Transcript of The Beast of Gévaudan

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Today's story is about a three-year period in France, where people were going missing at an alarming rate, and nobody knew why.

But eventually, it was discovered why.

And let me tell you, it is absolute nightmare fuel. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

So if that's of interest to you, please offer to walk the Follow Buttons dog, but then just immediately go sell their dog in the parking lot of a big box store. Okay, let's get into today's story. Hello, I'm Jon Robbins, comedian and host of WNDRI's How Do You Cope podcast.

I'm also, Plot Twist, an alcoholic. I've written a book, Thirst: Twelve Drinks That Change My Life, published by Penguin. Thirst is a book about alcohol. It's mystery, it's terror, it's havoc, it's strange meditations. But, John, I hear you cry. Isn't that a rather odd book to write for a sober man who, more than anything, wants to stop thinking about alcohol? Well, yes, but I had to go back to find out why the one thing I know will kill me still calls out across the night. It's the story of what alcohol did for me and what alcohol did to me. If that's of interest to you or someone you know, Thirst, 12 Drinks That Change My Life is available to pre order now online and from all good bookshops. I'm John and on my podcast, I sit down with incredible people to ask the very simple question, How do you cope? From confronting grief and mental health struggles to finding strength in failure. Every episode is a raw and honest exploration of what it means to be human. It's not always easy, but it's always real. Whether you're looking for inspiration, comfort, or just a reminder that you're not alone in life's messier moments, join me on How Do You Cope.

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Early on the morning of January 12th, 1765, a 12-year-old boy named Jacques Portuffy sat up suddenly in his bed breathing hard. The room was pitch black that he was in, but he could feel he was sweating and his heart was racing. He tried to shake his head to wipe the nightmare he had just had from his mind, but he just couldn't do it. All he could think about was how in this nightmare, something had been chasing him, and he had been running for his life, and he was trying to get away. But whatever this thing was, this horrible beast that was following him, it just kept getting closer and closer and closer until it finally got him, and that's what woke him up. Jacques reached up and touched his face, and he realized he was crying, and he quickly wiped tears away because he didn't want any of his brothers or sisters to see that he was crying. Jacques was the oldest of eight kids in his family, and all of them slept in the same small room on straw-filled mattresses inside of their family's little cottage in the Southern French province of Jéboudon. Jacques, he's looking around the bedroom to make sure none of his siblings had woken up and seen him in the state, and he was relieved to see that they were all still fast asleep.

Everybody He made fun of Jacques for being a scaredy cat, for being a coward. And to Jacques, this really hurt his feelings because on some level, he knew it was true. In fact, just a couple of months earlier, he had lost in a physical fight with a much younger boy, and afterwards Jacques had cried, and the whole town had seen this happen. And so afterwards, all the kids began calling Jacques the wet chicken, and even Jacques's brothers and sisters began joining in and calling him the wet chicken and really making him feel totally ashamed. And it wasn't like the adults in this village were stepping up and protecting Jacques, because to them Jacques was like a liability. In this part of France, the winters were brutal. People died all the time in this village from the weather. Then the summers brought all these outbreaks of disease, which wiped out even more people in this village. By and large, where Jacques lived, it was like the survival of the fittest. Many kids didn't live that long unless they were really hardy and tough like their parents who had managed to survive for that long. But Jacques was just not like that.

He was very gentle and peaceful, yet somehow he had survived. Jacques really was not trying to become this macho guy. Instead, he really wanted to be a priest like his uncle. But his uncle lived far away, and so it was tough to see his uncle all that often to learn about how to become a priest. But anytime Jacques did get a chance to actually see his uncle, he would have a chance to read all these books and study alongside his uncle. For a little while, it was like Jacques was transported away from the hardships of his village to the life that in many ways he wished he had, a quiet, peaceful, very studious life. But Deep down, Jacques felt like there was no chance he would ever actually escape this little village where he effectively was an outcast. Even though the sun had not risen yet, Jacques just sat on his bed and couldn't fall asleep again after waking up from this nightmare. Just sitting there in the dark and the quiet, Jacques began to think about what he had to do later that day when the sun did come up. And like usual, Jacques started to feel afraid.

And so Jacques eventually just laid down with his eyes open, and he laid there until dawn when one of his younger brothers named Jean, who was eight years old, rolled over and pushed him and said, Hey, wet chicken, it's time to get up. It's our day with the sheep. Sleep. Let's go. Jacques scowled at his younger brother and shoved him back, but not that hard, because Jacques never really shoved anybody that hard, no matter what they did to him. And then both boys hopped out of their bed. They wolfed down some bread and cheese and then headed out the door. As soon as they were outside, Jacques noticed that the village was much quieter than it normally was. But then again, these days, villages did not leave their homes unless they absolutely had to. Jacques and Jean made their way away from their cottage down the dirt road to the pen, where their family kept all of their sheep, and the boys opened up the gate and then used their staffs to corral the sheep out of the gate back onto the road. And as the sheep bleated and bawed and bumped into each other, the boys worked hard to organize them on the road.

And then once the sheep understood which direction they were going towards the forest, a very familiar walk for the sheep, they fell into line and just began walking very casually like they knew exactly where to go. And once the sheep had fallen into this routine rhythm, Jacques and Jean fell in behind them and just walked quietly after them. As the boys walked, they both constantly kept looking left and right and ahead of the sheep and behind them, constantly scanning for danger because they knew something was out here. For months now, children all across this province in France, Jéboudon, had been going missing. They'd go off into fields or pastures like when they're moving their family's livestock around, and the kids would just Spanish. And then sometimes, if they were found again, they'd be found totally mutilated far from where they should have been. The attacks on these kids across Jéboudon had begun a year earlier on June 30th, 1764. On that day, a 14-year-old girl, who actually was the older sister of one of Jacques's friends, had disappeared and then been found again later that day, partially eaten in a field near her home after she had not come home with the family's cattle.

Now, of course, this was very tragic, but to this point, there had not been any other attacks, so there was no pattern here. And so the assumption was she must have been attacked by a wolf, which did happen. And often two children, because kids at this time in France were often in charge of tending to their families, grazing animals, the way Jacques and Jean were going out with their sheep. These kids were small. They couldn't really defend themselves. And if a wolf set onto them, there was very little they could do. But five weeks after this 14-year-old girl was found dead and mutilated in the field, two more teenagers were also found mutilated and dead in a field. And really, this was only the beginning. As summer turned to fall that year, More and more kids went missing and then turned up dead in fields, partially mutilated. And the more these attacks happened across Southern France, the more people thought to themselves, this can't be a wolf. Number one, wolves don't go on extended human killing sprees. That's just not a thing. Number two, if it was a wolf, they would be eating more of their victims.

They wouldn't just rip their body to shreds and then leave them. They would eat the meat. And so by this early January day in 1765, as Jacques and Jean were setting out for the day with their family's sheep, the death toll from whatever was killing these kids was now well into the dozens. People in France had begun calling whatever was killing these children the Beast of Jeboudon, and stories about this creature began popping up in newspapers all over France. People all across Southern France began forming these huge hunting parties to go out into the forests and the wilds of Jeboudon to find this creature and kill it, but they would always come back empty-handed. Then every now and again, a hunter would be out, and they would see a huge wolf, and they would kill it, and they would declare that they had found and killed the beast of Jevudon. But the attacks on these kids all across this province just continued. So obviously, that wolf was not it. And so as these attacks continued, all the fairs and festivals that normally would pop up all year long all across Southern France, those all stopped because people were afraid to go out in fear of this creature.

And then, of course, in villages like Jacques's village, people really just stopped going out unless they had to, again, because of the beast of Jéboudon. But Jacques and Jean's family relied on their livestock, and they needed their sheep to go out and graze. And so on this day in January, Jacques and Jean had to go out because their sheep had to graze. Their family relied on the sheep. Livestock was their livelihood. And so this was a mandatory thing. Hey, listeners.

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And so as Jacques and Jean continued walking behind their herd of sheep down this dirt road towards the forest, the two boys eventually came to a stop and just turned around and looked back at their village, and they saw walking on the road towards them were five more kids, along with two additional herds of sheep that these five kids were in charge of. Ever since the Beast of Jevudon had become a thing, Jacques and Jean had begun tending their sheep along with these five kids and their sheep. They figured the bigger their group was, the safer they were from this creature. As the five kids got closer to Jacques and Jean, Jacques realized that one of the kids that was with them this day was a tall, thin redhead. It was the same younger boy who had recently beaten Jacques up in front of the village, and he had cried, and everyone had made fun of him. Jacques sees this kid coming and immediately he can feel his face burning with embarrassment. And then the boy, he sees Jacques, and he immediately smirks and begins flapping his arms like chicken wings. But once these five kids and their sheep joined Jacques and Jean and their sheep, they all just went quiet because none of them wanted to be out there.

They were all scared of the beast of Jevudon, and the only reason they were together was, again, to be safe from this creature that was killing kids left and right. And so in relative silence, all of the kids and their sheep just slowly walked together down this dirt path, and eventually they made it into the big forest, where just beyond the forest was the pasture where these sheep would graze. As the group actually entered into the trees and it became dark and more quiet and eerie, Jean actually tugged on Jacques's shoulder and said, Will you please tell a story? Because Jean was scared, too. The kids were all scared. And they figured if Jacques just told a story, it would take their mind off of how tense this moment was. And when Jacques heard this request, he actually smiled because this was something he loved to do. He was a great storyteller. It was like his one strength. When Jean had asked for the story, the kids and the sheep had actually made it to really the end of the forest path. And so by the time Jacques was about to start a story, all the sheep had made their way out of the forest onto this big open pasture right in the middle of the forest.

And so as the sheep just filtered out into this open area, Jacques stopped and all the kids came up right behind him, and Jacques started his story by pointing across the pasture to this bog that was right at the base of this big hill. And he said, Do you see those big rocks in that bog over there? Well, you see the biggest rock? Well, that's not really a rock. It's actually a doorway. And if you move the rock underneath it, there's a portal to another world. And so as Jacques began telling this very creative story about this kingdom that existed underneath the bog, he sat down against a rock, facing out towards the sheep, and all the other kids filed in around him, taking seats with Jean, his brother, sitting right behind him to his right. Jacques, he was just really into the story to the point where he forgot about what was happening with the sheep, and he wasn't scanning around for danger, and neither were any of the kids, including the Red Head, who had beaten Jacques up. He wanted to act like he wasn't into his story, but in reality, he totally was, and he was just as interested in what was going on with the magical kingdom below this rock.

Finally, when Jacques got to the end of his story where this evil giant that had been tormenting the kingdom under the bog had been tricked by an orphan to try to go through this magical portal into their world, and the giant had gotten stuck in the doorway because he was so big, and he never tormented the kingdom again, and they lived happily ever after. When Jacques got to that point in the story and all the kids are totally locked in and not paying attention to anything else, two things happened in rapid succession. The first was, even though Jacques is telling the story and focusing on that, in the back of his mind, he registers hearing the sound of twigs breaking somewhere right behind him, almost like the sound of someone or something moving along the forest floor. The second thing that happened was the red-headed kid who had beaten up Jacques without saying a word just stood up and began sprinting towards the pasture. For a moment Jacques thought this kid, who was like a bully, was doing this on purpose, to be rude to Jacques, to run away at the climax of the story like he didn't care about it.

But then Jacques realized that he smelled something terrible behind him. But when Jacques turned around to see what was making this smell, he saw that his brother, Jean, who had been sitting right behind him to his right, was now gone, and where he had been sitting was just his staff laying on the ground. And for a second Jacques just couldn't process what his eyes were seeing. He didn't understand how his brother could have gotten away from him without him noticing. But before Jacques could do anything, all the kids around him that were still there began screaming and pointing up towards this hill that was right behind them. And so Jacques turned around and to his horror, he saw there was this huge 12-foot-tall creature that was covered in fur. It looked like an oversized wolf, but it was standing on two legs, and its bones seemed like they were too big for its own skin, and it made it seem very angular and jagged. And as it loped grotesquely up the hillside, Jacques realized realized it was carrying in its front arm Jean, who was screaming and kicking but could not get away from this creature.

Jacques understood that this was the beast of Jeboudon, and it was going to go kill his brother. And immediately Jacques is thinking, You got to run. Run away. Get to safety. Get out of here. And all the kids around him, that's what they did. They took off running towards the pasture. They didn't not care about Jean. They only cared about themselves. And so Jacques, he knows he needs to get away, save himself. But his legs just will not move. He is rooted to the spot because something inside of him told him he has to save his brother. It doesn't matter if everyone thinks he's a coward, that's his brother. He needs to do something. And so Jacques, he turns to the kids who are running away from him, and he screams at them to, Stop! Come back. And the kids were so surprised to hear this strong, authoritative voice coming out of the wet chicken, that they did stop and turned around to see what he wanted. And he said, Get over here. I have a plan. And so the kids, with the exception of the redhead who had run off by himself, they came back to Jacques, and Jacques began telling them his plan to save Jean.

And the kids, again, were so taken with how Jacques was really owning this moment and being a leader that they all said, Okay, let's do this. And so after this very quick planning meeting, all the kids turned and began running up the hillside towards the beast of Jebudon with Jacques in the front with his staff out. And the kids gained on the beast really quickly. And the creature clearly noticed and kept turning around and kept looking at these kids getting closer and closer, but the beast did not seem interested in any of them. It just wanted Jean. And in fact, it moved Jean from its arm up into its mouth. And then the creature began using the trees to pull itself faster and faster away from the kids. But Jacques Jacques, he just kept going faster and faster and pushing himself to get closer and closer. And as he did, it motivated the other kids to follow along and push it and gain on this creature. And finally, they got close enough to this beast that Jacques yelled out to the kids, Now. And they all fanned out around it and began smashing this beast with their staffs they used to shepherd their livestock.

Now, none of their blows to this creature were doing any real damage, and the creature did not really seem phased that the kids were now attacking it, but they were able, with their strikes to this creature, to direct it and get it to turn in the direction that Jacques had told them to make the creature go. And so the kids continued to beat and poke and corral this creature, and every time they'd hit it, the beast would flail out with one of its arms. But it never really did anything because, again, it's really focused, obviously, on taking Jean. But eventually Jacques's plan worked. He had corralled the creature to the top of the hillside right over where that bog was, where those rocks in the middle were part of the story that Jacques had told about how there was this portal to another world. And once this creature was positioned where Jacques wanted it, he again yelled to the kids to do the next phase of their plan. And all the kids fanned out to the top of the hill, and with their staffs, they beat and poked this creature down the hill into the bog.

And as they did this, Jacques kept looking to see if Jean was alive, because earlier he had been screaming and kicking, but now there was blood all over his brother, and he was limp in the creature's mouth, and he wasn't making any sound. But Jacques didn't care. He wanted to get his brother back, dead or alive. And so finally Jacques stepped forward from the group, and he wound up and he smashed the beast as hard as he could, hard enough that the beast actually stumbled forward into the actual marshy bog. What Jacques knew about this bog and why he had come up with that particular story about there being a gate way to another world is weeks earlier, he had actually accidentally stepped into this bog and saw it was really deep. And he had been lucky enough that he had grabbed a rock and pulled himself out, because if he hadn't, the bog functioned like quicksand. You could get stuck in the bog and never get out again. And this is what happened to the beast of Jeboudon. It went feet first into the one spot of the bog that Jacques had had all the kids corral it to that was the deepest and most dangerous part.

And as soon as the beast stepped into it, it sunk down to its waist. And immediately the beast reached out with its huge muscular arms and tried to pull itself out of the bog, but it couldn't. It was stuck. And so in its panic, it let go of Jean from its mouth, and it actually turned around, and it looked at Jacques and the other kids. When it did, Jacques almost lost his nerve, because when he saw this thing face to face up close, he saw this was not a wolf's face. This was almost like a human face. Its eyes were making distinct eye contact with Jacques, and it was furious. It was like the beast understood that Jacques had just trapped it. He had tricked the beast into walking into this bog and it wanted to kill Jacques. And for a moment Jacques was totally entranced by this creature's eyes. It just struck him that this looks human. It looks intelligent. What is this thing? And while Jacques was in this daze, The creature reached forward and slashed his stomach wide open, and Jacques felt backwards on the ground. But luckily, he was far enough away from the beast that he couldn't be pulled back in.

And in this frantic moment, one of the other kids saw an opportunity and ran forward, grabbed Jean, who was laying on the surface of the bog, and he pulled him away from the beast. The beast whipped around. He tried to grab Jean, but he couldn't. So all of a sudden, all these kids were safely away from the beast of Jevudon, who was totally trapped. At this point, the other kids who were not hurt, they scooped up Jacques and they scooped up Jean, and they began running away from the bog, across the pasture, back towards the village, leaving the beast where it was. As they ran, they heard it bellowing out and roaring and trying to pull itself out, but it still just remained in the bog. Finally, as they got back to that dirt path that led back to the village, they saw there was a group of armed villages running towards them because it would turn out the redhead who had ran off, he had told the village, and they were coming out to help the kids. And so as the armed villages met with the kids, they told them where the beast was, stuck in that bog, and the villages took off to go kill the beast.

And then the kids, along with Jacques and Jean, they went into the village. They were put into a home and put on beds, by which point the village doctor had come over and began treating both of them. Jean was alive, but just barely. He had lost a lot of blood, and the beast had grabbed onto his scalp and really crushed his skull, but he would ultimately survive. As for Jacques, it was a very painful wound that he had sustained on his stomach, but none of his internal organs had been damaged, and so he would also survive as well. As for the armed villages, even though they very quickly got out to that bog where the beast was, when they got there, the beast was gone. And the beast of Jevudon would continue to kill people for another two years until June 19th, 1767, when a hunter happened to encounter it in the middle of a forest, and he shot and killed it. And by that point, over 100 people had been murdered by this creature. The hunter would drag the carcass of the beast back into his village, and a doctor would perform an autopsy, but the doctor was unable to identify what animal it was.

It did look like a wolf, a really huge wolf, but its body was just so misshapen, and its bones were too big, and it clearly walked on two legs, not on all fours. And so there was never any definitive information about what this even was and how this even happened. But when they opened up its stomach, they did find human body parts. Jacques was one of the only people to have ever survived an encounter with the beast of Jeboudon. And so he was celebrated all across France, and he quickly went from being the wet chicken to the little hero, and his story would reach as far away as Boston, Massachusetts. And in fact, Jacques's story was so well publicized that it eventually reached King Louis XV, and he was so moved by it that he invited Jacques to come meet him. And after meeting Jacques, he loved him and offered to pay for his entire education. Jacques would get to finally leave this little village where he never quite fit in, and he would move to Northern France and enroll in a prestigious school there, and he would spend his days reading and writing just like he had always hoped for.

A quick note about our stories.

They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

The Mr. Ballen podcast, Strange Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive-produced by me, Mr. Ballen. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Our head of production is Zack Levit. Produced by Jeremy Bone. Research and fact-checking by Shelle Hsu, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beemer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Eer. Audio editing and postproduced by Whit Lacassio and Cole Lacassio. Additional audio editing by Jordan Stidham. Mixed and mastered by Brenda Cain. Production coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Monada and Delaina Artwork by Jessica Clogston-Kyner. Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugdon. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Balin podcast. If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. There's this one, the Mr. Balin podcast, as well as Mr. Balin's Medical mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, Redacted, Late Nights with Nexbo, and A Twist of History. All you have to do is search for Balin Studios wherever you get your podcast. Posts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Balin.

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