france

The Beast of Gévaudan

Between June of 1764 and June of 1767, approximately one

hundred people were killed, and another thirty were attacked. The victims

consisted mostly women and children. The beasts domain was the district of Lozère, in

south-eastern France, called Gévaudan. The beast killed it victims by tearing out their

throats before devouring their bodies or simply tearing them apart. As the panic grew

throughout the area, King Louis XV sent a famous hunter called Denneval in February of

1765. But he like everyone else that tried to kill the beast, eventually failed.

By witnesses the beast was described to be much larger than a wolf, almost the size of a

cow, with a huge head. It's nose was long and pointed and red in color, had short ears, big

teeth, razor-sharp claws, thick tail, and it's fur was short and light gray. Some say that it's chest was white, and had a black
stripe down it's back. The animal was described as being very strong and agile. While it hunted it laid low to the ground,
and some say that it was able to rear up on it's hind legs.

A little over a half of a year after the killings started, they seemed to finally come to an end. The king's personal gunman,
Antoine de Beauterne, tracked what he thought to be the creature to a quarry, near the village of Pommier. Here he killed
the beast by shooting it and they transported the body to the court of the king. Its body was more than five feet long and
weighed over 140 lbs. The animal he killed turned out to be a large black wolf, but it was obviously not be beast because
the killings continued after the wolf was killed.

On June 19, 1767, another huge wolf was shot, this time at Mount Chauvet by Jean Chastel. Surprisingly after this killing,
the reign of terror stopped. Many individuals believe that there was more to the Beast of Bévaudan than a wolf. In La Bête
du Gévaudan, Gérald Ménatory suggested that the killing may have been by human serial killers, capitalizing upon reports
of man-killing wolves to conceal their attacks.

There is still yet one more theory about the killings. Some believe it was

done by a werewolf, turning into a wolf to kill it's victims, then turning to a

human to hide its identity. Either way the killings happened which terrorized

the people of Gévaudan, which led to numerous artworks depicting the beast.