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Sawney Bean |
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D.O.B. |
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30 -
40 |
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Kill
date: |
16th
Century |
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Kill
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Scotland |
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D.O.B. |
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FACTFILE
Legend of fact, we will probably never know!
Alexander Sawney Bean was (so legend tells
us} the head of an incestuous cannibalistic family,
who oversaw a 25-year reign of murder and robbery from a
hidden sea cave on the Ayrshire coast in the 15th century.
The cave most readily associated with Sawney and his clan is close to Ballantrae on Bennane head in Ayrshire,
although other sea caves along the Ayrshire and Galloway
coast have also been associated with the story.
There are numerous written sources detailing the account
of Sawney and his family, and it has been suggested that
the legend has its roots in real events. The tale appears
in full and lurid detail in the 'Historical and
Traditional Tales Connected with the South of Scotland'
by John Nicholson in 1843.
Little is known for certain about his early
life, however Sawney Bean is believed to have been born in
East Lothian in the late 15th century, and was a tanner by
trade. The latter part of his life is a little better
documented following his relocation across country to
Ayrshire and his marriage.
The newly wed Mr and Mrs Sawney Bean set up home at
Bennane Cave, by Ballantrae in Ayrshire, Scotland. Bennane
Cave was rather an imposing abode, with tunnels
penetrating the solid rock and extending for more than a
mile in length. In addition, the accommodation featured
lots of side passages where a young couple could extend
into, and convert over the next 25 years, to accommodate a
growing family. Draught exclusion features included the
fact that the cave's entrance was flooded for several
hundred metres, twice a day at high tide.
Lacking a trade, it was Sawney's plan to
support his new wife on the proceeds of robbery. It proved
a simple enough matter to ambush travellers on the lonely
narrow roads that connected the villages of the area. Then
it dawned on him that in order to help make sure that he
could never be identified for his crimes, he should murder
his victims. Further, to avoid those unnecessary visits to
the shops for provisions whilst at the same time disposing
of any evidence, he came on the bright idea of butchering
the bodies to provide a high protein diet of human meat
for him and his wife
The high protein diet seemed to have been
effective as Mrs Bean began to produce little baby Bean's.
Fourteen little Beanie babies in total, each with a very
unhealthy appetite for human flesh. As the Beanie babies
grew up and in turn, through incest, produced Beanie
babies of their own, their cooking pots increased in size
dramatically. Over two decades, generations of Beanie
babies grew up in Bennane Cave, refining their skills of
murder and cannibal cuisine including, the now lost art of
salting and pickling the flesh. Finds of curiously
preserved but decaying body parts were discovered washed
up on the surrounding beaches in the area.
As
the years went by the family grew older and thanks to
their high protein diet, bigger. And as the family grew so
did their appetite. As many as half a dozen victims would
be ambushed and killed at a time in military style
operations by the Bean army. The bodies were taken back to
the cave to be carefully prepared for the larder by the
women folk.
Even in the best-planned operations however, things
sometimes go wrong. It happened one evening for the Sawney
Bean army, when they attacked a man and his wife as they
were returning home from a nearby fair. One group pulled
the women from her horse and had her stripped and
disembowelled before the other group had chance to wrestle
the man to the ground. Realising the fate that was about
to fall him he fought desperately to escape, driving his
horse into and over his attackers. As he fought for his
life, a group of twenty or so people also returning from
the fair happened upon the scene. After a brief and
violent exchange the Sawney Bean army found itself, for
the first time ever, at a numerical disadvantage and
promptly retreated back to the cave to consider this
situation. As they retreated they left behind the
mutilated body of the woman as evidence, a lot of
witnesses as well as a very angry husband.
TOP
The man was taken before the Chief
Magistrate of Glasgow, who after hearing the tale and
putting this together with his longest missing persons
list ever, and further putting this together with the many
reports of the mysterious pickled parts, decided to take
the matter straight to the top. King James I promptly
arrived in Ayrshire with a small army of four hundred men
and a pack of tracker dogs, and together with a band of
local volunteers, launched one of the biggest manhunts the
country had ever seen.
The search extended throughout the Ayrshire countryside
and coastline, but nothing was discovered, until the
search dogs picked up the scent of decaying human flesh
whilst passing a partly waterlogged cave. The manhunt was
closing in.
By torchlight the troops entered
Bennane cave and with swords drawn, they proceeded down
the mile-long twisting passage to the inner depths of the
Bean family lair. Nothing could have prepared them for the
sight they witnessed that day. The damp walls of the cave
were strewn with row upon row of human limbs and body
parts, like meat hanging in a butchers shop. Other areas
of the cave stored bundles of clothing, piles of watches
and rings and heaps of discarded bones from previous
feasts.
After a brief fight, the entire Sawney Bean family, all
forty-eight of them, were arrested and marched off to
Edinburgh by the King himself. Their crimes were
considered so heinous that the normal justice system, for
which Scotland is so renowned, was abandoned and the
entire family were sentenced to death. The following day
the twenty-seven men of the family met a fate similar to
that of many of their victims, by having their legs and
arms cut off and being left to slowly bleed to death,
watched by their women. The twenty-one women were burned
like witches in huge fires.
Fact or fiction ??
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