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Chapter 1: What is the story behind Alfred Packer and the Colorado cannibal case?
Ah, America's Wild West, filled with outlaws, rootin' tootin' cowboys, lone gunslingers, and sunset showdowns. Tumbleweeds blew, boots kicked up dust, shadows told time, and danger lurked around every saloon door. It's a bygone era that feels straight out of the movies, mostly because it is. Yes, the iconic American Wild West is by and large an invention of Hollywood.
And the mythos first started with pulpy dime novels, then moved to traveling shows until it eventually made its way onto the silver screen. The truth is the real Wild West wasn't so wild, and it was much more diverse. About 25% of all cowboys were black. Not to mention Mexican cowboys or vaqueros were essential to developing the ranching industry in California and Texas.
As for all those gunfights, many frontier towns actually banned firearms entirely. You couldn't legally carry guns in public. Some towns, though, like Palisade, Nevada, reportedly used Hollywood's myths to their advantage. They staged fake shootouts, bank robberies, and battles just to boost tourism, complete with fake blood and blank cartridges.
The whole town and even the local indigenous tribe were in on it. visitors failed to notice that the violence only ever broke out when trains rolled into the station, or that only locals ever got hurt. They were too busy hiding or running for the hills. Today's case takes place during this era of myth-making, at a time when gold fever struck America hard.
But unlike most stories we tell on the show, it plays out backwards. See, the official account is that a conspiracy happened. That in 1873, a wilderness guide named Alfred Packer lured a group of prospectors into the mountains to rob them, kill them, and eat their flesh. But that story might not be entirely true. Alfred definitely ate his companions, that much we know.
But the harder question to untangle is, did he kill them first? Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. And we would love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts.
This episode contains discussions of death, murder, and cannibalism. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. Stay with us. Do you want to hear something spooky?
Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot.
Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal.
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Chapter 2: How did the journey into the Colorado wilderness begin for Alfred Packer?
It's also the fact that he was younger and fitter than many of his companions and supposedly more knowledgeable of the mountains. So how is it that he was too weak to keep up and didn't know how to avoid something as preventable as snow blindness? And if he really was such a liability to the group, how come he's the only one who made it back?
After a while, a theory starts to develop that maybe Alfred is actually the reason the others didn't make it. Maybe he lured them into the mountains intentionally, knowing he'd have the upper hand. Maybe his plan was to rob them all along. It's just a rumor, but it changes everything for Alfred. He's brought in for a more official interrogation, and suddenly his story changes.
He says he wasn't actually left behind. After his group ran out of food, things got dire. They were starving, freezing, buried in snow, and slowly, one by one, they started to die.
the oldest went first from hunger and exposure and given the severity of their situation they made the choice not to waste his body a decision they didn't take lightly they needed food needed calories the way they saw it it was their only chance of survival and maybe from death there could be life Another member of their group died from hunger and exposure as well.
A third, Alfred says, was accidentally killed. What that means, I don't know. But he says each time they ate the dead and left the remains right where they were, their bodies scattered along the routes miles apart from one another.
last two alive were alfred and a man named shannon bell and that's when things took an unexpected turn bell tried to kill alfred during the attack alfred got a hold of his gun and shot bell in self-defense and well alfred continued on with the trend he reluctantly ate bell to survive Now, that is a messed up story, but if Alfred is telling the truth, can you blame him for any of it?
I mean, you can say you would never stoop to cannibalism, but have you ever been in a situation like that? It's not like they were killing each other for meat. Every death was either natural or an accident, minus Belle, but that was self-defense, so Alfred wouldn't be at fault for that either. Even the story about Belle losing it makes total sense. Those kind of elements can drive anyone mad.
No, really. We have covered cases on the show in which extreme isolation and cold weather may have induced violence, whether it's on a base in Antarctica, the frozen mountain of Aconcagua, or Dyatlov Pass. Alfred's new story also puts into perspective his behavior when he returned from the wild, why he wanted to drink to forget, why he was too ashamed to tell people what really happened.
Sure, it's weird that he took money from the dead, but is it any worse than eating them? It's not like they were going to put it to use. After Alfred's confession, A search party goes out to look for the deceased remains, but they don't have any luck. So, Alfred's latest version of events becomes the official story for almost a whole year.
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