Alferd Packer Alfred G . " Alferd " Packer ( January 21 , 1842 – April 23 , 1907 ) was an American prospector who was accused of cannibalism during the winter of 1873 - 1874 . First tried for murder , Packer was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter . A biopic of his life , " The Legend of Alfred Packer " , was made in 1980 . Packer ' s life . He was born as Alfred Griner Packer in Allegheny County , Pennsylvania , one of three children of James Packer and his wife Esther Griner . By the early 1850s , James Packer had moved his family to Lagrange County , Indiana , where he worked as a cabinet maker . Alfred Packer served in the Union Army in the American Civil War , enlisting on April 22 , 1862 at Winona , Minnesota in Company F , 16th U . S . Infantry Regiment , giving his occupation as a shoemaker . However , he was discharged for epilepsy eight months later at Fort Ontario , New York . He returned west again and on June 25 , 1863 , he enlisted in Company L , 8th Iowa Cavalry Regiment at Ottumwa , Iowa ; he was discharged at Cleveland , Tennessee on April 22 , 1864 , for the same reason . He finally decided to try his luck at prospecting . In November 1873 , Packer was in a party of 21 men who left Provo , Utah , heading for the Colorado gold country around Breckenridge . On January 21 , 1874 he met Chief Ouray , known as the " White Man ' s Friend " , near Montrose , Colorado . Chief Ouray recommended they postpone their expedition until spring , since they were likely to encounter dangerous winter weather in the mountains . Ignoring Ouray ' s advice , Packer and five others left for Gunnison , Colorado , on February 9 . Besides Packer , the group was made up of Shannon Wilson Bell , James Humphrey , Frank " Reddy " Miller , George " California " Noon , and Israel Swan . The prospectors became hopelessly lost and ran out of provisions . They were snowbound in the Rocky Mountains . Packer later made three confessions which differed considerably in their description of what happened . In the last , he claimed he went scouting and came back to find Shannon Bell roasting human flesh . When Bell rushed him with a hatchet , Packer shot him . Packer claimed Bell had gone mad and murdered the others . On April 16 , 1874 , Packer arrived at Los Pinos Indian Agency near Gunnison . He spent some time in a saloon in Saguache , Colorado , where he met several of his original party . Packer claimed he had acted in self - defense , but his story was not believed . According to tradition , the presiding judge , M . B . Gerry , allegedly told him : In reality , what Judge Gerry told him was much more educated : Packer signed a confession on August 5 , 1874 . He was jailed in Saguache , but he escaped soon afterwards . On March 11 , 1883 , Packer was discovered in Cheyenne , Wyoming , living under the alias of " John Schwartze . " On March 16 , he signed another confession . On April 6 , a trial began in Lake City , Colorado . On April 13 , he was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to death . In October 1885 , the sentence was reversed by the Colorado Supreme Court as being based on an " ex post facto law " . On June 8 , 1886 , Packer was sentenced to 40 years at another trial in Gunnison . At the time , this was the longest custodial sentence in U . S . history . On June 19 , 1899 , Packer ' s sentence was upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court . However , he was paroled on February 8 , 1901 , and went to work as a guard at the " Denver Post " . He died in Deer Creek , in Jefferson County , Colorado , reputedly of " Senility - trouble & worry " at the age of 65 . Packer is widely rumored to have become a vegetarian before his death . He was buried in Littleton , Colorado . His grave is marked with a veteran ' s tombstone listing his original regiment in 1862 . Recent investigations . On July 17 , 1989 , 115 years after Packer allegedly consumed his companions , an exhumation of the five bodies was undertaken by James E . Starrs , then a professor of law specializing in forensic science at George Washington University . Following an exhaustive search for the precise location of the remains at Cannibal Plateau in Lake City , Colorado , Starrs and his colleague Walter H . Birkby concluded , " I don ' t think there will ever be any way to scientifically demonstrate cannibalism . Cannibalism per se is the ingestion of human flesh . So you ' d have to have a picture of the guy actually eating . " In 1994 , David P . Bailey , Curator of History at the Museum of Western Colorado , undertook an investigation to turn up more conclusive results than Starrs ' . In the Audrey Thrailkill collection of firearms owned by the museum was a Colt revolver that had reportedly been found at the site of Packer ' s alleged crime . Exhaustive investigation into the pistol ' s background turned up documents from the time of the trial : " A Civil War veteran that visited the crime scene stated that Shannon Bell had been shot twice and the other victims were killed with a hatchet . Upon careful study of Bell , he noticed a severe bullet wound to the pelvic area and that Bell ' s wallet had a bullet hole through it . " This seems to corroborate Packer ' s claim that Bell had killed the other victims and that Packer shot Bell in self - defense . By 2000 , Bailey had not yet proven a link between the antique pistol and Alfred Packer , but he discovered that forensic samples from the 1989 exhumation had been archived , and analysis in 2001 with an electron microscope by Dr . Richard Dujay at Mesa State College found microscopic lead fragments in the soil taken from under Shannon Bell ' s remains that were matched by spectrograph with the bullets remaining in what was indeed Packer ' s pistol . While it appears certain that Bell was killed by a gunshot , the question of whether it was murder remains unanswered . Popular culture . In the early 1960s , folk singer Phil Ochs wrote the song " The Ballad of Alferd Packer " , documenting the events of the expedition and its aftermath . Ochs ' use of humor in the song is typical of the seemingly light - hearted ongoing attitude regarding Packer and his alleged crimes . Although the track never appeared on any of Ochs ' studio or live album releases , it has appeared on several compilations issued since his death in 1976 , most recently on the " On My Way " compilation of demos from 1963 , released in 2010 . In 1968 , students at the University of Colorado at Boulder named their new cafeteria grill the " Alferd G . Packer Memorial Grill " with the slogan " Have a friend for lunch ! " Students can order an " El Canibal " beefburger and on the wall is a giant map outlining Packer ' s travels through Colorado . In 1977 the US Secretary of Agriculture , Bob Bergland , attempted to terminate a contract for the department ' s cafeteria food service , but was prevented by the General Services Administration ( GSA ) . To embarrass the GSA , Bergland and his employees convened a press conference on 10 August 1977 to unveil a plaque naming the executive cafeteria " The Alferd Packer Memorial Grill " , announcing that Packer ' s life exemplified the spirit and fare of the cafeteria and would " serve all mankind " . The event was covered on ABC - TV Evening News by Barbara Walters . The stratagem was successful and the contracts were terminated soon thereafter . Magnanimous in victory , Bergland yielded to the bureaucratic objection that the plaque lacked official GSA authorization , and removed it . The plaque is currently displayed on the wall of the National Press Club ' s " The Reliable Source " members - only bar . It doubles as a memorial to Stanley Weston ( 1931 – 84 ) , a man who worked at the USDA . The Press Club ' s hamburger is called the " Alferd Packer Burger " . In 1990 , country artist C . W . McCall ( of " Convoy " fame ) recorded a track on his album " The Real McCall " titled " Coming Back for More " , which revived the legend and implied that Packer ' s ghost still haunts Lake City . In 1990 the American death metal band Cannibal Corpse dedicated their debut album , " Eaten Back to Life " , to Packer . The following statement can be found in the inlay of this album : " This album is dedicated to the memory of Alfred Packer , the first American cannibal ( R . I . P . ) " In 1993 , University of Colorado students Trey Parker and Matt Stone , co - creators of " South Park " , made a film called " Cannibal ! The Musical " , based loosely on Packer ' s life , with Parker billed as " Juan Schwartz " ( a variation of Packer ' s " John Schwartze " ) . The film was released commercially in 1996 by Troma Entertainment and produced as a stage play initially by Dad ' s Garage Theatre Company and by several other theatre companies since . Lesser known film adaptions include " The Legend of Alfred Packer " ( 1980 ) and the horror film , " " ( 2005 ) . In an episode of " Celebrity Ghost Stories " , actress Diane Neal recounts an event in Littleton , Colorado in 1987 when , at the age of 11 , she and two classmates were given a history of Alferd Packer . After class , she and her friends went to the cemetery in Littleton where Packer is buried and started to dance mockingly on his grave . Shortly afterwards , the girls felt a chilling presence and they ran from the cemetery . Neal recalls that , later that night , Packer paid a visit to her bedroom and began to torment her . Her two friends had similar experiences . Later , Neal claims she and her friends used a Ouija board , to summon Packer with unpleasant results .