The legends explain where the idea of werewolves originated but the fear of such beasts became more widely present between the 15th and 17th centuries when they became synonymous with serial killers. France was home to many of these murderers. In 1521, Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun supposedly swore allegiance to the devil and had an ointment applied to them that would transform them into wolves. They later confessed to murdering several children while in this wolf-like state and were subsequently burned at the stake for their crimes. Burning was believed to be one of the few ways to kill a werewolf. Another Frenchman by the name of Giles Garnier, known as the “Werewolf of Dole” also claimed to have been turned into a werewolf by using a special ointment. According to legends of the time, when he was in his werewolf form he would kill children and eat them. He was also burned at the stake.

France was not the only country to experience mass murdering “werewolves”, one of the most famous cases happened in Bedburg, Germany. Peter Stubbe was a wealthy farmer in the 1500s and folklore tells of him turning into a werewolf at night and devouring the citizens of Bedburg. Peter was caught by hunters who claimed to have seen him shape-shift from wolf to human, and they blamed him for the gruesome murders. After being tortured he confessed to killing and eating animals, livestock, men, women, and children along with many other heinous crimes that do not need to be represented here (If you do look up everything he confessed to just be warned that it’s very grotesque). He also confessed to having a magical belt that turned him into his wolf-like form when he put it on. After this confession he was executed in a most gruesome fashion that was more like a prolonged torture session, with his head being cut off at the end to ensure that he could not come back to life. His farm was searched for the magical belt but to no one's surprise it was never found. Whether Peter Stubbe was actually guilty of his crimes or not is up for debate but it certainly helped to spread the fear of werewolves during this period. The werewolf hysteria became so bad that even common criminals would dress in wolfskins because they knew people would believe it was a werewolf performing such treachery.