Before they were hanged at Abington, Reading, the four elderly women had lived in Windsor. At the time it was commonplace for pamphlets to be published after such executions. The release that followed the death of the four convicted women claimed to have been based on the written confession of their ring-leader, Elizabeth Stile. She had gone into detail about the nature of their malevolent magic and produced a long list of people she believed she had killed. As well as using a rat familiar, which she called Phillip, Elizabeth had used image magic to kill her victims barring one whom she had touched on the shoulder. The other women also had familiars, including a toad, a kitten called Jenny and a cat called Jill. These magical creatures would do their owner's bidding in return for blood fed from the wrist or mixed in with bread and milk.
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