In the minds of many of the villagers of Salem, George Burroughs was "the Ringleader of them all." Burroughs was born in Scituate, although there is some uncertainty surrounding his origins. He graduated from Harvard College in 1670. Burroughs was a non-ordained minister.

While preaching in Casco, Maine (now Portland) in 1676, the entire settlement was broken up by an Indian assault. Burroughs escaped to an island in the Bay. He moved to the Village of Salem in 1680, where a year later his wife died. Burroughs ministered in the Village of Salem for only two years, then left as a result of a bitter dispute over his salary, and he seems to have had a more personal and heated, dispute over money with John Putnam, the uncle of one of Burroughs' would-be accusers. As a result of these disputes, Burroughs left the Village abruptly. After leaving Salem, he returned to Casco, where he was again driven out by Indians in 1683, causing him to relocate to Wells, Maine.

Burroughs had been serving as a minister in Wells for nine years when he was arrested for witchcraft. He was seized, taken from the table while eating, and hauled back to Salem on May 4 to stand trial. The arrest and examination of Burroughs "constituted the most dramatic escalation of judicial action during the early phases of the trials." There was no shortage of testimony that Burroughs was not just a witch, but their leader as well. One of his accusers testified that his specter told her that "he was above a witch, he was a conjurer." During his examination, the suffering of the afflicted girls was so extreme that the magistrates ordered them removed from the court house for their own safety. Abigail Hobbs confessed that magical dolls had been given to her by Burroughs. Nineteen-year- old Mercy Lewis claimed that Burroughs "carried me up to an exceeding high mountain and shewed me all the kingdoms of the earth and tould me that he would give them all to me if I would writ in his book," a temptation not unlike one used by his supposed master on occasion. Some of the most damaging testimony against Burroughs was by several confessed witches who identified him as Satan's personal representative at Salem Sabbaths. The effect of this testimony was to convince the magistrates that they had finally located one of the central figures in the current diabolical operations. Much of the testimony, however, in addition to focusing on his commissions of acts of witchcraft, focused on his general mistreatment of his wives, and his uncanny physical ability. Ann Putnam claimed to have been visited by two women in shrouds (the deceased wives of Burroughs) who proclaimed to her the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of their husband.

Despite the wealth of testimony against him, historical records have credited Burroughs with many character traits uncommon for a wizard. There is "evidence that he was self-denying, generous, and public spirited, laboring with humility and with zeal." By another account "he was an able, intelligent, true- minded man; ingenuous, sincere, humble in his spirit, faithful and devoted as a minister, and active, generous and disinterested as a citizen." These are hardly the characteristics one would expect to find in a close companion of Satan. As a result of his untarnished record, despite the danger to themselves, thirty- two of the most respectable citizens of the Village signed a petition on behalf on Burroughs' innocence, and even before his execution, one of his accusers recanted her accusation as groundless and made out of fear.

As he stood on the gallows awaiting the noose, Buroughs stunned the crowd by loudly proclaiming his innocence and then reciting the Lord's Prayer without hesitation or error, a feat thought impossible for a wizard. The spectators, deeply impressed, called for his pardon. A somewhat disputed account claims that after the hanging his body was cut down, dragged by the halter, thus becoming partially disrobed, thrown in a hole between the rocks, and left, partially buried with two others who had been hanged. It is interesting to note that many of the depositions against Burroughs were obtained after his trial and execution in order to help bolster the verdict.

George Burroughs hanged on Gallows Hill, August 19, 1692.