Peter Stumpp ( – 31 October 1589; name is also spelt as Peter Stube, Peter Stubbe, Peter Stübbe or Peter Stumpf) was a German farmer and alleged serial killer, accused of werewolfery, witchcraft, and cannibalism. He was known as "the Werewolf of Bedburg".

Sources

The most comprehensive source on the case is a 16-page pamphlet published in London in 1590, the translation of a German print of which no copies have survived. The English pamphlet, of which two copies exist (one in the British Museum and one in the Lambeth Library), was rediscovered by occultist Montague Summers in 1920. It describes Stumpp's life, his alleged crimes, and the trial, and includes many statements from neighbours and witnesses on the crimes. Summers reprints the entire pamphlet, including a woodcut, on pages 253 to 259 of his work The Werewolf.

Additional information is provided by the diaries of Hermann von Weinsberg, a Cologne alderman, and by a number of illustrated broadsheets, which were printed in southern Germany. Contemporary reference was made to the pamphlet by Edward Fairfax in his firsthand account of the alleged witch persecution of his own daughters in 1621.

Life and career

Although the exact place and date of Peter Stumpp's birth is unknown, examining sources likely puts it near Bedburg, Germany, around 1530. Stumpp's name is also spelt as Peter Stube, Peter Stub, The name "Stump" or "Stumpf" may have been given to him as a reference to the fact that his left hand had been cut off, leaving only a stump, in German "Stumpf". It was alleged that as the "werewolf" had its left forepaw cut off, then the same injury proved the guilt of the man.

Stump, who likely was a Protestant, was a wealthy farmer in his rural community. During the 1580s, he seems to have been a widower with two children: a daughter called Beele (Sybil), who seems to have been older than 15 years, and a son of unknown age.

Accusations

During 1589, Stumpp had one of the most lurid and famous werewolf trials in history. After being stretched on a rack, and before further torture commenced, he confessed to having practised black magic since he was 12 years old. He claimed that the Devil had given him a magical belt or girdle, which enabled him to metamorphose into "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." Removing the belt, he said, made him transform back to his human form. After his capture, he told the local magistrate he had left the girdle in a "certain valley". The magistrate sent for it to be retrieved, but no such belt was ever found.

For 25 years, Stumpp had allegedly been an "insatiable bloodsucker" who gorged on the flesh of goats, lambs, and sheep, as well as women and children. Being threatened with torture, he confessed to killing and eating 14 children and 2 pregnant women, whose fetuses he ripped from their wombs and "ate their hearts panting hot and raw," One of the 14 children was his son, whose brain he was reported to have devoured. Stumpp loved his son dearly, but in the end, his bloodlust prevailed.

  • The 2023 thriller film Torn has a main character named Peter Stube who is fighting his inner demons, and the werewolf folklore of a small town.

See also

  • Gilles Garnier
  • Hans the Werewolf
  • Henry Gardinn
  • Manuel Blanco Romasanta
  • Werewolf of Châlons
  • Child cannibalism
  • List of German serial killers
  • List of serial killers before 1900

References

Further reading

  • Anonymous (1590). London (original English version).
  • Everitt, David (1993). Human Monsters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Most Vicious Murderers. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 15–18. .
  • Farson, Daniel and Hall, Angus (1975). Mysterious Monsters. pp. 53–54 (argues for Stumpp being innocent).
  • Kremer, Peter (2003). "Plädoyer für einen Werwolf: Der Fall Peter Stübbe", in Wo das Grauen lauert. Blutsauger und kopflose Reiter, Werwölfe und Wiedergänger an Inde, Erft und Rur. Dueren. pp. 247–270. .
  • Punset, Eduardo (2006). "El alma está en el cerebro" (punto de lectura). Redes, RTVE.
  • Sidky, Homayun (1997). Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs, and Disease: An Anthropological Study of the European Witch-Hunts. New York. pp. 234–238. .
  • Various (2009). "The Bogeyman's Gonna Eat You: Albert Fish, The Vampire of Brooklyn". America's Serial Killers: Portraits in Evil. Mill Creek Entertainment.
  • English translations of the German Cologne and Nuremberg broadsheets.
  • Truthful and Frightening Description of the many Sorcerers or Witches – English translation of a 1598 Cologne pamphlet.