Trials: Werewolf Theiss, 1692

The trial of a Russian man named Theiss, accused of werewolfism, is much different from other such trials and it is probably thanks to this that it has its place among the most famous werewolf cases. The whole difference is contained in the statement that the accused gave. Theiss told the court an interesting tale about himself and his wolf companions. He claimed that werewolves were the defenders of human communities, fighting against demons and evil witches with the aim of protecting all good people. In the end, the court believed Theiss and he was released without consequence.

On the basis of: A. Devine, Magia Księżyca, Wrocław 2002

* * *

Trials: Jean Grenier, 1603

An ordinary judge from Chatellenie and the barons of Roche Chalais […] led an investigation on May 9th 1603. The accusation was based on the statements of only three witnesses, one of whom was the thirteen-year-old Marguerite Poirier. She claimed that she had had the habit of looking after her livestock in the company of the aforementioned lad, Jean Grenier, who swore to her numerous times that whenever he felt like it, he could shapeshift into a wolf, that he had caught and killed some dogs, ate a part of one and drank some blood, but he did not like it as much as that of small children and girls. He had also told her that it had been a while since he attacked a child whose body he had bitten into and had thrown the remains to another wolf that was wandering nearby, and a girl who he had devoured whole except for shoulders and back.

She added that one day, while she was looking after her livestock, some kind of wild beast attacked her, grabbed onto and tore off her skirt near her left hip. She, in turn, struck it on the  back with a stick, noting that the beast was larger, but shorter, than a wolf, had rust-coloured fur and a short tail. After the blow, the beast leaped away from the girl some ten or twelve steps, sat up on its hind legs like dogs often do, and gave her a furious look that made her run for her life. She had also noticed that the animal had a smaller head than that of a wolf.

Another witness was the ten-year-old Jeanne Gaboriout who reported that one day, while she was guarding her livestock along with other girls, Jean Grenier had approached her and had asked which of the shepherdesses was the prettiest. The girl asked him in turn why he wanted to know that.

“Because,” he answered, “I want to marry a shepherdess; and if it is you, then I want to marry you.”

She then asked him about his father.

“He’s a priest,” he replied.

During the conversation the girl told him he was very tan. He answered that he had looked like that since not long before. She then asked if he had become so tan due to heat or cold, to which he replied that it had been caused by the reddish wolf pelt he had been wearing. So the girl asked him where he had gotten such a pelt and he explained that it had been one Pierre Labourutt who had given it to him. The shepherdess wanted to know who that was, so Jean told her he was a man who kept an iron collar that brought suffering to him, that he kept various people in his house on burning chairs, others on burning beds, and others yet who burned – ones stretched out as if on a roast, others in a large oven. The house itself was said to have had rooms that were huge and dark.

Jean Grenier said that when he put on the wolf’s skin he turned into a wolf, or any other kind of animal which he wanted to become, and that while shapeshifted like this into a wolf he had killed a few dogs and had sucked out their blood which, however, did not taste good, and added that small children and girls were much tastier. He said he would run in the form of a wolf during every setting of the moon, on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, and only one hour during the day, near evening and in the morning. He would roam the vicinity with the other nine like him, some of whom he had named, always on the same days and at the same hours. This information became the confirmation of his arrest. He was captured, interrogated and during questioning he admitted guilt to more crimes than the ones reported by witnesses.

He said that he had met a young man by the name of Pierre du Tilhaire on the main road leading from Coutras to Monpon, who told him of a man from the forests of Saint Antoine that wished to speak with him. The young man persuaded Jean to go see him, so they went there together and eventually came across a lone, tall man clothed in black on a black horse, standing in the middle of the forest. They bid good morning to him, as it was dawning, and he, having dismounted his horse, kissed them both with unusually cold lips. Then he mounted up again and they soon lost sight of him. Riding off, however, he managed to persuade them to promise him that they would come to him whenever he sent for them.

The boy was then questioned as to how long it had been since he had become a servant of this master, if he had marked them in any special way, how many times they had answered his call and what had later happened to them. Jean replied that it could have been three years from their first meeting – during the time of questioning he was thirteen or fourteen years old, so back then he could have been ten or eleven – and that they had been marked with the use of iron that the man had held in his hand, in the shape of a small, round stamp on their left buttocks. He added that when they wanted to speak with their master, they went into the forest to find him, and it happened three times. One such time when they arrived there, their master allowed them to brush the hide of his horse with a comb, promised them money and gave them a glass of wine which they drank and then went away.

He confirmed that the entirety of Marguerite Poirier’s statement was true. He confessed to all the acts of rape and other crimes he was accused of with the exception of drinking the blood of a white dog he had killed. Asked about the children he had killed and devoured while in the form of a wolf, he answered that one time, while he was walking from Coutras to Saint Anlaye, having passed the villages of Double, he entered one of the abandoned houses and found there a one-year-old baby lying in a cradle. He grabbed it with his fangs by the throat, dragged it out of the house and away from the garden fence and ate as much of it as he needed to sate his hunger, leaving the rest to another wolf roaming nearby.

Jean also said that in the vicinity of the presbytery of Saint Antoine du Fizon he had snuck up to a girl herding sheep, who was dressed in a black robe, killed her and began eating her; after he was full, like the other times, he left the rest for a nearby wolf. What is worth noting is his statement that he had taken off the girl’s clothes and had not torn it off, which is an interesting fact as it points to the fact that contradictory to average wolves which tore their victims to pieces with their claws werewolves bit them to death and, like humans, were able to undress girls and women they would then devour, without tearing up their clothes.

Jean Grenier said that when he wanted to run, he would put on a wolf pelt that he had been given by the Lord of the Forest. In addition to that, he would rub an ointment into his skin, which he kept in a jar and which he had also gotten from the man. Before that, he would take off his clothes, which he hid usually among the bushes. He explained that he would run when the moon would set, one or two hours a day, and a few times during the night.

After a while, a second investigation was carried out to find out if, during the time that the accused had pointed to have been the time when he killed the children, anyone had heard about someone being murdered in the village Jean had mentioned in his statement. Fathers of children killed by werewolves were questioned and their accounts compared with each other. Finally, it was concluded that the statements of the above witnesses and of the accused matched.

Asked if he had ever roamed the vicinity with his father and whether or not they both wore the wolf skins and committed some of the crimes together, Jean answered that his father accompanied him a few times. Once, two years earlier in May, they met a girl dressed in white who was herding geese in the vicinity of the village of Grillaut. They captured her, dragged her among the grain fields and there devoured. Later, however, Jean would go on his escapades alone, without his father. Additionally, he said that the Lord who had gifted the pelt to him, forbid him from murdering with the use of his left hand’s claw because it was thicker than the rest, and that during the time when he would take on the form of the wolf his master would never lose sight of him and followed every event until he would become a human again.

Pierre Grenier, Jean’s father, was arrested, questioned and confronted with his son. Jean changed a lot in his statement and it was visible that the long incarceration and poverty had made him a bit dull. Nevertheless, after he was allowed to rest, they were confronted again and the son confirmed all the incriminating statements against his father.

What remains to be found out is whether this transformation, or transmutation, of a man into an animal can come to pass in reality. In case of it being real, what punishment awaits those who become werewolves, and those who admit having served the mentioned Lord of the Forest (who is none other than the devil himself) and committing, in the form of a wolf and under the disguise of the pelt they had been given, countless acts of infanticide and other crimes?

[…] The court of law, having taken into account the age and the mental limitations of the boy, who was a witless idiot […] reached a decision and passed its sentence: that there would be no appeal to the sentence, and that on the basis of the events shown during the trial it sentences Jean Grenier to life-long confinement and service at the local monastery. When it comes to the above mentioned Pierre Grenier, his father, and Pierre called Tilhaire, the mentioned court of law has decreed that within a month’s time a new, thorough investigation concerning the two will be launched.

After Grenier had been locked up at the monastery, people numerously reported the sightings of a strange  creature that resembled a dog, which bit to death people and animals in the vicinity, but was never caught. Jean Grenier died at the above mentioned monastery in 1610.

On the basis of: P. De Lancre, Tableu de l’Incostance de Mauvais Anges et Demons, Paris 1612, p. 211n

* * *

Trials: The Werewolf of Angers, 1598

August 8^th, 1589

In 1589 a trial was conducted against Jacques Roulet, a vagabond from Claude in the vicinity of Angers. His behaviour in custody showed that he was mentally ill and was epileptic. The tribunal took lycanthropy for the real reason for these aberrations of mind, thanks to which the accused avoided the death penalty.

Roulet’s confessions during the trial were contradictory and improbable. He claimed that his brother John and cousin Julien were involved in committing the crimes, however, it was then concluded that both of them were many miles away from him at the time. Roulet was accused of having been found in the form of a werewolf (by a soldier and three villagers) among bushes, half-naked, with untidy hair, hands covered in blood and fingernails sunken in the remains of human flesh. The mutilated body of a fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Cornier lay nearby. Roulet admitted to the murder of the lad and described in detail the victim as well as the circumstances of the murder.

On August 8^th 1598 judge Pierre Herault was interrogating the prisoner:

Judge: What is your name and your craft?

Roulet: My name is Jacques Roulet, I am thirty-five years old, and am a poor beggar.

Judge: What are you accused of?

Roulet: Of theft; of blasphemy. My parents gave me a certain ointment, I don’t know its contents.

Judge: Did you become a wolf when you rubbed it in your skin?

Roulet: No, but thanks to it I killed and devoured son Cornier. I was a wolf.

Judge: Were you dressed as a wolf?

Roulet: I was dressed as I am now. My hands and face were bloodied, because I ate the boy’s flesh.

Judge: Did your hands and feet become the paws of a wolf?

Roulet: Yes!

Judge: Did you head become similar to that of a wolf, and your jaws become larger?

Roulet: I do not know what my head was like then; I was using my teeth. My head was like it is now. I injured and devoured many children. I also took part in a Sabbath.

Secular court sentenced Roulet to death. What is curious, however, is that he appealed to the Parliament in Paris, which exchanged his death sentence to two years of stay at the St. Germain des Pres asylum, so that he would be re-educated on the subject of religion “which he had forgotten about in his huge poverty”. […]

On the basis of: E. Petoia, Wampiry I wilkołaki. Źródła, historia, legendy od antyku do współczesności, Universitas, Kraków 2003. Own translation into English. Will update with the page details once I get my hands on the book itself, as I have left it in another place.

* * *

Trials: The Lycanthrope of Padua, 1541

In the year 1541 in Padua, there lived a man who, believing that he was a wolf, would attack many people out in the fields and murder them.

When he was eventually captured, he desperately kept maintaining that he was a genuine werewolf, but that he did not take on the appearance of a wolf because his fur was growing wholly into his skin.

Because of this, some of the people who held him captive, deprived of all human feelings, but wanting to know if what he was saying was true, mutilated him by cutting off his arms and legs. When they found out about his innocence because they did not find any fur under his skin, they led him to a doctor to be healed, but the man died a few days later. Taking into consideration what had been done to him, it is surprising he even lasted as long as a couple of days.

* * *

Trials: The Damnable Life and Death of Peter Stubbe, 1589-90

In the year 1590 in London, there appeared an anonymous biography describing the life and death of Peter Stubbe – a lycanthrope executed on March 31^st of that same year in Bedburg near Cologne for the atrocious crimes he had committed in the form of a wolf. It is probably one of the most famous werewolf trials and it became notorious because of the brutality and number of crimes involved. Below is a brief description of the sinful life of the accused.

Peter Stubbe was born in Peradt and lived in Bedburg near Cologne in Germany. Ever since the age of twelve, Stubbe had been prone to evildoing to such a degree that, taking a particular liking to magic, necromancy and witchcraft, he turned away from Christian faith and gave his body and soul into the hands of the devil and other “impure” powers. In exchange for revoking salvation, he asked the devil for numerous pleasures in his short life, as well as the possibility of becoming famous all around the world, even for the price of heaven. The devil agreed eagerly to fulfilling Stubbe’s wishes, but as it was later shown, these wishes did not relate to such things as wealth and success in life, for his lust could not be satisfied by any worldly means. Because of the cruelty of his heart and soul that were particularly merciless and bloodthirsty, Stubbe limited his wishes to the possibility of venting his foulness according to his liking, on men, women and children under the likeness of a wolf, and the possibility of living in such form without fear of being recognised as the culprit of the bloody acts he was going to commit. The devil, who saw in him a perfect instrument of evildoing, gave him a strap which, when put on, instantly gave the person the appearance of “a ferocious wolf, strong and powerful, with large eyes that glow at night like silver fire-bands, huge and wide jaws, teeth of unheard sharpness, a gigantic body, and massive claws”. Having been taken off, the strap would change the perpetrator back into a human as if nothing ever happened. Stubbe rejoiced at the devil’s gift, because the appearance of a wolf that he could assume whenever he wanted to ideally suited his nature, which was prone to acts of cruelty and bloodshed. For this reason, he then indulged himself in bestial and disgusting acts of murder.

Whenever a person annoyed or crossed him, an anger and thirst for revenge began to burn inside him, which would leave him only after, in the form of a wolf, he had killed that person or one of their relatives. Having tasted crime, Stubbe began to try out new ways of spilling blood and so he roamed the village both day and night, committing hideous crimes.

While in human form (when he did not occupy himself with killing), he would walk the streets of Cologne or Bedburg dressed elegantly and very often one could meet people greeting him; the same people whose children or relatives he had ripped apart, but who would not hold a grudge against him due to their ignorance. Strolling, he would observe people and his potential victims. Whenever he spotted women, girls or children that he liked and whom his soul desired, he would wait for them to leave town and would then follow them. If he managed to encounter them alone, he would kidnap them, drag them into the open fields and kill them brutally under the guise of a wolf. It also often happened that, while roaming far away from the town, he would notice groups of girls playing in the fields. On such occasions, transformed into a wolf, he would leap at them, grab one and then, having satisfied his disgusting lusts, kill her immediately.

Such was the extent of his cruelty that the whole vicinity became terrified by the wickedness of the bloodthirsty and insatiable wolf. Continuing his monstrous activities and still committing hideous acts, over the course of a few years he murdered thirteen children and two young pregnant women, from whose bodies he had ripped out the fetuses in the bloodiest and most inhuman way imaginable and devoured their hearts, warm, raw and beating, which he considered a meal most delicate and suitable for his monstrous appetite. Stubbe, however, was not satisfied by human prey alone – he would kill many lambs and kids, devouring them raw, just like a wolf, so that nobody would suspect the killings were done by a sorcerer rather than a wolf.

During that time, he lived with his daughter – a beautiful and young girl whom he loved in the most unnatural of ways and with whom he had an incestuous relationship. In fact, he had been in this relationship with her even before he succumbed to evil. Her name was Beel Stubbe and her charm and beauty evoked the admiration of everyone who knew her. Stubbe’s lust and disgusting desires towards her lead to them having a son, and he lived with her day by day as though with a concubine. Peter, as lustful and devoted to evil a creature as he was, also lived in such a way with his sister. One time, a woman came by to him for a chat. Before she left, he managed to seduce her with sweet and charming words and influence her so much that he slept with her and later on she was always ready to fulfill all his desires. The woman went by the name of Katherine Trompin and enjoyed an excellent reputation among her acquaintances.

Unfortunately, all of his immoral desires could not be sated by even such a large company of women and because he was not satisfied with the beauty of any woman, the devil finally sent to Stubbe an evil spirit in the form of a woman so beautiful and attractive that she was reminiscent more of a heavenly sylph rather than an earthly being. The woman stayed with him for seven years – until it was revealed that she was nothing else but a demon.

A cruel murderer that Stubbe was, he would not be sated by corporal sins and he would consider a day lost if he did not kill anyone or anything – be it human or animal. And he killed for nothing else than pleasure, as it was later on described.

The young and handsome son filled Stubbe with happiness and was called by him the light of his life. For a time, Stubbe elevated the love for his son above murdering. But not for long. Soon, Stubbe began to crave also his blood, so one day he invited the child for a walk around the village. The father parted with the son when they were walking through the nearby woods under the pretext of having to relieve his physiological needs and while the boy walked ahead, he transformed into a wolf using his strap, caught up to the son and killed him. Having done so, he devoured his brain as if it was the most refined way to sate his appetite. It was the most horrible deed ever heard of, as never before had there been word of a criminal whose of such degenerated nature.

Some documents relate that once upon a time Stubbe noticed two men and a woman who he then decided he wanted to kill. He was afraid, however, that he would be discovered and that he might not be able to deal with two grown men at once – that’s why he used deception. Hidden in the bushes, he listened until he learned the name of one of the men. After that, he overtook the three and hid himself among the trees. When the three reached the place where he was hiding, he called out the man whose name he had learnt. The man, having heard the voice call out for him, went to check where the voice was coming from and whose it was. He did not return, for the wolf-Stubbe killed him on the spot. The others waited for his return, but when he did not come back for a long time, the other man went to find out what had happened. This way, the werewolf had a chance to dispose of the second of his victims. The woman, distressed by the absence of her companions, began suspecting that something bad had happened to them. She tried to save herself by fleeing, but the wolf was a lot faster than her, so he grabbed her, raped her and killed her cruelly. The bodies of the two men were later found torn to pieces in the woods, but the body of the woman was never to be found.

In this way, Peter Stubbe lived for twenty-five years – unrecognised and unsuspected by anyone. During that time, he killed and devoured countless men, women and children, as well as sheep, lambs, kids, and other animals. In fact, when he could not lure any human into his traps (as they were becoming cautious), the wild and cruel beast that he was would vent its anger by killing animals and committing unthinkable wickedness, so that the whole of Germany was forced to acknowledge them as being true.

The inhabitants of Cologne, Bedburg and Peradt, followed and plagued by the monster-wolf that was continuously a cause of damage and losses, became afraid to travel from one place to another without a larger number of men and weapons. To their horror, they kept finding the remains of the beast’s victims in the fields – the beast that they could not capture and put to death. That is why, when someone’s child went missing, they would lose all hope of finding them, certain that the wolf had already devoured it.

There occurred, however, an accident showing the “great power and mercifulness of God in uplifting the spirits of all Christian souls”. One day, a few children were playing in a meadow near the town, where cows grazed along with their calves. Unexpectedly, the wolf leaped into the middle of the circle of children and grabbed one of the girls by her throat. Fortunately for her, he didn’t manage to tear it due to the stiff, starched collar of her clothes. The screams of the rest of the children startled the grazing cows which, for fear for their calves, attacked the wolf with such violence that he was forced to retreat, leaving the would-be victim alive. The father of the girl, who lived in London, received a letter with the description of what had befallen his daughter in Germany. The letter evoked mistrust in him, so he asked for another one to be sent to him, this time with more specific details.

He was not the only one who received such a letter – they were sent out to all the parents of children attacked by Stubbe, who lived in London or in any other country, as well as those in Germany. In German cities, Cologne, Bedburg and Peradt, people were praying to God that he free them from the danger of the vicious wolf.

But although they doubled and tripled their efforts to come up with a way to capture and kill the monster, they were powerless against his cruelty until God himself decided of his end. Regardless of their failures, the people were devoted to their cause. In order to track down the beast, wherever there were rumours of its presence, large hounds and dogs of great strength were used. Eventually, the wolf was spotted. The hunters quickly circled around the lycanthrope and unleashed their hounds at him so that he had no way of escaping, a opportunity they had never been able to create before. Stubbe, seeing there was no way out, took off the strap and changed back into a human. The hunters were struck with horror when they saw a man where just moments ago there still was a wolf. They would have surely considered him the devil had they not known him. But they knew him, because he had lived in their town for a long time. They captured him and went to his home to make sure that they were not seeing things. Having made sure that it was him they were looking for and that there was no mischief or hallucination of the mind involved, they led him hurriedly to the authorities so that he would be immediately interrogated.

Thus, captured and led in front of the face of justice, Stubbe was submitted to torture in Bedburg. Afraid of the suffering, he quickly admitted to the wickedness of his whole existence and revealed all the cruelties that he had committed during those twenty-five years. He also confessed how, with the use of magic, he had received from the devil a strap that turned him into a wolf when he put it on. In addition, he confessed that he got rid of the strap by throwing it into the forest ravine during his capture and that it must still be there. Hearing this, the officials sent men to that place, but they did not find anything, so they began speculating that it had returned to where it came from – the devil, who,  having cast the mindless human into this pitiful situation, left him all by himself to bear the punishment that he had earned through his despicable life.

Having put him into custody for a time, the officials discovered, through investigation, that his daughter, Beel Stubbe, and Katherine Trompin were both accomplices in many of the murders committed by the lycanthrope. Peter Stubbe was sentenced, along with his two accomplices, by the tribunal and the sentence announced on October 28^th 1589 was as follows: “Peter Stubbe, the main culprit, is sentenced to being broken by a wheel and his flesh is to be torn in ten different places by hot pincers so that it is separated from the bone; then, his legs and arms are to be quartered by wooden sticks or hammers, next, he is to be beheaded and, finally, burnt until nothing but ashes remain.” Additionally, his daughter and lover were sentenced to being burnt on a stake at the same time as his corpse. On March 31^st 1590, the sentence was carried out in the city of Bedburg in the presence of many princes and pars of Germany.

After the execution, as a warning to all witches and sorcerers, by the command of the city’s authorities, a pole was stuck into the ground, on top of which was placed the wheel with the convict’s body parts. A little above that was hung a likeness of a wolf and a sorcerer’s head, and many pieces of wood to number all his victims. The same authorities ruled that this all be left on public display as an eternal memento of the crimes Stubbe committed and the punishment he received.

On the basis of: A true discourse declaring the damnable lyfe and death of one Stubbe Peter, a highe Jermaine borne, a sorcerer, who in the likeness of a wolfe committed many murders, twenty-five years together: and for the same was executed in the cytye of Bedburg, near Coleyn, on the 31 of Marche 1590, E. Venge, London 1590

* * *

So after a while I come back again and bring you the translated account of the life and death of one of the most notorious werewolves in history. Initially I wanted to post this here on March 31st, the anniversary of his execution, but unfortunately other assignments caught up to me and I simply couldn't make it in time. Now that I'm posting this here doesn't mean however that things will get easier from now on - just on the contrary. And there is yet so much to be done to make this blog even seemingly close to having the same content as my original website... A lot of work, surely, but hopefully after the final exams are over, I will have some more time to pour some content in for everyone's enjoyment. 

Until then!

* * *