*Ø* Blogmanac March 5, 1981 | Cannibal Alferd Packer exonerated
1981 USA: Alleged murderer and cannibal Alferd Packer was exonerated posthumously. However, Governor Lamm later denied Judge Kushner's request for a pardon.
The Alferd Packer case is one of the most infamous episodes of the Wild West, and a case that is far from resolved.
Alferd (or Alfred – he preferred the misspelling which he took from a badly done tattoo) Packer is often known as the only American ever convicted of cannibalism, though in reality his conviction was for murder, not cannibalism. In 1874, sometime between February 9 and April 6, Packer was embroiled in a massacre and the eating of human flesh in the snow-bound San Juan mountains (in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado). He later confessed to killing one man in self defence, and to cannibalism due to starvation, but denied having murdered.
On February 9, 1874, a party of six left for Gunnison, Colorado. At an unknown date, the party got hopelessly lost, ran out of provisions, and became snowbound in the Rockies. Packer allegedly went scouting and came back to discover one of his party, Shannon Bell, roasting human meat. According to Packer, Bell rushed him with a hatchet; Packer shot and killed him. It was Bell who had gone crazy due to starvation, and hacked the others to death with a hatchet, Packer maintained. Unfortunately, over the years, Packer’s confessions were inconsistent.
Legend has it that Judge Melville B Gerry sentenced Packer with “There was seven Democrats in Hinsdale County, but you, you voracious, man-eatin' son of a bitch, you ate five of them. I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until dead, as a warning against reducing the Democratic population of the state.”
In fact, Judge Gerry’s statement is replete with florid Victorian prose:
“I do not say these things to harrow your soul, for I know you have drunk the cup of bitterness to its very dregs, and wherever you have gone, the sting of you conscience and the goadings of remorse have an avenging Nemesis which have followed you at every turn in life and painted afresh for your contemplation the picture of the past. I say these things to impress upon your mind the awful solemnity of your situation and the impending doom which you cannot avert. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. You, Alfred Packer, sowed the wind; you must now reap the whirlwind. Society cannot forgive you for the crime you have committed. It enforces the old Masonic law of a life for a life, and your life must be taken as the penalty of your crime. I am but the instrument of society to impose the punishment which the law provides. Will society cannot forgive it will forget. As the days come and go, the story of your crimes will fade from the memory of men.”
Alfred has been humorously memorialised by a movie, a musical, several cookbooks, a collector's doll, and the Alferd Packer Grill for students at the University of Colorado – all very amusing, unless of course Packer's claims of being “unjustly dealth with” [sic] are true. However, the matter is still one of much debate.
David P Bailey, Curator of History at the Museum of Western Colorado has made claims that recent forensic evidence helps vindicate Packer ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
1981 USA: Alleged murderer and cannibal Alferd Packer was exonerated posthumously. However, Governor Lamm later denied Judge Kushner's request for a pardon.
The Alferd Packer case is one of the most infamous episodes of the Wild West, and a case that is far from resolved.
Alferd (or Alfred – he preferred the misspelling which he took from a badly done tattoo) Packer is often known as the only American ever convicted of cannibalism, though in reality his conviction was for murder, not cannibalism. In 1874, sometime between February 9 and April 6, Packer was embroiled in a massacre and the eating of human flesh in the snow-bound San Juan mountains (in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado). He later confessed to killing one man in self defence, and to cannibalism due to starvation, but denied having murdered.
On February 9, 1874, a party of six left for Gunnison, Colorado. At an unknown date, the party got hopelessly lost, ran out of provisions, and became snowbound in the Rockies. Packer allegedly went scouting and came back to discover one of his party, Shannon Bell, roasting human meat. According to Packer, Bell rushed him with a hatchet; Packer shot and killed him. It was Bell who had gone crazy due to starvation, and hacked the others to death with a hatchet, Packer maintained. Unfortunately, over the years, Packer’s confessions were inconsistent.
Legend has it that Judge Melville B Gerry sentenced Packer with “There was seven Democrats in Hinsdale County, but you, you voracious, man-eatin' son of a bitch, you ate five of them. I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until dead, as a warning against reducing the Democratic population of the state.”
In fact, Judge Gerry’s statement is replete with florid Victorian prose:
“I do not say these things to harrow your soul, for I know you have drunk the cup of bitterness to its very dregs, and wherever you have gone, the sting of you conscience and the goadings of remorse have an avenging Nemesis which have followed you at every turn in life and painted afresh for your contemplation the picture of the past. I say these things to impress upon your mind the awful solemnity of your situation and the impending doom which you cannot avert. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. You, Alfred Packer, sowed the wind; you must now reap the whirlwind. Society cannot forgive you for the crime you have committed. It enforces the old Masonic law of a life for a life, and your life must be taken as the penalty of your crime. I am but the instrument of society to impose the punishment which the law provides. Will society cannot forgive it will forget. As the days come and go, the story of your crimes will fade from the memory of men.”
Alfred has been humorously memorialised by a movie, a musical, several cookbooks, a collector's doll, and the Alferd Packer Grill for students at the University of Colorado – all very amusing, unless of course Packer's claims of being “unjustly dealth with” [sic] are true. However, the matter is still one of much debate.
David P Bailey, Curator of History at the Museum of Western Colorado has made claims that recent forensic evidence helps vindicate Packer ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 4:15 PM | Permalink
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