After the civil war, men from both the north and south seek westward looking for a better way of life. Some took jobs working cattle ranches, others searched in hopes of gold. Each moving west with a dream, and for some, it became surviving at any cost. This is the mystery of the man who called himself John Schwartze.

It was on March 11, 1883, when John was discovered in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He had been hunted by the law for a crime that took over a century of forensic studies that today continues to leave us with a question. "Could any man commit such a crime."

John Schwartze was born in Pennsylvania as Alfred Packer in 1842. He had served for the Union Army in his young adult years, but due to epilepsy, was discharged. Packer would enlist a second time with a different unit of the Union Army and once more discharge due to his epileptic condition. He then would go west and try his luck at prospecting.

Late fall of 1873, Packer was with a party of 21 who left Provo, Utah, bound for the Colorado gold country. By winter they arrived near Montrose, Colorado. They met an Indian, Chief Ouray who recommended that the group postpone their expedition until spring due to the extreme weather conditions.

Despite Ouray's advice, Packer along with five others ignored the recommendations and left for Gunnison, Colorado on the 9th of February. Shannon Wilson Bell, James Humphrey, Frank "Reddy" Miller, George "California" Noon and Israel Swan were the five other men.

The group became snowbound in the high Rocky Mountains. Lost, running short on provisions and hopeless, the party slowly diminished. However, Packer survived the winter and would arrived in Los Pinos April of 1874. His story would change making confessions on three different occasions having three different stories. His final confession according to Packer was he went searching for food and as he arrived back to the group, he found Bell roasting human remains. Bell had rushed him with a Hatchet and Packer shot him twice killing Bell. Packer had insisted that Bell went mad murdering the others.

In Saguache, Colorado, Packer met several of the original members who had stayed back during the winter drinking in a saloon. Packer shared his story claiming self defense, but the group would not believe him. Packer finally signed a confession to killing and eating the members. He was jailed in Saguache, but escaped soon after, vanishing for several years until discovered he was living the alias life as "John Schwartze," in 1883.

Packer was return to Colorado, and on April 6, 1885 a trial began in Lake City, Colorado. By weeks end he was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to death. However, the sentence was reversed by the Colorado Supreme Court as being based on an ex post facto law. On June 8, 1886, Packer was sentenced to 40 years at another trial in Gunnison. At the time, this was the longest custodial sentence in U.S. history.

On June 19, 1899, Packer's sentence was upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. Although, he was paroled on February 8, 1901 and went to work as a guard at the Denver Post. He died in Deer Creek, in Jefferson County, Colorado, reputedly of "Senility - trouble & worry" at the age of 65. Packer is widely rumored to have become a vegetarian before his death. He was buried in Littleton, Colorado. His grave is marked with a veteran's tombstone listing his original regiment.

Packer had made claims that his confession was under duress and he never committed the crime. Colorado would exhumation the five bodies undertaken by James E. Starrs, then a Professor of Law specializing in forensic science at George Washington in 1989, 115 years after the crime.
James Starrs and his colleague Walter H. Birkby concluded, "I don't think there will ever be any way to scientifically demonstrate cannibalism. Cannibalism per say is the ingestion of human flesh. So you'd have to have a picture of the guy actually eating."

The study would be examine again in 1994 by David P. Bailey, Curator of History at the Museum of Western Colorado. His study examine a colt pistol which had been from the sight. Upon a complete study, this pistol appeared to be likely, the original pistol so stated by Packer which to shoot Bell in self defense.

By 2000, Bailey had not yet proven a link between the antique pistol and Alfred Packer, but he discovered that forensic samples from the 1989 exhumation had been archived, and analysis in 2001 with an electron microscope by Dr. Richard Dujay at Mesa State College turned up microscopic lead fragments in the soil taken from under Shannon Bell's remains that were matched by spectrograph with the bullets remaining in what was indeed Packer's pistol. While it appears certain that Bell was killed by gunshot, the question of murder itself remains.

Pulp culture would remember this act of cannibalization. Some with fictitious quotes, others as Lake City, Colorado, close to the memorial to the victims, has an annual celebration of the Packer story, with macabre humor. Even a cafeteria is so named "the Alfred Packer Grill."