The Werewolf Of Dole : Gilles Garnier

We all fancy werewolves tales in which the afflicted person would transform into a beast after being bitten or scratched by a cursed werewolf and also the idea that a person can only complete his transformation into a wolf during a full moon night.

Also, the concept of a werewolf came from a number of legends believed to be a shapeshifter, not necessarily someone who was born with the curse of the werewolf. The Werewolf of Dole is an infamous case of an alleged werewolf, Gilles Garnier.

The Hermit

Gilles Garnier, notoriously known as “The Werewolf of Dole” was a French serial murderer and cannibal, convicted of crimes of lycanthropy and witchcraft.

Garnier was a strange and reclusive hermit that lived in the woods, outside the town of Dole in France during the 16th century. Gilles lived most of his life as a hermit until one day he met a woman in a local village.

The pair quickly married but this marriage would not be easy for Garnier as he was not content to leave his isolated life in the woods for the opportunities of village life his wife wanted.

It was this decision that would eventually become his undoing as Garnier would find it more and more difficult to feed two mouths instead of just himself off of what he collected in the woods where he lived.

The Specter

During this period Garnier would venture out into the forest and one evening in an attempt to look for food for himself and his wife came face to face with what he called a specter who would offer him a deal to ease his current troubles.

It was during this meeting that the specter allegedly offered Garnier a special ointment that would allow the man to turn into a werewolf.

Whenever he applied the ointment, it helped him to become a better hunter and to provide better for his new family.

Now the apparent transformation would in fact make Garnier a better hunter so much that he would turn his attention from the animals of the forest to the people of the nearby village.

The Hunt for Human Flesh

As the months progressed several children in the village would go completely missing while others would eventually turn up dead.

As authorities began to investigate the disappearances, the first child to be snatch by Garnier came in October of 1572 when he came across a ten-year-old playing just outside the city.

He would drag the child into a local vineyard, strangle and undress her and then flayed and eat the flesh from the fatty parts of her arms and thighs.

Seemingly remembering his wife during this, Garnier would save some of the flayed flesh and meat to take back home. This first attack would lead to apparent blood lust and Garnier would strike again only weeks later but this time he would be expose in the act.

Garnier attacked another young girl and bit and clawed at her during the attack as if he was in the process of trying to devour her. The only thing that interrupted the attack was a passerby coming across Garnier mid-attack.

Unfortunately, the injuries sustained by that attack would be too much for the young girl. She would die from her injuries only a few days later, thanks to the lack of proper medical care at the time.

The Carnage

It was this attack that would set the town into a frenzy and forced the province issuing an edict allowing the locals to apprehend or kill the werewolf that they thought was responsible for the attack.

Garnier would eventually be capture by a group of workers traveling from one town to the other but before that, he would strike again and take several more children over the preceding months.

He would again kill and eat a 10-year-old boy by tearing off one of his legs to save for meat. He would then attack another boy and be again interrupt by villagers traveling out, leaving the body before he could finish eating and flaying it.

Garnier would strike two more times before his capture, attacking a boy he noticed passing by, violently tearing him in half and eating and tearing at the organs inside of the body in a horrific fashion.

His final attack would take place early the next year in which he strangled another young girl he came upon. He cannibalized her like the others and would once again remove a leg to take back for meat for both him and his wife.

Garnier would eventually be capture and testified about the specter who gave him the power to turn into a werewolf and admit to the murders of several children giving us much of the accounts in this story.

The End of Garnier

The trial itself notable as more than 50 witnesses state that Garnier attacked the children and seen eating their flesh in both human and werewolf form.

The trial was also carried out in a secular manner and not by the inquisition which was popular at the time because superstition was not something judged by the said inquisition.

In the end, Garnier would be convicted of crimes of lycanthropy and witchcraft and be burned at the stake for his crimes.