The conwoman, poisoner, and "witch" who convinced people a chicken could predict the Second Coming

Dee heads to Yorkshire to uncover the astonishing story of Mary Bateman - a woman remembered as The Yorkshire Witch, despite never being convicted of witchcraft.

Born into poverty in the eighteenth century, Mary discovered that fear, superstition and false hope could be far more profitable than honest work. She reinvented herself as a fortune teller, sold charms and curses, invented imaginary spiritual advisers, and even convinced hundreds of people that her pet hen was laying miraculous eggs bearing messages from God.

But beneath the theatrical scams lay something far darker.

When William and Rebecca Perigo sought Mary's help for Rebecca's illness, they believed they were buying protection from a curse. Instead, they were given poison.

Rebecca would pay with her life.

Dee explores one of Britain's most extraordinary true crime stories - a tale of fraud, manipulation, murder, public executions, miracle chickens, fake psychics, and one of the strangest post-mortem legacies in criminal history, when pieces of Mary's own skin were turned into souvenirs.

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Sources

• Summers, Montague. The History of Witchcraft and Demonology

• Thackray Museum of Medicine

• Leeds Libraries Local History Collection

• Leeds Mercury archives

• British Newspaper Archive