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Lesser Known But Intriguing Historic Criminals

Khalid Elhassan October 17, 2019 32 min

U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History - Crime

32. From Robbery, to Murder, to Cannibalism

It did not take long after Sawney Bean got started on his career as a robber, before he figured that in order to avoid getting identified for his crimes, he should murder his victims. That took care of eliminating witnesses, but a created a new problem: disposal of the bodies.

Sawney thought it over, and eventually came up with a way to kill multiple birds with one stone: dispose of the bodies, avoid the hassles of going into town to buy meat, and provide himself and his wife with a high protein diet. So he and Mrs. Bean began butchering and eating the murdered robbery victims.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.