Sawney Bean: Dissecting the Legend of Scotland’s Infamous Cannibal Killer Family is the first major non-fiction historical investigation to explore one of the most heinous crimes in 16th-century Scotland, the legend of Sawney Bean and his cannibal family. For centuries, the story of Bean and his clan are part of Scotland’s folklore. According to the legend, the family lived in a cave and preyed on travellers. When a survivor allegedly escaped to tell the tale, James I sent an expedition to capture the cannibals. They were supposedly found in their cave with the pickled remains of their victims. But was the story of the Galloway cannibal killers true? Using a wide range of research material, this infamous legend of horror will be taken apart and how the myth became accepted as reality will be explored in detail. True crime author and historian Blaine Pardoe tackles this legend, peeling the truth out of the fable and detailing the influence of this myth on popular culture such as the infamous splatter movie The Hills Have Eyes.