The title would be suitable for a film about one of the most hideous murderers in Scotland's history, Alexander Sawney Bean. Together with his clan, this criminal sent more than a thousand people to the next world. Moreover, the victims were not only killed, but also eaten. A little over ten years ago, a film with an almost identical title was released - "And the Hills Have Eyes." The story of an American cannibal family living in a nuclear test zone, in some places, echoes the fate of Bean. As the director of "Hills" drew inspiration just from the legend of the bloodthirsty Scotsman.
A special way
When Souny Bean and his clan lived, it is still not precisely established. Either in the 15th century, or in the 16th. In general, there are many inconsistencies and contradictions in the history of the Scottish cannibal.
According to legend, he came from a poor family. His father was engaged in digging canals and trenches, and his mother sheared hedges. The constant lack of money, low status and lack of at least any education left a characteristic imprint on Souny. He was rude, withdrawn and aggressive. Bean did not want to work for pennies, like parents. So I decided to go my own way. He was accompanied by a woman of similar temperament. In some legends, she was generally called a witch and attributed a connection with evil spirits.
The couple left their homes and settled in a cave near Bennan Head, near the town of Ballantrae. We did not communicate with the population of the nearby villages. They led a secretive lifestyle, trying not to catch the eye of other people. That cave became a haven for the Bean family for the next 25 years.
Soon the question of food became acute. Sawney and his wife found, let's say, a non-trivial approach to solving this problem - they became murderers and cannibals. There was a road not far from their cave. And although it was not lively, there were still enough travelers on it. Bins operated most often at night. They attacked the victim, killed her and carried her to their cave. And already there they prepared dishes from it. During the day they tried not to leave their "butcher shop".
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Superstitious fear
Over time, the Bean family began to grow. More food was needed. Accordingly, more and more often the family began to go hunting. The large number of unexplained disappearances seriously worried the authorities of Ballantrae. Several times they organized search activities, but all attempts to get to the bottom of the truth turned out to be a failure. The Bean family securely hid their lair from prying eyes. First, they carefully disguised the entrance. Secondly, during high tides, part of the cave was filled with water. Because of this, it was considered unfit for life. No one could even imagine that a whole clan of bloodthirsty cannibals could be hiding here.
When the number of Bean's family members exceeded several dozen, they finally lost their fear. The hunt was no longer only for lonely travelers. Groups of people began to disappear, and not only at night.
The population of the villages near Ballantrae plunged into the abyss of superstitious terror. There were a lot of different rumors, up to the fact that somewhere evil spirits settled. The situation was aggravated by the disgusting finds, which began to come across to fishermen. Every now and then they found pieces of human bodies on the shore or in "free swimming". Moreover, on some of them there were clearly visible traces of teeth, again human. Creepy tales spread that it was not just evil spirits, but a werewolf that started up in the neighborhood …
Once, during one of the raids on the "wild beast", the locals approached the Binov cave. Someone wanted to check it out, despite the external unsuitability for life. But the plan did not work out - the tide prevented.
But under the hot hand of an angry crowd, several innocent people were caught. The owners of nearby taverns were especially hard hit, since they were often the last to see the disappeared people.
King James VI of Scots (aka - James I of England) learned about the nightmare of the Ballantra lands. According to the legends, he decided to personally control the progress of the investigation. The monarch was especially impressed by the stories about the human remains found on the shore and in the water. A hunt for either an animal, or a werewolf, or bandits began throughout the territory adjacent to Ballantrae. Several hundred soldiers with cop dogs were searching. But they also failed to find anything. In the end, after talking to terrified local residents, the soldiers learned about a strange and unsociable hermit who lives "somewhere in the rocks on the coast." This information was conveyed to King James. He ordered to find out as much as possible about this man. And soon, as ordered, Souney made a mistake.
Predator hunting
One day Bean and his family decided to replenish their stocks of "provisions." At night, they watched over a married couple riding a horse. Those stayed at a fair in one of the villages, so they were forced to return home after dark. Over the years, cannibals have become accustomed to the fact that the victims offered little or no resistance. But this time, luck turned away from them. The man turned out to be not just armed, but an experienced warrior, so he accepted the battle. True, at the very beginning of the battle, someone from the Bina clan shot his wife.
The man fought to the last. And the cannibals could not overcome him - prevented by a large company of people returning from the same fair. Bean ordered his clan to retreat.
There is one more version. It states that the sound of the gunshot attracted the guards. They rushed in pursuit of the cannibals, but lost track of them near the numerous caves on the coast. However, this clue was enough. Yakov and his soldiers learned where to look for criminals at least roughly. Prior to this, the monarch and his advisers were inclined to believe that the "werewolf", "devil" or ordinary bandits sail by the sea, and after the murder in boats they hide in an unknown direction.
And again hundreds of soldiers, armed to the teeth, packs of cop dogs. The cannibals' cave was soon found. According to one of the legends, the monarch, along with the soldiers, went to capture the cannibals. And when he found himself in the den, he felt bad from seeing a heap of half-eaten human remains. A large amount of clothing, jewelry and money was also found. The cannibals dumped all these treasures into large heaps, not understanding their value.
But the worst awaited the king and the soldiers further. In the depths of the branched cave, they found several dozen people of different ages. There were especially many children. But all of them, as if by selection, were ugly and feeble-minded. As it turned out later, they had never tasted any food other than human flesh in their lives. And deformity and dementia were the result of incest.
In total, in the extensive system of caves, the soldiers found 48 representatives of the Bin clan. And in the farthest and coldest "rooms" they found human bodies suspended on hooks, as if they were animal carcasses.
Another interesting thing: the Beans did not understand until the very end why they were arrested. For them, cannibalism was quite a common activity that did not belong to the category of prohibited.
Cruel retribution
The king ordered the arrest of the clan of cannibals and sent to Tolbut prison, located in Edinburgh. Soon, Beanov was interrogated for formality and sentenced to death. And in its most violent manifestations. For example, male cannibals were quartered and left to die of blood loss. The women were treated no less cruelly - they were burned. So they dealt with the Bins so that the last minutes of their lives turned into hell and brought the cannibals as much suffering as possible. But what happened to the children is not known exactly. According to one version, they were also burned. By the way, the quartered men, when they expired, were also sent to the fire.
By the way, there was another girl in the Bean clan, forty-ninth. But she somehow managed to escape from her “peculiar” relatives to the settlement of Girvan. There she began to lead a normal life, changed her name and soon got married. She was well received in the town. And soon the girl became a celebrity - she planted a "hairy tree", which was considered a local landmark.
But when the Bean clan was arrested, the people somehow learned that the girl was their closest relative. Nothing could save her from the righteous anger of the townspeople. People seized her and lynched her, hanging her on the same "hairy tree".
Cannibal legends
Roughly in the 18th century, the creation "Robbers and Assassins: The Story of Sonya Bean and His Family" appeared. In general, stories about Bean every now and then surfaced in England, even many years after his execution. Many of them then appeared on the pages of the Newgate Handbook, compiled in the 70s of the 18th century.
The book by Thomas Peckett Prest, "Sonya Bean, the Midlothian Ogre," enjoyed particular success. In his creation, the author tried to describe in the smallest detail all the details of the bloody life of cannibals.
But here's what's strange. Binah is not mentioned in the collection “Ancient criminal trials of 1494-1624. in Scotland”by Pitcairn. Although it is this book that is considered the main textbook on Scottish jurisprudence of that time. According to some researchers, Alexander Bean lived later, so Pitcairn did not mention him.
And William Roughhead, author and compiler of Famous British Criminal Trials (published in 1933), also bypassed the Bean theme. Although it is known that he wanted to include the story of the cannibals in the book. Rafhead was stopped by the lack of documents. True, in the newspaper "Legal Review" he nevertheless published an article about the clan of cannibals in the same year 1933.
Since only legends and folk horror stories have survived about Bina and his family, some historians believe that they never existed. And all this is banal British propaganda directed against Scotland. And all these legends were invented by certain authors by order after the defeat of the Jacobite army in 1746 at Culloden. This was done in order to present the Scots (and hence the Jacobites) in the eyes of ordinary Englishmen as wild barbarians who did not even disdain cannibalism. Accordingly, the English, who were at a higher stage of development, were simply obliged to domesticate the savages. In general, events unfolded according to the same scenario as they once did in Ireland.
But again, there are no documents confirming the fact of anti-Scottish propaganda. But it is known for sure: cannibalism in Scotland at that time was not something surprising. The fact is that numerous villages were scattered over a large area and with the onset of winter they became cut off from the rest of the world. In the harsh time of the year, food became tight, so death from hunger was common and commonplace. And sometimes the inhabitants of these villages did not bury a deceased person, but cooked a soup from him. The British knew very well about this feature of their northern neighbors. Therefore, isolated cases of forced cannibalism could well be inflated to the scale of Bean, who ate more than a thousand people.
The image of Alexander Sawney Bean has become an integral part of Scottish folklore and the tourism industry in Edinburgh.
Author: Pavel Zhukov
