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51 pages 1 hour read

Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard

Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2023

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Background

Series Background: O’Reilly and Dugard’s Killing Franchise

Prior to the Killing series, Bill O’Reilly’s books were an extension of his cable news persona, including commentary on current affairs from a generally right-of-center perspective and a no-nonsense attitude. For example, in 2010, he published Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama, depicting a stare-down between Obama (presumably the pinhead) and O’Reilly (the patriot) on its cover. In 2011, however, O’Reilly broke from the pattern of his previous books and published Killing Lincoln with Martin Dugard, a popular history of the events leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865. Killing Lincoln later became a limited television series on the National Geographic Channel, narrated by Tom Hanks. The book was a major bestseller but received criticism when Ford’s Theater (the site of Lincoln’s assassination, now a museum) refused to sell the book due to textual inaccuracies. O’Reilly dismissed this move as a bad-faith attempt to undermine his credibility. Killing Kennedy followed in 2012 and was also adapted for television. In 2013, O’Reilly and Dugard published Killing Jesus, an account of the crucifixion that places it within the