The Beanes: A Family of Cannibals

Ever wonder where directors get their ideas for horror films such as Wrong Turn and The Hills Have Eyes? Many directors derive their inspiration from real-life cases of horrific behavior. Although the concept of a murderous family of cave-dwelling cannibals seems implausible, such people actually did exist. In the early 17^th century, a family of vicious anthropophagites, known as the Beanes, lived out of a cave in Scotland. The Middle Ages was a time of profound torture and ferocity. There were a plethora of devices and methods designed to inflict the utmost pain. People who lived during medieval times were not strangers to pain or torture. The acts committed by the Beanes were so horrendous that they shocked and horrified the desensitized people of their time.

Sawney Beane was born in the early 17^th century. He was the son of a farmer and displayed early signs of delinquency. He had a violent temper and strong contempt for authority. As soon as he was old enough to survive on his own, he and a girlfriend sought out a desolate place to live. They settled in a large cave located in a cliff by the sea. The cave was massive, stretching over one mile long. The cave was a perfect dwelling for the two. It was very difficult to spot and flooded twice a day when the tide came in, deterring any unwanted visitors.

Completely isolated from society with no job or money, Beane began committing highway robberies. He would take what little money and valuables that the travelers had and kill them to ensure that he would not get caught. Beane stockpiled the valuables in his cave. He feared that he would arouse suspicion if he attempted to pawn them. Around that time people did not carry much money on their person. When the revenue from the robberies was not enough to cover food expenses, Beane and his common-law wife began eating the flesh of the robbery victims. They pickled and salted the meat to preserve it for future consumption. The bones were stored within the cave. The preserved meat was neatly hung on the walls within the cave.

The Beanes began to reproduce, spawning eight sons and six daughters. The children went on to produce 32 grandchildren through incestuous relations with each other. All of the children were raised with the same psychotic views as Beane. Cave-dwelling cannibalism was their way of life and they considered it to be perfectly normal. Once the children were old enough, they were trained to kill and procure food. Occasionally, the Beanes would go into town to purchase supplies; they were extremely careful not to arouse suspicion.

The Beanes killed for a quarter of a century without getting caught. They were responsible for hundreds of murders per year. The abundance of disappearances caught the attention of authorities and several searches for the victims and their killers were organized, but none were successful. There has been speculation that some of the investigators were killed by the Beanes. When the old meat would start to rot, the Beanes would dispose of it in the sea. On several occasions, the partially decomposed human remains washed up on shore. Because of the lack of technology and the withering of the flesh, it was impossible to determine the identity of the victims. Some of the missing people were traced and many innocent people were arrested and executed. They had committed no crimes; they were simply the last people to see the victims alive.

One day, a man and his wife were riding horseback neat the Beanes' cave. They were on their way home from a local fair. The Beanes attacked the female, instantly killing her. As they attempted to subdue the man, twenty riders came upon the scene. They too were returning from the local fair. The Beanes fled back into their cave, leaving the lady's body behind. They also left behind a male victim and twenty witnesses.

The gentleman was brought to the Chief Magistrate of Glasgow and told authorities of his experience. They had been working on the case for years and finally received the breakthrough they had long awaited. King James VI personally led a unit of 400 men in a search for the Beanes. They came dangerously close to bypassing the cave, but were alerted by the howling of their tracker dogs. In the massive cave they found an endless supply of human flesh, hanging along the walls. They also came upon a large stockpile of money, jewelry and other valuables.

The government was just as merciless with the Beanes' retribution as they had been with all of their victims. The entire family, children included, was sent to Edinburgh for execution. Their sentences were carried out the following day. The men were castrated; their sex organs were thrown into a fiery blaze. They were then dismembered and bled as the females reluctantly watched. The female clan members were tied to a stake and burned alive.

Right up until their executions, the Beanes expressed absolutely no remorse for their heinous deeds. This is not surprising considering that all of them were raised from birth to consider killing and cannibalism perfectly normal. They were isolated from society and therefore had no rudimentary sense of moral values. This was the only life that they knew and they saw no fault in living the way that they did.