Gilles Garnier (died 18 January 1574)[1] was a French serial killer, cannibal, and hermit convicted of being a werewolf for the murder of at least four children.
Gilles Garnier was a reclusive hermit living in an area commonly called Saint Bonnot, outside of Amanges in the County of Burgundy.
[2] During this period, several children went missing or were found dead and the authorities of the Franche-Comté province issued an edict encouraging and allowing the people to apprehend and kill the murderer responsible.
One evening, a group of workers travelling from a neighbouring town came upon what they thought in the dim light to be a wolf but what some recognised as the hermit with the body of a dead child.
Garnier abducted a girl, aged 10 or 12, by dragging her into a vineyard near the Gorge farm near Châtenois (misspelled in sources as Chastenoy) He strangled her, removed her clothes, and ate the flesh from her thighs and arms in nearby Serre forest.
In November, around two weeks after the beginning of Feast of Saint Michael, Garnier killed a 10-year-old boy between Gredisans and Menote, again cannibalising him by eating from his thighs and belly and tearing off a leg to save for later.