S2 Ep29: Alfred Packer: The Colorado Cannibal

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

History, Documentary, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When a haggard Alfred Packer stumbled from the Colorado wilderness in 1874, he at first said he'd been abandoned by five traveling companions who'd left him to fend for himself. But his already-shaky story quickly changed once a search party uncovered the remains of five mutilated men. Packer -- sometimes referred to by the first name "Alferd" thanks to a misspelled tattoo -- went down in history as the so-called Colorado Cannibal, but debate lingers to this day over whether he'd committed premeditated murder or simply found a way to survive horrifying circumstances.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

Transcript

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0:00.0	How are the days are coming?
0:02.0	How are the days are coming?
0:04.0	How are the days are coming?
0:06.0	Yes, it's official.
0:08.0	Holidays are coming.
0:10.0	Coca-Cola Zero Sugar brings the magic this Christmas.
0:15.0	This is the season, it's always a real thing.
0:18.0	How are the days are coming?
0:20.0	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they earn the label crime of the century.
0:34.0	But the stories that made headlines in decades past are necessarily remembered today.
0:42.0	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author.
0:46.0	In each episode of this show, I'll examine a case that's maybe less known today, but was huge when it happened.
0:54.0	This is crimes of the centuries.
0:58.0	The man spotted wandering the horizon was haggard, no question.
1:16.0	His feet were bare, his cold black hair and beard were wild and long.
1:20.0	That much everyone agreed on.
1:22.0	But how he behaved?
1:24.0	Well, it seemed that was open to interpretation.
1:26.0	Some said he had a crazy look in his eye, the kind of wild-eyed stare that people saw too often in the Wild West in the 1880s.
1:34.0	The kind of look that served almost as a warning.
1:38.0	I have seen and done things you can't imagine.
1:40.0	But others said he looked peaceful and plump, or at least well-fed, which was noteworthy considering the story he told about the adventure that ended with him arriving to the camp alone in Chulis.
	...

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