Serial Killers and Werewolves

English term "serial killer" is commonly attributed to former FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler in the 1970s. German police inspector Ernst Gennat described the concept earlier, in the same term in 1930. Before that, about 100 years ago, these murders were thought to be werewolves or someone who was into the occult. Here are three such stories.

Gilles de Rais (1404 - 1440):

At an early age Gilles distinguished himself militarily, fighting first in the wars of succession to the duchy of Brittany (1420) and then for the Duchess of Anjou against the English in 1427. He was assigned to Joan of Arc's guard and fought several battles at her side, including the relief of Orleans in 1429.

De Rais began to experiment with the occult under the direction of a man named Francesco Prelati, who promised de Rais that he could help him regain his squandered fortune by sacrificing children to a demon called "Barron." The precise number of Rais's victims is not known, as most of the bodies were burned or buried. The number of murders is generally placed between 80 and 200; a few have conjectured numbers upwards of 6000. The victims ranged in age from six to eighteen and included both sexes.

Over a ten-year period, with the aid of his servants, de Rais purportedly lured as many as two hundred children to his bedroom. De Rais was fascinated with the beauty of children and the pain they were capable of experiencing. Although de Rais did not hesitate in making girls his victims, he was partial to boys. If a boy was blessed with an excellent singing voice, he might be lucky enough to escape with his life.

Gilles Garnier (died January 18, 1573)

Garnier was a French hermit and cannibalistic, serial murderer convicted of being a werewolf. Alternately known as "The Hermit of St. Bonnot" and "The Werewolf of Dole".

The Werewolf of Dole Giles Garnier was a reclusive hermit living outside the town of Dole in the Franche-Comté Province in France. He had recently been married and moved his new wife out to his isolated home. Being unaccustomed to feeding more than just himself he found it difficult to provide for his wife causing discontent between them. During this period several children went missing or were found dead and the authorities of the Franche-Comté province issued an edict encouraging and allowing the people to apprehend and kill the werewolf responsible. One evening a group of workers traveling from a neighboring town came upon what they thought in the dim light to be a wolf but what some recognized as the hermit with the body of a dead child. Soon after Giles Garnier was arrested.

Garnier confessed to have stalked and murdered at least four children between the ages of 9 and 12. In October 1572, his first victim was a 10-year-old girl who he dragged into a vineyard outside of Dole. He strangled her, removed her clothes and ate the flesh from her thighs and arms. When he had finished he removed some flesh and took it home to his wife. Weeks later Garnier savagely attacked another girl, biting and clawing her, but was interrupted by passersby and fled. The girl succumbed to her injuries a few days later. In November, Garnier killed a 10-year-old boy again cannibalizing him by eating from his thighs and belly and tearing off a leg to save for later. Finally, he strangled another boy but was interrupted for the second time by a group of passersby. He had to abandon his prey before he could eat from it.

Peter Stumpp (died 1589)

Stumpp was a wealthy German farmer and influential member of the rural community. He was also alleged serial killer and cannibal, who is known as the "Werewolf of Bedburg".

In 1589, Stumpp had one of the most lurid and famous werewolf trials in history. After being stretched on the rack, he confessed to having practiced black magic since he was twelve years old. He claimed that the Devil had given him a magical belt, which enabled him to metamorphose into "the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body, and mighty paws." Removing his belt, he said, made him transform back to his human form.

For twenty-five years, Stumpp had allegedly been an "insatiable bloodsucker" that gorged on the flesh of goats, lambs, and sheep, as well as men, women, and children. Being threatened with torture he confessed to killing and eating fourteen children, two pregnant women, and their fetuses. One of the fourteen children was his own son, whose brain he was reported to have devoured.

Not only was Stumpp accused of being a serial murderer and cannibal, but also of having an incestuous relationship with his daughter, who was sentenced to die with him, and he coupled with a distant relative, which was also considered to be incestuous according to the law. In addition to this he confessed to having had intercourse with a succubus sent to him by the Devil.

His execution is one of the most brutal on record. He was put to the wheel, where flesh was torn from his body, in ten places, with red-hot pincers, followed by his arms and legs. Then his limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axe head to prevent him from returning from the grave, before he was beheaded and burned on a pyre. His daughter and mistress had already been strangled and were burned along with Stumpp's body. As a warning against similar behavior, local authorities erected a pole with the torture wheel and the figure of a wolf on it, and at the very top they placed Peter Stumpp's severed head.