Gandillon Family (Pierre, Georges, Antoinette, Perrenette) (d. 1598)
Gandillon Family (Pierre, Georges, Antoinette, Perrenette) (d. 1598)
French werewolves of St. Claude, in the Jura region, France, one of the major historical cases of lycanthropy. Perrenette believed that she was a wolf and one day in 1598 attacked two children who were picking wild strawberries. One of the children, a four-year-old boy, defended his sister with a knife, but Perrenette wrenched the knife from him and gashed his throat. He died of the wound after communicating the news that the wolf had human hands. Perrenette was found in the vicinity and torn to pieces by the enraged villagers.
Antoinette confessed to being a werewolf, and also to sleeping with the devil (who had taken the form of a goat), attending a Sabbat, and producing magical hailstorms. Her brother Pierre was also accused of making hailstones, luring children to a Sabbat, turning himself into a wolf, and killing and eating people. He stated that Satan clothed them as wolves and that they hunted on all fours. Pierre's son Georges also confessed to changing into a wolf by smearing himself with a salve and killing two goats.
Antoinette, Pierre, and Georges were all convicted as were-wolves and burned in 1598. The presiding judge was Henri Boguet whose Discours des sorciers became a standard guide to witchcraft.