Just in time for Halloween we have the story of a courtroom drama in Salem, Massachusetts (of all places) involving a witch and a warlock. It turns out that a 75-year-old witch priestess and self-identified psychic, Lori Bruno-Sforza, who also runs Magika, a witchcraft store in Salem, asked a judge to stop a man who calls himself the “world’s best-known warlock” from placing vulgar phone calls to her in the middle of the night.

According to the Boston Globe, she identified her tormenter as Christian Day, 45, a man whom she said she “loved as a son” until he turned on her three years ago. She alleged that he placed crude phone calls to her and posted messages on Facebook wishing death upon her. The phone calls were placed from a private number up to three times a week between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., Bruno-Sforza wrote in an affidavit filed in court.

Dressed in head-to-toe black and adorned with rings, necklaces, and broaches, Bruno-Sforza said the harassment kept her up at night, made her fear for her store, and left her wondering if she would be physically attacked. The hearing took place three days before Halloween, which Brennan called a scheduling coincidence.

The judge in this case did issued a civil order requiring Day to refrain from harassing Bruno-Sforza for one year. Which would be pretty standard practice in Massachusetts in a case like this.

Christian Day and Lori Bruno-Sforza

But this is also why I tell my friend – and she knows who she is – that “identifying as a witch” is not always a good thing. It comes with a lot of baggage. I don’t think the average American has any idea what that means in contemporary society, and now these two have made a laughing stock out of their entire community. If nothing else, they look like a couple of whackos.