Case file · Witch trials
La Corriveau
Marie-Josephte Corriveau was hanged in April 1763 for killing her second husband, and her body was hung in an iron cage at Pointe-Lévy; legend turned her into a witch who haunts travellers.
1763 CE · 46.80, -71.18 · status: legend
The account
The trial was a British court-martial soon after the Conquest. In tales retold by Philippe-Aubert de Gaspé in 'Les Anciens Canadiens' (1863) she begs passers-by at night to carry her across to the witches' sabbath on Île d'Orléans. The cage was dug up in 1849, exhibited in the United States, and returned to Québec in 2015.
The sceptical view
Historians think her father was first convicted and she later confessed, perhaps to save him; the legend added husbands she never had.