The elderly stranger described Big Phil as a six and a half feet tall man of 230 pounds and immense physical strength. Gardner was born in Philadelphia and was imprisoned for life after murdering someone during the 1844 riots in that city. Some claimed that he escaped after he broke his jailer’s back across his knee, while later accounts embellish to the point that he broke the jailer in half.

According to a January 3, 1887, article in the Rocky Mountain News, he attempted to meet up with a Mormon wagon train, but missed it by three days. While working to catch the train, he joined up with two army deserters near Fort Leavenworth. Having no money or provisions for the trip west, the trio decided to raid the home of a French Canadian trapper named La Chapelle. The three men broke into La Chapelle’s home at 3 a.m., demanding he reveal where his wealth was hidden. The Rocky Mountain News claims that Gardner cut the man’s ear off and threatened to stab him in the heart if he didn’t divulge the location of the money. The man turned over the $500, but died in the night anyway.

A group of vigilantes was then formed to seek out the desperados. Gardner managed to outpace his companions who were caught, killed and their bodies thrown into a fire. Gardner watched this ghastly scene from his hiding place until the vigilantes left. Having not eaten in some time, he crept towards the fire and took some roasted bits of his former companions to fuel his journey west. Thus Phil had his first cannibal feast. He eventually reached the Mormon train at Ash Hollow on the Platte River, where he was baptized a Latter-Day Saint.