Who was the last person to be executed in Europe for witchcraft?

Anna Göldi (also Anna Göldin or Anna Goeldin, 24 October 1734 – 13 June 1782) was an 18th-century Swiss woman who was the last person to be executed in Europe for witchcraft. Göldi, who was executed by decapitation, has been called the "last witch" in Switzerland.

Göldi began working as a maid for the Tschudi family in 1780. Jakob Tschudi reported her for having put needles in the bread and milk of one of his daughters, apparently through supernatural means. Göldi at first escaped arrest, but the authorities of the Canton of Glarus advertised a reward for her capture in the Zürcher Zeitung on 9 February 1782. Göldi was arrested and, under torture, admitted to entering in a pact with the Devil, who had appeared to her as a black dog. She withdrew her confession after the torture ended, but was sentenced to execution by decapitation. The charges were officially of "poisoning" rather than witchcraft, even though the law at the time did not impose the death penalty for non-lethal poisoning.

During her trial, official allegations of witchcraft were avoided, and the court protocols were destroyed. The sentence does therefore not strictly qualify as that of a witch trial. Still, because of the apparent witchhunt that led to the sentence, the execution sparked outrage throughout Switzerland and the Holy Roman Empire.