28. The End of the Road For Sawney Bean and His Cannibal Clan
After dogs picked up a scent at the entrance to Bennane Cave, troops with swords drawn and carrying torches entered, and wended their through the mile-long passage to the heart of the Sawney clan’s hideout. Along the way, they passed rows of human limbs and body parts, dangling like meat in a butcher’s shop, piles of discarded clothes and other belongings of the victims, and heaps of human bones from earlier feasts.
After a brief fight, the entire forty-eight-member clan was arrested and marched off to Edinburgh. There, the twenty-seven male Beans were executed by having their arms and legs chopped off, and being left to bleed to death. The following day, the cannibal clan’s twenty-one females were tied to stakes and burned as witches.
