Sawney Bean

1
Sawney Bean
2
Sawney Bean was born in East Lothian just outside
of Edinburgh some time in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth. His parents repaired ditches for a
living and brought up Sawney to do the same. But
he was prone to idleness and did not want any
honest employment. Sawney left his parents, and
ran away to the coast, taking with him a woman as
lazy as himself. These two took lived in a cave
on the shore of the county of Galloway. They
lived there almost twenty-five years without
going into any city, town, or village.
3
Meet the family
Sawney Bean and his wife had many children and by
means of inbreeding the family became a gang of
46 people being 8 sons 6 daughters 18
grandsons 14 granddaughters
4
Earning a Living!
They robbed and killed travellers. The bodies of
their victims were eaten and the remains were
dried and salted, and kept in the cave as an
insurance against days of famine. There is little
doubt that Bean did not eat human flesh because
he liked it but just because it was free he
killed for economic reasons only.
5
Overconfidence...
None of the victims lived to tell about the Bean
Family, but the growing amount of missing people
was noticed by the people in the nearby villages.
The Bean Family also became more reckless they
came to a point where they had too much meat to
stock, so they got rid of "unwanted" arms and
legs by throwing them into the sea. When these
remains were found by horrified villagers, the
locals started to calculate the exact amount of
missing travellers in the area.
6
Methods
The Beans never attacked groups of more than 6
people as a large group was too hard to ambush.
The victims were killed on the spot and boned for
their meat. The money found on the victims was
probably used to buy bread and vegetables as a
man can't live on nothing but human meat for 25
years ...
7
Noticed at last...
At last the authorities realised that there was a
group of robbers in the area. They used their
favourite investigation tactics people were
executed at random in the hope that the men they
were looking for were among those executed ... As
most of the missing people were travellers, a lot
of innkeepers were executed. These random
executions were good enough reason for most
villagers to leave the area.
8
They Made a Mistake
The Bean Family was caught by coincidence They
attacked a couple on their way home from a fair.
The woman's throat was cut and some family
members started to suck the blood and rip the
belly open to remove the entrails. The man had
more luck as he stayed sitting on his horse.
While he was fighting for his life, another group
of travellers showed up and the attackers ran
away. The man rushed to Glasgow and reported the
crime. So after 25 years the Glasgow authorities
finally heard about the murderous family. King
James also heard about the attack and decided to
take care of the business personally and went on
his way with 400 soldiers and a large pack of
bloodhounds.
9
Captured
The bloodhounds get all the credit for the
capture of the Beans. The dogs could not ignore
the strong smell of flesh coming from a cave. The
soldiers entered it and found a horrible scene
dried parts of human bodies were hanging
everywhere and the family were smoking strips of
flesh. The Beans made no attempt whatsoever to
defend their territory. They were captured alive
and taken to Edinburgh where they were imprisoned
in the Tollbooth.
10
Punishment?
The Beans were sentenced quickly without a trial
and executed. They were given a punishment
fitting their crime. The execution was a slow
one The men bled to death after their hands and
legs were cut off and the women were burned alive
after they were forced to watch the execution of
the men. They all died without a sign of remorse
and kept cursing ... till their last breath.