March 15, 2023

This Day in Halloween: Bridget Cleary is murdered and burned up by her husband for being a "changeling" in Ballyvadlea, Ireland in 1895. / Illustration by Andrew Truong

Bridget Cleary is murdered and her body burned up by her husband in Ballyvadlea, Ireland in 1895. The man claims she was a “changeling” put in place by fairies, in a country that still believes in fairies at the time. The murder trial that follows is one of the most bizarre and infamous in British and Irish legal history and leads to multiple books, plays and TV shows about the case.

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