Jacques Roulet, Werewolf of Angers

In 1598,

in a wild and unfrequented spot near Caude [in the vicinity of Angers, France], some countrymen came one day upon the corpse of a boy of fifteen, horribly mutilated and bespattered with blood. As the men approached, two wolves, which had been rending the body, bounded away into the thicket. The men gave chase immediately, following their bloody tracks till they lost them; when suddenly crouching among the bushes, his teeth chattering with fear, they found a man half naked, with long hair and beard, and with his hands dyed in blood. His nails were long as claws, and were clotted with fresh gore, and shreds of human flesh. Although the miscreant was immediately arrested on the basis of the physical evidence, exactly how the authorities determined that the "gore" under Roulet's fingernails was human flesh (an impossible task without a modern forensic laboratory) is never mentioned.

The suspect, a beggar and vagabond, admitted under severe duress that he was able to transform himself into a wolf by means of a salve given to him by his parents. He also revealed that in the company of his brother Jean and cousin Julien--shapeshifters as well--he had killed numerous women and children and devoured their flesh. The lieutenant criminel of Angers condemned Roulet to death for werewolfism, murder, and cannibalism; however, on appeal to the Parliament of Paris, Roulet was committed to an insane asylum for two years because the authorities in Paris deemed his confession to be unrelieable on account of his feeblemindedness (Sidky 227, 228).

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Jacques Roulet, Werewolf of Angers copyrighted 1998 to Shantell Powell.