Was Alferd Packer the original freeper?

[jmowreader]

Alferd Packer was the last man in America to be sentenced to hang for cannibalism. Legend says Judge Melville Gerry read his sentence this way...

"Stand up yah voracious man-eatin' sonofabitch and receive yir sitince. When yah came to Hinsdale County, there was siven dimmycrats. But you, yah et five of 'em, goddam yah. I sintince yah t' be hanged by th' neck ontil yer dead, dead, dead, as a warnin' ag'in reducin' th' Dimmycratic populayshun of this county. Packer, you Republican cannibal, I would sintince ya ta hell but the statutes forbid it."