Western Kansas world., 1886-08-21
PACKERS FRIGHrFuL CRIME

How He Killed His Five Companiovs and,
Subsisted Upon Their Flesh-A Noted
Trial.
Owing to a technicality, due to the
stupidity OF the legislature, Albert
Packer, the most noted criminal in Col
orado, who has been under sentence of
death for three or four years, is to escape
the gallows, writes a Gunnison CORE
spondent of the New York Sun. In 1869
Packer and his five companions, all of
them prospectors and adventures, left
Utah for San Juan county, Colorado.
The country was then wilderness, and
as the men were unfamiliar with their
surroundings they lost their way. After
weary wanderings, covering several weeks,
theil food gave out, and the entire party
was reduced almost to the verge of
starvation. For several days they SUBJ
sisted on barks and roots, but as they
grew weaker rapidly and no game appear
ing, they finally came to the conclusion
that death was inevitable, and it was
agreed that they would meet it as brave
men should This decision appears to
have been arrived at in good faith by all
except Packer. Going into camp for the
night with faint hope that the morrow
might bring relief, all were soon asleep
save one.
Packer alone, animated by a develish
impulse, retained consciousness, and when
he had reason to believe that his ex-
hausted companions were wrapped in
sound slumber he seized his weapons
and crept stealthily about the camp,
shooting each man in the head. So
heavy was their sleep that those last
murdered had no warning of their fate,
and the five murders were accomplished
as easily as one might have been. Once
satisfied of the thoroughness of his work,
Packers hunger got the better of him,
and without waiting for daylight he
made horrible meal off one of his
victims, and fell asleep.
II dreamed" he once said, s'that relief
had come, and that we were already cit
ting at well-loaded table. No meat
that ever ate was more real to me. MY
companions were all there, an6 my own
satisfaction was heightened by seeing
the enjoyment with which they de-
voured their food. thought the town
we had reached had received us as heroes,
and we were proud of what we had &C.
complished, but every few minutes q
leaden feeling would come to my heart
as if something I had done was yet to
destroy all my happiness. Iawoke with
a groan and glanced quickly about me.
The sky over the mountains was streaked
with light, showing that the morning was
near, but in the valley it was almost
dark. Isprang to my feet as nimbly as
my stiffened and weakened limbs would
permit, and then the whole truth flashed
on me. Igave one glance at the bodies
lying around me and shrieked in terror.
My wolfish hunger of the night before
had been appeased, and an awful revul-
sion seized upon me. fancied that I
could see their faces and their wounds,
almost that I could hear them talk, and
without turning again I ran as fast as
my legs could carry me away from them.
I neither knew or cared in what direc-
tion. ALI the morning I pressed on,
never stopping and never looking behind,
until at length my strength would en-
dure no more and I sank to the ground
Ihe day was half gone and I already
began to fear the night. I felt then as
if I could not sleep again; that I could
not even close my eyes in daylight. l
myself on the ground and
looked up at the clouds and sky and
thought Of everything that I could. to
keep my mind off the one horrible scene
that I had left. In this way I saw the
sun disappear behing the range and saw
the twilight come on, and in a sort Of
stupor, which remember I at one time
had consciousness enough to hope was
death, I passed into . profound sleep,
from which did not awaken until late
the next morning"
When Packer came to himself after
this long slumber he was ravenously
hungry again. The thought Of his COM
panions' bodies came to him now as
rather than as grim reproach
and it was with decided effort that he
the idea temporarily and
sought long and painfully for game.
Not finding any, and growing more and
more ravenous as night came on, he en-
deavored to satisfy his cravings by chew
ing such shrubs and leaves as were with
in his reach. The darkness now did not
alright him. He saw no visions, and
his imagination conjured up nothing to
disturb him. In the blackness of the
night he laid wide awake and with mind
supernaturally active speculating on the
position in which each of his victims had
been left, and turning over and over in
his brain how he would prepare his next
unnatural meal. He could hardly wait
for daybresk to begin his journey, and
when he set out on his horrible errand,
weak as he was, it was with buoyancy
which surprised himself.
After this trip he lost bis terror, and
the repugnance with which he regarded
his crime passed away. He fingered
near the scene of the murders for days,
until finally. admonished that his revel