January 14, 1864: Execution of the Kentucky Cannibal

When it comes to crime and villainy there is nothing new under the sun.  Boone Helm was a serial killer long before the phrase was coined and a real life Hannibal Lecter.  Born in Kentucky in 1828, Helm moved with his family as a child to Missouri.  There he grew up to be a bully and wife beater, his wife divorcing him for his love of cruelty.

He decided to go to California in 1850 to pan for gold, murdering  a male cousin who had promised to go with him but backed out of the trip.  Placed in an insane asylum for this murder, Helm quickly escaped.  Proceeding now to California, he murdered several men along the way.  Fleeing from vigilantes, he teamed up with six other men to whom he boasted:  “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.”

The party came to disaster on their journey to Fort Hall in Idaho Territory.  Finding himself with one other man after Indian attacks and starvation, Helm ate the legs of his companion after the man allegedly committed suicide.

Spending time in Salt Lake City, Helm committed a few murders for a group of Mormons.  Returning to California, Helm murdered a rancher who befriended him.  Helm then embarked on a career of robbery, murder and, when his rations were short, cannibalism, which stretched from Oregon to Texas.  Helm’s luck ran out when he and other members of the gang he was traveling with were captured, tried and hanged by Montana vigilantes.  The crowd viewing the hanging of Helm and his compatriots was estimated at 6000.  No estimate exists as to how many men the Kentucky Cannibal murdered.