The legend was that Judge Melville B. Gerry, on pronouncing sentencing 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!". This was not the exact statement made by the judge, but it's gone down in Packer folklore. :)
Yarddog: but I have read enough accounts of Japanese canabalism including killing american pilots in order to eat them, that I have no doubt they did it mainly due to perverted nature.
There are certainly accounts of Japanese eating prisoners when other food was available.
Don't forget the rugby team from South America (Uruguay? Bolivia?) that crashed in the Andes in the early '70s.
And, of course, the Donner Party.