Accused of being a wizard, he refused to enter a plea, so that his property would not revert to the state upon his certain conviction. He died after having rocks laid on him for two days, the weight increasing as he didn't answer. It is said that all he said was "more weight". A contemporary report indicates that "About noon, at Salem, Giles Corey was press'd to death for standing mute."
He is a character in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, in which he is portrayed as a hot-tempered but honorable man who put himself in danger to give evidence critical of the witch trials. His wife Martha was also killed during the hysteria. She was one of the 19 people hanged. According to The Crucible, Giles felt guilty about the accusation of his wife because he had told a minister that Martha had been reading books, which was discouraged in that society.
GilesCory was pressed to death during the Salem Witch Trials during the 1690s.
The most famous victim of peine forte et dure in American history was Giles Corey, who was pressed to death on September 19, 1692, during the Salem witch trials, after he refused to enter a plea in the judicial proceeding.
The most famous victim in the United Kingdom was the Catholic martyr Saint Margaret Clitherow, who was pressed to death on March 25, 1586, after refusing to plead to the charge of having harboured priests in her house (in order to avoid a trial in which her own children would be obliged to give evidence).
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