Using modern biology and background to investigate some grisly deaths in the countryside of 18th-century France.

Something unimaginable happened from 1764 to 1767 in the remote highlands of south-central France. For three years, a real-life monster, or monsters, ravaged the region, slaughtering by some accounts more than 100 people, mostly women and kids, and inflicting serious injuries upon numerous others. Alarmed rural communities-and their economies-were practically held hostage by the about Beast: Werewolves, Serial Killers, and Man-Eaters: The Secret of the Monsters from the Gévaudan marauder, and regional officials and Louis XV deployed dragoons and split wolf hunters from far-off Normandy and the King’s own court to destroy the menace. And with the creature’s reign of terror occurring at the introduction of the modern newspaper, it can be said the ferocious episodes in the Gévaudan area were among the world”s first press sensations.

Despite comprehensive historical documentation about this awesome predator, no one seemed to understand exactly what it was. Theories abounded: Was it an exotic animal, such as a hyena, that acquired escaped from a menagerie? A werewolf? A wolf-dog hybrid? A new types? Some kind of conspiracy? Or, as was proposed by the local bishop, was it a scourge of God? To this day, debates on the real character of La Bête, “The Beast,” continue.

Beast requires a fascinating take a look at all the proof, using a mix of history and modern biology to progress a theory that could solve perhaps one of the most bizarre and unexplained getting rid of sprees ever: France’s infamous Beast from the Gévaudan.