The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-10-10
lDenyer Nexs.l

(Denver News.)
A great white cloud. its misty vap'
ors floating like a winding shee,
through Dead Mans gulch. rising be
yond Gulch Hill. and Reckoning
wraith-like above Cannibal Mesa. has
pointed it's phantom-like fingers once
more at the history of n of the most
CHASTITY stories of crime in Colorado
history.
Coincidert with the appearance OF
the spectre-like cloud-which. by the
way. to the mountain dweller is mere
ly a natural cloud effects the ar
rival in Denver of James Hawkins o!
Chicago. who claims to be a relative OF
Shannon Bell. upon whose flesh Color
ADDS nlan-eater was supposed to have
sustained life in those snow-covered
hills nea Lake City just IS years ago.
Hawkins. who visited the scene OF
one of the most revolving crimes in
pioneer history and who gazed upon
the graves of Alfred Packers victims,
was impressed by the queer white
cloud which seems to settle above the
mountain sepulchers on, winter nights.
The jewellers of the mountains,
however. laugh at any supernatural
significance being attached to the phe-
nomenon. which is a frequent one.
At all events the wraith-like cloud
recalls the story Of the man-eater
whose ghoulish crime has left its in
delihle blot upon the face Of the
mountains.
Alfred Packer, the man-eater. died
three years ago at Littleton-seven
years after he had been paroled by
Governor G. S. Thomas and released
from the Canon City penitentiary,
where he served out seventeen years
nf the fnrfS..yaar Santanra
The revolving details of the story Of
Colorado's man-eater will always
make a vivid page in the hideous an
nails of cannibalism.
There are those who say that Pack
er invented the tale of ~devouring the
flesh of his companions. when Yer
come by starvation. at the means Of
covering the real motive of his crime,
which was murder and robbery.
Packer himself when he pushed his
way through the snow-clogged noun
tain passes and reached the Los Pinos
agency in April. 1874. confessed that
he had eaten Of his fellow men and
described with degenerate relish how
he had found the breasts of his vic
Tins the sweetest and most tender It'd
bits he had ever tasted.
fesion may be mitigated by the fact
that Packer told many different
stories. and this fact finally resulted in
his being arrested and placed in a log
cabin Jail at Saguache. charged with
the murder of his companions.
He escaped the same night, and all
trace of him was lost for nine years,
when he was discovered at FIT. Fetter-
man, Wyo., by one of the original
Utah. for whom Packer had volun-
TERED his services aS pnida
This man. "Frenchy," who had been
a close friend of Bells, had sworn to
track his slayer. One night through
the thin partitions Of a house in Wyo-
ming he heard a voice he knew to be
Packers. He notified General Adams.
inc the man. who was living under
the name Of John Schwartz, proved to
be Alfred Packer. the man-eater.
He was returned to Lake City. tried
and sentenced to death, but owing to
the fact that Colorado had become a
state since the crime was committed,
legal technicalities permitted a stay
of execution to be effected. Packer
was retired in 1856. when he was SEN
fenced to 40 years. eight years each
for the five victims he was accused of
killing.
Such is the brief outline Of the
crime. disappearance and final capture
of Alfred Packer, but the story, which
has been written upon the lonely face
of the mountains and which is whis-
pered by the quakinR aspen and the
sentinel pines, pointing accusing
fingers to high heaven, is n that
legal documents will V unfold.
Packer himself is the chief authori-
ty that he ate the flesh of his fellow
one to call General Charles Adams's
attention to Packers suspicious ac-
tons and who later saw the bodies Of
the five victims, does not believe
Packer was a cannibal, but a plain
cold -blooded criminal.
General Adams. who had Packer
confined in the Gunnison Jail in 1874.
Packer to be hung in May, 1883, were
both defeated in their endeavors to
punish the arch criminal of the noun
tains. Escape for nine years thwart-
ed the first attempt at punishment,
and a technicality of the law the sec
ond. Finally when Packer was SEN
fenced to a forty-year term, in 1886.
his case was taken up by a sensational
newspaper and the sinister influence
suited in the killing of the two pro-
prietors of the daily. by a lawyer in
terested in the affair. Governor
Charles 3. Thomas. 80 convinced was
he Of Packers guilt that he refused to
liberate him up to 1901. made this
statement. when the hysteria over the
| pardon was at it's height:
ut Is better for him and for the
commonwealth that he should pay the
penalty, which Is out OF all proportion
to the awful crime he committed. On
his accoun a second terrible tragedy
was recently grazed. and 1t would
seem as though worthy. If less
repulsive. objects of philanthropic eff
fort might easily be found both in and
out of prison walls"
In spite of his opinion. however,
Governor Thomas was induced to ma
role Packer. Jan. s. 1901.
In the brain of the man who was
convicted Of killing five Of his com.
panions and who will always be re.
garded in the light of a cannibal, the
hideous phantasies of a conscience.
tortured mind, however, were never
pardoned.
Backward and forward passed those
ghastly phantOms of his dead com.
panions. whose bodies. with heads
crushed In. were found about the old
camp fire a few yards away from the
camp, where evidences showed thai
Packer had stayed for weeks with nc
company but the signing spirits of the
forest and the dead men upon whose
flesh he said he lived.
The specter-like cloud which dwell.
lers in that widest OF all parts q,
Colorado. Hindsale county, say ha.