Alferd Packer

 

Alferd Packer was an American cannibal who was accused of murdering and eating five companions on a trip into the Colorado rocky mountains. He swore that he had only eaten the flesh of men who had already died so as to survive, but he did admit to killing one of them in self-defence. There was a great deal of controversy at the time as to Packer’s innocence or otherwise, and nobody really knew what actually happened on the expedition, as he was the only witness.

 

Mining for gold

 

Packer was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on November 21, 1842. He became apprenticed to a cobbler, but when the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the army. At the age of nineteen, he headed out west and joined the US infantry in Winona, Minnesota, but was later discharged due to epilepsy. He later returned to the army as a soldier in the Iowa Cavalry, and some believe he was a scout for General Custer, but once again his illness forced him out.

Little more is known of his activities until in 1873, at the age of thirty-one, he joined a group of twenty prospectors who set out from Bingham Canyon, Utah, into the mountains of Colorado to look for gold. The expedition did not go well: the party got lost in bad weather, and soon ran out of food. The members of the group arrived in an Indian camp, where most of them decided to stay put till spring, but five of them pressed on – they were Shannon Wilson Bell, Israel Swan, James Humphrey, Frank ‘Reddy’ Miller, and George ‘California’ Noon.

Two months later, they had not arrived at their destination, and their relatives were becoming anxious about them. Accounts vary as to what happened next, but Packer is thought to have appeared at a saloon in the town of Saguache, saying that he had a leg injury and needed some whisky. Observers noticed that he had several wallets on his person. He said that he had become separated from the party, and did not know where they were. However, it was later discovered that there were strips of human flesh on the trail where he had been, and he was questioned once more as to what had happened to his companions.

 

Human meat

 

This time, he made a formal confession, saying the men had died of starvation and then been eaten by the others, who were crazed with hunger. Israel Swan, aged sixty-five, had died first, and all survivors had fed off his body. The next to go was James Humphrey, and Packer admitted that he had taken his wallet, which had over $100 in it. After that, Frank Miller, known as ‘the Butcher’, died in an accident searching for wood, and he was eaten too. That left George Noon, who was only eighteen, Shannon Bell and Packer himself. According to Packer, Bell shot Noon, and the two remaining survivors then ate him. Packer then alleged that Bell had attacked him, so he was forced to defend himself. He killed Bell and ate him, then managed to get to Saguache on his own.

The authorities arrested Packer on suspicion of murder, and he was thrown into jail at Saguache. When the trail was inspected further, it became clear that the men had not died one by one. An artist named John A. Randolph discovered five sets of human remains beside the Gunnison River, at a place called Slumgullion Pass. Randolph made a detailed sketch of the bodies, which showed that parts of the thigh and breast had been cut out. Witnesses were brought to the scene, and the bodies were then buried in an area that became known as ‘Dead Man’s Gulch’.

However, while this was happening, Packer managed to escape from jail, and for the next nine years went on the run, under the name of John Schwartze. Nothing is known of what he did during that time, but in March 1883, a member of the larger party who had stayed in the Indian camp, a man named Frenchy Cabizon, recognised him in a saloon and had him arrested. He was charged with the five murders and made a new confession. This time he said that the men who had left the Indian camp had not taken enough food with them, and had run into a snowstorm, so that they had begun to starve. Some of them, like Bell, began to show signs of madness, and when Packer went on a scouting trip to find food, he returned to find Bell roasting a piece of meat on the fire. It turned out that Bell had killed all four of his companions, in a fit of madness, and was busy cooking a piece of Miller’s leg. Then Bell turned on Packer, who defended himself by grabbing the hatchet Bell was using and burying it in his head. He then tried to leave the camp, but was prevented from doing so by heavy snow, so he stayed where he was and began to eat the corpses. Eventually, when the snow began to thaw, he left, taking some pieces of meat with him to eat along the way.

Packer’s new story did not convince the jury, and on Friday, April 13, 1883, he was convicted of murder. According to popular legend, the judge called Packer a ‘man-eating son of a bitch’ and said: ‘When you came to Hinsdale County, there were seven democrats. But you ate five of them, goddamn you. I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead.’

 

Starvation and madness

 

There was a great deal of controversy about the sentence, and two years later, Packer managed to get a retrial. This time he was convicted to forty years’ life imprisonment on a charge of manslaughter. Once in jail, he changed his story yet again, and a local newspaper printed the final version of events. He claimed that the party had run out of food and had been reduced to cooking and eating their moccasins, which were made out of hide. They wrapped their feet in blankets (this detail was borne out by the evidence of the corpses, whose feet were indeed wrapped in this way). Bell had begun to suffer delusions as the result of starvation, and everyone travelling with him had become terrified of him. The party camped by the Gunnison River, and in the morning, Packer went off to see if he could find help. When he came back, Bell attacked him and he shot him dead, only to realise what had happened after the deed was done. When he realised that Bell had been cooking and eating human meat, he was revolted and threw it away. He tried to cover the bodies of his comrades, and at this point his mind failed. In his madness, he said, he may have eaten human flesh, but he was so disturbed that he could not really remember what happened. Eventually, he wandered into town, dazed and confused by his terrible ordeal.

This version of events did not fit with that of witnesses in the Saguache saloon, who claimed that he had sauntered in looking quite healthy and had shown no signs of madness whatsoever. Clearly, Packer was something of a fantasist, and every time he told the story, it had changed. However, there were those who sympathised with him, arguing that it was understandable that a starving man should eat (though not kill) his companions. To this day, it is still not clear exactly what happened, but the gruesome details of the Packer story made him a notorious figure for many years after the event.

Regarding Packer’s name, it is thought that his real name was Alfred G. Packer. However, when he first signed up to the army, he wrote it as Alferd. In addition, this was the spelling that he had tattooed on his arm. (Some believe that the tattoo artist made a mistake, and that Packer subsequently adopted it as a joke.) Also, when invitations to his hanging (which never took place) were sent out, Alferd was the spelling used. It seems likely that even with the spelling of his name, Packer could not be honest, clear and straightforward, but constantly changed his story.

In his final trial, Packer’s forty-year sentence was upheld and he was imprisoned. In 1886 he was paroled and went to live in Deer Creek, Jefferson County. Legend has it that he became a vegetarian before he died at the age of sixty-five. In 1981, he was formally pardoned of his crimes. Today, the story of Alferd Packer has passed into folklore, and there is even a ballad written about him, that goes:

 

In the Colorado Rockies

Where the snow is deep and cold

And a man afoot can starve to death

Unless he’s brave and bold

Oh Alfred Packer

You’ll surely go to hell

While all the others starved to death

You dined a bit too well.