In the mid-1760’s, a mysterious wolf-like creature ravaged the countryside of Gévaudan, France. Over 100 men, women and children were savagely killed. The so-called Bête du Gévaudan, or Beast of Gevaudan, tore out the throats of its victims and mutilated their organs. No one knew what it was — or how to stop it – not even the best hunters in the kingdom.
To this day, no one can agree on exactly what the Beast was. Other than between 1764 and 1767, something truly viscous stalked humans in the quiet hills of Gévaudan. For three long years, the Beast terrified villagers of this southern region of France. Many have suggested that the Beast may not have been a wolf at all, but something much worse.
Gévaudan was secluded in the mountains of Margeride in the south of France, largely cut off from the rest of Europe. Life there was quiet and peaceful — until 1764. That year, a young woman watching her herd of cows claimed that something terrifying attacked her. She described the beast as “like a wolf, yet not a wolf.” Her dogs fled in fear, but her panicked cattle scared it off.
Two months later, that summer, something attacked and killed a 14-year-old girl, Jeanne Boulet, while she too was watching over her family’s livestock. The villagers initially dismissed these incidents as normal — after all, sheepherding attracted predators. But in August, another girl was killed. In her last breath, she described the animal as a “une bête horrible,” a horrible beast”
From that point, the Beast’s attacks began to occur regularly.
At the end of August, a young boy watching his sheep disappeared. His body was found later, torn apart and partially eaten. Four more kills in September convinced the residents of Gévaudan that something was terribly amiss in their province. An evil, blood-thirsty creature lurked in their midst.
There was no shortage of reports in the Paris press about the deadly encounters with some unknown animal. The bête féroce attacked and partially ate not only women and children, but lone adult men as well. There were so many attacks that some speculated there were in fact two or more beasts.
The creature seemed to target victims’ throats, but also hearts were torn out. Some were even decapitated! The crazed Beast seemed to kill for sport, leaving mutilated, half eaten corpses behind. Even more strangely, the Beast rarely killed livestock. It appeared to have a taste for human blood.
The terrified villagers of Gevaudan did not sit idly by. Bounties were offered and hunters combed the countryside. Then in October, hours after a mauling, the Beast was seen near Chateau de la Baume, stalking a herdsman. Hunters followed it into the woods and flushed the animal into the fields. The men shot a round of musket fire into the creature. But after it appeared to fall, the Beast rose and ran off into the woods. Its hide appeared to be thick enough to repel musket balls!
The Beast of Gevaudan was described as anywhere between the size of a calf up to a horse. Its hide was thick, its fur a reddish-brown. Some described the beast with a stripe down its back and faint stripes down its sides. The Beast’s tail was said to be long and thick, with a tasseled end, like a lion. The head was described as overly large, with a massive mouth of fangs and a pig-like stoutness. It was an ambush predator that crawled silently on its belly before pouncing on victims.
Villagers superstitiously believed the Beast of Gevaudan was a supernaturally bulletproof loup-garou or werewolf. Another encounter with huntsmen described the beast being shot three times, falling each time, then getting back up. More extraordinary reports claimed the beast could walk on its hind legs and had glowing, fiery eyes!
The people of Gévaudan now prepared a massive response.
Jean-Baptiste Duhamel, the captain of the local infantry, and Étienne Lafont, a regional official, were joined by 300 volunteers to hunt it down. They scoured the countryside, laid traps with poison bait, and even had some volunteers dress like women. There was now a 6,000-livre bounty on the creature’s head. The men were highly motivated, hungering for the reward money which was equal to an average year’s salary.
But although the group of hunters occasionally stumbled upon the Beast, it proved too smart and powerful to be subdued. A French paper wrote:
“Hunters have neither been able to stop it, because it is more agile than they, nor lure it into their traps, because it surpasses them in cunning. Its terrifying appearance weakens their courage, sets their hands shaking, and neutralizes their skill.”
Duhamel himself described the Beast as having a “chest as wide as a horse, a body as long as a leopard and reddish fur with a black stripe.” Even hunters who came from far and wide had no luck. A father-son team from Normandy, who claimed to have killed over 1,000 wolves, came to Gévaudan. But even they failed to kill it.
Eventually, Duhamel was ordered to give up. Two wolf hunters, Jean Charles d’Enneval and his son, Jean-Francois replaced him. Unlike Duhamel, who formed massive hunting parties, the d’Enneval’s believed in stealth. For the next four months, they slaughtered wolves en masse and made numerous false claims they had slain the beast.
Meanwhile, the Beast’s attacks continued.
A group of seven children in January 1765, led by 10-year-old Jacques Portefaix, were able drive off the Beast with long sticks. Young Portefaix was rewarded by Louis XV with an education paid by the crown. That summer, a young woman named Marie-Jeanne Valet claimed to have impaled the Beast with a bayonet. It attacked her and her sister while crossing the River Desges. The creature got away, but woman became known as the “Maid of Gévaudan.”
The story of the Beast of Gevaudan, meanwhile, was spreading and covered in newspapers from Brussels to Boston to Bucharest. The problem got so bad it even attracted the attention of the French king. Louis XV, convinced the Beast of was too fierce for the locals, sent his personal gunbearer, François Antoine to Gévaudan.
At first, the 71-year old Antoine seemed to have succeeded. Antoine brought 18 men in his hunting party and 5 wolfhounds from the Royal Pack. In September 1765, Antoine tracked a pack of wolves into the Pommier forest. There they came upon a large male wolf near the Abbey of Chazes and killed it. The wolf measured 6 feet long and 130 pounds. A typical male wolf is 4 to 5 feet long and only 90 pounds.
They named it Le Loup de Chazes and became heroes to the people of France. The wolf however, had no human body parts in its stomach. They had it stuffed nevertheless, presented it to King Louis in Versailles, and collected the reward money. The villagers were wary, and a few months later, the attacks began again. In December, no more than two months later, two boys were attacked and killed. The villages suffered 35 more killings and numerous non-lethal attacks.
The beast seemed fiercer and more fearless than ever.
It attacked and killed dozens more, stirring up fear and panic in the countryside. The court at Versailles chose to ignore these new attacks, insisting that Antoine had killed the creature. The Beast’s reign of terror finally ended in June of 1767.
A local nobleman, the Marquis d’Apcher organized yet another hunt. An unlikely hero emerged. A 60-year old local farmer named Jean Chastel shot and killed another huge wolf on the slopes of Mount Mouchet. Chastel, who had been praying the rosary, saw the beast, quickly took aim, and fired. The bullet stunned the beast and the hunting party dogs finally killed it off.
When villagers cut the wolf-like beast open, they found human remains inside. The Beast of Gevaudan seemed to have finally been killed at last. The attacks in fact stopped. The animal killed was never identified—only described as having a large head, giant mouth, ears and feet, unlike that of a French wolf. The killings ceased, and Chastel was celebrated as the real Hero of Gévaudan.
The mystery surrounding this macabre story has endured to this day. Doubts remained that it was indeed a wolf at all, and that it was ever really killed but rather returned to the mountains. So what exactly was the Beast? No one is entirely sure what terrorized the people of Gévaudan.
Several theories have of course been offered.
The most prominent theory is that the Beast was a large and aggressive Eurasian wolf. The animals are native to the region, and there were thousands of wolf attacks on record. But the witnesses never described just a wolf. A common gray wolf can be ruled out as the French people were familiar with local wolves. Even a rabid one would be easily recognized. And none of the victims that lived contracted rabies.
Other theories suggest the Beast of Gevaudan was an escaped exotic animal, like a hyena or a lion. Most commoners in France would have never seen such an animal, so it would appear like a mythical or even demonic beast. Duhamel even said, “You will undoubtedly think this is a monster, the father of which is a lion. What its mother was remains to be seen.”
So was it a lion, hyena, or tiger? The pig-like head, thick tail, ruddy fur, and black stripe sounds like a hyena, but even the biggest hyena is smaller than the average gray wolf. It is possible that it had been in a person’s private holding and escaped. However, striped hyenas are not known to attack humans.
A lion certainly matches the size of the Beast of Gevaudan and would exhibit the Beast’s predatory behaviors, including preying upon humans as food. A young adult male does not have a fully mane and sometimes just a mohawk stripe of fur running down its back. However, given the volume of nobles that took part in hunts; at least one would’ve recognized an African lion. The French film, Brotherhood of the Wolf, exploits this particular theory.
Also unrealistic is the theory that the Beast was an extinct prehistoric predator such as a Bear-dog or Dire Wolf. Bear-dogs, were prehistoric carnivores as large as 1700 pounds. They possessed terrifyingly large jaws, a wolf-like shape, and the heftiness of a bear. Of course these animals are extinct. The idea that such a large animal would evade detection for thousands of years is just too implausible. Sorry, Bigfoot lovers.
A final theory suggests the Beast was in fact a disguised human.
Perhaps a serial killer terrorized Gévaudan, searching for unaccompanied women and young children. Many of the victims were ‘ritualistically’ decapitated and organs removed. Maybe killer roamed about wearing a beast-like costume. Some have speculated that it was an armored dog, which explains why it shrugged off musket shots. However, in all encounters with the beast; nobody ever claimed they saw anything remotely human.
There’s no denying the Beast of Gévaudan as the origin of modern werewolf lore. The bullet used by Chastel was supposedly forged of a silver amulet depicting the Virgin Mary. A silver bullet! This was the first recorded reference to silver bullets however, and the metal was chosen for its religious symbolism, rather than its deadly effect. Many of the French people’s superstitious fears nevertheless believed the Beast was a shape-shifting human, possessed by a demon. 19th century horror novels took this particular idea and ran with it.
The bronze statue in Auvers, France depicts a young Marie-Jeanne Valet, “The Maid of Gévaudan,” burying her spear in the Beast’s chest. It is depicted as a normal, yet massive wolf with a striped mane. Although there are many plausible theories about the true identity of the Beast, all admit that the truth will never be fully known. Without any genetic or forensic evidence, the Beast of Gévaudan is bound to forever remain a legendary mystery.