'Werewolf' Confessed to Eating His Son and Other Murders. Was He Really a Killer, or a Victim of Mass Hysteria?

Monsters may not be real, but the evil deeds that inspire their legends can be just as horrifying as the myths themselves.

Stories about werewolves took hold in the mid-1400s, according to History.com, but the origins of the idea date back as far as 2100 B.C. Early civilizations used tales of humans transforming into beasts to explain crimes so horrific that they seemed beyond human capability.

One of the most famous figures in history to carry such a reputation was a 16th-century German farmer named Peter Stumpp, who was accused of killing and consuming more than a dozen victims — some children, some unborn and some even related to him. Fear and legend took over Stumpp’s alleged crimes and ultimately led to his public execution, though his guilt remains debated today. In the centuries to come, his story has inspired artwork — such as the woodcut print of “The Werewolf or The Cannibal” in possession of the Museum of Metropolitan Art, and George Bores’ 1590 chapbook, “The Damnable Life and Death of Stubbe Peeter,” which began circulating around Europe a year after Stumpp’s 1589 execution.

With the case becoming popular fodder for folklore and true crime podcasts in recent years, PEOPLE is taking a look back at the case that left a lasting mark on history and legend.

History of Werewolf Allegations in Europe

Akin to the infamous witch trials that swept through Europe and later the United States, a number of European countries dealt with a wave of werewolf accusations, trials and execution cases throughout the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. According to History.com, this brutal and often fatal phenomenon was inspired by superstition, religion and the hunt for scapegoats during political and social clashes during challenging times in the continent’s history.

History.com notes that many of the accused were beggars, hermits, or recent émigrés to the area, and those who confessed to being werewolves often did so only after being tortured. The accusations are best estimated to have started around 1428 in Valais, in southern Switzerland, before sweeping throughout Europe — primarily in Germany and later England. 

Stumpp’s case is of the most infamous in history, for the heinousness of his alleged crimes and the brutality of the punishment he’d later face after a quarter-century of rumors.

Convicted of 16 ‘Monstrous’ Killings

Stumpp was a farmer who lived in Bedbur, Germany during the late 1500s, according to the British Library, which has one of the 16th Century pamphlets that were handed out about his alleged crimes and werewolf allegations throughout Germany and England.

Stumpp was accused of killing 16 people, including thirteen children, three women, two men and his own son, according to the University of Saskatchewan. Two of the three women Stumpp allegedly killed were pregnant, according to Nathan Baillie’s examination of the case for the university’s undergraduate research journal in 2024. The pamphlet handed out about his crimes at the time also accused Stumpp of incest, claiming he had a longtime romantic relationship with his daughter.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. 

According to Baillie’s research, Stumpp was accused not only of murder, but also of multiple rapes and killings of livestock. In many of the alleged incidents, Stumpp had eaten some of his human victims.

After 25 years of his alleged reign of terror, Stumpp was captured by a group of hunters and taken into custody.

Stumpp later admitted to “making a pact with the Devil in return for a belt which gave him the power to transform into a wolf at will” — but he made the admission only after he was extensively tortured, according to the British Library. He was convicted of the 16 killings, including murdering and eating the brains of his own son, according to the library. English author George Bores wrote his 1590 chapbook that Stumpp’s alleged killing and cannibalization of his own son was “the most monstrous act that ever man heard of, for never was known a wretch from nature so far degenerate,” according to the University of Michigan.

Executed on Halloween Night

After Stumpp’s confession, he was executed on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 1589.

Taken to Cologne for his execution, according to the University of Melbourne, Stumpp was put to death via the “breaking wheel,” a manner of execution in which the convicted was bound to a wagon wheel while their skin is ripped off by hot pincers. The university also notes that Stumpp’s arms and legs were broken with the blunt side of an ax before his left hand was cut off.

Stumpp’s mistress and their daughter were also executed and their bodies were burnt alongside his, according to the Melbourne university. Bores wrote in his 1590 chapbook a year later that Stumpp’s head was also severed from his body and placed upon a stake, providing a gruesome warning to the community.