Gilles Garnier

Infobox Criminal
subject_name = Giles Garnier


image_size =
image_caption =
date_of_birth =
place_of_birth =
date_of_death = January 18, 1573
place_of_death =
alias =The Hermit of St. Bonnot
The Werewolf of Dôle
charge =
penalty = Burning at the stake
status =
occupation =
spouse =
parents =
children =

Giles Garnier (died January 18, 1573) Was a French hermit and cannibalistic, serial murderer convicted of being a werewolf. Alternately known as "The Hermit of St. Bonnot" and "The Werewolf of Dole".

The Werewolf of Dole

Gilles Garnier was a reclusive hermit living outside the town of Dole in the Franche-Comté Province in France. He had recently been married and moved his new wife out to his isolated home. Being unaccustomed to feeding more than just himself he found it difficult to provide for his wife causing discontent between them. During this period several children went missing or were found dead and the authorities of the Franche-Comté province issued an edict encouraging and allowing the people to apprehend and kill the werewolf responsible. One evening a group of workers traveling from a neighboring town came upon what they thought in the dim light to be a wolf but what some recognized as the hermit with the body of a dead child. Soon after Gilles Garnier was arrested.

Confession

According to his testimony at trial while Garnier was in the forest hunting one night trying to find food for him and his wife, a spectre appeared to him offering to ease his troubles and gave him a magic ointment that would allow him to change into the form of a wolf making it easier to hunt. Garnier confessed to have stalked and murdered at least four children between the ages of ten and twelve-years-old. His first victim in October of 1572 was a ten-year-old girl he dragged into a vineyard outside of Dole. He strangled her, removed her clothes and ate the flesh from her thighs and arms. When he had finished he removed some flesh and took it home to his wife. Weeks later Garnier savagely attacked another girl, biting and clawing her, but was interrupted by passersby and fled. The girl succumbed to her injuries a few days later. In November Garnier killed a ten-year-old boy again cannibalizing him by eating from his thighs and belly and tearing off a leg to save for later. Finally he strangled another boy but was interrupted for the second time by a group of passersby - having to abandon his prey before he could eat from it. This last murder was particularly shocking at the time because of Garnier's intention of eating of the boy on a Friday in defiance of the Catholic doctrine against doing so.

Garnier was found guilty of “crimes of lycanthropy and witchcraft” and burned at the stake.

See also

* Hans the Werewolf

References

*Everitt, David. "Human Monsters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Most Vicious Murderers", New York: McGraw-Hill 1993, pp.13-15. ISBN 0809239949
*Schechter, Harold. "The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers", Pocket Books, 2006 ISBN 1416521747
*Sidky, H. "Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs, and Disease: An Anthropological Study of the European Witch-Hunts." New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. 1997. ISBN 0820433543
*Mackay, Charles "Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds", New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks. 1980. ISBN 1566191696