Helen Duncan was the absolute last person imprisoned under the British Witchcraft Act in the twentieth century

A closer look

In 1944, while fighting World War II, the British government decided the real threat was a woman throwing up cheesecloth. Helen Duncan was a fake medium who claimed to channel spirits using ectoplasm. Authorities feared she might reveal military secrets supposedly given to her by dead sailors, so they dusted off the Witchcraft Act of 1735 and threw her in jail, proving the government will use literally any law to keep a secret.