Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal by Harold SchechterMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Just the other day, while reading this, l reviewed a photo and other Alferd Packer memorabilia at the Museum of Death in New Orleans. This detailed and engrossing (pun intended) investigation of this American prospector who confessed to cannibalism during the winter of 1874. He and five other men attempted to travel through the high mountains of Colorado during the peak of a harsh winter. When only Alfred reached civilization, he claimed that the others had killed each other for food in the style of the survivors of the shipwrecks of the Essex and Méduse also in the 19th century and the Donner Party. Packer confessed to having lived off the flesh of his companions during his snowbound state and to having used it to survive his trek out of the mountains two months later. After his story was called into question largely because of the way he also lived high off their specie, he hid from justice for nine years before being tried, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. Packer won a retrial and was eventually sentenced to five counts of manslaughter and sentenced to 40 years (8 years for each count). This book covers the details of expedition, first trial, second trial, publicity building during imprisonment, eventual parole and life in public. Beside the actual crime – which this study convinces me was intentional, if even a crazed, starvation-induced frenzy – this book covers the legal implications (the time sentenced was far and above that of similar and more heinous cases) and the folklore that grew up around Packer as both folklore bogeyman and sort of antihero legend, even among Republicans for ingesting so many Democrats.
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