Alexander "Sawney" Bean: Encyclopedia II - Alexander "Sawney" Bean - Capture & execution

Alexander "Sawney" Bean - Capture & execution

After 25 years of undiscovered terror, the outlaw life led by Sawney and his family came to an abrupt end.

One night they laid a trap for a man and his wife who were returning from a local fair by riding through the woods. The Beans ambushed the couple, just as they had always done, but this time the husband proved to be a surprisingly tough opponent, and managed to hold off the entire family for quite some time with nothing but his sword and deft control of his horse.

Eventually the Bean family knocked the intended victim's wife from her horse, and killed her the instant she hit the ground. However, before they could also take the husband, who started fighting harder than ever, a large group of people started to come down the trail from the fair, and the Bean family had to run.

With their existence finally revealed to the world, it was not long before a massive hunt was underway. King James I had heard about the atrocities and decided to head the hunt himself. He led 400 men and many bloodhounds on a search of the countryside, and soon found the cave in Bannane Head where Alexander Bean and his wife had so long ago taken up as home. The cave itself was a grisly sight, having been witness to over a thousand murders and cannibalistic acts. Bones and human remains were littered everywhere.

The Bean family was captured alive and taken in chains to the Tolbooth Jail in Edinburgh. The Bean children were so accustomed to a life of cannibalism and murder that they could not imagine life being any other way. They were soon transferred to Leith or Glasgow where they were promptly executed without a trial. The men had their hands and feet cut off and were allowed to bleed to death, and the women and children, after watching the men die, were burned alive.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Capture & execution", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki