This Paranormal Life - #191 The Beast of Gévaudan: Man-Eating Cryptid

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

Political upheaval. Poverty. Disease - life in 1700s France was difficult. But by the 1760s these problems paled into insignificance when a giant cryptid with a thirst for human blood began rampaging the region of Gévaudan. Can the townspeople defend themselves? What does the beast want? Is it paranormal? Time for Rory and Kit to investigate.Patreonhttps://patreon.com/ThisParanormalLifeYouTubehttps://youtube.com/thisparanormallifeTwitterhttps://twitter.com/ThisParaLifeInstagramhttps://instagram.com/thisparanormallifeSecret Society Facebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/thisparanormallife/Edited by Kami Tomanhttps://TomanEdits.comIntro music: https://www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's on the dark side of the moon? Why do we eat soup but drink a milkshake? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Hello everyone and welcome to This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week myself and this guy over here, Kit Greer, investigate a brand new paranormal tale and come to a conclusion as to whether or not it truly is paranormal. My name is Roy Powers. As I said, this guy is Kit Greer Mulvena, and we're two professional paranormal investigators who have both been investigating the paranormal for more years than I can even recall.

Yeah. We've been neuralized by the MIB so many times that my eyes are goo. I don't have any pupils anymore. I think we're recording a podcast right now. I could be talking into an ear of corn. Yeah, I've got like a circular area the size of a 5p coin in my field of vision that I can see through. Both my eyes point different directions at this point, thanks to the neuralizers. So I can just about keep an eye on rory and uh on my

research notes here it's the it's all you really need in life to be fair i have a great story for us this week oh really it is a fantastic story and i'm gonna give it i'm gonna give it all the energy that i have in my broken down car of a body care to explain i was i had a i had a wild night two nights ago i'm on the second day of a hangover right now wow but paranormal investigation is not about being ready it's not about being strong certainly not about being physically healthy no no it's about allowing your body to be a haunted graveyard a decrepit old mansion yeah with cobwebs and creaky old floorboards only then can you understand the peril that we experience in these stories every week yeah every breath could be my last you don't want your body to be a temple because

ghouls and demons can't step foot in a temple right need it to be a uh broken down like you say piece of shit haunted house uh just riddled with the undead and that's really what we are we're both two decrepit old mansions and we're ready to investigate the paranormal our story today takes place all the way back in 1764 in a region at the time known as jay duvon Now, when our listeners hear France, I'm sure a lot of beautiful imagery comes to mind. The Eiffel Tower, cheese and wine, the Louvre, popular animated movie Ratatouille. Of course. However, this was not the France of the 1760s. After years of war and numerous crushing defeats france was not in a good place by 1764

it had lost a lot of its overseas territories like canada and economically uh economists would describe it a big old a big old a pile of is a mess yeah i might be paraphrasing they might tighten up that quote a little bit if they're gonna put it on like a book or a magazine or something. I stuttered a little bit when I was delivering it, but I don't think the economists would have stuttered. I just want to make that clear. It's all right. I don't think they're taking opinions on 1760s France anymore anyway.

There was no Eiffel Tower. There was no Louvre. Remy the Rat from Ratatouille isn't cooking three-star Michelin meals. He's eating garbage in his sewer. At the time, Gévaudan was quite remote, underdeveloped, and was known for being the backdrop for a number of interesting folklore stories. Some say the nearby woods were enchanted by fairies. Children would swap stories about monsters they'd see late at night.

But little did the people of je vous don't realize one of those fairy tales was about to change their sleepy little lives one night 14 year old jean boulet was out in the fields by our house watching the sheep graze not really much for kids to do back uh back in the 1700s yeah a bit of a different place. I mean, Jesus. I mean, I get that there's no Louvre, but you said there's non-monsters? I didn't. There's rumors that there's monsters. The peaceful silence of the night was relaxing and the moonlight was just bright enough.

She didn't need a lantern, but her relaxation was interrupted by a rustling noise from the woods. She called out in the darkness. Hello? Oh, it's French. Bonjour. Bonjour. No response. she called out in the darkness hello oh it's french bonjour bonjour no response this is so accurate it's it's not crazy i really feel like i'm there so she turned to head inside but stopped

as the noise started again this time a twig snapping something wasn't wrong she had a wait something definitely was wrong. It was... Oh, yeah, another f***ing sheep grazing. Of course. That's the only thing that goes on here. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her estomac, which is stomach in French. Is it even? Jesus.

I think so. I hope so. She started to run towards the door, but the noises were getting louder, panting, rumbling, and suddenly... Jean Boulet was dead what yeah that was fast it happens fast little Jean god damn she was discovered the next day with her head torn off what the police arrived at the scene to examine the body what could have done this it wasn't a wolf it wouldn't be strong

enough to rip a head off a body why would a creature only kill its victim and not eat it i'm starting to think these rumors may be more than just rumors these are questions that are too big for police officers at this time in history right it's above their and everything's above their pay grade yeah they they they did every role back then judge jury and executioner so to have often backwards by the way they would start with punishment and then try and like justify it after the fact yeah it was much more execution and then they would be judged yeah by many people i mean they were equipped only to solve such crimes as who stole the corn when right you know when pierre in the corner has ears of corn sticking out of his pockets it's not a hard crime to solve

right you don't need to be even police This incident would go on to become the first recorded attack of a creature known as the Beast of Gévaudan. Now, this was merely the first of many attacks. In the following years, the Beast claimed up to 300 lives. 300? It's got a kill streak going. Jesus, man. He's calling in attack helicopters and airstrikes. His ratio is very, very good. I will say that kda is nuts uh what over how long a period did you say uh irrelevant

it doesn't matter 300 lives focus on that so this is potentially one of the most i didn't even ask for evidence who cares you're really defensive just believe it believe in the beast uh this is potentially one of the most deadly beasts we've ever investigated with 300 deaths i'll say this right now you know a lot of the paranormal creatures we investigate that have big names attached to them bigfoot uh the chupacabra when you look at their death count, very little. Some of them haven't only been seen a handful of times. The Beast of Jevudan is attributed to hundreds and hundreds of murders. He's not shy about turning up and laying people out.

It seems like he kind of enjoys it. And there's not a lot of room for doubt here either. If a space ghost is on the loose and it's uh giving people i don't know uh cardiac arrests yeah like there's a lot of other factors at play there but right uh if we're just talking 300 severed heads in one sleepy village yeah you know it ain't diet and lifestyle contributing to that demise could you imagine imagine if Bigfoot, Bigfoot? Could you imagine if Bigfoot was attributed to 300 murders? You wouldn't be questioning whether or not he was real. You'd be questioning where he is. Yeah. If he, if he just left a little calling card that said it was

Bigfoot y'all. Yeah. There would be a lot less debate about his existence. If people were found with giant footprints in their skull, you would know it was him. Night after night, young women and children were found with either their heads gnawed off or their throats ripped out. Pretty grisly stuff. Christ alive. Did you say women and children in particular? Women and children in particular.

What a true beast. Doesn't he have the balls to kill man. He's smart enough to be an asshole. Locals began to stay indoors at night, only go out in groups, afraid of being attacked by the beast of Gévaudan. So what does this beast look like? Now, as you can imagine, because official sources at this time were basically just a guy outside going, dude, trust me. The appearance and abilities of the creature differ from tail to tail. At one point, a father-son hunting duo who claimed to have killed over 1,200 wolves said that they would

travel to Gévaudan and kill the monster. But locals laughed at their assumption the beast was simply a big wolf. Wow. One report from the Times said, It is much bigger than a wolf. It has a snout, somewhat like a calf's, and very long hair, which would seem to indicate a hyena. That's fine. It can be different than a wolf. But don't laugh at them. Do you have anyone who's more qualified to kill the beast Kill the be a wolf you say a pesky little wolf

This merely is no wolf didn't you say there's mostly children who'd gone up against the beasts and died Don't you think we would at least sound a better chance? Look yeah The way it sure it looks like it looks a little bit like a wolf and you've killed a lot of wolves you and your son have killed a lot of wolves yeah but this is this beast i mean it's gotta be a mammal right well yes it is a heart's in the right place well its heart isn't in the right place its heart is in the same place as a wolf which is a bad place because they're both both evil uh the anatomy is right uh when you think about one-to-one it's pretty much an exact blueprint genetic copy of two years of course hair but why do you think that your-to-one, it's pretty much an exact blueprint, genetic copy of a wolf. Two years, of course, hair.

But why do you think that your experience of killing wolves qualifies you in any way, in any form, to kill the beast of Gévaudan? I mean, I just figure, from talking to the locals here, everyone's describing a f***ing wolf. I mean... It's very similar to a wolf. Right. But not a wolf. You think you're tools. You think you're one of those things called...

You're the hunter. Tell me. A bear trap? You think your bear traps work on wolves? We've killed a lot of bears as well. No. Is that any better for you? Well, he's a little...

Again, similar to a bear, yes. But not a... If you f***ing think he's even going gonna approach you like a bear he's more like a wolf in that regard okay do you have any better options than me absolutely not cereal right and again i can't say how much we appreciate your services i know it's a it's a busy season yeah uh we do appreciate you coming you coming out here but honestly you don't stand a chance. Other locals said that the beast had a breast as wide as a horse. What? A body as long as a leopard.

Horses are really big. And fur that was red with a black stripe. Ooh. Like a racing car. That's how fast they are. Go faster, stripe. First Captain Duhamel of the Mountain Infantry said, You will undoubtedly think, like I do, that this is a monster, the father of which is a lion.

What its mother was remains to be seen. Interesting. So that's how they thought about it back then, was maybe it was some kind of f***ed up hybrid. Yeah, like a lion, I don't know, banged a bear. Or, I don't know, had some sort of orgy with a wolf and a lion and a bear the cast of of narnia wait no that's not narnia the cast of wizard of oz basically all got together a scarecrow a lion and a robot all had sex tin lion if you will it's interesting you know to see this is kind of like a little peek into the psyche of the 1700s Frenchmen. People back then didn't really need that fantastic ideas of like crazy cryptids or anything

because they were just scared enough of lions and bears and wolves. Yeah. Yeah, I do appreciate that that's quite a down-to-earth reasoning for the beast to exist. Yeah. They haven't jumped straight to it's a demon from hell. They're like, hey, maybe, I don't know, a lion had sex with a bear. It's pretty early days.

We don't know what happens when that happens anymore. Yeah. Already, that sounds pretty terrifying. But there's more. Other locals went as far to claim that the beast had supernatural abilities. Whoa. Stating that its hide could repel bullets.

It had fire in its eyes. And it came back from the dead more than once. And had amazing leaping ability. That would explain the kill-death ratio that we mentioned earlier. If it can res on its own.

That's tricky. How do even the wolf killers kill a beast which can self-resurrect itself? That's one of the problems we're going to be facing today. On a number of occasions, it even seemed that the beast of Gévaudan possessed the ability to be in multiple places at once. Okay, this is getting out of hand. Attacking villagers miles apart in the same evening i mean it is possible there's more than one beast isn't it others claimed he could walk on water stand on its hind legs and some witnesses even claimed that they heard the beast laugh and speak okay so it's not even

a beast anymore it can speak and stand yeah but it's pretty beastly it can walk on water it's a hairy serial killer is what it is yeah i like um i like that there were beast attacks that went on miles apart simultaneously and instead of assuming that maybe one of them or both of them were just a wolf attack it was thought that the beast could time travel basically and kill people at once this is amazing i mean it's kind of i don't seem to like what you're implying here actually before we start going any further we're one page in and already you're saying the beast is a man in a beast suit i'm just saying if you can stand and talk it's hard to think of this as a wolf sometimes the beast has smoke breaks

sometimes he just goes for a drink with the locals sure he's in front so he eats cheese of course and drinks live somewhere too he's got a house and a wife and kids all humans it doesn't stop him being uh beastly at all i mean it's okay i kind of take back what i said about their imaginations it It must be pretty terrifying at this point in history that whatever god they believed in would have to be pretty cruel to not just create a beast capable

of ripping humans' heads off, but it also can time travel, come back from the dead, walk on water, speak, talk, and be in two places at once. That's an OP beast. Whatever god you worshipped, it's the beast now. You worship him now.

And hope for his mercy, his gentle touch. I know, just imagine the villagers in a meeting, they're like, has anyone's prayers stopped being answered? I think he might have killed God or something. Yeah, it's pretty twisted that, at least from the stories that I've read, it's so monstrous in the way that it doesn't even seem to kill for food. It's just killing because it wants to kill. Right.

Like ripping out throats, tearing people's heads off. There's no value in that. He's not even taking the heads. He just leaves after that. Yeah. It's weird. Throughout the remainder of 1764, dozens of attacks were reported across the region what didn't help was at that time in france political news was mostly censored by the king

so this meant there wasn't really a lot of important stuff that newspapers could cover legally this political hole meant that across every newspaper, on every front page, was the beast. Right. I guess as king, you really got to question your regime if you think that it's better to have nightly beast attacks on every front page than any articles about what you're doing as king. How bad are you at running this country if that's preferable? I know. Again, people in the town hall it's like listen i i i get the beast is really important i just want to park it for three seconds the king turned up at

my house last night took all my cash drank all the milk uh ate all my food and uh told me to f**k off and left so like can we legally we're not allowed to talk about this okay actually the king was pretty adamant about that when he showed up at my house 2 a.m., pissed off his ass, asking for cheese. The legend of the monster spread so fast and so far that eventually local officials had to take action. The local infantry decided the best thing to do was to rile up the public and create an army of volunteers i'm thinking like you know

the end of beauty and the beast right when gaston is is getting everyone ready to storm the castle and he goes to the tavern and he's like it's a monster it's a big spooky man in the castle and they get some all riled up and kill the beast yeah yeah uh this may have worked a little too well i don't know much about french politics but i'm starting to see why there was a revolution it's not a lot of sense being made here at one point they had around uh 30 000 men hunting for the creature 30 000 for one beast this is like an entire infantry an entire it's an army yeah it's an army of man versus beast people were leaving heaps of poisoned bait in the woods marching around in death squads some

soldiers even dressed up as peasant woman in an attempt to bait the creature to attack i'm starting to think these men needed very little convincing oh wow they were on the edge they want they were waiting oh we could wear a makeup as well that'll be that'll be fun um yeah you've got some high heels so yeah it'll support some of your wife's high heels can you imagine like going into the tavern and you're just like look out there in the woods is a beast so foul that needs to be killed many of you will lose your lives maybe hundreds thousands of you but i know that when it will do it what yeah we were we were pretty bored anyway you're probably gonna die though how about this i'm gonna i'll put on a a dress and i'll dress like one of the ladies in

the town and we'll try and bait the the beast into attacking me no it's really okay we uh we've got some female volunteers they're willing to uh try and bait the beast so thank you anyway though are you still up for fighting though we'll get you some armor and a sword yeah can i wear the dress no i really feel more comfortable in the dress can you at least cover it up with armor to defend yourself against the beast like i said we have so many fancy armor uh no you're a peasant it's gonna be pretty plain armor okay you don't seem you don't seem that enthused but uh about the adventure anymore no it's i might i might just wear the dress i actually don't want to do the hunt anymore okay yeah i'm just gonna stay where you are yeah i'm wearing a dress i'd really like to if you have enough men i really shouldn't waste my time

with this conversation i could have been recruiting others at this point everyone says the same thing will there be dresses though the guy just puts one on you're like well shit god damn that does look good do you have another one that actually looks comfy as hell yeah yeah i can move really really freely with this on i will say that one main incentive was that the reward for killing the beast eventually equaled a year's salary for working men so if you were just at the right place with the right time with the right bullet and you took this bad boy down you could win a bag of rice yeah a straight up bag a straight up coin one of the closest capture attempts happened on october 8th 1764 local authorities got news of a mauling nearby. They rushed to the scene where a local farmer lay,

hunched over in bad shape. You're too late. He came out of nowhere, attacked me, and then fled into the woods. So the authorities, along with a horde of gun-wielding dads, tracked the beast trails deep into the woods. Is this the biggest dad squad we've ever had in this part of life history?

Quite possibly. 30,000 dads. Dressed up, looking fine, out for the night. Using hunting techniques, they managed to flush the beast into an opening and surround it. The men circled the beast of Gévaudan, raised their muskets, and unloaded hellfire surround it. The men circled the beast of Gévaudan, raised their muskets, and unloaded hellfire upon it. Riddled with bullets, the beast fell to the ground.

As the men slowly approached to retrieve the body, the creature rose from the dead right in front of them and took off into the woods. Holy shit, it is bulletproof. Unfortunately, as I said, this is 1764. Reloading a gun at this time probably took about six months. So they're not exactly going to stop it. We've got to make the bullets again. Jesus. I know I was thinking like 30,000 men all pointing their muskets.

Every single musket backfires killing them all instantly that must have been i know it's like uh you know people probably like romanticize a lot of those old wars you know we see like the the paintings and stuff of the civil war and those like old style on the horseback with the what do you call those guns with the bayonets on the edge of them yeah how many of those guns were just exploding the bullets were falling out of them they're not good pieces of equipment really surely not yeah yeah it's insane and then wasn't it like one line would fire and then they'd have to retreat and another line would retire all right it was great serving with you guys the stress that your body goes through firing that gun once ages it 40 years.

I mean, I heard once that even in the First World War, that if you think, I don't know history, but the First World War was so long after the last major battle in Europe in 1914, like the French were going in with like red frilly outfits feathers in their hair in their hats they didn't know how to do it like you know like you say the bayonets a sword yeah and then like two months in they were like okay we're getting like gassed bombed like tanks are running over our skulls we need to lose the feathers and the swords and get some real equipment i always think it's um it's kind of a an insult to the other enormous wars that took place to have the first world war and the second world war what about like

pirate wars right okay old-timey wars we felt pretty bad for the people in them yeah they're still pretty bad we should be on war world war 27 oh yeah we're keeping kind yeah it's like we're in the hundreds. For sure. The Beast of Gévaudan would continue to attack the residents over the following years. Some encounters with the Beast were so dramatic that they've since become legend. For example, a group of children were attacked by the Beast of Gévaudan while out herding cattle in the woods. Stop sending your children to do jobs that an adult should be children were men children were men and babies were children this is the old you can't

complain about the beast hunting children if you're only sending groups of children into the woods to do work for you it's like it only seems to be attacking the women and children while the men are at the pub this is this is weird isn't it the women and children like can you at least give us your guns nope what if the beast shows up to the pub i will say in this instance the children managed to fight off the beast okay these children were men using wooden pikes that they had with them wow you had to grow up quick yeah the king of france was so impressed with their courage that he paid a reward to all of the children and even had one kid educated at his personal expense he was so impressed he gave him a book he got it i really i'd love to hear

that conversation where you're like you know sit, sit down first day of lectures and stuff. And the guy next to you is like, oh, see, did you like did you study medicine at high school or something? It's like, nah, I fought off the legendary night beast of J'ai vu Don. And the king of France was so happy he gave me a scholarship. Oh, cool. I passed the test to get here. I deserve to be here. Can you read?

I was actually just rich. I didn't even need to do anything. They just let me in. That was like being the college quarterback back in the day. Right, right, right. You don't need to know anything about school if you just do a sick touchdown before you leave uh secondary school yeah go to college for free it's like what's your gpa i don't know i can throw balls far all right cool good chat we actually need

guys who can do that as well as well as the eggheads i think this kid he was uh educated but as a child so they literally took him straight from the fields into oxford pike in hand he's like 12 years old there's like university professors trying to teach him about the philosophy of the world he never even learned to like speak french speak French. He just, like, grunts, like trying to teach baby Yoda maths. On August 11th, 1765, a woman named Marie-Jean Vallée was attacked

and managed to not only defend herself, but wound the beast. Holy moly. Earning herself the title the Maiden of Gévaudan, and getting a statue built in her honor that still stands today. But despite the rewards and statues, people still weren't getting what they wanted, which was not to be mauled in the night by some sort of turbo tiger. The hunters, all 30,000 of them them had come up empty-handed so finally king

louis the 15th took action and sent his own bodyguard to the village to kill the beast what's he gonna do that 30 000 people couldn't do i'm assuming this guy is like the mandalorian right he's like the apex predator with blade yeah exactly like neo from the matrix anything or any creature anyone you want dead he will hunt it down and eliminate it without even like a trace oh yeah he's like sam fisher he's got the night vision goggles he's like stealthing up in the trees like a ninja and he doesn't speak he's like you know doesn't say a word yeah yeah he's like the frankenstein from game of thrones just like kill and eat that's all he does unfitting we've given such a badass description his name was francois of course sure that was the time that was in it

francois spent months traversing the forested countryside, tracking the beast trail, learning its environment, until one day he returned to town, dragging behind him the corpse of a big furry beast. Once again, no fuss, no frills. Into the woods, out with a beast. Yeah. I love it.

He brought the body to the local court, claiming to have once and for all killed the beast of Gévaudan. The problem was, the creature that he claimed was the beast looked like it was just a very large wolf. It didn't match the fantastical descriptions that had been told by the villagers over the years. But François was adamant. He said, you know, look, I don't know what type of creature you thought was killing all these people, but this is it. This is your beast of Jevudan. It's merely a pesky wolf.

Are you sure? It doesn't look so dangerous to me. Look, who are you going to believe, all right? Some dishrag villagers or me, the professional hunter? Are you calling me a dishragged villager? You're right. You're goddamn right I am. I come here for a job. I do the job. I feel like I'm not being thanked. My friends, many of them warriors, tough men,

they know what they saw. It wasn't this overgrown puppy dog. How many wolves your guys killed? How many wolves, if you're that impressed? Not too many. You know how many wolves I've killed? Huh? How many wolves? If you're that impressed. Not too many. You know how many wolves I've killed? Francois's killed over here. A couple?

I've killed 12 wolves. Okay. You didn't let me finish. You son of a bitch. You didn't let me finish. It was a compound sentence. I've killed 12 wolves. I actually thought it was going to be a little bit more.

Six rabbits and a turtle. Okay. The turtle was an accident. I have to ask about the turtle. I backed him over in my carriage. It was a mess. He exploded immediately and a turtle okay the turtle was an accident i have to ask about the turtle i backed him over in my carriage it was a mess he exploded immediately a turtle in france i feel really bad about that one i think it was someone's pet point being i know a wolf when i see a wolf and that is a wolf well yes of course that's the world right that's not the piece of jvd i feel like i'm not i didn't make my point there that was a bad poor wording on my

my behalf on francois that's my that's francois's bat that's francois's bat what i'm saying is that as a wolf i killed a wolf your men your little dishrag sons of bitches hey who takes that back or i've been killed by a wolf you're welcome I'll take my gold. I'll take my gold. Wolf. They cover him in a giant dishrag. No, the dishrag villagers. Throw him in the river. I'm just imagining the villagers fervently denying that this is the Beast of Chez Vuitton.

And Francois is like, there's like 10 wives' wedding rings in the teeth just lodged in the teeth of this beast i guess that's the the difficult conversation is like if you were out there for so long hunting it and you come back with a wolf they're gonna say no no that's a wolf you're like i know it's a wolf what i'm trying to say is what's been killing you this whole time was a wolf yeah it's they'll never be happy never accept it with what you bring back unless it's a wolf what i'm trying to say is what's been killing you this whole time was a wolf yeah it's they'll never be happy never accept it with what you bring back unless it's this incredible mystical creature interestingly enough um you know this was a period of time where we don't necessarily

have the luxury of photographs yeah but what we do have is artist illustrations oh amazing and i actually have brought with me an artist illustration from the time of the actual wolf that was presented to the board as the the beast of jv don wow would you like to see i would love to see so bear in mind this was the creature that was brought back that they said was the beast by francois by francois himself and this is an artist illustration of what that creature looked like. He's a chihuahua. Whoa! Yeah, it could have gone either way there, really, when I was bigging it up. Yeah.

It's a monster. It's hideous. They have a lot of French noble men and women lined up beside it for scale. But this is approximately the length of, I mean, what would that be? Maybe something like seven or eight foot long. Yeah. Probably almost chest height and terrifying looking. It looks like a dragon covered in fur.

It's hard to tell if, because, you know, like some of these pieces of art from around this time period, sometimes the drawings of creatures just do look a little weird. Yeah. Like, I'm not going to lie. It looks like this wolf has human hands. And like lips. Which I don't think wolves have lips. Like his body is kind of elongated in a way that a wolf's isn't.

Yeah, I'm not sure this is a first-hand drawing. I feel like this was explained to him what it looked like. Like he's never even seen a wolf before. It's a police caricature. It's really strange. But it's a police like caricature it's really strange but it's kind of cool to um to remember that you know this isn't a story this is something that did take place yeah at one point a hunter slash bodyguard dragged the corpse of a giant wolf into a french court which is just astounding to think that that actually took place deserves a

promotion he's not a just a bodyguard anymore. At the very least, he's killed a very large wolf, which in a sense is worthy of reward. I mean, it probably was killing things anyway, whether or not it was really the beast. Well, in the end, they decided to pay him the reward. The villagers cheered

as Francois left the town, knowing that their lives could once again go back to normal. Amazing. But this celebration was short-lived. Oh, boy. Like their little dishrag lives. Only two weeks later, the attacks began again.

At one point, the villagers claimed the beast was kidnapping one woman or child per day. Christ. He's upped his count. It's like a hostage situation. He's like, for every day, you don't give me whatever the f*** a beast wants. He doesn't seem to want anything except blood, but he doesn't even want the blood. Christ. Just death.

He just wants death. Yeah, it is funny because now in my head, he has the voice of Alan Rickman in Die Hard. Sure. And he's just like, for every day that you do not give me what I want, I will take another villager. Why? Why would you do that?

Wolf murders became a regular part of everyday life, hoping that one day the attacks would just stop. But they never did. This is one of my favorite stories. In one of the legends, a peasant named pierre blanc fought and wrestled with the beast of gvudon for three consecutive hours they went for six runs the coach had the beast in the corner whatever the beast's coach was spitting in a bucket this pierring shit is shit. He's a little f***ing dishrag. You got him.

When both were too exhausted to continue, they would rest a little and then continue to fight again. What? Pierre Blanc even claimed that when the beast would stand on its hind legs to scratch, it seemed to have buttons on its belly. He was wearing a fleece. He was a jacket i was i had to throw this story

in that sounds like it sounds like he was fighting a man in a bee suit i don't think the bees needs to rest men need to rest what have you ever seen a lion just like like leaning against a tree like this this deer is really this antelope has got me on the ropes yeah animals are pretty good at working out their stamina manage stamina management yeah you never really see like a rhino charging through the african wilderness and then it just has to stop for a second it has a stitch yeah it just be like hell i really overdid it there pulled a hammy stretching out yeah this doesn't this sounds like this might be a different situation also fighting for three hours with the with the beast of jv don it normally interactions

only last seconds yeah and then he's gone six miles in the other direction instantaneously to kill someone else. He's fast traveled to the next village. It seems like these attacks would never end. The residents of Gévaudan were just cursed to suffer the wrath of the beast for all eternity. But one man stepped in and saved the day. A local hunter named Jean Chastel. He took reports of the monster being paranormal a lot more seriously than the other hunters.

I have to ask, if this guy is local, where the f*** has he been this whole time? I... He's like, I'm gonna just sit back, see how it all pans out, and study the beast. Well, I don't wanna... As far as his die.

I don't wanna give away too much about his character right off the bat but he's also a convicted criminal okay so where he's been might have been jail it might have been a jail cell it gets out guys i'm back what did i miss bodies all over the floor he didn't actually get let out uh the beast slit the sheriff's throat dropping the keys right by the door yeah this maybe it kind of seems like one of those loopholes where it's like you want to catch a criminal you need a criminal right you want to you want to kill you want to kill a killer get a killer there's a does that work yeah get a killer there's a beautiful irony there you know the only guy

who was safe from the beast was the guy behind bars that's actually he was in jail and he was the only that's what kept him safe all this time were were the what maybe the village was the real prison and he was the only one that was free from the terror that's really amazing actually never thought about that you could hypothetically like write a song about that, about like prison being prison, prison, prison of your mind. Prison.

I'm in prison all the time. In the time. I'll do the back vocals. Yeah. Thank you, man. All this time i thought i was in a jail cell but it turned out everyone else was yeah this is him walking through the raised village bodies littered all over the ground he's sitting on a stump writing this song

all right i like to think that he's still in the jail cell and he's this is just him alone singing he's like he's he's gone mad he keeps saying that he's free and we're in prison you're in prison the sheriff is like you know we're executing you tomorrow. What? What? I've been writing poems and shit. I didn't want to call my ex-wife. I have kids, you know. I got three kids. Jesus.

Waste of time. Writing a song. We tried to tell you. You kept calling us prisoners. Gene, we're executing you tomorrow silence prisoner you shall not speak to the warden don't you appreciate art when you hear it gene decided to load his rifle with a large caliber bullet and a buckshot combination self-made with silver wow here we go get into our traditional silver bullet killing the werewolf type scenario. Yeah, I can see that, I can see that.

After tracking down the beast of Gévaudan on June 19th, 1767, he managed to shoot it with his rifle and after a brief struggle, the beast was dead. The body was then dragged to a nearby doctor, where they could possibly confirm whether or not this was truly the beast of Gévaudan. As we know, a difficult thing to do because if it's a wolf, then it's a wolf. Unless it is a beast, then how do you prove that it is definitively the beast of Gévaudan? Yeah. Well, when the belly of the beast was cut open, inside they discovered the remains of its last victim.

There you go. That's a pretty good way to prove it. Totally. If you're finding the bodies of villagers you thought were killed by the Beast of Géboudan inside this monster. I mean, it's also just classic, uh like catching a serial killer movie stuff like you catch them yeah and then the trick is you wait cut them open you wait a week what's inside you know uh you wait to see if they strike again yeah because if they don't strike again you got

your guy and then when you get them you cut them open open and see what's inside their sick little mind. If it's a human, it's just going to be food. Right. That wouldn't tell you what's inside their mind. Oh, shit. Now it makes sense why I'm looking inside his hot pockets and rice. It's pretty boring. He's actually a little like me that way.

Yeah, that's actually messed up. That they're actually pretty similar to us. Maybe I should just smash his fingers and see what's inside. All you're not allowed in the operating room anymore you're not a doctor what was the beast it's been up for debate ever since the attacks the conversation has gone on for years historians and scientists have suggested it was possibly a number of things an escaped lion some sort of prehistoric wolf and more recently there's even a theory not a popular one but i will entertain it that that gene chastel himself actually trained an animal to attack people what so that he could then kill it becoming famous and being pardoned for his past

crimes interesting a little more controversial that requires a huge amount of planning which i'm not sure uh gene chastel is perfectly capable of yeah yeah um also how could he guarantee the beast wouldn't kill him yeah there's a lot there's a lot to read into there that's kind of similar to the um conclusion of the hoedag story where the man who captured the hoedag made up the hoedag and trained a dog or a pig to be a hoedag but this is more this is a little more complicated because if this is true you have somehow trained an animal to become predator like this ultimate killing machine that can abduct women and children in the night how do you how do you train something to be that deadly you can't i'm just imagining him in the

jail cell getting news uh it's like did you hear uh the 30 000 men went up against the beast and all perished and he's like oh boy wow i uh i trained that thing too well it seems but you guys are actually gonna really want to let me out you're gonna really want to let me out because those numbers are just going i really feel like i i have a handle on this thing yeah he was like before he went in prison he's like this is it i'm gonna train this uh this creature to to you know scratch people yeah in the village and he's got like this little wolf and he's slapping it about he's like you know squirting it with like a water pistol yeah to piss it off and he's like when i get out of jail they're gonna be begging for me to come deal with it and it's like yeah 50 000 dead now from this unstoppable killing machine oh i trained it to steal eggs it's like

uh chastel didn't you say that you could you could handle the beast well i mean who even knows where the beast came from it's like well that's a tag on it with your name and address so we think actually you might have had something to do with this well i could be i think he actually killed my dog for some reason he's wearing a shirt uh which which has your name stitched into it. Another very popular opinion is that it's very likely that Javerudon had a wolf infestation. Okay. That the attacks over the years were not done, as we would assume, by one singular beast, but by a huge wolf population attacking the village over multiple years and let's face it they all pretty much look the same you're not telling one wolf apart from the other yeah unless it's the wolves

from uh twilight who are also sexy men yeah absolutely yeah yeah i know what you mean that it's all just going to be like especially if it's like a night attack, a big furry thing is just always going to look quite similar. This is what people forget, Rory, is that, you know, in our lifetimes here on this earth and living here in the UK, humans have always been top of the food chain. After us, it's like, I think literally the biggest predator after us in the UK is foxes. And they ain't shit. They run around London all the time.

You see them. They're cute. They're fun to look at. They have very loud sex. Terrifying. It's incredibly loud. I don't know if you ever heard of fox having sex before. I don't know if that's a thing in all cities, but if you haven't heard that, I recommend checking it out.

Because it is terrifying but it's crazy to remember that there was a time not that long ago in many countries like i don't know places in america and the uk and ireland and stuff like that where we all had wolves we all had a wolf problem yeah because if you have one wolf in your community it it's a problem. And we, in lots of countries, we made them extinct. Because it was like, no, we cannot tolerate wolves eating our children. Isn't that funny that, I wonder, is there any more cases that are like that? In the world? No, where it's like, it's kind of weird that you only need one wolf to have a problem.

Okay. You know, it's not like you need like 20 or a pack of wolves if it's like if you have one wolf you have a wolf infestation you have a very serious wolf problem that needs to be right okay the bar for problem is so low when it comes to wolves yeah yeah i see what you mean uh i guess there are some other things like that like so for example if you find one cockroach in your house you'd be like uh that's disturbing but as long as there aren't any others step on it go on throw it out it's gone problem gone if you find a single nugget of uh radioactive material

in your house it's like well uh i'm that a problem. You can't throw out the nugget and forget about it. It's over for you and for your whole neighborhood. Yeah, very, very true. I think the wolf problem in places like Gévaudan definitely helped explain some of the abilities that we thought the wolf had. For example, the ability to be in two places at once i'm thinking was maybe two different wolves yeah but yeah it's it's you know as i said the backdrop for jv don was already a place rich in uh folklore fairy tales fantasy so i'm not surprised that uh the residents of this place gave such a fantastical twist on quite grim circumstances.

Yeah. Almost maybe as a way to process it instead of it just being wolf attacks, it was this creature. But it's incredible that it actually got to this point where it was in all the newspapers and the king had to send his personal bodyguard to come and kill it. That there were these huge trials and evaluations of every wolf that was being brought forward to see if it was the beast it's incredible i love looking into uh times in history like this where it's just this it feels like it's a different species we're talking about yeah not humans the humans we know today i was half expect we started talking about the king i was half expecting an m night shamalan twist where the wolves were made up by the king to control the population or something. Oh, right.

That it was like, yeah, like M. Night Shyamalan's the village. The wolves stop people from leaving the village. Not that dramatic, unfortunately. All right. That was a long episode episode but lots of information to digest like the wolf's victims what are you thinking here kid the beast of j'ai vu dawn so like you say we were definitely put forward a lot of paranormal possibilities here with its extraordinary abilities to be in more than one place at once and to be some sort of larger than

life larger than wolf cryptid certainly the illustration that was made at the time would indicate that it maybe wasn't a wolf yeah but if we're thinking really long and hard about this and even comparing it to other cases like this you know whether it's like the night monkeys of new delhi um whenever people have a problem with the local wildlife like this and they start to believe that it's you know some sort of deadly cryptid attack the same things always pop up yeah we didn't really get a good look at it yeah yeah it was big fangs though and uh twice the size of whatever animal it looks closest to yeah um and kind of very often it turns out to be exactly what it kind of looks most like i guess if you you witness or are the victim in a animal attack you know when you're like retelling

the story you're never going to be like oh it was crazy he did have pretty to scale teeth though when i think about it and his paws were pretty normal nothing too crazy you're gonna be like he can teleport he has fires in his eyes and bellies on his top you know you're gonna it's a dramatic retelling of the story that then gets passed down from people to people to people until eventually the wolf is hovering like goku in midair and speaking in tongues yeah i mean and it happens to this day i mean we haven't covered them too much but there's been many cases in the uk of big cats big cats are a crazy phenomenon in the uk and you have to imagine that some of that is stemming from farmers out in their fields who don't want to admit that they were scared by a dog or maybe a fox a baby wolf and so they instead tell everyone it was a panther right right right

even though they don't exist in this country you know i think we i think we're circling it here we're circling it much like the wolf circling the dishrag peasants i think isn't dishrag a great insult i think i heard someone say the other day and i was like i need to throw i need to start saying calling people dishrags more often so great so offensive it's red it's fantastic um it's gonna be a double no it's gonna be a double no i think it's a great story i think it's cool because to a certain degree there is reality in this story there probably was people died people died and you know the fact that there are statues built to this day uh still standing of people fighting off the beast it's cool that this was probably a very physical thing that did happen

however not by a paranormal creature most likely maybe one big wolf or a series of wolves agreed wow what an episode this week thank you so much everyone for joining us i hope you enjoyed our story diving into the history of the beast of jv don a great great investigation roy thank you you know it's a real felt like a real throwback to the the olden days of this paranormal life yeah that's where the heart of paranormal investigation is in the the up cryptids of this world there's something nice about a cryptid story where you know you can just enjoy the ride that you just sit back, stick your AirPods in, and we'll take you from start to finish through the years. It's quite a relaxing journey. I enjoy telling the story. Hopefully

you guys enjoy listening to it. Unfortunately, as we said, a double no, but there are double yeses on the horizon. If you enjoyed this episode of This Paranormal Life, let me tell you about another beast out there. That is the This Paranormal Life Patreon. Like the beast of J'ai Vu Don, we trained this little pup from the start to be like a little treasure trove of bonus content. Over the years, it has grown. It's bloodthirsty. It's hungry. It's thirsty.

It's getting out of control now if you go over to patreon.com for slash this paranormal life there is over 30 bonus episodes that uh from as little as five bucks a month five buckaroos you can get access to all of them right now along with the 20 buck tier where you can get your very own This Paranormal Life t-shirt. And if you do pick up a This Paranormal Life commune t-shirt on Patreon at checkout, make sure you complete the Google form you'll be presented with at the end. And that way we'll get your shirt size and address and everything we need to know to get the shirt to you. Up to now, we've just been getting people to message us,

but this is an even faster and easier way of us getting the shirt to you as soon as possible. Now, some of you are like, $5 to listen to this bonus content I've never heard before? What if it's all garbage? Well, don't worry about that. Faithful listeners, we have you covered. We're going to give you a little sample taster right now of what one of those bonus episodes are like so please enjoy today i'd like to welcome you all to the debut and finale of our new show world shittiest cryptids wow okay yes please house band music play us in, play us in. Welcome everyone to World's Shittiest Cryptids. Whether they're useless, dumb, or so stupid that they just must be fake, these creatures, like all cryptids, are still worthy of an investigation.

Not on a main episode, of course. Let's not get carried away. But still worthy of a bonus episode. I mean, this really, I have to say, really triggers the imagination. Because like you say, we've investigated some pretty outrageously not real cryptids. Oh, yeah. The bar is already so low. And they get a full hour's investigation.

Even a debate at the end as to whether or not they're real so you're saying these you know just as a as a example we've investigated such things as oh like the hodak you know something so preposterously unbelievable but that was actually one of that was actually one of my episodes and it was unbelievable but sometimes you know reality is unbelievable so maybe not the hodak necessarily well all right well sure because he's actually the a-list top tier he's in the high echelon And it was unbelievable, but sometimes, you know, reality is unbelievable. So maybe not the Hodak necessarily. Well, all right. Well, sure. Because he's actually the A-list top tier.

He's in the high echelon. He's one of my favorites. So don't hurt him. He could be your favorite, but still be fake too. Okay. Not one of yours. Let me think. I've done so many. Morgar.

That was a piece of shit. Well, hold on. Once again, that was a case. Irritatingly bad. Granted, complicated and a little outlandish, but I think it's pretty presumptuous to assume that Morgard isn't real. Okay. So I think maybe it's probably more like one of your shitty cases that you've done. And let's be frank.

Don't think there are any. Don't think there are any. That's a hilarious statement. That's a paradox in itself. One of my shitty cases. I don't think there's such a thing, Rory. I don't know. Like off the top of my head. don't think there's such a thing, Rory. I don't know. Like, off the top of my head.

Can't think of any now. Because there aren't any. They're all perfect. I guess one of your shitty cases is, like, the Loveland Frogman. Shut the f*** up! Shut the f*** up! Okay. About the Loveland Frogman.

That's really high-pitched. Because you don't know what it means to investigate a case of that magnitude. It's actually pretty hard to make something so unbelievable yet true seem true. You've never talked at this tone before. I mean, you can't, you can't. I will say, that was a little garbage though. I mean, we could have done better than that clip. That was, that was the worst it ever gets.

Yeah. So if that even made you chuckle a little bit you are gonna love what the rest is on offer over at patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life guys thank you so much for listening to this week's episode uh we love all the support that you give us and i hope you enjoyed the episode um if you have your own paranormal stories feel free to email them in to this paranormal life podcast at gmail.com oh let me check maybe this was sent in by someone and i didn't give them credit oh i was right this was sent in actually sent in twice uh once by toby coming and another time by joe walker so thank

you for the submission as i said uh whether it's a story you want us to look into or your own paranormal story you can send it over to us and we will take a look and until then we will be back next week with a brand new paranormal tale