Cannibalism: the act of eating a member of one's own species. It is as brutal and bizarre as it gets, and make no mistake—humans are not exempt from the practice. In fact, humans have been practicing cannibalism for as long as there have been humans. It is very probable that each and every single person reading this is descended from cannibals, and if you do the math, it makes sense that chasing your family tree back far enough, you would find someone who would either have been forced to cannibalize to survive or who did it because they just thought it was the right thing to do.
Luckily, cannibalism isn't very popular today and is relegated to marginalized cultures and a few depraved individuals. But every once in a while, someone comes along and shocks us with an insatiable thirst for the blood of their own kind—for human blood. This isn't just another serial killer list with Jeffrey Dahmer or Albert Fish; these are various Americans from vastly different walks of life, forever linked by one life decision from which they would become inseparable: They each chose, for different reasons, to eat the flesh of other people. Here are ten terrifying, lesser-known American cannibals.
10. Levi Boone Helm
Levi Boone Helm was an American outlaw and Wild West gunfighter born in Kentucky in 1828. He came from a well-respected family that moved to Missouri when he was a child. Like many other historical figures, his story is shrouded in mystery and folklore, but he was definitely a real person and quite capable of doing everything attributed to him. Helm would eventually settle into the bad boy routine and choose the Wild West way of life. It was said that he once walked into a courtroom while court was in session and began to yell at the judge, telling him exactly what he thought of him—and it wasn't nice, to say the least.
Helm was known for heavy drinking and violence and had a short marriage due to rampant domestic abuse. The costs of the divorce left his family broke and impoverished, so Helm decided to head out to California to strike it rich—or have a lawless, wild time. He lived an outlaw life of rough-riding, gunfighting, running from the law, traveling, and robbing people and institutions.
Levi Boone Helm would eventually come to be known as The Kentucky Cannibal, an obvious reference to his place of birth as well as the particularly brutal way he preferred to dispose of his victims. As his long killing spree progressed, the Kentucky Cannibal was reported to have eaten parts of his victims, possibly out of pure, wild savagery and for the psychological effect, or possibly in part because the life of an outlaw was a rough one, and coming by resources and shelter was often difficult.
Helm would eventually be caught for his crimes in Montana and hanged. According to legend, as the hangman approached to kick the box out from beneath his feet, he screamed, "Every man for his principles! Hurrah for Jeff Davis! Let 'er rip!" and jumped off the box willingly, hanging himself. Levi Boone Helm died on January 14, 1864.
9. Carroll Cole
Carroll Edward Cole, or "Eddie" as he was also known, was a notable, though lesser-known, American serial killer who would be executed in 1985 for his crimes. Like many other serial killers, such as Peter Kurten, Eddie Carroll had an extremely violent upbringing and was beaten as a child. This probably contributed to his violent tendencies. Cole was also forced to watch his mother have sex with men, with him in the same room.
Cole grew up in California and would ultimately go on to commit a crazed murder spree, killing "loose women" across multiple states, including Nevada, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Texas, and, of course, California. He was a drunk who drifted and killed as he moved along. He was actually caught once, but the police released him, enabling Cole to murder again. Carroll then began experimenting, like many serial killers, with both necrophilia and cannibalism. He claimed that after he murdered a woman in Oklahoma, he awoke from a drunken stupor and found slices of his victim's buttocks in a frying pan. In January 1980, he was arrested on his honeymoon and was ultimately executed by lethal injection on December 6, 1985.
