0:11 during a three-year period of the
0:12 mid-18th century
0:14 a mysterious creature was responsible
0:16 for the gruesome slayings of over 100
0:18 people
0:19 living in a small region of southern
0:21 france
0:23 this week on bedtime stories we ask
0:26 what was the beast of zevudong
0:32 but first let's talk about the beast of
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2:08 [Music]
2:51 the small detachment of dragoons had
2:53 ridden hard through the night
2:55 until they had finally reached the
2:56 outskirts of the settlement
2:58 where the latest attack was purported to
3:00 have taken place
3:03 eagerly dismounting from his horse their
3:06 lieutenant had immediately hurried off
3:08 into the depths of the village
3:10 leaving the rest of his men behind
3:14 as the inevitable murmurs of discontent
3:16 began to spread throughout the assembled
3:17 riders
3:19 the sergeant moved swiftly to silence
3:21 them
3:22 these men were hardened soldiers
3:25 invaluable on the field of battle
3:27 but in peacetime they proved difficult
3:30 to keep motivated and engaged
3:32 particularly when their new commanding
3:34 officer was barely an adult
3:36 and from some rich parisian family
3:42 ordering two of the men to stand watch
3:44 with the horses he led the rest through
3:46 the narrow streets towards the main
3:48 square
3:49 where a small crowd of villagers had
3:51 assembled
3:53 in the middle of this throng knelt their
3:55 lieutenant a gloved hand
3:57 clasped across his mouth and fresh vomit
4:00 on his boots
4:03 sighing to himself the sergeant deduced
4:06 that the two corpses laid out on the
4:07 ground before them
4:09 were probably the first that the young
4:10 officer had ever seen
4:13 he moved forward holding out the canteen
4:16 for his superior
4:17 before kneeling down himself to inspect
4:19 the bodies
4:22 having drawn back the first blood-soaked
4:24 sheet
4:25 he found himself recoiling before
4:27 quickly replacing it
4:30 despite having thought against the
4:32 british and their allies in india during
4:33 the recent war
4:35 he had never seen such savage brutality
4:37 inflicted upon a human body
4:40 looking around he noted the mixture of
4:43 fear and hatred in the eyes of the
4:44 villagers
4:46 as they quietly surveyed their new
4:47 arrivals
4:49 it seemed the distance between the city
4:51 and countryside grew wider with each
4:53 passing year
4:55 although these people now depended on
4:57 the likes of him and his fellow soldiers
4:59 for protection
5:00 the contempt they felt for their new
5:02 guests was palpable
5:05 prior to their departure the battalion
5:07 commander had read the men a personal
5:09 message from the king
5:11 promising a fortune in gold to whomever
5:13 amongst them
5:14 ended the reign of terror this supposed
5:16 creature had imbued
5:19 with the disturbing visions of the
5:21 bodies he had just seen still racing
5:23 through his mind
5:24 the sergeant considered riding straight
5:26 back to paris
5:27 and telling the sovereign where to shove
5:30 his reward
5:34 emerging from his thoughts he began to
5:36 bark familiar orders to the rest of the
5:38 dragoons
5:40 they were to check their weapons were in
5:42 working order and then form a perimeter
5:44 around the village
5:45 until the arrival of the bloodhounds the
5:47 following morning
5:50 if the beast was sighted the men were
5:52 not
5:53 to fire upon it for fear of driving it
5:55 away
5:57 instead attempts would be made to entice
6:00 it inside the perimeter
6:02 where it could be cornered and
6:04 dispatched by volley fire
6:07 as the cavalry men reluctantly filed out
6:09 towards their positions
6:11 he scanned the assembled villages for a
6:13 priest
6:15 whoever the poor souls were that now lay
6:17 dead at the center of the village
6:19 the manner of their passing dictated
6:21 that they should receive benediction
6:23 before moving on to the afterlife
6:26 as much as the sergeant did not want to
6:28 admit it
6:29 he knew deep down that he and his men
6:32 would not be leaving this place
6:34 any time soon
6:39 the legend of the beast of shivoudong
6:41 began towards the end of the summer in
6:43 1764.
6:45 a 14 year old girl named jian boulay had
6:48 been left by her family
6:50 tending to a flock of sheep on the
6:52 outskirts of the village of lezubak
6:54 when she was later found killed
6:57 her throat had been torn out but
7:00 bizarrely
7:01 the animal she had been tending to had
7:03 been left unmolested by the perpetrator
7:06 further savage killings followed with
7:09 witnesses claiming that the assailant
7:11 was a gigantic canine creature
7:14 it was described as being longer and
7:16 broader than a wolf
7:18 rusted in colour and possessing an
7:20 oversized head
7:22 with a mouth full of sharp and wicked
7:24 looking teeth
7:26 the creature only targeted the faces and
7:28 throats of its victims
7:30 seemingly materializing out of nowhere
7:33 and giving no warning of its approach
7:36 as the number of fatalities steadily
7:38 increased
7:40 all attempts to capture and kill the
7:41 monster met with dismal failure
7:44 it seemed capable of detecting and
7:46 avoiding poison bait and traps
7:48 and possessed the ability to sense large
7:50 groups of people lying in ambush
7:54 survivors who had injured and driven the
7:56 creature away claimed that the wounds
7:57 they inflicted had mysteriously healed
8:00 and that bullets which hunters had fired
8:02 at the beast seemed to bounce off its
8:04 thick hide
8:05 causing no visible damage
8:11 in paris newspaper editors keen to
8:14 report on something other than the
8:15 country's dismal foreign affairs
8:17 enthusiastically seized upon the story
8:21 the colourful descriptions of bravery
8:23 and tragedy which they published soon
8:25 found their way to the court of louis xv
8:27 himself and it was the tale of a young
8:30 farm boy named jacques portefe
8:33 that finally prompted the king to send
8:35 help to his citizens
8:38 ten-year-old jack and several of the
8:40 boys were heard in cattle across a field
8:42 near to some woods when the monster
8:43 appeared from the tree line
8:46 ignoring the large group of cows it
8:48 instead made straight for the youngsters
8:51 who instinctively banded together and
8:53 fended it off using their pikes
8:57 several of them including jacques
8:59 sustained severe injuries
9:01 prompting the king to reward their
9:02 bravery by pledging to fund their future
9:05 education
9:06 and dispatching several parties of
9:07 cavalrymen to the region to kill the
9:09 creature
9:12 these dragoons were led by captain
9:13 jean-baptiste duamel
9:15 a veteran of the seven years war who saw
9:18 the posting as a possible means to atone
9:20 for the army's recent string
9:22 of military defeats duramal made efforts
9:25 to conscript the rather reluctant local
9:28 populace
9:29 ordering them to deploy across the
9:30 countryside in large groups
9:32 with the intention of herding the beast
9:34 towards his limited resources
9:37 he also attempted to dress male
9:39 villagers up as women
9:40 to act as decoys and yours given the
9:43 monster's propensity for attacking
9:45 females
9:46 [Music]
9:47 unsurprisingly the region's inhabitants
9:50 reacted to these demands with varying
9:52 degrees of disinterest
9:54 further frustrating the already
9:56 exasperated officer
10:00 it was whilst uml was attempting to
10:02 coordinate these efforts
10:04 that one of the most famous incidents
10:05 involving the monster took place
10:09 nineteen-year-old marijuan valley was
10:11 crossing the river des with her younger
10:13 sister
10:14 when the beast attacked using a knife
10:17 affixed to the end of a wooden stave
10:20 she speared the creature through its
10:21 chest and drove it away
10:23 earning her the nickname of the maid of
10:25 javodong
10:28 when captain duramel's methods failed to
10:30 prevent the rising death count
10:32 the royal court dispatched two
10:34 professional hunters
10:36 a father and a son by the name of dynval
10:38 to kill the creature
10:41 believing their quarry to be a wolf of
10:43 some kind they took a very different
10:45 approach to that of the army
10:47 using bloodhounds to scour the
10:48 countryside and then setting concealed
10:51 hides near to any trail they detected
10:55 four months later yet more innocent
10:57 citizens had been slain
10:59 and the hunters had little to show for
11:01 their efforts
11:03 enraged with their failure the king
11:06 ordered his personal gun bearer to
11:08 resolve the situation once and for all
11:11 francois antoine the most famous
11:13 marksman in the land
11:15 subsequently arrived at lamel's year in
11:17 june of 1765.
11:20 three months later he would write to the
11:22 king declaring
11:24 that the horror was finally over
11:30 on the morning of september the 20th
11:32 antoine and his entourage cornered a
11:34 pair of wolves in their offspring
11:36 near to the obedience shares the animals
11:40 were considered large for their species
11:42 with the male particularly oversized
11:46 without hesitation antoine dispatched
11:49 the mail
11:50 ordering that its remains be stuffed and
11:52 sent back to the king
11:54 he then set off in pursuit of the rest
11:56 of the pack
11:58 when the body of the wolf arrived in
12:00 paris it was discovered that it
12:02 possessed a double set of dew claws
12:05 suggesting that it could be the
12:06 descendant of some form of wolf and dog
12:08 hybrid
12:11 antoine returned shortly afterwards to a
12:13 hero's welcome
12:14 having gone on to kill the wolf's mate
12:16 and one of its cubs
12:19 the king rewarded him handsomely
12:21 publicly declaring that the beast's
12:23 reign of terror
12:24 was finally at an end but back in the
12:27 south of the country
12:29 the deaths continued over the next 18
12:33 months
12:34 the bodies of a further 30 men women and
12:36 children were found with their heads and
12:39 throats torn to pieces
12:42 the authorities desperately pleaded with
12:44 the court to again send assistance
12:46 only to be told that the beast was
12:48 considered dead
12:49 and whatever was taking place now was
12:52 their problem to solve
12:55 accepting that no help would be
12:57 forthcoming the people of javedon
12:59 finally took matters into their own
13:01 hands
13:03 the coordination of their defense fell
13:05 to a local nobleman
13:06 named the maki depshier who organized
13:09 small groups of men with extensive local
13:11 knowledge
13:12 or suitable skill sets and backgrounds
13:16 many of these men were hunters or
13:17 military veterans
13:19 and some were local criminals and it was
13:22 just such an offender who had been set
13:24 free
13:25 that ultimately vanquished the beast of
13:27 jesudong
13:31 on the 19th of june 1767
13:34 one of the hunting parties was attacked
13:36 by a huge canine on the slopes of mol
13:38 mushay
13:40 amongst their number was a farmer by the
13:42 name of jean chantel
13:44 who had been thrown in prison two years
13:46 previously by captain duhamel
13:48 for refusing to assist in the hunt for
13:50 the beast
13:52 chantelle secretly believed that the
13:54 monster which was now charging towards
13:56 him
13:56 was some form of werewolf or similar
13:58 mythical creature
14:01 standing his ground he fired upon the
14:03 beast using a large caliber bullet
14:06 which had been tipped with silver
14:09 with a deafening roar the rampaging
14:11 creature stumbled and went crashing to
14:14 the ground
14:15 where it then lay still the body of the
14:18 beast was taken
14:19 directly to the chateau dapte where it
14:22 was cut open
14:23 and human remains were recovered from
14:25 inside its stomach
14:27 it was then stuffed and held on display
14:29 at the castle for doctors and surgeons
14:31 from across the land to inspect
14:35 whilst those who viewed it could not
14:36 agree on exactly what the creature was
14:39 what they did agree upon was that it was
14:42 not
14:42 simply a large wolf
14:48 over the centuries that have passed
14:50 since the beast of jevodon was finally
14:52 slain
14:53 there have been many theories as to what
14:55 kind of creature it may have been
14:58 amongst the most colourful of these was
15:00 that it was some form of lycanthrope
15:02 possessing extreme strength and the
15:04 power to heal itself
15:06 as well as being able to call upon its
15:08 inherent human cunning
15:09 in order to evade capture this was
15:12 certainly what the newly freed john
15:14 chantal believed
15:15 as he incorporated silver into the
15:17 manufacture of his ammunition
15:20 and whilst many of his compatriots may
15:22 not have shared his views on lycanthropy
15:25 some did believe that the beast was the
15:27 instrument of a powerful
15:28 and evil force to the god-fearing
15:32 catholic citizens of 18th century france
15:35 it was clear that the devil or one of
15:37 his worshippers
15:38 must have ultimately been responsible
15:40 for the creature's actions
15:43 whether the beast was an agent of the
15:44 devil himself
15:46 or under the influence of some
15:47 malevolent mage or warlock
15:50 the savagery with which it killed its
15:51 victims was clear evidence of satanic
15:54 influence
15:56 other more rational but equally
15:58 conspiratorial theories were also
16:00 proposed
16:02 one suggested that a serial killer was
16:04 at work either using the beast as a
16:06 means of dispatching their victims
16:08 or as cover for their own activities
16:12 allegations abounded that the killer may
16:14 have recently returned from the americas
16:16 adopting the traditions of their native
16:18 populations and hunting victims wearing
16:20 animal skins
16:22 in order to hide their true identity
16:25 this would surely have accounted for the
16:26 beast's alleged supernatural qualities
16:29 its surviving victims mistaking its very
16:32 human behavior
16:33 for what would be considered mysterious
16:35 and incomprehensible
16:36 in an animal others allege that the
16:40 monster was some form of hunting dog
16:42 protected by an armor of animal hide
16:44 that had been fastened to it
16:46 which might account for the
16:47 ineffectiveness of the guns
16:50 fired upon it
16:54 whilst it was known for some hunting
16:56 dogs to wear armor in pursuit of
16:57 dangerous quarry
16:59 such as wild boars or stags the practice
17:02 was far from common
17:04 and was restricted largely to the upper
17:06 classes
17:08 did this murderous creature once
17:09 belonged to the nobility
17:12 had it then escaped and run a mark well
17:14 beyond their control
17:16 if not an armored hunting dog was it
17:19 some form of exotic pet imported from
17:21 abroad
17:22 which had escaped from a private
17:23 collection
17:26 it is along this line of thinking that
17:28 the majority of commentators have
17:29 settled
17:31 seeing in the various colourful
17:32 descriptions of the monster
17:34 the characteristics of a striped hyena
17:37 or potentially
17:38 even a sub-adult lion
17:41 unfortunately the carcass of the animal
17:44 killed by chantal has long been lost in
17:46 the mists of time
17:48 so it is unlikely we will ever know its
17:50 true identity
17:53 over the three years in which it was
17:55 active the beast of jesudong
17:57 is alleged to have killed more than a
17:59 hundred people injuring a further fifty
18:03 it is clear that both the manner in
18:05 which the slayings were recorded
18:07 and the mechanics of the attempts to
18:08 capture it were both
18:10 colored by the politics of the day
18:13 the fact that no further attacks took
18:15 place after 1767
18:17 and no similar incidents have ever been
18:19 reported since
18:21 suggests that whatever the creature was
18:23 it was most likely the only one of its
18:26 kind whether a now extinct form of
18:29 primeval predator
18:31 a hunting animal that had been trained
18:33 or adapted
18:34 or something more paranormal it would
18:37 appear that the beast and its legend
18:39 both perished on that fateful day
18:41 on the slopes of monmouth
19:08 so
19:22 so
19:34 [Music]
19:36 so
19:38 [Music]
19:47 [Music]
20:00 [Music]
20:04 uh
20:09 [Music]
20:16 [Music]
20:30 bedtime stories
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