Who Was Sawney Bean?

Be forewarned: the following article is very gruesome and not for the faint of heart!

Sawney Bean (or Beane) was the head of a legendary clan of inbred cannibals living in a cave in Galloway, Scotland in the 16th century. The story of Sawney Bean was famously recorded in a mid-18th century publication on criminal cases called The Newgate Calendar. The outlandishness of many parts of the story and the lack of any corroborating accounts or evidence lead historians to doubt its veracity, or at least to suspect that the Newgate Calendar version was significantly exaggerated. However, the tale struck the morbid imagination of the public and has remained a favorite horror story for centuries. Sawney Bean and his family have inspired such modern day horror film classics as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

The Newgate Calendar recounts that Alexander "Sawney" Bean was the son of laborers. As a young man, he tired of the family work and ran off with a woman. The two took up residence in a cave and began a life of lawlessness. They had children and grandchildren, through incest, until the family numbered 48, and made their living by robbing, murdering, and cannibalizing travelers who passed their way.

The Bean family was supposedly at large for 25 years, during which time the local communities tried and executed many innocent people in their search for the culprit behind all the disappearances. Anyone who encountered Sawney Bean and his family never lived to tell about it. Their settlement did not attract any attention, as it was deep inside a cave that was partially obscured during high tide.

Eventually, one man survived an encounter with the Sawney Bean clan, though his wife did not. He met up with a large group of men from the fair he had just left and told them about his experience. As a result, King James VI of Scotland dispatched a hunting party and the Sawney Bean family was finally discovered and brought to justice, after killings estimated to be in the thousands. Their lair, when discovered, contained ample evidence of their thievery and cannibalism. Every member of the family was executed without trial.

The tale of Sawney Bean has many problematic aspects for historians. First of all, there are no primary records of the event. Various versions, appearing mostly in cheaply printed pamphlets from the 18th century, vary widely in the details. Nutritionists have argued that 48 cannibals could not have survived for 25 years without killing significantly more people than the Sawney Bean family allegedly killed. As "Sawney" was a generic name for Scotsmen at the time this story first appeared in print, some have speculated that the Sawney Bean story was fabricated in its entirety as anti-Scottish propaganda.

Despite the lack of evidence that any part of the Sawney Bean legend is true, purveyors of horror entertainment and the tourism industry in Scotland and England continue to exploit it. A Sawney Bean exhibit can be seen in the London Dungeon Wax Museum, as well as in the Edinburgh Dungeon in Scotland. Bennane Cave in Ayrshire, formerly Galloway, is claimed to be the cave where Sawney Bean and his family made their home.