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Beggars had a narrow escape from a red-headed family who wan...

Date
Track ID 56107
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1960.147.B9

Original Tape ID

SA1960.147

Summary

Beggars had a narrow escape from a red-headed family who wanted to murder them and sell their bodies to medical students.

Beggars would never stop at a house where a red-headed family lived. However, one night a beggarman and his wife and little boy came to the house of the red-headed people and asked for shelter. They were well fed and were given accommodation in the barn. But the beggarman was uneasy because the people were red-headed and because they locked the barn doors once the beggars were inside. The beggar family managed to get out through a skylight, and ran away across the fields.

They had not gone far when they saw a dark coach drawn by two horses and with two men in tile hats on it coming to the red-headed people's house. The beggars later found out from a cottar that the red-headed family lured people into their barn and murdered them, and sold the bodies to medical students for £10 each.

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Old Deer

Village/Place - Fetterangus

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Story

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair