Peter Stumpp (died 1589) (whose name is also spelt as Peter Stube, Peeter Stubbe, Peter Stübbe or Peter Stumpf) was a Rhenish farmer, accused of being a serial killer and flesh-eater also known as the “Werewolf of Bedburg”. There is much confusion around his real name as ‘Stumpp’ quite possibly refers to the fact that he only had one hand. This being the case, evidence points towards his name actually being Griswold.
Understandably, primary sources from the 16th Century are scarce but a sixteen-page pamphlet exists, written in Middle English having been translated from the original High Dutch; no copy of the latter is known to exist, with this and German records lost or destroyed in the German 30 Years War of 1618-1635. Even the English copies are scarce with only two known copies, one in the British Museum, and the other in the Lambeth Library. They had been all but forgotten until the great early 20th Century demonologist and writer on the occult, Montague Summers, rediscovered it and referenced it in his 1933 work ‘The Werewolf’ (later republished as ‘The Werewolf in Lore and Legend’).
Essentially an early, shock and awe tabloid, the document recounts how Stumpp, a wealthy farmer born in the village of Epprath near Cologne, was accused of murdering and eating countless victims over a period of 25 years, as well as having an incestuous relationship with his daughter, another distant relative and a succubus sent by the Devil.
It begins:
A true discourse. Declaring the damnable life and death of one Stubbe Peeter, a most wicked sorcerer who in the likenes of a woolfe, committed many murders, continuing this diuelish practise 25 yeeres, killing and deuouring men, woomen, and children. Who for the same fact was taken and executed the 31. of October last past in the towne of Bedbur neer the cittie of Collin in Germany. Trulye translated out of the High Duch, according to the copie printed in Collin, brought ouer into England by George Bores ordinary poste, the xi. daye of this present moneth of Iune 1590. who did both see and heare the same.
A Protestant, Stumpp worked on the land, with the loss of a hand likely to have been the result of an agricultural mishap. In a somewhat Monty Python-esque manner, this doesn’t seem to have impeded his ability to successfully make money from farming. In reality, it simply meant that woodcuts depicting the events made it clear that the man and the wolf featured were one and the same, though the dismembered hand as a motif goes way back to Ancient Greece. Other names ascribed to him include Abal Griswold, Abil Griswold, and Ubel Griswold. After the death of his first wife, he sired two children with his mistress. Details of his son are lost to the ages, but his daughter is believed to have been called Beele (Sybil).
Peter had been drawn to black magic and sorcery from a young age and was known to practice necromancy. The pamphlet tells of Peter selling his soul to the devil around the age of 20 in return for a belt with magical powers – powers which could turn him into a ravaging wolf.
“the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body, and mighty paws.”
Over the course of 25 years, Peter lived a dual life, mingling happily with the locals and carousing with women who caught his eye, whilst savaging men, women, children and livestock in the most vicious manner. Such was his prodigious appetite in wolf form, he did not limit his kills to lone targets – like an alpha predator, he would attack whole groups of women and allow them to scatter, homing in on the weakest and most attainable. He would often rape them before eating them. Cattle, sheep and goats were killed and eaten raw in the fields.
Stummp made only one error, attacking a group of children and failing to tear through a girl’s neck due to her stiff collar -her scream allowed her to escape but locals had at this point vowed to bring an end to his reign of terror. Caught by a group of men scoring the woods for him, they observed him removing the belt and returning to his human form, whereupon he was taken back to his home and tried by the local magistrate.
Stumpp was strapped to a rack and through the cracking of his limbs he confessed to killing and eating thirteen children and two pregnant women, whose fetuses he ripped from their wombs and “ate their hearts panting hot and raw,” which he later described as “dainty morsels.” One of the thirteen children was his own son, whose brain he was reported to have devoured. He also confessed to conducting incestuous relationships with both Beele and another relative. The total number of his victims was not recorded but is insinuated to be a great number.
It perhaps goes without saying that Stumpp was made to pay heavily for his outrageous crimes, as was his daughter. His execution, fittingly on October 31st 1589, is one of the most brutal on record. In the square of Bedburg, he was put to the breaking wheel, where flesh was torn from his body with red-hot pincers, followed by his arms and legs. Then his limbs were broken with a hammer to prevent him from returning from the grave before he was beheaded and burned on a pyre. His daughter Beele and his mistress Kathrine Trompin had already been flayed and strangled and were burned along with Stumpp’s body.
After the executions, a real wolf’s body was hung in public, his head replaced with Stumpp’s head as a warning to anyone else contemplating lycanthropy. It is unknown how many if any crimes Stumpp had actually committed, though there is suspicion he was simply framed by local, jealous villagers.
Daz Lawrence