Werewolf or Royal Cover-up? The Beast of Gévaudan Pt. 2
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Due to the graphic nature of this story, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of violence and death. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. In December 1765, two French teenagers watched a herd of cows graze in the pasture.

For the first time in over a year, their minds were at ease. Several weeks ago, King Louis XV's personal hunter had slayed the monster that terrorized their rural province. The beast of Gévaudan was dead. Complacent with the good news, neither of them saw the creature lurking at the treeline. Not until it launched itself at one of the girls.

The beast snarled and clamped its jaws around her, dragging her away. As she kicked and screamed, villagers sprinted to the scene, but they were too late. The beast and her prey disappeared into the shadowed woods. Despite their best efforts, the townspeople couldn't locate the creature in the dark. The search party returned at the first sign of light the next day, but they didn't have to look for long. Just a few paces into the woods,

They found the girl's feet and hands, gnarled and bloodstained. The evidence confirmed the villagers' worst fears. The beast was back. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. For the month of October, we're examining classic monsters and the conspiracy theories around them.

This is our final episode on the Beast of Gévaudan, an unidentified creature that killed dozens of people in rural France between 1764 and 1767. Many believe the beast was a werewolf. Last time, King Louis XV's gun bearer, Francois Antoine, killed the beast. But somehow afterward, the creature returned.

Today, we'll discuss the beast's final killing spree. Then we'll determine, once and for all, what kind of creature killed over 100 people in those three blood-soaked years. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at TheConspiracyPod. And we would love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Stay with us.

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Beginning in the spring and early summer of 1764, a creature mauled dozens of villagers in the rural region of Gévaudan, France. Finally, in September 1765, King Louis XV's gunbearer, François Antoine, slayed the beast. François's monster appeared to be an ordinary wolf, albeit an especially aggressive and formidable one.

But almost immediately after he killed the creature, rumors began to fly. Maybe he didn't get the right animal. After all, in the months leading up to Francois' kill, there was near endless press coverage about the beast and the fruitless hunts. Perhaps this forced Francois into a corner. People needed a resolution, and by slaying something, he could provide one.

even if what he killed wasn't really the beast. Les Chats Woods, where Francois finally confronted his so-called beast, was many miles from the last known attack, which was earlier that same week. Now, wolves do move quickly, averaging around five miles an hour, and they can roam across a wide territory, so it wasn't impossible for the creature to travel a great distance after its last kill,

But there hadn't been any significant encounters with the predator in the Shah's woods before. In addition, Francois wasn't totally sure he'd killed the right beast. He asked some local teenagers who'd encountered the monster earlier to verify its identity. And while they did, their accounts weren't the most reliable. The one person who knew exactly what the monster looked like was Marie-Jeanne Vallée.

She'd survived an up-close encounter that left the creature with a prominent scar on its shoulder. But when she examined the animal Francois killed, Marie-Jean said she wasn't sure whether the scar matched. For his part, King Louis XV accepted that the dead beast was the real one. He read Francois' account of the hunt for the royal court, which was full of flourishes about the creature's incredible size and strength,

And of course, his own great bravery. But when the animal arrived at Versailles that fall, the crowd was underwhelmed. The newspaper stories had described a monster that defied imagination. This dead creature was just a regular wolf. It was big, sure, but not mythically big.

One paper went so far as to write the creature, quote, "...was a true wolf that boasted nothing extraordinary, neither in its size nor in its composition." That's certainly not how survivors of beast attacks had described it, and it seems unlikely the citizens of Gévaudan, who dealt with predators regularly, would fail to recognize an ordinary wolf.

Later, researchers turned up evidence that debunked Francois' version of events, sometimes by accident. Charles Dickens wrote about the beast in an 1858 article. He repeated the official line, "Francois Antoine bravely faced down the creature and prevailed." But he also inadvertently undermined Francois' claims. Dickens noted the royal surgeon found sheep bones in the beast's stomach.

which was surprising. There were very few reports of the monster going after livestock. Generally, it targeted humans, and it was so uninterested in other meat, herds often intervened to protect their owners. And Dickens didn't mention what else the surgeon found in the wolf's stomach, or more accurately, what they didn't find. There was no evidence this wolf had ever consumed human flesh at all.

Because wolves' meals are inconsistent, they have to be able to survive for several days without eating. And at times, they can carry food in their stomachs, which serves as a source of energy when prey is scarce. Francois' wolf's last kill had been a few days before she died. So theoretically, there should have still been human meat in the beast's stomach. One other piece of evidence absolutely shattered Francois' story.

Just months after he allegedly killed the beast, the creature returned to Gévaudan. And it was more bloodthirsty than ever before. In the spring of 1767, the beast devoured an average of one peasant per week. To make matters worse, she was harder to track. She'd disappear for days at a time, only to reappear with a villager's torso between her teeth.

So the hunts resumed. A local official petitioned the king for more support, while peasants from the area scoured the woods. A devout man from Gévaudan named Jean Chastel joined the search, which raised some eyebrows because nearly two years earlier, in 1765, Chastel and his sons had made a fool of Francois and his men.

A pair of Francois' hunters had been riding on horseback when they encountered Chastel and his sons. Francois' men asked whether the road ahead was safe, and Chastel assured them it was. But just a few paces later, one of the hunters' horses stepped right into a bog and sank. As the hunters struggled to rescue it, they looked back at the Chastels, only to see the family laughing at their misfortune.

When word of the incident reached Francois, he ordered the Chastel family jailed. Their sentence was only lifted after Francois killed the beast and left the area. Once he was released, Chastel was determined to prove the king's best hunter hadn't slayed the true beast of Gévaudan. And the best way to do that was by killing the monster himself.

So on June 19th, 1767, a small team of locals, including Chastel, gathered in the woods. As others beat their way through the forest, Chastel stood on a mountain slope, keeping watch. Without much action coming his way, Chastel opened his book of devotionals, bowed his head, and prayed. Then, in the midst of his prayer, the trees around him began to sway.

The forest floor rustled. When Shostel looked up, the beast was staring straight at him. But then, according to one account, she just sat down. As calmly as he could, Shostel glanced back down at his prayer book and simply continued to pray. The beast stood shock still, staring at Shostel. When he finished his reflection, Shostel folded his glasses and slowly put them in his pocket.

Then he leveled his gun at the beast's head. She almost seemed like she was waiting patiently as he lined up his shot and fired. The beast collapsed immediately. She was dead. When Shastell returned with the carcass, the province broke into celebration. The people had the creature preserved and put on display. For several days, hordes of curious locals came out to see the body.

These theatrics may have buoyed the peasants' spirits, but the summer sun made the beast decompose rather quickly. After the exhibition wrapped up, Jean Chastel brought the beast's rotting carcass to King Louis XV's royal court, hoping to collect a reward. But the long carriage ride to Versailles only hastened the decomposition process.

By the time the beast arrived, she was falling apart. Shastell expected a hero's welcome, but instead, the king mocked him and the putrefied creature. Shastell reportedly received a modest reward. However, as far as the royal court was concerned, Francois Antoine had killed the beast less than two years prior.

It's possible that Louis wouldn't even entertain the idea that Francois had gotten it wrong, or that there could be more than one beast out there. While Jean Chastel didn't receive the royal welcome that he'd hoped for, he arrived back in Gévaudan a hero. His story became a point of local pride. While the world knew Francois as the beast slayer, the province celebrated Chastel instead.

Local officials are even said to have pooled their resources to pay him a small sum. The amount would have been meager next to the king's handsome reward, but perhaps it was more meaningful because it was all the local people had. They promised they'd give even more if the attacks ceased altogether, since that would prove Shostel had killed the true beast. After all, nobody knew for sure if the killings would resume again, or what sort of monsters.

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The Beast of Gévaudan returned mutilating villagers across the region. In June 1767, Jeanne Chastel seemingly ended her reign of terror once and for all, fatally shooting the creature. But one question remained: would she stay dead? The answer depended on what she actually was.

From the start, newspapers and rumors offered all kinds of explanations. Many suppose she was a lycanthrope, better known as a werewolf. One potential source for this idea was an individual named Begu. One night in the midst of the beast's second rampage, Begu was strolling along the outskirts of his property. As he made his way down toward a nearby river,

He noticed a figure illuminated by the full moon. A large man covered in hair was wading in the river, rinsing himself off. When he heard Begu approach, the man turned around. There was no mistaking him. It was Jean Chastel's son, Antoine.

But within a few moments, Antoine became completely unrecognizable. He transformed into the beast and hurled himself at Begu. Begu ran back home as fast as he could. He barely made it inside. On the face of it, Begu's account might seem absurd,

But other eyewitness testimonies made his story seem more credible. See, late in the summer of 1766, a man named Pierre Blanc was working in the fields when the beast attacked him. Pierre fought back, struggling desperately to save his own life. The battle dragged on for three hours until he and the beast both lay exhausted in the grass. When the beast gathered enough energy to attack again,

Pierre noticed two strange details about the creature. First, she was able to stand on her hind legs, just like a person. And even stranger, the beast had buttons going down her chest, as if she was wearing a coat. Pierre and Begou's stories made people suspicious of Antoine Chastel. He was already known as a large man with plenty of body hair. And if he wore an animal fur coat and a mask,

He might look like the Beast. Over the years, other potential suspects were considered as possible beasts in disguise. An infamous French nobleman called the Marquis de Sade was touted as an option, but eventually dismissed because the timelines didn't match up. But Antoine Chastel seemed the most likely. If he was the Beast, his father might be willing to do anything to protect his boy.

even lead the hunters astray. This would explain Chastel's animosity toward Francois' men and the prank he played that got their horses stuck in the bog. And Chastel's decision to join the hunt for the beast in 1767 may have been an overcorrection, an attempt to hide his family's involvement in the animal attacks. But Antoine Chastel didn't die when the beast was killed.

In fact, he lived a long life, passing away at age 78. Plus, the murders did end after Shastell killed the Beast. In most lore, werewolves have no control over their actions while transformed. So even if his father slayed the wrong animal, Antoine likely would have continued killing if he was a werewolf. But Antoine didn't have to be a mythical creature to be the Beast.

Perhaps he was a serial killer who dressed up in a wolf costume. However, the monster was notorious for mutilating its victims. Even locals who survived her attacks were left disfigured, with huge sections of flesh and bone ripped from their bodies. It's hard to imagine a human pulling off such a brutal, gruesome act using just his teeth.

Especially because a wolf mask would certainly interfere with his ability to bite people. So we can probably rule out the werewolf and serial killer scenarios. To find out what the monster really was, we have to look at the autopsy of the creature Chastel killed in the woods. A man by the name of Monsieur de la Motte took part in the dissection on June 20th, 1767.

By this point, a local nobleman was storing the beast's body in his castle. When de la Motte finally laid eyes on the animal, it was dimly illuminated by the torches lining the walls. Even so, he immediately clocked the resemblance. As so many witnesses had said, it looked somewhat like a wolf, but he'd never seen one with this kind of reddish-gray coloring.

And the beast was huge. Its most noticeable feature was its head, which stretched almost a full foot from the ears to the tip of the nose. A normal wolf would only be about nine inches. As Dulemote's blade sliced through the top of the head, he expected to hit the skull right away. But the knife plunged deep, penetrating a thick layer of muscle before finally striking bone.

The skull itself was small underneath layers of tough meat. This must be what protected the beast from bullets during the hunts. Additionally, its ribs were arranged in a way that allowed the animal to turn sharply and quickly. According to experts at the time, this meant its agility was far superior to that of a regular wolf. Its paws were huge, measuring over seven inches from knuckle to claw.

Delamotte pulled back the skin covering the nails. This revealed claws that were longer than he was used to seeing in mammals. Because witnesses had described the beast's gaze as blazing and fiery, the examiner began to focus on its eyes. Behind a translucent membrane that covered the surface of the eyeball, Delamotte found piercing, scarlet-red eyes.

The contents of the beast's stomach sealed the deal for Delamotte. He found the shoulder bone of a girl who'd recently been devoured. There was no doubt. This was the animal that had terrorized Gévaudan. The physical description offered by Delamotte helps us visualize the beast, but it still leaves many open questions. What it was, where it came from,

And why King Louis dismissed this creature out of hand when Chastel presented it to him? Perhaps it was a matter of pride. Louis had openly delighted in Francois' apparent success in the fall of 1765. Maybe he thought backtracking now, or even claiming there was a second beast, would make that initial victory seem premature. Or perhaps there was something more sinister behind his reaction.

Maybe the king knew he had to cover up this beast because he was the one responsible for it. What's up, guys? It's the champ, Sean O'Malley, here to talk to you about PrizePix. PrizePix, the best place to win real money while watching football. Run your game on PrizePix.

After three years spent ravaging J'Vaudan, the ferocious beast died in June 1767.

But King Louis XV dismissed this account out of hand, claiming his hunter had killed the real beast two years earlier. This contradicted mountains of evidence that said otherwise, and speculation grew. Perhaps the king had something to hide. Louis XV was an avid hunter who prided himself on his royal menagerie at the Palace of Versailles. It was an impressive collection of exotic animals from across the world.

The menagerie was separated into fenced-off sections that contained different kinds of animals. Spectators and honored guests could visit to see elephants, lions, ostriches, crocodiles, and notably hyenas. Hyenas look just like the beast. Both creatures have strange stripes down the spine, and some species of hyena are bigger than wolves.

The spotted hyena can grow up to five feet long, around the same length as the monster. And since hyenas are native to Africa, it makes sense that rural folk of Gévaudan couldn't identify one. This also explains why the king reacted so strongly to the creature Chastel brought to him. Perhaps Louis recognized it immediately because it escaped from his own gardens in Versailles.

The animals held in these types of menageries weren't always carefully monitored. Famously, in the 1780s, an elephant slipped from its pen in the royal court and drowned in a nearby canal. It was possible a hyena also broke free, and it would have embarrassed the crown if one of the king's pets killed over 100 citizens.

The French people already viewed the royalty as out-of-touch nobles who preferred hunting rare animals over governing the country. A scandal like this would only stoke more resentment. So perhaps King Louis and Francois went into overdrive to cover it up. They brought a posse of wolves into the woods of Les Chats, or found an innocent wolf pack already living there. When they killed the wolves, they claimed they'd ended the scourge.

Then, when the true beast reared its head again, they simply pretended that it wasn't real. It couldn't be. They'd already taken care of it. As compelling as this sounds, an escaped hyena would have had to travel hundreds of miles from the Palace of Versailles to Gévaudan. It's not impossible, but it's certainly unlikely. And this narrative doesn't explain the beast's temporary disappearance in 1765.

If the King's royal hyena was running amok in Gévaudan all three years, it had no reason to go quiet in the months following Francois' slaying. But these inconsistencies might lead to another explanation. A taxidermist and collection manager at the French National Museum of Natural History put together a list of circumstantial evidence that implicates the Shah Stelz.

without needing to turn any of them into werewolves. Some stories suggest that Jean Chastel's son, Antoine, imported animals from Africa. Additionally, menageries weren't unique to Versailles. France held an annual summer fair in the city of Beaucer, featuring a display that could have included a hyena. Perhaps Chastel worked for this fair or one like it,

And it's possible, after the festivities ended, Antoine kept a hyena as a pet. Hyenas can be trained just like household dogs, but they're still wild animals. Experts say they aren't meant to live in captivity, both for their own sake and that of the people around them. Even with a lifetime of training, at a moment's notice, a hyena could turn on its owners and pounce.

If Antoine Chastel had a pet hyena, the paws and killings would line up with the time when the family was imprisoned. Perhaps they left the animal locked up in a hidden location while they were away. And it would explain the most bizarre moment from Jean Chastel's encounter with the beast. Remember, as Chastel faced down the monster, he calmly finished praying before shooting it.

the animal seemed unfazed by shastell it didn't attack him or run away it simply waited and maybe that's because the creature recognized shastell as the person who'd raised it from a cub but ultimately too many key points in this scenario are circumstantial just because shastell was rumored to procure exotic animals doesn't mean he got his hands on a hyena

let alone kept one as a pet. And surely, if the Shostel family raised hyenas, people would have written about it. Without any hard evidence, this idea doesn't hold up to muster. Perhaps the beast is inexplicable because it represented something bigger than one animal. Historian J.M. Smith studied the way society reacted to the killings.

He pointed out that between the 1500s and 1800s, thousands of fatal wolf encounters were documented in France. These killings tended to spike during periods of famine or war when food was scarce for both humans and animals. The Beast of Gévaudan appeared on the heels of a war and an epidemic that likely decimated the region's livestock.

This was devastating for humans and for predators like wolves. So these ravenous packs may have become bolder, inspiring wild rumors that exaggerated their size and monstrous features. Even the beast Chastel killed might have been another species of wolf which had ranged far from its homeland in search of food. Whatever it was, the beast of Gévaudan gave the wounded French people an outlet for their frustrated energies.

Hordes of soldiers, expert wolf slayers, and royal huntsmen all battled the monster, and while many failed to slay the creature, they still may have found meaning in the fight. The leaders of France needed a way to regain their honor, and the beast offered it. Perhaps while the creature was a menace to the people of Gévaudan, it was also their savior.

Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories. We are here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts or email us at conspiracystories at spotify.com.

For more information on The Beast, amongst the many sources we used, we found Beast by Gustavo Sanchez Romero and S.R. Schwab and Monsters of the Jevodan by J.M. Smith extremely helpful to our research. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story. And the official story isn't always the truth.

This episode was written by Thomas Dolan Gavitt with writing assistance by Amber Hurley and Angela Jorgensen. Fact-checked by Bennett Logan, researched by Chelsea Wood, and sound designed by Kelly Gary. Our head of programming is Julian Boisreau. Our head of production is Nick Johnson, and Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor. I'm your host, Carter Roy.

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