YouTube Transcript:
The Beast of Gévaudan

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