Alfred Packer: The Cannibal of the Rockies

Only three people have ever been tried, convicted and imprisoned in the United States for the crime of cannibalism. Cannibalism is defined as the eating of human flesh by another human.

In the winter of 1873 Alfred Packer was hired as a guide by a group of 20 men for a prospecting trip into the San Juan mountains of southern Colorado. The prospectors were deceived by Packer's boasts of being familiar with the area they were to enter. In truth, he knew very little of the geography. The group set out and in January of 1874 took rest at the camp of Chief Ouray who warned them not to attempt a mountain crossing until spring. Still relying on Packer's extensive "experience," five men stood firm in their desire for gold and pressed on with Packer leading them. On April 6th of that year, a lone survivor wandered in to the Los Pinos Indian Reservation near Gunnison, Colorado. It was Alfred Packer.

Mr. Packer mentioned nothing of the ordeal to his hosts at the reservation until he was located by the search parties which had been sent by the prospectors who stayed behind with Chief Ouray. His first claim was that the others had abandoned him after he injured his leg. That story was to change many, many times over the years.

It wasn't until an Indian guide who was part of the search party looking for the five missing men found strips of human flesh on the trail that Packer had traveled down than Packer was fully questioned. In August of 1864 the camp of the five missing men (but no bodies) was found near Slumgullion Pass, 2 miles from Lake City, Colorado. Alfred Packer was arrested for their murders but was able to escape from the Saguache jail. Shortly after his escape, the remains of the 5 missing men were discovered by further search parties.

For 9 years Packer lived under an assumed name in Wyoming, he was discovered and returned to Lake City in 1883 to stand trial. His testimony at the trail claimed a mix of self defense and survival.

An excerpt of his testimony (from legal records kept by the Colorado Historical Society):

"When I came back to camp after being gone nearly all day I found the redheaded man [Bell] who acted crazy in the morning sitting near the fire roasting a piece of meat which he had cut out of the leg of the German butcher [Miller] the latter's body was lying the furthest off from the fire down the stream, his skull was crushed in with the hatchet. The other three men were lying near the fire, they were cut in the forehead with the hatchet some had two some three cuts - I came within a rod of the fire, when the man saw me, he got up with his hatchet to-wards me when I shot him sideways through the belly, he fell on his face, the hatchet fell forwards.........I went back to the fire covered the men up and fetched to the camp the piece of meat that was near the fire. I made a new fire near my camp and cooked the piece of meat and ate it. I tried to get away every day but could not so I lived off the flesh of these men, the bigger part of the 60 days I was out......... I cooked some of the flesh and carried it with me for food......... At the last camp just before I reached the Agency I ate my last pieces of meat. This meat I cooked at the camp before I started out and put it into a bag and carried the bag with me, I could not eat but a little at a time..... When I was at the Sheriff in Saguache I was passed a key made out of a pen knife blade with which I could unlock the irons......."

The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging, later reduced to manslaughter. He was given 40 years to be served at the prison in Canon City. Mr. Packer was released in 1901 and lived out the remainder of his days as an upstanding citizen of Littleton, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. He died of natural causes on April 24, 1907 and is buried in Littleton cemetery with a simple headstone. His grave receives thousands of visitors and tourists every year.

Prologue:

On July 17, 1989, the remains of the five victims were exhumed under the supervision of James E. Starrs, a forensic scientist with George Washington University. The examinations found no conclusive evidence that the men were victims who had been cannibalized.

In 1994 a more in-depth study was conducted by the Museum of Western Colorado after new contemporary records of the search party were discovered. These new documents, combined with forensic evidence of lead shot at the camp, verified one part of Mr. Packer's story - that Mr. Bell died of a gunshot wound. The rest of the story is destined to remain one of history's macabre mysteries and Alfred Packer, one of Colorado's most colorful characters.