FRIDAY, finally

Today is, of course, Halloween, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day.n popular culture, Halloween has become a celebration of horror and is associated with the macabre and the supernatural. With that in mind, I want to tell you about Peter Stumpp, who was executed on this day in 1589, accused of werewolfery, witchcraft, and cannibalism. He was known as “the Werewolf of Bedburg”.

Stumpp was born near Bedburg, Germany around 1530. Stump, who likely was a Protestant, was a wealthy farmer in his rural community. During the 1580s, he seems to have been a widower with two children: a daughter called Beele (Sybil), who seems to have been older than 15 years, and a son of unknown age.

During 1589, Stumpp had one of the most lurid and famous werewolf trials in history. He confessed to having practiced black magic since he was 12 years old. He claimed that the Devil had given him a magical belt or girdle, which enabled him to metamorphose into “the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body, and mighty paws.” Removing the belt, he said, made him transform back to his human form.

Being threatened with torture, he confessed to killing and eating 14 children and 2 pregnant women, whose fetuses he ripped from their wombs and “ate their hearts panting hot and raw,” which he later described as “dainty morsels.” Not only was Stumpp accused of being a serial murderer and cannibal, but also of having an incestuous relationship with his daughter, who was sentenced to die with him, and of having coupled with a distant relative, which was also considered to be incest according to the law. In addition to this, he confessed to having had sexual intercourse with a succubus sent to him by the Devil.

The execution of Stumpp, on 31 October 1589, alongside his daughter Beele (Sybil) and mistress, Katherine, is one of the most brutal on record; I will spare you the details. As a warning against similar behaviour, local authorities erected a pole with the torture wheel and the figure of a wolf on it, and at the very top, they placed Peter Stumpp’s severed head.

This woodcut shows the ‘breaking wheel’ as it was used in Germany in the Middle Ages. The exact date is unknown, as is the creator, but it depicts the execution of Peter Stumpp in 1589.

Serving children at the wedding???