Jean Grenier 1603:

During the spring in the year 1603 terror was spreading through the St. Sever districts of Gascony, France. Many young children had begun to vanish or had been found dead. Not long after, a young 13 year old girl by the name of Marguerite Poirier reported to authorities that she had been attacked by a vicious beast that resembled a wolf. She “swore that in full moon she had been attacked by a savage beast, much resembling a wolf. The girl stated that one midday whilst she was watching cattle, a wild beast with rufulous fur, not unlike a huge dog, rushed from the thicket and tore her kirtle with its sharp teeth. She only managed to save herself from being bitten owing to the fact she was armed with a stout iron; pointed staff with which she hardly warded herself. Moreover a lad of some thirteen or fourteen years old, Jean Grenier, was boasting that is was he who attacked Marguerite, as a wolf, and but for her stick he would have torn her limb from limb as he had already eaten three or four children. Source    

Another girl who tended cattle with Grenier by the name of Jeanne Gaboriaut who was 18 at the time, deposed that one day while tending the herd with him he had complimented her saying she was a “bonny lass” vowing he would marry her. When she asked whom his father was he replied with “ a priests bastard”.She remarked to him about his appearance, stating that he was dirty and shallow to which he replied “Ah, that is because of the wolf skin I wear.” He told her that a man by the name of Pierre Labourat had given him a wolfs pelt, and when he donned it he could roam the fields and forests as a wolf. He stated to here that he had a brethren of eight other wolves and they would chase the moon and hunt during the twilight and just before dawn. He spoke to her about killing dogs and lapping at their hot blood, which he did not find nearly as delicious as the flesh from young children, particularly infants, and young boys from whose thighs he would bite “great collops of fat luscious brawn.” Around May 29, 1603 Jean Grenier was arrested and brought to the court where he confessed freely heinous crimes and werewolfery. In every particular they were proven to be true accounts. He admitted to lying about his father, Pierre Grenier, who was a day laborer. He claimed his father had beat him and so he had run away, making a living as best he could by tending cattle. He had met another youth by the name of Pierre de la Tillhaire, who lived in Saint-Antoine who had told him someone wished to meet with him. Pierre took him into the deep forest where there sat a man in black upon a black horse. The horseman saluted the lads and kissed Jean upon his head. Jean remarks that his lips were colder than ice. Jean called this man the Lord of the Forest, and stated that he had given Jean a salve which he rubbed on his naked body and then presented him with a wolf pelt which he said he would keep, however Jean could use it at any time. Jean had given himself to this Lord as his bond-slave. He told about the Lord of the Forest giving both the boys a mark upon their thigh, and how he treated them well. When the boys donned the pelt, they found themselves to be transformed into wolves. The Lord accompanied them as they ran across the countryside, except he was much bigger in shape and possibly an ounce or leopard. Before they could don the pelt and transform they first had to anoint their naked bodies with an unguent or salve. Jean was told to never pare the nail of his left thumb, and so it had grown thick and crooked like a claw. On more than one occasion Jean said that he had seen others adoring the horseman.Jean Grenier then related with great exactitude his acts of infanticide. On the first Friday in March of 1603, he said he had eaten a three year old girl named Guyonne. He had also attacked the son of Jean Roullier, but the boys elder brother had come and beat him away. Young Roullier was called as a witnessed and remembered the exact hour, day, and place where a wolf had flown out from a thicket at his little brother and he had driven the beast away with his weapon. There were cases, one after another, parents of dead wounded and missing children, who came forward and corroborated every account that Jean had attested to. His father, Pierre Grenier, was arrested but was soon released because he was a simpleton who knew nothing of his son's crimes. The other boy, Pierre de la Tillhaire fled and could not be found.