S3 E6. LAND PART VI – The Best of the Rest of the Wild West

Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast

Howdy! This week, we’re headed west – the Wild West, to be exact. Featuring characters such as Liver Eating Johnson, the Blues Brothers, Big Phil, and Uncle Dick Wootton, Alix takes us on a quick tour of survival cannibalism on the American frontier.

CREDITS

Written, hosted and produced by Alix Penn and Carmella Lowkis.

Theme music by Daniel Wackett. Find him on Twitter @ds_wack and Soundcloud as Daniel Wackett.

Logo by Riley. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @tallestfriend.

Casting Lots is part of the Morbid Audio Podcast Network. Network sting by Mikaela Moody. Find her on Bandcamp as mikaelamoody1.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• The Blues Brothers. (1980). [DVD]. Directed by John Landis. United States: Universal Pictures.

• ‘Boone Helm’. (2021). Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boone_Helm
• Coel, M. (2012). ‘The Indian…’, in Chief Left Hand. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 94-109. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ptNcTmQ5RpEC&pg=PA97#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Edwards, E. (2012). ‘Cannibals in the Family’, in Early Reagan. Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade Publishing, pp. 30-31. Available at: http://www.ibiblio.org/sullivan/CNN/RWR/Anecdotes/aneccannib.html
• Gregory, H. THe Belle and Boone Helm. (2021). Directed by Caitlin McWethy. [Cincinnati Fringe Festival, 4-19 June].
• Hafen, L.R. (1936). ‘Mountain Men – Big Phil, the Cannibal’, Colorado Magazine, 13(2), pp. 53-58. Available at: https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/ColoradoMagazine_v13n2_March1936.pdf
• Haward Bain, D. (2000). ‘Manifest Density’. Review of A Newer World by David Roberts. New York Times, 27 February. Available at: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/27/reviews/000227.27bainlt.html
• Hernandez, A. (2019). ‘‘Big Phil’ the Colorado Cannibal’, Denver Public Library Research News, 31 December. Available at: https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/big-phil-colorado-cannibal
• Holzwarth, L. (2019). ‘Episodes of Cannibalism throughout History’, History Collection, 13 October. Available at: https://historycollection.com/episodes-of-cannibalism-throughout-history/15/
• Idaho State Historical Society. (1993). Site of Utter Party Massacre. Reference Series, no. 233. Available at: https://history.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/0233.pdf
• ‘John C. Frémont: Death of the Aged Soldier and Explorer at New York.’ (1890). Daily Alta California, 83(14), p. 5. Available at: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DAC18900714.2.41&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–1
• ‘John C. Frémont’. (2021). Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Fr%C3%A9mont
• Kuroski, J. (2021). ‘They Killed His Wife And Burned Down His House – Then Liver-Eating Johnson Hunted Them Down And Ate Them’, All That’s Interesting, 1 October. Available at: https://allthatsinteresting.com/liver-eating-johnson
• Langford, N.P. (1912). Vigilante days and ways; the pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho. Chicago, IL: A.C. McClurg & co. Available at: https://archive.org/details/vigilantedaysan00unkngoog
• Lawrence, D. and J. Lawrence. (2012). ‘Indians, Emigrants, and the Army on the Overland Trails: An Interview with Michael Tate’, in Violent Encounters. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 75-98. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vm21xq3f01oC&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94#v=onepage&q&f=false
• ‘Levi Boone Helm (1828 – 1864)’. (n.d.). WikiTree. Available at: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Helm-1612
• McArthur, S. (2012). ‘Indians and Armies’, in The Enemy Never Came. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 87-102. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7AhrH9yu7oMC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97#v=onepage&q&f=false
• McLaughlin, M. (2008). ‘Cannibals in the West’, Journal of Sierra Nevada History & Biography, 27 October. Available at: https://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v6n2/cannibals.html
• Moulton, C. (2010). ‘Dreams of Gold on the Starvation Trail’, True West, 26 June. Available at: https://truewestmagazine.com/dreams-of-gold-on-the-starvation-trail/
• Online Highways. (n.d.). John C. Frémont. Available at: https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h714.html
• Palmquist, P.E. and T.R. Kailborn. (2000). ‘John C. Frémont’, in Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 247-251. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Nne4L9h27RsC&pg=PA247#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Rea, T. (2004). ‘The Pathfinder’s Lost Instruments: John C. Frémont’s Cavalier Attitude Toward His Scientific Apparatus’, Common Place, 4(4). Available at: http://commonplace.online/article/the-pathfinders-lost-instruments/
• Roberts, D. (2000). A Newer World. London: Simon & Schuster.
• Silbernagel, B. (2020). ‘Disaster struck when ‘The Pathfinder’ got lost in Colorado’, Daily Sentinel, 28 December. Available at: https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/disaster-struck-when-the-pathfinder-got-lost-in-colorado/article_aab73eea-46f5-11eb-b95d-772495186f85.html
• Sweger, J.K. (2006). ‘The Blue Brothers’ Deadly Trek into Gold Country’, Wild West, June. Available at: https://www.historynet.com/the-blue-brothers-deadly-trek-into-gold-country.htm
• Taliaferro, J. (1828). Supplemental account of some of the bloody deeds of General Jackson, being a supplement to the ‘Coffin handbill.’ Northern Neck, VA: John Taliaferro. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.18601400/
• Weiser-Alexander, K. (2020). ‘John “Liver Eating” Johnson – Mountain Man and Lawman’, Legends of America, December. Available at: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/liver-eating-johnston/

TRANSCRIPT

Alix: Have you ever been really, really hungry?

Carmella: You’re listening to Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast.

A: I’m Alix.

C: I’m Carmella.

A: And now let’s tuck into the gruesome history of this ultimate taboo…

[Intro Music – Daniel Wackett]

A: Welcome to Episode Six, ‘The Best of the Rest of the Wild West.’ Yeehaw.

[Intro music continues]

A: Carmella, would you like to learn about the Best of the Wild West?

C: I’m trying to think of something that rhymes… yes-t.

(Alix snorts)

A: I might have came up with the title before doing most of the research and I would do it again because, after hours and hours of famine research we finally have some, and insert the Gordon Ramsey meme here, ‘finally some good fucking cannibalism content’. We are back to the good old days of manifest destiny in nineteenth century America and people going places and eating things that they shouldn’t!

C: Yeehaw!

A: Third time’s the charm because we’ve already had some really good tales when it comes to survival cannibalism in this part of the world with the wagon trains and the gold rush of American frontier having already been covered with the Donner Party and Alfred Packer in previous seasons.

But those weren’t one off events Carmella!

C: Oh no!

A: Oh no, they’re just the most famous instances of people getting a bit peckish on the plains and eyeing up their travel companions for supper, no, the Donner Party and Packer just have the best publicity-

(Carmella laughs)

A: I am now going to introduce you to the best of the rest of the wild west!

C: Yeehaw, again!

(Alix laughs)

C: This ain’t our first rodeo.

A: We’re going to start with the entrepreneurial family Charles, Alexander and Daniel Blue-

C: Blue like a colour?

A: Aka the Blues Brothers!

C: Yeah!

A: In February 1859 the three men alongside their cousin John Campbell and friend Thomas Stevenson set out for gold.

C (questionable American accent): There’s gold in them there hills!

A: Exactly. And, beautiful quote incoming, “What they found instead was blinding snow, despair, starvation, death and cannibalism.”

(Carmella laughs)

C: Isn’t that always the way?

A: Maybe the real friends was the cannibalism we found along the way?

A: As Daniel Blue would later right, and spoilers for which members of the party ultimately survive, quote “gold has a magic power upon the human mind.”

C: Hm, does it? Does it though?

A: We have seen with the gold rush a lot of people are willing to up sticks and leave and eat each other to try and get to where they think the gold is.

C: I don’t know that it’s because gold is like some kind of mesmeric property over humans, I think it’s probably just you know, like human greed.

A: Okay I’ll rephrase that for you-

C: Gold isn’t to blame! The gold is innocent in all of this.

A: Capitalism has a magic power upon the human mind!

C: There we go.

A: The fortune seeking Blues were certainly tempted, whether it is by gold is capitalism, they leave their homes in Illinois, the Blues leave behind their parents, sisters and friends, Alexander leaves a wife and four children-

C: Okay. As you do.

A: What are you gonna do, take them with you?!

C: Donner Party.

A: Yeah, but they were looking for a new life.

C: That’s true, that’s true, not just gold.

A: It’s all just Gold! Gold! Gold! with these boys.

A: The men leave Illinois to find the gold fields at Pike’s Peak.

C: Where is Pike’s Peak?

A: Pike’s Peak is in Denver, Colorado.

C: Yes, that firms things up. I’ve heard of Colorado. That’s a place.

A: It’s a state.

C: I know that.

A: Alfred Packer.

C: Yes, the Colorado cannibal.

A: I literally have a line here saying ‘I know geography isn’t our strong point, but as always with manifest destiny – go west!’

C: Yeah, exactly!

A: So the route they’re taking is through Missouri, Kansas and eventually ending up in Colorado.

C: Those are placenames.

A: It’s all going west.

C: In a line west. Got it.

A: In a rough line westerly.

C: Got it.

A: In the immoral words of the Blues Brothers themselves, “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank, half pack of cigarettes, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it.” It’s actually 1,000 miles to Denver, they have a pack pony, 2000 pounds of flour, and they’re stuck in a snowstorm crucially not wearing sunglasses.

C: Hit it!

A: Perfect.

(Laughs)

A: But yes, they do only have one pack pony.

A: It starts out quite well for the group, the problems don’t really start until they’re about halfway at Fort Riley in Kansas, at this point they’ve managed to team up with a few more prospectors – Captain John Gibbs who quote “knows the way”.

(Carmella laughs)

C: To quote!

A: As he has crossed the plains before, his eight men-

C: He ATE men?!

(Smug laughter)

C: Why was six afraid of seven?

A: Because seven eight nine. I’m amazed that I think that’s the first time we’ve ever made that joke.

(Carmella laughs)

A: Captain John Gibbs has… one more than even men along side him.

(Carmella laughs)

A: And there’s also John Currans and George Soley from Ohio. So we now have a group of sixteen who are going to band together and get to Denver. There are two choices of route, the Republican River Route or the Smoky Hill route.

C: Hmm, I like those, those are descriptive terms.

A: Pick one.

C: Ooooh, it’s gotta be Smoky Hill.

A: This is also the route that Gibbs who has done this journey before, advocates for. It’s 500 miles. The Republican River route is 600 miles. The gang take the Smoky Hill route.

C: Oh, have I chosen the wrong route?

A: One of my sources does sort of point out that they were probably fucked which ever route they took.

C: Okay, phew. Phew.

A: But, Daniel ‘I’ve never been to Kansas before’ Blue would later write that he was certain, quote that “we should meet with calamity if we took the Smoky Hill route” which I know hindsight is 20/20 but Daniel Blue, as you may tell is going to suffer from ‘main character syndrome’.

(Carmella laughs)

C: This is Daniel’s story and we’re all just living in it.

A: Oh yes. And I will hand over to Daniel because this route turns out to be… I’d say a mistake, but the whole goldrush movement does seem to be quite flawed to begin with.

C: Hmm.

A: Quote, (terrible American accent) “What should have been a grand adventure became an endurance contest, a merciless wearing away of flesh, bone and human determination to live, and, at the end, a nightmare too horrible to contemplate.”

C: Yes! I thought that we hadn’t done enough voices this season, mostly because we’ve had some very serious famine episodes, er, so thank you for that.

A: Well my one bad stock American accent might come out more, we’ll see.

(Carmella laughs)

A: The Blues and friends have actually set out much earlier in the season than one might expect, they set out in February.

C: Hmm. That is earlier than one might expect.

A: It’s snowstorm time. Our intrepid band of prospectors don’t have any tents.

C: Oh.

A: They’d bought one, and then left it behind….

C: Intentionally?

A: Yes.

C: Cool.

A: Yeah, you can sort of see that this might not end well, ignoring what podcast this is.

(Carmella laughs)

A: They’re running out of food, the most shelter they have for the most part was just woollen blankets. After about ten days provisions are, not surprisingly, starting to run out. While Gibbs and his men are out hunting the Blues Brothers, and I’m just using ‘the Blues Brothers’ as the catch-all for the original five and then everyone that then comes along with them

C: Okay.

A: They can be honoury brothers.

C: Yes, yes.

A: The Blues Brothers, who in this instance are the original five and George Soley just abandon the men hunting and decide carry on.

C: Seems like that means they won’t get any food.

A: I’m sure there must be a reason but it doesn’t seem like a sensible one. They’re later joined by another three men, so we’re up to nine Blues Brothers, but no pony.

C: Aww.

A: They don’t eat it.

C: Oh.

A: They lose it.

C: I mean it’s so easy to misplace a pony you know, happens all the time.

A: But it’s okay… I can’t imagine morale is particularly high, but up until March, they get by. And then Alexander falls sick. Not enough to stop the party from moving, but the decision is made to lighten the load, keep only the bare essentials.

C: I thought you meant that they were going to discard Alexander!

A: Oh just wait.

(Carmella laughs)

A: Come on, it’s only another 55 miles to Denver, they’ll be fine!

C: Yeah, yeah, sounds right.

A: Their geography is at about our level, it’s 170 miles to Denver.

C: Oh.

A: They finish the last of their provisions, but because they’re so close they don’t stop to hunt

C: No that doesn’t matter, they can march on an empty belly for like a day right?

A: And then there’s a four day snowstorm.

C: Classic of the genre.

A: They push on through, because as you’ve said, only another day to go, they’re nearly there. Not only are they not nearly there. Not only are they not ‘nearly there’ but when the snowstorm clears they realise that they have, in fact, been traveling in a circle.

C: Noooo!

A: All that energy, absolutely nothing to show for it.

C: I’m just imagining them walking past the stuff they discarded to lighten the load, maybe the pony?

(Laughs)

A: Unfortunately I don’t think they loop back to pick up their stuff.

C: Oh-kay.

A: It may be a happier ending if they had. Because now Charles Blue is also sick.

C: That’ll happen.

A: At this point two of the party decide to skedaddle out of there and the remaining seven lie down to engage in a popular pastime of the genre-

C: Prayer?

A: Talking about food while starving to death.

C: That one.

A: (the accent again) “Oh, for something nourishing to eat!”

C: Oh indeed.

A: But, conversation allegedly also turned practical. Quote, “All then agreed that whichever of us should die first, should be eaten by the rest.”

C: I’m glad they all agreed.

A: Again, we have precisely one source.

C: Yes so, certainly at least Daniel agreed.

A: Daniel did agree. They keep trying, they try and keep going, they even try and hunt. Now, I know I’ve slightly laid into Daniel as having main character syndrome he’s the one who thinks the route is dangerous, he’s the one who says that while he would willingly starve to death he would not allow another to die to keep him alive, and while it would Daniel who would later carry his ailing brothers in his arms –

C: Oh goodness this sounds like the cover of a Bills and Boon book.

A: I do want to give Daniel Blue some kudos for in his own account, including the time that he nearly Thomas Stevenson by dropping his gun in his direction-

C: Wait didn’t that happen to the Donner Party as well?

A: Yeah.

C: Please don’t just carry round your loaded guns. Come on guys.

A: Own your mistakes.

C: A good moral to this story.

A: It will come up later but there’s a wonderful little table on the Wikipedia page for the Oregon trail which says all of the various causes of death-

(Carmella laughs)

C: And is accidental gunfire quite a lot of them?

A: Accidental gunfire and people getting run over by wagons going one mile an hour.

C: It’s the Horrible Histories Stupid Deaths.

A: I mean, there’s a lot of dysentery as well, but, you know.

A: Eventually, despite Daniel’s hunting attempts, Alexander says that “my race is run; I have gone as far as I can.” And the party splits again – Thomas Stevenson (friend), John Campbell (cousin) and John Scott (… Sir Not Appearing in this show, he is not relevant after this one name drop) they carry on – but the core brothers, and George they are too weak to continue.

C: Aww.

A: It’s the end of the road for Soley, who dies after saying: “Take my body and eat as much as you can, and thus preserve your lives.”

C: Definitely he said that, 100% verifiable fact.

A: I mean, that’s what my last words are gonna be, regardless of circumstance.

(Laughs)

A: I just wanna do mind games with them.

(Carmella laughs)

A: But again, I’m going to hand over to Daniel.

C: Daniel, take it away.

A: “We were not strong enough to inter the corpse, neither had we pick or shovel with which to dig a grave … The dead body laid there for three days, we lying helpless on the ground near it, our craving for food increasing … until driven by desperation; wild with hunger, feeling … that self-reservation is the first law of nature we took our knives and commenced cutting the flesh from the legs and arms of our dead companion.”

C: The classic cuts of meat.

A: Oh we can’t do it, we can’t do it, okay yeah go for it.

C: Oh no I couldn’t possibly- start with the legs!

(Snorts)

A: They ate with quote, “eager relish.”

C: Okay!

A: But a few days later Alexander would die too.

C: Aww, he was the one who was ill originally right?

A: Yup.

C: Okay.

A: Do you know what time it is?

C: … I, er? Dinner time?

A: It’s gastronomic incest time!

C: Oh yes.

A: “The uncontrollable and maddening cravings of hunger impelled Charles and I to devour a part of our own brother’s corpse. It was a terrible thing to do, but we were not in a condition of mind or heart to do as we or other men would have done amid ordinary circumstances… We were considerably strengthened by the food, and taking some with us, we resumed our journey.” They packed meat, prickly pears and tree bark, and with this new sustenance continued west.

C: Delicious.

A: Although they weren’t so strengthened by the food that Charles wouldn’t die a few days later.

C: Oh.

A: He writes a note to his father before death, for once not actually mentioning the cannibalism for once, but saying that he was dying for quote “want of a little food”.

C: Just a spot of lunch, you know.

A: And writing that he hopes that they “we may all meet in heaven” – so at least we can infer that Charles didn’t blame himself or think of survival cannibalism as something innately sinful?

C: Yeah, he didn’t think it was a barrier. That’s good, that’s good to know that he died not being terrified of going to hell. … No, genuinely.

A: The problem is, I know what sentence I’m going to say next.

C: Oh.

A: After three days Daniel gave in to his hunger again and allegedly cracked open his brother’s skull to eat the brain matter.

C: Right. Daniel, reckon, maybe that one’s not so good. Wait, I thought Daniel was the only survivor? He admitted to this?

A: Yes.

C: Cool.

A: He ate his brother’s flesh and drank from the nearby Beaver Creek. Only to pass out, I mean, after all, he has had a very stressful time.

C: Indeed.

A: Luckily for Daniel a member of the Arapaho tribe came across him in his near-unconscious state, took him in, and gave him food and shelter and once Daniel was strong enough he escorted him to a passing wagon train. Strangely enough, once Daniel made it to Denver, of all things, he found the pony that they’d lost on the plains.

C: Huh, wait, wait a minute. I mean. For example, I love my dogs, I love them very much, but if I saw another black greyhound in the street I wouldn’t necessarily know that it wasn’t Alfie, my mum’s greyhound. You know what I’m saying? Like h- is it just a pony? How does it know it’s the same one, are they that distinctive?

A: Apparently so, apparently he can recognise it as the same pony.

C: Maybe the pony recognised him?

A: …. This is very strangely one of the subplots of Cannibal! The Musical.

(Laughs)

A: Apparently the pony had been found by other prospectors and brought to Denver and sold on.

C: Okay, well, I’m glad they could reunite.

A: It seems so bizarre that it has to be real. The gold rush it turns out to be a bit of a wash out for Daniel. To be honest the Blues Brothers probably never even had the strength, tools, knowledge or capital to set up the gold mining operation that they wanted.

C: Yeah.

A: Captain Gibbs had made it to Denver as well, he was in fact mining gold. He and Daniel sat and spoke and concluded that of the sixteen there were only likely five survivors.

C: Those are some tough odds.

A: All in all, not a success. One last Blues Brothers joke before we move on, you know what they say about Manifest Destiny? They’re on a mission from God! I had too much fun looking up Blues Brothers quotes for this section.

C: I have to say that God did not protect them well on that mission.

A: Now we don’t have time to hang about, we’ve got more frontier cannibalism to be getting on with. I would like to introduce you to John C. Frémont, yes, it does have the accent above the E and no I don’t know what the C stands for.

C: John C. Frémont.

A (a bit French): Frémont is a typical want to be explorer-type in the mid-nineteenth century.

C: Typical!

A: Born in 1813, not very good at school but quite good at maths and this lands him a job in the navy.

C: Okay.

A: Always a good place to learn about survival cannibalism–

C: And a good place to learn about like navigation and stuff, there are other there are other useful talents one takes from the navy as well as just survival cannibalism.

A: Funny you should mention that because he then moves on to work for the Corps of Topographical Engineers, helping the US Army to map and survey territory.

C: Oh there we go. This sounds like he’s set up pretty well, but I assume that it doesn’t pay off.

(Alix snorts)

A: Exhibit A, Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast.

C: It does take a little bit of the tension out of these stories when they’re on this podcast right?

A: I mean we can probably guess what happens.

(Laughs)

A: Now the territory being surveyed isn’t necessarily American territory, but come on, we knew that anyway, it’s 1840s America…

C: They’re deciding it’s their territory.

A: Frémont does make quite a name for himself in the whole manifest destiny department – it doesn’t hurt that his father-in-law is a senator.

C: Oh ho!

A: Now let’s ignore the fact that Frémont and his wife Jessie met and eloped when she was just fifteen.

C: And how old was he at the time?

A: Decidedly not fifteen.

C: Hmm.

A: Initially Senator Benton, his father-in-law wasn’t too happy with Frémont because of the whole ‘fifteen year old daughter thing’ but Frémont worked under famous frontiersman Kit Carson, he helped to map the Oregon Trail, he took part in a great number of expeditions.

C: You can’t stay mad at him then!

A: How bad can he be? Water under the bridge. In total Frémont led five expeditions West, he helped to cover a greater area than any other explorer of his day.

C: Okay, still, still not gonna, you know ignore everything else, but sure, okay that’s an achievement.

A: We’re going to be looking at his fourth expedition and the first one he did without Kit Carson… Could these two things be linked?

C: Oh!

A: The catastrophic failure and the great frontiersman not accompanying him?

C: No, think it must be a coincidence.

A: Who can say. It’s also worth noting that Frémont faced court martial in 1847 and was found guilty of disobedience toward a superior officer and military misconduct. He’s a man with perhaps something to prove?

C: And perhaps a little impulsive? Could be inferred from that.

A: A good way to think about Frémont is if you mashed together the Trans-Saharan Railway Expedition and Greely.

C: S’all going to go really well then!

A: In 1848, he set out to survey a potential railroad route between St. Louis, Missouri, and San Francisco, California.

C: Oh, another railroad ohho!

A: This takes us right through the heart of cannibalism country.

C: Yeah!

A: This was something that his father-in-law was really quite keen on-

C: Railways, rather than cannibalism I assume?

A: … He’s going to get one of the two.

(Camella laughs)

A: The expedition end up being self-funded because the Federal government don’t want anything to do with it. Always a good start. A bit of analysis of Frémont’s character here, just in case you want to take the measure of the man.:

C: Yes, yes please, let’s measure him up.

A (American accent): “Frémont was a relentless self-promoter; he could not follow orders, keep promises or admit mistakes; he was a philanderer; he exhibited bouts of cold callousness and tolerated genocidal acts.”

C: God, that’s not a strong character summary is it?

A: Spoilers for the ending, but later in life he runs as the Republican Party presidential candidate!

(Laughs)

A: You cannot make it up!

(Laughs & sighs)

A: Honesty. But, back in the October 1848 Frémont and 34 men head west, they’re looking to find an all-season railroad route through the mountains.

C: I don’t know if they will find it, but they can certainly look.

A: It’s not like it’s already been predicted to be a bad winter or anything. And it’s not like Frémont hasn’t been able to get Kit Carson, and it’s not like Frémont has actually had to hire the more eccentric wild men such as “Uncle Dick” Wootton, or “Old Bill Williams” to be his guides.

C: Is it actually exactly like all of those things?

A: It is exactly like all of those things. Yeah, because all the other guides, um, won’t come.

C: Aha.

A: They make it through the Sangre de Cristo range – which is already far too steep for a railroad to even be contemplated and the guide Wootton has already turned back due to the impossibility of further travel-

C: I used to have a dog called Wootton. He was a basset hound called Wootton-Basset.

A: Awww. He could be my guide.

(Carmella laughs)

A: Well, Frémont doesn’t think so, who needs guides right?

C: Yeah, yeah, just go your own way.

A: Old Bill Williams also turns back. Some sources say that Frémont’s guide lost their way, but personally I err more towards the fact that these men who made their living off knowing the land, told Frémont something he didn’t want to hear, so he kept going and they skedaddled.

C: I think that seems more likely.

A: Things deteriorate quickly from there, with blinding snow and freezing temperatures it doesn’t take long until people can go no further. Nearly 120 mules and pack animals die in the winter on the mountains, some literally freeze to death in the snowstorms-

C: Eugh.

A: Sorry the fact you looked over my shoulder really creeped me out then.

(Laughs)

C: Sorry, that wasn’t intentionally, that was me considering how many mules that was. That was like a distant look in my eye as I was like, ‘that’s a lot of mules’.

(Laughs)

C: There’s nothing there, there’s not the ghosts of 150 mules.

(Alix laughs)

A: Some literally freezing to death in the snows, others being killed for food. With provisions already low. And well, there’s not much hunt in the mountains, so the men eat their own moccasins. Conditions were so poor and the men so weak it took over an hour for 300 yards to be navigated by December. But still Frémont continued or at least, tried to. He only acknowledged the devastating conditions and the need for resupply, not even the end of the mission, just resupply, by the 22nd December, but by then the expedition had fragmented– the only hope was a rescue party – made up of the strong and loyal men, to go back and bring help.

A: Four men, led by twenty-five year old Henry King headed down the mountain on Boxing Day. It would only be by the February of 1849 that the final survivors would emerge from the mountains. Ten men have died.

C: They’re not doing well.

A: Frémont would be the one to discover the fate that had befallen his rescue party– because had headed out after about sixteen days to try and find the first rescue party.

C: Did he find them?

A: He found three of them.

C: Hmmhmm.

A: Henry King had been quote “horribly devoured” and after dying of exhaustion and fatigue quote his, “comrades had fed upon him.” Frémont was able to push on, eventually managing to send back help to those stuck in the mountains. Nearly a third of Frémont’s expedition are dead, deaths caused, hopefully, by starvation and hypothermia, but there are allegations that Frémont deliberately left men behind to die.

C: Oh. A sort of ‘save yourself’ type of thing.

A: This has the dubious honour of being the first recorded case of cannibalism in Colorado.

C: Ah! Win for the team.

A: A whole 25 years before Packer.

C: Oh Packer, so behind the fashions.

A: As much as Frémont would try to brush aside the survival cannibalism in his history, his literal obituary in the Daily Alta California in 1890 reads in part that he “set out on a fourth expedition across the continent at his own expense. The party lost their way when trying to cross the Sierras, and suffered terribly from cold and hunger. It is related that they were driven to cannibalism. All horses and one-third of the men had perished.”

C: What a way to be remembered!

A: His literal obituary! But, like I mentioned earlier, Frémont would try and use his non-cannibalism related clout (obviously, before his death) to secure the republican nomination for president and stand for election in 1856. He would ultimately lose to James Buchanan. But speaking of the President of the United States… this actually wouldn’t be the first time that cannibalism had come up at the ballot box.

C: Oh ho. And let’s not forget that George W Bush Senior came very close to it in our episode on the Pacific War.

A: Well let’s take a look at which president might have been on the other side of the table.

C: Yes please!

A: Back in 1828 President John Quincy Adams was facing Andrew Jackson, in a fight to the political death. It was a dirty fight, one made dirtier by the fact that this was actually a rematch between the two men from the 1824 presidential election. There’s no rap musical about it, so it might be a bit hard to explain-

C: There’s no rap musical about it yet.

A: Good point.

C: And we’re the one’s to write it! No.

A: No we’re not!

(Laughs)

A: Basically picture the part in Hamilton the ‘ well he’s never gon be president now, never gon be president now’ I am sorry to Daveed Diggs – and as an atonement everyone should go watch Snowpiecer Netflix, it has Daveed Diggs and cannibalism in.

C: Yeah!

A: But, that section ‘never gon be president now’, pamphlets being thrown everywhere, scurrilous rumour abound… imagine those pamphlets are cannibalism accusations.

C: Yes please.

A: Because that, my friends, is exactly what happened with the Coffin Handbills. Coffin Handbills were quite simply an attack on Andrew Jackson focusing in on all of his flaws, both real, and imagined, and a lot of this emphasised his military career during the War of 1812.

C: Aha!

A: With the name of the ‘Coffin Handbills’ coming from the six black coffins adorning the pamphlet representing six militiamen Jackson had executed and amid his “bloody deeds” that featured in the “Supplemental account of some of the bloody deeds of General Jackson”-

C: Only some of them.

A: Was the charge of cannibalism.

C: Haha!

A: Jackson was quote, a “man eating monster” and following a massacre of Native Americans in 1814 Jackson had ordered his quote “Bowman to dress a dozen of these […] bodies for his breakfast which he devoured without leaving even a fragment.”

C: Yeah that sounds true, he ate twelve bodies for breakfast, 100% reliable source there.

A: Oh just wait until the next bit of cannibalism that Andrew Jackson does…

C: He didn’t stop there, okay.

A: He also ate, quote “the whole six men at one meal!!!” (Carmella laughs) “Yes, my shuddering countrymen he swallowed them whole” (Carmella laughs again) “Coffins and all” (High pitched Carmella laugh) “Without the slightest attempt at mastication” (Carmella laughing at a pitch that would upset dogs) Six exclamation marks!

C: I love that that’s not even trying to be believable.

A: I don’t know what you’re talking about I can’t see any reason that political propaganda could contain any mistruths at all.

(Carmella laughing.)

C: W- he just unhinges his jaw.

A: Like a snake.

C: It’s a very little, little known fact that he was a superhuman.

A: We have a PDF copy of the Supplemental account of some of the bloody deeds of General Jackson, do feel free to have a read. Some of them are. Quite impressive. But, anyway when the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson originated on Broadway-

(Carmella laughs)

A: Jackson was played by none-other than Benjamin Walker, otherwise known as Captain George Pollard from the better-less spoken about film adaptation of In The Heart Of The Sea.

C: Wow.

A: So that’s all the confirmation I need that Jackson was a cannibal.

(Alix snorts)

C: How have I never heard of this musical, sounds amazing?

A: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson?

C: Is it available on Spotify?

A: … I don’t know.

C: I’ll be looking that up.

A: But now, quickly we’re going to pick up the trail of some of the wild men of the wild west, these being Big Phil aka Charles Gardener aka the Colorado Cannibal-

C: Wait, another one?

A: Colorado is cannibalism country.

A: You can’t be the Colorado cannibal if there are multiple ones.

A: John Jeremiah Garrison Johnston aka Liver Eating Johnson.

(Carmella laughs)

C: What did he do?

A: And Levi Boone Helm, aka the Kentucky Cannibal.

C: I’m se- I’m sensing a naming pattern here.

A: A slight convention. All three of these men were noted ‘mountain men’ of the American old west – and I’m not sure if you could tell from the subtly of their nicknames, but allegedly all three of them did eat human flesh.

C: What, really?

A: In some cases this was even alleged to be for survival purposes.

C: No!

A: Not just for like, fun.

(Carmella laughs)

A: Liver-Eating Johnson is the easiest to refute or at least to disregard for our purposes, as his cannibalistic ways originated allegedly as an act of revenge following the death of his wife.

C: Okay?

A: His wife is killed in 1847 and Johnson swears revenge on the entity of the Absaroka people by killing them, and…

C: Eating their livers?

A: Eating their livers.

C: Now, did his wife’s liver get tampered with or like, for what purpose? An eye for an eye, is it a liver for a liver?

A: The liver as an organ was what connected the Absaroka people to the afterlife. So by defiling their bodies and eating their livers he was denying them salvation in this life or the next.

(Carmella sighs)

C: So yeah that sounds like a racist serial killer more than a survival cannibal.

A: I’ve only been able to found one unsourced account that says that after being captured once by some of the Blackfoot people he managed to escape after cutting off a guard’s leg and ate that out in the wilderness.

C: Take one- takeaway meal, yeah sure.

A: That was terrible.

(Carmella laughs)

A: Now, is he technically a member of the elite league of survival cannibals, or is he just a racist dick?

C: The two are not always mutually exclusive Alix.

A: Good point. It is in fact, hard to tell. In a similar vein, I know we’ve talked before about whether intentionally killing someone, only to decide to eat them after makes you a murderer or a prepared survivalist.

C: Hmm.

A: And this is the question when it comes to Boone Helm – the Kentucky Cannibal.

C: Should we not be making bad taste Kentucky Fried Human jokes?

A: I hadn’t even considered it, I was mostly focusing on we do love a Boon in this podcast.

C: We do, we do. Another for the Bills and Boon canon.

A: In most literature Boon is referred to as a serial killer who ate his victims to survive.

C: Okay, so the motivation is serial killing and the survival is a bonus?

A: Incidental?

C: Okay.

A: Boone was born in 1828 and he, like so many others, moved west in the 1850s to seek gold in California.

C: In them there hills.

A: And, like so many others this doesn’t go too well for Boone – or rather, doesn’t go well for his prospecting companions.

C: Yes, I was going to say, sounds like the other guys got the rough end of that one.

A: In 1853 in the mountains of eastern Oregon after a bad winter, and the alleged suicide of one of his fellow travellers-

C: Hmhm?

A: Boone quote, “like a hyena, preyed upon the dead body of his companion.”

C: L- Very like a hyena. Cackling as he did it?

A: Most likely one would presume. And so began Boone’s serial spree which incidentally provided him with food.In Boone’s own words… oh god, (Alix clears throat) (accent, American, dubious) “Many’s the poor devil I’ve killed, at one time or another… and the time has been that I’ve been obliged to feed on some of ’em.” So at least he’s honest?

C: Yeah, very to the point.

A: Finally, let’s turn to Big Phil.

C: Please, I, I love this guy’s name, Big Phil!

A: That fact that his actual name is Charles Gardener–

(Carmella laughs)

A: Which has nothing to do with Big Phil.

C: Where does Phil come from?

A: Well, he comes from Philadelphia-aohhhhhhhhhhh.

C&A (harmonising): Ohhhhh!

(Laughing)

A: I think we’ve solved something there!

(Laughing.)

C: That was good!

A: Big Phil heads out West in 1844 – allegedly having escaped a Philadelphia prison where he had been incarcerated for murder. On route to his new life, he falls in with some army deserters – and after the men were chased out of town following a violent robbery gone wrong – Big Phil gets his first taste of human flesh. His companions were captured, killed and thrown on an open fire and Phil, having missed the wagon train and not eaten for many days ate this pre-cooked meat for him before carrying on his journey. This first cannibalistic meal isn’t regularly included in Big Phil’s culinary exploits and it’s generally noted that Phil had had three victims. In fact, Phil who was noted for his “ruffianly disposition and acts […] Made no secret of the fact that he had in emergency turned cannibal; said that he had killed and eaten two [Native Americans] and one white man, (a Frenchman.)”

C: Oh well, all is forgiven.

A: A very important distinction to make, I’m sure. Big Phil is apparently a connoisseur in the survival cannibalism genre who thought heads, hands and feet tasted good when quote “thoroughly cooked.”

C: Okay.

A: But other parts of the body were quote “too gristly and tough.”

C: An interesting opinion there from Big Phil, very contrary to the standard where those are the bits that you discard because they look too human.

A: Are we saying that this is perhaps exaggerated for dramatic affect and that’s not what someone who had resorted to cannibalism to survive would say?

C: Yes, perhaps that’s the explanation.

A: Ultimately, these stories may or may not be true – there is probably a nugget of truth in all of them, people did occasionally eat human flesh to survive in the wild west–

C: No! Never!

A: But we knew that anyway. I’ve got one more tale to tide us over with before we leave America, let’s hit the wagon train.

C: Yes please.

A: The Utter-Van Ornum Party, made up of twelve wagons – eighteen men, five women and twenty one children are on the Oregon Trail heading west.

C: That’s a lot of children. Don’t like where this is headed. Well, west.

(Alix snorts)

A: Geography!

(Carmella laughs)

A: It’s the September of 1860, and they have already been travelling for four months – in fact for some of August they’ve even been escorted along route by a company of dragoons – but the escort turn back near the Idaho/Oregon border.

On September 8^th three men from the Utter-Van Ornum Party are killed in a skirmish with a group of Shoshone and Bannack men – they keep heading West. You know, manifest destiny?

C: They gotta get there, they gotta get to the west.

A: Destiny is not on the pioneers’ side. On September 10^th the attack continues and as more men are killed the decision is made to abandon the wagons, to leave the livestock and goods to the attacking Native Americans, and to flee on foot.

C: Yeah, it’s that thing if you’re mugged you should give them your handbag and run, but on a much larger scale!

A: Yeah. Most people flee on foot, Elijah Utter is wounded and his wife and all four children all stay with him.

C: Aww, that’s a bad idea but how nice.

A: They literally all die by the end of this next sentence.

C: Okay.

A: At this point, there are twenty-seven survivors who have left almost all their worldly good behind them in the wagons. Including, obviously, all their food.

C: Yep!

A: ‘Starvation Camp’ is built by the bank of the Owyhee River. I mean, they don’t call it that, but, I think we can guess what’s coming.

C: Erm, do they all find a lot of food and have a nice meal together?

(Carmella laughing)

C: Do they erm find a lot of food that isn’t each other?

(Alix laughs)

A: Let’s see shall we? A few men go on ahead to try and seek help, they actually find some survivors of the original attack – they even kill a horse and send the meat back to the hungry camp.

C: Aw, that’s nice.

A: Why they don’t walk the horse to camp, (Carmella laughs) and then kill it, I don’t know.

C: You know, you’ve gotta you’ve gotta strike those horses while you can, they’re slippery bastards.

A: But Christopher Trimble, what a name, ends up having to abandon some of the meat, because it’s too heavy and he’s too weak.

C: Yeah, yeah, they should have just sent the horse back.

A: Horses can famously carry all their own meat.

(Carmella laughs)

C: They’re well known for it.

A: During this time, and the dates are unclear, a small group of the Shoshone – I don’t believe to be any of the original attacking party – they assist the makeshift camp, they trade knickknacks for fresh salmon.

C: Nice.

A: Now, because there’s always one. Daniel Chase, who has survived this far, dies either from eating too much salmon-

(Carmella laughs)

A: Or of the hiccups.

(Carmella laughs)

C: Maybe the large amount of salmon gave him hiccups and then he died?

A: That does seem to be the story. A lot of the sources try and blame the Shoshone, and I’m like… no?

C: Like they gave him poisoned salmon or?

A: They never imply that, it’s just that he ate too much of their salmon.

C: Those bastards, they should have cut him off. Could they not see he was suffering?!

A: From salmon poisoning! Anyway, er, no comment, but, he’s dead.

A: Now, the survivors are out of trading goods, out of food, and out of luck. So, it’s cannibalism time. In the words of Edward Geary the ‘Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Portland, Oregon’ (and we’ve done really well with not using inappropriate language, but that is a job title) He states that, “For ten days previous to their discovery they had subsisted upon human flesh the bodies of those who [had] perished.” As the survivors began to starve initially they ate whatever could be found by the river, unable to fish, they ate “herbs, frogs, and muscles,” weeds and grass.

C: Why were they unable to fish? Just weren’t skilled.

A: They didn’t have any fishing equipment, having left all of their worldly goods on the wagons.

C: They can make some fishing equipment.

A: What do you expect these pioneers to do? Pioneer?!

(Carmella laughs)

C: Put a bit of salmon bait on some of your hair, that’s a rod, that’s a line you can put- n, no, I dunno.

A: I feel that this is now a challenge.

(Laughs)

A: Go forth Carmella and fish!

C: I’m just saying RIP to them, but I’m different.

A: Mr Death-by-Hiccups was the first to die at camp, and he was buried – but after ten days four more survivor would die, four of the children; Elizabeth and Susan Trimble, and Danny and Albert Chase. Quote. Unpleasant quote. “The living were compelled to eat the dead to preserve their own lives. It was a subject of much and anxious consultation and even the prayer before the eating of the dead was [fully] determined upon. This determination was unanimous. The flesh of the dead was carefully husbanded and sparingly eaten to make it go as far as possible.”

C: Smart.

A: “Thus the bodies of four children were disposed of.”

C: Oh, well, how convenient.

A: We have written testimony that Mrs Chase quote, “helped to eat her own children.”

C: Yeah! Gastronomic incest. That’s what we like to see.

A: Ding, ding, ding. A report from the Dalles Correspondent to the Portland Daily then says that after the Shoshone dug up the body of Daniel Chase the survivors quote, “made up [their] minds to try and eat him”-

C: What, for what purpose did they dig him up? Was it not enough that they fed him all that salmon?! These sick bastards, what do they want from him?

A: Allegedly they were stealing all of his clothes. Personally I think that there was a bit of inconsistency between sources at just how Daniel Chase’s body was dug up because some of them blame the Shoshone, others, in a very passive way just say that the body was exhumed.

C: Yes. Some, someone exhumed the body and ate it. Don’t know who!

A: We know who ate it. The survivors made up their minds to try and eat him. “So we cut him in small pieces, a day’s ration in a piece–but before we began roasting, Capt. Dent and party came along, just in time to save us from that awful meal!”

(Carmella laughs)

A: And it does appear that from those several sources that I mentioned that the emaciated survivors were about to eat the exhumed body of Daniel Chase just as rescue came along. That rescue doesn’t arrive in the shape of Captain Fredrick Dent, at Starvation Camp until October 24. Of those who tried to make their own way back to safety, all barring two would either die of starvation, be taken prisoner or be killed by the Shoshone. In total there would be only fifteen survivors of the Utter Party Massacre, twenty-five deaths and four abductions.

A: I don’t know how we don’t talk about this one more, because, granted it took me a while to find all the sources for it – but they’re definitely there –the survival cannibalism is authenticated, recognised by the American government. Granted, we have sidestepped quite a lot of the racism in this one and actually in quite a few of our stories in general. But I feel that the Utter Party Massacre could have been an episode of its own.

C: Yeah, that was a pretty, pretty good story.

A: So that’s the best of the rest of survival cannibalism in the wild west. It has been quite a ride. But just remember, don’t overdose on salmon.

(Carmella laughs)

[Outro Music – Daniel Wackett]

C: Thank you for listening to Episode Six on the best of the rest of the Wild West. What a fest we’ve just expressed. We’ll leave you some time to digest!

A: [Unimpressed] Hmm.

[Both laugh]

A: Join us next time for a Siberian folk hero. The man, the myth, the legend… literally.

[Outro music continues]

A: Casting Lots Podcast can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr as @CastingLotsPod, and on Facebook as Casting Lots Podcast.

C: If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, don’t forget to subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and please rate, review and share to bring more people to the table.

A: Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast, is researched, written and recorded by Alix and Carmella, with post-production and editing also by Carmella and Alix. Art and logo design by Riley – @Tallestfriend on Twitter and Instagram – with audio and music by Daniel Wackett – Daniel Wackett on SoundCloud and @ds_wack on Twitter. Casting Lots is part of the Morbid Audio Podcast Network – search #MorbidAudio on Twitter – and the network’s music is provided by Mikaela Moody – mikaelamoody1 on Bandcamp.

[Morbid Audio Sting – Mikaela Moody]