johan Johansson Griis, some children claimed they had been abducted and taken to Witches' Sabbath of Satan in Blockula by witches, making their parents hysterical. Watch-houses were set up to protect children, and Brita's name became the one most mentioned, together with her sister and her sister's friend Anna Månsdotter. The children claimed the two sisters and Månsdotter attacked them in the watch-houses by night. The parents ran in the directions the children pointed and chopped at the walls with axes in search for the attacking witches. One parent produced hairs—later displayed in court—which he claimed he had cut from Brita. The parents appealed to the authorities, who set up a special witch commission to investigate. Brita reacted to the rumors with rage. She hunted the rumor-spreading children in the streets, slapping them and telling them to go to hell. This did not help her cause.

The commission brought in the children of Brita Zippel and her sister Anna to be questioned. In front of their mothers, they said their mother and aunt often took them to Satan. Brita Zippel reacted by attacking her sister in a rage.

The rumors about Brita Zippel increased. The commission repeatedly brought her in for questioning. When a ship burned in the harbor, people blamed her for the loss of life. Rumors said she visited the gallows at night to steal clothes of the hanged. Children claimed they had seen her playing dice with her sister in Blockula to decide which of them would set fire to the royal palace, and Brita won. When she stayed at home from one of the questionings, the children claimed she was tired after having been whipped by the Devil. When the authorities examined her, they saw a spot on her back. A doctor later examined her and confirmed that she had the fever and that he could not find any mark, but the damage had been done.

Brita Zippel did not defend herself against her children's testimony. Though hostile towards other people, she was very fond of her children, and never blamed them for their accusations. Also, her children more often mentioned their aunt Anna than their mother. They claimed their aunt took them to Satan when their mother was unable, and had to be pressed to confirm the above accusations of their mother. The court pressed Brita's daughter Annika to confirm the accusations that she saw her mother light the ship on fire. She gave her testimony so unwillingly that she tried to accuse the court-member, Frank, and the mayor, Thegnér, of sorcery. When Brita asked her daughter Annika why she had never said anything of this to her, she answered that her aunt had threatened her. Brita then attacked her sister. She also told her daughter that she would gladly die for her. When she was taken to prison, she said: "Now I know what hardship it is to be a parent! I am a terrible sinner, but never have I used sorcery!"

During the trial, she could not control her rage at the accusations. Unlike her sister Anna, famous for a proud and verbal defense, and Anna Månsdotter, who damaged her case by maintaining her dignity, Brita provoked the court. She cursed witnesses, and brought a knife to court when a woman she had quarreled with came to testify. When asked why she carried a knife in her muff, she answered that she would rather be executed guilty of murder than innocently of sorcery.

She admitted she had sinned against the commandments of the bible by working on holidays because of her poverty. The previous cases against her, in 1668 and 1674, were taken up again. The Gävle-boy was taken from prison to confront her.

The court convicted Brita Zippel, her sister Anna, and Anna Månsdotter on the 24th of April, sentencing them to death. They sentenced her with the words: "Brita Zippel can not be acquitted, but shall be decapitated and her body shall well deservedly be burned at the stake for others as warning, and justly so."