Alfred Griner Packer (January 21, 1842 – April 23, 1907), also known as the "Colorado Cannibal", was an American prospector and self-proclaimed wilderness guide who confessed to cannibalism during the winter of 1874. After emerging as the sole survivor of a six-man party who had attempted to travel through the San Juan Mountains of the Colorado Territory, he eventually confessed to having lived off the flesh of his companions, giving more than one version of his account as to the circumstances.
After his story was called into question, Packer escaped jail and hid from justice for nine years. He was eventually tried, convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to death. Packer won a retrial, and was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison on five counts of voluntary manslaughter.
An almost completely fictitious biopic of his exploits, The Legend of Alfred Packer, was released in 1980. A more comedic and heavily fabricated take on the story, titled Cannibal! The Musical, was released in 1993.
Early life
Alfred Griner Packer was born in an unincorporated area of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, on January 21, 1842. He was one of three children born to James Packer and his wife, Esther Griner. By the early 1850s, Packer's father had moved his family to LaGrange County, Indiana, where he worked as a cabinetmaker. Packer is said to have had a bitter relationship with his parents, and in his late teens he moved to Minnesota and worked as a shoemaker.
Career
Packer served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He enlisted on April 22, 1862, in Winona, Minnesota, and was assigned to Company F of the 16th Infantry Regiment. Eight months later he was honorably discharged due to epilepsy, which had triggered seizures. On June 25, 1863, Packer enlisted in the 8th Iowa Cavalry Regiment at Ottumwa, Iowa, only for his epilepsy to result in a second discharge on April 22, 1864.
Packer then traveled west, and worked at numerous jobs over the next nine years. These professions included being a hunter, wagon teamster, ranch hand and field worker, but his seizures and overall attitude ensured that he never kept a job for long. Packer also worked for a couple of months as a guide, but those who knew him at this time later stated that he was ill-suited to the role and was prone to lose his way. He ended up working mining-related jobs, drifting from mine to mine, but never found prosperity through the industry. He worked for a short time in the Colorado Territory as a miner but, having no luck, moved on to the Utah Territory.
Most who knew Packer generally disliked and distrusted him, owing to his argumentative personality, his nearly pathological lying, and his reputation for theft.
Expedition
In November 1873, 20 men left the Bingham Canyon mines near Salt Lake City for the gold fields of Breckenridge in the Colorado Territory, having heard of a massive strike that was discovered there. The men were largely strangers to each other, and banded together to make their fortune in Colorado, after Bob McGrue rallied any willing men to follow him. A member of this original party, George Tracy, claimed that the men encountered Packer some 25 miles from their starting point, near Provo. Packer asked where they were headed, and when he heard they were headed to the gold country of the San Juan Mountains, he said he would like to join them. Packer was without money and also lacked adequate supplies, so the men were apprehensive to take him along, but Packer claimed he was both a prospector and a guide, and that he knew the San Juan territory well. His claim gave him a position of worth among the simple prospectors, who knew little or nothing of Colorado's geography. Unfortunately, neither did Packer.
Members of this original party later said that he had vastly overstated his experience of being a seasoned guide familiar to the area, or had even possibly fabricated his qualifications altogether. He was also reported as being without a rifle at the time the expedition left, having only a Colt revolver with him. Throughout the course of their journey Packer was reported as being greedy with rations, a bit of a beggar, lazy, and obstinate. He was reported to have quarreled constantly with party member Frank Miller. At the time of his first trial, Packer was characterized as a "whining fraud" by party member Preston Nutter. His seizures also made his presence in the group strenuous.