At that point Buster entered the scene, barking furiously at the impossible beast that had pinned his master. Jones stated that he was more worried about his dog than himself, realizing that a single swipe from the beast’s razor-like claws could slice poor Buster into hamburger. Then, inexplicably, “It rolled off me and I swear it stood upright on its hind legs, before it dropped back down to all fours and ran off into the night.”
Jones immediately called the sheriff to report the incident and warn others that a big cat was on the loose. He was told that there were no black panthers in Kansas, a fact of which he was already well aware of, and there had been no cougar sightings for decades. When a deputy did finally arrive on scene he chuckled at Jones and opined that he’d seen a big tomcat. Jones stated emphatically that he would always know exactly what he saw; a black panther capable of bipedal movement on its hind legs, like a man. A “cat man.” “Fortunately,” he stated, “there were no other reports of such a creature in the area, and I guess he just jumped back into whatever nightmare he jumped out of.” Indeed.
Numerous sightings of a large, cat-like creature took place in Windham County, Vermont in 2000, and also in Waupaca County, Wisconsin. Also in that same year, multiple witnesses reported the appearance of a very large and very muscular cat-creature as it flitted among the graves and headstones of the historic Springdale Cemetery in Peoria, Illinois.
Like all of our enigmatic inhumanoids, the cat people may appear in any country at any time. One appeared in Kedah, Malaysia during the early morning hours of September 21st, 2006, when seventeen-year-old Mohaman Azmi was awakened by the sound of footsteps on his roof and a strange, guttural voice speaking in words which he couldn’t understand. Then suddenly and much to the teenagers horror, a dark figure dropped into the room.
“It was black and hairless,” Azmi later said, “with the face of a cat.” The extremely brave young witness lunged at the creature, which, weirdly, then seemed to ‘hop’ out the of the room. Azmi followed it into the living room, he claimed, and saw it standing there, apparently confused and looking about as if for an exit. The longer it stood there the more aggressive it seemed to become so, thinking quickly, the youth opened the front door and was relieved when the bizarre entity “bounded” out into the darkness of the night.
This ancient Native American pictograph from Kentucky, photographed by the late Dr. Fred E. Coy, appears to show a cat-like, five-fingered inhumanoid standing on two legs
Part Two:
Werewolves and Dogmen
“...the werewolf sits amid the grain.”
-Old German saying.
For as long as people have gathered around campfires there have been bone-chilling tales of wondrously terrifying monsters; half-wolf, half-man; which roam about the countryside looking for victims to devour, be they human or animal, to satiate their ravenous lust for flesh and blood. Accounts of these horrible inhumanoid beasts stretch far back into antiquity and beyond. There was a time, not so long ago really, when every man, woman and child on Earth lived in fear of the savage and ferocious wolf. People viewed the beasts as objects of dread and terror, powerful human killing machines.
Always hungry, the brutal hunting proficiency of the pack was a constant threat. Nothing could stand against it. But that fear paled in comparison to the dread inspired by the frightful ‘Wolfmen;’ evil human beings who were actually able, through supernatural means, to physically alter their bodies, transforming into wolf-like beasts in order to prey on their fellow man. Furthermore, if history is to be believed, there were many victims of werewolves, especially in the European provinces; poor unfortunates who suffered the worst fate imaginable; being ripped to shreds and eaten alive by ferocious, bloodthirsty beasts.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seemed particularly active for werewolf attacks, if records from the time are to be believed, with the bodies of hundreds of victims seemingly strewn about the countryside for all to see. In this dark period of lupine dread the legends of the werewolf seemed to spread like raging wildfires from South America to Siberia. It seems that, wherever human settlements appeared, these half-human terrors appeared also to wreak their diabolical havoc on men, women and children alike.
Medieval Welsh writings speak of man-wolves called the ‘Gorgol.’ In old Normandy they were known as the ‘Garwaf.’ The French called them ‘Loup Garou;’ the Italians, ‘Lupo Manaro.’ To the Spanish they were known as ‘Hombre Lobo;’ to the Portuguese, ‘Lobizon;’ Polish, ‘Wilkolak;’ Russian, ‘Olkoka.’ German, ‘Roggenwolf.’ Brazil was said to be the home of the ‘Kuru Pira,’ a dreadful man-beast with backward turned feet, huge genitals and enormous fangs.
The werewolves of the Shetlands, called the ‘Wulver,’ were said to be creatures like men, but with the heads of wolves, and covered in short brown hair. Yugoslavian myth speaks of the ‘Knokephalos,’ spectral canines that walked upright like men. The Greeks knew them as the ‘Brukolakas,’ or ‘Kunanthropos,’ the ‘Dog Men;’ and a hundred other names from as many different locations. All describing the same beasts.
(Above: Celtic Werewolf ca. 1414)
As the victim’s bodies mounted, so did the fear of the wolfmen. Townsfolk were often at arms, afraid to leave their homes, and demanding relief from the ruling class of the terrible plague they suffered.
Panic swept throughout Europe and people began seeing werewolves in every shadow; eying with suspicion every neighbor, even those whom they’d known their entire lives. After all, anyone could become a werewolf. It could be as simple as drinking from the same pool or stream as one of the beasts, or as complex as being in league with the Devil, Satan himself.
Perhaps the lycanthrope’s family had been cursed or had practiced witchcraft or fallen victim to the myriad other means by which one might become such a creature of hell. Worse still, many believed that werewolves were immune to bullets, silver or otherwise, and could only be killed in human form.
It is a common misconception that the silver bullet was thought to kill a werewolf. Actually, it was a bullet made from a blessed, melted down crucifix which was commonly considered the only thing capable of doing the job. It just so happened that silver was a commonly-used metal for devotional items in the medieval period.
Surprisingly, cases of alleged werewolf activity; creatures so widely thought only to exist in the minds of the unbalanced; can be found by the hundreds from ancient times right on down to today. It’s hard to imagine that there has ever been a time when roving bands of bloodthirsty werewolves, invincible and terrible, scoured the land in search of victims to devour. But, according to at least one ancient text, which still mystifies modern scholars, that’s exactly what happened. ‘The Chronicon of Denys of Tell-Mahre,’ from the region of Assyria, known today as Iraq, mentions horrifying, invincible, wolf-like creatures that roamed about the land devouring scores of men, women and children at will.
This ninth-century writing affords us a glimpse into the true nature of the werewolf, and helps shed light on the frame of mind in which these bloodthirsty creatures were viewed in ages past, and the harsh consequences meted out to suspected lycanthropes. According to the text, these terrible beasts; “...fled no man, and indeed killed many people. They were like wolves but their faces were small and long; and they had great ears. The skin on their spine resembled that of a pig. These mysterious animals committed great ravages on the people in the Abdin Rock region, near Hoh. In some villages, they devoured more than 100 people, and in many others, from 20 to 40 or 50. If a man did pursue them, in no way did the monsters become frightened or flee.
Instead, they turned on the man. If men loosed their weapons on a monster, it leaped on the men and tore them to bits. These monsters entered houses and yards, and climbed in the night onto terraces, stole children from their beds and went off without opposition. When they appeared, dogs were afraid to bark. For these reasons, the country suffered a more terrible experience than it had ever known before.
When one of
these monsters attacked a herd of goats, cattle or a flock of sheep, they took away several at one time. These monsters finally passed from the land and went into Arzenene (a district in southern Armenia along the borders of Assyria) and ravaged every village there. They also ravaged in the country of Maipherk and along Mt. Cahai and caused great damage.”
The Werewolves of Chalons
Throughout European history werewolves have always been considered to be the evil agents of Satan, fully capable of causing great human suffering and destruction. To be a werewolf was to be in league with the devil, a crime punishable by horrendous torture and death even without the lycanthropic tendencies attached.
The first official execution of werewolves took place in Basel, Switzerland in 1407, but France holds the dubious distinction of killing more lycanthropes than anywhere else in the whole of Europe, beginning in 1521, when three men admitted under torture that they had committed many murders in the forms of werewolves for over nineteen years. All three were immediately burned alive.
Nevertheless, in the days long before instant global communication, when people were much more isolated than they are today, evil of this sort seemed to run rampant.
Another self-admitted lycanthrope was Gilles Garnier, who was most heinously tortured to death and his body burned to ashes in Dole, France in 1573. Garnier provided a wealth of grim details about how he used his hands and teeth to kill and devour many children during his campaign of blood.
The execution of Gilles Garnier at Bedburg, ca. 1589.
One of the worst ever lycanthrope cases, however, was the Werewolf of Chalons, who came to be known as the “Demon Tailor” and plied his evil trade near the end of 16th century France. He stood trial in Paris on December 14th, 1598 on murder charges which were said to be so gruesome and appalling that the court ordered all documents relating to the proceedings promptly burned. As a result of this action the man’s real name was lost to researchers and Forteans. But the case lived on in infamy, and rumors of the heinous crimes found their way into contemporary documents which survived the passage of time.
It was said that, in the moonlight and in the shape of a huge wolf, this unnamed man roamed the forests, lying in wait among the shadows for unwary passers-by upon whom he would leap and viciously tear out their throats. He would then drag their bodies back to his shop and dine upon them at leisure. He also lured scores of unsuspecting children of both sexes to his shop where he sexually tortured his innocent victims, then slit their throats and bled them dry before slicing up their bodies like beef in a butcher shop, relishing above all the flesh of children.
When searched, the shop’s cellar yielded barrels of bleached human bones and other vile instruments of torture. He was convicted and sentenced to burn at the stake. A large crowd gathered to watch the event and it was said that, even as the flames scorched his flesh, he showed no remorse, cursing and blaspheming God to his final breath. According to Rosemary Ellen Guilley’s wonderful book, Vampires, Werewolves and other Monsters, the man’s name was almost certainly Gandillion. If this is true then we might, at last, know what became of the missing father of the infamous Gandillion family.
A Family of Werewolves
Fourteen years earlier, in 1584, a werewolf allegedly attacked a young girl in the Jura Mountains. Upon hearing her cries, the girl’s sixteen-year-old brother immediately rushed to her rescue, only to have the beast turn on him instead. Several villagers also heard the pitiful screams and rushed to the scene. The girl was still alive but her brother lay mauled and dead beneath the dreadful fangs and claws of the monster.
Enraged, they attacked the werewolf and somehow managed to club it to death. Shocked and amazed, they watched as the grotesque body of the monster transformed at death into the nude body of a young woman whom they immediately recognized as Pernette Gandillion. It was well-known among the townspeople that Pernette had believed herself to be a wolf and exhibited wolf-like behavior, but everyone had assumed her to be mentally ill; until now.
Her body was summarily dismembered and burned. After an official investigation, the entire Gandillion family was tried and convicted of witchcraft and lycanthropy. When authorities accused her brother, Pierre, of being a witch and a shape-shifter, both he and his son confessed that they were in possession of a magic ointment which allowed them to turn into ravenous and lustful wolves. They even showed the many scars on their bodies which, they claimed, were caused by the attacks of local dogs while the two were in werewolf form.
When imprisoned they both moved about on all fours and howled mournfully. In his book Discours de Sorciers (1610), Judge Boguet stated that the entire family had surrendered all semblance of humanity. Their eyes turned red and gleaming; their hair sprouted to great length; their teeth became long and sharp and their fingernails had turned thick and claw-like. Pierre’s daughter was also accused of witchcraft and all three were quickly hanged and burned for their crimes, even though none save Pernette had been accused of killing anyone. Pernett’s husband was nowhere to be found when all this happened. Was she even married at all? Information is scant but, if Guilley’s conclusion is correct, the missing Gandillion had quietly slipped out and continued his carnal reign of murder and terror for another fourteen years, killing scores of innocent victims before finally meeting his just deserts in the city of Chalons.
Many others were tried, convicted and executed for similar crimes during the middle-ages, an ominous precursor to the witch trials which would soon engulf several continents. Well known victims of this movement were Jean Grenier, Pierre Verdout and Michael Verdun, who all claimed they were given magic ointments and girdles of wolf-skin by the devil or his agents, which allowed their transformation.
The following testimony, printed here in its entirety, is perhaps the most well-known lycanthropy case from the middle ages, and concerns the confession of one ‘damnable’ man named Peter Stubb. It comes from a black-letter pamphlet printed in England in 1590. Only two copies of the pamphlet are known to exist. Fittingly or not, Stubb was put to death for his crimes on Halloween day, 1589. The spelling has been modernized for clarity.
The Damnable Life and Death of Stubbe Peeter
George Bores (London, Chapbook, 1590).
Declaring the damnable life and death of one Stubbe Peeter, a most wicked Sorcerer, who in the likeness of a Wolf, committed many murders, continuing this devilish practice 25 Years, killing and de-
vouring Men, Women, and Children. Who for the same fact was ta-
ken and executed the 31st of October last past in the town of Bedbur (Bedburg) near the City of Collin (Cologne, Köln) in Germany.
Truly translated out of the high Dutch, according to the copy printed in Collin, brought over into England by George Bores ordinary post, the 11th day of this present month of June 1590, who did both see and hear the same. Printed for Edward Venge, and are to be sold in Fleet Street at the sign of the Vine. A most true discourse, declaring the life and death of one Stubbe Peeter, being a most wicker sorcerer.
Those whom the Lord doth leave to follow the imagination of their own hearts, despising his proffered grace, in the end through the hardness of heart and contempt of his fatherly mercy, they enter the right path to perdition and destruction of body and soul forever; as in this present history in perfect sort may be seen, the strangeness whereof, together with the cruelties committed, and the long time therein continued, may drive many in doubt whether the same be truth or no, and the rather fore that sundry false and fabulous matters have heretofore passed in print, which hath wrought much incredulity in the hearts of all men generally, insomuch that now of days few things do escape be it never so certain, but that it is embased by the term of a lie or false report.
In the reading of this story, therefore I do first request reformation of opinion, next patience to peruse it, because it is published for example’s sake, and lastly to censure thereof as reason and wisdom doth think convenient, considering the subtlety that Satan useth to work the so
ul's destruction, and the great matters which the accursed practice of sorcery doth effect, the fruits whereof is death and destruction forever, and yet in all ages practiced by the reprobate and wicked of the earth, some in one sort and some in another even as the Devil giveth promise to perform. But of all other that ever lived, none was comparable unto this Hell hound, whose tyranny and cruelty did well declare he was of his father the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning, whose life and death and most bloody practices the discourse doth make just report.
In the towns of Cperadt and Bedbur near Collin in high Germany, there was continually brought up and nourished one Stubbe Peeter, 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 tat forgetting the God that made him, and that Savior that shed his blood for 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.
The Inhumanoids Page 46
