The Joshua Ward House

The Joshua Ward House

The town of Salem, Massachusetts is no stranger to macabre record and disturbing legends, but for the first time perhaps something belonging to the town’s supernatural facet has been caught on camera. 

The Joshua Ward House has stood in mute witness to a dark history. The Georgian/Federal style building was constructed by Joshua Ward, a wealthy merchant sea captain, in the late 1780s on the remaining foundations of former sheriff George Corwin’s house on Washington Street. Corwin was a bloody figure whose zeal added to the unfortunate events surrounding Salem in the late 1600s. Nicknamed ‘The Strangler’ after his preferred torture modus operandi (which included tying his prone victims’ necks to their ankles until the blood ran from their noses), he is said to be responsible for many of the ‘witches’ deaths, including that of Giles Corey, a man who stood accused of witchcraft who Corey crushed to death by placing heavy stones on his chest in order to extract a confession (and, it must be said, to seize his property). Despite the horrific treatment Corey never confessed, indeed he is said to have implored his torturers to pile on more rocks and hasten his departure.

Legend states that just before he died, Corey cursed Corwin and all sheriffs that follow in his wake for his despicable acts of barbarism. It should be noted here that every sheriff since Corey uttered his curse had died while in office or had been ‘forced out of his post as the result of a heart or blood ailment.’ Corwin himself died of a heart attack in 1696, only about four years after the end of the trials. By the time of his death, Corwin was so despised