Top 3 Real Werewolf Cases

Werewolves are some of the most well-known monsters in the world. In fact, almost everyone knows what they are and what they look like. They’re hairy, greyish creatures that prowl around at night and feast on human flesh. And if you believe Hollywood, that’s pretty much all there is to know about werewolves. Of course, anyone with just a little bit of knowledge about real life knows that these beasts are not nearly as one-dimensional as their fictional counterparts would have us believe. While it’s true that most werewolf stories focus on people being bitten by one or contracting an illness called lycanthropy which causes them to transform into one whenever the moon is out. However, there have been several real-life cases which prove that things aren’t always so simple when it comes to these creatures of the night.

The case of Albert Prust and the Merritt Werewolf:
This case is one of the earliest werewolf stories that we have any documentation for. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the messiest ones in terms of explaining the specifics of what happened. The story goes that Albert Prust, one of the leaders of a group of gold miners in Merritt, British Columbia, was killed by a group of his fellow miners. He was suspected of being a werewolf and was killed by stoning. His body was then burned and his ashes were scattered. The thing about this case is that we have very few reliable sources to go off of and even fewer articles that talk about the actual trial itself. Most of what we know about the case and Prust himself comes from a book called The Werewolf and the Wild Man: Transformation Rituals in the Modern Era. Unfortunately, the information in this book isn’t exactly verifiable. The author of this book, Eric John Ernest Lincoln, was a professor at Oxford University and an acknowledged expert in the fields of folklore and mythology. Unfortunately, his reputation was badly damaged when it was discovered that he had been fabricating the data for several of his books. The Werewolf and the Wild Man was one of the books that was found to be completely false, and there’s no telling how much of the information in it is actually accurate. That being said, there are a few things that we do know about Albert Prust. For instance, we know that he was one of the miners who, just a few years earlier, had been involved in what came to be known as the Cariboo Gold Rush. He and a few dozen other miners had traveled to a place called the Bridge River in British Columbia and begun to mine for gold. Unfortunately, they were met with little success and were forced to return to America with nothing to show for their efforts.

The case of Robert Bakker and the Rotterdam Werewolves:
This is one of the most recent werewolf stories on our list. In fact, this story took place just a few years ago in Rotterdam, Netherlands. This story is made even more frightening when you take into account the fact that the people involved were children. Robert Bakker and his brother were the children of a single mother. The boys lived in a very poor part of Rotterdam and were known to be a bit of a problem in the neighbourhood. They had little to no supervision, and with little to do, they spent most of their time causing trouble. One day the two boys got into a fight with a group of children their own age. They threatened to kill the children and told them that they’d come to their house and kill their parents. Since the boys had been causing trouble for some time, the other parents assumed that this was just more of the same and paid it no attention. One day Robert and his brother came to one of the children’s houses and killed the parents with a hatchet. They then proceeded to mutilate the bodies. When their mother found out, she turned them in to the police. When the police searched the boys’ house, they found that it was full of articles about werewolves. They even found a notebook in which the boys had documented their kills. When questioned, the boys confessed to killing the parents and said that they had done so because they were werewolves. Robert and his brother were sent to a mental institution where they received therapy and were treated for their werewolf delusions.

The case of Michel Lotringer, the Werewolf of Basel:
This is another case of a person who was accused of being a werewolf, but was executed for witchcraft instead. This story took place in Basel, Switzerland in the year 1602. A man named Michel Lotringer was arrested and charged with the crime of witchcraft. Specifically, he was accused of transforming into a wolf, flying to the moon, and bringing back various plants that he used in various potions and spells. While he initially denied these accusations, Lotringer eventually confessed to witchcraft and being a werewolf. He claimed that he had been bitten while in India and had transformed into a wolf ever since. He was executed by being burned at the stake, and his ashes were scattered.

The case of Russian Soldier, Dmitri Shostakovich:
This is the only story on our list that doesn’t have anything to do with humans being accused of being werewolves. This story is about a Russian soldier named Dmitri Shostakovich who was reportedly attacked by a wolf while he was on duty in the forest. After being bitten, Shostakovich began to grow hair all over his body and succumb to fits of madness. He was taken to a hospital where he was diagnosed with “werewolfism”. Shostakovich was placed in a straightjacket and kept under armed guard while the doctors tried to figure out what to do with him. Eventually, the Russian government sent scientists to examine Shostakovich. The scientists decided that he had contracted an unknown disease and that there was nothing that could be done to help him.

Conclusion:
Werewolves are some of the most well-known monsters in the world. And while most people think that they know what they look like, there are several real-life werewolf cases that will keep you up at night. From the werewolf scares of France to the execution of a man in Switzerland for witchcraft, these stories show that werewolves are not easy to catch. They’re not one-dimensional monsters. They’re complicated, and they’re terrifying.