He experienced a grisly execution after confessing under torture to savagely killing animals, men, women and children-and eating their remains. Peter was eventually blamed for the gruesome killings after being cornered by hunters who claimed they saw him shape-shift from wolf to human form. According to folklore, he turned into a wolf-like creature at night and devoured many citizens of Bedburg. Peter Stubbe, a wealthy, fifteenth-century farmer in Bedburg, Germany, may be the most notorious werewolf of them all.
To them, such heinous crimes could only be committed by a horrific beast such as the werewolf. But it likely didn’t matter to superstitious Europeans during the 16th century.
Whether Burgot, Verdun or Garnier were mentally ill, acted under the influence of a hallucinogenic substance or were simply cold-blooded killers is up for debate. He too was burned to death at the stake for his monstrous crimes. According to legend, as a wolf he viciously killed children and ate them. Giles Garnier, known as the “Werewolf of Dole,” was another sixteenth-century Frenchman whose claim to fame was also an ointment with wolf-morphing abilities. (Burning was thought to be one of the few ways to kill a werewolf.) After confessing to brutally murdering several children, they were both burned to death at the stake. In 1521, Frenchmen Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun allegedly swore allegiance to the devil and claimed to have an ointment that turned them into wolves. Many so-called werewolves from centuries ago were in fact serial killers, and France had its fair share. READ MORE: Before America Had Witch Trials, Europe Had Werewolf Trials Infamous Werewolves The son only survived because a kind raven gave the father a leaf with healing powers. Their rampage ended when the father attacked his son, causing a lethal wound. The father-son duo donned the pelts, transformed into wolves and went on a killing rampage in the forest. The Saga of the Volsungs tells the story of a father and son who discovered wolf pelts that had the power to turn people into wolves for ten days. Werewolves also emerged in early Nordic folklore.
As punishment, the enraged Zeus turned Lycaon and his sons into wolves. According to the legend, Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, angered the god Zeus when he served him a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy. Werewolves made another early appearance in Greek mythology with the Legend of Lycaon. Some scholars believe the werewolf made its debut in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest known Western prose, when Gilgamesh jilted a potential lover because she had turned her previous mate into a wolf. It’s unclear exactly when and where the werewolf legend originated.
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