Alexander “Sawney” Bean(e) was the legendary head of a 48-member clan in 15th- or 16th-century Scotland, reportedly executed for the mass murder and cannibalisation of over 1,000 people. The story appears in The Newgate Calendar, a crime catalogue of the notorious Newgate Prison in London. While historians tend to believe that Sawney Bean never existed, his story has passed into legend and is part of the Edinburgh tourism industry.
According to The Newgate Calendar, Alexander Bean was born in East Lothian during the 1500s. His father was a ditch digger and hedge trimmer, and Bean tried to take up the family trade but quickly realized that he had little taste for honest labour.He left home with a vicious woman who apparently shared his inclinations. The couple ended up at a coastal cave in Bennane Head between Girvan and Ballantrae where they lived undiscovered for some twenty-five years. The cave was 200 yards deep and during high tide the entrance was blocked by water.
The couple eventually produced eight sons, six daughters, eighteen grandsons and fourteen granddaughters. Various children and grandchildren were products of incest. Lacking the inclination for regular labour, the clan thrived by laying careful ambushes at night to rob and murder individuals or small groups. The bodies were brought back to the cave where they were dismembered and cannibalised. Leftovers were pickled, and discarded body parts would sometimes wash up on nearby beaches.
The body parts and disappearances did not go unnoticed by the local villagers, but the Beans stayed in the caves by day and took their victims at night. The clan was so secretive that the villagers were not aware of the murderers living nearby.
As more significant notice of the disappearances was taken, several organized searches were launched to find the culprits. One search took note of the telltale cave but the men refused to believe anything human could live in it. Frustrated and in a frenetic quest for justice, the townspeople lynched several innocents, and the disappearances continued. Suspicion often fell on local innkeepers since they were the last to see many of the missing people alive.
One fateful night, the Beans ambushed a married couple riding from a fair on one horse, but the man was skilled in combat, deftly holding off the clan with sword and pistol. The clan fatally mauled the wife when she fell to the ground in the conflict. Before they could take the resilient husband, a large group of fairgoers appeared on the trail and the Beans fled.
With the Beans’ existence finally revealed, it was not long before King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) heard of the atrocities and decided to lead a manhunt with a team of 400 men andseveral bloodhounds. They soon found the Beans’ previously overlooked cave in Bennane Head. The cave was rife with human remains, having been the scene of many murders and cannibalistic acts.
The clan was captured alive and taken in chains to the Tolbooth Jail in Edinburgh, then transferred to Leith or Glasgow where they were promptly executed without trial; the men had their genitalia cut off, hands and feet severed and were allowed to bleed to death; the women and children, after watching the men die, were burned alive.
Αλλά πάντα από την αποστα- σιοποιημένη ματιά της τέχνης
Εργα τέχνης που απεικονίζουν σκοτεινές πλευρές της ιστορίας και του ανθρώπινου ψυχισμού, όπως ωμή βία, ρατσισμό, κακοποίηση και σφαγές άλλων -ΔΕΝ ΠΡΕΠΕΙ ΝΑ ΛΟΓΟΚΡΙΝΟΝΤΑΙ!! Πρέπει να αντιμετωπίζουμε πρόσωπο με πρόσωπο την ωμότητα και να πασχίζουμε να την κατανοήσουμε με κριτικό και αποστασιοποιημένο τρόπο, αν θέλουμε να φτιάξουμε έναν καλύτερο κόσμο.
Graphics that depict dark aspects of history—such as violence, intolerance, racism, aggressive nationalism, war and atrocity, abuse of others and of the environment in general—have not been censored. We must confront such harsh images directly—and struggle to critically understand them—if we hope to ever make a better world. ocw.mit.edu
Metal inspired art, or art that inspired metal and anything about thematology of macabre and horror in art, in life, in history, etc. Languages: english and greek
JOIN US AT MORBIDANATOMY.ORG
-
Morbid Anatomy has moved! Join us at morbidanatomy.org, where you will find
out all our upcoming events, spectacles, classes, visiting information,
Patre...
Cimitero Maggiore di Padova
-
I finally got around to visit the Main Cemetery in Padova. I've visited
the City itself a couple of times but never the Cemetery itself.
There's not a l...
-
Please enjoy your visit to The Gothic Tea Society Blog.
For ongoing Gothic news and information, please give us a 'LIKE' on
Facebook at
https://www.facebo...
Livres Secrets par Sean Kernan
-
Sean Kernan est un photographe, écrivain et enseignant.
Il est l'auteur de trois monographies "Les livres secrets" (avec Jorge Luis
Borges), "Among Trees"...
Viridarium Novum
-
*A Little Book of Nature*
*'New little book of flowers, in it all kinds of beautiful flowers, also
fruits and little animals, which are very useful to pai...
Sherry Lee Short
-
Sherry Lee Short
Sherry Lee Short is an artist, teacher, writer, and activist. She received
her Master of Fine Arts with Distinction from the...
Battesimi pericolosi
-
Castrillo de Murcia è un piccolo borgo di 500 anime nella provincia di
Burgos, nella Spagna del Nord. Il paesino è sonnacchioso, e non vi succede
nulla di ...
UPDATE!!
-
The Art of the Beautiful~Grotesque Posterous which fed this blog has now
been deleted (along with all other Posterous blogs, Twitter directly to
blame)...
The Wellcome Library website is changing…
-
On Wednesday, 21st November, visitors to the Wellcome Library website will
notice that we’ve made some changes. We’ve given the whole site an
overhaul, wit...
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου