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Historys Greatest Mysteries - Season 7 - Episode 03: The Legend of the Werewolf
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00:09Tonight, a legendary monster that transforms from man to beast whenever there's a full moon.
00:17The werewolf isn't just a movie monster.
00:19It's one of humanity's oldest nightmares.
00:22Is this all in our head?
00:23Or is this something that is truly happening to the public?
00:27In one town in France, over 100 people killed.
00:32Young children decapitated and disemboweled.
00:35In her dying breaths, she says she was attacked by something wolf-like, but not a wolf.
00:41Now, we explore the top theories surrounding the werewolf.
00:47That's just not the behavior of an ordinary wolf.
00:50A wolf would not have been decapitating people.
00:53By donning the animal's skin, you become the animal.
00:57You gain access to its fury.
01:01Could a condition that makes you froth at the mouth, has you hallucinate and attack other humans, get you branded
01:07a werewolf?
01:07Certainly won't help.
01:09Do real facts lie behind the enduring stories of werewolves?
01:12And why is the idea of this creature still so powerful today?
01:33The werewolf is one of our oldest and most gruesome monster stories.
01:37At the full moon, a person transforms into a bloodthirsty beast, stalking its victims, then ripping them apart with razor
01:48-sharp teeth and claws.
01:50The next morning, the individual awakens, and they've returned to their true human self, with no memory of what transpired
01:58the night before.
01:59The werewolf exists in an interesting place culturally.
02:03Nobody goes out hunting for werewolves the way people go ghost hunting.
02:07But it's an incredibly familiar type of folk character, and we see it often in films, in books, in comic
02:15books, usually in sort of a real over-the-top kind of way.
02:18But this legend remains deeply ingrained in cultures across the globe.
02:24The question is why.
02:28The epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest form of literature that exists, and it includes a werewolf story.
02:35When the goddess Ishtar transforms a former lover into a wolf, and then allows him to be torn apart by
02:43his own sheepdogs.
02:45Hundreds of years later, we get another legend, this one from ancient Greece.
02:48This is the story of King Lycaon, a Greek king who tries to challenge the authority of Zeus.
02:54He does so by trying to trick the king of the gods into eating a stew that contains human flesh.
03:00So Zeus sees this, because he is all-powerful, and he goes, if you're going to act like a beast,
03:06then I'm going to turn you into a beast.
03:08And then in front of all of his guests, he begins to radically transform into a wolf.
03:16These early stories are just that, stories.
03:19Now, it's possible that, like all myths, there may be some basis, in fact, but we don't have any of
03:25that evidence.
03:26For evidence of actual werewolves, we need to go a little bit forward in time to medieval France.
03:33In 1764, Gévaudan is a quiet, remote province in southern France.
03:39380 miles south of Paris, it's not a place known for generating much news.
03:45Overall, a very quiet, very peaceful place to live.
03:49Until 1764, when suddenly some really frightening stuff starts happening.
03:55So the first incident that takes place is in the summer.
03:59A teenaged shepherd is out with her flock of grazing cattle, when a monstrous wolf bursts out of the brush
04:09at her.
04:11Now, her bulls actually protect her.
04:14They charge this animal, they fend it off, and she goes back into town with reports of this enormous creature.
04:21What she describes is unlike any natural phenomenon.
04:26She describes a wolf-like creature, but the size of a cow, with a red coat of fur and fangs
04:33and fiery red eyes.
04:36And then she utters a phrase that stokes fears among the locals.
04:41Like a wolf, yet not a wolf.
04:45Just weeks later, we have another attack on another young girl.
04:50With her dying breath, she describes the creature that attacked her.
04:54Wolf-like, but different.
04:57With huge fangs, more teeth than a regular wolf would have.
05:01And walking on its hind legs, like a man.
05:05And then they find a young shepherd boy who's dead in the hills.
05:08And now people are starting to think, there's something going on here.
05:12We have a bigger problem than just wolves.
05:16Even though the attacks are largely taking place in daylight,
05:20locals believe they're being perpetrated by a lugaru, a werewolf.
05:25They begin to call it the Beast of Jeboudon.
05:28And the killings are just getting started.
05:32What follows are attacks on more victims, individuals out tending to their flocks.
05:37Many of them are children, and many of them are discovered not only dead, but mutilated, partially eaten.
05:44The Beast of Jeboudon will go on to be the most compelling werewolf case ever.
05:50What it does is it points to the most obvious explanation for werewolves.
05:59At this time, there were hundreds of thousands of wolves in continental Europe.
06:05And remember, they are raising livestock, which attracts wolves.
06:11So they are living in close proximity to these very dangerous animals.
06:15According to some estimates, between the 1300s and the 1700s,
06:19wolves in France kill as many as 10,000 people.
06:24Many historians look at this and say, okay, we've got a huge population of wolves.
06:28These wolves are often in conflict with people and their livestock.
06:31That's the explanation.
06:32This isn't a supernatural beast.
06:34It is a natural menace.
06:36But the Beast of Jeboudon's story seems to go far beyond the typical conflicts
06:41between wolf and man at the time.
06:44As the killings continued, the authorities were obviously very concerned.
06:48So they put a bounty out.
06:50On October 8th of 1764, a group of hunters were out and managed to corner the wolf.
06:57They opened fire.
06:59They hit it.
06:59It went down.
07:01But then the beast just simply got up and ran away.
07:05A few months later, a 10-year-old is attacked by the beast.
07:09But his friends surround him and beat it back with their sticks.
07:15And the 10-year-old boy survives.
07:18The stories keep coming.
07:20The young woman is crossing the River Dege when she's attacked by a monster.
07:24She says that she impales the creature with a spear.
07:28And yet it still runs away.
07:31This is obviously getting to be a much bigger deal.
07:34So the king's own huntsman joins the fight.
07:36He actually shoots it and drops it.
07:39And it is an abnormally large wolf for the time.
07:42So the news goes out from Boston to Brussels.
07:45We killed the beast.
07:47But the celebration turns out to be a little premature because the murders continue.
07:52In fact, they're even more vicious than they were before.
07:55People are being eaten, ripped apart, torn limb from limb, decapitated.
08:04There's no question that it's still out there and it's still killing people.
08:0930 more people are killed in attacks.
08:12Soon, the death toll nears 100.
08:15This is just absolute terror that's hard to describe.
08:19Maybe this isn't an average mortal beast.
08:22In fact, it might be supernatural.
08:23You might need to be using some supernatural tactics to take this wolf down.
08:29Undeterred, a French nobleman forms yet another hunting party to go after the beast.
08:34And joining that party is a man named Jean Chastel.
08:37This party, like parties before, locate the beast.
08:41Now, Chastel loads his pistol, says a prayer, aims, and fires, hitting the monster.
08:48The monster stays down, dead.
08:53Over the years, a legend has grown.
08:56It's said that that one bullet killed the monster.
08:59And it's believed to have been a silver bullet.
09:03There's no actual evidence that he used a silver bullet.
09:07But this is the beginning of that motif.
09:09That if you're going to take out a supernatural creature, the way to do it is with a solid silver
09:14bullet.
09:14So in 1767, they do an autopsy on the decomposing body.
09:18What they find is that, yes, it was just a really large wolf with very unusual markings.
09:24And that when they got into the stomach, they actually found human remains.
09:30So was the beast of Jevoudin simply a large wolf?
09:35If so, how does that explain the stunning death toll and details provided by the eyewitnesses?
09:42How do we square that with so many of the observations about it being the size of a horse,
09:48about it walking on its two hind legs, about bodies being found decapitated?
09:54Because of this, some theories that maybe this wasn't a typical wolf have come to light.
10:02So some people have suggested this could be a dire wolf.
10:04That's an extinct species, supposedly extinct for about 10,000 years, but much larger than a normal wolf.
10:12In the end, the people of Jevoudin, living in the 18th century as they were,
10:17continued to believe that it was a supernatural creature.
10:20To them, it made a lot more sense that they couldn't kill this thing
10:24because it was something malevolent, something evil.
10:28The story of the beast of Jevoudin is so widespread and terrifying
10:33that from the 18th century onward, the French public believes all wolves must be eliminated.
10:42By the 1800s, the government has put a bounty out on wolves' heads.
10:46And as a result of this, by 1930, they're almost all but extinct in the region.
10:51But the curiosity about werewolves continues.
10:58During the first millennium, Nordic folklore describes a father and son
11:03who discover magic wolf pelts that allow them to become wolves for 10 days.
11:08They roam through the woods on a killing rampage
11:11until the father attacks the son, leaving him with a mortal wound.
11:16In Scandinavia in the first millennium, there is a documented real phenomenon taking place
11:22that makes the werewolf transition maybe not seem so implausible.
11:27A good starting point is in the Viking culture.
11:34So in Scandinavia, in the 9th century, you have this Viking warrior culture,
11:40and particularly a group of warriors that worshipped the god Odin,
11:45and they were often meant to protect royalty.
11:48They're known as berserkers.
11:50The berserkers were sort of an unusual bunch.
11:55Before battle, they would strip themselves completely naked,
12:00dye their bodies with a black dye,
12:04and then would sort of psych themselves up into a state of ferocity.
12:10But there was one subculture of berserker warriors who did dress themselves as wolves.
12:19One of the secrets to their fighting ability was this insane rage that would take over their body.
12:28A madness would come over them.
12:31They were described as fighting almost in a trance-like state,
12:35often described as either being naked or as wearing bearskins, or sometimes wolfskins.
12:41The donning of the animal skin, the bear skin, which is where we get the word berserk from,
12:48is not simply an armor.
12:50It's actually a mindset.
12:51You're becoming like the animal, that by embodying it,
12:55you avail yourself of its power, of its fury.
13:00We see stories of these fighters training in the woods,
13:04but it's possible that one of their best weapons
13:07is actually the use of hallucinogenic substances.
13:15Some scholars now theorize that the berserkers' drug-induced transformation from men into monsters
13:22could be the basis of the werewolf legend as we now know it.
13:27It's thought that potentially the berserkers were ingesting Amanita muscaria,
13:32which is the mushroom that's sort of the Alice in Wonderland mushroom.
13:39When ingested, there's psychoactive properties
13:43that would cause a person to enter a feeling of just kind of invincibility and ferocity.
13:50After that feeling of being invincible and bloodthirsty would wear off,
13:55that mushroom then acts as a sedative.
13:59They wouldn't even remember what they had done on the battlefield.
14:04A later ruler of Norway, King Olaf Haraldson,
14:08is said to use berserkers in one of the most famous battles in the country's history,
14:14at Stickelstad in 1030.
14:16But the berserkers' days are numbered
14:19because such animalistic behavior runs counter to the growing faith of Christianity.
14:25In fact, Olaf himself will be canonized as St. Olaf
14:30for his campaign to spread the religion.
14:33As Christianity became a more major religion in Norway,
14:37the sort of pagan feel of the berserkers
14:40is something that fell out of favor.
14:43And if they fell out of favor with the rise of Christianity,
14:47it was the church that brought back an emphasis
14:51on the possibility of werewolves in the 16th century.
14:54In the 1500s, the Catholic Church in Europe,
14:58embroiled in political power struggles
15:00and under threat from a new Protestant movement,
15:03is on a campaign to maintain its supremacy.
15:07As part of this effort to really maintain control
15:11over what people understand to be the morally correct way to live,
15:15we can see a lot of fear-mongering.
15:19200 years before the famous Salem witch trials,
15:23we had a similar type of trial happening in Europe.
15:26These were werewolf trials.
15:28Oftentimes, individuals were accused of horrific acts,
15:32often killing and eating children.
15:34And so these individuals were put on trial by the church.
15:38And under extreme duress, indeed under torture,
15:43they would often confess to being just that, werewolves.
15:50At this point in the 1500s across Europe,
15:53the Catholic Church really is the dominant moral authority,
15:57telling people what's right, how to live correctly,
16:00really setting the moral tone.
16:03The church exerts its influence
16:05by claiming that it offers you protection
16:08from demonic influences here on Earth.
16:12The most serious threat the church set were werewolves.
16:18So in Germany in 1589,
16:20the werewolf executions are in full tilt.
16:23And they come across a gentleman named Peter Stump.
16:26They put him on a rack,
16:28and they slowly remove all of his flesh.
16:31Then they behead him,
16:32and they actually burn him on a funeral pyre.
16:36It was a warning not only to any werewolves,
16:39but it was also a warning to the people
16:42that only the church had the power to protect them.
16:46But there may be another factor
16:49that puts unwitting people in the crosshairs
16:51of the werewolf-hunting church.
16:54Some historians have observed
16:55that many of the greatest incidents of werewolf activity
17:00happened in lowland areas.
17:02They tend to be wet, damp, moist,
17:04and they note that those conditions
17:07give rise to a certain fungus
17:09that, when consumed, can have odd effects.
17:13This fungus, known as ergot,
17:16grows on grains and contains chemical compounds
17:19that are not only poisonous,
17:21but also psychoactive.
17:23When grains infected with ergot are consumed,
17:27some of the symptoms include rapid heart rate,
17:30blurred vision, kind of a state of agitation,
17:33all of which could be seen
17:35as part of the werewolf transformation.
17:39To make matters even more compelling
17:41is once the poisoning effects wear off,
17:44you'll have little memory of the things
17:46that you did while you were poisoned.
17:48It's not hard to imagine that if in your village
17:51something terrible happens,
17:53especially to a small child,
17:54that you wouldn't begin looking about
17:55for someone to blame.
17:57The person behaving irrationally, uncontrollably,
18:01who's spasming, seemingly undergoing
18:03some kind of demonic transformation,
18:05that's an obvious person to blame.
18:07There are conflicting views
18:09on just how many Europeans are persecuted
18:12in the heyday of werewolf trials.
18:15One source from 1611 claims
18:17the number is 30,000 in France alone.
18:21Some historians today argue
18:23the total number in Europe is much less,
18:26perhaps several hundred.
18:28What we might be seeing here
18:29is really sort of a cyclical effect
18:32where these sort of afflictions
18:34may really have increased the idea
18:36that there are people
18:38becoming werewolves.
18:43Winter, 1573.
18:45It's a cold night in rural France,
18:48and laborers are headed to a tavern
18:50for an evening meal.
18:52The entire party is on edge
18:54for good reason.
18:57In the bushes,
18:59under the light of a full moon,
19:01they hear some rustling sounds.
19:04They at first think
19:05it might be an animal.
19:06They hear sort of a growling sound
19:08coming from it.
19:11But as they get closer,
19:13they realize that what they're seeing
19:15is a person.
19:17Same as Gilles Garnier.
19:19He is a recluse
19:21who lives outside of town.
19:22And they also realize
19:24that's not a dead animal
19:25that he's eating.
19:27It's the body of a small child.
19:32When they confront Garnier,
19:35they find his blood
19:37all over his face.
19:38It's dripping from his chin.
19:40And he admits that he's a wolf
19:43and that he's been killing
19:44and eating children
19:46for some time now,
19:47as many as 14
19:48in the last few months.
19:49He honestly believes
19:51he's a werewolf.
19:54It's cases like Garnier
19:56that lead many historians
19:57to believe that
19:58the explanation
20:00for werewolf stories
20:01is not the supernatural,
20:03not curses or the full moon,
20:05but something entirely natural.
20:07It's to be found in deranged,
20:09but very human predators.
20:15Further questioning leads
20:17leads to some answers
20:19as to why Garnier
20:20would commit
20:21such a heinous act.
20:22And he says
20:23the devil made him do it.
20:26And the devil helped him
20:28by giving him an ointment
20:30that turned him into a wolf.
20:36Back in those days,
20:38Garnier was believed
20:39to be a supernatural creature.
20:41But today,
20:42we would call him
20:44a serial killer
20:45who engaged in cannibalism,
20:48someone like Albert Fish
20:49or Jeffrey Dahmer
20:51who would eat their victims.
20:53We don't think of them
20:54as werewolves.
20:55We think of them
20:56as a serial killer.
21:00What we have is
21:01arguably a climate of fear.
21:04One person makes a claim
21:06and then others get on board
21:08and suddenly the story
21:09takes on a life of its own.
21:10And the boundaries
21:11between fantasy and reality
21:14begin to blur.
21:17The truth is
21:18we'll never know for sure
21:19in this particular case
21:20because Garnier is found guilty
21:24of being a werewolf
21:26and is burned on a pyre.
21:30In Bedberg, Germany,
21:3216 years after Garnier's trial,
21:35Peter Stump is also accused
21:37of being a werewolf.
21:39Stump was being interrogated
21:40by the authorities.
21:41He made a full confession.
21:43He said that he was transformed
21:45into a wolf using a belt
21:47that had been made
21:48from a wolf's skin.
21:50Peter Stump confesses
21:52to killing 14 children
21:53as well as two pregnant women
21:55with their babies.
21:56One key difference here
21:58is that when he transforms
22:00into being a human,
22:01he retains the knowledge
22:03of what he's done.
22:04Just as with Garnier,
22:05his confession leads
22:07to execution.
22:09He's tortured,
22:10he's burned,
22:11and then the news of it
22:12is reported far and wide.
22:16The church creates a broadsheet
22:18announcing that it is captured
22:20and executed
22:21the werewolf of Bedberg.
22:23That broadsheet
22:24is widely circulated,
22:26reprinted hundreds of times,
22:29making Stump's case
22:30the most famous werewolf trial.
22:32And so these sorts of stories
22:34really got a lot of spread
22:36in culture,
22:37letting people know exactly
22:38what a werewolf does
22:39and what will happen
22:41to someone who is one.
22:42It's entirely possible
22:43that Garnier and Stump
22:46did commit the crimes
22:48they were accused of,
22:48even though their confessions
22:50were extracted under torture.
22:51And what's interesting
22:52is that in those confessions,
22:54they claim that
22:55they did commit the crimes,
22:56but as werewolves.
22:58So it's not just
22:59a confession to a crime,
23:01it's a confession
23:02to a supernatural crime.
23:06Could accused serial killers
23:08like Garnier and Stump
23:09actually believe
23:11they were werewolves?
23:12A rare psychological condition
23:14recognized in the late 19th century
23:17might provide an answer.
23:20There is a condition
23:21called clinical lycanthropy.
23:23This comes to us
23:24from the Greek lykos,
23:26meaning wolf,
23:27and anthropos,
23:28meaning human.
23:29In this case,
23:31individuals do claim
23:32to believe
23:33that they transform into wolves.
23:35They describe
23:36a physical transformation,
23:38teeth turning into fangs,
23:40nails turning into claws,
23:41hair growing,
23:42the body contorting
23:43into a wolf-like state.
23:45If we're looking
23:46for a documented phenomenon
23:48that could really
23:49tie all the pieces together
23:51of the werewolf belief,
23:53serial killers
23:54with diagnosed
23:55clinical lycanthropy
23:57really hits the nail
23:58on the head.
24:00It's very hard to know
24:02how prevalent this is.
24:04If you're just looking
24:05at the scientific literature,
24:06a colleague and I
24:07only found 25 cases
24:09of people who believe
24:10they turned into wolves.
24:11I'm guessing it's more frequent
24:12than the scientific literature
24:14would suggest.
24:15We have a 2020 case
24:16of a young boy in France
24:18who believed himself
24:19to be a werewolf.
24:21He would refuse
24:22to go to school
24:23during the full moon.
24:24There were reports
24:25of him biting
24:26or scratching
24:27his classmates.
24:28Doctors feared
24:29it had something to do
24:31with the internet,
24:32that he had been
24:33delving deep
24:34into online chat rooms
24:36and things
24:37where people were talking
24:38about another world
24:39of living
24:40as a werewolf.
24:41But even without
24:43the internet,
24:43people have been suffering
24:45from this condition
24:46for centuries.
24:50By the mid-19th century,
24:52as the wolf population
24:54plummets,
24:55there's less fear
24:56of encountering
24:57a werewolf
24:57in a dark forest.
24:59But in 1855,
25:01a chilling story
25:02from France
25:03reignites the terror
25:05and the legend.
25:09In 1855,
25:11a article comes out
25:12in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
25:13about a couple
25:14in rural France
25:15and it's really disturbing.
25:17This couple
25:18was getting married
25:18and before the wedding,
25:20the groom started acting
25:21really strange.
25:24The night after
25:25the nuptials,
25:27they hear this
25:27horrible screaming
25:29coming from the
25:30bedchamber
25:30of the bride and groom.
25:33Their family
25:34rushed to the room.
25:36And upon opening
25:37the door,
25:38they see the husband
25:39standing above
25:40the wife,
25:41blood dripping
25:42down his mouth.
25:43He's consuming her.
25:45He's eaten
25:46part of her chest.
25:47But just as the villagers
25:49get to the man,
25:50he too dies.
25:53Suspicion only grows
25:54when authorities learn
25:55that the man
25:56had been recently bitten
25:58by some sort
25:59of vicious canine.
26:01Back then,
26:02people would not
26:03have the knowledge
26:03to understand
26:04what was happening
26:05to this gentleman.
26:07But now,
26:08we understand
26:08that there is
26:09something which can
26:10affect humans
26:11and animals.
26:12That could have
26:13very well been
26:14what he was suffering
26:15from.
26:20Rabies has been
26:21around since the
26:22beginning of recorded
26:23time.
26:24As far as we know,
26:25the first mention
26:26of it was in a
26:26Babylonian text
26:28from 2300 BCE.
26:29So it's something
26:31that has been
26:32part of world history
26:34but not always
26:35understood.
26:38Rabies can affect
26:39animals and humans.
26:41And in animals,
26:42they become more
26:43aggressive.
26:44They lose their fear
26:45of the things normally
26:46they're cautious about.
26:47In humans,
26:48more severe cases
26:49of rabies
26:50are known as
26:50furious rabies.
26:52We see things like
26:54seizures,
26:55hallucinations,
26:56strange vocalizations,
26:58and even things like
26:59foaming at the mouth.
27:01And because people
27:02came down with
27:03these conditions
27:03after they were
27:04bitten by some
27:06rabid animal,
27:07like a wolf,
27:08they would just
27:08assume that it was
27:10a curse being
27:11passed on
27:11from a werewolf.
27:13With Louis Pasteur's
27:15development of the
27:16rabies vaccine
27:17in 1885,
27:19the number of
27:20post-bite fatalities
27:21in humans
27:22drops significantly.
27:24Rabies may have
27:25played a pretty
27:26significant role
27:26in the development
27:27of the werewolf legend,
27:29but there are
27:30other conditions
27:31as well that
27:31could have
27:32played a role
27:33in suggesting
27:33the same sort
27:34of wolf-like
27:35behaviors.
27:36There's a famous
27:37story that we all
27:38know, which is
27:39Tarzan,
27:39about Lord Greystoke.
27:41Him and his parents
27:42marooned off the
27:42coast of Africa,
27:43the parents die,
27:44and he's left
27:44to fend for himself.
27:46He's raised by
27:47the apes,
27:47and he begins
27:48to run around
27:49on all fours
27:50and speak like them,
27:52act like them,
27:52exhibit all their
27:53behaviors.
27:54Tarzan,
27:55the character,
27:56is obviously
27:56fictional,
27:57but the concept
27:58of actual
27:59feral children,
28:00children raised
28:01in the wilderness
28:02by animals,
28:03has been around
28:04for centuries.
28:05And these certainly
28:06could have played
28:06a role in the stories
28:08about people
28:09behaving like
28:10or even transforming
28:11into wolves.
28:17These feral children
28:18don't exhibit
28:20violent tendencies,
28:22but even though
28:23they're not aggressive,
28:25their mysterious origins,
28:27their wild-like tendencies,
28:29really fuels the idea
28:31that this is maybe
28:32a perfect template
28:33for where we get
28:35the modern werewolf.
28:36Northwest India,
28:381867.
28:39A hunting party
28:40is out in the jungle
28:41when they come upon
28:43a cave guarded
28:45by a single wolf.
28:46But as they look closer,
28:49they realize that this wolf
28:51is not a wolf at all.
28:53It's a boy.
28:56When an actual wolf
28:58then emerged
28:59from the cave
29:00and approached
29:01the hunters,
29:01they killed it
29:02and believed
29:03they were rescuing
29:04this boy,
29:05not understanding
29:06that he had been
29:07raised by those wolves.
29:09The hunters deliver him
29:11to a group of missionaries.
29:13You know,
29:13the missionaries
29:14name him Dina Sanichar.
29:16They try to teach him
29:17to speak.
29:18They're never able
29:19to do so.
29:19So what we have here
29:21is a real-life jungle book,
29:22a real-life Mowgli
29:23man-cub.
29:25The story of Dina Sanichar
29:27is not an isolated one.
29:29There have been around
29:31a hundred documented cases
29:32just like it.
29:34There were other cases
29:36of feral children
29:37being raised by animals,
29:38different kinds of animals,
29:40leopards,
29:41lions,
29:42goats,
29:43but most of them
29:44seem to revolve
29:45around dogs and wolves
29:47because they are
29:48such social animals.
29:50What we see
29:51in these stories,
29:52there's not that violence,
29:53there's not that aggression,
29:55but we see
29:55at a really basic level
29:57the general belief
29:58that a human-animal hybrid
30:00is possible.
30:05in 1884,
30:07Phineas Taylor Barnum
30:08travels the world
30:09with his circus.
30:10He calls it
30:11P.T. Barnum's
30:13greatest show on earth.
30:15Among his sideshow performers
30:17is a young boy
30:18with a very startling appearance.
30:21His entire face,
30:22except for his eyes and ears,
30:24were covered with
30:25a fine, silky hair.
30:27And whenever he would perform,
30:30he would bark
30:31and growl like a dog.
30:33Now, this was just
30:34his stage act.
30:35He was actually
30:36a brilliant young man
30:37who spoke five
30:38different languages,
30:39but he made his money
30:40by pretending to be
30:42half-man
30:42and half-animal.
30:44Joe-Joe's real name
30:45was Fedor Yeftichev,
30:47and he suffered
30:48from a condition
30:49we know of these days
30:50as hypertrichosis,
30:52which is basically
30:54excessive hair.
30:55It can cover just the face,
30:57or it can consume
30:59your entire body.
31:01Some experts believe
31:02that this condition,
31:03documented rarely
31:04but consistently
31:05since the 1500s,
31:07could play a role
31:08in the ongoing belief
31:09in werewolves.
31:15Fedor was born in Russia.
31:17His father
31:17had the same condition.
31:19His father
31:19had performed
31:20in sideshows
31:21as a wild man.
31:23After his father
31:24passed away,
31:25Fedor went on
31:26to perform alone,
31:27which is how
31:28he met P.T. Barnum,
31:30who offered him
31:31a handsome contract
31:32to come to America
31:33as Jo-Joe,
31:34the dog-faced boy.
31:37Yeftichev
31:38is a popular attraction
31:39for Barnum
31:39for nearly 20 years.
31:41Even though
31:42Yeftichev grows
31:43incredibly homesick,
31:44Barnum won't let him
31:45out of his contract.
31:46Barnum's shows
31:47draw in hundreds
31:49of thousands
31:50of visitors per year.
31:52And likely,
31:53for many of them,
31:54this is the first time
31:55they've ever seen
31:56a person with hypertrichosis.
31:58The condition didn't even
31:58have that name at the time.
32:00And the posters,
32:02the advertisement
32:03for the show,
32:04really encouraged people
32:06to believe
32:07believe that this was
32:08an animal-human hybrid.
32:11Jo-Joe is part
32:12of a long history
32:13of hypertrichosis sufferers
32:15being cast as wild
32:17animal-human hybrids,
32:19including werewolves.
32:22In the late 1500s,
32:24there was an Italian naturalist
32:25named Ulyssi Aldrovandi.
32:27And he documented
32:29this entire family
32:30who lived in Bologna
32:31who were covered
32:32in a thick black hair
32:34over their entire bodies.
32:36Aldrovandi's book
32:37was titled
32:38The History of Monsters,
32:39and the name
32:40that it gives
32:41to this condition
32:42is werewolf syndrome.
32:44Even though now
32:46we have the name
32:47hypertrichosis,
32:49the name werewolf syndrome
32:50also sticks.
32:51In the last 300 years,
32:53there are only 50 documented
32:55cases of hypertrichosis,
32:56but in many ways,
32:58its rarity
32:58may have made it
32:59more alarming
33:00and all the more
33:01sort of shocking
33:01for people who witnessed it.
33:03While not nearly
33:04as common as rabies
33:05or as well publicized
33:07as feral children,
33:09hypertrichosis may have
33:10played a key role
33:11in the development
33:12of the werewolf myth.
33:14That may be why
33:15one of the oldest variations
33:17of the werewolf legend
33:18involves a creature
33:20that doesn't transform
33:22back into a human,
33:23but remains half human
33:25and half beast.
33:26Through the centuries,
33:28a handful of famous cases
33:29reinforced the idea
33:31of werewolf syndrome.
33:34In 1840,
33:36some Mexican herdsmen
33:37discover a young mother
33:39hiding a daughter
33:40in a cave.
33:42The daughter is striking
33:44in her appearance.
33:45She's covered with hair,
33:46including what looks like
33:47a long beard
33:48growing from her face.
33:49The mother explained
33:51that she was hiding
33:52the little girl
33:52whose name was Julia Pastrana
33:54because villagers
33:56believed that she was
33:58the new Ollie,
33:59who was a shape-shifting werewolf.
34:01As the story goes,
34:03the young mother
34:04died soon after,
34:05and Julia ended up
34:07in an orphanage
34:08where she became
34:09a subject of both
34:11ridicule and fear.
34:14But she has such
34:15a sweet disposition.
34:17She has such a beautiful
34:18singing voice.
34:19She is eventually adopted
34:21by the governor
34:22of the state of Sinaloa
34:24in Mexico,
34:24and she works
34:26as a live-in maid.
34:27While she's working
34:28as a maid
34:29in this governor's house,
34:31she begins to sing opera,
34:32and as her talents grow,
34:34she gets recognized.
34:35She meets
34:36an American entrepreneur.
34:37He encourages her
34:38to travel to the U.S.
34:40And by 1854,
34:42she makes her debut
34:44on Broadway.
34:46Despite Pastrana's
34:48gentle demeanor
34:48and sophisticated performances,
34:50she's still viewed
34:51as some kind of monster.
34:54One newspaper article
34:56refers to her as it,
34:58and even doctors
34:59who examine her
35:01will say that she
35:02is only half-human,
35:04and these are doctors,
35:06let alone the general public,
35:07who sees her
35:08as this human-animal hybrid.
35:11Her career continues,
35:12and she actually has success
35:14traveling around the world
35:16and performing,
35:16and in 1860 in Moscow,
35:19she gives birth
35:20to a baby boy.
35:21Unfortunately,
35:23her child only survives
35:24for 35 hours,
35:25and after he passes away,
35:27so does she.
35:29So, for Julia,
35:31instead of having
35:32a dignified burial,
35:33they put her in a box
35:35and display her
35:36at these events,
35:38and it isn't until years later
35:40in 2013
35:41where she is finally
35:42given a burial.
35:43The condition
35:44that Jojo and Julia
35:46suffered from
35:47gave them
35:48an animal-like appearance,
35:49but both of them
35:50were known for being
35:52very pleasant,
35:53peaceful people,
35:54so they weren't anything
35:55like the werewolf legend,
35:57but the fact that
35:59people saw
36:00that there could be
36:01what they thought
36:03was a human-animal hybrid,
36:05it kept the story
36:06of the werewolves alive.
36:12Around the time
36:13of Julia Pastrana's death,
36:15thousands of miles away
36:17in the American West,
36:18another alleged form
36:20of werewolf
36:20is said to stalk
36:22the desert brush,
36:23and this beast
36:24is not so peaceful.
36:26In the 1860s,
36:28a conflict began
36:29in the American Southwest
36:30between the Navajo
36:31and Ute nations.
36:33The Ute had allied themselves
36:35with the American military
36:36against the Navajo,
36:38and the Navajo
36:39were angry about this
36:40and decided
36:41to have their revenge.
36:44As retaliation,
36:46the Navajo
36:47are said to unleash
36:48a terrifying curse
36:49upon the Ute people
36:51in their ancestral homeland,
36:53what is now
36:53present-day Utah,
36:54and that curse
36:55comes in the form
36:56of a monster,
36:57the skinwalker.
37:00According to
37:00Native American lore,
37:02skinwalkers were
37:03a type of witch
37:04that could transform
37:05into an animal,
37:06specifically a wolf,
37:08and they did so
37:09using magic
37:10and the pelt
37:11of the animal
37:12they wanted
37:12to transform into.
37:14The Navajo
37:15called them
37:15ye na lushi,
37:17which roughly translates
37:18to he who walks
37:20on all fours.
37:22In wolf form,
37:24skinwalkers are
37:26super strong,
37:27very fast,
37:28almost impossible
37:29to kill.
37:31Folklore has it
37:32that the only thing
37:32that can kill them
37:33is a bullet or a knife
37:34that's been dipped
37:35in white ash.
37:36It's said that
37:37the only way
37:37to become a skinwalker
37:38is to kill a member
37:39of your own family.
37:41When you put
37:42all of these qualities
37:43together,
37:43the transformation
37:44into animals,
37:45people becoming
37:46like wolves,
37:47some people believe
37:48that this is
37:49a clear connection
37:50to the longstanding
37:52historical belief
37:53in werewolves.
37:57By the late 19th century,
37:59many Utes
38:00have come to believe
38:01that the skinwalkers
38:02are powerful dark magic,
38:04and so many abandoned
38:05the Uinta Basin
38:06and refused
38:06to go back there.
38:07over time,
38:09that land
38:10is parceled
38:11and sold.
38:12In the 1990s,
38:14a couple
38:14acquire a 512-acre
38:16parcel of land.
38:18Almost immediately,
38:19they begin having
38:20strangeness happen
38:22around the house,
38:23which gets worse
38:24until they start
38:25to notice wolves
38:26on the land
38:27that are three times
38:28larger than any wolves
38:30that they've ever seen
38:32or they can find
38:33in text.
38:34According to the legend,
38:36these are skinwalkers,
38:38and some say
38:39that these are skinwalkers
38:41specifically sent
38:42by the Navajo
38:43to clear out this land.
38:45Skinwalker sightings
38:46aren't limited
38:47to the supposed
38:48cursed territory
38:49in Utah.
38:50One Native American
38:52family in Arizona
38:53reports terrifying
38:54forces on their land.
38:58As the family
38:59tells this story,
39:00they're seeing
39:01what looks sort of
39:02like these long shadows
39:04that are circling
39:05around their house.
39:06The family hears noise
39:08coming from the sun's bedroom.
39:09They open the door
39:10and see the sun
39:11being attacked
39:12by some kind of creature,
39:14which they describe
39:15as walking on two legs
39:17but with eyes
39:17that burn like fire.
39:20In this family's
39:22belief tradition,
39:23they describe this
39:23as a skinwalker.
39:25But with the details
39:27provided,
39:27this could easily be
39:29the story of a werewolf.
39:30When European settlers
39:32brought their werewolf legends
39:33to the Americas,
39:35they could have heard
39:36Native American stories
39:37of the skinwalkers.
39:39After all,
39:39both are tales
39:40of shape-shifting,
39:41malevolent beings.
39:43That's why some experts
39:44believe that the skinwalker
39:46may have been
39:47a significant influence
39:48on popular werewolf mythology.
39:52So it's easy on one level
39:54to imagine how werewolf legends
39:55would take root
39:56in a pastime
39:57before large technology,
40:00education,
40:00research about viruses.
40:02But you also have werewolf stories
40:04that are contemporary.
40:05In Wisconsin,
40:07there's this sort of
40:07America's Beast of Javadin
40:09is known as
40:10the Beast of Bray Road.
40:14This is a hybrid
40:16of a dog-man
40:18who's seen consistently
40:20in the wilderness,
40:21often at dusk,
40:22often doing exactly
40:24what we hear
40:25of werewolves
40:26and skinwalkers do,
40:27menacing people,
40:28approaching their houses,
40:30looking in the windows,
40:31threatening their well-being.
40:32This becomes sort of
40:34a part of
40:34the community identity.
40:36The local brewery
40:37has a beer named
40:38After the Beast.
40:39It's on T-shirts.
40:40At least for the Beast
40:42of Bray Road,
40:42the one thing
40:43it hasn't done
40:43is kill anyone.
40:45At least, not yet.
40:48How do we explain
40:49the endurance
40:50of the werewolf myth?
40:53In the werewolf,
40:55we find something
40:56truly terrifying
40:57because the werewolf
40:58tells us that
40:59the true monster
41:00is not out there,
41:02but is in here,
41:03inside any one of us.
41:08The legend of werewolves
41:10has endured for centuries
41:11by way of folklore,
41:13fear,
41:13and perhaps
41:14misunderstanding.
41:16Whether this creature
41:17is a product
41:17of our imagination
41:18or something much darker,
41:20the werewolf symbolizes
41:22the fine line
41:23between civilized society
41:25and our most primal instincts.
41:27I'm Lawrence Fishburne.
41:29Thank you for watching
41:30History's Greatest Mysteries.
41:35History next time.
41:36History.
41:36History.
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