Robert Weller
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/ 16 September 2004

History sleuth backs cannibal’s claim of innocence

More than 130 years after Alfred Packer ate his five companions to survive a Colorado winter, a museum curator is making a case that the notorious cannibal was innocent of murder. Years of research and detective work at the site where Packer was stranded seem to support at least part of his story: that he only killed to defend himself from a member of their party who had slain his fellow prospectors and was making a meal of human flesh.