At the Whitby Museum in North Yorkshire is a strange artifact—a dismembered hand, dried and shriveled. It once belonged to a man who was hanged from the gallows for an unknown crime. The hand was cut off at his wrist when the lifeless body was still hanging. The hand was then dried and pickled in salt.

The “hand of glory” is thought to have magical powers. Back in the shadowy days of black magic, witchcraft and the occult, sorcerers, shamans, and witch doctors kept such bizarre and otherworldly objects to practice black magic with. The “hand of glory” had a certain attraction among thieves because of its supposed powers of putting to sleep or rendering its victims motionless.

The “hand of glory” at Whitby Museum. Photo credit: Badobadop/Wikimedia