Parts VI and VII trace the moment Salem's local panic becomes a legal machine, and then a colony-wide catastrophe. With the charter revoked and Massachusetts lacking a functioning high court, the early proceedings unfold through improvised inquests run by local magistrates, marked by public spectacle, presumption of guilt, and the dangerous absence of procedural restraints. Accusations multiply, and the evidentiary foundation is dangerously elastic: hearsay, gossip, and rumor flow into the record; defendants have no counsel; and spectral evidence is treated as proof, even though it can only be perceived by the afflicted. Written depositions, often recorded by deeply interested parties, become the backbone of the case file, and the process rewards confession and accusation while punishing denial. The episode follows the key early turning points, including Tituba's confession, the first executions, and the escalating controversy over whether invisible, supernatural testimony can justify a death sentence. Against that backdrop, the trials begin targeting people whose arrests should have been unthinkable in a tight Puritan community. The accusation of Rebecca Nurse, a revered elderly church member with a large family and a reputation for piety, shocks Salem and exposes the factional and personal grievances beneath the prosecutions. Her case reveals how petitions, courtroom theatrics, and ambiguous testimony could be used to reverse an acquittal into a conviction, and how even a governor's pardon could be undone by judicial pressure. The episode then follows the expansion of the hunt to prominent men and ministers, including George Burroughs, a former Salem Village pastor whose trial relies heavily on spectral claims and insinuations of diabolical leadership. Executions, public doubt, and rising opposition begin to collide, but the machinery keeps moving, fueled by fear, coerced confessions, and an ever-widening list of enemies. By the end of these chapters, Salem is no longer prosecuting a handful of suspects. It is prosecuting a theory of Satanic conspiracy, and the law has been bent to fit it.
