History's most
infamous werewolf, Peter Stumpf -- sometimes known as Peter Stubbe or Stubb Peter -- was born in the town of
Bedburg,
Germany, in about
1525.
According to histories of the time, a
ferocious werewolf had terrorized the region until one day, a party of men set out to
capture a
wolf seen dragging a
boy away. As they neared a
thicket, they heard the boy screaming. When they investigated, they saw the wolf attacking the boy
shapeshift into Peter Stumpf. Though skeptical, they took Stumpf to the
authorities for
questioning.
Stumpf was threatened with
torture, but he startled his
interrogators by immediately
confessing to being a werewolf, a
sorceror, a
cannibal, a
rapist, and an
incestuous
adulterer.
Stumpf spun a horrifying
story for the
court. He admitted practicing
sorcery and
necromancy and said he made a pact with
the devil for the ability to
change into a
wolf. He said he enjoyed
killing people who had angered him in some way, but his
favorite victims were
women and
children. According to the old
court records, he would "
ravish them in the
fields" in
human form, then
transform himself into a wolf to kill them.
Among Stumpf's other
crimes, it was said that, in a short period of time, he killed 13 young women and devoured large
portions of their bodies. He killed two
pregnant women for the
pleasure of eating their
unborn children. He even killed his
firstborn son and ate his
brain.
Besides many acts of
murder, Stumpf also confessed to sleeping with and impregnating his
daughter. He also confessed to having
sex with his
sister.
At the trial, Stumpf's
daughter and his
mistress (believed by many to be a
shapeshifting demon) were tried and
condemned with him. On October 31, 1589, Stumpf was stretched on the
wheel. His
flesh was torn from his body in ten places by
red-hot pincers. His arms and legs were severed with an
axe. He was
decapitated, and his body was
burned.
For some time afterwards, the city of Bedburg erected a
memorial of Stumpf's crimes. It consisted of a
pole supporting the
wheel on which the
madman was broken, a
plaque bearing the
image of a wolf, 15 wooden
portraits representing his verified
victims, and,
impaled at the very
top, Stumpf's head.
Some research from "The Werewolf Book" by Brad Steiger, (C) 1999, Visible Ink Press, pp. 265-268.