Tags: Criminal.
Alexander Sawney Bean was the semi-mythical head of a 48-member clan in 15th- or 16th-century Scotland reportedly executed for the mass murder and cannibalisation of over 1000 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 or that his story has been greatly exaggerated his story has passed into local folklore and is part of the Edinburgh tourism industry.
