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Swaney Beane Research Paper

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In earlier centuries, evil monsters such as werewolves, demons, ghouls, vampires, and zombies, emerged as the predecessor of modern serial killers. These monsters had become known to be fixated on destroying the human kind. Historically, many cultures searched for possible explanations as to what would be the driving force behind people committing such heinous acts, but was there any factual testament behind their accounts? The legend of the Swaney Beane family is a famous tale which has impacted the monster culture tremendously. Swaney Beane and his wife took shelter in a cave during a time where Scotland was stricken with poverty. It is said that the Beane family resided in this cave for about twenty five years, birthing children and …show more content…

Were these acts committed based on survival, belief in evil spirits inhabiting the bodies of animals, or were individuals simply just motivated by a monster that lived within themselves? The Beane family lived in a time of poverty, possibly executing these crimes of cannibalism as a way to to satisfy their needs for survival; however, while committing these crimes, they were also robbing their victims of everything they had, so why wouldn’t they just use the money or valuable items to buy food, instead of eating human flesh? According to Hickey, “In the past, explanations for mass and serial murder were often derived from demonology or the belief that life events were controlled by external forces or spirits” (2015, p. 47). Many cultures believed that possessed humans could transform into a wolf, and in history wolves were deemed to be the animal most associated with the devil. Hickey stated, “The purpose to this human-to wolf transformation was the inevitable killings of humans, particularly children, in order to eat human flesh” (2015, p. 48). Individuals may have also believed they were

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