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    Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal
    Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal
    Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal
    Audiobook9 hours

    Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal

    Written by Harold Schechter

    Narrated by Eric G. Dove

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In the winter of 1873, a small band of prospectors lost their way in the frozen wilderness of the Colorado Rockies. Months later, when the snow finally melted, only one of them emerged. His name was Alfred G. Packer, though he would soon become infamous throughout the country under a different name: “the Man-Eater.”

    After the butchered remains of his five traveling companions were discovered in a secluded valley by the Gunnison River, Packer vanished for nine years, becoming the West’s most wanted man. What followed was a saga of evasion and retribution as the trial of the century worked to extricate fact from myth and Polly Pry, a once-famed pioneering journalist, took on the cause of Packer. Man-Eater is the definitive story of a legendary crime—a gripping tale of unspeakable suffering, the desperate struggle for survival, and the fight to uncover the truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9781491598870
    Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal
    Author

    Harold Schechter

    Harold Schechter is a professor of American literature and culture. Renowned for his true-crime writing, he is the author of the nonfiction books Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, and, with David Everitt, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. He is also the author of Nevermore and The Hum Bug, the acclaimed historical novels featuring Edgar Allan Poe. He lives in New York State.

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    Reviews for Man-Eater

    3.5/5

    71 ratings9 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The story of Alfred Packer, a person suspected to have eaten (after he killed) 5 men to stay alive in the Colorado mountains in 1893. Packer was wily and his story was full on inconsistencies, as was the prosecution, which was nothing but conjecture. Packer was incarcerated for 20 years. Besides being Packer's story, the author throws in a few other suspected cannibals, from Jamestown to the 1960's. Those were thrown in to add to the page numbers, because they certainly added nothing to the story nor were they in detail. There were lots of court reports and letters contained within this book. All, in all, it was fairly interesting and an average read. 373 page
    • 3/5
      The story of Alfred Packer, a person suspected to have eaten (after he killed) 5 men to stay alive in the Colorado mountains in 1893. Packer was wily and his story was full on inconsistencies, as was the prosecution, which was nothing but conjecture. Packer was incarcerated for 20 years. Besides being Packer's story, the author throws in a few other suspected cannibals, from Jamestown to the 1960's. Those were thrown in to add to the page numbers, because they certainly added nothing to the story nor were they in detail. There were lots of court reports and letters contained within this book. All, in all, it was fairly interesting and an average read. 373 page
    • 4/5
      Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal by Harold Schechter is a true story about a crazy character from the wild west! The author did a wonderful job with the research and presenting it without boring the reader to death. The book revolves around Parker who claims he ate his buddies because he was starving. This book goes through all the craziness about Parker, the justice system, and newspapers article's effect on the stories Parker tells. Very interesting on a creepy subject!
    • 3/5
      I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

      Interesting true-life tale of Alfred Packer, a man known as the American Cannibal. The book was obviously well-researched, providing an incredible amount of detail not only about the case, but about various other cases of cannibalism in the 1800s.

      The one downfall of this book is that it got really tedious about halfway through the book.
    • 4/5
      A slice of Western Americana, a biography of one of the more infamous characters in Western mythology, Alfred Packer. A detailed account, debunking several myths (and explaining how they came into popular parlance) and confirming a few others. The central question (Did Packer murder his unfortunate companions for food and money, or was he a victim forced by circumstance to terrible acts?) can never be answered, although Schechter makes his opinion pretty clear. Recommended for those who are interested in true crime history and Western lore. Failings of the book are a lack of photographs, and worse a lack of maps for the crime scene, which would make it easier for the reader to follow the descriptions provided.
    • 3/5
      Schechter's got a bias and he's not afraid of it, which makes reading this an odd experience if you don't totally agree with him (and it's hard to tell if you do or not, because he doesn't actually explain his bias until the afterward). But one thing I particularly liked was the similar cases presented for context - there was a lot of cannibalism going on at the time, some of it considered downright heroic, compared to Packer's trials.
    • 4/5
      Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal by Harold Schechter is a highly recommended nonfiction narrative about Alfred (Alferd) G. Packer, a prospector who was accused of cannibalism.

      Six miners went into the mountains
      to hunt for precious gold;
      It was the middle of the winter,
      the weather was dreadful cold.
      Six miners went into the mountains,
      they had nor food nor shack—
      Six miners went into the mountains,
      But only one came back.
      "The Lost Miners"(or the Ballad of Alferd Packer; nineteenth century)

      In 1873 Packer and a group of five other men set off through the high mountains of Colorado to seek their fortune in gold or silver. It was winter, a brutal time to be traveling through the mountains, and the men were lost and starving. Packer was the only man to make it out alive. Though he changed his story several times, it was widely believed that he killed the others and ate them in order to survive. Packer claimed, at one point, that the men were killed by another member of the group, Shannon Wilson Bell, who Packer in turned shot before Bell killed him. Then he did eat the flesh of his deceased companions to ward off starvation. It was also believed that he may have killed the other men to rob them; he did admittedly take money from the dead men.

      Schechter covers Packer's two trials, along with a plethora of historical information to place the legendary crime story in context. He includes Polly Pry's efforts on Packer's behalf, and the cultural impact of Packer's story. For example, a cafeteria at the University of Colorado Boulder is named after Packer, several films and a musical based on the story have been made, and songs have been written about it. Schechter also discusses James Starr's efforts in to use modern forensic science techniques to resolve the questions surrounding Packer's case.

      This is one of those books that is simply interesting to read. If you enjoy nonfiction about the late 1800s, prospectors, cases of cannibalism in US history, and sensational historical figures, this may be a good choice for you. Written in 50 short, well organized chapters, the book includes chapter notes and a bibliography.

      (The spelling of the name Alfred as “Alferd” is because Packer didn’t know how to spell his name when younger and used the alternate misspelling.)

      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Little A for review purposes.
    • 4/5
      I first heard of Alfred "Alferd" Packer when a friend and I were on our way from Grand Junction, CO to Cortez, CO to spend a few days at Hovenweep National Monument. The quickest, and most scenic, way to get there was to cross through the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. It was late April (!!), and we got stranded in a snow squall south of Telluride, near Priest Lake. "Do you think this will blow over soon?" I asked, a primal sort of fear in my stomach as I watched the snow pummel our vehicle for over an hour. "Well, if it doesn't," my friend said, "please don't go Alferd Packer on me."The San Juans are both beautiful and terrifying. It snows early and hard up there; I could see them from my backyard (I lived in Montrose at the time), and you could just watch the dark clouds unleashing holy hell on the mountains regularly from September to April. And even though the Packer murder scene is now located near Lake City, actually close to a golf course, it didn't look a thing like that at the time that six men hiked up there - and only Alfred Packer emerged. I mean, here my friend and I were in a heated car with a nearly full tank of gas, cell phones at the ready, and I was getting a little panicky, I admit. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be stuck out in that kind of weather with none of that at my disposal.Alfred Packer is well known in Colorado; the University of Colorado Boulder's cafeteria is even named after him. But the legend has eclipsed what really happened, I think. Do I think that he murdered those men? Yep. But let me tell you, I don't think it was to rob them. I think bad things happen when you're hungry, and a bad thing happened near where Lake City stands today. The money was a bonus, because I do believe that Packer though there was a good chance that he would never emerge from those mountains. And having been up to Lake City and the Gunnison area (which, by the way, is one of the top five coldest cities in the entire continental United States - I almost snorted my tea in disbelief when someone who professed to be an expert on the crime called Gunnison "balmy"), I can see why.I definitely recommend the book; Schechter is one of my favorites in this genre, and he doesn't disappoint with his latest offering.
    • 4/5
      I received a ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. I was first introduced to Harold Schector was through his book Nevermore, which is a murder mystery with Poe as the detective and Davy Crockett as his 'assistant' in the proceedings. I later discovered that Schector seems to have an obsessive interest in the darker area of true crime with all his psycho/serial killer books! All that being said, I do find his books rather interesting and so, when I found a new book of his on Netgalley, I had to read it - maybe, I am a little crazy over serial killers.Man-eater: The Saga of Alfred G. Packer, American Cannibal is a fascinating read to say the least. It is about Alfred Packer, a man who may have committed five murders and then feasted on the corpses. He definitely did eat the men, but he denied killing all of them. The man, himself goes through a number of changes in the book or I seem to think he is characterised in a number of different ways by those he meats and by those who decide to champion his bids for freedom. Packer was a solider, a miner, and then participated in one of the many rushes to discover silver/gold. During one of these rushes, he becomes a guide for party in search of gold and of course, things go wrong because they go off in the middle of winter and then, as the poem at beginning of the book says, six miners went into the mountains, but only one came back!The book is not just about Packer; it uses him as a jumping point to discuss a number of different things. Schector gives us several little pieces of historical contexts, background on various cases of cannibalism - he mentions, the Donner Party and that nautical instances of cannibalism are mostly given a pass whereas those that are land based don't. Also, we are introduced to several different people who are involved, either as witnesses during the trail or who have become enmeshed in the campaign to exonerate Packer.The book is divided into parts dealing with Packer, his trails, then his bids for freedom, and finally, his historical impact. Schector shares his views in a witty way and there is a lot of dark humour in the book. Unfortunately, the book does drag a bit, but only where it goes into the trial; however, I found the last section of the book hilarious. This section talks about the cultural impacts of Packer the Cannibal such as him being the inspiration for a couple of films, namely Cannibal! The Musical and the brilliant horror/western, Ravenous. Overall, I would recommend this book to those of us who enjoy our history through a slightly demented lens. Bon appetite!