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Peter Stumpp

Peter Stumpp (c. 1539–1589), also known as the Werewolf of Bedburg or Stubbe Peeter, was a German farmer from the village of Epprath near Bedburg in the Electorate of Cologne who was executed for sorcery, multiple murders, cannibalism, and alleged lycanthropy during the late 16th-century European werewolf panics.^[1]^[2] Under torture in 1589, he confessed to making a pact with the Devil at age 12, receiving a magical wolfskin belt that allowed him to transform into a werewolf and commit savage acts over 25 years, including the killings of 16 people—primarily children, among them his own son—whose flesh and organs he devoured raw.^[1]^[2] He also admitted to incestuous relations with his daughter, sexual encounters with a succubus, and the murder of two pregnant women, from whom he consumed the fetuses.^[1]^[2] Stumpp's case unfolded amid the religious turmoil of the Cologne War (1583–1588) and broader fears of witchcraft and supernatural threats in Protestant-Catholic border regions of Germany, where wolf attacks on livestock and humans fueled lycanthropy accusations.^[1] Arrested in 1589 following reports of livestock maulings and child disappearances in Bedburg, he was tried without surviving court records, with details preserved primarily in a 1590 English pamphlet titled A True Discourse Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of One Stubbe Peeter, a Most Wicked Sorcerer, based on contemporary German accounts.^[1]^[2] On October 31, 1589, Stumpp—then about 50 years old—was subjected to one of the era's most brutal executions: he was skinned alive with red-hot pincers, his body broken on the wheel, decapitated, and burned at the stake, while his severed head was displayed on a pole as a warning; his daughter and alleged mistress were also executed by burning for complicity.^[1]^[2] The Stumpp affair exemplifies the intersection of folklore, religious persecution, and judicial torture in early modern Europe, where an estimated 300 werewolf trials occurred in Germany alone, though far fewer resulted in executions compared to the tens of thousands of witchcraft cases.^[1] His story, disseminated through printed broadsides and pamphlets across Germany and England, reinforced moral and religious teachings against devilish pacts and moral deviance, contributing to the cultural legacy of werewolf lore in Western history.^[1]

Historical Context

The Rhineland in the 1580s

The Rhineland in the 1580s was a strategically vital region within the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, encompassing diverse territories along the Rhine River, including the Electorate of Cologne, an ecclesiastical principality where the Archbishop of Cologne exercised supreme spiritual and temporal authority over vast lands, cities, and rural areas.^[3] Under Archbishop Ernst of Bavaria, who assumed office in 1583, the electorate pursued aggressive Counter-Reformation policies, reintroducing Catholic practices and Jesuit oversight to counter Protestant influences that had gained ground during the Reformation.^[3] This shift occurred amid acute religious tensions, as the 1555 Peace of Augsburg's principle of cuius regio, eius religio—allowing rulers to determine their territory's faith—clashed with the Ecclesiastical Reservation, which barred ecclesiastical rulers from converting without forfeiting their office.^[3] The previous archbishop, Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, had converted to Calvinism in December 1582 to marry, sparking the Cologne War (1583–1589), a conflict that drew in Spanish Habsburg forces supporting the Catholic faction and Protestant allies backing Gebhard, thereby escalating divisions across the empire.^[3] The war inflicted widespread devastation on the Rhineland, with sieges, troop movements, and plundering disrupting trade routes, agriculture, and settlements, while contributing to the empire's broader political instability as princely ambitions and confessional rivalries undermined imperial authority.^[3] Economic conditions for peasants, who comprised the bulk of the rural population in areas like Bedburg, were particularly grueling, marked by rigid feudal obligations including compulsory labor on manorial lands (Frondienst), ecclesiastical tithes amounting to a tenth of produce, and secular taxes that supported both local lords and wartime efforts.^[4] These burdens were intensified by the 16th-century Price Revolution, a period of sustained inflation driven by New World silver inflows and population growth, which eroded purchasing power for fixed-rent peasants as grain and livestock prices soared by over 300% between 1500 and 1600, while wages lagged far behind.^[4] Famine risks loomed large due to erratic harvests from inclement weather and war-related disruptions, such as the requisitioning of crops and livestock by armies, leaving many smallholders on the brink of subsistence crises and occasional outright starvation in the late 1580s.^[4] Governance in the Electorate of Cologne operated through a hierarchical structure dominated by the archbishop's central administration in Bonn and Cologne, but day-to-day justice relied on local secular courts in districts and towns, which adjudicated criminal matters ranging from theft and murder to accusations of maleficium or sorcery.^[5] These courts, often staffed by lay officials and operating under the Carolina imperial legal code of 1532, held primary jurisdiction over most felonies, including those with supernatural elements, as the Roman Inquisition maintained only a marginal presence in the Holy Roman Empire compared to southern Europe.^[5] Ecclesiastical courts handled purely spiritual offenses like heresy, but secular authorities frequently took the lead in witchcraft cases, collaborating with church officials only when doctrinal issues arose, reflecting the empire's decentralized legal landscape where territorial princes enforced justice amid the religious upheavals of the era.^[5] By 1589, these tensions converged in high-profile proceedings, underscoring how regional instability amplified the scrutiny of perceived threats to social order.^[3]

Witchcraft and Werewolf Beliefs

In 16th-century Europe, werewolf lore rooted in Germanic folklore portrayed humans as capable of shapeshifting into wolves through supernatural means, often involving a magical belt or girdle that enabled transformation, as documented in regional legends where such artifacts were believed to confer lupine abilities upon donning them.^[6] This motif intertwined with pacts made directly with the devil, where individuals willingly surrendered their souls in exchange for the power to assume wolf form, reflecting a broader early modern view of werewolves as voluntary agents of demonic influence rather than cursed victims.^[7] The influential treatise Malleus Maleficarum (1487), authored by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, reinforced these ideas by describing witches who, through devilish pacts, could transform into wolves or other beasts for malevolent purposes, such as devouring livestock or children, emphasizing that such changes were illusions or direct interventions by demons permitted by divine will.^[8] Church doctrines on witchcraft, formalized in the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus issued by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484, explicitly authorized inquisitors to combat sorcery and demonic pacts, framing witchcraft as a heretical alliance with Satan that included shapeshifting and other supernatural acts.^[9] This bull, later incorporated into the Malleus Maleficarum, marked a pivotal escalation in ecclesiastical persecution, influencing both Catholic inquisitorial practices and Protestant reformers who adopted similar anti-witchcraft stances amid the religious divides of the Reformation, leading to widespread trials across Europe.^[10] In Protestant regions like the German states, figures such as Martin Luther echoed these views by citing biblical authority to condemn sorcery, thereby bridging Catholic and Protestant approaches to suppressing perceived lycanthropic threats as diabolical heresy.^[11] In the Rhineland during the 16th century, werewolf beliefs were amplified by regional folklore linking shapeshifters to actual wolf packs that preyed on livestock and vulnerable children, particularly amid the harsh winters of the Little Ice Age when food scarcity drove animals closer to human settlements.^[1] These fears manifested in local tales of demonic wolves as extensions of witchcraft, where impoverished rural communities attributed unexplained attacks to supernatural culprits rather than natural predation, fostering a cultural environment ripe for werewolf accusations.^[12] Contemporary psychological and medical interpretations often attributed lycanthropy to melancholy, a humoral imbalance thought to induce delusions of transformation into wolves, as articulated by Rhineland physician Johann Weyer in his 1583 work De praestigiis daemonum, where he described sufferers as afflicted by a form of melancholy causing them to believe they had become beasts, advocating treatment over execution.^[13] Weyer's rationalization challenged dominant witchcraft narratives by framing such behaviors as pathological mania rather than demonic possession, drawing on ancient medical traditions to argue that apparent shapeshifting stemmed from sensory deceptions induced by mental illness during times of societal stress.^[14]

Early Life

Family Background

Peter Stumpp was born around 1539 in the Rhineland region of what is now Germany, likely in the village of Epprath (also spelled Cperadt in contemporary accounts) near Bedburg, within the Duchy of Jülich; the exact date remains unconfirmed due to the scarcity of surviving personal records from the era.^[1]^[15] He originated from a peasant family embedded in the local farming communities of the Rhineland, where agrarian life dominated the social and economic landscape of the 16th century.^[1] Stumpp married a local woman and fathered multiple children, including a daughter named Beele (or Stubbe Beell) and a son; historical accounts indicate he was a widower by his later years, raising his adolescent offspring in the family home.^[15]^[2] No details survive regarding his parents or any siblings, reflecting the limited documentation available for individuals of his social class. Prior to the emergence of any allegations, Stumpp maintained a reputation as an unremarkable and respectable figure in his community—a hardworking farmer known for his civil demeanor and familiarity among neighbors in Epprath, Bedburg, and nearby Cologne.^[1]

Occupation and Residence

Peter Stumpp worked primarily as a farmer in the late 16th century, managing agricultural activities in the Rhineland region of Germany.^[1] His occupation involved cultivating land and tending livestock, which contributed to his status as a landowner in a rural setting.^[1] Stumpp resided in the village of Epprath, located near the town of Bedburg, in what was then the Duchy of Jülich, close to Cologne.^[1] His household was typical of rural dwellings in the Rhineland during this period, designed to accommodate family and farm operations. As a relatively prosperous farmer compared to average peasants, Stumpp owned sufficient land and resources to support his family, which included a daughter named Beele and a son.^[1] This economic standing may have contributed to local envy or gossip in the tight-knit communities.^[1] Stumpp maintained regular interactions with locals through trading goods and participating in community affairs in Epprath, Bedburg, and nearby Cologne up until the late 1580s, where he was recognized and greeted civilly by residents.^[1]

Accusations

Murders and Victims

Peter Stumpp, a farmer from Bedburg near Cologne, Germany, was accused of committing a series of brutal murders over a period of 25 years, from his youth until 1589, resulting in the deaths of at least 16 individuals, primarily children, women, and men in the local community.^[16] These accusations, derived primarily from Stumpp's confession extracted under torture and detailed in contemporary pamphlets without surviving court records, were reported in 1589 amid growing alarm over unexplained disappearances and mutilated bodies discovered in fields and forests around Bedburg and nearby villages.^[1]^[17] Among the victims were 13 young children, whom Stumpp allegedly lured to his home or ambushed in isolated areas, slitting their throats with a knife before dismembering their bodies and scattering the remains.^[16] He was further accused of murdering two pregnant women by ripping open their abdomens, extracting the fetuses, and consuming the victims' organs raw, acts described in contemporary accounts as particularly savage.^[16] One especially horrific case involved his own son, whom he enticed into a forest under false pretenses, then killed by slashing his throat and eating the boy's brains directly from the skull.^[16] Adult victims included two men and one woman attacked in a wooded area; the men were reportedly mangled and left to die from their wounds, while the woman was raped before her flesh was partially devoured, with her remains later found in a state that locals deemed unusually gruesome.^[16] These killings were tied to broader claims of Stumpp slaughtering numerous livestock, including sheep, goats, lambs, and other cattle, often by similar methods of throat-cutting and consumption to sustain his alleged rampage when human targets were unavailable.^[16] The methods consistently involved a knife for initial attacks, followed by tearing apart joints and vital organs, with evidence of cannibalism in multiple cases through the raw consumption of hearts, brains, and flesh.^[16] These accusations painted Stumpp as a prolific killer preying on the vulnerable, with children and expectant mothers forming a significant portion of the victims, heightening the terror in the Rhineland communities already strained by famine and unrest.^[17]

Sorcery and Cannibalism Claims

Peter Stumpp was accused of employing a magical girdle provided by the devil, which allowed him to transform into a wolf and conduct nocturnal rampages of violence. This artifact, described as a wolfskin belt, enabled shapeshifting upon being worn, facilitating his alleged crimes under the cover of night.^[1] The transformation was tied to a longstanding pact with the devil, initiated in his youth and spanning 25 years, in which Stumpp surrendered his soul and body in exchange for such supernatural powers. Further sorcery allegations involved ritualistic sexual acts, including incest with his daughter, by whom he reportedly fathered a child, and prolonged relations with a succubus—a demonic spirit in the form of a woman—for seven years. These encounters were framed as part of his devilish alliance, blending carnal indulgence with occult practices.^[1] Cannibalism claims centered on the consumption of victims' organs to sustain and enhance his infernal powers, with Stumpp said to have devoured the raw, still-beating hearts of children and the brains of others, including his own son, during his 25-year reign of terror. These acts were portrayed as ritualistic, linking directly to his pact and enabling further atrocities against human victims such as pregnant women and young children.^[1]

Trial and Confession

Arrest and Initial Proceedings

In 1589, escalating reports from locals in the areas of Collin, Bedburg, and Cperadt prompted authorities to intensify efforts against what was described as a ravaging wolf responsible for numerous attacks, including the disappearance and presumed devouring of victims such as women and children, whose scattered remains were found in fields.^[6] These accounts created widespread terror, with inhabitants rarely venturing out unarmed and parents despairing over missing loved ones.^[6] The nature of the crimes, encompassing brutal killings and suspected sorcery, fueled suspicions that a local figure might be involved.^[1] Stumpp's arrest occurred when a group of hunters, using dogs to track the beast, surrounded it near Bedburg; upon being cornered, the wolf-like figure removed a magical girdle, transforming back into human form holding a staff, allowing the pursuers to identify him as the local farmer Peter Stumpp.^[6] The hunters then escorted him to his home before delivering him to the magistrates in Bedburg for immediate detention.^[6] Initial proceedings began with Stumpp's examination by the Bedburg magistrates, who also detained his daughter Beele and the widow Katherine Trompin as potential accessories based on local testimonies linking them to the ongoing threats.^[6] Witnesses, including hunters and residents like Master Tice Artine, provided accounts of the wolf's ferocity, such as a child's narrow escape from an attack, corroborating the pattern of violence in the region.^[6] The legal process blended civil investigations into the murders with Inquisition-inspired probes into heresy, overseen by secular magistrates under the broader jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Cologne, where Ernest of Bavaria held ultimate authority as the Catholic archbishop.^[1] This dual framework reflected the era's intertwining of criminal law and religious orthodoxy in addressing perceived diabolical threats.^[1]

Torture Methods and Extracted Confession

During the trial of Peter Stumpp in Bedburg, interrogators employed the rack, a stretching device that elongated the body to induce pain and potential dislocation of limbs, as the primary method to coerce a confession. Placed upon the rack in anticipation of torment, Stumpp admitted to his alleged crimes before the mechanism was fully engaged, driven by fear of intensified suffering.^[15] This approach aligned with standard practices in 16th-century Holy Roman Empire proceedings for sorcery and heresy, where torture served to uncover hidden truths when circumstantial evidence existed but direct proof was lacking. The application of such coercion was sanctioned by the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina of 1532, the imperial legal code that regulated torture for grave offenses, limiting it to cases with presumptive evidence while prohibiting its use to excess or repetition without new justification. Ecclesiastical authorities, drawing from inquisitorial traditions and Roman law precedents like the Corpus Juris Civilis, endorsed torture for extracting admissions in diabolical cases, viewing it as a means to save souls through confession and repentance. In October 1589, under this duress, Stumpp confessed to forging a pact with the devil at age 12, receiving a magical girdle that enabled him to transform into a ravenous wolf for 25 years, during which he claimed to have killed and devoured at least 16 victims, including children and his own son. The interrogation extended to his alleged accomplices: his daughter, Beele (or Beell), and his mistress, Katherine (or Trompin), who were likewise tortured on the rack and confessed to participating in the murders, cannibalistic acts, and incestuous relations with Stumpp.^[15] These admissions, obtained over several days of proceedings, formed the basis for the subsequent sentencing.

Execution

Sentencing Details

In late October 1589, specifically on October 28, the magistrates of Bedburg issued its verdict against Peter Stumpp following his tortured confession to sorcery, multiple murders, incest, and cannibalism.^[1]^[18] The court charged him as the principal malefactor in these acts, which included the killing of at least 16 individuals—predominantly children and women—over 25 years, facilitated by a devilish pact enabling lycanthropic transformations.^[18] The sentence prescribed a prolonged and torturous death: Stumpp's body would be placed on a breaking wheel, where red-hot pincers would tear flesh from his bones in ten places, his limbs would be shattered with an axe, he would be beheaded, and his remains burned to ashes.^[18] This punishment was justified under both civil law for the capital crimes of murder and canon law for the heresy inherent in his alleged sorcery and demonic alliances, reflecting the era's severe stance on supernatural offenses amid religious tensions in the Electorate of Cologne.^[1] Stumpp's accomplices—his daughter, known as Stubbe Beell (or Sybil), and his mistress, Katherine Trompin—were also convicted as accessories to his crimes, including incestuous relations and aiding in the atrocities.^[18] They were sentenced to burning alive at the stake, a method deemed appropriate for their complicity in heretical and murderous acts.^[18]

The Public Execution

On October 31, 1589, Peter Stumpp was publicly executed in the marketplace of Bedburg, near Cologne, Germany, before a large crowd that included local residents and members of the aristocracy, such as the Archbishop and Elector of Cologne.^[1]^[2] The event was documented in contemporary broadsheets and a 16-page illustrated pamphlet published in London in 1590, which detailed the proceedings as a spectacle of divine justice against sorcery and monstrosity.^[19]^[1] The execution began with Stumpp being strapped to a large wooden wheel, where executioners used red-hot pincers to tear flesh from his body in ten places, inflicting prolonged agony as a symbolic punishment for his alleged cannibalism and murders.^[19]^[2] His arms and legs were then systematically broken with the blunt side of an axe or hatchet, a process known as "wheeling" that shattered the bones to prevent any supernatural resurrection.^[19]^[1] Following this, Stumpp was beheaded, and his decapitated body was consigned to a pyre and burned to ashes, ensuring complete destruction in line with anti-witchcraft practices of the era.^[19]^[2] To underscore the werewolf accusations, Stumpp's severed head was impaled on a pole erected in the town center, mounted atop the execution wheel adorned with a wooden wolf figure as a mocking emblem of his supposed lycanthropy; the display also included 16 stakes representing his confessed victims, serving as a grim warning to the public.^[19]^[2] His accomplices—daughter Beele (or Stubbe Beell) and mistress Katherine Trompin—suffered parallel fates on the same day: they were burned alive at the stake beside Stumpp's pyre, their executions emphasizing collective guilt in the crimes of incest, sorcery, and aiding murders.^[19]^[1]^[2]^[15]

Legacy

Historiographical Analysis

The primary sources for Peter Stumpp's trial are limited and predominantly consist of contemporary pamphlets and broadsides rather than official court transcripts. The most detailed account is a 16-page English pamphlet published in London in 1590, titled A True Discourse Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of One Stubbe Peeter, which translates a now-lost German original and describes Stumpp's alleged crimes, confession, and execution.^[1] Supporting materials include German broadsides from 1589, such as those produced in Nuremberg and Augsburg by woodcutter Lucas Mayer and in Cologne by engraver Franz Hogenberg, which illustrate Stumpp's execution and emphasize his monstrous nature for moral instruction.^[17] Additionally, a Cologne pamphlet by printer Nikolaus Schreiber from the same year provides a localized narrative, while jurist Hermann von Weinsberg's diary entry dated October 31, 1589, briefly notes the execution as a public spectacle in Bedburg, serving as one of the few non-sensationalized contemporary records potentially linked to local ecclesiastical documentation.^[17] No complete trial transcripts or church records have survived, leaving historians reliant on these printed accounts, which vary in details such as victim counts and Stumpp's social status. Scholarly critiques of Stumpp's case center on the validity of his confession, widely attributed to severe torture methods, including threats of the rack and hot pincers, which were standard in 16th-century German inquisitorial proceedings to extract admissions of sorcery and lycanthropy.^[1] Modern historians, such as Brian Levack, argue that the confession's supernatural elements—such as shape-shifting via a magical girdle—reflect broader patterns in male witchcraft trials rather than literal belief in werewolves, positioning Stumpp as a scapegoat amid regional famines and the aftermath of the Cologne War (1583–1588).^[1] Debates persist on whether the story was fabricated or exaggerated for propaganda; some scholars suggest Stumpp, a former Catholic convert to Protestantism in the Catholic-dominated Rhineland, may have faced anti-Protestant bias, with the trial serving to reinforce ecclesiastical authority during religious tensions.^[20] Gaps in the records exacerbate these issues, including the absence of any defense testimony or witness contradictions, and inconsistencies across sources, such as discrepancies in the number of murders (ranging from 14 to 16), which indicate potential embellishment by pamphleteers to heighten public fear.^[17] Interpretations of Stumpp's case have evolved significantly over time, shifting from uncritical acceptance of the supernatural in the 16th century to sensationalized retellings in the 19th century and more nuanced psychological analyses in the 20th. Early modern accounts treated the narrative as a cautionary tale against devilish pacts, but 19th-century writers like Montague Summers amplified its horror in works such as The Werewolf (1933), framing Stumpp as a paradigmatic monster without questioning source reliability.^[17] By the mid-20th century, anthologies like Charlotte F. Otten's A Lycanthropy Reader (1982) began incorporating psychological perspectives, proposing that Stumpp's alleged lycanthropy could stem from clinical lycanthropy—a rare psychiatric delusion involving animal transformation beliefs—or undiagnosed conditions like hypertrichosis, rather than genuine supernatural events.^[21] Contemporary scholarship, including Nathan Baillie's analysis, emphasizes the role of print culture in disseminating the story, viewing it as a product of early modern anxieties over social disorder rather than historical fact, though academic engagement remains sparse compared to popular treatments. As of 2025, Stumpp's case continues to be referenced in studies of early modern European witch hunts and folklore, highlighting intersections of religion, gender, and monstrosity.^[17]

Depictions in Media

Peter Stumpp's case has inspired numerous depictions in media, beginning with contemporary print culture and extending to modern music, podcasts, and games. In the immediate aftermath of his 1589 execution, illustrated broadsheets and pamphlets proliferated across Germany and England, vividly portraying his alleged lycanthropic transformation and torture. These works, including a notable engraving attributed to Franz Hogenberg, depicted Stumpp as a monstrous figure shifting into a wolf-like form, bound to a breaking wheel while red-hot pincers tore his flesh, before his beheading and burning; such imagery shaped early European folklore collections on werewolves and sorcery.^[17]^[2] In literature, Stumpp appears as a historical reference in William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel The Exorcist, where detectives discuss infamous cases of devilish crimes, citing the Werewolf of Bedburg as an example of alleged satanic lycanthropy.^[22] His story also features in 20th-century compilations of occult history, such as Montague Summers' The Werewolf (1933), which recounts the Bedburg trial as a pinnacle of Renaissance werewolf persecutions.^[1] Documentaries and television have explored Stumpp's legend through historical true-crime lenses, including episodes in series like Dark Histories (2017), which dramatizes his arrest, confession under torture, and execution as emblematic of 16th-century werewolf panics.^[23] While not directly adapted into major narrative films, his atrocities have influenced broader themes in horror cinema involving historical werewolf lore. Recent media has revived interest in Stumpp via music and interactive formats. The German power metal band Powerwolf released the single "1589" in 2024, accompanied by a music video that reenacts his life, crimes, trial, and fiery demise, framing him as a tragic yet villainous figure in a gothic heavy metal narrative.^[24] Werewolf antagonists in video game series like Castlevania echo general themes from historical lycanthropy cases. Post-2020 true-crime podcasts have further popularized the tale, with dedicated episodes in Stuff You Missed in History Class (2018) and Ominous Origins (2020) dissecting the Bedburg case's blend of murder, cannibalism, and superstition for contemporary audiences.^[25]^[26]

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A true discourse. Declaring the damnable life and death of one Stubbe Peeter, a most wicked sorcerer who in the likenes of a woolfe, committed many murders, continuing this diuelish practise 25. yeeres, killing and deuouring men, woomen, and children. Who for the same fact was taken and executed the 31. of October last past in the towne of Bedbur neer the cittie of Collin in Germany. Trulye translated out of the high Duch, according to the copie printed in Collin, brought ouer into England by George Bores ordinary poste, the xi. daye of this present moneth of Iune 1590. who did both see and heare the same. | Early English Books Online | University of Michigan Library Digital Collections
### Summary of Stubbe Peeter's Family Background, Birth, Parents, Siblings, Wife, Children, Early Life, and Reputation Before Crimes
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