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He died denying that he had killed the victims, although he never denied having eaten them.
![alferd packer alferd packer](https://aventurasnahistoria.uol.com.br/media/_versions/canibal_de_colorado_widelg.jpg)
The grisly gourmand settled near Denver, where his stories and candy-filled pockets made him a favorite with children.
ALFERD PACKER FREE
He was released in 1901 after The Denver Post, known in those yellow-journalism days as the "Bucket of Blood," led a spirited campaign to free the cannibal. The Hinsdale sheriff sent constituents elaborately printed invitations to the hanging, but a quirk in the law saved Packer, who was retried and sentenced to 40 years in prison. I sentence you to hang until you are dead, dead, dead as a warning against reducing the Democratic population of the state." There were seven Democrats in Hinsdale County, and you ate five of them. "Stand up, Alferd Packer, you voracious, man-eating s- of a b. Packer was arrested, but escaped and wasn't recaptured until 1883.Īfter Packer confessed to killing and eating the five, District Court Judge Melville Gerry reportedly gave one of the West's most partisan sentences: When the snows melted, the skeletons of the five men were found, their heads axed in. Only Packer emerged, wandering into a Lake City Indian agency with no appetite for meat and an unquenchable thirst for whiskey. The "Ballad of Alferd Packer" is sung by students sporting T-shirts with such slogans as "What's the Beef?", "Reach Out and Munch Someone" and "When You Care to Eat the Very Best."Īs history records the Packer odyssey, the former Union soldier led a party of gold seekers across the rugged San Juan Mountains in the winter of 1874. Packer Day events at the university include rib-eating, meat-tossing and Alferd Packer look-alike contests. Packer Memorial Grille, hungry students have paid him homage for 16 years. At the University of Colorado's Alferd E. In 1977 club members succeeded in getting the Department of Agriculture cafeteria named for the glutton, but a General Services Administration bureaucrat deemed the Packer plaque in "bad taste" and had it removed. Packer had brunch Saturday at the National Press Club with Bloody Marys, hearts of palm and steak tartare, relishing the tale of their gruesome namesake. In Washington, D.C., The Friends of Alferd E. His strange story has been the subject of books, plays and a low-budget movie.Īnd each April, Packer societies in 13 states dine in celebration of the anniversary of the mountain man's death in 1907. His bust stood in the state capitol next to those of governors and members of Congress. In the days before bean sprouts and granola, when the West was raw and men ate men, Packer chewed his way into the hearts of Coloradans by devouring five gold-seeking companions.īelieved to be the nation's only convicted cannibal, Packer has become a somewhat beloved, if bizarre, hero. Across the country this month, Coloradans who believe in serving their fellow man are sitting down to a rare meal in honor of Alferd E.