Cannibals (5 page)

Gradually, through lack of food and exposure, the two Indians became weaker and weaker, and eventually the party caught up with them at a small creek. Despite the protests of other members of the party, Foster took out a rifle and shot the two Indians. Even though they were close to death, the others still considered the act to be horrifying.

Armed with more supplies the party reached an Indian village on January 11. There were now two men and five women and the natives offered them clothes, shelter and, more importantly, food. The Indians were well aware that these starving people could easily die from overeating, so they were careful to only feed them small amounts, offering them thin soups made from acorns and venison meat. Despite the constant pleading from the survivors, the Indians would not feed them any more food.

William Foster and the five women were all in a terrible condition, and it was still uncertain whether they would in fact survive. The other man, William Eddy, who was also very sick, knew he had to survive in order to get help to his family who had stayed behind at the lakeside encampment. Whilst the others stayed and rested, Eddy persuaded the Indians to take him to Johnson’s Ranch, and a posse of scouts and women led what became known as the First Relief.

Despite being desperately sick, Eddy pushed on through the mountains in a desperate effort to reach his family in the hope that they had survived. However, because he was so weak and holding them back, the First Relief sent him back to Sutter’s Fort along with the draft animals.

The First Relief arrived at the camp on Truckee Lake just ten days after Mrs. Eddy had died. The snow was so deep it covered over the top of the cabins and, at first sight, the rescuers feared there were no survivors. All of a sudden, a head popped out of the snow, it was a woman called Lavinah Murphy. She was so pale and gaunt she gave the impression of a ghost, and not sure whether she was dreaming or not she asked the rescuers, ‘Do you men come from California, or do you come from God?’

The rescue party managed to take out 21 members of the party left at the lake and Alder Creek, and left enough provisions with the remaining ones that were too weak to leave.

Subsequent rescue efforts brought out the remaining survivors. There were still more deaths at the camp and some died on the torturous trip out of the mountains. Despite their very weakened state, the survivors had to make the journey on foot because the snow was still too deep for horses or mules to negotiate. The last of the survivors reached Sutter’s Fort exactly one year after their original departure from Missouri. In total, of the 87 men, women and children in the Donner party, 46 survived and 41 died.

George Donner and his wife died at the camp, along with his brother Jacob and his wife, and most of the Donner children. James Reed, having safely reached Sutter’s Fort actually led one of the rescue parties. Reed’s family managed to survive.

The story of the tragedy spread far and wide, and newspapers started to print outrageous stories of men and women who had gone mad by eating human flesh.

The site of the Donner Party encampment is now a State Memorial Park, and there is also a museum to commemorate their suffering.

Werewolves (or wolf-men) have been fabled as supernatural legends in numerous cultures throughout the world for centuries

Werewolves were always associated with a kind of madness that was exacerbated by the appearance of a full moon. The werewolf in literature is the person who acts out the stereotype characteristics of the wolf in the wild, a mental illness known as Lycanthropy. This name derives from the Greek word for wolf, ‘lykoi’, and for man, ‘anthropos’. Quite literally it is the delusion of turning into a wolf, whether through witchcraft or your own will.

In European folklore, a werewolf is a man who transforms himself at night into a wolf, both in form and appetite, and then roams in search of human victims to devour. The werewolf must return to his human form at daybreak by shedding his wolf’s skin and concealing it. If this skin should be found and destroyed, then the werewolf would die. A werewolf who is wounded immediately reverts to his human form and can be detected by the corresponding wound on his body.

Belief in ‘wer’ (or man) animals was common in the Middle Ages, and was probably a relic from early cannibalism. In 16th century France the superstition regarding werewolves seems to have been widespread and prevalent, as is shown by the many trials for murder and cannibalism, all attributed to lycanthropy. However, this belief is now all but extinct.

When werewolves are portrayed in films or books, they show physiological changes including bone structure, skin texture, and the emergence of fangs. Hair grows over the body, the nose protrudes, fangs enlarge, and pointy ears emerge from the head. The difference between the original werewolf and the werewolf of current films is not its behaviour, because that has changed little, but it is the difference in its physical metamorphosis. Perhaps the real horror of the werewolf is the mystery that surrounds it.

In France alone, between the years 1520 and 1630, some 30,000 individuals had the misfortune to be labelled werewolves. Many of these people underwent criminal investigation and torture, confessed, and suffered a vile death at the stake. For those who escaped such a fate, the trauma of interrogation must have left lifetime scars. Here is a collection of some French werewolf trials which have been recorded.

In the early spring of 1603 fear spread through the St. Sever districts of Gascony, in the extreme south-west of France. Young children had mysteriously begun to disappear from the hamlets and smaller villages in the area, and no trace was ever found. It seemed no children were safe, and even a baby was stolen from its cradle while its mother went about her work around the cottage where they lived. There was talk in the villages of wolves, but deep down inside the people knew that it was something far more sinister.

Just when fear was at its height, a 13-year-old girl named Marguerite Poitier came forward to tell of an attack by a savage beast, resembling a wolf, on the night of the full moon. The girl told the Judge that she had been watching her cattle, when a wild beast, not unlike a huge dog, had rushed out from the thicket and tore at her skirt with its sharp, fang-like teeth. She said she had been able to ward off the attack by using a pointed staff which she kept with her.

Meanwhile a 14-year-old boy, Jean Grenier, was proudly announcing to his fellow villagers that he was in fact the wolf and had hunted down and eaten many young girls. He claimed he could transform himself into a wolf by means of a ‘magic ointment’ and a wolfskin cloak that had been given to him by a black man whom he called ‘Maître de la Forêt’.

The next girl to come forward with information was 18-year-old Jeanne Gaboriaut. She told the Judge that she had been tending her flock, accompanied by Jean Grenier, both of whom worked for a farmer by the name of Saint-Paul Pierre Combaut. Jean commented that Jeanne was a ‘bonnie lass’ and he vowed that one day he would like to marry her. When she enquired who his father was, he coarsely replied, ‘I am a priest’s bastard’. Jeanne remarked that he was both rude and dirty and would never dream of marrying someone like him. To this he replied, that when he wore the wolf-skin it somehow turned him into a beast that prowled the forests by night. He also told the girl that he belonged to a coven of werewolves and that there were nine other members. He claimed that he lusted after the flesh of small children, which he preferred because they were nice and tender. When he took on his wolf’s shape and he felt hungry, he told her that he often killed dogs and would lap at their hot blood, but it was not as tasty as the flesh of young boys and girls.

The girl complained to her parents about the behaviour of Jean and told them that he frightened her with his horrible stories. However, her father and mother ignored her accounts until one day she returned home early from watching her flock, and this time she was in a state of complete alarm.

Sobbing uncontrollably she told her parents once more about the terrible stories that Jean had related to her about acquiring the form of a wolf and eating the flesh of young girls. She said she had been watching her sheep as usual, this time without the company of Jean Grenier, when she heard a rustle in the bushes behind her. On turning around a wild beast rushed towards her and tore at her clothes with its sharp fangs. She managed to beat the creature off by using her shepherd’s staff. The creature retreated a few paces and seated itself on its hind legs like a dog. She fled in terror from the animal which she said resembled a wolf, although it was a little shorter and stouter. It had red hair, a stumpy tail, and the head was considerably smaller than that of a genuine wolf.

The child’s statement caused panic among the parish, as it was well known that several young girls had vanished under mysterious circumstances of late. The case was immediately taken up by the authorities and brought before the Bordeaux parliament.

Jean Grenier was brought to court on June 2, 1603, where he freely confessed of the most hideous and abominable werewolf crimes. It turned out that Jean was the son of a poor labourer from the village of S. Antoine de Pizon, and not the son of a priest as he had so often claimed. Three months before he was arrested he had left home and had been employed by several masters doing odd jobs, or just wandering around the countryside begging. On a couple of occasions he had been hired to look after flocks belonging to farmers, but had been discharged for neglect of his duties.

When he was questioned about the missing children, he openly admitted that he had both killed and eaten as a wolf. He told of the time when he had been overcome by hunger and had entered a cottage where he had found a baby asleep in its cradle. He dragged the baby out of its cradle, carried it into the garden, leaped over the hedge, and devoured it until he had satisfied his hunger. The remainder of the body he fed to a wolf.

When he was asked to explain his actions, he told the court that when he wore the wolf-skin, as commanded by the Lord of the Forest, he would go out hunting for children. Before his transformation, Jean said that he smeared himself with the special salve which he preserved in a small pot, and then hid his normal clothes in the thicket. He said that most of his hunting was carried out during the day when the moon was at its wane, but sometimes his expeditions were at the dead of night by the light of the full moon.

Jean also accused his father of helping him and possessing a wolf-skin. He said that he had accompanied him on more than one occasion, and been present when he had attacked and eaten a young girl in the village of Grilland. He told the Court that his stepmother had left his father, and he believed the reason to be because she had witnessed him regurgitating the paws of a dog and the fingers of a child. He also added that the Lord of the Forest had strictly forbidden him from biting the thumb-nail on his left hand, and warned him never to lose sight of it as long as he was in the disguise of a werewolf.

As a result of his startling proclamations Jean Grenier was deemed by the judges to be mentally ill, and was said to be suffering from lycanthropy which was brought on by the possession of demons. He was incapable of socialization and therefore could not be executed for the crimes he had committed. He was sent off to live in a Franciscan monastery when he stayed for the remainder of his days. However, reports say that as soon as he was admitted to the monastery, he started to run about frantically on all fours and on finding a heap of raw and bloody offal, fell upon it hungrily and devoured it in an incredibly short space of time.

After seven years spent in the monastery, Jean was found to be of considerably small stature, extremely shy, and unwilling to give anyone eye contact. His eyes were deep set and darted about from side to side. His teeth were long and protruding, while his nails were black and worn away in certain places. It seemed his mind was incapable of understanding even the smallest of instructions, and by the age of 20 he was dead.

The trial of two French peasants in 1521 received widespread notoriety. The two men convicted of being werewolves were Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdum. Nineteen years before his arrest, when Burgot was desperately trying to gather his frightened sheep together following a violent storm, he came across three mysterious horsemen completely dressed in black. One of the horsemen assured Burgot of the future protection of his flock, and at the same time offered the bewildered shepherd some money. In return the stranger wanted Burgot to obey him as the Lord.

Although a little unsure of the stranger, Burgot agreed to his proposal and arranged to meet him again. In this second meeting his so-called ‘Lord’ outlined all the conditions and pronounced: ‘You must renounce God, the Holy Virgin, the Company of Heaven, His baptism and also His confirmation.’

As more and more time passed by, Burgot became relucant to stick to the terms of the pact. Then, out of the blue, he was contacted by Michel Verdum, who demanded that he strip naked and rub a magic balm all over his body. Burgot was too scared to disobey and he rubbed the ointment over his skin. As he did so he noticed that his arms and legs were starting to grow long hair, and his hands were changing into the shape of paws. Verdum also started to change shape and together the two men ran through the surrounding countryside.

In their wake they left a scene of carnage. They ripped a seven-year-old boy into pieces, killed a woman and abducted a four-year-old girl. The unfortunate girl was then eaten up by the two ravaging werewolves.

When the pair were finally caught they were duly put to death. Their picture was hung in the local church as a reminder of all the evil deeds that men could commit under the influence of Satan.

Jacques Rollet came from Caude in Western France. He murdered and ate several people before he was captured in 1598, while in the process of dismembering yet another one of his victims. At his trial he told the court that he was able to transform himself into a wolf and realizing that the man was clearly mentally subnormal, the judge committed him to life in a mental institution.

It was during the summer of 1573 that the bodies of several children who had been partially devoured, were discovered in the Dole region of France. Local peasants claimed that they had seen a strange wolf-like beast prowling the area, and that it had a face bearing a resemblance to that of Gilles Garnier.

On November 8, 1573, some peasants from Chastenoy were walking through the forest on their way home from work. Suddenly they heard the screams of a child which was accompanied by the sounds of a wolf baying. They ran in the direction of the sounds, and found a small girl trying to defend herself against a monstrous creature which was attacking her like a mad dog. She had been bitten and scratched in several places, and as the peasants approached her the wolf-like animal fled on all fours into the darkness of the thicket. It was too dark to really see what the creature looked like, but it was certainly very wolf-like, although others said it resembled the hermit, Garnier.

A small boy went missing on November 15, and shortly after this incident two girls and a young boy were also killed. Their bodies had all been ravaged in the same manner, and had been partially eaten.

In the weeks that followed the werewolf’s attacks seemed to become more frequent, and the creature also started to seek out adult victims. All the while the locals became more and more suspicious that these attacks were being carried out by the hermit, Gilles Garnier.

Alarmed by the frequency and number of the attacks, the authorities gave permission to the local residents to hunt the monster down. They started to scour the countryside for any sightings of the werewolf. It wasn’t long before Gilles Garnier was spotted attacking another one of his victims. Although he was in wolf form at the time, he was easily recognized by the peasants as the lycanthrope who had murdered several children in the area.

They described the hermit as a: