Helm gained his nickname for his opportunistic and unrepentant proclivity for consuming human flesh, usually in survival situations, though instances of killing people for their meat unprovoked were also documented.

Helm (1787–1876) and Nancy Wilcox,[1][2] who moved to Jackson Township, Monroe County, Missouri, when he was still a boy.

[3] Helm delighted in demonstrating feats of strength and agility, such as throwing his Bowie knife into the ground and retrieving it from a horse at full gallop.

[4] In one demonstration of his contempt for authority, Helm, on horseback, rebuffed a sheriff's attempt to arrest him by walking his horse up the stairs of a courthouse and into the courtroom, while the circuit court was in session, and by verbally haranguing the judge.

In 1851, Helm married 17-year-old Lucinda Frances Browning in Monroe County Missouri and fathered a daughter, Lucy.

Having bankrupted his father and ruined his family's reputation, Helm decided to move to California in search of gold.

Shoot initially agreed, but when he attempted to back out of the trip, an angered Helm murdered him by stabbing him in the chest and headed west alone.

[6][7] He was pursued and captured by Littlebury's brother and friends and convicted of murder,[4] but his antics in captivity quickly landed him in a mental asylum.

In 1862, after heavily drinking, Helm gunned down an unarmed man named Dutch Fred in a saloon and fled.