Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1883 — The Colorado Canniba!. [ARTICLE]

The Colorado Canniba!.

A Denver, Colorado, dispatch says:: The trial of Alfred G. Parker, the San Juan ghoul, charged with murdering five companions in the San Juan country in 1872, in progress in Lake City the last few days, concluded to-night, and the case was given to the jury. The evidence shows that a party of six organized in Utah in 1872 to prospect Southern Colorado. While in the vicinity of the present site of Lake City, blinding storms coming on, they lost their way,their food gave out,and for days together they lived on rosebuds. The men became desperate and some crazed. While in this condition, Packer deliberately fell upon and butchered the whole party, and for several weeks lived on the flesh cut from their bodies. Yesterday, in the course of the trial, Packer made a statement calmly,, and for two hours he related the experiences of the party from their setting out in Utah, closing with the most sickening details of the murder and subsequent feasting on the human flesh, claiming that the killing was done in self-defense The evidence shows that each member of the party except Packer possessed quite a large sum of money upon which the ghoul has since been living. After nine years wandering he was captured a few weeks sin<*e near Fort Fetterman, Wyoming. While the evidence is entirely circumstantial, yet it is deemed conclusive, and a verdict of guilty is confidently expected.