Spain's first recorded serial killer was caught killing people in the mountains of Galicia. His crimes were terrible in themselves, but his defense was even more gruesome. According to him, he was cursed as a werewolf without his human will and was remembered as the Werewolf of Allariz.
For centuries, the mythical werewolf creature has been the subject of countless tales, striking fear in the hearts of villagers and captivating the imaginations of storytellers alike. But how much of this terrifying legend is rooted in truth?
From the murky forests of Galicia in Spain to eerie moonlit nights where a beast is said to roam, this hair-raising journey will make you question what lies beyond our understanding and has since been known as The Werewolf of Allariz.
The legend of the werewolf of Allariz
At the beginning of the 19th century, Allariz, a petite town in Orense, experienced a series of terrible crimes. The Galician forest seemed especially murky when 13 people went missing and were found brutally murdered there.
They found a man who confessed to the murders, but what was especially strange about it was his argument for the murderers.
The murderer Manuel Blanco Romasanta told a story that no one wanted to believe. He said that when he was a teenager, someone placed a curse on his family and every full moon he turned into a werewolf. During these full moons, he lost all human consciousness and because of the beast within him, he killed and devoured the bodies of his victims.
Romasanta is the first documented serial killer in Spain. His case became a sensation not only because of the brutality of the crimes he committed, but also because of the werewolf claims. The legend of the werewolf of Allariz came to life, blurring the lines between myth and reality. Romasanta's trial shed lightweight on the murky underbelly of human nature and the fascination with the supernatural.
Romasant's unusual background
Romasanta, also known as Tallow, was born in 1809 in Regueiro in the province of Ourense, Spain, into a rather wealthy family who provided education for their children. He was one of five children in the family and was initially thought to be a girl. Therefore, he spent his first sexual years growing up as a girl named Manuela. When he was six years aged, a doctor changed his gender to male.
So we could have a case of an intersex person, as indicated by the birth certificate, a girl, but this was the 19th century and there was no science or formulations to support this in the form we know today. However, we know that he spent most of his life as a man, working as a tailor, and married a woman who died. There is no indication he was involved in her death.
After her death, he quit his job and started traveling, mainly to Portugal, and soon he started working, among others, as a guide through mountain passes and deep forests.
In the 1840s, during a time of great famine and mass hysteria, when the world was perceived as a threatening place, a man named Antonio Gomes appeared in the petite village of Rebordechao. He helped with the harvest, worked as a cook, sewed yarn, and worked as a guide who followed people safely through the Thesaurus Mountains.
He was a brief man with feminine features and became very genial with the women in the city. But over the next few years, strange things began to happen as women and children who had hired this man as their guide and trusted him began to disappear.
In reality, Antoni Gomez was actually Blanco Romasanta, who lived in disguise and was on the run for killing a man who was trying to gather depth.
Although Romasanta continued to deliver letters to the families of the missing, something was strange. Especially when he started selling the clothes of the city's missing people. A rumor spread that he sold soap made from human fat, hence the nickname “Tallow Man”.
He was put on trial in 1852 and taken to Allariz, where he had the strangest defense. At the time of his arrest, he was carrying a lunar calendar.
The trial of Manuel Blanco Romasanta
The trial of Manuel Blanco Romasanta stirred the nation and brought to lightweight the Werewolf of Allariz. As the evidence against him mounted, it became harder and harder to believe Romasanta's story that he had been cursed by a witch and turned into a werewolf.
The Werewolf of Allariz confessed to 13 murders and described his time as a werewolf this way:“I was transformed for the first time in the Couso Mountains. I met two fierce-looking wolves. Suddenly I fell to the ground and started convulsing, I fell three times and in a few seconds I was a wolf. I prowled with the other two for five days until I returned to my own body, the one you see before you today, Your Honor. With me came the other two wolves, whom I thought were also wolves, transformed into human form. They came from Valencia. One was called Antonio, the other Don Genaro. They too were cursed… We attacked and ate many people because we were hungry. —Manuel Blanco Romasanta
The court asked the Werewolf of Allariz to transform himself in court, but he stated that the curse had been broken as it had only lasted 13 years.
Some experts have suggested that Romasanta may have suffered from a mental disorder such as clinical lycanthropy, which caused him to believe he was a werewolf. Others argued that he was simply a cold-blooded killer using the werewolf myth as cover for his crimes.
The Werewolf of Allariz was acquitted of four of the murders he confessed to because forensic examinations showed that they were in fact wolf attacks and not murders by humans like the other nine.
He escaped the death penalty because there were people willing to study him and observe his claims of being a werewolf and clinical lycanthropy as a mental illness, and even the Queen of Spain intervened so they could study him. He died in prison, albeit under mysterious circumstances, just a few months after arriving. Some say it was a disease, others say he was shot by a guard who wanted to see him change.
The legend of the werewolf of Allariz still captivates viewers today, reminding us of our fascination with the supernatural and unknown. Werewolves have long been a staple of folklore and mythology, appearing in stories from cultures around the world.
The myth of the Galician werewolf
But where did the murderer get all his knowledge about werewolves? The concept of a shapeshifting human was not at all unknown in Galician folklore, and there were many stories and rules about the werewolf.
In Galician folklore, it is believed that the seventh son in a family can become a werewolf, or lobishome. If the baby is born normal, it will be born with the image of a cross in its mouth. If not, he will become a werewolf.
There are variations on this myth, but most claim that during the full moon they cannot facilitate but transform and roll around in the mud before attacking humans. Every Friday, the werewolf takes off his clothes and runs away, visiting seven villages and taking another skin from that village.
Constant fascination with werewolves
But what is it about these creatures that continue to capture our imagination? Perhaps it is the idea of transformation, the transformation of man into beast in the lightweight of the full moon. Or maybe it is the duality of their nature, the internal struggle between man and animal.
Whatever the reason, werewolves have become an enduring part of popular culture, appearing in books, films and television shows. From classic horror films of the early 20th century to current werewolf romances, these creatures continue to fascinate and terrify us.
So the next time you're walking through a murky forest on a moonlit night, remember the legend of the werewolf of Allariz and the power that stories have to both terrify and captivate. Who knows, maybe you'll spot something lurking in the shadows, a creature caught between the worlds of man and beast.
Reference:
Unusual historical sources: myths and folklore: Lobisome, the Galician werewolf
Lycanthropy, werewolves and “lobo da xente” (full post)
Manuel Blanco Romasanta | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
Manuel Blanco Romasanta – Wikipedia
Haunted Spain, stories for All Hallows' Eve – CaramelTrail
Image Source: Pixabay.com
