Garnier, Gilles (d. 1574)
Notorious French werewolf of the Dôle area of FranceComté
during the sixteenth century and a classic instance of lycanthropy.
Following an epidemic of attacks on young children
in 1573, Garnier and his wife were arrested and tried as
werewolves. Garnier confessed that he had killed a 12-year-old
boy and was about to eat his flesh but was interrupted by villagers.
Garnier and the villagers testified that Garnier appeared
in human form, although in other instances it was claimed that
he appeared as a wolf.
Garnier confessed that on another occasion he killed a tenyear-old
girl while in the shape of a wolf, tearing her flesh with
his teeth and claws, and then devoured her, and that on another
occasion he attacked a girl while in the shape of a wolf but
was interrupted and had to flee. He then claimed that a few
days later he strangled a ten-year-old boy while in the shape of
a wolf, tearing off a leg with his fangs and eating the flesh. In
reaction to his confession, the authorities burned him alive at
Dôle on January 18, 1574, and scattered his ashes to the winds.
