S. R. Schwalb

Beast: Werewolves, Serial Killers, and Man-Eaters
The Mystery of the Monsters of the Gevaudan
Author: Gustavo Sanchez Romero and S. R. Schwalb
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published In: New York City, NY
Date: 2016
Pgs: 316

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
In the late 1760s in south-central France, a real-life monster or monsters rampaged across the region. More than 100 people, men, women, and children, fell victim to these beasts. Wolfhunters, soldiers of the King, and members of the Court of Louis XV all were dispatched to the region to find and dispose of the monster. Exotic animal? Hyena? Werewolf? A new species? Scourge of God? Never captured, to this day, the true nature of the Beast is unknown.

This book composites the time and occurrences: historical illustrations, composite sketches, modern-day scene photographs, fictionalized accounts, newspaper reports, modern biology. Is there an answer? Can the most bizarre, unexplained killing spree of all time be solved:

France’s Beast of Gevaudan.

Genre:
Academics
Animal
Crime
History
Monster
Non-fiction
Occult
Paranormal
Science and nature
Serial Killer
True crime
Werewolf

Why this book:
Real live werewolf rampaging through 1700s France. Or a cannibalistic furry.
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The Feel:
Whatever it was that swept through the Gevaudan over those 4 years and more than 200 victims, possibly more unreported or misreported, I doubt it was a wolf...or not only a wolf.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
The accounts are very fictionalized. Things described during the Beast attacks could not have been witnessed in many cases.

Hmm Moments:
Based on how the officiate spoke at her funeral, she was not the first victim. He spoke as if certain of the ferocious beast loose among the flocks on the nearby mountainsides. Refusing to give her last rites because the body was not immediately discovered was a dick move, considering that soldiers from the battlefield were administered full rites after death. A few months prior to this first recorded and official Beast attack, there was a young woman who was herding cattle who was stalked by a wolf that came directly for her, ignoring the cattle. The cattle, acting in a way that I guess European cattle of the era were more likely to act than a modern American herd, interceded to protect their caregiver as if she were one of the herd. After the Beast gave up its attack, she described it as “a wolf that was not a wolf.” Descriptions sound rabid. Rabies has been described as far back at 2300 BC in Egypt. Could have been in 1760s France easily.

After the first(?) victim, the body count rises quickly through the summer of 1764. Victims being described as throttled and half-eaten with their belongings scattered about. Some of them being attacked in broad daylight. I’m leaning away from a wolf. Today’s sensibilities guiding me, I’m leaning on this being a serial killer cannibal: attacking in daylight, ignoring easier prey, beelining for people. Or...you know...it was a werewolf.

When the regional administrator Etienne LaFont reported the attacks to his superior, Bishop of Mende Gabriel Florent de Choiseul Beaupre Count Gevaudan, he was surprised. The Count Bishop saw the Beast as a blessing and auspicious coming as it did on the heels of the Seven Years War, livestock plagues, and strange weather patterns. The Beast in the Bishop’s eyes would serve as a reminder to heed The Commandments. Instead of acting against the Beast, the Count Bishop would drag his feet and allow lower ranks to deal with the threat, even as the body count rose precipitously. Despite the Bishop’s attitude, LaFont enlisted the Count Morainges to hunt the Beast. And as time wore on and the number of victims multiplied, he was allowed to offer a reward and, then, add more prime hunters like Captain Jean-Baptiste Duhamel.

A rogue wolf without a pack that hunts in towns and cities?

The many claims that hunters had shot the wolf only to have it fall, rise, and carry on to escape don’t ring true.

The people of the Gevaudan in 1764 were advised to “fervent prayer and sincere conversion while awaiting a hero to present himself” as the wolf ranged, killed, and devoured its victims. The Church was getting its maximum mileage out of the Beast.

Many victims were killed, but as many or more were attacked but escaped. Some without a scratch, but some with wounds. Imagine the superstitious looks these people got as the idea that this was no ordinary wolf circulated in the towns and villages.

Many of the hunters claim to have sighted the Beast. IMO, they saw a wolf, not the Beast. Same with the supposed Beasts that were killed in the two victorious hunts...out of the hundreds undertaken.

The Chastels, one set of our hunters, were purported to have occult leanings. There may have been some shenanigans going on whether occult or not. There’s a fairly certain set of circumstantial evidence that points to the 2nd Beast killed as having been a trained animal. The elder Chastel sights the beast while holding his prayer book doing his morning ablutions. He calmly finishes his prayers and puts his book away. Then, raises his rifle and kills what is supposed to be a patiently waiting monster who has killed and devoured hundreds of people. ...right? This gives credence to the rumor that the Chastels trained at least this wolf to act in the way it did, possibly in conjunction with a Bishop who was using it as a way to drive the wavering back into the arms of the faithful.

Interesting that the day the 2nd Beast/wolf is killed, the Bishop of Mende passes away. Not saying that the Bishop of Mende Count Gevaudan was a wolfskin wearing, cannibal serial killer or that he was a werewolf...but...shrug.

The concept that the Beast may have been one or more recently returned veterans of the Seven Years War, suffering from PTSD, having taken up cannibalism as a way to survive holds merit. Considering some of the non-wolf like tendencies of the Beast, this would explain some things.

There is a discrepancy in the number of victims reported. This is fairly easily accounted for, but not so easy to make exact. There were attacks and deaths preceding the first official attack of La Bete Feroce. There were unrecorded attacks throughout the reign. Some were unlikely to report an attack on a family member when the Church has labeled the Beast as a Scourge from God and do not wish to bring that shame on themselves. And with the way the hunters were using victim’s cadavers as bait, some, no doubt, hid the victim’s bodies or claimed some other cause of death to officials. And as the text noted, “peasants do not keep diaries.” Additionally, not sure what language was spoken in the Gevaudan, but numerous mentions are made of reports being translated into French. Details could be lost or become muddied in this game of telephone.

WTF Moments:
The first image on the facing page of the Foreword is from a pamphlet entitled “La Bete du Gevaudan Identifiee.” The drawing on the cover of the pamphlet is a man in wolf fursuit with fangs. The image from today’s sensibilities comes across as both creepy and comical.

Reports were made of things heard in confessional, up the chain in the church hierarchy, not to local law enforcement, in this way the Church maintained control. The way the historical accounts read, the Bishops and father confessors didn’t want the Beast killed too quickly since it was driving the pious further into the Church’s embrace and the non-pious as well. Fear was a motivator as the Beast began killing the adult and the young, and in the city as well as the fields and mountain vales.

How big would a rogue wolf have to be to dismember a victim, tear their arm off in a few minutes time? Would a wolf decapitate their victim and carry the head off, leaving it somewhere to be found the next day?

It’s a royal crock that after the Royal Gunbearer and Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, Francois Antoine, and his nephew, Rinchard, gamekeeper for the Duke of Orleans, killed a wolf that was either believed to be the Beast or purported to be the Beast so that the nobles involved could go home in September 1765 that when the killings started up again in December 1765 no one would report it to the court because the court-approved Beast had already been killed. The killings after September 1765 are much less well documented because those doing the reporting didn’t want to face royal displeasure. The king’s scepter must have been very small for there to be no room to be wrong. In 1765, they killed a wolf and chased the other wolves of its pack to their demise. I suspect that they did not kill the Beast. The similarities in the attacks and the fact that these types of attacks were never recorded before tells us that the Beast of December 1765 forward was the same beast. Its fondness for decapitating its prey tells us that if nothing else. But the hunts from later on would not feature nobles from across France, because the royals had put the suffering of the Gevaudan behind them.

While there are suspicious acts on the parts of those responsible for the hunts, the things that are telling to me are the Beast’s “almost” human crying out when shot at and attacked and when victims are discovered and their clothing is neatly piled beside the body or found in a shed nearby. Also, the purported to have hissed at cattle and herd animals to keep them out of the way as it went for its human prey. A hissing wolf...really?

If you try to visit the stuffed

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
The Brotherhood of the Wolf was based loosely on the Gevaudan Wolf. Every Little Red Riding Hood story or Big Bad Wolf story could have elements of the Gevaudan Wolf in them, but
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Last Page Sound:
I believe that there was a Beast in the Gevaudan in the 1760s. I do not believe it was a wolf. I believe it was a cannibalistic serial killer who undertook a reign of terror across the region and was never caught. I lean hard on this precept. I believe that La Bete Feroce was a serial killer or series of serial killers using a wolf motif and, perhaps, acting in concert with or under cover of a genuine wolf pack or packs that were actually menacing the Gevaudan region of France. The clothes in a pile exonerates the animals to my mind and puts this horror firmly at the feet of humans.

The book tries to scientifically pin the Beast on the wolf. Other Beasts of Europe are shown to have probably been big cats. However neither big cats or wolves are known for undressing and stacking their victims clothing either after eating them or before. Though mentioned, short shrift is given to the idea of serial killer(s) being behind the majority of the attacks of La Bete Feroce.

Author Assessment:
I would definitely give other books by these authors a look.

Editorial Assessment:
The editing was fine.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
really good book

Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library - South Campus
Irving, TX

Dewey Decimal System:
001.944
SAN

Would recommend to:
genre fans, historians
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