 Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Even if you've never seen the 1941 film The Wolfman, you probably know what it takes to kill a werewolf, a silver bullet. That's because The Wolfman did for werewolves what Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula did for vampires. It set the rules for how werewolves are supposed to behave. According to The Wolfman, if a werewolf bites you, you have no choice but to become a werewolf yourself. At night, you'll transform into a part human, part wolf creature and prey on human beings. In the original film, this transformation took place in the fall when some species of a conitum, also known as Monkshood or Wolfsbane, bloom. Sequels to The Wolfman tied the transformation to the full moon, a trait that many people associate with werewolves today. The Wolfman also made it clear that once you became a werewolf, the only cure is death. Attempts to wish or pray your way out of it will do you no good, and all the chains in the world can't keep you from attacking other people. Like Dracula, The Wolfman is built on legends and stories that have existed for thousands of years, but silver bullets, the full moon, Wolfsbane and the incurable curse of lycanthropy have more to do with Hollywood than with history. In stories in folklore there are all kinds of ways to become a werewolf, and the process isn't always involuntary or even permanent. In spite of these differences, most werewolves in movies and old stories do have something in common. They are dangerous, cunning and even evil, and they inspire fear and dread. So what is it about the idea of turning into a wild animal that's so intriguing and yet alarming at the same time? Why do these stories exist in so many cultures around the world? Do werewolves stories have any foundation in medical or scientific fact, or are they simply the product of imagination? In this episode we'll explore how people become werewolves and what happens during the transformation. We'll also look into what werewolves represent in different cultures, and we'll examine the medical conditions and historical events that have led some communities to believe that werewolves really exist. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode. The idea of the werewolf has been with us for a long time. The first mention of a werewolf that we know of is over 2,000 years ago. We'll look at the origins of the werewolf, look at whether they are actually real, and if so, how one goes about becoming a werewolf and some of the cures believed to release the man from the beast. Of course it's not always the wolf man, sometimes it's the wolf woman. We'll look at the most fearsome lady werewolves throughout history. I'll tell you about the trials and punishments of those convicted of being werewolves. Many probably wish they'd confessed to being witches instead. What if I was to tell you that werewolves truly are real and that a small village has been terrorized by them for decades, right up to the modern day? There is convincing evidence to back up my claim. All of this and more werewolfism coming up. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, do-in-our-contests, to connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. As much as the werewolf legend is now relegated to pop culture and teen romance, it used to be a widespread belief. Medieval peasants would hang reeds of rye over their doors to prevent werewolves from visiting them, and people would avoid stepping in paw prints found in the snow and dirt out of fear of a curse. The history of the werewolf has been somewhat forgotten, relegating them to the background of the supernatural world to play second fiddle to sexy vampires and lumbering Franksteinean monsters. Historians have a rich history in the cultures of the past, however, making them one of the oldest supernatural legends to remain. The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Sumerian epic poem written in Sanskrit that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, is considered one of the earliest works of literature. Believe it or not, it contains stories of werewolves. In one scene, the hero Gilgamesh did the ancient version of swiping left on a potential love interest after he found out she turned her ex into a wolf. In the Norse myth, the saga of the Volsungs, a father-son duo happens upon magical wolf pelts that when worn, temporarily turns the werewer into a wolf. The pair go on a deadly rampage until, spoiler alert, the father turns on the son. We even see a nod to werewolves in Greek mythology when Zeus punishes Lycean by turning him and his sons into wolves. In Eastern Europe, vampiric and lichen lore are closely tied together. In a region with harsh winters, little daylight in its woodlands and treacherous wildlife, it's no wonder tales of two supernatural foes developed so closely. In this region, the language for vampires and werewolves evolved from a common term, the Slavic vukhudlik. In that area, these wolfs-fur creatures were thought to be autonomous real creatures, not supernatural agents of the devil. These early werewolves were similar to vampires. They were motivated to grow their population via biting, were sensitive to sunlight, could move at superhuman speeds and were said to have shape-shifting abilities. Like vampires, these creatures transformed into animals and their preferred form were the wolf, not a bat as pop culture would later depict. Even in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Count Dracula's character notes that werewolves descended from his secular racial bloodline, which was why he could transform into a wolf. These early vampire werewolf hybrid creatures were considered undead. In some lore, the werewolves would be human corpses by day and wolves by night, like vampires in their daytime coffins. Modern werewolves aren't often depicted as having the charm of vampires, but in Slavic lore they would sometimes appear in the form of beautiful women and seduced men before killing them in wolf form. Today we see werewolves literally translated as man-wolves as shape-shifting creatures with unusual speed, strength, reflexes and senses. They can be found in countless books, films and television shows, from the horror classic The Wolfman, to the Twilight and Underworld series. The werewolves often play second-fiddled vampires and zombies in terms of pop culture man monsters. They have a long and rich history. Traditionally there were several ways that a person could become a werewolf. Before a full moon came to be known as the sign a werewolf would be shape-shifting soon, there were earlier superstitions surrounding werewolves. Puddle water was a common fear. If a person drank the water from a puddle made by a wolf's paw print, it was said they would become a wolf themselves. In Hungarian folklore a person would be cursed with lycanthropy if they walked beneath the arch of a birch tree three times. The perhaps silliest belief around transformation was a furry belt or girdle strapped around the waist that induced a werewolf state. These girdles were used to prove a person's guilt in werewolf trials and are also mentioned in a story by the Brothers Grimm. In her book Giants, Monsters and Dragons, which I'll link to in the show notes, folklorist Carol Rose notes that in ancient Greece it was believed that a person could be transformed by eating the meat of a wolf that had been mixed with that of a human and that the condition was irreversible. Centuries later other methods were said to create werewolves, including being cursed or by being conceived under a new moon or by having eaten certain herbs or by sleeping under the full moon on Friday or by drinking water that has been touched by a wolf. It was also widely believed that werewolves could dress in a special protective wolf skin, though they had to remove it at daybreak and hide it. If their magical pelt was found and taken from the werewolf in human form, he or she could be killed. A similar theme appears in the Scottish and Irish folklore of the Selkis, creatures who spend their lives in the cold ocean as seals but can change into human form by shedding their pelts. If they do so, they must hide their pelts for if they are found they can't change back into seals and must live on land with the fishermen who possess their skins. In many early werewolf myths, the number seven is a recurring element. In South America it was believed that the seventh son born to a family would be a wolf during the full moon. This belief was so pervasive that in the mid-20th century, Argentinian President Juan Domingo Perón declared all seventh sons needed to be baptized regardless of religious affiliation. In Ireland there were several versions of a story where husband and wife were cursed with lycanthropy for seven years and then passed the condition on to another couple for the same length of time. In Armenian lore, women who were sentenced to death could have their spirits saved for seven years in wolf form after their execution. In Hungarian folklore, seven was the age that children predisposed to lycanthropy could elect to fulfill their wolf destiny. In the 1935 film Werewolf of London, the titular werewolf is a botanist whose condition is brought on by the consumption of a Tibetan plant. The transference of lycanthropy via a bite did not enter the mythology until the 19th century, when werewolves were more of a literary element than a supposedly real danger. The werewolf was not considered contagious for most of its mythic history. It was werewolves linked with vampires in the novel Dracula that helped perpetuate the notion of biting. Though the full moon is now a solid piece of lycanthropic lore, it wasn't always that way. In early werewolf legends, the moon had no place in regulating transformation. The moon is closely tied to werewolf lore in the modern age, but even as recently as 1941 in the film The Wolfman, the moon was left out of the myth. The first film to feature the moon's transformative effect was The Less Famous Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman in 1943. The origin of the lunar effect can be traced back to the 17th century Italian superstition of turning into a wolf if one slept outside on a Wednesday or Friday, especially if the moon was full. The concept of human misbehavior or lunacy during full moons was a separate belief that was later applied to the wolf myth. Modern police and emergency room staff swear they see more emergencies on nights with a full moon, though studies have disproven this. Early lore around the timing and frequency of werewolves transformations is different from story to story, but the lunar cycle didn't play into any of them. The connection between females, witches, and werewolves likely influenced the moon's cycle lore as it relates so similarly to menstruation cycles. Today, many people still associate the moon with werewolves and madness. Some who work in police and emergency medical services have anecdotally claimed that full moon nights are busier, crazier and more dangerous than other nights. This perception might be rooted more in psychology and imagination than reality. Carefully controlled studies have not found good evidence supporting this idea. Furthermore, there is no known mechanism by which the moon would somehow influence a person's mind to make him or her more dangerous, except of course for their own imaginations and expectations. Today, werewolves are known to be mythical creatures found in fiction instead of lurking in the dark woods, but that was not always the case. Not so long ago, belief in werewolves was common. Overall, there was little difference between the killings and activities of wolves and werewolves. Both would hunt at night, attacking sheep or livestock, and sometimes humans. The main difference was of course that the werewolf changed into human form at some point. The historical lore on how to spot a werewolf in human form varied. In what is now Poland, they believed that a child born with a birthmark on their head possessed shapeshifting abilities. In Western Europe, it was believed that a unibrow, long fingernails or low ears were sure signs of lycanthropy. One way to test if a person was secretly a werewolf was to slice open their skin and reveal the fur beneath. One Irish folktale perpetuated this theory. In the story, a curse of lycanthropy befalls a husband and wife. A traveler they come across cuts open the wife's hide and finds an old woman inside. A werewolf was supposedly weak and debilitated after returning to their human form, and so Slavic peasants would be on the lookout for tired townspeople the night after a suspected werewolf attack. When in werewolf form, Swedes believed a werewolf would lack a tail. It was said a werewolf might even run on three legs and hold up their fourth leg to look like a tail to fool people. In the majority of werewolf legends, the werewolves are said to maintain their human eyes, which was one of the most haunting things about them. The modern appearance of werewolves is due in part to American makeup artist Rick Baker. He created the costumes and makeup for the werewolves in the 1981 film in American Werewolf in London and Michael Jackson's thriller music video. There are several real medical conditions that can mimic the appearance of a werewolf and may have contributed to early belief in the literal existence of the creatures. One is hypertrichosis, which creates unusually long hair on the face and body. A second condition, porphyria, is characterized by extreme sensitivity to light, thus encouraging its victims to only go out at night, seizures, anxiety, and other symptoms. A condition also thought to be associated with those accused of being vampires. Of course, neither of these rare conditions turns anyone into a werewolf or any other monster for that matter, but centuries ago when belief in witches, vampires, and magic was common, it didn't take much to spawn werewolf stories. Rabies is a more legitimate origin for the werewolf myth as humans get the disease from an animal bite and it causes an infected individual to be violent and animal-like. But the myth of the werewolf's bite wasn't a prevalent part of the story until the 20th century, so while this may have similarities to the condition, it likely is not the actual origin. Closely associated with witches and magic and all things evil is, of course, the devil himself. The devil is associated with many incarnations of the werewolf myth. The werewolf trials, which we will look at in a few minutes, were caught up in an association with witches and thus with the devil. When the werewolf myth gained popularity in the early medieval period, paganism was the main association with the transformation of men into wolves. This pro-Christian mythos would have a large effect on werewolf lore. Mytholicism played a large part in the association of the werewolf as an enemy of God and an agent of the devil. In Catholic regions, it was believed that werewolves were men excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and transformed by the dark prince himself. A notable exception is the account of Thais in 17th century Livonia. He testified under oath that werewolves were actually the warriors of God. He referred to them as the hounds of God and stressed that they were the ones who were battling witches and vampires. The testimony stirred the public's imagination and the first werewolf sympathizers emerged. I never heard that take on the mythos and it's kind of cool if you ask me. Now I kind of want to be a werewolf like I did when I was a kid and not just for Halloween. Clinical lycanthropy is a recognized medical condition in which a person believes himself or herself to be an animal, and indeed there are rare cases where people have claimed to be werewolves. For example, in 1589 a German man named Peter Stubb claimed to own a belt of wolfskin that allowed him to change into a wolf. His body would bend into a lupine form. His teeth would multiply in his mouth and he craved human blood. Stubb claimed to have killed at least a dozen people over 25 years, though his confession was made under difficult circumstances after prolonged torture, including chunks of his flesh being ripped out with heated pinchers and his limbs being crushed with stones. He was decapitated on Halloween 1589 and his headless body burned at the stake. There was no real evidence of his crimes other than his confession and it seems likely that Stubb was mentally ill and delusional. Stubb was far from alone. In the Middle Ages, werewolves were thought to mostly be created by witches and the two became closely associated. Just as tens of thousands of accused witches were put to death, usually in gruesome and sadistic ways, tens of thousands of accused werewolves were similarly dispatched. Something we'll look at more closely in a moment. Because like Anthropy was seen as a curse by some, werewolves were often thought of as victims as much as villains. There was a historical tension between like Anthropy as a curse or a choice in werewolf folklore. Although there are outliers, in the macro sense, the evolution of the werewolf in the popular consciousness has gone from a purposeful villain to that of a cursed victim. Early myths of furry girdles or drinking water from a wolf's paw print suggest that being a werewolf was a choice. In Mexico, the werewolves were actually powerful men who elected to transform when it suited them. In Native American lore, the werewolf-like creature Wendigo was a cannibal by choice. The figure of the cursed werewolf was more popular in the 17th century, but it mostly is in the films of the 20th century that have enhanced this version of the myth. The transformation from man to wolf was said to be torturous, recall such scenes in the film and American werewolf in London, and many sought cures for real and imagined symptoms. Modern depictions of werewolves like Harry Potter, Twilight, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer show werewolf characters afflicted for life with no chance of a cure for lycanthropy. In earlier versions of the werewolf myth, there were often cures available. Denmark lore said that a wolf could be scolded out of a man. In Germany, addressing a werewolf three times by their Christian name could do the trick. Ingestion of the plant Wolfspain was a common tactic to kill a werewolf, but it usually ended up killing the person as well. A suspected werewolf would have nails driven through their hands in Serbia, and it was common in the Middle East to strike the accused in the forehead with a knife. Not surprisingly, many of these cures resulted in death. In his book The Werewolf Delusion, which I'll link to in the show notes, Ian Woodward writes, Traditionally, there are three principle ways in which a werewolf can be scourged of his demons. He may be cured medicinally and surgically. He may be exercised, and the most drastic, he may be shot with a special bullet, typically a silver bullet. Like vampires and their deadly wooden stakes, werewolves cannot be killed by ordinary human weapons. Silver bullets are known to be werewolves kryptonite. However, this legend didn't come about until the literature of the 20th century. In the 18th century, French local legend about the beast of Givoldon is likely where the silver bullet idea derived. The local legend is that a beast plagued the French countryside for hundreds of years, devouring livestock and children. Even King Louis XIV sent wolf hunters to the rural region to slay the suspected werewolves. A 1935 version of the tale states that the king's soldiers could not kill the beasts with their weapons and were forced to use silver bullets. In Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker, the werewolf enemy is said to be killed by a sacred bullet, whatever that means. When the medicinal and surgical cures were attempted, they involved lots of bloodletting, vomiting, and vinegar drinking. In fact, Woodward notes, so severe, so brutal were the cures advocated by early medical practitioners that not surprisingly, a great many werewolfic patients died by the hands of those who promised them salvation. While werewolves are the best known shapeshifters, they are not the only were animals said to exist around the world. Others include werefoxes, weredogs, were tigers, were snakes, were hares, were bears, and even were crocodiles. Of course, wolves are more threatening than dogs and foxes. There is a reason why most werewolf films are scary and Wallace and Gromit, the curse of the were rabbit, was a comedy. Like vampires, werewolves have been around for millennia, and nothing short of a silver bullet is likely to stop them from being around millennia more. Of course, it is not always the wolf man, sometimes it is the wolf woman. We look at the most fearsome lady werewolves throughout history. Could the image of transforming into a werewolf be a metaphor for something else? And we have all heard of the witch trials and how they were severely tortured and killed, but apparently that was nothing compared to what happened to those accused of werewolfism. These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns. Are you a member of the Darkness Syndicate? The Darkness Syndicate is a private membership where you receive commercial-free episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast and radio show. Behind the scenes, video updates about future projects and events I am working on. You can share your own opinions on ideas to help me decide upon Weird Darkness Contests and events. You can hear audiobooks I am narrating before even the publishers or authors get to hear them. You also receive bonus audio of other projects I am working on outside of Weird Darkness. You get all of these benefits and more, starting at only $5 per month. Join the Weird Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com When one thinks of werewolves, one typically thinks of a man afflicted with a transformational curse. It is true that most historical werewolf tales feature male shapeshifters, but there is also a rich female werewolf mythology ripe for exploring. In fact, there are numerous female werewolf stories throughout history that are just as terrifying as the most disturbing tales of men becoming wolf-like. These Lady Lichenthrope's rival real-life werewolves such as the vicious serial killer Peter Stubb and the wolf of Ansbach that attacked humans in livestock in 1685. Interestingly, she-wolves and witches were often thought to be the same thing. If the legends hold any truth, lady werewolves are potentially far more powerful than their male counterparts. After all, combining the powers of a witch and a werewolf into one package makes for a formidable opponent. Therefore, it is no wonder that historical accounts of werewolf women are typically filled with bloodshed and lots of fear. Let's examine these intriguing stories to discover the most bad-ass female werewolves in history. In 1591, a report was printed out of Augsburg in what's modern-day Germany that the Duchy of Ulesch was attacked by female werewolves. Dubbed the she-wolves of Ulesch, 300 women shapeshifted into wolves and terrorized the local area. It was reported that at least 94 people died along with numerous horses in livestock. Ultimately, the town captured 85 of these she-wolves and they confessed to a combined 94 murders. If the legend is true, all 85 she-wolves were executed for their crimes. Of course, this was a time when sensationalist headlines were catching on and ultimately in the story, the report only actually alludes to one village woman confessing to the crimes and implicating 24 others. In Argentina, as previously mentioned, people have long believed that the seventh son of every family is doomed to become a lobison or werewolf. Well, the seventh daughter is said to become a witch. When a lobison attacks a victim, male or female, most die but a few are transformed into lobisons themselves. This has supposedly led to female lobison who roam Argentina, spreading the lobison curse. The indigenous people of Lexcala, Mexico tell tales of female werewolves in the form of Tahoe Poochee, which is sort of a shape-shifting witch or vampire known to morph into a dog, coyote or some other animal after sunset. Parents were especially terrified of the Tahoe Poochee because children were their primary target. Unless a child was properly protected, they were at risk of having their arms, legs and necks brutally bitten. The female shape-shifters would reportedly drink a child's blood until they died. Like their male counterparts, female werewolves wake up in human form to face the moral implications of their nightly crimes. An Irish tale from the 12th century showcases the softer side of these savage beasts. A she-wolf and her werewolf husband were cursed to be likened for seven years. His wife, near-death, the husband werewolf sought a priest to give his dying wife her final wish to receive absolution for her crimes. Her dedicated husband found and convinced a priest to help and proved his wife's humanity by pulling back her hide. Beneath was an elderly woman and the priest agreed to perform the viaticum. The Gandion family of St Claude France was said to include at least four werewolves. Two of these shape-shifters, Antoinette and Peronette, were women. Peronette may have suffered from clinical lycanthropy, a condition which causes a person to believe they are a wolf. She attacked two small children in 1598. One of the kids died but not before identifying his assailant. Townspeople marched to the Gandion home and tore Peronette to pieces with their bare hands. This wasn't the end of the Gandion family's werewolf troubles, though. Before 1598 was over, three more of them were executed for werewolfism. Antoinette confessed to transforming into a werewolf. She also claimed she had sex with the devil while he was in the form of a goat. Unsurprisingly, these confessions led to death by fire. The story of the Auvergne werewolf has evolved into numerous urban legends and fairy tales. However, the origins of the story are based in truth. In 1558, a humongous wolf attacked a hunter in the woods of central France. During the attack, the man managed to chop off one of the wolf's paws. When he brought the paw back to town, he took it from his bag to find that it transformed into a human hand and was wearing another villager's wife's wedding band. That villager confronted his wife, found her hand to be missing and turned her into authorities for being a werewolf. The woman was tried and convicted of witchcraft and was put to death in front of a crowd of thousands. The indigenous cultures of Mexico have many werewolf legends, including ones that some still believe. A prime example are the chinanticos residing in Oaxaca. Fear of other indigenous groups may have influenced their legends, as they have chosen the name Nualas for their werewolves. This is strikingly close to the Nawas of Toloxala. Regardless of the origins, female Nualas are shape-shifting witches who stalk their prey at night. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to encounter one of these fearsome creatures will almost certainly pay with their life. Locals are able to identify Nualas during the daytime by looking for wounds they suffered while in wolf form. In Armenia, women who commit grievous sins have much more to fear than merely spending eternity in hell. According to mythology, sinful women who were visited by a dark spirit who forced them to wear a wolf skin, effectively condemning them to seven years of lycanthropy, including the need to consume human flesh. These condemned women would also shape-shift into a wolf every night. Their cannibalistic desires could become so strong that they would be unable to stop themselves from eating their own children. They would also prey on the children of relatives and the children of neighbors. The most telling giveaway of a female werewolf is the appearance of a wound on their human body received during their nighttime adventures. According to physician and author Jean de Nainold, this was what revealed a female werewolf in France in the early 1600s. A whizman was attacked by a female werewolf but was luckily high-skilled in the tools of his trade. He managed to chop off the wolf's leg. The mutilated body transformed into a human woman. The she-wolf was burned alive for her nocturnal affliction. An ancient tale from Liberia describes a woman who had the ability to shape-shift into a terrifying beast. The story paints a picture of a very lazy husband who no longer wanted to provide food for his family. Instead, he asked his shape-shifter wife to become a wild animal and hunt for their dinner. She complied and turned herself into a predator. However, instead of going hunting for food, she used her ability to scare her husband into returning to his household duty of providing food for his family. In Asaba, which is now Nigeria, locals believed that almost all women were capable of witchcraft. Additionally, legends indicate that witches pulled double duty as she-wolves. This was a secret the women concealed, although they did sometimes use their shape-shifting abilities to influence family members. For example, one mother shifted into a werewolf in an attempt to scare her son into staying home. Instead, he called upon the beast to show its human form. This caused the she-wolf to transform back into her human self and reveal her abilities. Another sad example of women accused of and killed for shape-shifting and witchcraft occurred in Lige back in 1610. Although history no longer remembers their names, two women faced trial proceedings when accused of lycanthropy and potential witchcraft. Local residents believed the shape-shifting witches ate children while in wolf form. The sentence for their werewolf convictions was death by fire. Being burned alive is most commonly associated with witchcraft, but there are many recorded instances of werewolves and witch-werewolf hybrids dying from this execution method. Lebanon reportedly suffered from an abundance of werewomen during the 6th century. At that time, numerous villages were attacked in the night and the perpetrators were thought to be female shape-shifters. A religious man stepped in to help thwart the werewolves by advising everyone to take preventive measures. This included a baptismal ceremony and engaging in unknown ritual practices. The security measures must have worked to some degree, as stories of Lebanese she-wolves dwindled by the 7th century. We're all familiar with the witch trials in Europe, but what about the werewolf trials, like the ones we've already heard about in this episode? During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, Europe went mad executing sorcerers and witches accused of practicing lycanthropy. Fueled by church politics and deep-rooted misunderstanding and fear of mental illness, the werewolf trials accused men, women and children of transforming into wolves and lapping up the blood of innocents. Historic accounts of werewolves and their inhumane trials started in Switzerland and then spread like wildfire to Germany, France and the Balkans. Kings and church officials alike appointed judges to rein in these werewolves, torture them within an inch of their lives, and produce confessions that merited brutal executions. Peter Stump was one of the first people to be convicted of lycanthropy in the late 1500s, but he would not be the last. Thousands of people were killed for their alleged wolf-related crimes, whether it be turning into a werewolf or being a wolf-charmer. The times people were put on trial for being werewolves was a dark period for Europe and all of the hunts victims. In 1589, the most horrific interrogations and executions of an accused werewolf were those of Peter Stump. Stump, otherwise known as the werewolf of Bedburg, confessed to a quarter century of killing and cannibalizing people. He specifically confessed to killing and eating 13 children and to pregnant women, fetuses and all. Even worse, he confessed to intrafamilial relations with his daughter and his sister all while having a mistress and a live-in partner. His punishment was cruel and severe. He was strapped onto a Catherine wheel and executioners peeled his flesh using red-hot pincers in 10 places. The public flaying was just the beginning of his execution, though. His arms and legs were broken while on the wheel, and then he was beheaded and set on fire. Officials took his severed head and attached it to a wolf's body, displaying it as a warning to the rest of the townsfolk regarding the evils of werewolfry. His daughter and mistress were also burned at the stake at the same time his headless body was reduced to ashes. The very first werewolf trial occurred in 1521, where two serial killers were tortured into confessing their true nature as werewolves by the church. The two in question were Pierre Bergault and Michael Verdun. Together, they confessed to the murder and cannibalism of multiple young children. Bergault confessed that he and Verdun attended a pagan ritual where they both stripped down and rubbed a magical ointment on each other. That ointment was what caused them to transform into werewolves, at which point they began their campaign of murder. Bergault himself shared his experience as a werewolf with the courts and said, I was at first horrified at my four wolf's feet and the fur with which I was covered all at once, but I found that I could now travel with the speed of the wind. In 1582, King Henry IV was sick of the chaos in the Le Bourre region of France, so he commissioned two men to end the witchcraft, werewolfry and heresy plaguing the area. Those two men were Pierre de Lancret, a judge and Jean de Espagnet, a polymath. Of the two, Lancret was the decidedly pious, righteous and violently effective man. No one was safe from Judge Lancret. Men, women, children and even priests were tortured and murdered for their crimes. His work in Le Bourre resulted in the executions of 600 people over the course of just three years. He held very racist views believing the indigenous Basque community and the Jewish community were responsible for most of the witchcraft and black magic plaguing Europe. His methods were brutal and mad. Lancret was obsessed with the details surrounding the alleged black magic of werewolves and during his torture sessions he would ask his victims about their carnal encounters with demons. The more he tortured them, the more clear and vivid the detainees recollections became. His methods were so brutal that he was removed from his position as a judge and the remaining trials were dismissed in 1614. According to Lancret, any moral slight was worthy of torturous scrutiny. Quote, To dance indecently, eat excessively, make love diabolically, commit atrocious acts of sodomy, blaspheme scandalously, avenge themselves insidiously, run after all horrible, dirty and crudely unnatural desires, keep toads, vipers, lizards and all sorts of poison as precious things, love passionately a stinking goat, caress him lovingly, associate with and mate with him in a disgusting and scabrous fashion. Are these not the uncontrolled characteristics of an unparalleled lightness of being and of an execrable inconstancy that could be expiated only through the divine fire that justice placed in hell? Quote, In the bustling French capital of Paris lived a tailor whose name was completely lost to history and it wasn't because of poor records. It was because his name was actually erased from every record possible, including the newspapers, due to the horror of his crimes. Legend says he lured children into a shop where he tortured and violated them. After he had broken their spirits, he would slit their throats, dismember their corpses and eat them to the bone. In 1598 he confessed after being tortured to also prowling the woods at night as a wolf to hunt and kill even more children. It is said that his shop in Paris was searched and barrels filled with bleached bones of his victims were found. He was very quickly found guilty and summarily burned at the stake. One of the most well-known werewolf trials was that of Giles Garnier, aka the werewolf of Dole. He was famously accused of murdering and tearing apart children who lived in the town of Dole, France. It was around the early 1570s when kids started to disappear from the town and people automatically believed a werewolf was to blame. The town launched search parties armed with pole arms to find the wolf. During one patrol, the townsfolk came across a little girl being mauled by what looked like a wolf. They chased it away and they believed it was Garnier. Garnier was immediately taken into town to be interrogated and most likely tortured. During his confession he admitted to killing and eating four children. He also confessed to bringing home parts of the body to share with his family. Garnier was quickly found guilty and was burned at the stake in January 1573. In 1692, an 80-year-old man by the name of Thias openly confessed to being a werewolf without the prerequisite torture session. During his trial he claimed werewolves were the hounds of God who routinely went into hell to combat demons and witches. They also brought back the earthly goods demons had stolen from the people. Thias went as far as to admonish a priest, claiming his work as a werewolf was far more godly than anything the priest had done. The church was aghast. For centuries their narrative was dependent on the fact werewolves were the devil's playthings. By that point they had run tens of thousands of trials all over Europe condemning confessed werewolves, most of whom were put to death brutally. But Thias wasn't burnt to death at the stake. Instead his punishment was ten lashes. It was banished from the church as the judge did not buy his good werewolf bit. In 1598, just outside of Angers, France, hunters discovered the body of a badly mutilated teenager and chased off the wolf eating it. The hunters followed the trail of blood and instead of a wolf, they found Jacques Roulay, the werewolf of Cowd. He was naked, covered in blood and held pieces of human flesh in his hands. They immediately took him into town where he was promptly arrested and tried for his horrendous crime. After the customary period of torture, Roulay confessed to having the ability to transform into a werewolf. According to Roulay's confession, he'd been able to transform into a wolf since he was a child thanks to a saff his parents gave him. Roulay was found guilty of murder and cannibalism and sentenced to death. However, his case was quickly appealed. The courts found that he was actually just insane and not a werewolf and locked him away in a sanitarium for his malicious deeds. Clinical lycanthropy is a condition where a person believes they are able to transform into a feral beast, such as a wolf or other predator. Dr. Jan Dirk Blom studied clinical lycanthropy in 1850 and found at least 13 cases where people identified as transforming into a wolf over a 150-year period, although rare it was certainly enough to link them all together as a common mental illness. And it wasn't the first time lycanthropy was noted as a form of insanity. The condition was noted as far back as the 7th century by physician Paul of Agena. Agena noted some people suffered from an animalistic disassociation from humanity. During the handful of centuries the werewolf trials took place, Europe was in a pretty bad way. The Protestant Reformation was sweeping through the land and threatening the power of the papacy in Rome. Religious conflicts dotted Europe and fractured the Holy Roman Empire, which eventually culminated into the Thirty Years War in the early 17th century. Because the Church was losing so much influence, they turned to an age-old practice to bolster their ranks, the subsumption of local religions. The Church turned local gods into saints. They also turned the more animalistic beings from these smaller religions into creatures influenced by the devil. So when people in livestock turned up dead and when crops failed and mass, it became commonplace for these churches to interrogate, judge and execute werewolves and witches who confessed to their crimes. All levels of these trials were often brutal, extreme torture was used during interrogations, and it was standard practice to burn the guilty at the stake. Although 1521 marked the first werewolf trial, accusations of shape-shifting on a mass scale started even earlier. The Valais witch trials began in 1428 and over the course of decades found dozens, if not hundreds, of people guilty of sorcery, witchcraft and werewolfery. They were all tortured, and most were beheaded and burned at the stake. The executions were ruthless. The accused were tied to ladders with a sachet of gunpowder tied around their necks, after which they were tipped into a blazing fire. Although burning witches and werewolves at the stake wasn't a new thing, these trials were extraordinary because of the sheer amount of people accused and because of what was happening to the nobility at the time. Unfortunately, the reasons for the trials wasn't due to a sudden uptick in sorcery, witchcraft or werewolf activity. It was because of political upheaval. The entire Valais region was relatively new, and control of those lands were highly contested. In order to solidify the holdings of the lords, the trials were held. Those who were accused and found guilty automatically forfeited their lands to the Lord Vassal. Because this tactic worked incredibly well for the Valais noblemen, the Holy Roman Empire attempted a similar strategy nearly a century later with the werewolf witch trials. Those trials plagued Europe for nearly three centuries before the barbaric practice finally came to an end. Whenever you hear the word werewolf, you're likely drawn to the image of a human changing into a wolf-like creature. You actually envision the metamorphosis. But have you ever considered that the transformation is also a metaphor? Many earlier works of literature don't spend a lot of time describing what happens when a person becomes a wolf. One minute, a man is human. The next minute, he isn't. Even in movies like 1941's The Wolf Man, the transformation process happens largely off-screen. The man himself, rather than his process of transformation, is the primary focus of the film. At the same time, the short werewolf transformation we do see in The Wolf Man is convincing, particularly considering when it was made. First, hair begins to grow from Larry Talbot's skin, and eventually he becomes a creature that resembles a very hairy man with claws and fangs. In more recent films, though, the process of becoming a wolf is often the highlight of the show. It appears in great detail, and it's often depicted as being painful. Bones forcibly elongated and changed their shape, sometimes moving so drastically that they rupture a person's skin. From beginning to end, the transformation can take several minutes, and the end result is a creature who is part human and part wolf in varying proportions. Depending on the special effects available at the time the film was made, and the techniques used to create them, these transformations can range from absurd to grotesque to truly convincing. So what does this have to do with metaphors? Well, as with vampires, there is a sexual element to werewolves. While vampires tend to be smooth and sexually charged, the typical werewolf is hyper-masculine. He is exceptionally muscular, exceptionally hairy, and exceptionally violent. These traits come not just from a werewolf's appearance but from the folkloric history behind werewolves. In many stories, a man becomes a werewolf because of some sort of access. His behavior may be too rough, or he may, by the standards of the community, be a sexual deviant, usually in terms of wanton relationships with women. These traits may have even caused the word werewolf to apply to human behavior. In the 16th century in Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France, teenagers who roamed around at night, broke curfews and socialized outside the bounds of polite society were known as werewolves. In some cases, young people disguised themselves as animals to travel from one community to another. A common belief at the time was that outlaws would eventually become werewolves. This connection to rough or coarse behavior also ties into modern psychology. In psychological terms, you might think of a person's struggle with lycanthropy as a struggle to come to terms with or get rid of his more primitive nature. When a man becomes a werewolf, his primal instincts, which aren't necessarily considered to be appropriate, take over. There are natural parallels between lycanthropy and puberty. During puberty, the human body changes dramatically. These changes can seem foreign, and they are definitely behind a young person's control. Similarly, in some depictions, lycanthropy is a metaphor for menstruation. A woman's body changes according to a regular monthly cycle. In a lot of ways, these changes define who she is. Menstruation is a hallmark of being a woman, and physical transformation is the hallmark of being a werewolf. Because of its typical transmission through biting and frequently fatal outcome, lycanthropy can also be a metaphor for any contagious disease, particularly those that are transmitted sexually. This is one of the reasons why people can identify with werewolves. In spite of their status as monsters, teenagers and young adults can identify with the idea of sudden, seemingly inexplicable changes in their skin, hair and body. And just about everyone has experienced the struggle to keep control of emotions like anger and frustration. And let's face it, we've all had a bad hair day. When Weird Darkness returns, what if I was to tell you that werewolves truly are real, and that a small village has been terrorized by them for decades, right up to modern day? There's convincing evidence to back up my claim. I'll tell you about it, up next. Well, hello there, it's Santa, and my big night is getting closer by the day. You know, I love milk and cookies when I visit your home each year. Well, the milk can get warm while waiting for me to arrive. And a warm toddy is not the best thing to drink if you plan on staying alert and flying around the world. So this year, I'm asking that you instead leave me a plate of cookies at a nice hot thermos or mug of Weird Dark Roast Coffee. It actually tastes like Christmas. It has a hint of cocoa and caramel, and I've been drinking a lot of it recently to wake me up early in the morning to work on toys and take care of the reindeer. So this year, leave Santa a mug or thermos of Weird Dark Roast Coffee. Tell your parents they can find it right now at WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. Of all the places where there have been werewolf sightings, Central England seems like a strange place for there to be a hotbed of paranormal activity. And yet, it just may be. Specifically, the werewolves of Canuck Chase have been frightening the crap out of locals for over 30 years. There have been dozens of werewolf sightings there both day and night. In fact, paranormal experts believe that there is proof of werewolves in the woods of the Midlands region. It isn't just werewolves that are stalking the trees and cemeteries at Canuck Chase. The area seems to be some kind of portal to the bizarre and a magnet for the unexplained. In addition to the Canuck Chase werewolf rumors, there are reports of UFOs and ghostly children. There was even a bizarre sighting of what looked like a medical experiment gone wrong, a being that looked like a pigman. Perhaps all of these creatures, including the English werewolves, are living together in the forest. But whatever is going on, Central England appears to be a spooky place. The West Midlands, specifically Staffordshire County, is famous for its distinctive red Tamworth pigs that are bred in the area. However, another creature is far more notorious in the area, the werewolf. There have been dozens of sightings of the supernatural creature over the years. In fact, Staffordshire County has the most sightings of the mythical beast than any other place in all of Europe. The Devil is given responsibility for a lot of evil stuff, from curses to the music of Charlie Daniels, but he may also be to blame for the werewolves of Canuck Chase England. According to local legend, everything started getting weird in 1975. That's when a 17-year-old boy in Central England took out his Ouija board to test its powers. He said he would trade the Devil his soul for the power to turn into a werewolf. Shortly after, a friend said that he received a phone call from the teen, but could only hear odd, guttural noises from him. That same young man was found dead soon after. He had killed himself using a silver knife. Silver is, of course, the only way to kill a werewolf. Cemetery are naturally spooky places. They're filled with dead bodies, eerily quiet, and people often dress in all black when they visit them. It should come as little surprise, then, that the Canuck County werewolf has been sighted several times in a cemetery. What is surprising is that the cemetery is the final resting place of thousands of German and Austrian soldiers who fought in World War I and World War II. A werewolf in town is creepy enough, but the most compelling evidence for the creature is also upsetting. In addition to showing itself to many people in a cemetery devoted to thousands of dead soldiers, evidence has also been found near the cemetery that gives compelling evidence of the werewolf's existence. There have been several pets that have gone missing from homes in the area, and stranger still, several mutilated animal carcasses have been found near the cemetery. Could this be leftovers from the werewolf's nightly hunting practices? Werewolves in the night go together like Dracula and Blood. After all, legend has it a werewolf transitions from man to wolf when the moon is full. However, the Canuck County monster seems to be an exception to this rule. In 2007, a mailman reported to a local ghost hunting club that he had seen the creature. Stranger still, it happened while the postman was delivering the day's mail. The letter carrier said that at first he thought nothing of the creature believing it to be a dog. He was surprised, though, when the animal stood up on its hind legs and ran into the woods like a person. Perhaps werewolves have evolved to exist in daylight as well now? According to Urban Myth, after World War II, the governments of England and the United States conducted human experiments similar to the ones the Nazis had undertaken. One such experiment was crossbreeding a human with a pig. According to the story, it worked, except the pig human hybrid escaped and hid in the Canuck Chase Woods. A witness saw the beast and reported that it was seven feet tall and had the head of a pig, including a giant snout. If a pig man was created, couldn't it stand a reason a wolf man was also created in these bizarre experiments? Canuck Chase isn't just home to werewolf sightings. The area has all kinds of supernatural activity. In the late 1980s and early 90s, the sky was inexplicably dotted with lights that many thought were UFOs. A police officer even reported seeing an object doing seemingly impossible things in the sky before disappearing. With both UFO and werewolf sightings in abundance, one has to wonder if there is a correlation. Perhaps an alien being taking on the form of local lore, it might explain the daytime sightings. Ouija boards, UFOs, werewolves? It seems far-fetched so many supernatural things could be happening in one area. At least one scientific-minded local agrees and has a theory to at least explain the possible werewolves. This paranormal expert claims the werewolf isn't a werewolf at all. Instead, the creature could be a subterranean stone-aged throwback. Essentially, this person thinks ancient cavemen could have survived for years in the minds of the area and have remained primitive, failing to evolve with the rest of humanity. What's more, the expert claims that there are more than one of the creatures and that there's actually an entire pack of them stalking underground only coming out to eat deer, livestock, and pets. While werewolves, UFOs, pigmen, and theoretical cavemen are frightening enough, the area where the creature has been spotted is also home to other supernatural beings. Witnesses have seen a black-eyed child in the same woods that the werewolves supposedly live in. Black-eyed children are a paranormal entity that has been experienced by people the world over. It makes sense if there were to be any in England, canik chases woods would be where they'd hide. Ghost hunters flock to the woods to see for themselves. A few have taken audio recordings capturing a girl's voice. The canik chase woods are not a place to go for a pleasant stroll through the trees. All told, there have been 35 believed sightings of a werewolf and 21 where people came forward to tell their stories firsthand. The reports are terrifying. According to witnesses, the werewolf stands seven feet tall, is covered in hair, looks like a human wolf hybrid and has a snout. The fact that so many people report seeing the creature and different times of the day points to the notion that there may really be something out there in the woods. Paranormal investigators constantly monitor the news in the midlands for more proof that the creature is real. The advent of inexpensive video cameras used for action sports has turned nearly everyone into a potential daredevil waiting for an awesome moment to go viral. Two mountain bikers and canik chase got more than they bargained for. In 2009, the cyclists were recording their ride. The video shows a fun day of single track shredding, but it also has an unexpected highlight. The creature can be seen stalking in the woods for a few seconds of the film. It looks too tall to be a man and walks upright, like a large dog on its hind legs. As we've seen throughout this episode, every culture adds their own new piece to the werewolf legend. But there are a few elements that didn't quite catch on like some others. Elements of ancient werewolf lore that perhaps deserve to be forgotten. But some are simply interesting facts that you probably never knew. In the first century, there was a werewolf festival. Marcella's Cydetes, a physician born around the end of the first century AD in Asia Minor, wrote a medical poem that spanned 42 books. Nearly the entire corpus was lost with only two fragments surviving. One fragment, preserved by Aetis of Amida, is called De Laicentropia, and it describes a werewolf festival in which men lose their minds to the wolf madness. If you dream of white wolves, you might want to seek counseling. In 1910, Sigmund Freud, the famous psychoanalyst, treated a young patient known as Wolfman. A member of a wealthy Russian family, Wolfman had delusions that he could transform into a wolf and would run through the woods during the night. Freud traced his patient's obsession with wolves to a dream he had as a young boy about seven white wolves in a tree that stood outside his bedroom. Ever heard of Nazi werewolves? During World War II, a small group of underground Nazi ground troops were known as werewolves. The extensive German folklore behind the creature and common folk belief and Germanic legends of man-eating wolves helped to spread fear among the allies of the werewolf soldiers. How about birthing wolf men or birthing wolf boys? In The Book of Werewolves written in 1865, which I actually did find online and have linked to in the show notes, Reverend Sabine Behring Gould recounts an uncommon method of creating werewolves that originated in Denmark. If a female at midnight stretches between four sticks, the membrane which envelops the fold when it is wrought forth and creeps through it naked, she will bear children without pain, but all the boys will be werewolves. And let's end with the word of caution. Characters in the original 1941 film The Wolfman break off wolf-sbane stems and attach the flowers to their clothing. This is not a very good idea. Wolf-sbane is extremely poisonous. The word wolf-sbane probably comes from people using it to poison wolves. Horticulturists recommend wearing gloves while working with the plant and thoroughly washing your hands afterward. It can be deadly. with your questions or comments through the website at WeirdDarkness.com. That's also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for the email newsletter to win monthly prizes, find other podcasts that I host, and find the hope in the darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Plus, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on Tell Your Story or call the Darkline Tauvery at 1-877-277-5944. That's 1-877-277-5944. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Information for the origins and lore of werewolves came from History Daily, Tanika Kusman, Benjamin Radford, and Ella Tolkien. The werewolf trials is from Enigo Gonzalez. The Likens of Canuck Chase was written by Hugh Landman. Who is afraid of Virginia Werewolf is by April A. Taylor. How werewolves work was written by Tracy V. V. Wilson, and little known lichen lore was written by Jonathan Gordon. Again, you can find links to all of these stories in the show notes. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright Weird Darkness 2022. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Proverbs 14 verse 27. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death. And a final thought. Do all the good you can, to as many people as you can, as often as you can. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. The indigenous cultures of Mexico have many werewolf legends, including ones that some still believe. A prime example are the Chinantikos. A prime example are the Chinantikos residing in Oaxaca. Fear of other indigenous groups may have influenced their legends, as they have chosen the name Nualas for their werewolves. This is strikingly close to the Nawas. This is strikingly close to the Nawas of Taksa. This is strikingly close to the Nawas of Laxala. The more he tortured them, the more clear and vivid detainees recollections became. The more he tortured them, the more clear and vivid the tongue is getting tired. The more he tortured them, the lightness of being and of an execrable. Unparalleled lightness of being and of an execrable. Lightness of being and of an execrable inconsistency that can be a constancy.