Werewolves

A cry pierced the chilly night air and the woman woke up, startled and staring into the pitch dark. She quickly searched around but there was no sign of her three-year-old daughter Venkatasubbamma, who was sleeping beside her. The three dogs lying at their feet did not even react.The next morning, July 27, 1983, the villagers found a pool of blood and the clothes of the missing child. The footprints of an animal were visible and the police dog squad tracked the scent to a hillock, only to stop short of a cave, its entrance blocked by a wall of bricks. The wolves of Pavagada were back!The bizarre case of the Pavagada wolves began one evening in April1983 when a five-year-old girl was snatched near her house and the villagers claimed to have seen a huge dog-like animal taking her away. Ten days later, a three-year-old was attacked in her house.

The girl survived but the same night another girl child was snatched from her bed, at a village two kilometres away. After taking five girls, the child-snatcher disappeared for two months. Only to come back for Venkatasubbama.The police claimed there were man-eating wolves on the prowl and the villagers believed it. But then, there was a distinct pattern in the killings. All the children were girls, and all the only daughters of their parents, all neatly picked up from beside their sleeping parents and there were no drag marks on the ground. But in one case, a neatly severed leg was found. In another case, the ‘wolf’ threw stones at the father of achild who was snatched.Soon, suspicions emerged. Was it really a wolf, as the police claimed? It seemed like the handiwork of tantriks who were known to make human sacrifices to Goddess Kali.And, the Madakshira region which separates Pavagada from the rest of Karnataka was known for black magic. So much so that reporters who went to Pavagada to cover the child snatchings were almost stranded there. For, taxi drivers would not dare cross Madakshira after dusk, shuddering at the very thought of lurking sorcerers and their hexes.Or was it werewolves? The stories were endless, but the child killings went on. By the end of five months, seven children were snatched.The Police and Forest Department were at loggerheads, but the government backed the wolf theory even as the issue raged on in the Legislative Assembly. Then the huntbegan.......

A cry pierced the chilly night air and the woman woke up, startled and staring into the pitch dark. She quickly searched around but there was no sign of her three-year-old daughter Venkatasubbamma, who was sleeping beside her. The three dogs lying at their feet did not even react.The next morning, July 27, 1983, the villagers found a pool of blood and the clothes of the missing child. The footprints of an animal were visible and the police dog squad tracked the scent to a hillock, only to stop short of a cave, its entrance blocked by a wall of bricks. The wolves of Pavagada were back! The bizarre case of the Pavagada wolves began one evening in April1983 when a five-year-old girl was snatched near her house and the villagers claimed to have seen a huge dog-like animal taking her away.Ten days later, a three-year-old was attacked in her house.

The girl survived but the same night another girl child was snatched from her bed, at a village two kilometres away. After taking five girls, the child-snatcher disappeared for two months. Only to come back for Venkatasubbama.The police claimed there were man-eating wolves on the prowl and the villagers believed it. But then, there was a distinct pattern in the killings. All the children were girls, and all the only daughters of their parents, all neatly picked up from beside their sleeping parents and there were no drag marks on the ground. But in one case, a neatly severed leg was found. In another case, the ‘wolf’ threw stones at the father of achild who was snatched.Soon, suspicions emerged. Was it really a wolf, as the police claimed? It seemed like the handiwork of tantriks who were known to make human sacrifices to Goddess Kali.And, the Madakshira region which separates Pavagada from the rest of Karnataka was known for black magic. So much so that reporters who went to Pavagada to cover the child snatchings were almost stranded there. For, taxi drivers would not dare cross Madakshira after dusk, shuddering at the very thought of lurking sorcerers and their hexes.Or was it werewolves? The stories were endless, but the child killings went on. By the end of five months, seven children were snatched.The Police and Forest Department were at loggerheads, but the government backed the wolf theory even as the issue raged on in the Legislative Assembly. Then the huntbegan.......

A vivid description of King Lycaons metamorphosis was given in later centuries by Ovid, the Roman poet. With this tale, the werewolf entered popular literature that provided plenty of eerie accounts. It held the attention of medieval literature for almost three centuries. Certain peoples of Poland and Lithuania were widely regarded as sorcerers who turned themselves temporarily into wolves once a year. Similar ritualistic transformation seems to echo in the tales of Livonia describing ceremonies occurring during the Christmas seasons: Christmas, because of its association with the winter solstice, was traditionally a period of magical activity of all kinds. Ireland was a similar repository of werewolf lore; perhaps because wolves thrived there long after they were hunted to extinction in England. At one time the Emerlad Isle was even known as wolf-land and Saint Patrick himself was believed to have transformed Vereticus, the king of Wales, into a wolf.

Romanticized stories involving werewolves persisted for years in Europe. England?s Gervase of Tilbury, a scholastic writing between 1210 and 1214, noted that ?in England we often see men changed into wolves at the change of the moon.? Gervase?s Otia Imperialia, a collection of medieval legends and superstitions, includes the tale of Raimbaud of Auvergne, a former soldier turned outlaw, who turned himself into a werewolf and began a series of attack on children and adults alike until a carpenter chopped off his hand. A similarly curious twelfth century werewolf tale came from Ireland. In his Topographis Hibeniae the ecclesiastic Gerald of Wales related the tale of a priest and a boy who met with a werewolf couple on their journey to Meath. Medieval writers of romance started to construct airy fictions. Werewolves were figured as wicked-step mother and lost-heir of a throne. The Lay of the Werewolf was such a story describing the cruel infidelity of a woman...

A woman whose apartment was allegedly broken into by a man who claimed he was a werewolf told the court Tuesday the man needs mental help, not prison. "Bob Marsh is not the monster people think he is. He has had a number of things go awry for him," said Victoria Kennedy of Fond du Lac. "He is a little more than a little mental. He needs to go to a mental health facility. He really needs help." Robert W. Marsh, 39, currently in jail, will standtrial on charges of disorderly conduct, criminal trespass, criminal damage to property and possession of marijuana.

Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Judge Robert Wirtz set a trial date of May 14 when Marsh appeared in court Tuesday. Marsh remained in the Fond du Lac County Jail Tuesday on a $5,000 cash bail. The charges carry a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and $22,000 in fines. About 3 a.m. March 1, Marsh allegedly smashed a deadbolt and entered Kennedy's West Division Street apartment, according to the criminal complaint. Marsh grabbedKennedy's arm, but two men restrained him and Marsh left the apartment prior to police arriving. Kennedy had allowed Marsh to stay at her house prior to the incident but she said he was no longer welcome after he started claiming he was a werewolf and part of a witch religion, according to the complaint.

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