Читать книгу The Monster Book - Nick Redfern - Страница 26

Back in 1590, George Bores wrote a fascinating, but horrific, report on one of the most notorious cases of lycanthropy on record. It told the story of a deranged and homicidal man named Peter Stuube, who went on murderous killing sprees, while—so he claimed—in the form of a terrifying werewolf. Bores began.…

“In the towns of Cperadt and Bedbur near Collin in high Germany, there was continually brought up and nourished one Stubbe Peeter [note: there are several variations of spelling in the records], who from his youth was greatly inclined to evil and the practicing of wicked arts even from twelve years of age till twenty, and so forwards till his dying day, insomuch that surfeiting in the damnable desire of magic, necromancy, and sorcery, acquainting himself with many infernal spirits and fiends, insomuch that forgetting the God that made him, and that Savior that shed his blood man’s redemption: In the end, careless of salvation gave both soul and body to the Devil forever, for small carnal pleasure in this life, that he might be famous and spoken of on earth, though he lost heaven thereby.”

Bores continues that the Devil himself had pledged to provide Stuube “whatsoever his heart desired during his mortal life: whereupon this vile wretch neither desired riches nor promotion, nor was his fancy satisfied with any external or outward pleasure, but having a tyrannous heart and a most cruel bloody mind, requested that at his pleasure he might work his malice on men, women, and children, in the shape of some beast, whereby he might live without dread or danger of life, and unknown to be the executor of any bloody enterprise which he meant to commit.”

The Devil, added Bores, perceived Stuube as being someone who was “a fit instrument to perform mischief as a wicked fiend pleased with the desire of wrong and destruction.” The horned one gave Stuube a girdle which, upon being placed around his waist, mutated him into “the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like unto brands of fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body and mighty paws. And no sooner should he put off the same girdle, but presently he should appear in his former shape, according to the proportion of a man, as if he had never been changed.”

It was then, having been given—by the Devil, no less—the ability to transform himself from man to monster and back again, Stuube went on to commit his gruesome acts. Or, as Bores worded it, Stuube “proceeded to the execution of sundry most heinous and vile murders; for if any person displeased him, he would incontinent thirst for revenge, and no sooner should they or any of theirs walk abroad in the fields or about the city, but in the shape of a wolf he would presently encounter them, and never rest till he had plucked out their throats and tear their joints asunder. And after he had gotten a taste hereof, he took such pleasure and delight in shedding of blood, that he would night and day walk the fields and work extreme cruelties.”

The horned one gave Stuube a girdle which, upon being placed around his waist, mutated him into “the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf.…”

Bores went into much detail regarding how, exactly, Stuube would go about his deadly, infernal business: “And sundry times he would go through the streets of Collin, Bedbur, and Cperadt, in comely habit, and very civilly, as one well known to all the inhabitants thereabout, and oftentimes was he saluted of those whose friends and children he had butchered, though nothing suspected for the same. In these places, I say, he would walk up and down, and if he could spy either maid, wife, or child that his eyes liked or his heart lusted after, he would wait their issuing out of the city or town. If he could by any means get them alone, he would in the fields ravish them, and after in his wolfish likeness cruelly murder them.”

Stuube, in werewolf form, had more than just murder in mind, when it came to the women of the area:

“Yea, often it came to pass that as he walked abroad in the fields, if he chanced to spy a company of maidens playing together or else a milking their kine, in his wolfish shape he would incontinent run among them, and while the rest escaped by flight, he would be sure to lay hold of one, and after his filthy lust fulfilled, he would murder her presently. Beside, if he had liked or known any of them, look who he had a mind unto, her he would pursue, whether she were before or behind, and take her from the rest, for such was his swiftness of foot while he continued a wolf that he would outrun the swiftest greyhound in that country; and so much he had practiced this wickedness that the whole province was feared by the cruelty of this bloody and devouring wolf.”

A 1517 illustration from a German book depicts how people of the time really believed werewolves existed to menace the innocent.

Bores then spelled out the sickening history of Stuube’s mad and murderous actions: “Thus continuing his devilish and damnable deeds within the compass of a few years, he had murdered thirteen young children, and two goodly young women big with child, tearing the children out of their wombs, in most bloody and savage sort, and after ate their hearts panting hot and raw, which he accounted dainty morsels and best agreeing to his appetite.”

Eventually, and thankfully, however, Peter Stuube’s abominable reign was brought to a close, as Bores revealed:

“Thus being apprehended, he was shortly after put to the rack in the town of Bedbur, but fearing the torture, he voluntarily confessed his whole life, and made known the villainies which he had committed for the space of 25 years; also he confessed how by sorcery he procured of the Devil a girdle, which being put on, he forthwith became a wolf, which girdle at his apprehension he confessed he cast it off in a certain valley and there left it, which, when the magistrates heard, they sent to the valley for it, but at their coming found nothing at all, for it may be supposed that it was gone to the Devil from whence it came, so that it was not to be found. For the Devil having brought the wretch to all the shame he could, left him to endure the torments which his deeds deserved.”

Having spilled his guts as a result of “fearing the torture,” Stuube had far more to say, as Bores duly noted in his extensive study of Stuube and his rampaging:

“After he had some space been imprisoned, the magistrates found out through due examination of the matter, that his daughter Stubbe Beell and his gossip Katherine Trompin were both accessory to diverse murders committed, who for the same as also for their lewd life otherwise committed, was arraigned, and with Stubbe Peeter condemned, and their several judgments pronounced the 28 of October 1589, in this manner, that is to say: Stubbe Peeter as principal malefactor, was judged first to have his body laid on a wheel, and with red hot burning pincers in ten several places to have the flesh pulled off from the bones, after that, his legs and arms to be broken with a wooden ax or hatchet, afterward to have his head struck from his body, then to have his carcass burned to ashes. Also his daughter and his gossip were judged to be burned quick to ashes, the same time and day with the carcass of the aforesaid Stubbe Peeter. And on the 31st of the same month, they suffered death accordingly in the town of Bedbur in the presence of many peers and princes of Germany.”

The execution of Peter Stubbe was carried out on a “breaking wheel,” and his violent demise (all three men on the wheels are Stubbe in different phases of the torture) for being a werewolf (depicted at top, left). His mistress and daughter (in the background at right) were burned.

Peter Stuube’s reign of lycanthropic terror was finally over.

Equally as horrific as the actions of Stumpp were those of an unnamed man who, in the final years of the sixteenth century, became known as the Werewolf of Chalons. A Parisian tailor who killed, dismembered, and ate the flesh of numerous children he had lured into his shop, the man was brought to trial for his crimes on December 14, 1598. Notably, during the trial, it was claimed that on occasion the man also roamed nearby woods in the form of a huge, predatory wolf, where he further sought innocent souls to slaughter and consume. As was the case with Stumpp, the Werewolf of Chalons was sentenced to death and was burned at the stake.

As I have noted in previous entries in the pages of this book, some reports of werewolves do appear to involve monstrous creatures of unknown origin. But, as the above clearly shows, sometimes the exact opposite is true. And sometimes, regrettably, one of the worst monsters is one of us, the human race.