8. Boone Helm murdered and ate countless people during his killing spree in the mid-19th century
Levi Boone Helm, also known as the Kentucky Cannibal, was a famed gunfighter and serial killer of the American West. In 1850, after a spate of adolescent troubles with the law, Helm migrated westwards to California in the pursuit of gold. However, when his cousin, Littlebury Shoot, reneged on plans to do so with him, Helm violently stabbed Littlebury to death. Captured by his relatives, Helm was institutionalized on grounds of mental illness. Nonetheless, Helm, taking advantage of lax security, successfully escape the asylum and begun his journey west. Along the way, Helm was responsible for the murders of several men, confiding to fellow fugitives that he had “been obliged to feed on some of ’em” out of necessity. Traveling through the harsh wilderness, Helm’s companions gradually died one by one. The last to die, Burton, was butchered and eaten by Helm, with one of his legs taken for future provisions.
Finally reaching California, Helm murdered a rancher who had kindly offered him shelter from the law, before traveling onward to Oregon whereupon he made a living robbing and murdering. In 1862, after killing an unarmed man in a saloon, Helm was forced to flee from the law once again. During this time, Helm once again cannibalized a fugitive companion. Arrested for his crimes, Helm persuaded his brother, at considerable cost, to bribe all potential witnesses to collapse the case against him. Although briefly accompanying his brother to Texas, Helm would return to the Pacific Northwest to resume his murderous activities before being finally captured in Montana. Charged with murder, despite seeking to blame other fugitives for his actions Helm was convicted and sentenced to death on January 14, 1864. In front of a crowd of six thousand, before the hangman could kick the bucket Helm proclaimed: “Every man for his principles! Hurrah for Jeff Davis! Let ‘er rip!” and jumped to his death from the gallows.