In 1883, the territory of Colorado, Alfred Packer was sentenced to death.
He was not hanged but finally spent some time in jail. It was an old man when he emerged.
Alfred Packer was a Union soldier. We thanked him quickly, because of epilepsy. A soldier who became a guide beautiful winter day. In 1874, he had to take him to Utah to Colorado 21 minors. But nobody knew he was not well endowed. No one suspected he might be bragging.
Packer and the 21 miners were lost in a snowstorm, saw their food away in a river while trying to cross it, met the Chief Ouray of the Ute tribe, friend of white men , who offered them hospitality.
And Packer wants, really, to return Colorado. Five of his companions also. They want to hit the road, despite warnings from the Indian chief. The Rockies are dangerous nature, this time of year is unfair.
Chief Ouray and his wife Chipeta .
Packer was accompanied by Shannon Wilson Bell, a strapping red-haired, James Humphreys, who had $ 133 in his pocket, Frank "Reddy" Miller, redhead, too, also nicknamed the "Butcher" no one knows that s' it was actually George "California" Noon, a frail young boy of 18 years and Israel Swan, aged 65. From them, we do not know much. They were small and had a thirst for gold.This gold, he expected them. For this reason, alone, did they dare cross the Rockies. They took the road, their backpack. The dream is so close, the future promises wonders.
The first to die was the Dean Swan.
He died of cold, hunger, fatigue. The others stayed a few minutes near his corpse, a pearl on the eyelashes can be, but often prevents the cold to cry. They stood there looking at it, the saliva on his lips as was the rage. Something
end in the stomach in stomach. And the frozen corpse reminds the body of the animal that was hunted.
There may be one that has thrown the idea in the air like that, without really thinking. And maybe it was Miller who took the knife that was used to cut the meat frozen, this may be why it was nicknamed the butcher. Regardless of whether Swan was human, and he was their companion. When you become a wolf in the forest, only hunger that has twisted her stomach. All thoughts abolished, but pain in the womb, the entrails demanding their due.
And then four or five days later, Humphreys died in turn. The $ 133 in his pocket, they would no longer serve him much. Packer then borrowed them.
And then they ate it, too.
And then came the turn of the Butcher Miller of German origin. Packer said there was an incident when he had left to hunt. He was never able to tell what really happened to the butcher. He came back he was dead. One incident, that's all. Noon Bell or targeted animal and hit the man, perhaps.
Then they ate it, too. Packer replied
hunt. Long. When he returns, he discovers the corpse of the young George. A bullet in the body, that Bell shot at close range with gun Swan. Packer, mumbles, does not require explanation. He's hungry, that's all he knows.
a ravenous bear, a hungry inhumane.
Then they eat it, too.
But Bell still hungry. He has an ax in his hands and his gaze is fixed on Packer. Packer fired first. Self-defense. It was him or Bell. Packer still has enough strength to choose, and Bell is mad, mad with hunger, mad at all. It was perhaps more fragile than California.
All this is true. The simple truth, "he says.
Help me, my God, but everything is true .
The Dead Man's Gulch. The place where Packer called feasted well.
A reporter on a mission stop at the scene, armed with white sheets and crayons. He sits down and draws five bodies, that the cold has frozen, the animals have eaten. The bodies bear the marks of an ax. Missing head of one of them. Presumably it is Frank Miller. The breast of one was cut at the other, it lacks some of the calf. Some seem to have been beaten.
Packer's tale is blood on the snow and cries of the man who is blind.
And one or two lies. Alfred
not even know her name. An error on the paper, an error on a tattoo and Alfred Alferd becomes. Packer back in Colorado. He does not know how he really did. He did not even return for coming back alive from this hell. Nobody asks him questions, then he is silent. It foams and bars without the laughter he gave a March evening, nobody would ever have known. Frenchy Cabazon is a former group member, who recognized that laugh in this saloon. He was surprised that others are not there to drink and laugh, too.
Alfred looks healthy, but it feels tired. All he seeks is the whiskey. He does not want to eat. All he wants is the whiskey, and he has the wherewithal to pay. Alfred
a thousand versions to tell. First, his companions were abandoned because he had injured his leg. But let him rummage through his memory, and he will tell you that Bell killed everyone. Him, he ate because he was hungry, and he who has never suffered from hunger does not know his happiness. He was hungry, he ate, the law of nature is as simple as that. Imagine the hunger, imagine the cold, imagine the emptiness and your bowels harden.
Nobody believes it, but Polly Pry and Trey Parker, but that's another story.
Polly is famous throughout Colorado. Acerbic pen and paper controversial. Polly has done much research. Thieves and murderers would be released. Why not a cannibal? She thought the say, clams, even small sellers of newspapers that are at his door, everybody cares. He is guilty. Otherwise, it would be the sixth corpse. Otherwise, he would not escape during his first arrest. One judge for the murder of Israel Swan. In 1883 he will be accused of murdering her five companions in misfortune. There is so much to put him on the back, "said the judge, and God takes pity on him.
And then there is an example.
In this year 1883, two cases of cannibalism are known, outside the territory. Packer will be the example, the wild card drawn at random. He will be hanged until death ensued. Polly stirred paper under the nose of the accusers. Do not forget he was a soldier.
Whether Packer thanked Polly Pry.
He will go to jail. He stayed 20 years. 20 years to perform the same rituals. He became a vegetarian. Goalkeeper Hoyt says he never had any problems with him. And every attempt to release, Alfred says, whenever he is innocent. He has eaten, yes, and besides, he never got hidden. But he never killed. And ghosts, those who died, those who are in him now, forgive him. They would have done the same thing.
One day in 1901, he sees for the first time the American sun, hand over his eyes, he hears the laughter and shouting in the streets. There will be three months at Polly Pry. But it does not stay. He hates Denver. He knows nothing of city life. He wants the freedom of the hills.
is in the streets of Littleton that the soldier Packer ages. People whisper, on his way. This is the man who killed and ate his companions? It's strange, it is so nice! He
children sit on his lap and tell them about the Great West. The Old West.
A real adventure, kids. Consider your lucky you are warm, sheltered, you're not hungry. And when it snows, it's important. Sounds acquired. Never be sure of nothing. Hunger, she cares. She will not ask your opinion, it will not ask you if this is acceptable, good or normal.
All that, and the rhetoric is the wind, nothing, when you're hungry.
*** A must-see musical comedy and horror, a little swath (for which I have immense affection) Trey Parker, one of the fathers of dirty kids South Park ; Cannibal! The Musical. Pearl impudence and humor idiot who will remind everyone that building a snowman can be fatal.
