Adeptus Ridiculous - THE BEAST OF GÉVAUDAN: THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WOODS | Detective Ridiculous

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

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everybody, it's us. We're here to talk to you about crazy world things. Welcome to Detective Ridiculous. I'm still a little under the weather, but that's still good for me because D.K. is doing all the words. Before he does all the words, go to Patreon.com slash that's ridiculous to get amazing content such as Discord access, bloopers, posters, etc., etc. And check out our Black Friday deal, which has only a couple of days left this year to snag. down in the description to orgadate.com. Buy two things. Get 20% off your whole order.

Get some of those posters. Get some of those posters. They're selling quick. Mm-hmm. All right. D.K., last episode, we did Mothman. Mothman with his glowing red eyes

and his haunting wings. And maybe he exists. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe not even a he. So maybe I mean I mean could you know Adrogynous Mothman of course Yeah could be an alien that doesn't even understand The concept of gender

Could be the the The scene from Spongeball that you don't understand But Shai probably does where Karen says 50% moth 50% man Yep don't understand it Yep I hate that I hate you All right so if the last time was Mothy Man

What is today Well today on Detective ridiculous, we are indeed heading back to the mysterious world of cryptids. We're doing another cryptid today, and if you didn't see our previous episode on Mothman, which you should, shy put one of those little card links in the top right or whatever, cryptids are sort of these mysterious creatures that no one has any real solid evidence to prove their existence, but through folklore, unconcerned eyewitness testimonies, and rumors of their existence, they are still widely believed to be real. Stuff like Bigfoot, Loch Ness

Monster, El Chupacabra, Moth Man, stuff like that. Anyway, the topic of discussion for today is one that I had never heard about until Shai suggested it. It is the beast of Jevoudon. The what? The beast of Jevudon. Is it French? It is indeed French. Wow, I could have never imagined. Your favorite place.

France. I love France. Yay. Yay. Yay. Okay. I have never heard this before in my life. I haven't either.

Shai gave like a list of cryptic she was thinking about and I was like, what the fuck is the beast of Jevoudon? So let's first set the stage for the beast of Jevoudon. The time period is around 1764. And also, there are going to be a ton, a ton of French names that I am about to butcher the ever-loving hell out of. That's okay. I'm sure they won't mind. There will never be a French person who will be upset that we don't know how to pronounce their names.

I promise. Okay, okay. So again, the time period is around 1764, and we're in the Mergerid Mountains in the Provincial. of Jevoudon, situated in kind of sort of south-central France. You won't find Jevoudon on a modern-day map, because after the French Revolution, it became the Department of Lozère. Hopefully I'm saying that right. So in this time period, the seven years war had ended about a year ago, and France is not doing too great economically after Léth,

losing a huge chunk of their land to the British. But Jevoudon consists mostly of kind of peasant farmers, lots of cattle, sheep, goats, oxen, stuff like that. I remember hearing a source say that something like 70% of the people in Jevudan at the time had a flock of sheep that they used for their income from like the wool, stuff like that. taking their animals to pasture, milking the cows,

tending the farmlands. That was really the only way these sort of peasant farmers could make ends of meat and make any sort of living. Like even the children, there were like eight and ten-year-olds

that would tend to animals, melt cows, take them out to pasture. They couldn't afford not to. It was their livelihood. So we're in mega-poor. Like not just 1700, poor. Like, we're in pores. Oh, yeah, we are in poor.

Like, it's 1700s, and their economic situation is very bad. This is post-seven years war where they lost and, ooh, things are not looking good. Yes, post-losing war poorer. Yeah.

It's a time. It is a time. They need some, like, Austrian painter guy to, like, help them pull out of that, you know? Oh, boy. But historian J.M. Smith described Jevoudon as having a reputation of being a remote, isolated, backwater area where the forces of nature had not been fully tamed, where the forests were indeed enchanted. But in the early summer months of 1764, the beast of Jevudan would. make its first appearance. A woman named Marie Jean Valais was taking care of her cattle

when the beasts seemed to appear out of nowhere and began to charge at Marie. She claimed that it looked like a wolf, but also not a wolf. It was a massive canine-like creature that was said to be the size of a horse, or even like a small bull. It had sort of this elongated snout, like sort of like a greyhound. Some reports said it might have even been like a whart hogs snout, and it had this long, wide, gaping mouth. Its fur was reddish-brown with a long black streak down its back, and sort of like this heart-shaped pattern on its underbelly,

this white heart-shaped fur pattern. It also had this long tail with a tuft of fur at the end of it. Think of like a lion. tail. The, I'm sorry, what is a, a, a warthog is like a, like a large bowl, like a pig kind of thing, right? Yeah, it's like a large sort of like pig deal. And some people said it kind of had that snout like a whart hog has. A lot of people said more like a greyhound, but I've heard some say it was like, oh yeah,

this thing's like a fucking warthog. So, so like, it's like the really big kind of flat nose. Because the, the warthogs have the giant tusks. So it's like just the nose kind of part of it. Yeah, yeah, just that sort of elongated, long, weird nose. And a long red stripe of fur on its back? So the back has a long black streak running down it, and the rest of its fur is sort of like reddish brown.

Okay, so there's a black, okay, but not not bloodied, like just like a red, like a burgundy. Exactly, kind of like that picture that Shai just posted. Okay, oh my God. Yeah. And so this thing is bearing down on Marie. Now, I have heard some stories that say Marie had a shepherd dog with her. You know, the ones that sort of make sure the herd stays together, stuff like that. And while Marie loved this dog, and it seemed like a pretty loyal dog,

that dog caught one glimpse of the Beast of Jeboudon and tore the fuck out of there leaving poor Marie all alone. However, the cattle were actually much more loyal than her dog because the bulls in the herd actually defended Marie from this horrible beast. Let's go! Yeah, some sources say that the bulls literally formed a circle around her to fend off this massive, unknown, canine-like creature. So, bulls were a lot more loyal than the dog, and actually did manage to hold off the beast of Jevoudon,

so it couldn't harm her until the beast was just like, oh man, I don't want to have to fight off all these bulls to get to this woman. Fine, I guess I'll leave for now. Even cryptids get lazy. Let's go. Yeah, even, well, I mean, he's fighting off like a herd of bulls, and he's trying. He's really going at it, but he just can't get through this sort of phalanx of bulls. There is another instance of a Marie with the same name that we'll talk about later on, so we'll get back to her. But sadly, a young girl Le 14 named Jean Boulet would not be as fortunate as Marie.

While tending to her family's sheep, she would become the first recorded victim of of the Beast of Jevoudon. This was near the village of Le Huboubaks. I don't know if I said that right, but whatever. Whose box? Who's on first? L-E-S, space, H-U-A-C-S. Le-Huba.

Yeah, okay. No, no, I got nothing. That's a tough one. And the Beast of Jevudan was a savage killer. It would always go right after the throat and head of its victim, and then it would start mangling the body from the neck down and sometimes just completely decapitating its victim. In fact, there were reports from villagers that actually saw the beast

trotting into a forest with the human head clutched in its mouth, as if parading it around like it was some sort of sick trophy of the kill. And for the rest of the year, the Beast of Jevoudan, would brutalize this backwater area with repeated attacks in which it would seem to primarily target only women and children. And let me reiterate that. The Beast of Jevudan was primarily targeting women and children. It was specifically hunting humans,

and it seemed to be hunting them purely for the sport of it. So, okay, because, like, not, I don't know, there's no way to, there's no way to say this nicely, because not, like, tough fucking farm man who's going to put an accident kind of thing, or, or like, just, they were out in certain areas when the guy was out working maybe, and then they were like alone. So it's like, you know, num, numb, numb, numb, num, there are a few instances of the Beast of Jeboudon hunting lone men. Um, but, you know, I, I don't know. I guess the beast just thought they were really easy prey. A lot of the times women and children would be alone, because maybe the man has to go into town to work.

So maybe just the women and children were often alone, tending the land and stuff, and they were just easy targets. Could just be that. I'm canceling the beast of Shevoudon. Wow, canceled. Canceled. But yeah, there were basically

no reports of the beast of Jevoudon ever targeting or feasting on the livestock. The beast seemed completely indifferent to the animals and wanted to only hunt humans. Now you might be thinking, well, whatever, this just sounds like wolf attacks, whatever, we've heard of that. Problem with that is the people of Jevoudon had been tending the land and their animals their entire lives. They've had to deal with predator attacks, wolf attacks on their animals and their land before. They know what a wolf is and how a wolf acts. And all the survivors or anyone that caught a glimpse of the beast of Jevudan was certain that this was not a wolf. It was something different, it was something new.

It was some sort of canine creature they've never seen. I remember hearing a source say that some of them even suggested that this thing had back legs like a horse. It was also suggested because of how frequent these attacks were, and they were happening over a large area, that this was not specifically the beast of Jevoudan, but the beasts. of Jevoudon, like it was some sort of pack, like they were actually a pack of unknown animals that were just terrorizing this countryside. And it's either that or this one beast could appear and disappear at will, regardless of distance. You said that they were attending this place their whole lives. What was the wildlife out there?

Like, were there wolves or were there, like, bears? Oh, yeah. They've had to deal with wolf attacks. I'm sure they've had to deal with bears. they were going through the forest. Because like Shai said, they are surrounded by woods in this sort of mountain area. So any manner of wildlife, they've probably had to deal with before. Sure, wolves are uncommon because, yeah, they usually avoid humans. That's not a normal thing for a wolf to do. Straight up go after humans.

But, yeah, I'm sure they've dealt with everything that a forest could throw at you. And they're still like, yeah, no, this is not a wolf. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. Now, you might also be thinking, well, just don't go outside. Problem solved. Just stay indoors and wait for this thing to pass, obviously. But when you remember what we talked about earlier,

if they didn't take their animals out to pasture, if they didn't milk the cows and tend their land, they would starve. They lived off the land and their animals. It's how they got by in this crippling post-7 years war, France. Just staying inside wasn't an option. If they didn't leave their home, they would starve. If they did leave their home,

there's a chance that they would get mangled, absolutely mangled and slaughtered by the beast of Jevoudon. Wait, so this is just... Wait, this is just most, this is like living in Chicago. You can't work from home, but if you go outside, you get shot. I suppose this is just a prehistoric Chicago. Prehistoric Chicago, the 1700 Chicago, which I'm assuming was like a Native American thing at the time. But wow, that sucks.

So you're in Uber Megaporesville. You're in, you're in dumpy dump wood zone. And it's like, hey, by the way, half of your friends have had someone mangan angle to death by this horse dog wolf thing. And if you don't, but if you don't go outside, you're going to die from starvation. That sucks ass. Yeah, that's, and what's even worse is that there are actually some reports that had the beast literally killing a woman while she was gardening right smack in front of her home.

So you didn't even have to go far for this monster to find you and rip you to shreds. You could be just in your front yard, just la-di-da-di-da, let me do a little gardening and womp, this beast comes and bites your fucking head off. So, yeah, it was rough. A little bit? A little bit. It should also be noted that at the time there was this real, real asshole of a bishop from a place called Mende. his name was, and boy am I going to butcher this, Gabriel Florent de Chosuel Bopri.

Oh my goodness gracious. Yeah. I love French names. I love the French. But he started putting out like this sort of religious newsletter paper thing that basically said he knew exactly why the Beastie, of Jevoudon was there. He knew why it was attacking

the people it was attacking. Because it was a tool of God's anger. God was angry with the loose morals and the sinful attraction that was becoming popular among girls and women. So he sent

the beast of Jevudan to punish those sinful soul. And as you can imagine, this only made things worse and made the citizenry even more terrified that they had somehow incurred the wrath of God and were dealing with like a crazy supernatural monster that they couldn't stop unless they prayed just a little harder. Yeah, essentially, as Shai said, oh, your wife got in by the beast? She deserved it. She

had loose morals. She was showing a little too much skin. She wasn't going to church enough. She wasn't praying enough. She got what was coming. to her essentially. Jesus Christ. Yeah, he was a real piece of shit. But of course, you know, this is the 1700s time. Like, the wrath of God was kind of just the thing. And I guess a lot of people were a lot more like, you know, as long as we know,

as long as we know something is more important than anything else. Yeah, as long as you have something to blame, I guess, it feels like maybe we can actually fix this. Yeah. Oh, well. Also, quick side note, there's this German band named Powerwolf that did a bitching rock song about the Beast of Jevoudon. Oh, I love Power Wolf. I know that band.

Oh, you know Power Wolf? Yeah, I know Power Wolf. Oh, nice. It just came out last year. Oh, it's recent. Yeah, and I only bring it up now because a lot of the song is actually about how the Beast of Jevudan is like a creature sent as God's rassons. Like the main lyric of the chorus is, To the father and the son came the beast of Jevudan.

Half wolf and half machine, to the prior and the nun, came the beast of Jevudan. That's pretty cool. Yeah, and stuff like Ascend like thunder to tear down the enemies of God. So this modern song that was released last year is really, really playing up the way the clergy at the time saw the beast of Jevoudon as God's wrath. It's a redeemer, believer, and all fatal mad and mean. And it would have been a whole, or it could have been a whole lot worse.

Because like we said, Jevudan is this remote little backwater place that kind of nobody cares about. So you have to wonder who's going to help these poor peasant farmers. Well, newspapers at the time were struggling something real fierce, because previously they made all their money and all their sales reporting on the seven years war. Because, of course, reporting on the current status of a war is really going to sell papers. Everyone wants to know how the war effort is going, if they're winning, if they're losing, what the hell is happening. but when France basically lost and the war ended, there wasn't really a whole lot left to report on. And then you add on to the fact that a lot of the news was being censored by the king

because he didn't want everyone knowing how bad France was doing after they lost the war, newspapers not having a great time. But when they got wind, that a horrible beast on the country, was murdering and terrorizing women and children and Jevoudon? Man, that was a story they could print and sell. And they used that as sort of like the first instance of true crime reporting on the mysterious happenings of everyday people. And they were right.

News spread all over France about the beast of Jevoudon, how it was hunting and killing people in this remote little part of the mountains. Like the news spread all over France about the beast of Jevudan, how it was hunting and killing people, in this remote little part of the mountains. Like, the news became so widespread that even King Louis of France heard about the Beast of Jevoudon and had decided, you know what? I'm going to do something about it. And not personally, I'm assuming. Oh, of course not. He himself is not.

No way. He's a king. I was like, yeah, no way. He's above doing something. Well, I guess even him paying any mind to. the poor peasants in Poresville is actually kind of nice of him in a weird way. In a weird way, well, I was about to go into that because I'm sure a lot of people were wondering the same thing about like, why the hell would the king give a shit about some

little remote backwater place like that and their weird little like animal attack problems, right? Like we've already said a couple times, the seven years war really fucked up, And the king saw this as a chance to finally, finally have some good news for France and at least have a small victory that would maybe bolster the morale of the country. Kind of like, oh man, this is an easy dub. I just got to hunt down some random wolf and then we can all feel real good about ourselves for ridding France of a monster. Easy. So, the king sends out an infantry captain named Jean-Baptiste du Hamel. He was the first captain of the Claremont Prince Dragoons,

which is just a fancy way of saying he was a mounted infantry man. Oh, wow, okay, that's, damn, that was like, you sound like a period of guard regiment right there, some fancy, fancy shit, he's like, yeah, he's just a dude on a horse. Yeah, pretty much. The dragoons were just mounted infantry man Because I thought the same thing I was like oh shit dragoons Is this guy a spearwielder?

Does he jump into the air? No, he's just a mounted infantry man. Motherfucker. Yeah. And he also sent a regional government delegate named Etienne Lafant. And Duhamel was so excited about the prospect of this hunt

because he was a part of the Seven Years' War and he had some shame and dishonor and a little sorrow over the fact that France didn't win. He was a part of the loss and I just, ah, damn it. So Du Hamel was like, all right, if I can hunt down this beast, if I can get this monster that is terrorizing the people of France, I'll get my honor back. And I can hold my head up high once again. And you gotta understand how hard do Hamel try to brute force this thing to happen in his favor? Reports say that the estimated number, at its height, of volunteers he had looking for this beast,

were upwards of 30,000 people. He had people combing the forest, he had them on patrol, anything he could think of to get rid of this beast. but no matter what he tried, the beast of Jevoudan not only alluded him and his men, but it continued slaughtering and killing the people of Jevudan. I'm actually genuinely shocked at this point

because at this point, I've already gone so far past pack of wolves and, like, bear at this point, because, like, holy shit, it just keeps going. It keeps going. Is there a body count for this thing, or will you get it?

to that later. I will get to the body count later. Certainly. Okay, because holy hell. But Duhamel would get so desperate that when they found a new victim, instead of cleaning up the mangled body, he would leave the body there, hoping that the beast would come back to feast on the remains of its victims. He would even leave this awful poison in the victim's body so that But if the beast did come back to eat the remains, it would be poisoned and die. Okay, right, kind of a little metal, but I see where he's coming from. Yeah, he's desperate. He really wants to catch this thing.

In another act of pure, pure desperation, Duamel had his troops start cross-dressing. He wanted them to look like women because he knew. that the Beast was primarily only attacking women and children. So if his men looked like women, hey, maybe the Beast will try to attack one of them and then we can just jump the fucker. God, God, damn it. I'm sorry.

It's just, I'm sorry. It's just, I don't know what it reminds me of, but it reminds me of, oh, never mind. It's just, I'm just imagining like a fucking Frenchman up and like full drag. Just like, you-hoo! Beast, I'm here. Look at these tender thighs. So incredibly delectable. So delicious.

I hope nobody feasts on my delectable body. And then they take a cigarette out, they take a, like a fat drag. Oh. Oh, the things I do for a paycheck. And alas, none of it worked. And the beast continued killing. While seemingly, this thing seemed to know exactly where Duhamel's men were. It just, it kept killing and it was never were due. It's almost like it had insider information

somehow. I do also remember there was one source, I think it was a podcast, that said that the British had made a joke of this effort, sort of this tongue-in-cheek joke where they were like, oh, it figures that over 30,000 Frenchmen can't find and capture one stray dog. No wonder they lost the war to us. And so it was just sort of another... It was like a whole extra little bit of like ha-ha-poke-poke on them.

Yep, it was just a whole other layer of ha-ha, you lost the war and now you can't catch a stray dog. Losers! God damn it. Yep. Yep. And even though Dohamel's forces had the numbers,

they weren't really the brightest. And the villagers weren't really cooperating too much with them. I guess there was some kind of language barrier and they weren't really great at communicating. Like, I remember hearing a story where Duhamel and his forces finally did end up tracking down the Beast of Jevoudon, and they started chasing it.

And Duhamel was like, oh, finally, I'm so ready for this because where we're leading it, it's like near this river or some kind of body of wall, and he's like, damn, I know I have a group of men stationed there and they're patrolling there. They should be lying in wait for the beast. We've got the perfect pincer enacted. Oh, finally luck favors me. Unfortunately, there were no men stationed where Duhamel thought they would be

because those men hadn't shown up because they thought the weather was too poor and they decided to stay home. Oh, I was so ready for you to be like, They didn't show up because they were all dead. Dead! By the beast. No, it was just, oh, it's pretty rainy. I guess we don't want to go into work. I'm just going to chill.

Damn it. Oh, it's been so funny. I know. Which means the Beast of Jevoudon once again slipped right through Duhamel's fingers. What a derp. Yep. And during this time, there were a few notable survivor stories

because everyone that the Beast of Jevoudon attacked didn't die. There were survivors. So I'm going to kind of circle back around to Jean-Marie Valais, the one we talked about at the beginning of the episode, the one where the Bulls protected her from the Beast of Jevudan. So I'm not sure if this is the same person or someone that just happened to have the exact same name. but in 1765, a person named Jean-Marie Valais was crossing a river when the Beast of Jevoudon again suddenly appeared behind her.

It started to charge after her, but Jean-Marie had been carrying a makeshift spear for self-defense, either because she was the same one from the beginning and she was like, oh, I need to defend myself, or because at the time, it was just the smart thing to do, since everyone knew the beast was roaming the area and looking for women and children. I was about to say, like, I'm pretty sure the answer is, oh my God, we're dying. Yes. So she thrust the spear into the chest of the beast as it charges at her, and the beast puts a paw to its chest and lets out a horrible roar before rolling off the spear and vanishing into the river.

There's even this really cool statue in Alver's village, France, that depicts the moment Jean-Marie plunged her spear into the beast's chest. A source also says, yeah. Sorry, that's a dope-ass fucking statue. I'm not going to lie. That statue is so fucking cool.

I love that statue. It's obviously very old, and the details aren't great, but it's just the concept. It's really dope. It's so cool. I would have loved to have seen that thing when it first got made,

and it was just like in all of its glory. Oh. But a source said that, when her spear was examined by locals, it had like three inches of blood on it from how deeply the spear penetrated the beasts hide. Another popular survivor story was actually about a group of kids. I think they were somewhere in the range of like eight to 12 years old. So this group of like eight friends were tending their animals, hurting sheep, I think,

when the beast of Jevoudon would attack them, it would get home. hold of one of the kids, but the group was able to sort of fight it off with some more makeshift steers made out of sticks and crude metal. But as the story goes, while the beast couldn't drag this first kid away, it still managed to rip a big chunk of his cheek off and just swallow it whole. The beast would continue its attack, and although the brave kids again kind of formed like this phalanx to try and keep it at bay, it would snatch a little girl and drag her off. Now at this point, the kids

were like, well, that kid is dead. Let's get the fuck out of here. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. However, I'm not saying, they got Jimmy. Bye, Jimmy. Bye, Jimmy's dead. Good, good luck. However, a 10-year-old

named Jacques Portifé would not let their friend be mangled and killed by the beast. It was said that he rallied his friends and said, We're going to rescue our friend or die trying. And that's, that is one brave 10 year old, because I know for goddamn fact that 10 years old,

I would have pissed myself and run the other way screaming. Well, at the same time, also kids have like, well, I guess it's a little bit different back to them. I was going to say like movie, movie mentality where they're like, oh, they can't get us. Like, we're young and strong kind of thing. Yeah, they're like the goonies. Yeah, kids are fearless when they're young. but I don't know if it's a little bit different in the 1700s,

but I mean, I guess like 10-year-olds in the 1700s were more like 15-year-olds because they had to mature so much faster. That's true. They had to work a lot earlier. They had responsibilities to the family a lot earlier. Yeah. Not like actually, like, stronger or anything, but like, you know, they had a different mentality, I guess.

Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. What's even crazier is that Jacques and his friends were actually successful in managing to chase the beast down. and save their friend. From the stories I've heard, they couldn't really pierce the beasts hide, but they just kept pestering it and prodding it

and just little stab wounds, sort of like die from a thousand scratches. And they were just such a nuisance, and they were just so persistent that the beast eventually gave up on killing the child and just retreated without feasting on the kid that it had stole. bro this is literally the goonies what the fuck

yeah it is it's the goonies what is the stranger things like fucking crap here where they're all just like poke it stab it with the fucking stick yeah every source that I heard talk about this was like yeah this is the goonies this is just straight up 1700s goonies somehow oh my god

okay and news of jacques bravery would spread like wildfire and would even reach the ears of king louis again who was very quick to send a reward of 350 livery. I have no idea what the conversion for that is, but it's a lot of money. He sent that to Jacques, and he sent another 300 livres to split among his friends who helped him fend off the beast. And Jacques would receive a proper education that would be paid for by the state, which is a pretty big deal in the 1700s.

That actually doesn't make sense because, yeah, because people are dumb. Yep. And this was one of the stories, the story about Jacques, that actually spurred the king to send Duhamel and his company to try to track down the beast and sort of sensationalize the story of Jacques's. He could portray the boy a sort of local hero to the French people. Because again, seven years war crippled them, and boy, did they need a hero.

Now, again, you might be thinking that this still kind of just sounds like a string of unknown wild animal attacks. There were some people I heard think that this was a lion that somehow escaped a zoo. Because I guess a couple months or years earlier, there was a train crash that was carrying a circus troop. And maybe there was a lion in there, and maybe the lion got free. and maybe now it's just only starting to resurface and apparently hunt humans, although I'm not sure if that's a normal lion thing to do. Some people think maybe it's a hyena, because sometimes hyenas can be a lot more savage than wolves.

I've heard people say it's probably not a hyena because this region of France got really cold in the winter, and apparently hyenas don't do well in the bitter cold. So, I mean, really, at the moment, most people think it's just this pack of never-before-seen animals in the 1700s. That's just wrecking shop. Thing is, though, whatever the beast of Jevoudon was seemed literally unkillable. There were instances where someone would come face to face with it and actually shoot it, and the beast seemed. completely unaffected and unfazed by the bullets.

There were reports of the beast being shot, slumping over, and then just popping right back up like it got some crazy second wind. We've already talked about the numerous mortal spear wounds that it suffered, and it just keeps coming back over and over again. And again, a lot of people think that it's just some pack of wild animals, and it just keeps coming back over and over again, It's a different animal every time. But the problem is

there were never two of these animals cited at the same time. And if it was a pack of animals, it wasn't attacking as a pack. There were never multiple versions of the Beast of Jevoudon that were ever seen at the same time. So it's really unlikely that it's actually a pack of animals because it's not acting like a pack. Anyway, so getting a little back on topic here,

Du Hamel is having no success whatsoever in taking down the beast of Jevudan. All of his plans are being foiled. The beast will not stay dead, and it is still slaughtering and reigning terror in Jevudan. So King Louis decides to send in some legit. wolf hunters, thinking that instead of sending more soldiers, he should send some experts that do this thing for a living. So the Kings... What a concept. Wow. Right? Why do you do this from the start?

Yeah, well, yeah, I guess they're not really... I guess Mr. Dragoon, badass guy didn't necessarily do a great job at it, so... No, he was not doing well at all, so... No, no, no, no, no. Um, so the king would send, and this is another mouthful of French that I'm about to butcher, uh, he would send Jean-Charles Mark Antoine Vasimel de Anvel. Oh, wow, Zunthai. Holy shit. And his son, Jean-Francois. Thank God. Thank Christ. Thank God. God's killing all those people with, with the damn beast.

and now he finally can get some pronounceable names. Finally, just Jean-François. And the strategy of the Jeans couldn't have been any more different than what Duhamel was doing. Like, Duhamel was trying to use brute force and just overpowering numbers to try and, like, smoke out the beast of Jevoudon.

While the Johns were actually doing this like hunters, they were following the tracks. they were noticing patterns. They were bringing in bloodhounds, specifically designed to hunt wolves, to try sniffing out the trail and being as stealthy as they possibly could with a few seasoned hunters.

So, for the next four months, the father and son tried to hunt down the beast of Jevudan. And from all the stories they heard, from all the evidence they had, they believed that they were hunting a Eurasian wolf. That's what they thought was the culprit. And like with every other effort to take down the beast, the father and son failed.

And the beast of Jevoudon continued its reign of terror for that entire four months. Failed as in they died from it or failed as and they just couldn't kill it? They couldn't get it. They couldn't kill it. They couldn't stop it. That's, hmm. I'm sad.

Yeah. You wanted them to be eaten? Well, that would be for a better story, but no, I was hoping they would actually, I don't know, anything. Actually, yeah, I did want them to be eaten. That'd be kind of great. That'd be kind of great. It's like in Jaws where they send him the best fish guy and then he dies. And you're like, oh, my God.

Oh, my God, not the fish guy. Our expert has died. It's like a classic. Now it's time for a real hero to save it. Go get Ellen Ripley and she's going to fuck up. this beast. And Shai posted a couple pictures of what a Eurasian wolf looks like. Just if you need a, they're very fluffy.

Yeah, they are pretty fluffy, aren't they? If the one on the bottom wasn't giving me those eyes, I'd give it a pet. Yeah, that one on the bottom looks like he's ready to bite someone's head off. But he's so like fluffy. He's so fluffy. It's so fluffy. It's so fluffy. All right, go ahead.

So I got to believe that this solidified. in the father and son's mind that they weren't hunting a wolf at all. Because, I mean, they were using tried and tested methods specifically for hunting wolves. And if I remember correctly, the father with the long, complicated name, De Anval, he had hunted and killed like 1,200 wolves in his career. So he knew what he was doing, and he was very, very good at his job. so if he couldn't find it, he was like,

yo, maybe this ain't a wolf at all. So, things are getting a little adeptus ridiculous in the eyes of the king. Ah ha ha ha. Ha ha. Like, how can this goddamn be still, not be captured or killed? I have sent so many people after this thing. In June of 1765, the king was finally like, okay, wolf hunters, you're not getting the job done.

I'm sending in someone new that I trust. Although some sources claim that the father and son wolf hunters were just so frustrated that they kind of just gave up and the king had to send in someone new. So, the king sends in his lieutenant of the hunt, Francois Antoine, to try and somehow deal with the beast. And there was quite a bit more pressure on Francois. because he was far more attached to the king's name than just some random wolf hunters. He was a rifleman and lieutenant of the hunt under the king. If he failed, then the king failed. And if the king failed, well, then his already decreasing image gets even worse in the eyes of the people,

and you don't want that. So with all that pressure, Francois would take some of his men, hounds that were literally picked from a royal hunting pack and his son into the woods of the countryside looking for the beast. Surprisingly, in September of 1765, Francois would shoot and kill a massive gray wolf after hearing rumor that it and its pups were lurking in the nearby forest. And this great, when I say massive, this thing was over a hundred, pounds and it was six feet long.

The story I read about the killing of, oh, go ahead. Six fucking feet long? Six feet long and over a hundred pounds. This was a mammoth of a grey wolf. I actually must say, I feel like, is it a hundred pounds a bit light for six feet? I feel like it'd be heavier for six. I'm six feet tall. Oh, I'm six foot three, but like, like, I'm not like.

Lake? I don't know. I don't know how heavy dogs normally are. Wolves are kind of slender-ish. I don't know. It's a big wolf. It's a big wolf. It's a big wolf. It's a big wolf. It's a big wolf. It's a big wolf. The story I read about the killing of this wolf is kind of crazy too. Like Francois had his musket and this thing is full of gunpowder. It has one of those iron balls in it and it has just a shitload of.

of shrapnel in it that they literally called wolf shot. And Francois shoots this thing at the wolf and managed to shoot the wolf in the eye with the iron ball and actually shredded this thing's shoulder with the shrapnel. But this mammoth of a wolf, even though it got shot in the eye and its shoulders just ripped apart with shrapnel, it's still charging at him. And according to Wikipedia, it was an... Antoine's cousin who shot the beast again as it charged Francois, and the wolf finally just kind of stuttered and stumbled for 25 more yards

before finally falling dead. And this would be September 21st, 1765, if you needed a specific date for timeline purposes. Interesting, okay. Naturally, Francois is feeling pretty fucking great. right now. His hunting party did the king proud and we killed the beast of Jevoudon. What a

big dub. So, of course, we got to get this thing stuffed and preserve so we can send it back to the king as a trophy. Problem was when they opened up the beast, there were no human remains in its

belly. So could it really be the beast of Jevudan? Did they actually? kill the fabled beast? But some of the victims would come forward and attest that this thing looked kind of like the beasts that attacked them, and they were pretty sure this thing had scars that they had given it when they defended themselves from it. Naturally, this still made Francois a little uneasy, and while he and his hunting party

received massive rewards, titles, and fame for killing what they thought. was the beast of Jevoudon. Francois wanted to stay in Jevoudon a little bit longer. He wanted to take care of a possible mate of the Grey Wolf and any pups that might still be in the area that could cause problems, just in case. And on October 17th, the whole family of wolves were finally slayed by the hunting party, the mate, all of the pups, they were all finally. killed.

And Francois felt pretty damn confident that these wolves would no longer be a problem to the small little Jevoudon. Only problem is... Oh dear. The attack started again on December 3rd,

1765 in the same fashion as before. God, fucking damn it. I genuinely thought we had a legitimate end to the story. Like this actual like, oh, they've done it.

We've done it. Oh, my God. Nope. The attacks continued on December 3rd, 1765. But this time, the poor villagers of Jevoudon would see no help from the king or the nobility.

The king did not want to hear any more news of this goddamn beast. As far as he was concerned, Francois killed the beast. of Jevoudon and I've got its corpse sitting in my trophy room. Ha ha! We win. End of story. Okay, so it no longer became about actually helping the poor, became about being like, we did it, we did it, ha, yo, yo, yo, yo, yeah.

Hooray, we won. Victory for France. La-di-da-di-da. Yep. Oh, okay. Well, you know, I'm no longer happy with the French. Yep. If the people of Jevudan were going to deal with the beast, they would have to do it on their own. and a local farmer and innkeeper by the name of Jean Chastel would take it upon himself to finally try ending the reign of terror of the beast of Jevoudon. And from what I heard about John Chastel, he wasn't exactly the most reputable person in the area.

There's a story about him. Hilariously, he spent a little time in jail because when some of the troops, I think it was Doohamel's men tried to ask Jean Chastel for help navigating the area because they were unfamiliar with the terrain. Jean Chastel

purposely misled them right into a bog where they would get stuck. What? Well, why? I guess he just hated the nobility. He didn't like the king. He didn't like Duhamel.

He thought they were all a bunch of blowhards. And John Chastel's a bit Apparently, apparently a bit of a trickster, a bit of a, you know, I don't want to say a low life, but that was kind of just the way Jean Chastel was, I guess. I'd call him a low life for that. Maybe. Anyway, as the story goes, Jean Chastell, in his effort to get rid of the Beast of Jeboudon, would fashion his own bullets out of Virgin Mary metals, as they were called.

So this is stuff like, sort of like religious amulets, crosses, stuff like that. Basically, the guy made his own homemade silver bullets. So Jean Chastel takes his homemade silver bullets, his gun, and a Bible out to the woods where he would sit in wait for the beast, hoping that a lone man would be the perfect target for the hungry beast of Jevoudon. And like we said before, even though the beast, primarily did hunt women and children, there were some instances where a lone man would also be hunted and killed by the Beast of Jevedon. So, the Beast does eventually show up in front of Jean Chastel, and as the story goes...

I don't like this opening. As the story goes, Jean Chastel starts to like pray and read from the Bible and enchant his silver bullets with the Holy Spirit. And apparently, the Beast of Jevoudon just patiently waits and watches Jean Chastel do all this, never charging or rushing at him while he's loading and aiming his gun. So Jean Chastel takes aim and shoots the Beast of Jevudan, who collapses dead. Except.

And while all of that sounds very, pious and whatever, most people believe that the specifics of this story are a crock of shit. Yeah, uh-huh. There are literally no historical records of that happening and was a ridiculously exaggerated story that shock of all shocks was told by an abbot like a hundred years later or something. Yeah, okay. This sounded like some fucking ecclesiarchy shit. One of those stories, yep, it's one of those stories where only a true believer and a holy man of God could ever end such a horrifying beast's reign of terror.

So pray harder, praise God, all that sort of stuff. But the fact of the matter remains that John Chastel did actually shoot and kill the beast of Jevoudon. He actually did, but all that stuff about like silver bullets made from Virgin Mary medals, and him praying over his weapon were probably all just religious propaganda and just blow hard bullshit. But he did kill a large, like, beast animal thing. Mm-hmm. It is true that he did shoot and kill it, and after he shot and killed this wolf, or whatever it was, the attacks finally stopped.

and the village of Jevoudon was free of this awful monster. Now you might be thinking, well, why didn't they preserve the body or do a better examination and figure out what the hell this thing actually was? So they did actually open up the beast that Jean Chastell killed, and they did find human remains in its stomach. Like, I think they legit found the shoulder or an arm of a girl that had just recently been killed, still in this thing's stomach, which is just an awful find. So they were pretty sure that this thing was the beast of Jevoudon.

And as the story goes, they were going to send the body to Paris because they wanted to get an expert to look at this thing and be like, okay, this is what it actually is. This is what you were dealing with. A part of me likes to think that they also wanted to rub it in the face of the king and be like, ha, sucker, you didn't kill shit. I don't know if that's true, but I like to think that. Only problem is, the weather was really sunny, and it was really hot.

Plus, this is 1700s France, and I don't think they have readily accessible ice to pack this thing with. So, by the time the carcass got to France, it was so rotted and decayed and foul-smelling, they immediately buried it in an unknown location just to get rid of the damn thing. When all was said and done, the Beast of Jevoudon terrorized the region for four agonizing years. There were a few different reports about the actual number of casualties, but I've seen it reported that the Beast of Jevudan killed over 500 people. Holy shit. and injured 50, and 100 of those victims that were killed were partially devoured.

I've heard some other places claim that the Beast of Jevudan only killed between 60 and 100 people, but I think that's way too low because I saw plenty of reports say that in a single month, the Beast had killed over 30 people. So I tend to go with this thing killed over 500 people. Yikes. Okay, okay. Yeah, it was doing work. And so ends the tale of the beast of Jevoudon. Was it a wolf pack?

Was it a lion? Was it a hyena? Was it some unknown hybrid? Or was it a mythical werewolf? Only truly killed. by the holiest of holy silver bullets. You know, I must say, wow, I mean, this,

I didn't realize that it had a body count that large. Yes, it was, four years, it went uncaptured, and no matter what they tried to do, this thing was still finding people to just maim and slaughter and eviscerate. At first I thought it might be like a person, person, just a fucked up serial killer kind of guy, which is why it was so bold. But then there were far too, there were far too many accounts of people actually attacking a beast, though.

There is a conspiracy theory that Jean Chastell was actually the one behind all of these murders, and that he was going out in a wolf pelt and committing these murders because he was, He had like some shady past where he had accidentally murdered someone, and he was using all of these as sort of a way to cover up what he had done. It's like, oh, it was a beast killing. Oh, look at the beast. Oh, the beast. There was also a conspiracy theory that the beast was raised by Jean Chastell

and unleashed on the populace, or trained wolf attacks on people. That's a pretty hefty fucking conspiracy theory. I won't lie. I'm honestly shocked that I believe that less than I believe a fucking cryptid giant beast murdering people. It's zero proof. There was also a really whacked out theory that not only was it a trained wolf, but it was a trained wolf that was wearing the, pelt of like a wart hog or something.

So essentially it was a wolf that was wearing armor and that's why the bullets and spears weren't killing it. Okay, I also don't believe that. Why am I believing the fucking the actual story of the beast? Like all this other stuff does, I don't believe it. The only thing I could possibly think about is like just really like a pack of really big wolves. Just like big chunky gray wolves that are just,

fucking giant. Like, like you said, 100 pounds. Yeah. Because wolves are, people kind of forget how fucking big wolves are. They're,

they're enormous. They are so big. Mm-hmm. And so I'm a little bit like, hmm. Problem is with the pack theory is that there were never two of them cited.

Never. That's very true. There was always just one. If it was a pack, they never attacked. They never really showed up. like a pack. And like Shai said, these farmers, they dealt with wolves all time, you know, because when you're hurting sheep, cattle in the forest, you're going to have your interaction

with wolves. And everyone that saw it was like, yo, that's not a wolf. It's kind of like a wolf, but I ain't no wolf. I ain't a wolf I've ever seen. That's so, that's so bizarre, though, at the same time, because, like, I don't, I don't know. It's weird. That, hmm, this. This is a bizarre one. Like, like, like, it could be some kind of hybrid animal

that bred way back when. Could be. Um, but I would imagine a wolf dog hybrid like would be smaller, because dogs are smaller than wolves. Mm-hmm. Maybe it's a wolf warthog hybrid. And it gets,

I don't know, but you normally can't crossbreed. It's, and this thing was smart. Like, even if it was, say like it was a, even if it was a pack of four animals,

they were smart. Like, they could not be captured. Humans could not figure out a way to capture this thing or these animals. And so it's ridiculously smart. It's a savage killer. avoids every trap until, I guess, Jean Chastell gets a lucky shot in or something. And so, I don't know. Okay.

Shy has proved me otherwise. here's an actual wolf dog hybrid and holy shit. Okay, all right, I am, I was very wrong. I was very wrong. That's a big boy. That could actually be a wolfdog hybrid, but he's too cute.

He was too cute. He would never hurt anyone. Damn. But yeah, that is the beast of Jevoudon. Also, the based on the description, and the picture that shy posted about that thing are

oh my god that thing is horrible looking not that it's their bad images but that thing looks like an absolute savage it looks terrifying it looks like it looks like a cross between a wolf and a bear it's like a wolf and it does have those kind of wart hog features in its

face actually I don't I don't really know I mean I don't know what like animals because we didn't have a whole lot of care for preserving animal life at a younger time frame. So I'm curious to what extent this could have been some kind of weird hybrid species that lived around that time frame that eventually was killed off due to, you know,

I mean, it's been like, what, 250 years? Yeah, yeah. It's certainly possible, which would add to the cryptid theory. Yep, that's, that was another theory is that it could be some sort of prehistoric species that it was like the last of its kind and it was just kind of barely holding out, you know? Like Shai said, we find new animals every day. So maybe this was just some unknown, really intelligent animal.

Oh, also, I forgot to mention this. It should come as no surprise that in the area of Jevoudon, wolves had been hunted to near extinction after all this stuff. Oh, yeah? Yeah, is that so? Yeah. They eventually did start Wolves eventually started making their way back into Jevudan, but in this time period

wolves had been hunted to damn near extinction. Shock of all shocks. Well, call me surprise. God damn. I would have never guessed. Big surprise. Big surprise.

That's actually pretty hilarious. I'm not going to lie. In a fucked up way. The beast of Jevudon. The beast of Jevudon. Bichin. It is so. Such a bitching song

I've been listening to it like all week Oh my goodness Wow Great story DK Hell yeah I love that story That is that is quite a something I had a blast with this one

This was fun This is this one is a fucking thing all right It's a hoot and a half I'm a hooting I'm having I have uh I've learned Take us home Bricky All right

Thank you everyone for listening This is quite a thing. I don't really know what my theory ends up becoming. I think, you know, after showing that picture, Wolfdog Hybrid actually might be the highest possible choice. Maybe some kind of lost species, you know? Yeah, I tend to think lost species as well. Lost species that it was just kind of hanging on,

and this was how it got discovered, unfortunately. Yeah, I'd fully believe that, 100%. It's a whole lot of shenanigans, but I can see it. It's quite the thing. I'm, you know, I do kind of want to go visit. You know what, D.K., we got a, I don't want to go to France because too far away. But we should absolutely at some point plan, some kind of in real life, that's just ridiculous, go to the fucking Mothman Museum out in West Virginia.

West Virginia, we go touch the abs of the statue. And the glutes of the statue? Oh, man, the glutes. Hell yeah, brother, hell yeah. Hell yeah. That'd be fucking great. All right. Simping it easy.

Thank you for us. Tune in for another episode, The Detective Ridiculous, was certainly an interesting one. The, oh, yes, excellent. The Beast of Jevoudon Wolfgirl poster incoming, of course. Hell yeah. Sign me up. Sign me down.

Again, thank you so much for watching. Check us out on our Patreon down below. And new episodes of this comes out every single month. Starts Naples' Joke. And here we are. And thank you for some interesting shenanigans. It seems like we're on a cryptid binge right now. I'm excited to hear what the next one's going to be.

Me too. Because it's not always, you know, it's fun to have some things like that instead of the murderer of St. This, of St. Laurent, the fashion company. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I murdered the whole family on the boat and almost got away with it. It's like, ooh.

Oh, it's a boat sinking? Yeah. Yeah. Fucking love that meme. All right. Goodbye everyone.