Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, myths, religion, strange facts or just the plain unexplainable.

This week: Cryptozoology

One might think that if France ever got its own monster, it wouldn't be overly intimidating. Maybe a giant strawberry-filled crepe wandering the countryside squirting farmers with its delicious pink innards, or maybe it would be a really angry smurf. Such simple expectations would be dead wrong, as French folklore has The Beast of Gévaudan – a bloodthirsty wolf-like creature said to be the size of a cow, with an unending taste for women and children.  

The death tolls of those two groups alone surpasses 80.

The Beast of Gévaudan was a huge wolf-like monster that is said to have ravaged France from 1764-1767. It's also said to have been comparable in size to a cow, but with a broader chest and a longer flowing tail. The head's been described as being similar to a greyhound, but with longer protruding fangs.

It was more than a typical wolf in its killing style too. As opposed to going for the throat, belly or legs, it would go straight for the human head – crushing it, or severing it all together. Another point worth noting is that the animal preferred to pass up easier prey (i.e. grazing farm animals) for their human caregivers. The death tolls generally attributed to the wolfish nightmare are 68 children, 15 women, and six men. 30 more were reported as being mauled by the creature, but surviving.

The first description of the Beast of Gévaudan came in late spring or early summer of 1764. A girl was working on a farm when she saw the creature stampede out of the woods running straight for her. The farm dogs retreated, and the girl would have been killed had it not been for the bulls that ran the savage-dog back into the forest.

The next year a group of six farmers were able to fend off the beast by staying grouped. Their survival brought the plight to the attention of King Louis XV, who sent a father-son team of his best hunters out after the beast. They brought several wolf-tracking hounds with them (thinking the creature to be nothing more than a large wolf), and worked to find the beast for some time. During the entire span of their hunt, the killings continued unimpeded.

Considering the pairs hunt to be a failure, the king replaced them with Antoine de Beauterne, who at the time held the title of greatest wolf hunter in all of France. It wasn't long after that Beauterne killed a gigantic wolf. It was almost six feet long, almost three feet high, and weighed a whopping 132 lbs – massive by typical wolf standards. Of his killing, Beauterne said:

"We declare by the present report signed from our hand, we never saw a big wolf that could be compared to this one. Which is why we estimate this could be the fearsome beast that caused so much damages."

Beauterne had the animal stuffed, and took it home where he received tremendous cash rewards and honours. The killings continued.

The death of the beast is a bit strange by all counts. A man named Jean Chastel had the honour of firing the killing shot. He's said to have been reading scripture and praying while hunting the beast, when the animal stepped out into the open, and waited for a proper end to the man's religious ceremony. Chastel patiently finished his prayer, raised the gun, and fired – killing the monster. There is no report as to whether or not the creature charged, fled, or put up any sort of resistance at all. There are also suspiciously no reported dimensions as to the creatures body – at least none that we could find.

The easy kill has lead some to believe that Chastel actually owned the beast himself, and trained it to do the horrible killings for reasons unknown. Whether that's the case or not, we'll likely never know.

Read more:

The Beast Of Gevaudan – Wikipedia

[story by Shawn Lindseth]