The History Room
Before America had its witch trials, Europe had werewolf trials...
Before America had its witch trials, Europe had werewolf trials...
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Some 200 years before the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, courts in Europe were convicting men—and some women—of transforming into werewolves and mutilating and eating children.
The punishments were sometimes as gruesome as the alleged crimes. In Germany in 1589, executioners strapped accused werewolf Peter Stumpp to a cart wheel, removed his skin with hot pinchers and chopped off his head before burning his body at the stake. Stumpp's head, attached to a wolf carcass, was later displayed as a warning to others tempted to consort with the Devil.
Werewolf trials took place in parts of Europe throughout the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, driven by superstition, religious and political clashes and the desire to find scapegoats for harsh conditions. Many of the accused were beggars, hermits or recent émigrés to the areas. Many confessed to being werewolves and committing heinous crimes, but only after being tortured. Historians suspect some suffered from delusions or weren’t intelligent enough to know what they were admitting to. A few may have been actual pedophiles or serial killers, but the historical records are fragmented and exaggerated. Centuries later, it's difficult to untangle folklore from real evidence or what people believed to be real at the time.
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https://www.history.com/news/werewolf-trials-europe-witches?cmpid=email-hist-inside-history-2021-1020-10202021&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-inside-history-2021-1020
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