The Werewolf of Bedburg

The following is based on a telling in the Herald Scotland...

     Late 1500's, Bedburg, Germany.
     The chase was on.  Soldiers of the garrison were tasked with the capture of Ubel Griswold, and the hunting dogs had acquired his scent.  The surrounding forest could have been refuge to any and all criminals, but once the dogs had the scent, no one was safe.  Even in the cover of darkness, the torches providing very little light for the soldiers, the dogs led them in the right direction.
     One of the soldiers pointed at something in the shadows.  Finally, they had him.  As the dogs pulled at their leashes, the soldiers spotted... something.  A wolf in the shadows, which the dogs had perceived as Griswold, removed a girdle and tossed it aside.  The soldiers were dumbfounded and did not believe what they saw.  As the wolf changed to a man, the dogs brought him down and the soldiers apprehended him.
     Ubel Griswold had been a wealthy farmer raising two children by himself.  His wife had died a few years before and he had to maintain the farm and his business, while he took care of his children.  Months after his wife's death, Griswold met Katharina Trump, and they quickly became lovers.  She sometimes helped with the children, but did not go to the house upon Griswold's request.  Over time, Katharina gave birth to his child.  When Griswold was captured by the soldiers of Bedburg, his only thought was of Katharina.
     On pain of torture, Griswold confessed to killing, but he also confessed to so much more.  He killed animals, men, women, children, fetuses in the womb, and anything living.  He was responsible for the death of many people in the region, and he did it with the help of the girdle, which granted him the power to shape-shift to a wolf so that he could roam the countryside unhindered.
     As the authorities pulled his fingernails out one by one, Griswold confessed to killing his own son.  With his powerful wolf jaws, he cracked open his son's skull and ate his brain.  With some delight, mixed with anguish from the pain at his fingertips, in his eyes, Griswold told his torturers how sweet the boy's grey matter tasted on his tongue.
     The murderer confessed that he mated with a succubus sent by the Devil from Hell.  This demon bore him a child, which he copulated with because he longer had a wife.  He confessed to killing his wife, as well.  He gleefully reminisced of the sensuality of his daughter.  And Griswold also told the authorities the succubus was alive and well.  He told them where she lived.
     Afraid for the their lives and the lives of the people of Bedburg, the authorities collected Katharina Trump and her child.  They captured the succubus and the demon-child, and only then did they knew the town was safe, once again.  In the town square, they strangled both mother and child for all to see.  Once the bodies laid still, they burned them so that the demons could no longer infect the citizens of Bedburg.
     That night, the soldiers strapped Griswold to a cart wheel, splayed out and vulnerable, and built a forge fire.  With hot pincers, they began flaying his skin, starting with the upper arms and pulling down to the fingers, shedding his skin like a discarded glove.  Griswold's muscles were exposed, and the authorities told the citizens that there was no longer anything to be afraid of for he was wolf no more.  They flayed him until he had no skin left, his face and head left a macabre, bloody mess.  With iron clubs, the soldiers pummeled Griswold until they broke almost every bone in his body.  Even beaten and broken, he whispered to the closest soldier that he would come back to finish them all.
     One of the soldiers had enough of the authorities' request and drew his sword.  Before Griswold could say anything else, the soldier beheaded the murderer.  Others splashed his body with pig's fat and set it ablaze until the flames died out in the middle of the night, ashes the only thing left... of the werewolf of Bedburg.