Season 06 Episode 33 Extra: Hungry Like the Wolf

into the previous show. In last week's episode, An American Werewolf in America, we covered the intriguing tale of the Beast of Brave Road, a strange, apparent dog like humanoid that is said to stalk a quiet stretch of road just outside of Elkhorn in Wisconsin, USA. Linda Godfrey, who first brought the tale to the world, was reluctant to use the term werewolf to describe the supposed creature, since she considered it to be more of a cryptis than a human wolf hybrid. The clue is in the name.

The term werewolf in most languages is comprised at the cognate of man and wolf, where is the Old Teutonic for man and wolf is well wolf. The Greek term leacanthropis, from which is derived the termlycanthropy, the psychiatric disorder in which an individual believes they are a wolf is likewise

taken from the Greek words for wolf and man. Some argue that the notion of a werewolf was first explored in the ancient poem the Epic of Gilgamesh from twenty one hundred BCE, in which the titular Gilgamesh spurns a woman after learning that she'd previously turned a lover into a wolf. However, generally speaking, the idea of the werewolf was born from much darker beginnings, much of it to

do with cannabi. From ancient Greek mythology comes the story of lie Chaon, one of the first kings of Arcadia. In an effort to gain favour from the god Zeus, like Chaon made a series of increasingly extreme offerings in his honour, culminating in the sacrificing of people, a practice that by then had been long rejected by the gods. When Zeus decided to visit lye Chaon in disguise to try and uncover the truth, he was invited to participate

in a banquet that included human flesh. In anger and disgust, Zeus turned like Chaon and his son into wolves as a punishment for what they'd done. It's a short step from here to the mythology of the werewolf as it would later evolve. Crucially, despite the human having turned wolf, it is always maintained that the creature retains something of the human it. As such, when a werewolf kills and

eats a human, it is ultimately a cannibalistic act. There have been surprisingly many supposedly true tales of werewolves over the years, though perhaps none are more infamous, more wicked, or more disturbing than that which appeared in a pamphlet in London in June fifteen ninety. The story was brought over by one George Bores, of which there is little known, who is said to have translated it from its original German text, titled The Damnable Life and Death of stub Peter.

It is not for the faint hearted. It was out in the quiet countryside of West Germany, close to what was then the Electorate of Cologne, where it all began. A slain and mutilated sheep carcass is found out in the fields surrounding Eprath, a small community on the outskirts of Bedburg, with its flesh ripped by sharp claws and its meat torn from the bones by ravenous, sharp toothed jaws. It was clear that a wolf was now in their mist. Then the sheep became a cow, but not just one,

multiple all with the same violent injuries. Evidently the wolf was a big one. Then one day, a farmer, while out scything wheat, made a horrifying discovery a small child's pale, lifeless body staring up at him from the dirt, its throat and stomach torn open, and its entrails showing the signs of having been feasted on. Some time later, three

friends went missing in a nearby forest. As the story goes, two men and a woman were said to have been taking a walk together when one of the men was distracted by someone whispering his name from deep inside the woods. After peeling off from the group to investigate, the man failed to return. When the other man went looking for him, he too failed to return. Suddenly, fearing for her life, the woman turned to run, only to find herself being

chased by a large fur creature with snarling jaws. Before she could raise the alarm, the creature is said to have pinned her to the ground before raping her and making off with her. Body. The bodies of the men were later found, each with their heads bashed in, but the woman's body was now found. Another time, some children were playing in a field close to a herd of cattle when a huge wolf like creature burst out suddenly from some nearby bushes and grabbed one of the children

by the neck. As the creature tore wildly at the child's throat, Thankfully, her stiff and high collar gave her enough time to scream for help. The sound of her screams caused a stampede of the cattle, who inadvertently chased the creature away. As news of the terrifying attacks spread through the area, people became more vigilant. Patrols even began scaring the countryside with packs of dogs on the hunt for the mysterious merciless creature that was terrorizing their community.

It was all autumn in fifteen eighty nine when one such patrol spotted a huge wolf like creature moving through a distant field. As the dogs chased after it, the men raced to catch up, only to see the strange creature suddenly transform into a man right in front of their eyes. The man was promptly arrested and taken immediately to a prison cell, where he was shortly after placed on the rack with his feet and hands bound. The rack was then steadily turned, stretching every sinew in the

man's limbs, until finally he confessed. The man was thirty seven year old Peter Stubb, though others have suggested he may in fact have been named Abel Grizzled. Some have also suggested his name was in fact Stump, the German word for stump. However, it's possible this was merely a nickname given to him on account of him apparently only having one hand. Stubb was known to be a relatively

wealthy farmer and a widower with two adolescent children. It had all begun when he was twelve years old, he said, having fantasized about meeting the devil. One day, he was granted his wish, and in return was given a belt made of wolf fur. From that day on, whenever he put on the belt, he was transformed instantly into a greedy, devouring wolf with a great, wide mouth full of sharp and cruel teeth. His body became strong and mighty, and his eyes sparkled as though they were made of fire.

The moment he removed the belt, he said he became a man again. His reign of terror had started modestly with lambs and calm, before graduating to young children and then adults. He did not discriminate. He even confessed to murdering and eating two pregnant women, ripping their fetuses out with his bare hands before devouring them to eating their hearts as he panted with heat and exhaustion. He confessed also to raping most of his victims and his own daughter.

His son was led out to the forest one morning, where Stub then claimed to have bludgeoned him to death before eating the brains right out of his head. All in all, it was said that Starb killed sixteen people, and on October twenty eighth, fifteen eighty nine, he was convicted of his crimes. Both his daughter and his girlfriend at the time, a woman named Catharine Trompin, were also convicted alongside him, accused of being accessories to his heinous crimes.

They were all sentenced to death on October thirty first all Hallow's eve, Trompin, and Stubb's daughter were burned alive. For his punishment, Stubb had his body tied to a large wooden wagon wheel. Next, a heavy set of iron pincers were heated up in a fire before being used to deafly tear ten hunks of flesh from his bones,

piece by piece. But this was only the beginning. Careful not to do so much that he would die or bleed to death, Stubb's torturers then moved on to the axe, not to cut him up, but to use the head of it to break every one of his limbs. With Stubb still clinging on to life, he was then finally beheaded and his body thrown onto the fire and burned

to ash. In the days following his execution, a strange monument was constructed, comprised of the wheel that Stubb was executed on, as well as sixteen yard long pieces of wood to signify each of the sixteen victims he murdered, and in the middle was a large pole on which Stubb's head was placed a little warning to anyone else who might be planning to make a pact with the devil,

or so George Bow's fifteen ninety pamphlet says. At least today, researchers have speculated that though Peter Stubb may have been real and his execution was real. It's possible his true crime was simply being a Protestant at a time of intense religious rivalry between local Catholic and Protestant factions. Perhaps, as has been suggested, his crimes were simply made up

to make an example of him. Others have suggested that Stubb was indeed a murderer, but one of a more distinctly human variety whose crimes were later portrayed as being the result of some wicked supernatural act because they were just too appalling to be comprehended in any other way. Or maybe it really was all true. This episode was written by Richard McLain Smith Unexplained as an AV Club

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