[Buddha-l] Re: "Nature" and eating meat

[Peter D. Junger]

Jim Peavler writes:

: 
: On Oct 25, 2005, at 5:15 AM, Stefan Detrez wrote:
: >
: > Cases of Westerners eating human flesh are scarce as far as I know.
: >
: 
: Colorado has its cannibal. In 1873 he was with a party of prospectors 
: who got isolated by a blizzard not to far from Lake City, Colorado in 
: the San Juan Mountains. They never arrived at their destination, and 
: when Alfred was finally rescued it was discovered that he had eaten 
: some of his companions. It was later claimed that Alfred, a Democrat, 
: had eaten the only Republicans in the county. Alfred lived to be a 
: rather unhealthy old man.
: 
: In the late 50s or early 60s sometime a group of us started a movement 
: to rename the student cafeteria at the University of Colorado, then 
: called the Indian Grill (this name would be outlawed by the NCAA I am 
: sure), to the Alfred Packer Memorial Cafeteria. We were not successful, 
: but serious-minded students within the next decade were finally 
: succeeded in this noble cause.

Legend has it that when sentencing Alfred Packer for murder the
judge said:

  "...There was siven Dimmycrats in Hinsdale County! But you, yah 
  voracious, main-eatin son of a bitch, yah et five of them, 
  therefor I sentence ye T' be hanged by the neck until y're dead, 
  dead, dead!"

A musical was made about Packer, which brings to mind the fact
that a musical was also made about Sweeney Todd.

But note that there appears to be no case where someone was convicted
of cannibalism rather than some form of homicide.

But cf., _The reluctant cannibal_, by Flanders & Swann, circa 1956,
<http://www.thurb.com/humour/cannibal.htm>, where the objection was 
to the eating, not the killing.

CORRIGENDUM:  In an earlier message I referred incorrectly to a 
case that I called "Dudley v. Stephens.''  The actual case name
is "Regina v. Dudley and Stephens."  The opinion of the court
can be found at: 
<http://www.justis.com/titles/iclr_bqb14040.html>.
--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger at samsara.law.cwru.edu    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu