Werewolves: Real Shapeshifters Among Us

This episode of horror story contains gore, torture, and the death of children. Listen her discretion, it's advised. Ishtar was a goddess of love and war in ancient Mesopotamia. She was powerful and had many faces. As a goddess of love, she was responsible for all of life, but as a goddess of war, she also dealt with a lot of death. She was celestial and believed to be planet Venus. She was complex and confusing, beautiful and terrifying. She was known to have many lovers, but she was cruel to a lot of them. She had her eye on one man, Gilgamesh. He was a hero and a king, someone worthy of her attention. But unlike other men, he was not interested. He had heard about the way in which Ishtar treated her lovers. There was this one shepherd. He was devoted to Ishtar. He loved her. He brought her a gift after gift, trying to win her over. At first, she welcomed his advances. She loved the attention, but after a while she grew bored of the shepherd. Ishtar then decided it would be more fun to turn the young man into a wolf. The very same creature that his dogs are supposed to protect against, and then she saw as his dogs ripped them apart. This topic has been seen as pure fiction in the past, but what I'm about to tell you through real cases, will make you think twice about the existence of werewoods. My name is Edmund, and here's a horror story. The story of Ishtar and the Shepherd turned into a Wolf is one of the oldest cases of a man turning into one. It's found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to twenty one hundred BC. It tells the tales of adventures of Gilgamesh, the king of an old kingdom called Uruk. It's supposed to be a series of true stories about King Gilgamesh, and sure, sometimes these stories are exaggerated to sound more epic, but in these tales there's always a grain of truth. Could the tale of the shepherd turned wolf have some grain of truth to it? Stories of men shape shifting into bloodthirsty wolves have persisted from the Greek myth of Leikan, who was turned into a wolf by Zeus, to the Middle Ages, and even to this day. Children were going missing in the fifteen seventies in the town of Dol in eastern France. The kids that did turn up were found completely mutilated. It horrified the authorities and the community. They had no idea what was doing this, but they knew it had to be something evil. Townspeople formed mobs and controlled the roads during the night. They hoped to find this creature before it killed another child. One evening, a group of men came across a wolf carrying a dead child in its mouth. They chased it, but when they caught up to it, there was no wolf, only a man. It was Giles Garnier. No one in Dole knew him very well. He had just moved there with his wife, and he kept to himself. He was a recluse. They accused him of lycanthropy and witchcraft. During his trial, Giles confessed. He said that he was having trouble providing for his family. It was only used to feeding himself, and when he and his wife moved to Dole, he was struggling was causing trouble in his marriage, so he went out hunting every night, but rarely found food. During one of these nights, an entity appeared in front of him. It promised to ease his trouble. Take this ointment you will never have difficulty hunting again. And when he applied the ointment, it turned him into a wolf. And it was true, and his wolf form hunting was a breeze. Finding normal prey became too easy. He started looking for excitement, and he found a new exciting catch. Humans. He would stalk and murder at least four children between nine and twelve years old. The first night he used the ointment to turn into a wolf, he came across a ten year old girl. She was walking when he caught her. He dragged her into a vineyard outside of town, strangled her, removed her clothes, and bit her. He ripped the flesh off her arms and everything, and when he was done, he transformed back into a man and took some of the flesh back home. His wife had no idea and so she cooked it. She was thinking that Giles had finally had a good night hunting. One month later, during the night, Giles used the ointment again while roaming in the outskirts of Dole as a wolf. That's when he came across another girl. He bit and clawed at her. He was going to kill her, but some of the villagers walked by and chased him off. Unfortunately, the girl died a few days later. One month after that, Giles did it again. He stocked a ten year old boy. When he found his moment, he attacked. He bit and clawed and dragged the boy deep into the woods, and there he tore the skin off the boy's thighs and belly. He pulled the leg off til later. And he kept doing this for months, always at night. He stalked another boy, jumped at him to attack, but was interrupted by some villagers. Giles managed to escape. He found a different boy who was not so lucky, though then he savagely attacked, ripping his praised body in half. His last victim was a girl. He quietly followed her, and when he found an opportunity he pounced. He ate her flesh and bit her leg off to take to his wife. The villagers that interrupted a few of his attacks came forward. During his trial, they testified Saint Giles, in his wolf form, attack, kill and devour these children. Giles Garnier was found guilty of phlycanthropy, the transformation of a person into a wolf, and witchcraft. He was burned at the stake on January eighteenth, fifteen seventy four. There is no shortage of werewolf stories from the fifteen hundreds in Europe. One of the most disturbing cases is known as the werewolf of Bedburg. Women, children, and livestock were going missing in Betburg had been this way for decades. The Bedburg had no idea who or what was behind the disappearances, but there were sightings of a wolf, and just like in Dull, France, the villagers formed mobs to haunt the creature down. The wolf hunt went on for several days with no luck, and finally a pack of dogs caught a whiff of something. They all ran in one direction. The dogs were after something, the mob followed, and when the mob caught up to the pack of dogs, they were confused. The dogs hadn't cornered a wolf. It was none other than Peter Stubb, a local respected farmer. Peter was wealthy and in his sixties. He was widower. His wife had passed away and he was raising his two kids alone. No one expected to see the farmer, but Peter was arrested and he confessed he was the werewolf behind all the killings. Back when he was twelve, he made a pact with the devil, the devil gave him a belt that gave him the power to shape shift into a strong, greedy, and devouring wolf. With that belt, Peter could finally give in to his darkest desires. He had been killing ever since. Then. Anyone in Bedburg was fair game to Peter, anyone that insulted him, anyone he found annoying, or just someone who happened to be walking by. After he was done brutally attacking his victims, he shaped shipped back into his human form and returned to town. He often attended his victim's wakes and pretended to mourn with them. He killed countless sheep, goats, and lambs, two pregnant women, and fourteen children over the years, including his own son. Peter only confessed to everything after he was viciously tortured. Just heads up, this is pretty brutal. He was placed on a wooden rack, his limbs were tied down, and then he was stretched until his limbs were almost torn off, and that's when he confessed. Still, there was a confession, and Peter Stubb was found guilty. He was executed on the thirty first of October in fifteen eighty nine. His daughter Beale and his lover Katherine were killed too, and his killing is one of the most barbaric executions that have ever come across. Bill and Catherine were flayed and strangled. Peter was placed on a wooden wheel, his flesh was torn from his body with red hot pincers. The blunt side of an axe head was used to break every bone in his body, and after all of this he was beheaded. Then Peter, Biale and Katherine were all burned together. The stories of Giles and Peter are both from the fifteen hundreds, so it's easy to dismiss it as hysteria from the time. Back then, werewolf hunts were just a as common as witch trials. Some of these could have been forced confessions. But also how do we explain more modern werewolf sightings? I have these bizarre stories right after this stay with me. Bill Ramsey was your average kid. He was born and raised in South into Essex in England. Everything was normal until he turned nine. He was playing in the garden when he suddenly felt like he was freezing. Even a sweat seemed to freeze on his skin. That there was a foul smell that almost made Bill throw up. There were only two things on his mind at that moment, the ocean and wolves. His mother called his name and he snapped out of it, but only for a moment. He then felt rage, something he had never felt before. He actually wanted to hurt his mother. He ripped a fence posts from the ground, growled, and then began to swing it around. His father ran to him and tried to stop Bill, but he couldn't. Bill was too strong. Bill started gnawing on the wire mesh of the fence post and growled. His mother kept crying, and her cry snapped the Bill out of it, but it didn't last. When his parents asked Bill what happened, the rage returned. He snapped his jaws, growled and clawed. His parents ran inside and locked the door, and he eventually calmed down, but by then his hands were bloody and scratched. The family didn't speak about this moment again. Life went on for Bill, and for the most part it was fine, uneventful. He had strange dreams almost every night. In these dreams, he was a wolf and he was running free in the wild, but he ignored them. He grew up, got married to a woman named Abby, and had three children, but during the first two years of his marriage, the nightmares returned. The dream was always the same. There was a few steps behind Abbey. She was never facing him. As he walked up to her, she turned around and screamed in terror. The dream stopped for a while in nineteen sixty seven. For a few nights, he felt at peace, but then he woke up one night and heard the panting of a wild animal inside his own bedroom. There was nothing there. He was a wild animal. And this happened for years. Then in nineteen eighty three, things escalated for Bill. He was out with some friends at a bar and after a few drinks, Bill felt the same icy chill took over his body. He ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. The face of a wolf looked back at him. He needed to leave, and so he went to his friends and told him that he didn't feel too good. He agreed to leave, and on the drive home, without warning, Bill growled and tried to bite his friend. They stopped the car and tried to get Bill to calm down, and eventually he did and they got home. The three men did not speak about what happened that night. Later that year, some time in December, Bill started feeling pain in his chest. He thought he was having a heart attack, and then went to the emergency room. When his blood pressure was being checked, Bill turned his head and bit the nurse. She screamed and he let go. Then he ran through the hospital with his shoulders hunched over and his hands curled like claws. His lips were bared like a rabid wolf, and he knocked over anyone that got too close to him. It took a team of people to overpower him, and while he was subdued, a police officer managed to handcuff Bill, but that wasn't enough to stop him. He needed to be tranquilized. He woke up in the morning and the episode was over. Bill checked himself out of the hospital, but he was back in two months. They felt the same pain in his chest, but when he arrived at the emergency room, he lunged at an attendant at the hospital. Four police officers arrived and surrounded Bill was growling and snarling at them. They were able to cover him and take him down to the police station. One of the four officers ended up with severe injuries and was hospitalized. By the time Bill got to the police station, the episode was over. Bill seemed normal, rational and in control, and so they let him go. Episodes like these stopped for a few years, but the nightmares didn't. He dreamed of being a wolf, or that his wife screened in horror when she looked at him. In nineteen eighty seven, Bill found himself in the same police station again. For some reason. He made a citizen's arrest and detained a teenager when he parked his car. He ran into the station and he felt a chilling cold and then a pain in his che A policeman approached Bill, and while he questioned him, he touched Bill's arm and the wolf inside Bill took over. He threw the police officer to the ground and began to choke him. He took a dozen police officers and two tranquilizer injections to stop Bill. Bill was hospitalized for ten days and underwent countless tests, and no one knew what was wrong with him. Somehow, renowned demonologist Ed and Lorrain Warren heard of the south and Werewolf. They happened to be in London when word about Bill got to them. Lorraine believed that Bill was possessed and contacted the South End police station. The Warrens convinced Bill to come to their church in Connecticut. He arrived in nineteen eighty nine, and the night before his extorcism there was another episode. The wolf had surfaced again. Bill tried to attack his wife while she slept, and it took a team of people to stop him. The next day, an exorcism took place. Bishop Robert McKenna spoke in Latin and for half an hour, but nothing happened. Then Bill's appearance changed. His face contorted, he buried his teeth, snapped and snarled. He brought his hands to his face and curled them like claws. He tried to attack the bishop, and while a group of men held him down, Bill actually calmed down. The wolf was gone. Bill Ramsay's last known appearance was in nineteen ninety two. He disappeared after that. No one knows if he is alive or dead, but there have been no reported wolf rampages in South and since then. Ed and Lorraine Warren believed he was possessed by a demonic entity, but Bill maintained that it was not a demon, that he was a werewolf. South End Essex, England might have been saved from their werewolf but in twenty twenty, the town of Koita was plagued by werewolf sightings. It began in December of twenty nineteen in a different town. There were reports of a werewolf roaming around Ohuilapa, Chiappas, Mexico, and soon the story spread until they arrived in the next town, Kuita. In April twenty twenty, farm animals were found dead. Then at night, people kept hearing strange sounds, howling, thumping on rooftops, and the pitter patter of running paws. Panic was growing. The local facebook page Koita Millinario was flooded with comments and posts of werewolf sidings. People described a hairy creature that was almost seven feet tall and could jump nine feet in the air. The smell of sulfur surrounded the air just before the wolf appeared, and it seemed that bullets could not hurt it. Mobs formed to patrol the streets of Koitai in search of the werewolf. In the outskirts of Goita, a group of seven friends were hanging out around the campfire. They had heard rumors of the werewolf, but they didn't believe any of it. They were drinking and laughing around the fire, when suddenly they heard something approaching. The smoke from the campfire was too thick. The group of friends could not tell what it was, but then, out of nowhere, the werewolf jumped into their circle. They tried a fire at it, but it escaped into the darkness, but it left behind footprints. The footprints were too large to belong to a human or a dog. The distance between each one was at least ten feet. On the night of April tenth, shots were fired from the neighborhood of Barrio Nuevo in Quita. Four police officers responded to the shots. Although reports of the werewolf had been going on for a few days, this was the first time police were actually investigating. As the four police officers were searching the neighborhood, officer Alfonso spotted something. It looked like a wolf. He watched as it jumped over a fence that was seven feet tall and then onto a rooftop. They followed from the ground, watching it jump from rooftop to rooftop until it ran into the woods. A few days later, eight men that lived near the mountain started patrolling the streets with whatever weapons they could find, bats, rifles, and machetes. During their patrol, the air grew extremely cold. The temperature drop was unnatural. The smell of sulfur surrounded the men and they could hear footsteps getting closer. There was a strange mist and they heard a menacing growl. It was a werewolf. The men with rifles began to shoot, even though they could not see it. Then they heard a yelp and saw it run away into the wilderness. Sightings and talk of the werewolf diminished by June of twenty twenty. The last sightings came from locals that lived on the edge of Kuoita, near the caves and woods. Some locals reported seeing a skinny, weak, hairy man near the caves. They believed it was a werewolf who probably died inside one of them. In Mexico, especially in this region, there's a belief in a certain type of shape shifting being. It's not quite a werewolf. It's a man that has the ability to shape shift into any animal. Usually it is a wolf, but there are stories of men shape shifting into oscillotes, panthers, dogs, and even goats. A man with this ability to shape shift is known as an awai. According to legend in order to get this ability, they have to make a pact with a devil. Some believe the werewolf of Kuita was not actually a werewolf. They say that it was a young man who hadn't properly learned the ability to become a nawai because he didn't know how to turn back into a man duck in his wolf form. The man was then shot by one of the many locals who fired at him. They say that then he grew weaker and weaker until he had no choice but to hide in a cave where he died. Tales of men turning into bloodthirsty wolves are as old as time, and still the idea dominates pop culture today. It sounds impossible for werewolves to exist, and yet we have accounts like those from Koita. Even if werewolves are not real, people believing themselves to be werewolves are very real, and that can be just as horrifying. If you found this episode interesting, be sure to share it with a friend. You can tell me what you thought about it by reaching out. I'll leave my contact info in the description of this episode, although you can also find me on TikTok and Instagram at edwynd Cove that's e d w I nco V. This episode of horror Story was researched by madel Inguera and written by Christina Lamaghi. Up next, check out Scary Story podcast, where I tell you creepy scary stories to listen to at night. You can find Scary Story podcasts by searching for it on your podcast app right now. Thank you very much for listening, Keep it scary everyone, See you sooner