Peter Stubbe, the werewolf

'In those that are possess'd with't there oreflowes
Such mellencholly humour, they imagine
Themselves to be transformed into woolves,
Steale forth to church-yards in the dead of night,
And dig dead bodies up: as two nights since
One met the duke, 'bout midnight in a lane
Behind St. Markes church, with the leg of a man
Upon his shoulder; and he howl'd fearefully:
Said he was a woolffe: onely the difference
Was, a woolffes skinne was hairy on the outside,
His on the in-side: bad them take their swords,
Rip up his flesh, and trie...'

During the last centuries of the 1500's a big wolf were ravaging in the country side around the German cities Köln and Bedburg. It's attacks on people and animals was so frequent and its victims so many that people were afraid to walk out alone. A writing from 1591 tells us that "the inhabitants often found to their big grief and horror arms and legs from dead men, women and children here and there in the grounds". But how hard they tried they couldn't catch and kill "this greedy and cruel wolf".

Then the destiny wanted a group of men to see the wolf, surrounded it "and very carefully let their dogs to chase it, in a way that it should not be able to get away". And to their big surprise the wolf showed to be a human being called, Peter Stubb, well-known to these people and those he had killed.

Stubb were, according to the writing, the most frightening creature of all, a werewolf, transformed with magic from a human to animal and judged to arbitrary kill and guzzle on his human victims.

The Stubb-case contents to many classical elements of the werewolf phenomenon and that makes it worth to look at some details. Bound by those who had caught him to an implement of torture called the wheel and afraid of the punishment they would use to force the truth from him, he declared himself guilty to rows of crimes. He revealed how he succeed with the transformation. He put a girdle or a belt around his waist which was magical and had been "made of the Devil". Equipt with that he became "strong and powerful, with big wide eyes, the sharpest and the most cruel teeth, enormous body and powerful claws". When the judges couldn't find the girdle they supposed that the devil had taken it back after he had abandoned Stubbe "to the pains his deeds deserved".

And it were horrible deeds. Among his mentioned victims there were thirteen children and two pregnant women, from who he had teared the fetuses out and eat their "naked and warm beating hearts, which he called delicious mouthfuls and very appealing to his apetite".

Such crimes were so far away from the human experiences that they grabbed peoples imagination and stimulated the fear among the souls that belived that werewolves existed everywhere and had to be exterminated at all costs. There were no doubts that Stubbe was a thorougly criminal according to the writing. He were "strongly disposed to the evil" from his youngest years and had started to exercise the necromancy already when he were twelve years old, and the magics did soon became such a possession, it was told, that he was willing to make a pact with the Devil to get more power.

As a gift in return did Stubb get the instrument which became his fall, the magic girdle, which he wore at first to get even on his enemies, real or imagined. Everywhere were he attacked them, in the towns or on the country side he threw himself over them in shape of a wolf, and "never rested until he had ripped out their throats" and teared of their limbs.

At a point Stubb had seen two men and a woman on the road, who walked through the forest were he hidden. He called on one of the men, who he knew, and the man walked in to the woods. When he didn't come back his male friend followed, and this man disappeared as well. The woman ran, but not fast enough. The so called werewolf raped and killed her. The men's mutilated bodies were found later... but not the woman's. They thought that Stubb had eaten her up entirely.

When Stubbs blood thirst grew he started to wander over the fields and along the roads during the nights and even the days hunting for victims. If he saw any young girls who played together or were milking cows, he ran among them, faster than a greyhound, and grabbed one to rape and kill while the others ran.

It's uncertain if Stubb ever married, but he had a mistress, a woman who was "tall with a pleasant looks, very liked and highly respected among her neighbours" He saw other women as well. He became father to two children, a boy and a girl and when his daughter grew up and got more beautiful Stubb started to take a fancy to her. "And his dirty desires were like this", the writing tells us breathtaking, "that he got a child with her, since he used her as his concubine". This incest didn't stop there, he did also visit his sister's bed.

If there were someone Stubb loved, it was his son, who he called his heart's comfort. But even here he exceeded his needs of brutality and violence the joy he had of the boy and "he brought him out on the fields and from there to a forest near by and killed him brutaly, and when that was done, he took out his brain and eat it". Here the writing explodes in anger and condemned the murder as "the most monstrous act the man ever heard of, because never before has anyone been knowned to be so from nature degenerated".

No punishment, how monstrous it were itself, were suitable for Stubbs crimes. His body were put on the wheel and the meat was pulled of the bones on several places with help of "glowing hot nippers". Then they broke his arms and legs. Finally "the head were beaten of the body", and the remains burned to ash. As an accomplice to the murders his daughter and mistress were burned at the stake.

After the executions the judges raised a horrible monument in Bedburg. The wheel that Stubb were bound to were put on a high pole were his head were put on as well. As a reminder of the animal he was supposed to take, a carved wolf was included as well and to honour the victims, sixteen wooden sticks were hanging down from the rim of the wheel. The rumour about Stubb were spread and the sensational story about him was told and retold so many times that his name changed so he is also called Stumpf, Stube and Stub.