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The Beast Of Gévaudan

A fascinating story - more than 100 people killed by it, shot around a dozen times. A lion seems to be favourite candidate but you'd think a body or skeleton would have been found. A remote & sparsely populated region though & there would've been predators such as wolves to scavenge a body. Maybe one day bones will be found & the creature identified..
 
I personally like the idea of it being an unknown holdover from the last ice age that had largely died out, but even if it turned out to be a lion, it would be great to know just what happened.
 
I'd simply like to know whether the 3-year rampage was really the work of a single creature.
 
I knew this thread reminded me of something I'd seen more recently about a mysterious "wolf-like"creature that was shot, stuffed and lost. But apparently this one is found!

http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/01/03/the-taxidermied-canid-no-one-can-identify/

This article doesn't go into the detail of the program I watched, Mysteries at the Museum, I believe, stated that biologists who have (only visually) looked at this stuffed specimen agree, it is NOT your average wolf!

Perhaps this "beast", and the Beast(s?) of Gevaudan could be an unrecognized sub species of wolf, which happens to be much more aggressive and larger than normal wolves? It would explain the repeated over time nature of the French attacks.

Possibly also tying the two together is the mention in the possibilities section of this article...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunka_Warakin

to a much more recent incident where a strange looking wolf with red fur is shot after killing 120 sheep. It does say that it was a wolf, but did they do DNA, or what?

Also kind of weird is that Native American name Shunka Warakin almost sounds like Shuck, as in the Black Shucks of England. Are there also Shucks in France?

Actually, mulling it over just now, that is what is striking about the the French Beasts, is that it doesn't seem to have been surrounded by the superstitious/religious/witchcraft hysteria that would seem pretty much expected for that time, in regards to an horrific, sustained series of events. (or I'm completely wrong about the level of enlightenment of the rural population of France of the period!)

Instead of a witch hunt, these people clearly know a real animal is attacking them, and call in hunters.
 
Gizmos Mama said:
I knew this thread reminded me of something I'd seen more recently about a mysterious "wolf-like"creature that was shot, stuffed and lost. But apparently this one is found!

http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/01/03/the-taxidermied-canid-no-one-can-identify/

This article doesn't go into the detail of the program I watched, Mysteries at the Museum, I believe, stated that biologists who have (only visually) looked at this stuffed specimen agree, it is NOT your average wolf!

Perhaps this "beast", and the Beast(s?) of Gevaudan could be an unrecognized sub species of wolf, which happens to be much more aggressive and larger than normal wolves? It would explain the repeated over time nature of the French attacks.

Possibly also tying the two together is the mention in the possibilities section of this article...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunka_Warakin

to a much more recent incident where a strange looking wolf with red fur is shot after killing 120 sheep. It does say that it was a wolf, but did they do DNA, or what?

Also kind of weird is that Native American name Shunka Warakin almost sounds like Shuck, as in the Black Shucks of England. Are there also Shucks in France?

Actually, mulling it over just now, that is what is striking about the the French Beasts, is that it doesn't seem to have been surrounded by the superstitious/religious/witchcraft hysteria that would seem pretty much expected for that time, in regards to an horrific, sustained series of events. (or I'm completely wrong about the level of enlightenment of the rural population of France of the period!)

Instead of a witch hunt, these people clearly know a real animal is attacking them, and call in hunters.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of subtleties around the Bête.


First, yes, there is an undercurrent of religious issues around the Bête. The Gévaudan was once a region where protestants and/or Calvinists had a considerable presence. An interesting fact is that the first book about the Bête was written by a certain Abée Pierre Pourcher. In his writings he insisted on the tones of divine punishment related to the “deviations” of the land in past (or present, in the conscience of the people) times. His presentation of the Bête is what makes me believe that it exists a great divide on this case : there is a bête, a beast, an animal, a zoological out of ordinary event, and a Bête, a legend, a super powerful creature, capable of evade the best hunters in the country and attack with sophisticated brutality.


So, yes again, the Bête caused alarm and was dangerous enough to attract the attention of King Louis XIV to the Gévaudan and make him send the hunters of the court and regiments of dragoons to find the mythic creature.


The Bête, the legendary creature, is, in my humble opinion, an umbrella for different kinds of crimes and attacks, some exaggerated, that could be explained otherwise. The extraordinary variety of modus operandi registered on the many attacks suggest this multitude of actors. There is also the fact that there are parallel sightings or attacks, pointing to at least two beasts on the region. There are also multiple descriptions of the Bête : a beast walking in two legs, a bullet proof beast, a beast with buttons on its belly…


The Bête is surely the most media-formatted of French mysterious beasts, but it’s far from being the only one. There are episodes of lonely beasts, with smaller number of victims, from the XVIIIth century to the late XIXth. I doubt that any of them had a name of its own, like Black Shuck.


There is a vast corpus of primary sources on the recently digitalized archives of the region : nobles, priests, even naturalists give us a good image of what the beast could be. There are also, here in France, groups of people dedicated to deepen the researches on the zoological aspects of the mystery. For those that can read French, I suggest a reading of the Gazette de la Bête, in http://www.betedugevaudan.com/blog/ or even the French entry of the Bête in Wikipedia.
 
Personally, I don't think there was ever a non-human beast involved there.
 
What I'd question, is whether there wasn't a killer on the loose in those days. Who was a bit of sod, and mutilated his victims in what was perceived at the time to be an animalistic way, hence the notion of a'beast' on the prowl. After which mass hysteria (for want of a better word) set in, and henceforth everytime any animal attack took place, dog, wolf, thylacine, etc, it was attributed as being the 'beast'. Which is why it appeared to be bullet proof, as it was in fact a host of different canids/dasyuromorphians that were shot, presumably by the wonky and rather crap firearms of the day, meaning some missed, others limped off to die, others never really happened at all.

And, given that newspapers and anecdotal reports of today are largely crap, why wouldn't they have been in 18th Century France. Also how much is actual contemporary documentation, and how much is modern interpretation of it? Remember at this time science/natural philosophy wasn't exactly bullet proof either, see Mary Toft as an example.
 
oldrover said:
Also how much is actual contemporary documentation, and how much is modern interpretation of it?
Click to expand...

I insist : for those that can read in French, the volume of primary sources and even first hand narratives can be surprising. There is an effort to digitalize the Archives départamentales that puts online a lot of letters and acts of the time. The Gazette de la bête often includes transcriptions of this sources. I read some and I would hesitate to call them crap...
 
chicorea said:
There are a lot of subtleties around the Bête.
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for that greatly informative post! Unfortunately, I can't read French, and honestly, this thread is the first I've ever heard about any of the "Beasts"! (though I did know about the Paris wolf attacks), which maybe didn't give the me the right impression of the reaction/beliefs of people of the time.

Very interesting!
 
That Nat Geo article is interesting - I'd always heard (second hand) the attacks varied greatly but according to Linnell there is a strong pattern during the period in question. Any more educated folk care to weigh in on that one?

One thing I'm very skeptical about however is the "shot many times" claim - I mean it was an infamous monster of the day regardless of its true identity. If you're one of the Dragoons or local hunters, hear a twig snap and fire off your musket in fright you'd be tempted to say you saw the Beast and hit it, possibly to impress, possibly just to cover up to your comrades you shit yourself over a squirrel.
 
Gizmos Mama said:
this thread is the first I've ever heard about any of the "Beasts"!
Click to expand...

Well...

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catégorie:Bête_dévorante

http://plus.wikimonde.com/wiki/Liste_de_bêtes_dévorantes

It's interesting that I can find only French categorisations of "Beasts" (bêtes dévorantes). But I guess it gives an idea about how present the pnenomena are in Europe.

And it's also remarkable how frequent are the descriptions of a huge red and striped canid, different of a wolf.
 
Jape89 said:
That Nat Geo article is interesting - I'd always heard (second hand) the attacks varied greatly but according to Linnell there is a strong pattern during the period in question. Any more educated folk care to weigh in on that one?

One thing I'm very skeptical about however is the "shot many times" claim - I mean it was an infamous monster of the day regardless of its true identity. If you're one of the Dragoons or local hunters, hear a twig snap and fire off your musket in fright you'd be tempted to say you saw the Beast and hit it, possibly to impress, possibly just to cover up to your comrades you shit yourself over a squirrel.
Click to expand...

It's been awhile, but I've read through a number of the actual sources on this translated to English. If I recall correctly, the Beast usually preyed on children in isolated areas who were tending sheep. And being shot many times might have been more about shooting the many regular wolves killed on the hunt for the Beast.
 
The shot many times thing is interesting as though it would be a flint lock it
would also likely be firing a 17.5 MM thats .69 of a inch lead ball weighing
about 29.76gms or 1oz in old money and depending on the charge 1100fps
or about 750 mph just short of the speed of sound, it would flatten slightly
on impact and make a pretty big hole, if it hit a limb it would likely shatter
the bone though it would be smooth bore and it would be difficult to hit a
man size target at much over 60 yards so shot many times if true makes
me think more than one. You would not want to stop one of those balls
fired from a catapult never mind with a charge of black powder behind it.
 
chicorea said:
I insist : for those that can read in French, the volume of primary sources and even first hand narratives can be surprising. There is an effort to digitalize the Archives départamentales that puts online a lot of letters and acts of the time. The Gazette de la bête often includes transcriptions of this sources. I read some and I would hesitate to call them crap...
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I don't speak French, so I'm not able to read them, or look into this as much as I'd like to. But there are some fundamental facts. Firstly, if the number of kills I've read is anything like correct there's only two kinds of animal that could possibly be responsible, a human or a big cat. You can forget canids, or hyenas they just aren't up to it. And, as there's been no cat in N W Europe that would have been capable of it either since the Pleistocene, it's not one of them. That leaves us.
 
RaM said:
The shot many times thing is interesting as though it would be a flint lock it
would also likely be firing a 17.5 MM thats .69 of a inch lead ball weighing
about 29.76gms or 1oz in old money and depending on the charge 1100fps
or about 750 mph just short of the speed of sound, it would flatten slightly
on impact and make a pretty big hole, if it hit a limb it would likely shatter
the bone though it would be smooth bore and it would be difficult to hit a
man size target at much over 60 yards so shot many times if true makes
me think more than one. You would not want to stop one of those balls
fired from a catapult never mind with a charge of black powder behind it.
Click to expand...

It could have been any number of calibers, rifled, smooth bore, shotgun that were used, depending on the bank balance of the person firing it. As I said yesterday though, I think the whole 'shot many times' thing just refers to the amount of random four legged things that were targeted during this period. Realistically, there's no single animal that could account for all this, it's a composite.
 
This is the book that I checked out on the case if anybody is interested in a good English translation:
The Beast of Gevaudan: La Bete Du Gevaudan
by Abbi Pierre Pourcher (Author)
  • Hardcover: 520 pages
  • Publisher: AuthorHouse UK (March 8, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1425921302
  • ISBN-13: 978-1425921309

https://www.amazon.com/Beast-Gevaudan-Bete-Du/dp/1425921302

La Bête du Gévaudan was a real wolf-like monster living in the Auvergne from 1764 to 1767. She killed about one hundred people. Prowling Catholic pre-Revolutionary France, she spread terror among the aristocrats and peasants of the beautiful Auvergne countryside. Her story beats most mystery novels in false trails, horror and atmosphere. The big difference is La Bête was real, not fiction, and leaves for ever the unanswered question, "What was she?" All efforts to stop her failed and she became infamous throughout France. The king - Louis XV - took a personal interest in her activities and how to destroy her. Many explanations - alien, prehistoric beast, mutant etc. - were put forward at the time and during the two centuries since but none have ever been widely accepted. A mass of evidence remains that La Bête did exist and was not just a legend. Compared with other monster mysteries she is unique, leaving graves, witnessed parish records, and archives of official documents, many of them included in this book, proving her real and guilty beyond doubt. Read Pourcher's book carefully and draw your own conclusions. Even if you arrive at a conventional solution to the mystery, doubts might linger as darkness falls. If twigs crack, don't whistle.
Click to expand...
 
MrRING said:
This is the book that I checked out on the case if anybody is interested in a good English translation:
The Beast of Gevaudan: La Bete Du Gevaudan
by Abbi Pierre Pourcher (Author)
  • Hardcover: 520 pages
  • Publisher: AuthorHouse UK (March 8, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1425921302
  • ISBN-13: 978-1425921309

https://www.amazon.com/Beast-Gevaudan-Bete-Du/dp/1425921302
Click to expand...
thank you for that! i asked for a good book recommendation about 56356 years ago and got no reply,i find this case fascinating but know very little about it.
 
titchagain said:
i asked for a good book recommendation about 56356 years ago and got no reply
Click to expand...

Here we go :

The Gévaudan Tragedy: The Disastrous Campaign of a Deported ‘Beast’ Kindle Edition
by Karl-Hans Taake

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gévaudan-T...=UTF8&qid=1504342830&sr=8-1&keywords=gévaudan


The Beast of Gevaudan: La B¿te du G¿vaudan: La Bete Du Gevaudan Paperback
by Derek Brockis

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beast-Geva...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FR7Q3Z8FQRR56FF060HS


Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast Kindle Edition
by Jay M. Smith

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Monsters-G...=UTF8&qid=1504342830&sr=8-7&keywords=gévaudan


Beast: Werewolves, Serial Killers, and Man-Eaters: The Mystery of the Monsters of the Gévaudan Hardcover
by S. R. Schwalb (Author), Gustavo Sánchez Romero (Author)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beast-Were...=UTF8&qid=1504342830&sr=8-9&keywords=gévaudan



The Beast of Gévaudan Paperback (a fiction exercise)
by Kriscinda Lee Everitt

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beast-Géva...=UTF8&qid=1504342830&sr=8-4&keywords=gévaudan


It's true that the bibliography on the Beast is kinda meagre in english, but can always find something.
 
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