September 5, 2025 • 33 mins
The episode embarks on a harrowing exploration of the legend of Alexander Sawney Bean, a purported patriarch of a clan of cannibals in 16th century Scotland. This tale, steeped in horror, recounts how Bean and his family allegedly committed unspeakable atrocities, including the murder and consumption of over a thousand victims, all while residing in a concealed sea cave. As we delve into the historical underpinnings and the dubious sources that propagate this narrative, we confront the unsettling question of its veracity. While the gruesome details have captivated audiences for centuries, we reveal that there exists no substantial historical evidence to substantiate these claims. Ultimately, we contend that the legend of Sawney Bean serves as a profound reflection of societal fears and the impact of political propaganda, rather than a factual account of historical events.
Hosts: Michael and Alana are professional historians with a passion for bringing the most captivating and often overlooked criminal events of the past to light. ✨
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Takeaways:
- In the 16th century, the tale of Sawney Bean emerged as a dark legend, illustrating the brutality of a cannibalistic clan.
- The historical basis for the Sawney Bean legend is tenuous, with no substantial evidence supporting its authenticity.
- The story of Sawney Bean reflects the political tensions between Scotland and England during the 18th century, serving as propaganda.
- The gruesome narrative of the Bean clan has influenced modern horror, demonstrating society's fascination with transgression and monstrosity.
- The legend's origins are believed to be rooted in older folklore, repurposed for political purposes amid historical upheaval.
- Despite its dubious historical validity, the Sawney Bean tale has become a significant part of Scottish cultural identity and tourism.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:29):
Welcome to history's Greatest crimes.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Elena.
In this episode, we travelback to the rugged, windswept coast
of 16th century Scotland to aa place of shadows, sea mist and
secrets.
We're exploring a story thathas been whispered in taverns and
told around firesides for centuries.
It's a tale so gruesome, soutterly depraved, that it almost
(01:53):
defies belief.
This is the legend ofAlexander Sawney.
Bean, the patriarch of a 48member clan of incestuous cannibals
who, forgotten for a quarterof a century, waged a secret war
against civilization from ahidden sea cave, murdering and devouring
more than a thousand men,women and children.
(02:14):
It's a story that has inspiredhorror films and haunted the Scottish
tourism industry for generations.
But as we'll discover, themost terrifying part of this story
isn't the cannibalism.
It's the question of whetherany of it ever happened at all.
(02:49):
Our story about Sawney Bean asit has been passed down is set in
the tumultuous 16th century.
But before we really dig intothat story itself, let's briefly
discuss the main source.
That's a good idea, Michael,because the primary source itself
is almost as creepy as thestory it told.
The first source to popularlyintroduce the story was the infamous
(03:09):
British Newgate Calendar, alsocommonly known as the Malefactors
Bloody Register.
This calendar started off inthe mid-1700s as a monthly bulletin
of executions produced by thekeeper of Newgate Prison in London.
But over the course of thelater 18th and early 19th centuries,
the Bulletin was appropriatedby other publishers who started putting
(03:30):
out short biographies aboutnotorious criminals.
Many of the biographies heldsome degree of truth, but the capitalistic
ambitions of the publishersencouraged them to sensationalize
them and present them asmoralizing stories about sin, crime
and criminals who committedthem in the 18th and 19th centuries.
(03:52):
In other words, the storyabout Sawney being the focus of our
episode today should probablybe taken with a grain of salt.
Correct?
But as noted, the story aboutSawney Bean offers an interesting
lens through which to view thehistory of Scotland and its evolving
relationship with England andthe broader British Empire.
But first, let's recount ourlisteners with the story of Sawney
(04:16):
Bean.
My pleasure, Elena.
Alexander Bean was born inEast Lothian, a County about 8 or
9 miles eastward of the cityof Edinburgh.
His father was a simple, hardworking man.
He was a ditch digger andhedge trimmer by trade trade who
tried to raise his son tofollow in his footsteps.
But young Sawney, as He wascalled, was not built for an honest
(04:38):
life.
The accounts describe him ashaving a idle, vicious and pilfering
disposition.
He detested the toil of hisfather's trade and soon abandoned
it in his home in search of adifferent path.
But he didn't walk that path alone.
He found a kindred spirit in awoman named Black Agnes Douglas.
(05:00):
It's unclear whether BlackAgnes was called such because she
had a dark complexion orbecause she was suspected of being
a witch.
That's right, Michael.
By all accounts, Agnes was afearsome woman, as viciously inclined
as Sawney Bean.
Some versions of the legendeven claim that she had been cast
out of her own community forher dark practices.
(05:22):
So this outcast pair, Sawneyand Agnes together, turned their
backs on society entirely.
They journeyed west across thebreadth of Scotland until they reached
a wild and sparsely populatedcoast of Galloway, located off the
coast of Scotland's inner seas.
It was here, near the modernday town of Ballantry, that they
discovered their new home.
(05:43):
A deep, dark sea cave at aplace called Benane Head.
This was no ordinary cave.
It was a subterraneanfortress, perfect for their purposes.
The legends claim its tunnelsreached through the solid rock, extending
for more than a mile in length.
(06:04):
More importantly, its entrancepossessed a unique and formidable
defense.
Twice a day at high tide, thechurning waters of the north channel
would surge into the cave,flooding the first 200 yards and
completely sealing it off fromthe outside world.
It was a layer that was bothhidden and impenetrable.
(06:24):
Here, utterly isolated fromcivilization, Sanni and Agnes began
their new life.
But a life of isolation stillrequires sustenance.
Having rejected honest labor,Sawney turned to the only trade he
knew.
Theft.
He began to ambush lonetravelers on the desolate coastal
roads, robbing them of theirmoney and possessions.
(06:45):
But this violent enterprisecreated a dangerous problem.
It left witnesses.
Sawney's solution was asruthlessly logical as it was monstrous.
To ensure there were nosurvivors to report his crimes, he
resolved to murder everyperson he robbed.
This, in turn, presentedanother grim dilemma.
(07:07):
What to do with the bodies?
The answer, as recorded in thelurid pages of the Nougat calendar
and other chapbooks, was oneof pure pragmatic horror.
To dispose of the evidence andto feed themselves in their remote
hideaway.
So Sawney and Agnes began tobutcher and eat their victims.
(07:28):
The legend of the cannibalclan had begun.
For a quarter of a century,the Bean clan lived and bred in the
darkness of Benane Cave.
Their existence a secret keptby the tides and their own Brutality.
And apparently, Sawney andAgnes were prolific.
They produced eight sons andsix daughters.
(07:49):
This first generation knowingno world beyond the cave and no law.
But their fathers then bredwith one another, an ongoing cycle
of incest that swelled their numbers.
Soon the clan consisted of 18grandsons and 14 granddaughters.
They were a feral army, 48strong, bound by blood and a shared
(08:11):
horrific secret.
Their survival depended on the hunt.
The accounts described theirattacks as operating with a terrifying
efficiency, almost withmilitary precision.
At night, they would emergefrom their cave and lie in ambush
along the coastal roads,sometimes targeting a lone traveler,
other times a group of up tohalf a dozen people.
(08:33):
Their sheer numbers ensuredthat escape was all but impossible.
No one was ever alive to tellthe tale.
The victims were then draggedback to the cave where the truly
unspeakable work began.
The bodies were dismemberedand eaten.
Years later, when a searchparty finally discovered the cave,
they found by torchlight.
(08:54):
The a scene of unimaginable depravity.
One account describes it assuch body parts hanging from the
walls, barrels filled withlimbs and piles of stolen heirlooms
and jewelry.
Another notes that the familywould pickle the leftovers in brine,
preserving the human flesh forleaner times.
(09:15):
The evidence of their crimeswould sometimes find its way back
to the civilized world.
Pickled limbs and othercuriously preserved but decaying
body parts were discoveredwashed up on the surrounding beaches.
These grisly discoveries,combined with a steadily rising number
of missing persons, spreadterror throughout Galloway.
(09:38):
The local authorities were baffled.
They launched massive searches.
But no one ever consideredthat the waterlogged cave at Benane
Cave could be the human dwelling.
In their frustration anddesperation for justice, the townspeople
began to turn on one another.
Suspicion often fell on thelocal innkeepers, as they were frequently
(09:59):
the last people known to haveseen the missing travelers alive.
Several innocent people wereaccused, tried and hanged for the
clan's crimes.
A tragic misdirection thatonly allowed the beans to continue
their slaughter unimpeded.
The legend claims that overtheir 25 year reign, the Bean clan
murdered and consumed morethan 1,000 people.
(10:22):
That's quite a number.
The clan's isolation was alsoso complete, their methods so brutal,
that they might have continuedtheir secret war on this world indefinitely.
But their downfall came, as itso often does in these tales, from
a single mistake, a single survivor.
One night, the clan ambushed ahusband and wife returning from a
(10:45):
local fair, both riding on asingle horse.
But this time, their intendedvictim was not so helpless.
The man, the husband, wasskilled in combat, armed with both
a sword and.
A pistol, he fought back witha ferocity born of desperation.
As he battled the male membersof the clan, the women swarmed his
(11:05):
wife, dragging her from the horse.
He was forced to watch inhorror as they stripped and disemboweled
her, and in a frenzy, began todevour her raw flesh on the spot.
Fueled by rage and grief, theman redoubled his efforts, driving
his horse into the attackers,fighting for his life.
(11:26):
Just as he was about to beoverwhelmed, fate intervened.
A large group of other fairgoers, some 30 or 40 strong, came
upon the bloody scene.
And for the first time intheir history, the Bean clan found
themselves outnumbered.
They broke up the attack andfled back to the darkness of their
cave.
But they left behind amutilated corpse, a score of witnesses,
(11:49):
and one man who had seen theirfaces and lived to tell the tale.
The secret was out.
The lone survivor was takenbefore the chief magistrate of Glasgow.
When the authorities heard hisharrowing account, they finally understood
the true nature of the horrorthat had plagued their region for
a generation.
The years of disappearances,the strange body parts washing ashore,
(12:13):
it all coalesced into a singlemonstrous truth.
The news of this cannibal clanwas so shocking, so beyond the pale
of normal criminality, that itwas brought to the attention of the
king himself, James VI of Scotland.
King James was the ruler from1567 to 1625.
And in 1603, when QueenElizabeth I died without an heir,
(12:37):
he also became the King of England.
King James was a monarchdeeply invested in the project of
civilizing his kingdom.
He was known for hisdetermination to impose law and order,
especially in the more unrulyparts of Scotland, like the Borders
and the Highlands.
It was those unruly parts ofScotland, as he called them, that
(12:58):
actually created thebackground for Shakespeare's Macbeth,
Particularly outside ofScotland, the regions were described
as dark, dreary, damp, andfull of witchcraft and debauchery.
Official documents from KingJames reign describe the people of
the Highlands as void of theknowledge and faith of God, who were
prone to all kind of barbarousand bestial cruelties.
(13:20):
End quote.
This negative image ofScotland was largely based on biased
English perspectives.
Being located right next toeach other, Scotland and England
were old enemies.
Under King James I, he soughtto unite the two kingdoms.
But this was a slow process,and memories of past violence and
(13:41):
biases lingered for quite sometime, which contributed to anti Scottish
views in England and vice versa.
And now, according to thereports, there was a large group
of murdering cannibals thatwas causing trouble up in Scotland.
Exactly.
And that was antithetical tothe King's goal of uniting the two
crowns of Scotland and England.
(14:02):
And perhaps more importantly,the existence of a 48 member cannibal
family operating with impunitywas an affront to the King's authority
that could not be tolerated.
He took personal charge of the manhunt.
The King assembled aformidable force, a posse of 400
armed men.
He personally led this army tothe Galloway coast.
(14:25):
Determined to eradicate themonstrous clan, they scoured the
coastline, the same groundthat had been searched fruitlessly
so many times before.
But this time was different.
This time they brought the bloodhounds.
As the search party passed thecave at Benane Head, the dogs went
wild.
And picking up theoverwhelming scent of decaying human
(14:46):
flesh that emanated from within.
The soldiers holding torchesaloft, cautiously entered the waterlogged
cave.
What they found insideconfirmed their worst fears.
The clan was there, surroundedby the grisly evidence of their crimes.
The limbs hanging from thewalls, the barrels of pickled remains
and the piles of their victimsplundered belongings.
(15:08):
The beings caught completelyby surprise in their subterranean
lair were vastly outnumberedand overwhelmed.
They were captured without asignificant fight.
All 48 members of the clanSawney, Agnes, their children and
their grandchildren were putin chains.
They were marched to Edinburghand imprisoned in the city's notorious
(15:30):
Tolbooth Jail.
The nature of their crimeswere considered so uniquely heinous
that the authorities dispensedwith the formalities of a trial.
Their guilt was taken as self evident.
Justice was to be swift, as itwas brutal, as their own savagery
was.
The very next day, the entireclan was taken to Leith for a public
(15:52):
execution.
The 27 men of the clansuffered a fate mirroring that of
their victims.
Their hands and feet were cutoff and they were left to bleed to
death in full view of thewatching crowd and their own families.
The 21 women, including Agnesand all the daughters and granddaughters,
were then burned alive inthree massive bonfires.
(16:13):
The customary punishment forwitches, they reportedly screamed
and cursed until the very end.
Justice in its most terribleand final form had been served.
The monsters of Benane Cavewere dead.
The story was over.
It would be a neat, ifhorrifying end to our story, except
for one very large, veryinconvenient fact.
(16:35):
There is absolutely nohistorical evidence that any of this
actually happened.
(16:57):
So if Sawney Bean and hisclients clan were responsible for
one of history's greatestcrime sprees, where's the proof?
That's the question that hastroubled historians for centuries.
The short answer is therereally isn't any.
In the early 20th century, therespected Scottish historian and
amateur criminologist WilliamRookied spent years looking for Sawney
(17:19):
in the official records of thetime, including contemporary journals,
diaries and memoirs.
His conclusion?
He failed to find, either inprint or in manuscript, the slightest
mention of the man.
The entire story, hedetermined, had to be a myth.
And when you start to look atthe details, the myth quickly unravels.
Let's start with the sheerscale of the operation.
(17:41):
The legend claims A family of48 people lived in a single cave
for 25 years.
They supposedly murdered andate over 1,000 victims.
That's an average of 40 peoplea year every year for a quarter of
a century.
Even in the 16th century,Galway was not an unpopulated wilderness.
While the population densitywas low compared to today, it was
(18:03):
still a region of towns, farmsand trade routes.
The disappearance of over athousand people would have been a
demographic catastrophe.
The legend itself admits asmuch, claiming the whole country
was almost depopulated bytheir actions.
An event of that magnitude, ofa localized apocalypse even would
(18:24):
have left an indelible scar onthe historical record.
But there's nothing.
And it's not as if we lackrecords from that period.
The National Records ofScotland holds sheriff court records
that survive from the 16thcentury, including those for the
regions in question.
We have the records of theparliaments of Scotland, which detail
the business of the kingdom.
(18:46):
A royal expedition led by KingJames vi himself, with 400 men to
hunt down a clan of cannibalswould have been a major state affair.
It would have requiredfunding, royal decrees, even logistical
planning, all of which wouldhave generated a mountain of paperwork.
Yet not a single document hasever been found.
(19:06):
So if the story didn'toriginate in 16th century Scotland,
where did it come from?
Well, as we discussed towardsthe beginning of this episode, the
18th century London wasobsessed with chapbooks, which were
cheap skills, sensationalizedpamphlets that were basically the
equivalent of today's tabloid newspapers.
One source, the nougatcalendar, sought to bring together
(19:30):
these wildly popularcollection of moralizing stories
about sin, crime and criminals.
These publications werenotorious for their lurid details
and were often highlyembellished to create maximum shock
value and sell copies.
The story of Sawney Bean, withits blend of murder, cannibalism
and incest, was perfectlysuited for this market.
(19:53):
And these stories weren't justlimited to criminals and murderers
in England and Scotland.
As we had mentioned in ourprevious episodes about Pirates.
Most of the information wehave about pirates in the 16th and
17th centuries came fromCaptain Charles Johnson's 1724 work,
a general History of theRobberies and Murders of the Most
Notorious pirates.
(20:13):
This same Captain Charles alsopublished in 1734 a work called the
True the Most FamousHighwaymen, Murderers, Street Robbers.
And although it's entirelypossible that multiple people wrote
under the pen name of CaptainCharles Johnson, the fact remains
it was also highly embellished.
There was also the evenearlier 1719 work by Alexander Smith
(20:37):
titled, quote, A CompleteHistory of the Lives and Robberies
of the Most Notorious Highwaymen.
These were not soberhistorical texts.
They were commercialentertainment, the true crime podcasts
of their day, if you will.
So the story of Sawney Beanitself is riddled with the kinds
of inconsistencies that arehallmarks of folklore, not history.
(21:00):
And of course, as the storyproliferated over the years, it gained
new and different details indifferent versions.
A broken telephone, if you will.
Some versions, for instance,place the events in the reign of
King James I of England andScotland at the end of the 1500s
and the beginning of the 1600s.
Others place it a century anda half earlier, in the reign of a
different King James ofScotland, who ruled in the early
(21:23):
1400s.
This chronological confusionmakes it impossible to pin down historically,
but it makes perfect sense ifthe story is a legend adapted and
retold over time with littleregard for.
For factual accuracy.
If the story of Sawny Bean isa fabrication, the next question
is why?
Why invent such a monstrous tale?
(21:46):
The answer, many historiansnow believe, lies not in the annals
of crime, but in the realm ofpolitical propaganda.
The timing of the story'sappearance is the crucial clue.
It doesn't emerge in the 16thcentury, when the events supposedly
happen, but.
But in the early 18th century,a period of profound political tensions
between England and Scotland.
(22:07):
This was the era of theJacobite rebellions.
The House of Stuart, theScottish dynasty that the King James's
previously discussed belongedto, had been deposed from the British
throne in 1688.
This was part of the GloriousRevolution, during which the English
Parliament kicked another KingJames off the throne due to his absolutist
(22:28):
tendencies in Catholic faith.
This was King James II, whoruled England and Scotland from 1685
to 1688.
In 1688, Parliament replacedKing James II with William, Prince
of Orange and his wife Mary,with the understanding that William
and Mary would rule Englandand its territories because the people
allowed them to.
(22:48):
In fact, when William firstarrived in England, he proclaimed
the that the liberties ofEngland and the Protestant religion.
I will maintain for historicalcontext, we.
Should mention that while theProtestant Reformation was old news,
by this time in the late 17thcentury, the division between Catholics
and Protestants was stillintense, if not more than it had
(23:12):
been a century earlier.
By this time, England hadshifted back and forth a few times
between adherence to the RomanCatholic Church or the Church of
England, depending on the kingor queen of the time.
And now, with the CatholicKing James II gone and William and
Mary Protestants in his place,it seemed to ensure a Protestant
(23:32):
future for England.
Not surprisingly, some peoplesaw this arrangement as far from
completely settled.
Supporters of the exiledStuart King James II were known as
Jacobites.
The name Jacobite derives fromJacobus, Latin for James.
And the core goal of theJacobites was to reinstate the former
(23:54):
King James and hisdescendants, who they believed ruled
by divine right, by the willof God.
Interestingly, while theJacobites were often associated with
Catholicism due to theirsupport for the Catholic Stuart dynasty,
the movement was notexclusively Catholic.
In Ireland, most Jacobiteswere indeed Catholic, but in England
(24:15):
and Scotland, most wereAnglicans or Presbyterians.
And adding to the complexityof the conflict, some Jacobites joined
the cause because they opposedthe act of Union between Scotland
and England that had beenestablished back in the 1500s.
They thought Scotland shouldremain its own kingdom, not subsumed
by England.
(24:36):
Over the course of the late1600s and early 1700s, the Jacobites
launched a series of bloodyuprisings attempting to restore the
Stuarts to power.
The former King James wasliving in exile in France, where
King Louis XIV had recognizedhim as the rightful heir to the British
throne.
And King James had a son, anheir named James Francis Edward Stuart,
(24:58):
who could continue the Stuart dynasty.
This potential Stuart heirlived until the age of 78 in 1766,
mostly in France and Rome,which kept the Jacobite cause alive
over the years.
The main Jacobite uprisingstook place in 1715, 1719 and 1745.
(25:19):
The government in Londonresponded with brutal military force
each time.
When the 1745 uprising failed,wounded Scots were bayoneted where
they lay.
And those who fled or werefound to be somehow connected to
the uprisings were.
Were ruthlessly hunted down.
English leaders executedprisoners, they burned their settlements
(25:39):
and seized their livestock.
But the English governmentleaders knew that it wasn't enough
to just physically put downthe rebellion.
To truly stop the Jacobitecause, they had to fully vilify the
culture connected to it.
So, in addition to militaryforce, the English also carried out
a sophisticated, ambitiouspropaganda campaign.
(26:01):
As historian Dr. Louise Yeomanand others have Documented English
propaganda from this periodsystematically portrayed the Scots,
particularly those living inthe Highland clans who formed the
backbone of the Jacobitearmies, as savages, as primitive
and uncivilized barbarians.
Tales of Scottish cannibalismwere a recurring theme in this propaganda,
(26:24):
a way to dehumanize the enemyand justify the brutal suppression.
And the name of the monsterSawney Bean is perhaps the most damning
piece of evidence.
The nickname Sawney was acommon and deeply derogatory English
slang term for a scotsman inthe 18th century.
It was the equivalent of aracial slur used in political cartoons
(26:47):
and pamphlets to mock the Scots.
So a story about acannibalistic monster named Sawney,
the story Scott, firstpublished in London during the height
of the Jacobite threat, startsto look less like a random piece
of folklore and more like atargeted political attack.
(27:15):
The story was a dig at theScots, a people the English believed
were so barbarous that onlythey, the Scots, could produce such
a monster like Sawney, aperson who lived in a cave and ate
people.
It painted the Scots and theirJacobite cause as fundamentally other,
a threat to the civilizedProtestant English and their Hanoverian
(27:37):
kings.
But what's really interestingis that the 18th century authors
who crafted the Sawney Beanlegend as anti Scottish propaganda
likely didn't invent it fromwhole cloth.
They seem to have repurposedan even older, authentic Scottish
legend.
A much older figure withsimilar themes first appeared in
(27:59):
1420 in a work titledChronicle of Scotland.
According to the chronicle,during a great famine in the 1300s,
a man named Cheston Cleek setup traps to capture and kill children,
women and men and eat them.
Later versions of the storyidentify him as a butcher from Perth
who, with a band ofscavengers, resorted to cannibalism,
(28:21):
used a clique or a long hookto drag travelers from their horses.
We might note here that thecity of Perth was an important historical
capital of Scotland until the 1450s.
It was the location of theprimary royal residence and center
of government for the Scottish monarchy.
The parallels between thisearlier story and the later Sawney
(28:41):
Bean story are unmistakable.
A Scottish cannibal who preyson travelers during time of hardship.
It appears that the Englishwriters of the 18th century took
this genuine, if obscure,piece of Scottish folklore and moved
the location to the remotecoast of Galloway, gave the protagonist
a derogatory Scottishnickname, and set the story during
(29:02):
the reign of the famousScottish king, James I, to add a
veneer of historical credibility.
The result was a masterpieceof propaganda.
It took a Scottish horrorstory and turned it back on the Scots
themselves, transforming itinto a political weapon.
It was a narrative designed toreinforce a specific that the Scots
(29:24):
were savages, a threat to thestability of the newly formed Great
Britain, and that they neededto be controlled and civilized by
a strong central English led government.
The crime of Sawney Beanwasn't cannibalism.
It was a characterassassination of an entire, entire
nation.
(30:01):
So the greatest crime in thisstory of Sawney Bean was most likely
not a string of murders.
Murders but the crime of libel.
A piece of politicalpropaganda masquerading as a folk
tale.
And yet the legend of SawneyBean refuses to die.
In a strange twist of history,it's probably more famous today than
it was in the 18th century.
It has a surprisingly potentmodern legacy, particularly in the
(30:25):
world of horror.
In 1977, the pioneering horrordirector Wes Craven was searching
for inspiration for a new film.
He came across the Legend ofSawney Bean and was captivated by
the idea of a feral inbredfamily living in the desolate wilderness,
preying on civilized travelers.
He updated the setting fromthe Scottish coast to the American
(30:47):
desert and added a layer ofCold War anxiety about nuclear fallout.
The result was the iconichorror classic, the Hills have Eyes.
That movie was remade againfor a modern audience in 2007.
6 and in an even greaterirony, the story has been enthusiastically
reappropriated by Scotland itself.
(31:08):
The very legend that waslikely created to defame the Scots
has become a lucrative part oftheir tourism industry.
That's right, Michael.
The tale of Sawney Bean is astaple of the Edinburgh Dungeon,
a popular and ghoulish tourist attraction.
Tour guides on the Ayrshirecoast point out the supposed location
of Sawney Bean's cave.
(31:30):
The monster invented toslander Scotland has become one of
its most famous and marketable boogeymen.
The endurance of this storytells us something powerful about
our own culture.
We have a seemingly bottomlessappetite for tales of transgression.
The more taboo the subject,cannibalism, incest, mass murder,
the more fascinated we become.
(31:52):
The story of Sawney Bean,whether it was printed on a cheap
broadsheet in the 1700s orprojected onto a cinema screen in
the 1970s and early 2000s, ittaps into a primal, enduring fear.
The fear of the savage otherthat lives just beyond the fringes
of our well ordered civilized world.
(32:13):
In the end, the tale of SawneyBean is not of this a story of the
16th century cannibal.
It's a story of an 18thcentury political smear campaign
and it's the story of our own21st century fascination with the
dark, the depraved and the monstrous.
A crime that in alllikelihood, never happened.
And it has become one of thehistory's most unforgettable and
(32:35):
greatest crimes.
Thanks for joining us today onHistory's Greatest crimes.
If you like our work, don'tforget to follow us and become a
subscriber.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Alaina.
Until next time, stay curious.
Sam.
Welcome to history's Greatest crimes.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Elena.
In this episode, we travelback to the rugged, windswept coast
of 16th century Scotland to aa place of shadows, sea mist and
secrets.
We're exploring a story thathas been whispered in taverns and
told around firesides for centuries.
It's a tale so gruesome, soutterly depraved, that it almost
(01:53):
defies belief.
This is the legend ofAlexander Sawney.
Bean, the patriarch of a 48member clan of incestuous cannibals
who, forgotten for a quarterof a century, waged a secret war
against civilization from ahidden sea cave, murdering and devouring
more than a thousand men,women and children.
(02:14):
It's a story that has inspiredhorror films and haunted the Scottish
tourism industry for generations.
But as we'll discover, themost terrifying part of this story
isn't the cannibalism.
It's the question of whetherany of it ever happened at all.
(02:49):
Our story about Sawney Bean asit has been passed down is set in
the tumultuous 16th century.
But before we really dig intothat story itself, let's briefly
discuss the main source.
That's a good idea, Michael,because the primary source itself
is almost as creepy as thestory it told.
The first source to popularlyintroduce the story was the infamous
(03:09):
British Newgate Calendar, alsocommonly known as the Malefactors
Bloody Register.
This calendar started off inthe mid-1700s as a monthly bulletin
of executions produced by thekeeper of Newgate Prison in London.
But over the course of thelater 18th and early 19th centuries,
the Bulletin was appropriatedby other publishers who started putting
(03:30):
out short biographies aboutnotorious criminals.
Many of the biographies heldsome degree of truth, but the capitalistic
ambitions of the publishersencouraged them to sensationalize
them and present them asmoralizing stories about sin, crime
and criminals who committedthem in the 18th and 19th centuries.
(03:52):
In other words, the storyabout Sawney being the focus of our
episode today should probablybe taken with a grain of salt.
Correct?
But as noted, the story aboutSawney Bean offers an interesting
lens through which to view thehistory of Scotland and its evolving
relationship with England andthe broader British Empire.
But first, let's recount ourlisteners with the story of Sawney
(04:16):
Bean.
My pleasure, Elena.
Alexander Bean was born inEast Lothian, a County about 8 or
9 miles eastward of the cityof Edinburgh.
His father was a simple, hardworking man.
He was a ditch digger andhedge trimmer by trade trade who
tried to raise his son tofollow in his footsteps.
But young Sawney, as He wascalled, was not built for an honest
(04:38):
life.
The accounts describe him ashaving a idle, vicious and pilfering
disposition.
He detested the toil of hisfather's trade and soon abandoned
it in his home in search of adifferent path.
But he didn't walk that path alone.
He found a kindred spirit in awoman named Black Agnes Douglas.
(05:00):
It's unclear whether BlackAgnes was called such because she
had a dark complexion orbecause she was suspected of being
a witch.
That's right, Michael.
By all accounts, Agnes was afearsome woman, as viciously inclined
as Sawney Bean.
Some versions of the legendeven claim that she had been cast
out of her own community forher dark practices.
(05:22):
So this outcast pair, Sawneyand Agnes together, turned their
backs on society entirely.
They journeyed west across thebreadth of Scotland until they reached
a wild and sparsely populatedcoast of Galloway, located off the
coast of Scotland's inner seas.
It was here, near the modernday town of Ballantry, that they
discovered their new home.
(05:43):
A deep, dark sea cave at aplace called Benane Head.
This was no ordinary cave.
It was a subterraneanfortress, perfect for their purposes.
The legends claim its tunnelsreached through the solid rock, extending
for more than a mile in length.
(06:04):
More importantly, its entrancepossessed a unique and formidable
defense.
Twice a day at high tide, thechurning waters of the north channel
would surge into the cave,flooding the first 200 yards and
completely sealing it off fromthe outside world.
It was a layer that was bothhidden and impenetrable.
(06:24):
Here, utterly isolated fromcivilization, Sanni and Agnes began
their new life.
But a life of isolation stillrequires sustenance.
Having rejected honest labor,Sawney turned to the only trade he
knew.
Theft.
He began to ambush lonetravelers on the desolate coastal
roads, robbing them of theirmoney and possessions.
(06:45):
But this violent enterprisecreated a dangerous problem.
It left witnesses.
Sawney's solution was asruthlessly logical as it was monstrous.
To ensure there were nosurvivors to report his crimes, he
resolved to murder everyperson he robbed.
This, in turn, presentedanother grim dilemma.
(07:07):
What to do with the bodies?
The answer, as recorded in thelurid pages of the Nougat calendar
and other chapbooks, was oneof pure pragmatic horror.
To dispose of the evidence andto feed themselves in their remote
hideaway.
So Sawney and Agnes began tobutcher and eat their victims.
(07:28):
The legend of the cannibalclan had begun.
For a quarter of a century,the Bean clan lived and bred in the
darkness of Benane Cave.
Their existence a secret keptby the tides and their own Brutality.
And apparently, Sawney andAgnes were prolific.
They produced eight sons andsix daughters.
(07:49):
This first generation knowingno world beyond the cave and no law.
But their fathers then bredwith one another, an ongoing cycle
of incest that swelled their numbers.
Soon the clan consisted of 18grandsons and 14 granddaughters.
They were a feral army, 48strong, bound by blood and a shared
(08:11):
horrific secret.
Their survival depended on the hunt.
The accounts described theirattacks as operating with a terrifying
efficiency, almost withmilitary precision.
At night, they would emergefrom their cave and lie in ambush
along the coastal roads,sometimes targeting a lone traveler,
other times a group of up tohalf a dozen people.
(08:33):
Their sheer numbers ensuredthat escape was all but impossible.
No one was ever alive to tellthe tale.
The victims were then draggedback to the cave where the truly
unspeakable work began.
The bodies were dismemberedand eaten.
Years later, when a searchparty finally discovered the cave,
they found by torchlight.
(08:54):
The a scene of unimaginable depravity.
One account describes it assuch body parts hanging from the
walls, barrels filled withlimbs and piles of stolen heirlooms
and jewelry.
Another notes that the familywould pickle the leftovers in brine,
preserving the human flesh forleaner times.
(09:15):
The evidence of their crimeswould sometimes find its way back
to the civilized world.
Pickled limbs and othercuriously preserved but decaying
body parts were discoveredwashed up on the surrounding beaches.
These grisly discoveries,combined with a steadily rising number
of missing persons, spreadterror throughout Galloway.
(09:38):
The local authorities were baffled.
They launched massive searches.
But no one ever consideredthat the waterlogged cave at Benane
Cave could be the human dwelling.
In their frustration anddesperation for justice, the townspeople
began to turn on one another.
Suspicion often fell on thelocal innkeepers, as they were frequently
(09:59):
the last people known to haveseen the missing travelers alive.
Several innocent people wereaccused, tried and hanged for the
clan's crimes.
A tragic misdirection thatonly allowed the beans to continue
their slaughter unimpeded.
The legend claims that overtheir 25 year reign, the Bean clan
murdered and consumed morethan 1,000 people.
(10:22):
That's quite a number.
The clan's isolation was alsoso complete, their methods so brutal,
that they might have continuedtheir secret war on this world indefinitely.
But their downfall came, as itso often does in these tales, from
a single mistake, a single survivor.
One night, the clan ambushed ahusband and wife returning from a
(10:45):
local fair, both riding on asingle horse.
But this time, their intendedvictim was not so helpless.
The man, the husband, wasskilled in combat, armed with both
a sword and.
A pistol, he fought back witha ferocity born of desperation.
As he battled the male membersof the clan, the women swarmed his
(11:05):
wife, dragging her from the horse.
He was forced to watch inhorror as they stripped and disemboweled
her, and in a frenzy, began todevour her raw flesh on the spot.
Fueled by rage and grief, theman redoubled his efforts, driving
his horse into the attackers,fighting for his life.
(11:26):
Just as he was about to beoverwhelmed, fate intervened.
A large group of other fairgoers, some 30 or 40 strong, came
upon the bloody scene.
And for the first time intheir history, the Bean clan found
themselves outnumbered.
They broke up the attack andfled back to the darkness of their
cave.
But they left behind amutilated corpse, a score of witnesses,
(11:49):
and one man who had seen theirfaces and lived to tell the tale.
The secret was out.
The lone survivor was takenbefore the chief magistrate of Glasgow.
When the authorities heard hisharrowing account, they finally understood
the true nature of the horrorthat had plagued their region for
a generation.
The years of disappearances,the strange body parts washing ashore,
(12:13):
it all coalesced into a singlemonstrous truth.
The news of this cannibal clanwas so shocking, so beyond the pale
of normal criminality, that itwas brought to the attention of the
king himself, James VI of Scotland.
King James was the ruler from1567 to 1625.
And in 1603, when QueenElizabeth I died without an heir,
(12:37):
he also became the King of England.
King James was a monarchdeeply invested in the project of
civilizing his kingdom.
He was known for hisdetermination to impose law and order,
especially in the more unrulyparts of Scotland, like the Borders
and the Highlands.
It was those unruly parts ofScotland, as he called them, that
(12:58):
actually created thebackground for Shakespeare's Macbeth,
Particularly outside ofScotland, the regions were described
as dark, dreary, damp, andfull of witchcraft and debauchery.
Official documents from KingJames reign describe the people of
the Highlands as void of theknowledge and faith of God, who were
prone to all kind of barbarousand bestial cruelties.
(13:20):
End quote.
This negative image ofScotland was largely based on biased
English perspectives.
Being located right next toeach other, Scotland and England
were old enemies.
Under King James I, he soughtto unite the two kingdoms.
But this was a slow process,and memories of past violence and
(13:41):
biases lingered for quite sometime, which contributed to anti Scottish
views in England and vice versa.
And now, according to thereports, there was a large group
of murdering cannibals thatwas causing trouble up in Scotland.
Exactly.
And that was antithetical tothe King's goal of uniting the two
crowns of Scotland and England.
(14:02):
And perhaps more importantly,the existence of a 48 member cannibal
family operating with impunitywas an affront to the King's authority
that could not be tolerated.
He took personal charge of the manhunt.
The King assembled aformidable force, a posse of 400
armed men.
He personally led this army tothe Galloway coast.
(14:25):
Determined to eradicate themonstrous clan, they scoured the
coastline, the same groundthat had been searched fruitlessly
so many times before.
But this time was different.
This time they brought the bloodhounds.
As the search party passed thecave at Benane Head, the dogs went
wild.
And picking up theoverwhelming scent of decaying human
(14:46):
flesh that emanated from within.
The soldiers holding torchesaloft, cautiously entered the waterlogged
cave.
What they found insideconfirmed their worst fears.
The clan was there, surroundedby the grisly evidence of their crimes.
The limbs hanging from thewalls, the barrels of pickled remains
and the piles of their victimsplundered belongings.
(15:08):
The beings caught completelyby surprise in their subterranean
lair were vastly outnumberedand overwhelmed.
They were captured without asignificant fight.
All 48 members of the clanSawney, Agnes, their children and
their grandchildren were putin chains.
They were marched to Edinburghand imprisoned in the city's notorious
(15:30):
Tolbooth Jail.
The nature of their crimeswere considered so uniquely heinous
that the authorities dispensedwith the formalities of a trial.
Their guilt was taken as self evident.
Justice was to be swift, as itwas brutal, as their own savagery
was.
The very next day, the entireclan was taken to Leith for a public
(15:52):
execution.
The 27 men of the clansuffered a fate mirroring that of
their victims.
Their hands and feet were cutoff and they were left to bleed to
death in full view of thewatching crowd and their own families.
The 21 women, including Agnesand all the daughters and granddaughters,
were then burned alive inthree massive bonfires.
(16:13):
The customary punishment forwitches, they reportedly screamed
and cursed until the very end.
Justice in its most terribleand final form had been served.
The monsters of Benane Cavewere dead.
The story was over.
It would be a neat, ifhorrifying end to our story, except
for one very large, veryinconvenient fact.
(16:35):
There is absolutely nohistorical evidence that any of this
actually happened.
(16:57):
So if Sawney Bean and hisclients clan were responsible for
one of history's greatestcrime sprees, where's the proof?
That's the question that hastroubled historians for centuries.
The short answer is therereally isn't any.
In the early 20th century, therespected Scottish historian and
amateur criminologist WilliamRookied spent years looking for Sawney
(17:19):
in the official records of thetime, including contemporary journals,
diaries and memoirs.
His conclusion?
He failed to find, either inprint or in manuscript, the slightest
mention of the man.
The entire story, hedetermined, had to be a myth.
And when you start to look atthe details, the myth quickly unravels.
Let's start with the sheerscale of the operation.
(17:41):
The legend claims A family of48 people lived in a single cave
for 25 years.
They supposedly murdered andate over 1,000 victims.
That's an average of 40 peoplea year every year for a quarter of
a century.
Even in the 16th century,Galway was not an unpopulated wilderness.
While the population densitywas low compared to today, it was
(18:03):
still a region of towns, farmsand trade routes.
The disappearance of over athousand people would have been a
demographic catastrophe.
The legend itself admits asmuch, claiming the whole country
was almost depopulated bytheir actions.
An event of that magnitude, ofa localized apocalypse even would
(18:24):
have left an indelible scar onthe historical record.
But there's nothing.
And it's not as if we lackrecords from that period.
The National Records ofScotland holds sheriff court records
that survive from the 16thcentury, including those for the
regions in question.
We have the records of theparliaments of Scotland, which detail
the business of the kingdom.
(18:46):
A royal expedition led by KingJames vi himself, with 400 men to
hunt down a clan of cannibalswould have been a major state affair.
It would have requiredfunding, royal decrees, even logistical
planning, all of which wouldhave generated a mountain of paperwork.
Yet not a single document hasever been found.
(19:06):
So if the story didn'toriginate in 16th century Scotland,
where did it come from?
Well, as we discussed towardsthe beginning of this episode, the
18th century London wasobsessed with chapbooks, which were
cheap skills, sensationalizedpamphlets that were basically the
equivalent of today's tabloid newspapers.
One source, the nougatcalendar, sought to bring together
(19:30):
these wildly popularcollection of moralizing stories
about sin, crime and criminals.
These publications werenotorious for their lurid details
and were often highlyembellished to create maximum shock
value and sell copies.
The story of Sawney Bean, withits blend of murder, cannibalism
and incest, was perfectlysuited for this market.
(19:53):
And these stories weren't justlimited to criminals and murderers
in England and Scotland.
As we had mentioned in ourprevious episodes about Pirates.
Most of the information wehave about pirates in the 16th and
17th centuries came fromCaptain Charles Johnson's 1724 work,
a general History of theRobberies and Murders of the Most
Notorious pirates.
(20:13):
This same Captain Charles alsopublished in 1734 a work called the
True the Most FamousHighwaymen, Murderers, Street Robbers.
And although it's entirelypossible that multiple people wrote
under the pen name of CaptainCharles Johnson, the fact remains
it was also highly embellished.
There was also the evenearlier 1719 work by Alexander Smith
(20:37):
titled, quote, A CompleteHistory of the Lives and Robberies
of the Most Notorious Highwaymen.
These were not soberhistorical texts.
They were commercialentertainment, the true crime podcasts
of their day, if you will.
So the story of Sawney Beanitself is riddled with the kinds
of inconsistencies that arehallmarks of folklore, not history.
(21:00):
And of course, as the storyproliferated over the years, it gained
new and different details indifferent versions.
A broken telephone, if you will.
Some versions, for instance,place the events in the reign of
King James I of England andScotland at the end of the 1500s
and the beginning of the 1600s.
Others place it a century anda half earlier, in the reign of a
different King James ofScotland, who ruled in the early
(21:23):
1400s.
This chronological confusionmakes it impossible to pin down historically,
but it makes perfect sense ifthe story is a legend adapted and
retold over time with littleregard for.
For factual accuracy.
If the story of Sawny Bean isa fabrication, the next question
is why?
Why invent such a monstrous tale?
(21:46):
The answer, many historiansnow believe, lies not in the annals
of crime, but in the realm ofpolitical propaganda.
The timing of the story'sappearance is the crucial clue.
It doesn't emerge in the 16thcentury, when the events supposedly
happen, but.
But in the early 18th century,a period of profound political tensions
between England and Scotland.
(22:07):
This was the era of theJacobite rebellions.
The House of Stuart, theScottish dynasty that the King James's
previously discussed belongedto, had been deposed from the British
throne in 1688.
This was part of the GloriousRevolution, during which the English
Parliament kicked another KingJames off the throne due to his absolutist
(22:28):
tendencies in Catholic faith.
This was King James II, whoruled England and Scotland from 1685
to 1688.
In 1688, Parliament replacedKing James II with William, Prince
of Orange and his wife Mary,with the understanding that William
and Mary would rule Englandand its territories because the people
allowed them to.
(22:48):
In fact, when William firstarrived in England, he proclaimed
the that the liberties ofEngland and the Protestant religion.
I will maintain for historicalcontext, we.
Should mention that while theProtestant Reformation was old news,
by this time in the late 17thcentury, the division between Catholics
and Protestants was stillintense, if not more than it had
(23:12):
been a century earlier.
By this time, England hadshifted back and forth a few times
between adherence to the RomanCatholic Church or the Church of
England, depending on the kingor queen of the time.
And now, with the CatholicKing James II gone and William and
Mary Protestants in his place,it seemed to ensure a Protestant
(23:32):
future for England.
Not surprisingly, some peoplesaw this arrangement as far from
completely settled.
Supporters of the exiledStuart King James II were known as
Jacobites.
The name Jacobite derives fromJacobus, Latin for James.
And the core goal of theJacobites was to reinstate the former
(23:54):
King James and hisdescendants, who they believed ruled
by divine right, by the willof God.
Interestingly, while theJacobites were often associated with
Catholicism due to theirsupport for the Catholic Stuart dynasty,
the movement was notexclusively Catholic.
In Ireland, most Jacobiteswere indeed Catholic, but in England
(24:15):
and Scotland, most wereAnglicans or Presbyterians.
And adding to the complexityof the conflict, some Jacobites joined
the cause because they opposedthe act of Union between Scotland
and England that had beenestablished back in the 1500s.
They thought Scotland shouldremain its own kingdom, not subsumed
by England.
(24:36):
Over the course of the late1600s and early 1700s, the Jacobites
launched a series of bloodyuprisings attempting to restore the
Stuarts to power.
The former King James wasliving in exile in France, where
King Louis XIV had recognizedhim as the rightful heir to the British
throne.
And King James had a son, anheir named James Francis Edward Stuart,
(24:58):
who could continue the Stuart dynasty.
This potential Stuart heirlived until the age of 78 in 1766,
mostly in France and Rome,which kept the Jacobite cause alive
over the years.
The main Jacobite uprisingstook place in 1715, 1719 and 1745.
(25:19):
The government in Londonresponded with brutal military force
each time.
When the 1745 uprising failed,wounded Scots were bayoneted where
they lay.
And those who fled or werefound to be somehow connected to
the uprisings were.
Were ruthlessly hunted down.
English leaders executedprisoners, they burned their settlements
(25:39):
and seized their livestock.
But the English governmentleaders knew that it wasn't enough
to just physically put downthe rebellion.
To truly stop the Jacobitecause, they had to fully vilify the
culture connected to it.
So, in addition to militaryforce, the English also carried out
a sophisticated, ambitiouspropaganda campaign.
(26:01):
As historian Dr. Louise Yeomanand others have Documented English
propaganda from this periodsystematically portrayed the Scots,
particularly those living inthe Highland clans who formed the
backbone of the Jacobitearmies, as savages, as primitive
and uncivilized barbarians.
Tales of Scottish cannibalismwere a recurring theme in this propaganda,
(26:24):
a way to dehumanize the enemyand justify the brutal suppression.
And the name of the monsterSawney Bean is perhaps the most damning
piece of evidence.
The nickname Sawney was acommon and deeply derogatory English
slang term for a scotsman inthe 18th century.
It was the equivalent of aracial slur used in political cartoons
(26:47):
and pamphlets to mock the Scots.
So a story about acannibalistic monster named Sawney,
the story Scott, firstpublished in London during the height
of the Jacobite threat, startsto look less like a random piece
of folklore and more like atargeted political attack.
(27:15):
The story was a dig at theScots, a people the English believed
were so barbarous that onlythey, the Scots, could produce such
a monster like Sawney, aperson who lived in a cave and ate
people.
It painted the Scots and theirJacobite cause as fundamentally other,
a threat to the civilizedProtestant English and their Hanoverian
(27:37):
kings.
But what's really interestingis that the 18th century authors
who crafted the Sawney Beanlegend as anti Scottish propaganda
likely didn't invent it fromwhole cloth.
They seem to have repurposedan even older, authentic Scottish
legend.
A much older figure withsimilar themes first appeared in
(27:59):
1420 in a work titledChronicle of Scotland.
According to the chronicle,during a great famine in the 1300s,
a man named Cheston Cleek setup traps to capture and kill children,
women and men and eat them.
Later versions of the storyidentify him as a butcher from Perth
who, with a band ofscavengers, resorted to cannibalism,
(28:21):
used a clique or a long hookto drag travelers from their horses.
We might note here that thecity of Perth was an important historical
capital of Scotland until the 1450s.
It was the location of theprimary royal residence and center
of government for the Scottish monarchy.
The parallels between thisearlier story and the later Sawney
(28:41):
Bean story are unmistakable.
A Scottish cannibal who preyson travelers during time of hardship.
It appears that the Englishwriters of the 18th century took
this genuine, if obscure,piece of Scottish folklore and moved
the location to the remotecoast of Galloway, gave the protagonist
a derogatory Scottishnickname, and set the story during
(29:02):
the reign of the famousScottish king, James I, to add a
veneer of historical credibility.
The result was a masterpieceof propaganda.
It took a Scottish horrorstory and turned it back on the Scots
themselves, transforming itinto a political weapon.
It was a narrative designed toreinforce a specific that the Scots
(29:24):
were savages, a threat to thestability of the newly formed Great
Britain, and that they neededto be controlled and civilized by
a strong central English led government.
The crime of Sawney Beanwasn't cannibalism.
It was a characterassassination of an entire, entire
nation.
(30:01):
So the greatest crime in thisstory of Sawney Bean was most likely
not a string of murders.
Murders but the crime of libel.
A piece of politicalpropaganda masquerading as a folk
tale.
And yet the legend of SawneyBean refuses to die.
In a strange twist of history,it's probably more famous today than
it was in the 18th century.
It has a surprisingly potentmodern legacy, particularly in the
(30:25):
world of horror.
In 1977, the pioneering horrordirector Wes Craven was searching
for inspiration for a new film.
He came across the Legend ofSawney Bean and was captivated by
the idea of a feral inbredfamily living in the desolate wilderness,
preying on civilized travelers.
He updated the setting fromthe Scottish coast to the American
(30:47):
desert and added a layer ofCold War anxiety about nuclear fallout.
The result was the iconichorror classic, the Hills have Eyes.
That movie was remade againfor a modern audience in 2007.
6 and in an even greaterirony, the story has been enthusiastically
reappropriated by Scotland itself.
(31:08):
The very legend that waslikely created to defame the Scots
has become a lucrative part oftheir tourism industry.
That's right, Michael.
The tale of Sawney Bean is astaple of the Edinburgh Dungeon,
a popular and ghoulish tourist attraction.
Tour guides on the Ayrshirecoast point out the supposed location
of Sawney Bean's cave.
(31:30):
The monster invented toslander Scotland has become one of
its most famous and marketable boogeymen.
The endurance of this storytells us something powerful about
our own culture.
We have a seemingly bottomlessappetite for tales of transgression.
The more taboo the subject,cannibalism, incest, mass murder,
the more fascinated we become.
(31:52):
The story of Sawney Bean,whether it was printed on a cheap
broadsheet in the 1700s orprojected onto a cinema screen in
the 1970s and early 2000s, ittaps into a primal, enduring fear.
The fear of the savage otherthat lives just beyond the fringes
of our well ordered civilized world.
(32:13):
In the end, the tale of SawneyBean is not of this a story of the
16th century cannibal.
It's a story of an 18thcentury political smear campaign
and it's the story of our own21st century fascination with the
dark, the depraved and the monstrous.
A crime that in alllikelihood, never happened.
And it has become one of thehistory's most unforgettable and
(32:35):
greatest crimes.
Thanks for joining us today onHistory's Greatest crimes.
If you like our work, don'tforget to follow us and become a
subscriber.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Alaina.
Until next time, stay curious.
Sam.
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