Alferd Packer
Legendary Colorado Cannibal
The Rocky Mountains are the source of many lost treasure legends and stories of haunted gold mines, but the dreadful tale of Alfred Packer and his missing companions still fascinates Colorado history buffs more than a century after Packer walked out of a snowstorm and into a bar to tell his frightful tale.
Alfred Packer and the Civil War
Alferd G. Packer was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania on January 21, 1842 to James and Esther Packer. He suffered from seizures from the time he was a child. IIn April of 1862, Packer enlisted with the Union Army and served in Company F, 16th U.S. Infantry of Minnesota, but was mustered out of service in December due to his epilepsy. Determined to serve in the military, Packer enlisted in the Company L, 8th Iowa Cavalry Regiment in 1863, but was mustered out again due to his epilepsy. Instead, Packer decided to join a group of men headed for the gold rush in Colorado.
Packer Leaves Utah in Search of Gold
In November of 1873, Packer left Utah with a party of twenty one men headed for Colorado. In January of 1874, as they traveled near Montrose, Colorado, the men met up with Chief Ouray who led the Southern Ute tribe. Packer claimed that Ouray's estimation of the distance they would need to travel to reach the Los Pinos Indian Agency was forty miles, when in fact it was eighty miles. The men split into separate traveling parties, and all parties were trapped by a blizzard. They boiled and ate parts of the wild roses that grew across the trail and when they reached a point of starvation, boiled and ate their own moccasins then wrapped their feet in strips of blankets.
Packer Emerges From the Mountains Alone
Two months later, on April 16, 1874, Packer emerged alone from the forest near the Los Pinos Indian Agency on Cochetopa Creek near Gunnison. He walked into a bar in Saguache, Colorado and met up with a few of the men from the original traveling party. At first, Packer claimed he survived by eating rabbits and rosehips. When it was discovered that he had money and personal possessions from his missing companions, Packer’s story took a sordid turn.
Packer Signs a Confession Then Escapes
Packer said that some of the men died of exposure on the trail and the survivors were forced to eat their companions to survive. Three months later the bodies of the men were located, but they were all at the campsite, and there was signs of a fierce struggle. Packer was arrested and charged with murder. In his written confession, Packer claimed that he left the camp one morning to climb to the top of the mountain and search for the Los Pinos Indian Agency. When he returned he found most of his companions murdered and Shannon Bell roasting a man's leg over a fire. Packer said Bell attacked him with an axe and he was forced to shoot him. Packer also claimed he fell into an exhausted state of shock. He remembered eating more boiled rose hips, but he also remembered eating flesh from the murdered men, which made him very ill. In May of 1874, Packer signed the first of three murder confessions and was jailed in Saguache. Then, in a true mystery of history, someone slipped Packer the keys and he escaped before he could be tried.
Packer is Found in Cheyenne, Wyoming
Nine years later, in March of 1883, Packer resurfaced in Cheyenne, Wyoming, living under the name John Schwartze. He was arrested a second time, signed a second confession, and was charged with the murder of one of the men. His trial was held in April in Lake City, Colorado. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. The Colorado Supreme Court voted to reverse the death sentence of Alferd Packer based on a technicality. In 1886, in Gunnison, Colorado, Packer was charged with the murders of the other four men. This time he was sentenced to forty years in prison. His sentence was upheld in 1899 by the Colorado Supreme Court., but in 1901 the Colorado Governor paroled Packer and he moved to Deer Creek, Colorado, where he died six years later on April 23, 1907. Alferd G. Packer is buried in the Littleton Colorado Cemetery.
Was Alferd Packer Innocent of Murder?
The controversy over Alferd Packer's innocence or guilt remains to this day. In 1981, a Colorado judge tried to posthumously pardon Packer, but the pardon was denied by Governor Richard Lamm. In 1994, the Curator of History at the Museum of Western Colorado, David P. Bailey, conducted his own investigation, starting with the examination of a colt pistol found at the site. Bailey noted that Packer claimed he shot Shannon Bell in self-defense, and one of the men who visited the scene of the crime reported that Bell had a bullet wound in his pelvis. In 2001, Dr. Richard Dulay at Mesa State College used an electron microscope to match lead fragments in the soil near Bell's remains to the bullets remaining in the colt pistol examined by Bailey, and the lead fragments matched. However, it was decided that there is not enough evidence to prove self-defense.
Resources:
"Alferd Packer." Massengill, Pat. Biographies. History of Littleton: City of Littleton, Colorado Official Website. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
Bailey, David P. "Was Alferd Packer Innocent of Murder?" The Museum of Western Colorado Official Website. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
“The Alferd Packer Collection.” Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
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