1) ALL of the victims were from New Salem, while the accusors (& executors) were all from Old Salem?

I think you must be talking about the divisions between Salem town and Salem village which were indeed pretty bitter. However it should be pointed out that of the first three women accused two, Tituba and Sarah Good, had no property at all. The majority of those hung were married women who also had no property to be confiscated. The Reverend George Burroughs hadn't lived in Salem for years and had never owned property there. Throw in the fact that two of the judges were not from Salem at all but Boston. A surprising number of the accused were also not from New Salem - or for that matter either Salem. The fever spread rapidly.


2) That New Salem was economically outstripping Old Salem?

Quite true.

3) That by local law, the property of those convicted of witchcraft was confiscated & transferred to the political/religious (same thing, for the most part) authorities.... which in this case meant the folk running Old Salem & overseeing the trials?

As a matter of fact though some property was seized most of it seems to have passed to the natural heirs of the executed. Certainly the judges did not profit - though at least one of the sheriffs did!

Further more contrary to popular myth the civil and religious were distinct powers in Massachussetts - as they have been throughout Western history. Ministers were not magistrates and magistrates were not ministers.

The people of 1692 Massachussetts in fact deserve considerable credit for recognizing the unreliability of spectral evidence and throwing it out - thus automatically freeing those charged under such evidence. They even paid restitution to the victims and their families and reversed the attainders against the convicted both living and dead. And did all this back at a time when it could actually make a difference rather than centuries later as a pretty gesture.