Peter Stumpp (c. 1535 – 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
occultistMontague 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.[1] Summers reprints the entire pamphlet, including a woodcut, on pages 253 to 259 of his work The Werewolf.[2]
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 and were probably based on the German version of the London pamphlet.[citation needed] The original documents seem to have been lost during the wars of the centuries that followed.[citation needed]
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.[3]
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.[4] Stumpp's name is also spelled as Peter Stube, Peter Stub,[3]Peter Stubbe, Peter Stübbe or Peter Stumpf, and other aliases include such names as Abal Griswold, Abil Griswold, and Ubel Griswold. 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".[citation needed] It was alleged that as the "werewolf" had its left forepaw cut off, then the same injury proved the guilt of the man. Stumpp was born at the village of Epprath near the country town of Bedburg in the
Electorate of Cologne. His actual date of birth is not known, as the local
church registers were destroyed during the
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Stump was likely a Protestant.[5] He was a wealthy farmer of his rural community.[6] During the 1580s, he seems to have been a widower with two children; a girl called Beele (Sybil), who seems to have been older than 15 years old, and a son of an unknown age.[7]
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,[8] he confessed to having practiced
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,"[6] which he later described as "dainty morsels."[9] 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.[7] Allegedly, he went out with his son into the woods, transformed into the likeness of a wolf and devoured him.[7]
Not only was Stumpp accused of being a serial murderer and
cannibal, but also of having an
incestuous relationship with his daughter,[6] who was sentenced to die with him, and of having coupled with a distant relative, which was also considered to be incest according to the law. In addition to this, he confessed to having had intercourse with a
succubus sent to him by the Devil.[7]
Execution
The execution of Stumpp, on 31 October 1589, alongside his daughter Beele (Sybil) and mistress, Katherine, is one of the most brutal on record: he was put to a
wheel, where "flesh was torn from his body", in ten places, with red-hot pincers, followed by his arms and legs. Then his limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axehead before he was
beheaded and his body burned on a
pyre.[7] His daughter and mistress had already been flayed and strangled, and were burned along with Stumpp's body. As a warning against similar behaviour, local authorities erected a pole with the torture wheel and the figure of a wolf on it, and at the very top they placed Peter Stumpp's severed head.[4]
In popular culture
The U.S. metal band
Macabre recorded a song about Peter Stumpp, titled "The Werewolf of Bedburg"; it can be found on the Murder Metal album.
The German
horror punk band
The Other recorded a song about Peter Stumpp, titled "Werewolf of Bedburg" on their Casket Case album.
In the
Pine Deep Trilogy of novelist and folklorist
Jonathan Maberry, Peter Stumpp is the supernatural villain Ubel Griswold. Since Griswold is actually one of Stumpp's historical aliases, Maberry decided to use the name of Ubel Griswold instead of openly telling people that the villain was the infamous werewolf Peter Stumpp until later on in the third book of the series, Bad Moon Rising.
Journalist and fiction writer J. E. Reich partially based their short story "The Werewolves of Anspach" on the life of Peter Stumpp.[10]
A reference to Peter Stumpp is also made in
William Peter Blatty's book, The Exorcist. When Father
Damien Karras and Lieutenant Kinderman talk about
Satanism they say "Terrible, was this theory, Father, or fact?" "Well, there's William Stumpf, for example. Or Peter. I can't remember. Anyway, a German in the sixteenth century who thought he was a werewolf".
The
direct-to-videoBig Top Scooby-Doo!, uses a portion of Lukas Mayer's woodcut of the execution of Stumpp in 1589, though in the movie no mention of Stumpp is made. The portion used depicts a man cutting off a werewolf's left paw (supposedly Stumpp in werewolf form) and a child being attacked by a werewolf. The woodcut scene shown in the film restores the werewolf's left paw and removes the child in the second werewolf's jaws, making it appear as if the swordsman is fighting one of the werewolves while another flees.
In the Doctor Who audio drama Loups-Garoux, Pieter Stubbe was in fact a werewolf. He managed to escape before he was executed and lived for another 5 centuries. He was defeated by the
Fifth Doctor in Brazil in 2080. It is implied that he ate both the
Grand Duchess Anastasia and
Lord Lucan.
The story of Peter Stumpp was also told in episode 3 of the podcast Lore, released on April 6, 2015. In 2017, the podcast episode was adapted into the 5th episode of the
TV series adaptation of Lore, where he was played by
Adam Goldberg.
Reference is made to Stubbe Peter in Chapter 17 of
Deborah Harkness's Shadow of Night—the second novel in her
All Souls Trilogy. His trial and execution are reported in a pamphlet that the protagonists take as signs that witches and vampires are under greater threat than expected. Werewolves are seen in the book as a human
fable based on sightings and experiences with the wolf-esque vampires of the book's world.
In the TV series Friends from College, Stumpp is discussed and used as a reference for a YA novel in season 1, episode 7 "Grand Cayman".
In the 2022 film Torn, the character of Peter Stube is loosely based on the historical personage.[11]
Peter Stube was portrayed as a wealthy protestant farmer who was forced to confess that he was the believed werewolf that was threatening the town of Bedburg in the novel "Devil in the Countryside" By Barclay Cory.[12]
^Orenstein, Catherine (2002) Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale. New York: Basic Books. p. 91,
ISBN0-465-04125-6
Everitt, David (1993). Human Monsters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Most Vicious Murderers. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 15–18.
ISBN0-8092-3994-9.
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.
ISBN3-929928-01-9.
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.
ISBN0-8204-3354-3.
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.