Alferd Packer: A True Story of The Colorado Cannibal | Wild West Documentary
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
- In the Spring of 1846, a group of hopeful pioneers departed Independence, Missouri under the banner of manifest destiny. They charted course across the Oregon Trail with hopes to settle in California, all 87 of its total participants looking forward to a new life out west. Collectively, the group was known as the Donner Party, and away they went on a frontier journey that no man, woman, nor child would ever forget -- either then, or now.
Of course, the defining aspect of the Donner Party wasn’t their ill-sighted attempt at a shortcut around Hastings Cutoff, or their plight in the show ridden Sierra Nevada mountains that followed it. Rather, it was their notorious reliance on cannibalism to survive these harsh conditions that has dominated the discourse over the last 175 years.
While historians have debated for decades whether their cannibalism was truly just a means of survival or came with much more nefarious explanations, the Donner Party isn’t actually the only case of documented cannibalism in the old west. Cannibals were rumored to stalk the untamed lands of the frontier, usually in the form of barbaric Native American tribes that even the friendly Indigenous bands wanted nothing to do with.
However, these notions were mostly folklore embedded in prejudice: cannibalism was not rampant amongst most bands of Native Americans, and existed mostly pre-colonisation.
That being said, there still were cannibals stalking the deserts, high plains, and mountainsides of the frontier. To gain a better understanding of their role in the evils of the country’s history, here’s a deeper dive into maybe the most bizarre tale of cannibalism in the wild west.
Introducing the true and terrifying story of Alfred Packer.
0:00 Intro
2:09 The Colorado Cannibal
12:21 Mystery Of The Cannibal
33:37 Return Of The Cannibal
43:51 Demise Of The Cannibal
Thank you for watching.
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This was incredible! I’m surprised Packer’s tale isn’t more well known. Such a fascinating sliver of history.
I learned about him because of the movie Cannibal the Musical
the students of the university of colorado named their cafeteria after this dude. I love it. the Donner party left springfield illinois to start out, we live there now.
That’s really wholesome ❤
The path of this journey has always confused me... If Chief Ouray's Montrose camp was anywhere near where the city is now, the Gunnison river is due east (follow the Black Canyon), and Breckenridge is northeast from there. I'm not saying that navigating the mountains is not difficult... But to end up down near Lake City? They'd have to go south east, just to turn and go northeast, even farther!
The nonsensical geography in this case contributed heavily to the amount of time we spent just trying to process the history at large! No wonder people literally lost their mind in the wilderness. The western frontier was a labyrinth!
The violence was rampant. I cant even fathom the strength and willpower it must have taken, just to survive, let alone thrive.
Thank You!
Alfred showed up in such a wretched state that the 1st thing the others did was feed him. The stories all said he was in such a state of hunger that he ate it so fast that he threw it all right back up and apologized stating that the starvation must have caused damage to his digestive system. This cat was the consument actor, pathological liar and so much more, all evil and all planned in his cannibalism Idk about anyone else but that gives me the willey's!! This guy was so sinister and so evil that someone could make a horror movie out of his tale. Im not talking about bloody gore. I mean fear. This story, with the right investors, could make a movie to rival "silence of the lambs". Ive always said that genius and evil go hand in glove if the genius isnt given a way to positively impact the world. Someone told me the ole cliche' about idle hands being Satan's tools.... ive never wished i could weave a tale more than right this very moment. I love horror movies built on fear. One of my gf's gave me a book of short stories by Stephen King when we were in high school and thus began a love affair to last a lifetime. 😊
Sawney Bean and Robert Carlyles character in the movie Ravenous are my favorite cannibals
Ok. What is this dudes first name? The title says Alferd but the description says Alfred.
He was illiterate and he got a tattoo where he misspelled his name Alfred as Alferd. He was called Alferd as a joke and he accepted it as his name.
Thank u
@3:36 why tho
His name was Alfred but he had Alferd tattooed on his arm, true story.
Check out Cannibal the Musical
One of my favorite movies of all-time, which I remember seeing during the summer of 2006.
This was the end of him and the end of this show...
CW McCall made a funny song about him called Coming back for more...
FALSE: The aztecs practiced cannibalism
Anasazi did also. According to some Navajo traditions and current archeologist.