Born around 1850, Joseph Briggen was a product of farming stock and he followed in the family tradition, working hard to scratch a living from his remote Sierra Morena Ranch, in northern California. All things considered, he had little to show for his labor. Briggen's crop was invariably poor, and the effort might have been a complete waste of time, except for his prize Berkshire hogs.

So perfect were his swine, that Briggen soon became the odds-on favorite for winning honors at the annual state fair in Sacramento. His pork brought top dollar, and every year Briggen was pestered by questions from envious breeders. In answer, he would only say that his stock received the finest possible care -- and the best feed -- available.

The feed, in fact, was Briggen's specialty, although he dared not share the recipe. For years, the rancher made repeated, periodic trips to San Francisco, touring the Embarcadero district in a search for homeless men and transients. These he hired, throwing in a pledge of room and board. Sometimes the new employees lasted weeks, before they grew suspicious and demanded something more than food and lodging for their pay. When cash was called for, Briggen simply killed his latest victim , chopped the body up, and fed it to his hogs. In Briggen's mind, the "special" diet was responsible for his success in raising swine, and he was not prepared to change a winning system.

In early 1902, Briggen hired a young man named Steven Korad, the latest in a series of expendable employees, but the rancher's carelessness was showing. Checking out his room that night, before retiring, Korad found two severed fingers on the floor behind his bed. The young man slipped away to notify authorities, and excavations at the ranch unearthed an estimated dozen victims in the next few days. A human skull and other bones were found inside the sty itself.

Authorities did not suggest that Briggen's body-count was limited to twelve or thirteen victims, but they had enough to win conviction. Tried in August, Briggen drew a term of life imprisonment and died a short time later, in San Quentin. The identity and final number of his victims stands as an enduring mystery.