The best writings on the 1692-93 episode are in Boyer and Nissenbaum's Salem Possessed.
The point I want to make is that the witchcraft hysteria did not end until people of high rank in Massachusetts were accused of witchcraft. Among those accused were relatives of the deputy governor William Stoughton. That put a prompt end to the whole sordid mess.
The same thing happened last week in Spain.
Judge Baltazar Garzon has been on a global rampage issuing warrants for the arrest of Augusto Pinochet, terrorists at Guantanamo and he had plans to issue such warrants for former Bush Justice Department officials and Israeli elected office holders.
None of this insanity mattered to the Leftist governments of Spain until Garzon started hearings on Spanish Civil War crimes which had an impact on the entire elite society of Spain. That was enough to remove him from his judicial office.Salem revisited.