Introduction
Summary of the book Killing the Witches by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard. Before moving forward, let’s briefly explore the core idea of the book. Step into a world where fragile beliefs clash with relentless doubts, and where stories from the past still cast unsettling shadows across modern landscapes. This narrative takes you from the early Puritan days in Salem, where suspicion and rigid dogma bred terrible injustice, to the Founding Fathers’ struggle to ensure reason triumphed over superstition in a new nation. It reveals how the ghosts of Salem’s witch hunts lingered in the minds of those who built America’s legal and moral foundations. It then travels forward in time to the mid-twentieth century, showing how a single exorcism rekindled age-old fears, proving that old terrors can resurface even in a more enlightened age. Within these pages, you’ll find a complex tapestry of faith, reason, suspicion, and courage. Each chapter peels back layers of fear and enlightenment, inviting you to discover how echoes of the past still influence our shared journey today.
Chapter 1: In a Land of Unyielding Faith, How Salem’s Early Roots Set the Stage for Darkness .
Imagine a small coastal settlement where every move you make is observed through the unforgiving lens of religious purity, where your choice of words, attire, and even the way you spend Sunday might earn you harsh punishment. This was the world of early Salem, Massachusetts, first emerging in the 1620s as a modest place known by its Indigenous name, Naumkeag. At that time, it offered humble opportunities in farming and fishing, yet life was challenging. The colonists struggled with raw winters, scarce resources, and the constant need to please a stern God who, they believed, judged every deed. The Puritan settlers who arrived carried rigid beliefs about proper behavior and unwavering devotion. Each family hoped to carve out a new life, but their religious leaders demanded strict obedience. In Salem’s early days, anyone daring to think differently risked imprisonment, public humiliation, or banishment, instilling deep fear and an almost feverish urge to conform.
It was not long before powerful Puritan figures tightened their grip on Salem’s existence. One such leader, John Endicott, arrived determined to enforce a singular vision of devotion. He renamed Naumkeag to Salem—meaning peace—though his style of leadership delivered anything but tranquility. Under his watch, religious laws ruled every hour. Men and women were told how to dress modestly, how to speak, and how to worship. Simple deviations, like failing to honor the Sabbath properly, could earn lashings or time trapped in the stocks. Endicott’s severity was matched by another influential figure, John Winthrop, who helped establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony with a pure, strict interpretation of faith. Life in Salem became a high-wire act, where slipping even slightly off the expected path could bring disastrous consequences. The colony’s charter from the English King allowed them to define religious law as they pleased, intensifying their sense of righteous power.
Yet, despite the weight of religious oppression, Salem experienced brief economic success. As trade flourished, the daily grind of survival sometimes overshadowed the sternness of Puritan rule. Merchants came and went, ships arrived filled with goods, and the rhythm of making a living competed with the rigid demands of faith. For a time, economic concerns tempered the strictest impulses. But harsh winters, spoiled harvests, and the unknown challenges of a new land soon rekindled old fears. In such uncertainty, superstition grew like weeds in an untended field. Whispers began hinting that evil forces lurked unseen, waiting to harm the godly. In these conditions—where faith and fear danced constantly—Salem’s people became increasingly vulnerable to rumors of witchcraft. The line between the material struggles of everyday life and the spiritual battles they believed raged around them was thin, and many felt the need to explain misfortune as the devil’s handiwork.
By the late 17th century, Salem’s spiritual climate had grown tense and uneasy. Differences in opinion about proper worship and daily morality simmered beneath the surface. Some brave souls—like Roger Williams—who dared to question the absolute authority of the Puritan leaders found themselves cast out, forced to seek new beginnings in more tolerant lands like Rhode Island. With voices of reason banished and the community guided by rigid zealots, the atmosphere was primed for explosive accusations. The notion that the devil prowled among them no longer seemed far-fetched. People were on edge, especially women and men who stood out—those who dressed differently, or whose behavior didn’t fit the narrow Puritan mold. In this tightened, suspicious environment, the seeds of Salem’s infamous witch trials were planted. Before long, a wave of fear would wash over the town, drowning out any remaining vestiges of mercy and reason.
Chapter 2: When Whispers Turned to Shouts: The Fearsome Sparks That Ignited Salem’s Witch Panic .
In 1692, the steady undercurrent of suspicion in Salem broke through the surface, turning quiet whispers of witchcraft into a roaring tide of accusations. The spark came from an unusual source: a group of young girls who claimed they were being tormented by invisible spirits. They shrieked, convulsed, and pointed trembling fingers at supposed tormentors. The community, already primed to believe in dark magic, listened with mounting terror. Among the first names whispered as a witch was Bridget Bishop, a middle-aged woman with a reputation for dressing too brightly and refusing to blend into the somber Puritan crowd. Rumors had long followed her—stories that she might have been involved in her own husband’s death or possessed certain strange qualities. But now, the allegations moved beyond gossip and into the courtroom, fueled by the hysterical testimony of young accusers who claimed they felt her spectral hands choking their throats.
When Bridget Bishop stood before the judges, she insisted on her innocence. She pleaded, reasoned, and tried to maintain her dignity. Yet her words were overshadowed by the dramatic fits of the accusing girls. Each time Bridget protested her innocence, they fell to the floor, writhing as if assaulted by unseen forces. To the judges, these seemingly spontaneous reactions appeared like otherworldly proof of witchcraft at work. Mercy, compassion, and skepticism vanished beneath a cloud of fear. The courtroom that should have demanded solid evidence instead welcomed what was known as spectral evidence—testimony of visions, spirits, and invisible attacks. Bridget, facing these fearful minds, stood no chance. After just minutes of deliberation, her fate was sealed. On June 10, 1692, she was led to Gallows Hill and hanged. Her death would unleash a terrifying wave of similar trials and executions that ravaged Salem’s sense of justice.
Bridget Bishop’s execution was no isolated event. It came on the heels of months of growing hysteria rooted in the household of Reverend Samuel Parris. That preceding winter, Parris’s daughter Betty and niece Abigail began suffering strange seizures and uttering bizarre sounds. Alarmed neighbors quickly named witchcraft as the cause. Under pressure, three marginalized women were accused: Tituba, a slave from the Parris household; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly woman who rarely attended church. Afraid for her life, Tituba confessed to all manner of demonic plots, saying she’d seen the devil himself and that other witches roamed Salem. This explosive confession validated everyone’s worst fears. It seemed to confirm that the devil’s agents lived among them. Now fueled by Tituba’s vivid imagery, fear of witchcraft took root in every corner. No one in Salem—rich or poor, male or female—felt truly safe anymore.
As days turned to weeks and weeks into months, the accusations multiplied. Voices of reason, which dared to question the flimsy, eerie evidence, were silenced by the sheer weight of communal panic. The courts accepted dreams, visions, and personal fits as genuine proof, sweeping aside centuries of legal fairness. The accused, often unable to produce any concrete defense against invisible charges, crumbled under the pressure. Some confessed falsely just to avoid the noose, while others stubbornly held onto their innocence. By the time Bridget Bishop was executed, the machine of hysteria had gathered unstoppable momentum. Young girls, supported by influential families like the Putnams, kept naming new suspects. The sense of moral panic, stoked by religious strictness and endless superstition, grew like a roaring bonfire. In Salem’s fevered imagination, the devil’s footprints appeared everywhere, and the only remedy, they believed, was to destroy each and every witch.
Chapter 3: A Mighty Voice in the Shadows: Cotton Mather’s Relentless Faith and Deadly Influence .
Behind the scenes of Salem’s turmoil stood a prominent figure who added fuel to the blazing inferno: Cotton Mather. He was a respected Puritan minister, a learned scholar, and a man who believed wholeheartedly in the dark reality of witchcraft. Unlike calmer minds that might have preached caution, Mather advocated for rooting out evil at any cost. For him, the crisis in Salem was not a mere village dispute; it was a spiritual war between God’s chosen people and the devil’s agents. With his pen and voice, Mather reinforced the idea that witches were a genuine threat, an infestation that must be ripped from society’s heart. His sermons painted witchcraft as a lurking beast that fed on the community’s spiritual weakness. Many looked to him for guidance, and he eagerly steered them toward a path of confrontation, fear, and the relentless pursuit of anyone suspected of devilish influence.
Cotton Mather’s influence wasn’t just theoretical. He offered intellectual justifications for the trials, arguing that extraordinary crimes demanded extraordinary evidence and punishment. He encouraged the use of spectral evidence, lending it a degree of legitimacy. Even when a condemned man, such as Reverend George Burroughs, managed to recite the Lord’s Prayer at the gallows—an act believed impossible for a witch—Mather dismissed it as the devil’s cunning trick. Rather than pause and reconsider, he insisted that evil spirits could mimic innocence. His voice resonated so strongly that when doubts occasionally crept into the public’s mind, he smothered them with warnings of deception. Mather’s guiding hand directed the judges and community leaders, making them more confident that their actions, however bloody, served a higher purpose. In this way, he ensured the machinery of persecution rolled forward, crushing voices of protest and any semblance of mercy beneath its wheels.
Yet, this was not a one-sided drama. Cotton Mather’s father, Increase Mather, was also a significant religious figure, known for his scholarly works and more measured approach. Behind closed doors, the Mathers debated the righteousness of the trials. Increase worried that innocent people might be suffering for crimes they never committed. He urged caution, arguing that no conviction should rely solely on testimonies of specters and visions. He wrote letters suggesting higher standards of proof and warned that truthful justice must guard against condemning the blameless. However, Increase’s more balanced perspective did not translate into strong public opposition. He was conflicted, and though he tried to temper the madness with subtle influence, he never firmly stood against his son’s zealotry. As a result, Cotton’s fiery rhetoric, supported by the widespread panic, carried far more weight than Increase’s quiet doubts or gentle critiques of the trial process.
With Cotton Mather championing the witch hunts, Salem’s chaos intensified. Prison cells overflowed with suspected witches—over 200 people faced accusations, and the gallows grew tragically familiar. Driven by Cotton’s unwavering certainty, the courts pushed ahead, while Increase’s cautious murmurings failed to slow the avalanche of death. The Salem witch trials became a terrible proving ground for the dangerous mix of unwavering faith, unchecked authority, and collective fear. Those who might have spoken out against these methods were intimidated, shamed into silence, or simply too afraid to risk their own necks. Cotton Mather’s legacy would long be remembered as one of powerful influence misdirected by extremist views. In a short span of time, his fierce endorsement of brutal measures transformed Salem from a troubled but functioning settlement into a place of dread, despair, and heartbreak. The world would soon witness how this catastrophe began to break under its own weight.
Chapter 4: Shackles Loosened and Trust Betrayed: How Salem’s Madness Began Slowly, Painfully to Unravel .
By the autumn of 1692, the frenzied storm that had swept through Salem showed signs of calming, if only slightly. Several factors combined to halt the relentless procession of accusations and executions. First, news of Salem’s cruelty had crossed the Atlantic, reaching England’s shores. The English Crown, upon hearing that its colonial subjects had embraced a brutal system of condemnation based on invisible evidence, expressed alarm. King William and Queen Mary began to question the competence and moral fiber of the colonial courts. This outside scrutiny put pressure on Massachusetts authorities, who now faced the uncomfortable truth that their behavior might be judged by the very rulers who had granted them their charters. Suddenly, the colony’s leaders realized that continuing the witch trials could damage their reputation and imperil the delicate relationship with England upon which their legitimacy and stability depended.
Governor William Phipps, initially swept up in the hysteria, felt the chill of growing doubts. When accusations reached people close to him—his own wife rumored to be under suspicion—Phipps acted. He suspended new arrests and ordered many prisoners released. In October, he dissolved the notorious court that had so eagerly embraced spectral evidence. A new court was formed, one that would no longer accept intangible visions as proof of guilt. Judge Stoughton, who had proudly overseen many trials, tried to resist these changes. He pushed to continue the hangings, unwilling to admit that he and his colleagues had erred. But with Phipps’ intervention, there would be no more sanctioned deaths at the gallows for witchcraft. The machinery of execution ground to a halt, leaving a community that had watched neighbors turn to enemies, still stunned and uncertain of how to move forward.
Despite the governor’s efforts to restore order, the damage was done. Salem had crossed a terrible line. Families who lost loved ones remained traumatized, and the survivors carried deep scars that would never fully heal. Economic life suffered as the village’s name became forever linked to cruelty and paranoia. Boston, more cosmopolitan and less mired in such conflicts, rose in prominence. Salem’s reputation waned. As the trials ended, critics who had been silenced emerged, asking how faith could have been twisted into a weapon against the innocent. Ministers who had supported the frenzy found themselves isolated. Cotton and Increase Mather, once pillars of spiritual authority, emerged tarnished. Cotton’s strident defenses of the trials suddenly looked hollow and indefensible. Communities beyond Salem realized that moral panic, if left unchecked, can destroy the very fabric of society they worked so hard to create.
In the aftermath, there were attempts at healing. Over the years, some officials involved in the trials apologized publicly. Years later, the Massachusetts government offered restitution to the families of victims. But these gestures, though important, could never bring back the lives lost or restore innocence to those whose reputations had been blackened. The trials would linger as a grim example of how zealotry, ignorance, and fear can combine to commit profound injustice. Salem’s madness became a stain on the colony’s history and served as a warning to future generations. Long after the nooses were cut down and the accused were freed, Salem’s ordeal remained etched into America’s collective memory. The momentary relief of the trials’ end did not erase the painful lessons learned, nor did it halt the ongoing struggle between fervent faith and reasoned understanding that would shape the nation’s future.
Chapter 5: In the Founding Fires of a Nation: Lessons from Salem’s Trials Fuel Revolution .
Though the Salem witch trials ended, their legacy lingered in the young colonies, quietly influencing how Americans thought about faith, power, and justice. As decades passed, the rigid Puritan grip on society relaxed somewhat. Enlightenment ideas trickled in from Europe, promoting reason, skepticism, and the importance of individual rights. Still, the memory of Salem’s folly didn’t vanish. Instead, it simmered beneath the surface, a dreadful reminder of how easily freedom could collapse under the weight of blind fanaticism. By the time tensions arose between the colonies and Britain in the mid-18th century, a new generation was ready to question authority and demand personal liberties. The lesson learned from Salem was that no government should hold absolute power without checks, and that hysteria based on faith or fear could lead a society down a path of unimaginable cruelty. It was a lesson that would help shape America’s founding principles.
In the years before the Revolutionary War, religious factions, cultural differences, and political ambitions mingled in the American colonies. While Puritan dominance waned, the memory of their ruthless control was not forgotten. Colonists who felt suffocated by British rule drew parallels to older systems where religious law and civil authority merged dangerously. They yearned for a system that protected individual thought, guarded personal freedom, and prevented the type of collective panic that had ruined Salem. These broader ideals set the stage for the push toward independence. Leaders saw that to avoid recreating Salem’s errors, they needed a framework that allowed disagreements and debate rather than punishing them with whips or gallows. They needed freedom of conscience. They needed safeguards so that no single belief system or government official could terrorize a community again. The memory of Salem’s tyranny helped inspire a revolution that promised fairness and liberty.
When the colonies finally broke away from British rule, thinkers like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams crafted documents that captured new ideals. Though these men were not shaped solely by the Salem experience, the cautionary lessons about unchecked authority were well known in the cultural memory. They knew that a nation founded on principles of freedom must carefully guard against repeating mistakes. Salem had proven that faith, while valuable and meaningful, could become a sharpened blade in the wrong hands. This understanding helped encourage the principle of separating church and state. Without that separation, old nightmares could easily return. As the revolution unfolded, each volley of gunfire and each penned declaration carried a silent vow: never again would the American people allow fear and superstition to eclipse justice and fairness. This promise was essential to forging an identity distinct from the cruelty of Salem’s darkest days.
In forging a new country, Americans carried with them not just the bold idea of independence but also the subdued memory of past horrors. The Revolutionary War ended with the colonies victorious, and a new chapter of governance began. The Founding Fathers, some devoutly religious and others more skeptical, recognized that their country would be home to many beliefs and perspectives. Pluralism, not a single, rigid creed, would become a guiding strength. Over time, as America took shape, the founding documents ensured that religious freedom and personal liberties became cornerstones of society. Though the Salem trials were rarely mentioned explicitly in founding debates, their chilling presence hovered over the young nation like a warning beacon. The new United States, determined to grow wiser, would strive to prevent fear, prejudice, and blind faith from ever again holding absolute sway over the lives of its citizens.
Chapter 6: From Bloodstained Soil to Enlightened Debates: How Salem’s Shadow Guided the Founding Fathers .
In the century following Salem’s witch hunts, the colonies matured into a more confident and questioning society. Among those who carried the wisdom gleaned from past mistakes was Benjamin Franklin. Born in 1706, Franklin was too young to witness the Salem events firsthand, but their memory was alive during his upbringing. As a young man, Franklin encountered strict religious communities and saw how dogma could limit free thought. He admired practical knowledge, experimentation, and evidence over superstition. While Franklin respected people of faith, he viewed Salem’s trials as a cautionary tale of what happens when belief overrides reason. During his time abroad in England, and later as a key figure in the American Enlightenment, Franklin’s intellectual pursuits and discussions with other thinkers ensured that the lessons of Salem’s terror remained relevant. Salem taught him—and others like him—that the future nation must guard against the tyranny of unchecked conviction.
When Franklin returned to America to participate in the building of a new nation, he brought these lessons to the table. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he joined a roomful of statesmen wrestling with the question: how should this newborn republic be structured? Franklin, though advanced in years and weakened by illness, played a symbolic role in shaping the framework of governance. He encouraged compromise, open dialogue, and the questioning of assumptions. The Salem trials, preserved in collective memory, reminded those present that laws and principles must protect individuals from moral panics. By ensuring a balance of power among branches of government and championing the rights of minorities, Franklin and his peers helped create safeguards. Their resulting Constitution, and eventually the Bill of Rights, granted freedoms to worship without persecution and to speak without fear. This was the antithesis of Salem’s cruel, narrow-minded code of conduct.
With the new nation taking form, religious freedom became a prized jewel. Franklin, along with figures like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, knew that if the government supported one faith above others, or allowed religious superstition to rule the courts, disasters similar to Salem’s could happen again. They built legal structures that limited the influence of religious zealots and favored tolerance, ensuring that debates would be guided by evidence rather than nightmares. The Constitution did not mention Salem directly, but its very existence and the freedoms it enshrined were partly shaped by the painful lesson that Salem provided: unchecked fear leads to injustice, and injustice corrodes the soul of a community. Franklin and others stood as voices of enlightenment, quietly honoring the memory of those who suffered in Salem by working tirelessly to prevent another era of persecution and madness from ever taking hold.
Over time, Franklin’s legacy, and the founding ideals he helped nurture, established a system built on reasoned debate and individual rights. This new approach aimed to prevent the catastrophic errors that ignorance and fear produce. In centuries that followed, while Americans argued over countless issues—slavery, civil rights, immigration, education, science—the memory of Salem’s witch hunts remained a distant but persistent cautionary tale. Franklin’s generation had no illusions about human nature’s capacity for panic and cruelty. Yet they dared to believe that a society guided by reason, protected by laws, and enriched by a diversity of religious views would be stronger and more humane. Salem’s darkness indirectly guided the Founders as they lit a path forward. Though shadows of old fears would rise again in different forms, the framework Franklin and others created would help ensure that no future panic would so easily consume an entire community.
Chapter 7: An Old Darkness Returns: Echoes of Salem’s Fears in Modern American Hauntings .
Centuries after Salem’s horrors, America continued to wrestle with the tension between faith, superstition, and reason. Even as science and enlightenment ideals spread, shadows of old fears occasionally emerged. One chilling example arose in 1949, involving a boy later identified in historical records as Ronald Hunkeler. As a 13-year-old living in Maryland, Ronald’s life took a terrifying turn. His family reported strange occurrences: unexplainable scratching sounds in the walls, beds shaking violently, and objects hurled across rooms by unseen forces. When medical and psychiatric help failed to provide answers, the desperate family turned to a Catholic priest. They believed Ronald’s torment might be demonic possession. In a series of intense exorcisms, priests tried to drive out what they saw as evil spirits. Marks appeared on Ronald’s skin, and he shouted curses in languages he never learned. This echo of old superstition reminded Americans that dark beliefs never vanished completely.
Though the Catholic Church kept details of Ronald’s exorcism secret, the story leaked. William Peter Blatty, a student at Georgetown, eventually learned of this case and became fascinated. Inspired by the priests’ journals, Blatty transformed Ronald’s ordeal into a novel—The Exorcist—published in 1971. Unlike Salem’s community-driven hysteria, this was a single case, yet it resonated powerfully with the public. When The Exorcist film appeared in 1973, theaters erupted in panic. Audiences fainted, vomited, and fled the cinema, gripped by the terrifying images of a possessed girl’s twisted body and her unsettling, guttural voice. The film awakened a modern fear of demonic forces, showing that belief in unseen evil could still captivate minds. Just as Salem’s trials thrived on shared nightmares and religious dread, The Exorcist fed on deep-rooted anxieties about the unknown. Even a more educated and secular era could tremble before these ancient terrors.
The parallels between Salem and Ronald’s exorcism are not perfect, but both reflect a timeless human struggle. In Salem, religious leaders and ordinary townsfolk convinced themselves of a grand conspiracy of witches. In the mid-20th century, a desperate family and dedicated priests believed a single boy fought actual demons inside his body. Each event shows how deeply superstition and faith can shape our understanding of reality. Both remind us that when individuals feel threatened and cannot find logical explanations, they may turn to supernatural answers. The Exorcist, both book and film, reignited interest in exorcisms and the Church’s mysterious rites. It served as a modern echo of an older fear, bridging centuries between Puritan witch hunters and contemporary thrill-seekers. Within this link lies a sobering truth: knowledge may grow, but old ghosts linger, ready to haunt anyone who dares to open the door to irrational fear.
For Ronald Hunkeler, the unwanted source of The Exorcist legend, life was never the same. While Salem’s victims died tragically, Ronald survived—but he lived under the shadow of that past ordeal for decades. Working quietly at NASA, he guarded his privacy, fearing that exposure would connect him forever to the infamous exorcism story. Teenagers and curious onlookers flocked to the house where the supposed possession occurred, eager to find traces of the supernatural. Ronald’s struggle mirrored the lingering reputational damage Salem’s accused families endured. Just as Salem’s panic left scars on its community, Ronald’s ordeal marked him permanently. And so, America’s landscape remains filled with echoes—old fears, old legends—resurfacing from time to time. The Salem witch trials and the story of Ronald’s exorcism show that the battle between superstition and reason is never fully settled. In every era, we stand at a crossroads, choosing either understanding or fear.
All about the Book
Explore the chilling tale of witch hunts in America with ‘Killing the Witches’. O’Reilly and Dugard reveal the dark history and social implications of these events, shedding light on fear and power dynamics that shaped the nation.
Bill O’Reilly, a prominent journalist and author, teams up with historian Martin Dugard to unveil compelling narratives that educate and provoke thought, captivating readers with their engaging storytelling and rigorous research.
Historians, Educators, Social Scientists, Psychologists, Legal Professionals
Reading, History Enthusiasm, Social Justice Advocacy, Collecting Historical Artifacts, Writing
The impact of mass hysteria, Social injustice and discrimination, Historical literacy and awareness, The role of power dynamics in society
In times of fear, the truth is often the first casualty.
Oprah Winfrey, Malcolm Gladwell, Ken Burns
Best Seller – New York Times, Audie Award for History, Historical Fiction Award
1. What were the main causes of the witch hunts? #2. How did societal fears influence witch trials? #3. Why did many innocents face accusations of witchcraft? #4. What role did religion play in witch hysteria? #5. How did gender dynamics affect witch hunt victims? #6. What historical events fueled the witch craze? #7. How did local governments respond to witch accusations? #8. What were the most infamous witch trials in history? #9. How did the legal system handle witchcraft cases? #10. What social factors led to the rise of witch hunts? #11. How were the accused witches typically punished? #12. Why did mass hysteria spread so quickly among communities? #13. What lessons can we learn from past witch hunts? #14. How did media and rumors escalate witch trials? #15. What impact did witch hunts have on communities? #16. How did personal rivalries fuel accusations of witchcraft? #17. What was the significance of spectral evidence? #18. How did education reform perceptions of witchcraft? #19. How do modern views reflect on historic witch hunts? #20. What similarities exist between past and present fears?
Killing the Witches, Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard, witch trials history, true crime books, historical nonfiction, American history, witch hunt, New England history, political commentary, mystery and suspense books, book recommendations 2023
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250273256
https://audiofire.in/wp-content/uploads/covers/3675.png
https://www.youtube.com/@audiobooksfire
audiofireapplink