1. Doubts grow when respected citizens are convicted and executed.

-------Rebecca Nurse (jury first acquits, then told to reconsider)
-------George Burroughs (recites Lord's Prayer perfectly at hanging)
-------Giles Corey (81-year-old is pressed to death)

2. Accusations of witchcraft include the powerful and well-connected.

-------Wife of Governor Phips
-------Mary & Philip English (and others)

3. The educated elite of Boston pressure Gov. Phips to exclude spectral evidence.

-------Rev. Samuel Willard and others
-------Increase Mather points out the Devil could take the shape of an innocent person: "It were better that 10 suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned."

4. Gov. Phips bars spectral evidence and disbands the Court of Oyer and Terminer.