The Talamasca Files - Part Three

Hello again Everyone,

And Welcome to the third part of a series of threads that look into myths and legends that have played with our imagination for centuries.

Werewolf stories go back as far as the second century BC where Zeus turns Lycaon into a wolf, a punishment for a crime, Lycaon having murdered a child. Books written on the subject could fill a library by themselves, while just focusing on the medieval myths, where the best and scariest legends come from.

Hollywood has had a feast with the subject, pun intended, bringing us movies that appeased our hunger for a good thrill along with the psychological boost of adrenaline to excite our taste for fright. Movies such as An American Werewolf in London, Silver Bullet, Wolfen, The Howling, or Wolf with Jack Nicholson and let us not forget the most recent and famous Underworld trilogy and more romantic teenager targeted series of Twilight.

Even though the movies, books and publications are enjoyable on a fictional level, this thread and the files below are somewhat different, as they relate events that have really occurred, in real life and in some cases, still do today. The files range from 1591 to just recently and as with the two first parts of the Talamasca Files, are up for discussion.

Disclaimer – These threads are for entertainment purposes only. The cases that will be displayed for discussion are very real yet I would ask every member that wishes to participate in the discussions to do it with respect, civility and decorum. Topics such as witchcraft, spirits, werewolves and vampires are highly speculative yet, those same topics have enriched our world with works that have piqued our curiosity and to this very day, still do, in many ways. Discussing pro or con is essential but I would ask that it would be done with respect. Thank you.

=============================================

[align=center][color=gold]The Talamasca Files – Part Three – Werewolves[/align]

=============================================

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/us50db45a0.jpg[/atsimg]


There are five amazing cases that I bring forward. From various parts of the world, five cases that have survived the test of time and have become famous, cases that have frightened thousands of people back then, cases that have seen hundreds upon hundreds of good citizens killed and mutilated in the most horrific ways. True events.

They are as follows:


[color=gold]The Peter Stubbe File

The Gevaudan File

The Morbach File

The Welsh File

The Brazilian File


Hope you enjoy.

The Peter Stubbe File

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/dv50db4a3d.gif[/atsimg]

The Bedburg Peter Stubbe Monument

The first recorded hearing regarding a werewolf took place in 1591. Europe at that time was a place of dark superstitions and fear. Towns were few and people lived near forests and untamed areas of wilderness. Fear of wolves ran rampant throughout the populace as wolf attacks became more frequent. It was not uncommon to find human limbs and decaying corpses as a result of wolf attacks and people began to fear traveling from one place to another. Numerous attempts were made at quelling the vicious beastly attacks but to no avail. Then one day something happened that would forever change the views of man. The villagers of Cologne and Bedburg Germany made a discovery that altered the course of history for wolf and man.

Having cornered a wolf in town and set their dogs to hunt it, the wolf didn’t run or try to escape but faced them and as he did, it shifted back to a local citizen, whom they recognized. Peter Stubbe.

Stubbe was arrested and charged. He then told the story of having made a pact with the Devil and confessed to killing two pregnant women and thirteen children.

Stubbe then went on to describe how he would find his victims, common villagers, how he hunted them, captured them and mutilated or devoured them. According to him, the Dark Lord had granted him the brutal power and strength of the wolf and Stubbe would use it in the most horrible way.

His most frequent victims were young girls that milked the cows in the fields or tended herds. If they were in groups he would chase them as a hound chases a rabbit, and catching the slowest one he would then rape her and kill her. Upon her death he would sometimes drag her body to a safe place drink of her hot fresh blood and eat of her tender flesh.

Except for his own son, which he had killed with enormous violence, cracking his skull open and eating his brain while it was still warm. Everyone in Bedburg were shocked, the citizens, the court, the magistrates. How could a man kill with such violence, such violence unheard of to that day?

His trial was brief and the guilt sentence was quickly reached. He would be tortured, skinned, beheaded and dismembered in front of the populace and a monument would be erected to never forget the atrocities committed by Peter Stubbe, the wolf man, or as the legend mentions; the first recorded werewolf.

Read more HERE.

To this day, no one knows the true story. Except for the testimony of the farmers who had seen Stubbe change from a wolf to a man, this part of Germany’s history is still a mystery.


~Continued on next post

The Gevaudan File

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ki50db452b.jpg[/atsimg]

The Beast of Gevaudan Monument

This is most probably the first account of a werewolf attacking a man who would later, himself, transform. It is also the first account where a werewolf was killed, not from mere bullets as they would only hurt him but, with silver bullets. And finally, these horrible events first started on, you guessed it, a moonlit night. If this is a myth, then at least, now we know where those three werewolf legends come from.

It all starts with Count Getulio Vargo, in the early 1760’s. The Nobleman had been caught attacking and raping a young twenty year old gypsy woman and as he was being given a serious beating by her two brothers that had come to her rescue, one of those gypsy brothers placed a curse on him. A curse that would turn all of nature, all of the wilderness, against the Count so that he may never rest.

The lustful count laughed nervously as he fled, but thirty minutes later, a wood chopper saw a strange grey-furred overgrown beast, like a wolf, but standing on its hind legs, watching him from a forest clearing. The beast roared and charged towards the woodman, who was too terrified to run. Thankfully, the huge animal - which was larger than a bear - ran past him and closed in on a caped figure who had been strolling down a lane. This figure was the Count Vargo, just five minutes away from his home. The lupine monstrosity seized its terror-struck human prey with its huge foaming jaws and shook the body as if it were a rag doll.

Well, that must’ve hurt...

The Count had been seriously wounded but he made a miraculous recovery and went missing a month later. Everyone thought that he had been going insane from his encounter with the creature, after all, he had been demanding to be served very very rare cooked meals and had also been found eating a raw leg of lamb, during a night where one of his servants kept an eye on him.

A second month passed without incident but on a Sunday night, in june of 1764, the howling began. A howling so loud and penetrating that it terrified everyone that heard it. A woman had seen the beast and gave a description that seemed very comparable to the first sighting, earlier in the year.

And as the months went by, the killing spree began along with the biggest werewolf hunt in all of recorded history. As livestock and human beings were being slaughtered, taking no consideration if they were men, women or children, the “Beast of Gevaudan” as it was nicknamed terrified everyone as all villagers from the surrounding municipalities would start barricading themselves indoor.

As a woman was shredded apart in front of her two brothers, who tried to harm the beast without success, an old man came to the scene, where the woman had been left there, mutilated, her head being bitten off as for one of her brother’s four fingers, a horrific carnage to which the old man concluded:

'This is not the work of a wild animal. It is the work of a werewolf. There were werewolves in these woods and mountains when I was a child.'

As dozens upon dozens of victims would still fall prey to the creature, Captain Duhamel sent 57 of his best soldiers on the hunt. The horror continued, often times right under the nose of the best soldiers Duhamel had chosen. The news finally made its way to King Louis XV, who sent Denneval, a wolf hunter who had no less than captured and killed over twelve hundred wolves.

In May 1765, rumors went around that the beast had been killed. A wolf had indeed been killed but the ravages went on. The King called back Denneval and sent Antoine de Beauterne, the King’s personal gun carrier, to replace him in the hunt. As rewards were getting higher and higher, so did the hunter counts and so did the beast attacks. Finally, an end was put to the legend, or so they thought, as a gigantic wolf was shot and killed. Naturalists called the creature a rare type of overgrown wolf, measuring over six feet in length and weighing more than a hundred and forty pounds.

Victory was celebrated but the killings continued, only to be stopped by a brave hunter by the name of Jean Chastel, who had been given blessed silver bullets, who then shot and killed an even bigger creature than de Beauterne’s.

After saying 'You will kill no more,' he opened fire and hit the animal in the head. The gigantic wolf-like animal fell dead instantly. Some accounts say the second Beast was thrown on a bonfire, and that on the spot where it was killed, the grass still refuses to grow.

Count Vargo was never found, and his fate remains a mystery.

Read more HERE.


Can you imagine what it must have been like? I can’t and don’t want to...


~Continued on next post

The Morbach File

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ld50db453b.png[/atsimg]

The Morbach Monster Werewolf Shrine

Here is another interesting case from Germany, that happened hundreds of years ago yet still makes the headlines today.

Sightings of werewolves in the town of Wittlich, Germany, have gone on for hundreds of years, and there is one werewolf in particular that brings the fame. The werewolf is famously known as the “Morbach Monster” (Monster Von Morbach), and is believed to be a real werewolf local to the area.

A friendly word of advice: If you ever decide to visit the Morbach Shrine, on a full moon night, make sure that the candle in front of it is lit.

The legend says that a deserter from Napoleon’s army fled with a group of Russians and went to the town of Wittlich and that one of the soldiers, Thomas Johannes Baptist Schwytzer, attacked and killed one of the farmer residents and his wife. Before dying, the farmer’s wife had time to put a curse on the soldier, a curse that would force him to transform into a werewolf on every full moon night.

After a killing spree, however, the creature is caught and killed.

The villagers then set up a shrine at the site with a lit candle that they burn on the night of each full moon. Legends hold that as long as the candle burns, the werewolf will not return.

A pretty ordinary werewolf tale up to that point, except for what was to happen, in 1988. A group of American military men, having been stationed near the Morbach Air Force base, having heard about the rumours and legend of the Shrine, decide to visit. Noticing that it is a full moon night and that the candle is not lit, they laugh it out until what seems to be a werewolf is spotted. They send their dog which clearly smells something but refuses to pursue.

Many believe that the coincidence is just too great, and that the creature that was spotted was the infamous real werewolf – the Morbach Monster.

Read more HERE.

Anyone feel like visiting a Shrine this year, on a full moon night?

The Welsh File

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/wc50db48b1.jpg[/atsimg]

Welsh under the Moon Light

This case is from the United Kingdom at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Records of an enormous wolf-like animal in north Wales date back to 1790, when a stagecoach travelling between Denbigh and Wrexham was allegedly attacked and overturned by an enormous black beast almost as long as the coach horses. The terrifying animal tore into one of the horses and killed it, while the other horse broke free from its harness and galloped off into the night whining in terror. The attack took place just after dusk, with a full moon on the horizon.

Comes the winter of 1791 where a farmer witnesses the creature firsthand. The beast had killed or mutilated all of his cattle and sheep, leaving a field covered with blood and the corpse of his sheepdog, its throat shred open. The beast turned to look at the farmer but he had time to run back to his house and lock himself in before the banging on the door and walls started. Terrified, only holding a pitchfork to defend himself, he had time to see the creature eye to eye, through the window.

Its eyes were blue and seemed intelligent and almost human-like. The beast foamed at the mouth as it peered in, then bolted from the window to commit wholesale carnage on the farm.

The farmer was found inside his house, terrified and the outside scene was a total horror as the snow had been replaced by pools of blood.

Each of the sheep were left as pelts of wool with a head attached, lying flat on the snow like a woollen mat. The animal had even eaten sections of the animal's spines, and no one had ever seen a predator do something like that before.

For years, all hunters could find were track. It took seven years before the horrendous howling began. A screeching sound that froze everyone’s blood. Two men that had seen the beast before arriving to an Inn refused to go back out till morning.

The next day, two mutilated bodies were found, a few miles from the Inn. One of the man’s skull had been cracked open and only a huge and powerful jaw could have done something like this. An anonymous letter was sent to the local minister, mentioning that a werewolf was on the loose.

Strangely enough, the activities stopped, as suddenly as they had started, up to 1992. Lambs were found, torn apart and more than seventy more sightings occurred, from 1992 to 1994. The London Zoo gave advice on how to capture the animal and cages were put up, in hopes of capturing the beast.

The thing did go into one cage, but when the door sprung shut, the animal pulled two steel bars open and escaped. London Zoo said some lunatic must have helped the animal escape, but the farmer said that the animal had pulled the bars apart itself. London Zoo experts said no known animal could have done something like that, even a grisly bear.

The werewolf or beast or creature of whatever you wish to call it hasn’t been captured yet. This case is still investigated and unresolved but...

From the pattern of sightings made after 1995, it seems that the so-called 'Welsh Werewolf' is steadily moving eastwards towards Cheshire and Merseyside...
Keep to the road tonight...

I would absolutely agree. Read more HERE.


~Continued on next post

The Brazilian File

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/jf50db4503.jpg[/atsimg]

Full Moon over Brazil

Werewolf sightings are rare since the beginning of the century but Tauà in Brazil has had so many of them over the last few years that it has been called “The Werewolf Capital of South America”.

On Monday, July 7, 2008, on the night of a new moon, a woman reported seeing a werewolf near her home – a being that was half-wolf half-man. On the following day, a twelve-year-old boy told police that he also saw a werewolf near his house. That was just the beginning.

People there that have witnessed the creature report that it is accompanied with a strange smell of sulfur and even the priests are now recommending to pray and to carry crucifixes at all times.

A woman was attacked and one of her legs wounded. The wound has been confirmed.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/dz50db4515.jpg[/atsimg]

Kelly Martins Becker

The inhabitants of São Sepé, Rio Grande do Sul, [Brazil] have one more reason to fear Friday the 13th. Besides the bad luck and the strange happenings during the day, a ‘werewolf’ is supposedly at large. One of the possible victims, a 20-year-old, recorded her complaint in the police.

According to the police, Kelly Martins Becker claims to have been attacked in the night of January 28 by an animal that looked like a big dog, that was standing on its back feet and walked as if it were a man. She made a sketch of the creature.

The police has arrested a suspect and have told the media that it’s just some folks wearing wolf masks to scare the locals and steal their sheeps.

It might be the case but to me, this young girl doesn’t look like a sheep.


Read more HERE and HERE.


This concludes this third part. The fourth and final part will look into the fascinating and folkloring world of vampires. Fiction, heresy, fantasy or reality...could be. But some cases are disturbing.

Thank you for reading. All comments are welcome.


~Son.

Reserved by mistake. Apologies.

~Son.

reply to post by SonoftheSun


I have really enjoyed all of these posts. Very interesting reading. Looking forward to part 4.

Also, I am a HUGE Anne Rice fan and love your avatar

reply to post by newsoul


Thank you for your kind words !!

Glad you enjoyed ! Next and final thread will be on vampires lore. A real Anne Rice territory...

reply to post by SonoftheSun


Awesome, thanks for that. Werewolves have always been my favorite of the classic monsters. When I was a boy in suburban Maryland, there were tales of a beast known locally as the dwayeo or dwaeyo or something to that effect. My neighbors claimed that it killed their chickens and so forth and that they had seen the thing in the surrounding woodlands. It was described as a large half-wolf half-man but it differed from the classic werewolf in that it was thought to be tied to a native American belief system rather than a European one. I can remember being really scared by these stories when I was a boy.

reply to post by wtbengineer


Glad you enjoyed wtbengineer !!

Werewolves are a classic indeed, that fascinated many generations. Who could ever forget Michael Jackson's Thriller? The first werewolf movie that I've seen was The Howling, back in the early eighties. That was just a movie and it scared the heck out of me so I can imagine your fears as they were told by people of your surroundings.

After seeing the Howling, if people in my area had started talking about werewolves in the area, I would have stayed indoors for a while haha..

Great reply, thank you !!

What an excellent collection,I'd heard of the Peter Stubbe case and the Welsh case but the others are new to me.

It seems the moral of the story is don't upset gypsies or country folk with the power to curse.lol.

reply to post by fastbob72

It seems the moral of the story is don't upset gypsies or country folk with the power to curse.lol.

Touché !!

Glad you liked them !!

reply to post by SonoftheSun


I started on Part three first, and had to double back on the first two.

Again, its a pleasure to read these.



On to part 4.

reply to post by sonnny1


Glad you liked it so far Sonny !!!

reply to post by SonoftheSun


I really enjoyed the series.

Very well presented, and many of the stories I never heard of.


Will you be doing other series like these?

reply to post by sonnny1


I think so. I like the idea of a monthly Talamasca File that touches the subject of the month's holiday such as Valentine or St-Patrick...Halloween

I started looking into stories that also touch supernatural topics in different ways that the Talamasca did.

We'll see.