Alferd Griner Packer <21 January 1842 - April 23, 1907) was an American prospector who claimed cannibalism during the winter of 1874. He and five others attempted to travel through the high mountains of Colorado during a harsh winter crest. When Alferd only reached civilization, he claimed that the others had killed each other for food, and claimed to have lived off the flesh of his friends during the snow state and had used it to survive his journey out of the mountains two months later. After his story was questioned, he hid from court for nine years before he was tried, convicted for murder, and sentenced to death. Packer won a retrial and was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison for murder. A biopic of his life, The Legend of Alfred Packer , made in 1980. The more comedy, titled Cannibal! The Musical , created in 1993.
Video Alferd Packer
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Alferd Griner Packer was born January 21, 1842, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, one of three children from James Packer and his wife Esther Griner. In the early 1850s, James Packer moved his family to LaGrange County, Indiana, where he worked as a cabinet maker.
Maps Alferd Packer
Careers
Alferd Packer served in the Union Army in the American Civil War. After registering, on April 22, 1862 in Winona, Minnesota in Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment, he gave his job as a shoemaker. She was dismissed with respect due to epilepsy eight months later, in Fort Ontario, New York. He moved south and on June 25, 1863, enrolled in Company L, 8th Iowa Cavalry Regiment in Ottumwa, Iowa; However, he was dumped in Cleveland, Tennessee on April 22, 1864, for the same reason. He then traveled to the Rocky Mountains and worked in mining-related jobs for nine years.
Expedition
In November 1873, Packer joined Bob McGrue's group of 21 men, leaving Provo, Utah for a gold country around Breckenridge, Colorado. On January 21, 1874, the party met with Chief Ouray, known as the White Man's Friend , near Montrose, Colorado. Chief Ouray suggested that they delay their expedition until spring, as they are likely to face dangerous winter weather in the mountains. Ouray kindly offered to let people stay with his tribe until winter passes.
Some of the men at the party became agitated, and decided to ignore Ouray's advice and try to find a government cattle camp near the Los Pinos Indian Agency. O.D. Loutsenheiser and three other men left first; Packer tried to follow him, but Loutsenheiser pointed the gun at Packer and told him that "if [he] sees it after [them] through the mountain point, there will be trouble." Packer returned to the camp. The following week, on February 9, Packer and five others left for Los Pinos Indian Agency. In addition to Packer, the group consists of Shannon Wilson Bell, James Humphrey, Frank "Reddy" Miller, George "California" Noon, and Israel Swan. The clothing leader, Bob McGrue, leads the Packer party until the horses can not continue. McGrue lowered men's supplies and returned to Ouray's camp. What happens after this is unclear.
On April 16, 1874, Packer arrived at the Los Pinos Indian Agency near Gunnison. When Preston Nutter, a member of the original McGrue group, asked Packer what happened to the rest of the party, Packer claimed that he had "wet his feet and froze", and the others had left him. Packer claimed he was broke and sold his Winchester rifle to Major Downer, peace justice, for $ 10. After a short stay at the Agency, Packer said he wanted to return to Pennsylvania, and accompanied Nutter and two members of the original McGrue group to Saguache, where he can buy supplies. During this journey, Nutter sees Packer having a Frankish "Miller" skinning knife and begins to doubt Packer's story.
When the party reaches Saguache, Colorado, Packer arranges a room in Dolan's Saloon. Larry Dolan, the owner, claims that Packer spent about $ 100 during his stay, and the Packer even offered to lend him $ 300. Packer also spent $ 78 at Otto Mears general store. Nutter and other members of the original McGrue group became very suspicious of Packer and threatened to hang him. General Adams, head of the Los Pinos Indian Agency, stepped in just in time to save Packer.
After being interrogated by General Adams, Packer signed his first confession:
Old Swan died earlier and was eaten by five others about ten days from the camp. Four or five days afterwards Humphreys died and was also eaten; he has about thirty-three dollars ($ 133). I found the pocket book and took the money. Sometime later, when I was carrying wood, the butcher was killed - as the other two told me by accident - and he was also eaten. Bell shot "California" with a Swan gun and I killed Bell. Shoot him. I covered the remains and took a big piece together. Then travel fourteen days to the firm. Bell wants to kill me with his rifle - crashing into a tree and breaking his weapon.
General Adams believes that if Packer was telling the truth, he would have no problem leading a group of people to the original campsite; physical evidence will prove or disprove the Packer story. Packer initially agreed to lead the party, but after admitting defeated and rushed to Constable Herman Lauter with a knife, he was imprisoned in Saguache. The prison at the time was nothing more than a log cabin, and after passing the emergency lock for his set and was supplied with some supplies, Packer easily escaped.
First trial
On March 11, 1883, Packer was found in Cheyenne, Wyoming alive under the alias "John Schwartze" by Jean "Frenchy" Cabazon, one of the original members of the Utah mining party who lived in Chief Ouray camp in winter 1874 Cabazon reported Packer to the sheriff the local, who arrested him and contacted General Adams. Adams persuaded Packer to make his second confession, which he signed on March 16. Instead of claiming that the men are gradually killing each other to survive, Packer now claims that Shannon Bell has killed the others while Packer is lurking. On April 6, the trial began in Lake City, Colorado, and seven days later Packer was found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death by hanging. According to a local newspaper, the presiding judge, M. B. Gerry, said:
Stand greedy eat man-eatin and thank yir sintince. When well came to Hinsdale County, there was Dimmycrats sauce. But you, well and five of them, damn well. I am sintince yah t 'hang by th' th 'at the time you die, die, die, as warning' red'in 'th' Dimmycratic populayshun from this area. Packer, you Republican cannibals, I will sintince ya ta hell but the law forbids it.
The court records, however, reveal that Judge Gerry's prose is much more educated:
Alfred Packer, this court ruling is that you must be expelled from there to Hinsdale County prison and there it is limited until the 19th day of May, 1883 AD, and on May 19, 1883, you are taken from there. by the sheriff from Hinsdale County to the place of execution prepared for this purpose, at a certain point within the boundaries of the Lake City city company, in the Hinsdale area, and between 10 am and 3 pm. from that day, you, there and there, with the word sheriff, hanged on the neck until you die, die, die, and may God forgive your soul.
Second experiment
In October 1885, the sentence was revoked by the Colorado Supreme Court because it was based on the
Conditional release
On June 19, 1899, Packer's sentence was upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. However, she was released on February 8, 1901. After her parole, Packer worked as a guard at the Denver Post. He died at Deer Creek, in Jefferson County, Colorado, purportedly from "Dementia - an issue & worry" at age 65. Packer was widely rumored to have become a vegetarian before his death. He is buried in Littleton, Colorado. His grave is marked by a veteran tombstone that recorded the original regiment in 1862.
Latest investigation
On July 17, 1989, 115 years after Packer allegedly consumed his friends, a five-piece excavation was performed by James E. Starrs, then a law professor specializing in forensic science at George Washington University. After a complete search for the exact location of remnants at Cannibal Plateau in Lake City, Colorado, Starrs and his colleague Walter H. Birkby concluded, "I do not think there will be a way to demonstrate cannibalism scientifically, is the consumption of human flesh. has a picture of the man who actually eats. "
In 1994, David P. Bailey, Curator of History at the Western Colorado Museum, conducted an investigation to produce more conclusive results than Starrs'. In Audrey Thrailkill's collection of firearms owned by the museum is a Colt gun reported to have been found at the alleged crime scene of Packer. A deep investigation of the pistol's background brought up documents from the time of the trial: "A Civil War veteran who visited the scene claimed that Shannon Bell had been shot twice and the other was killed with an ax.After studying Bell closely, he saw a bullet wound that severe to the pelvic area and that Bell's purse has a bullet hole through it. "This seems to corroborate Packer's claim that Bell has killed another victim and Packer shot Bell to self-defense.
In 2000, Bailey had not proved the connection between an antique pistol and Alferd Packer, but he found that the forensic samples from the 1989 excavations had been archived, and the analysis in 2001 with an electron microscope by Dr. Richard Dujay at Mesa State College found. microscopic lead pieces on the ground taken from under the remains of Shannon Bell that are matched to the spectrograph with the remaining bullets in the Packer's pistol. While it seems certain that Bell was killed by a shot, the question of whether or not that murder remained unanswered.
Popular culture
In the
comicIn the Buddhist strip of Bud Grace The Piranha Club, one of Bayonne, New Jersey's agitators, is an elderly woman named "Alferda Packer, consumer advisor" who waged a brutal war against the Carrie Nation-style. unscrupulous business practices. One of his most frequent targets was his son-in-law, Dr. Enos Pork, a dukun surgeon who puts outrageous prices from his patients because of the malpractice he is doing on them.
In Book
In the hardboiled detective novel Dashiell Hammett The Thin Man , Nick Charles suggested Gilbert Wynant to read about the Packer expedition.
In 1968, students at the University of Colorado Boulder named their new cafeteria by baking "Alferd G Packer Memorial Grill", with the slogan, "Have a friend for lunch!" Students can order beefburger "El Canibal", and on the wall is a gigantic map that lays out Packer's journey through Colorado. Since then it has been renamed Alferd Packer Restaurant & amp; Grill.
In 1977, US Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland tried to stop the contract for cafeteria food service department but was prevented by the General Services Administration (GSA). To embarrass the GSA, Bergland and his employees held a press conference on August 10, 1977 to unveil a placard naming the executive cafeteria "The Alferd Packer Memorial Grill," announcing that Packer's life exemplifies the spirit and tariff of the cafeteria and will "serve all men". The event was covered on ABC-TV Evening News by Barbara Walters. The strategy succeeds, and the contract terminates shortly thereafter. Generous in triumph, Bergland surrendered to bureaucratic objections that the plaque has no official authorization of GSA and deleted it. The current plaque is displayed on the bar wall of members of the National Press Club The Reliable Source . It doubles as a warning to Stanley Weston (1931-84), a man working at the USDA. The Press Club's hamburger is called "Alferd Packer Burger".
The annual Philadelphia Folk Festival features a dining tent decorated with a tongue-in-cheek moniker: "Memorial Hall Alfred E. Packer... serving the human race since 1874".
In motion pictures and stage production
University of Colorado students Trey Parker and Matt Stone, co-creators of South Park , made the film titled Cannibal! The Musical (1993), based loosely on Packer's life, with Parker being billed as "Juan Schwartz" (Packer variation "John Schwartze"). The film was released commercially in 1996 by Troma Entertainment and produced as a stage play, titled Alferd Packer: The Musical, originally by Dad's Garage Theater Company and by several other theater companies since then. Lesser known film adaptations include The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980) and the horror movie Devithed: The Legend of Alferd Packer (2005).
The Czech-American horror film 1999 Ravenous is loosely based on Alferd Packer's story.
In music
Folk singer Phil Ochs wrote the song "The Ballad of Alferd Packer" (1964), documenting the events of the expedition and its aftermath. The use of Ochs humor in the song is typical of a seemingly light ongoing attitude about Packer and his alleged crimes. Although the song has never appeared in one of the Ochs studios or the release of a live album, it has appeared in several compilations issued since his death in 1976, most recently on the On My Way (2010) compilation demo of 1963.
State artist CW McCall (of "Convoy" fame) recorded a song on his album The Real McCall titled "Coming Back for More" (1990), which revives the legend and implies that the Packer ghost still haunts Lake City.
American death metal band Cannibal Corpse presents their debut album, Eaten Back to Life (1990), to Packer. The following statements can be found on this album's inlay: "This album is dedicated to the memory of Alfred Packer, the first American cannibal (R.I.P.)"
Source of the article : Wikipedia