According to
The Newgate Calendar, a popular London publication of the 18th and 19th centuries, Alexander Bean was born in
East Lothian during the 16th century. His father was a ditch-digger and hedge-trimmer; Bean tried to take up the family trade but quickly realised that he was not fit for the work. He left home with an allegedly vicious woman named 'Black' Agnes Douglas, who apparently shared his inclinations and was accused of being a
witch. After some robbing and the cannibalisation of one of their victims, the couple ended up at a coastal cave in
Bennane Head between
Girvan and
Ballantrae. The cave was deep and the entrance was blocked by water during high tide, enabling the couple to live there undiscovered for some 25 years. The pair produced six daughters, eight sons, 14 granddaughters, and 18 grandsons. The grandchildren were said to be products of
incest between their children. Lacking the inclination for regular work, the Bean clan thrived by laying careful ambushes at night to rob and murder individuals or small groups. They brought the bodies back to their cave, where the corpses were dismembered and eaten. They would
pickle the leftovers and discarded body parts in barrels; these leftovers would sometimes wash up on nearby beaches. This strategy helped conceal their crimes by leading villagers to believe that animals were responsible for the attacks on travellers. The body parts and disappearances did not go unnoticed, but the clan stayed in their cave by day and took their victims at night. Thus, the villagers remained for a time unaware of the murderers living nearby. Once local people began to take notice of the disappearances, searches were launched to find the culprits. One such took note of the cave, but the searchers did not believe any human could live in it. Frustrated and desperate for justice, the townspeople
hanged several innocents, but the disappearances continued. Suspicion often fell on local innkeepers, since, in many cases, they were the last known to have seen the missing people alive. One night, the Bean clan ambushed a married couple riding from a
fair on one horse. The man, trained in combat and armed with sword and pistol, was able to hold the clan off. The unfortunate wife was unhorsed, fell to the ground and was captured, meeting a hideous fate. The husband was rescued when a large group of fair-goers appeared on the trail and the Beans fled. He was taken to the local
magistrate, who was then informed of the events. With the Beans' existence revealed, it was not long before the king (perhaps
James VI of Scotland, in accounts linked to the 16th century, though this detail does not fit well with the story being linked to the 15th century) heard of the atrocities and led a posse of 400 men and several
bloodhounds. The bloodhounds soon led them to the previously overlooked cave. Upon entering it by torchlight, the searchers found the Bean clan surrounded by human remains: body parts hanging from the walls, barrels filled with limbs, and piles of stolen heirlooms and jewellery. There are two versions of the events following the Bean clan's discovery. The more common is that the clan was captured alive, having given up without a fight. They were taken in chains to the
Tolbooth Jail in
Edinburgh, then transferred to either
Leith or
Glasgow, where they were summarily executed, being regarded as subhuman and unfit for trial. Sawney and the other men had their genitalia cut off and thrown into the fires, their hands and feet were severed, and they were allowed to bleed to death. Sawney shouted his dying words: "It isn't over, it will never be over". After watching the men die, Agnes, the other women and the children were tied to stakes and
burned alive. These punishments recall—in essence if not in detail—the medieval
hanging, drawing and quartering decreed for men convicted of
treason; women convicted of the same would be burned. The second version is that the search party detonated gunpowder at the entrance of their cave, leaving the Bean clan to suffocate. The town of
Girvan, located near the macabre scene of murder and debauchery, has another legend about the Bean clan. It says that one of Bean's daughters eventually left the clan and settled in Girvan where she planted a tree that became known as "The Hairy Tree". After her family's capture and exposure, her identity was revealed and angry locals hanged her from a bough of the Hairy Tree. == Sources and veracity ==