11 Mostly Harmless Elderly folk burned as Witches

This is the kind of thing I dislike most about supernaturalism. These people ranged in age from 80 to 96 years of age, eight women and three men. What physical harm were these elderly people supposedly capable of? Not any. But because of a belief that some spells or magic these old people might have been able to do could have been dangerous to some group of other people, they were robbed of the dignity of their old age and comfort of their homes, and treated to fire.

Please--are dictators ever witches? Generals? Are heads of state ever witches; they accomplish a great deal, they have some apparent power. Perhaps they are "witches", in a figurative sense, if they do things that hurt people. But why is it that these powerless people, if they were witches, were not apparently powerful, or at least, had they powers, young? Why would they be able to be burned in their homes so easily?

It is a peculiar belief.

Perhaps they were grandparents? Great-grandparents? I wonder if their families knew they were "witches"? Were their families relieved that the witches were dead?

The simple reality is that they were unfortunate old people singled out, and murdered, without powers, demonic or otherwise. In the end, nothing spared them the worst of hells--man's.