Jan. 26, 2026
"SNOWED IN WITH A CANNIBAL: ALFERD PACKER, THE BLIZZARD THAT KILLED FIVE MEN & THE TRIAL THAT MADE HIM A FOLK HERO"
Reid Carter covers the ultimate snowstorm crime as a massive blizzard shuts down courts across America. February 1874: Alferd Packer led five prospectors into Colorado's San Juan Mountains during one of the worst winters on record. Only Packer walked out alive - looking suspiciously well-fed with money belonging to dead men. He confessed to cannibalism but claimed self-defense. Escaped jail. Caught nine years later. Sentenced to hang. Judge allegedly said: "There were seven Democrats in Hinsdale County and you ate five of them." Death sentence overturned. Served seventeen years. Modern forensics may prove he told the truth.
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Calorogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter, Monday, January
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twenty sixth, twenty twenty six. If you're watching the news
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this morning, you know a massive winter storm has paralyzed
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most of the country. Courthouses from Texas to Maine are closed,
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trials postponed, justice delayed by mother Nature. So today, while
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we're all snowed in, let me take you back to
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another blizzard. February eighteen seventy four, Colorado Territory, San Juan Mountains.
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Six men trudging through snow drifts taller than their heads,
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temperatures well below zero, wind howling, no trail, no shelter,
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no food. Six men went in, one walked out. His
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name was Alfred Packer, thirty one years old, claimed to
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be a mountain guide, led five prospectors into the deadliest
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terrain in America during the worst winter anyone could remember.
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April sixteenth, eighteen seventy four, two months after they disappeared
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into the mountains, Alfred Packer stumbled into the Los Pinos
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Indian Agency near Gunnison, ragged, tired, but suspiciously well fed
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for a man who'd just spent sixty days in a
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frozen wilderness. He walked into the agency, sat down at
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a table where men were eating breakfast, and ordered whiskey,
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lots of it. Seemed strangely uninterested in food. When asked
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about his five companions, Packer was evasive. Said they'd abandoned him.
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Said he'd survived on rabbits and rosebuds. But something wasn't right.
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Packer had money, a lot of money, and a rifle
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that didn't belong to him, and a knife that belonged
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to a dead man. Under interrogation, Packer finally confessed not
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to murder, to something that shocked even the hardened frontiersman
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of eighteen seventy four. It would not be the first
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time Packer said, through tears that people had been obliged
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to eat each other when they were hungry. Alfred Packer,
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the Colorado cannibal confessed man eater, the only American ever
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convicted of cannibalism related murder, sentenced to hang, escaped custody,
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caught nine years later, retried, imprisoned for seventeen years, paroled,
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died a free man. And here's the twist. Modern forensic
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evidence suggests he might have been telling the truth about
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self defense all along. I'm read Carter today while the
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blizzard rages outside the trial of Alfred Packer, the man
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who ate five Democrats, the legend that became a cafeteria.
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This is celebrity trials. November eighteen seventy three, Bingham Canyon, Utah.
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Word had spread of gold strikes in the mountains of Colorado.
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Twenty one men gathered to make the trek east. Among
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them Alfred Packer. Packer was thirty one years old born
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in Pennsylvania. Served in the Union Army during the Civil War,
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but was discharged twice for epilepsy. Drifted west after the war,
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worked as a shoemaker, miner, trapper guide. Lost parts of
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two fingers to a sledgehammer accident in Georgetown, Colorado. He
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claimed to know the Rocky Mountains, claimed to be an
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experienced guide. The other prospectors believed him. They shouldn't have.
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Preston Nutter, one of the original party members, later described
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Packer as sulky, obstinate, and Quarrelsome not exactly leadership material,
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but gold fever makes men overlook red flags. The party
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left Utah in late autumn, bad timing the winter of
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eighteen seventy three to seventy four was shaping up to
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be one of the worst in memory. Snow came early,
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game was scarce. The men were forced to eat their
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livestock feed just to survive. By late January eighteen seventy four,
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or the bedraggled party staggered into the winter camp of
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Jute Chief Ourey, near present day Montrose, Colorado. They were starving, freezing,
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barely alive. Chief Ourey was gracious, fed them, sheltered them,
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and gave them the most important advice they would ever receive.
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Wait until spring. The San Juan Mountains in winter are
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a death trap. No Ute would attempt passage until the
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snow melted. Some of the men listened, They stayed with urey, rested,
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recovered smart, but six men couldn't wait, gold fever burning
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too hot. Alfred Packer serving as guide, Israel Swan, an
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elderly man rumored to be carrying thousands in cash, Shannon
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Wilson Bell, a red haired prospector, James Humphrey, Frank Butcher Miller,
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a German immigrant who worked as a butcher. And George
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California Noon, a teenager. February ninth, eighteen seventy four, The
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six men departed Urre camp. The chief warned them again,
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don't go. The mountains will kill you. They went anyway.
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Bob McGrew, the original party leader, guided them along the
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river route Oure recommended, until his horses couldn't continue in
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the deep snow. He unloaded their provisions and turned back.
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Watched them disappear into the white void. That was the
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last anyone saw of five of those men alive. Here's
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where Packer's story starts falling apart. Our array had given
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them specific directions, follow the Gunnison River to the government
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cattle camp. Stay by the water fish if you can't hunt,
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it's the safest route. Packer ignored the directions, took them
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higher into the San Juan Mountains, directly into the worst
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terrain imaginable. The winter of eighteen seventy four was brutal,
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even by Colorado standards. Snow depths exceeded six feet in
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a single storm. Temperatures plunged, Blizzards came without warning. The
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men had less than fourteen days of food, no snow shoes,
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inadequate clothing, few matches, two rifles, a pistol, some knives,
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a hatchet, and limited ammunition. Six men entered those mountains.
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They were never seen together again for sixty six days. Nothing,
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no word, no sightings. The other prospectors at Urey's camp
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assumed they were dead, frozen, buried in avalanches. The mountains
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had claimed another group of fools. Then, on April sixteenth,
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eighteen seventy four, a ghost walked out of the wilderness.
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Alfred Packer appeared at the Los Pinos Indian Agency. He'd
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crossed frozen lakes, hiked through mountain passes still choked with snow,
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traveled alone for weeks. But here's what made people suspicious.
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He looked too healthy. A man who'd spent two months
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in the frozen wilderness should be emaciated, starving near death.
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Packer was tired, sure, ragged, but well fed, strong enough
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to a meetly start drinking whiskey and gambling. He had
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money in his pockets, items that belonged to his companions,
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swan's rifle, a knife that wasn't his. And when people
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asked about the other five men, Packer's answers kept changing.
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First story, the others had abandoned him when his feet
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got too frozen to keep up. He'd survived on rabbits
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and rosebuds. Nobody believed that there were no rabbits, no rosebuds,
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not in the San Juan Mountains. In February, Indian agent
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Charles Adams brought Packer in for questioning. Pressed him the
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story didn't make sense. Where were the other men? Why
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did Packer have their belongings? How did he survive? May eighth,
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eighteen seventy four, Packer broke down and confessed not to murder,
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to something worse. It would not be the first time
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that people had been obliged to eat each other when
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they were hungry. The Colorado Cannibal was born. Alfred Packer
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gave three different confessions over the years, Each one contradicted
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the others, each one revealed a little more horror. First confession,
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May eighteen seventy four, Packer claimed the group had become
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hopelessly lost and snowbound. Israel Swan died first from exposure.
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The surviving men, including Packer, ate his flesh to stay alive.
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Ten days passed. James Humphrey died next, also eaten. Then
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Frank Miller was killed accidentally while collecting firewood. George California
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Noon died of starvation shortly after that left Packer and
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Shannon Bell. According to Packer, Bell went insane from hunger
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and cold, tried to kill Packer with a hatchet. Packer
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shot him in self defense, then he ate Bell too.
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Packer claimed he'd tried to leave many times but couldn't
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navigate the mountains, stayed at the camp for weeks, surviving
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on human flesh. Finally, when the snow developed a crust
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strong enough to walk on, he hiked out. Suspicious, absolutely,
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but people in eighteen seventy four understood survival cannibalism. The
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Donner Party was still fresh in America's memory. Twenty seven
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years earlier, those pioneers had resorted to eating their dead
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in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Nobody blamed them. Starvation does
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terrible things. If Packer's story was true, if the men
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died of natural causes, and he only ate their corpses
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to survive, that wasn't murder. Horrifying, but not illegal. Even today,
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Cannibalism itself isn't a crime in most jurisdictions, only if
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you kill someone to obtain the flesh. Packer was transported
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to Saguace and held in a jail outside town. Authorities
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planned to investigate further, find the bodies, determine what really happened.
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August eighteen seventy four, before the investigation concluded, Packer escaped
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from custody, walked away disappeared into the frontier. That same day,
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By pure coincidence, an illustrator for Harper's Weekly named John
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Randolph discovered the camp site. What he found destroyed any
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remaining belief in Packer's story. Five bodies, all in one location,
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not scattered across miles of wilderness as Packer had implied,
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all at a single camp near present day Lake City, Colorado.
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The site would later be called dead Man's Gulch. The
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scene was gruesome. Four months of decomposition and scavenger activity
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had taken their toll, but the violence was unmistakable. Israel
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swan skull had a jagged chunk missing. Frank Miller's head
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was gone entirely, presumably taken by animals. George Noon and
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James Humphrey were little more than rotting torsos with skeletal legs,
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but their bearded faces remained mostly intact. They had hatchet
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shaped wounds to their heads, broken bones, and Shannon bell
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His body was the worst. Arms at his sides cut
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down to the bone, but hands still intact, with skin,
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face perfectly preserved, thick red beard and bushy hair still visible.
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The top of his skull had been ripped open, brains
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on the ground beneath him. The lack of decay on
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Bell's face proved he was the last to die, which
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matched Packer's claim that he killed Bell in self defense.
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But everything else contradicted him. These men hadn't died slowly
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one by one over weeks. They'd been killed violently with
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a hatchet in what appeared to be extreme violence, all
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at one camp, all together. This wasn't survival cannibalism. This
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looked like murder. For nine years, Alfred Packer evaded justice,
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lived under the alias John Schwartze in Wyoming, thought he'd
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gotten away with it. March eighteen eighty three, a member
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of the original prospecting party named Jane Frenchy Cabazon spotted
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Packer by pure accident in Cheyenne, recognized him, contacted authorities.
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Packer was arrested and returned to Colorado for trial. His
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second confession came shortly after capture, and this one was
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even more disturbing. Packer now claimed that when the party
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reached the campsite, they were starving and too weak to continue.
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He went to scout a trail forward, climbing a nearby hill,
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gone all day. When he returned, he found Shannon Bell
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crouched over the campfire roasting human flesh. Bell had gone mad,
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Packer said, murdered the other four men with a hatchet
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while they slept. When Bell saw Packer, he charged with
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the hatchet, raised, Packer shot him twice in the belly
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self defense. Packer claimed he stayed at the camp for
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sixty days afterward, surviving on the flesh of the dead men,
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before finally escaping when the snow crusted over. This story
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was more consistent with the crime scene evidence. Bell killed
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the others Packer killed Bell, but the jury didn't believe it.
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Why would Bell murder four men, what possible motive? And
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why would Packer stay at a campsite full of dead
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bodies for two months instead of immediately trying to escape,
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the prosecution had a simpler theory. Packer killed all five
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men himself for their money. Israel Swan was rumored to
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carry thousands in cash. Packer emerged from the mountains with money,
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possessions and weapons belonging to dead men. This wasn't survival,
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this was robbery, murder. Make it make sense. We'll be
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right back with the trial of Alfred Packer, the famous sentence,
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the escape from death row, and the modern forensic evidence
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that might finally reveal what happened on that frozen mountain.
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In eighteen seventy four April eighteen eighty three, Lake City, Colorado,
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Alfred Packer stood trial for the murder of Israel Swan
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and the manslaughter of the four other men. The trial
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was a sensation. Newspapers across the country covered it. The
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Man Eater the Colorado Cannibal, headlines that sold papers. Packer's
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defense was simple. Shannon Bell killed the others. Packer killed
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Bell in self defense. The cannibalism was desperate survival, not
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criminal intent. The prosecution presented evidence that undermined everything. Local
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hunters testified that despite the brutal winter, the area around
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the campsite had plenty of game, deer, antelope. Even a
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deer carcass was reportedly found near the camp The men
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didn't need to resort to cannibalism quickly. They could have hunted. Furthermore,
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Packer had chosen to take the party through the most
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dangerous terrain possible, ignoring ure's safer along the river. Why
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unless he wanted them vulnerable, unless he planned to kill
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them all along. The jury deliberated briefly guilty of premeditated murder.
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April thirteenth, eighteen eighty three, sentencing day, Judge Melville Jerry
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addressed the defendant. According to legend and this is one
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of the most famous quotes in Western legal history, Judge
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Jerry said, stand up, you voracious man eating son of
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a bitch. There were only seven Democrats in Hinsdale County,
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and you ate five of them. I sentence you to
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hang by the neck until you are dead, dead dead.
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Now here's the thing. That quote is almost certainly apocryphal.
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Court records show Judge Jerry's actual sentence was boringly conventional
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legal language, no profanity, no partisan politics, just the standard
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death sentence formula. But the Democrat quote spread like wildfire,
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made Packer infamous, made the case legendary, and honestly, it's
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too good not to repeat, even if it's probably fiction.
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Packer was scheduled to hang on May nineteenth, eighteen eighty three,
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but his lawyers found a loophole. The murders occurred in
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eighteen seventy four, when Colorado was still a territory. The
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territorial murder statutes had been repealed when Colorado achieved statehood
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in eighteen seventy six. A savings clause in the new
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laws created confusion about whether the death penalty applied to
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crimes committed before statehood. Packer's lawyers appealed to the Colorado
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Supreme Court, argued that the old territorial laws should apply,
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and under those laws, the death penalty was prohibited. The
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Supreme Court agreed, death sentence reversed, but Packer wasn't going free.
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Retrial in eighteen eighty six, this time in Gunnison, fifty
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miles away, because Lake City residents were threatening to hang
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Packer themselves if he was acquitted. The second trial resulted
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in conviction on five counts of manslaughter, not murder, as
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