These 6 Infamous Criminals from Colorado Are Terrifying

Who are the most infamous criminals in Colorado? Each state in America has its cast of characters guilty of unspeakable acts that live on throughout history, and the Centennial State is no exception.

We're taking a look at six of Colorado's most well-known criminals and their crimes below. Scroll through the list below, and let us know which baddie you think was the worst with the chat feature on our station app.

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Colorado's Most Famous Killers

Some of Colorado's worst criminals were cold-blooded killers. One of them even ate his victims. Scroll through the profiles below to learn about some of the most terrifying villains in Colorado.

The Colorado Cannibal Alfred Packer

Alfred Packer led five men through the San Juan Mountains in the winter of 1874. Despite warnings from Chief Ouray, the team tried to cross the mountains during the coldest time of year. Packer was the only surviving member of the party, and it was later discovered he survived the trek because he murdered his companions at survived off their remains. Packer was arrested for the crime but escaped before sentencing. He spent 9 years on the run before being recaptured. Packer died from a stroke in 1907. His skull is on display at the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum in San Antonio, Texas.

Scott Lee Kimball

Scott Lee Kimball is currently behind bars serving a 70-year sentence for murder in Colorado and Utah. Kimball had committed check fraud while in prison and was able to arrange for a supervised release in exchange for informing police about a drug ring. While on release, Kimball murdered four people and hid their bodies in remote areas of Colorado and Utah. The remains of one victim have never been found to this day. He is known by the nickname Joe Snitch.

Joseph Corbett JR

Joseph Corbett JR was the focus of a nationwide manhunt in 1960 after kidnapping and murdering Adolph Coors III, who was the CEO and heir to Coors Brewing. Coors station wagon was found abandoned with blood stains on the inside. The manhunt lasted most of the year with Corbett JR added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List. In September of that year, Coors’ remains were discovered in a wooded area near Colorado’s Pikes Peak. After serving 20 years of a life sentence, Corbett was released on parole. He committed suicide in 2009.

Chris Watts

While Chris Watts was not a serial killer, he did commit one of the worst murders in Colorado history. It happened in August of 2018 when he strangled his pregnant wife who had returned home from a business trip. He buried his wife Shannan in a shallow grave at a remote oil storage site owned by his employer. Watts strangled his two daughters and placed them inside the oil tanks at the site.

This story was portrayed as part of a Netflix movie called “American Murder: The Family Next Door.” This film includes Watts's confession, arrest, and sentencing.

Nathan Dunlap

Nathan Dunlap was known through most of the 1990s as Colorado’s Chuck E. Cheese murderer after he was found guilty of shooting four former coworkers at a Chuck E. Cheese in Aurora, Colorado in 1993. Dunlap was fired from the restaurant but returned one evening shortly before closing. He laid low inside the arcade and once the store closed, he shot four employees after making off with $1500 from the safe and a pile of game tokens. He is serving a 108-year sentence at the Colorado State Penitentiary.

Ted Bundy

Sadly, Colorado would get to know its most notorious serial killer of all time by 1975. Ted Bundy moved from Washington to Salt Lake City to go to Law School. Instead, he went on a killing spree that led him to Colorado. It’s suspected that the killing spree began around January of 1975 when Caryn Campbell went missing from her hotel in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Bundy was eventually caught and confessed to multiple murders up until the time of his execution in 1989.