The Beast of Gevaudan

[belinda]

A case of an early serial killer?

http://www.betedugevaudan.com/en/index.html

http://www.castleofspirits.com/werewolf.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan

[kensei]

Oh my goodness, a thread about the Beast of Gevaudan. I hope some lively discussion can be stirred up here, but if so it is likely to go in many different directions. I once started a thread about the Highgate Vampire and it got pretty convoluted. Now we have before us an allegation of a werewolf. Let me profess my belief right from the start in many paranormal/supernatural things, and that I do not rule out the possibility that real werewolves and similar creatures may have existed in times past.

Now, with the Gevaudan story we have a case involving almost incomprehensibly violent killing going on for three years in a fairly small remote area and claiming over 100 victims, and being set in the eighteenth century it is not so far in the past that it is only a dim memory. On the contrary, it is very well documented. An early human serial killer? I'm sorry Belinda, but there are way too many eyewitness accounts of the killer being some kind of animal for it to be that simple. The question is- was it a natural animal or an unnatural one?

The killings went on and on, with people torn apart and sightings of this huge wolflike but yet un-wolflike creature. It seemed to like to attack shepherds while leaving the sheep alone. When word reached the King he sent soldiers to hunt the beast down. Those soldiers caused almost as much unrest in the area as the beast they were hunting. An incident supposedly occurred in which they encountered the beast and opened fire on it, but it ran away unharmed. How could an entire company of men with muskets miss their mark? Eventually they did kill a large wolf and paraded it as a great prize, but the killings went on. They'd killed the wrong animal. Finally a professional hunter came to Gevaudan and hired several locals as his guides. One of them, Jean Chastel, was among the superstitious and loaded his gun with silver bullets. While participating in a drive of a particular patch of woods, Chastel found himself face to face with the beast. He fired two shots which dropped it in its tracks, and when its body was victoriously paraded around all accounts described it as a very large but peculiar looking wolf. And from that point, the killings ceased.

A recent cable t.v. show entitled "The Real Wolfman" produced the theory that Jean Chastel was actually behind all the killings, and that he had control of a trained and very vicious African hyaena that he eventually shot in order to come out as looking like the hero. That show also did ballistic tests that showed that silver bullets do not fly straight and are not very accurate, which would mean that Chastel would have had to have been very close to the beast in order to accurately shoot it, inferring that the animal trusted him. I thought the show was fairly ridiculous and maligned the reputation of a good man.

So what really happened? I think it is pretty well established that the killings were done by something inhuman that preferred to prey on humans. The soldiers opened fire with muskets on an animal that was seemingly bulletproof. The bullets that eventually killed the thing were made of silver. Those bullets, incidentally, are said to have been blessed by a priest. Do the pious among us think that that would have any effect on making silver bullets fly more accurately than they would ordinarily? I guess we are talking about the supernatural here- consecration, miracles, a silver bullet that by the laws of physics will not fly straight but WILL if it is magically blessed by a priest.

Personally- and I will take the slings and arrows that may come with it- I think the case of the Beast of Gevaudan has "werewolf" written all over it.

[The Good Michael]

The description sounds like a badger.

Mike

[protohistorian]

So I have to ask, way too many people to be a serial killer? Like people always get it right? Like that whole Jesus thing or more like the UFO thing? Maybe it's like "he's an animal" thing. Even if every person on planet earth had the same take, we still all possess roughly the same perceptual powers, and those powers are far from flawless and therefore a poor reason for exclusion. Dave

[sdreid]

It's a trained wolverine.

I remember seeing that TV show. The silver bullets were not very accurate but I don't recall if they knew why. My best guess is that maybe silver is too hard to properly engage the rifling grooves in the gun barrel. It could have been their quality control as well. The true muskets back then didn't even have rifling grooves so they weren't very accurate no matter what the bullet was made of.

[belinda]

Given the number of killings I think a human agency could have been at work as well as some sort of beast.

The specific attacks on women and children are more indicative of a human.

[protohistorian]

Could it be a trained wolverine/ human hybrid bred by the Masons? Dave

[Scorpio]

The contemporary smoothbore musket was reasonably accurate,which, by eighteenth century standards, meant that it could hit a man sized area, at about 75/100 metres, and the carbine version was slightly less accurate. I guess that encounters would have taken place in forested terrain,as the Beast would have probably retreated to such an environment after killing,where visability would be reduced somewhat,depending on the time of year. Is there any pratical reason why silver should make a less accuarate musket ball than the common lead ones?.

[protohistorian]

No Scorpio, there is no reason why a smooth bored weapon would manifest a difference. Dave

[Qlder]

Silver is lighter than lead, so is more easily

deflected from its trajectory.
(High school physics.)

Also: Possibly harder to form a decent sphere for the shot.

[Scorpio]

Silver Bullets

A lighter ball would increase its velocity,so,as long as it was cast correctly, a silver ball would be more accurate,maintaining a straight trajectory for longer. Also,Silver is less maleable than lead,so the silver ball would have better penetration if it hit the target.

[sdreid]

Silver is lighter than lead but only by about 8%

[Doug Irvine]

When a musket is fired the the musket ball does not travel smoothly down the barrel, in fact it bounces down the barrel. Think of it as trying to throw ball through a pipe. If you get lucky and throw the so that it does not come into contact with sides of the pipe the ball will have straight trajectory. However if the ball comes into contact with the sides of the pipe the bounce created will have an effect on the trajectory of the ball exiting the pipe. I surmise that a lighter and harder sliver bullet would have more bounce thus making it even more inaccurate.

[sdreid]

Normally a patch is used to keep the ball from bouncing which improves the accuracy some. It also helps keep the expanding gas from blowing past the ball and wasting the energy. I still don't see why silver would be less accurate in a smooth bore gun as long as it was properly made. Lead is expensive enough so I don't plan to shoot any silver bullets. I do have some gold plated air rifle pellets however and do my best to recover them for recycling after I shoot them. Gold is soft and that's it's used to plate a lead free pellet that's made from a hard metal like zinc. A pure zinc pellet would damage the barrel.

[kensei]

Hmm, this thread seems to be focusing mostly on the ballistics. If we could focus more on the beast for a moment, Good Michael mentioned a badger and sdreid a wolverine, both of which are animals of a size that would fit in your lap (though maybe not comfortably) and can both deliver nasty bites but would be hard pressed I think to literally tear a human being to pieces. I read one account of two children- a brother and sister- encountering the beast, and when the girl turned to run her brother's head suddenly came rolling past her. I don't know if that's accurate or exaggerated, but if accurate there is only a handful of animals that would be capable of such an instant projectile decapitation- a bear or a big cat. Not even a wolf (which most witnesses seemed to think the beast was) could manage it.

Badger or wolverine? Various witnesses described the beast as being different sizes, but I don't think any said it was that small. The common belief that it was a wolf should mean that it was at least as big as one of those, and there was even one witness who said it was as big as a donkey! Panicked people do tend to exaggerate, but that still suggests a huge size. Why the wide range of size estimates? Kind of raises the question of "shape shifting," doesn't it? And that is exactly what a werewolf does. If a man can shape shift into an animal, then perhaps the animal could change size too. And that sounds crazy, but if one entertains the possibility of the legend you just can't help that.

As to the theory that the killings were done by a trained animal at the direction of a human being- anyone know of any other cases in history of serial murder being carried out in that way?