November 18, 1809 - Manuel Blanco Romasanta
Spain's first recorded serial killer, Romasanta is a singular figure in criminal history — not only for the murders themselves, but for the defense he offered at trial: that a curse had transformed him into a wolf, absolving him of responsibility. The werewolf claim, unusual even by the standards of 19th-century rural superstition, drew enough attention that a royal pardon was briefly considered on medical grounds. His case sits at an intersection of folklore, early forensic history, and the judicial reckoning with what courts owed to confessed killers who rejected their own agency.
From Wikipedia
Manuel Blanco Romasanta (né Manuela; 18 November 1809 – 14 December 1863) was Spain's first recorded serial killer. In 1853, he admitted to thirteen murders but claimed he was not responsible because he was suffering from a curse that caused him to turn into a wolf. Although this defence was rejected at trial, Queen Isabella II commuted his death sentence to allow doctors to investigate the claim as an example of clinical lycanthropy. Blanco has become part of Spanish folklore as the Werewolf of Allariz and is also known as The Tallow Man, a nickname he earned for rendering his victims' fat to make high-quality soap.
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