Werewolf Trials: Strange Salve

What happens when your neighbors stop seeing you as a strange old man and start believing you’re a monster?

For this special Halloween episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan travel back to the forests of medieval and early modern Europe to explore the terrifying history of the Werewolf Trials.

We’ll follow the fear, superstition, and paranoia that turned missing children, dead livestock, strange footprints, and unexplained attacks into accusations of lycanthropy. From Switzerland and France to Germany, Sweden, and Spain, we’ll meet some of the people accused of making pacts with the Devil, transforming into wolves, and preying on their neighbors.

We’ll meet Michel Verdun, Pierre Burgot, Gilles Garnier, Peter Stumpp, Jacques Roulet, Jean Grenier, and Manuel Blanco Romasanta, whose cases helped shape the terrifying idea that the monster hiding in the woods might actually be your neighbor.

But these weren’t just stories about monsters. Torture, religious hysteria, political and social tensions, war, famine, and good old fashioned fear could turn accusations into confessions and confessions into executions.

We’ll also look at where the werewolf legend came from, from ancient mythology and Norse warriors to medieval Christianity, before following the creature through centuries of European history and eventually into the modern world.

And because this is our Halloween episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring plenty of creepy storytelling, questionable humor, and a few laughs to the history of one of humanity’s favorite monsters.

If you’re interested in werewolves, witch trials, lycanthropy, the Devil, Gilles Garnier, Peter Stumpp, the Beast of Gévaudan, Manuel Blanco Romasanta, European folklore, medieval history, torture, and the darker side of Halloween, turn off the lights and join us in the woods.

Just watch out for the guy walking on four legs.

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