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01 - The Mad Trapper of Rat River
57 Plays3 months ago
In 1931, several RCMP officers responded to a complaint in the Northwest Territories. A man probably called Albert Johnson had been hanging another man’s traps. What followed is the greatest manhunt in Canadian history.
Sources and Further Reading
Anderson, F. (2025, March 19). The Death of Albert Johnson in the Arctic. https://www.jkcc.com/albert/
Butts, E. (2019, April 28). Albert Johnson, “The Mad Trapper of Rat River”. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/albert-johnson
Healy, J. J. (2007). Case overview of the murder of RCMP Constable Newt Millen and the capture of the Mad Trapper: A 90th year anniversary: 1932 to 2022. RCMP Graves. https://www.rcmpgraves.com/vetcorner/madtrapper.html
North, D. (2005). The Mad Trapper of Rat River: A true story of Canada’s biggest manhunt. Lyons Press.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Wonder Camer'
00:00:24
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Wonder Camer. My name is Jen Rempel, and I'm here with my co-hosts, Dave Powell and Tracy Anderson-Powell. And we are here to bring you a variety of tales of wonder. So you might want to know, what is a wonderkammer? Why are we called this? Well, a wonderkammer, the name is basically the Dutch variation of the German word, Wundekammer, which translates basically to wonder room. These rooms are sometimes known as Kunstkammer.
00:00:56
Speaker
or a Kunstkabinett, which I pronounce very carefully, art room, art cabinet. So in English, thankfully, we generally use the term cabinet of
Concept of Cabinet of Curiosities
00:01:06
Speaker
curiosities. So these cabinets, these are sometimes literal cabinets, but more often they are an entire room, hence camera.
00:01:14
Speaker
became popular among scientists and sort of wealthy collectors during the Renaissance in Europe. Wonderkamers were collections of oddities, usually specimens from nature, such as corals, shells, skeletons, minerals, stuffed animals, things like this. They also included man-made objects from all over the world, such as coins, miniatures, globes, and the like.
00:01:35
Speaker
So I don't want to get into spoiler territory here as next week we'll feature more details on the history of the Wonder Camera or the Cabinet of Curiosities and include more examples of those next time. So this podcast is like a Cabinet of Curiosities.
00:01:51
Speaker
Each episode will feature a unique story about something that fascinates us. So that could be a piece of history, maybe an individual person, a book, an object, a social phenomenon, whatever we find fascinating at the moment.
00:02:04
Speaker
So remember, we are not experts.
Introduction to the Mad Trapper of Rat River
00:02:07
Speaker
We're basically dilettantes. What's a dilettante, Jen? Well, a dilettante is ah the kind of person who has a lot of interests, a lot of various fascinations, but are not an expert in any one thing. and A dilettante likes to do their research on their own time, I would say. We lack some expertise, but we make up for it with enthusiasm, and we are careful with our sources too. So this This podcast is a chance for us to share these interests with you, our audience. So each week, either Tracy, Dave, or myself will take the lead in sharing something special.
00:02:43
Speaker
Today, Tracy's bringing us our first ever story for our inaugural episode. So what do you got for us today, Tracy? Well, Jen, today I have the Mad Trapper of Rat River. who the story of the Mad Trapper was the story of Canada's largest RCMP manhunt. Really? Of all time? Of all time. At that time, it might still be. I'm not entirely sure. Do tell us more. I haven't heard me anything bigger than that yet. It is funny. Those two phrases, Mad Trapper and Rat River, it's like, oh, Canada.
00:03:12
Speaker
class I love it. I love it. So our story starts on July 7th, 1931. Indigenous brothers William and Edward Snowshoes of Fort McPherson in the Northwest Territories were paddling up the Peel River when they came upon a white man sitting in his camp. They figured it must be Paul Neiman's brother-in-law, Albert Johnson.
00:03:31
Speaker
Sorry. They figured it must be Paul Neiman's brother-in-law, Albert Johnson. Neiman had mentioned his brother-in-law was going to be going down the lower Mackenzie River to his trapline. So the two men asked the stranger if he was Albert Johnson. And the man said yes.
00:03:46
Speaker
So the Snowshoe Brothers kept going. They tended their fishing nets and returned to Fort McPherson and reported seeing Albert Johnson, only to find out later from Paul Neiman that this wasn't his brother-in-law.
00:03:57
Speaker
oh du du By the way, if I ever have a band, we're going the Snowshoe Brothers. Nice. If it's just me and another woman or whatever, we're the Snowshoe Brothers. Yeah, absolutely. I like it. So to clarify, it's not clear if this man is an imposter. He could just by coincidence have the same name. It's just that he's nebulously Albert Johnson.
00:04:17
Speaker
Yes, he his name might very well be Albert Johnson, but he's not Paul Neiman's brother-in-law. Got it. So okay who is this guy? Which Johnson is it?
00:04:28
Speaker
Two days later, the man that identified himself as Albert Johnson walked into Fort McPherson to purchase some supplies, a 16-gauge single-barrel shotgun and 25 shells. The owner of the shop said that Johnson was the perfect customer.
00:04:41
Speaker
He knew what he wanted, he bought without hesitation, and he appeared to have lots of cash on him.
The Mysterious Albert Johnson
00:04:47
Speaker
That sounds legitimate. He's like real psycho. It's like Anton Chigurh. Focused on a mission. Yes. Buying his shells.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yes. He described Johnson as being five feet, nine inches tall with light brown hair and cold blue eyes. The man was, quote, very taciturn and carried with him about $3,400 in a tobacco can.
00:05:08
Speaker
To be fair, everybody's eyes were cold up there. It is the Northwest Territories. Just frozen over. Yeah. Although it's July, so it's probably not frozen over and probably infested with black flies.
00:05:20
Speaker
Oh, i was about to say, there's lovely flowers everywhere and the worst black flies you've ever encountered. Right on those sweet eye juices. Oh, yeah. oh Delicious. So does anybody want to take a stab at how much $3,400 1934 worth today? going to say $12,000.
00:05:33
Speaker
No, $20,000. $50,000. $68,000 in today money. Ooh.
00:05:38
Speaker
no twenty thousand dollars fifty sixty eight thousand dollars in today dan So imagine walking around with just with that much in a can with your
The RCMP Manhunt Begins
00:05:50
Speaker
possessions. Yeah.
00:05:51
Speaker
yeah I mean, we live in a pretty small town and everyone's got their money can, but their money can's not got that much. Yeah. Usually they're burying it in the backyard. was going to say. You bury in the backyard beside your ah questionably legal rifle, because as we know, an assault weapon is not actually a description of a gun. It's I'm kidding. Go on.
00:06:13
Speaker
but He's got a he's got a shotgun and shells and a bunch of money in a can. is it Yeah. Typical small town, you know. His shotgun, his can money seems like a good guy with his sandy brown hair. Yeah, nothing could possibly go wrong.
00:06:24
Speaker
And his fly-bitten blue eyes. Cold fly-bitten eyes. Gross. Mm-hmm. Johnson's camp was upstream from Abe Francis's fishing camp, so he was well aware that there were witnesses to his presence. So Johnson set up three sticks, walked a rather impressive distance, turned around, and shot the tops off the sticks. Word of his skills spread like wildfire and became part of the legend of Albert Johnson. And if you know Alberta, wildfire spread fast. so yeah absolutely So he, you know, just casually sets up some sets up some sticks, bang, bang, bang, clips these sticks with a shotgun, which is not an accurate gun. And yeah, okay.
00:07:06
Speaker
Will that be listened to you? Sticks. Yeah, maybe he's trying to, you know, keep people from coming too close because he's got $68,000 in a tobacco can. ah This is Albert, quote, ah sorry, the nebulous Albert, don't fuck with me, Johnson.
00:07:23
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. So if he wanted to ensure that he was isolated, this was certainly a way to do it. Yes. Francis had talked to Johnson a few times. He noticed the man was nervous and tried to hide his face. Andrew Cunezzi told the story of a storm rolling through Fort McPherson. He and some others went to Johnson's camp to ask if he wanted to come to the post to get out of the storm.
00:07:43
Speaker
Johnson replied with a simple no and shut the tent flap. Okay. So he's not much on talk. Friendly guy. in a sweet can. Leave me with my flies in my can. Sweet can. so William Firth, who was manning the Hudson Bay Post, said Albert bought $700, that's $14,000 today, in supplies and called him a good customer.
00:08:05
Speaker
Firth learned the name. I would. Yeah. It's probably a captive market, though. There probably isn't a lot of options up there. bought everything. He's my favorite customer. I've got go to the Walmart. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that too. Yeah, imagine just dropping $14,000 in a Walmart. I'm sure you could buy out half the store with that. oh That's a lot of ah different flavors of Oreo. Yes. All the colors of the all the fabulous Lady Gaga Oreos you could dream of. 80,000 pounds of fast fashion microplastics just ready to inject into your veins. ah That's right.
00:08:37
Speaker
Firth learned the man's name was Albert Johnson and that he planned to establish a trap line along Rat River or follow a portage route over the Richardson Mountains west to the Yukon. Right. So the Rat River, we're in the we're in the Northwest Territories, yes? just say Yes, we're close to the border of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. And it's, I would say, about halfway between the southern border and the...
00:09:01
Speaker
Ocean. Okay. To midway point in the middle of a lot of a lot of tundra. Yeah, as say, if you aren't familiar with Northwest Territories, look at a map. It's gigantic.
00:09:12
Speaker
So... Yeah, it was even bigger at that time because they hadn't carved it in half to put in and a third territory. That's right. Bishop W.A. Gettys of the Anglican Church at the Fort reported Johnson to Expector Alex Eames, commander of the Western Arctic Subdistrict of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Or the Mounties, as we've come to know and love them.
00:09:33
Speaker
yeah Love. mixed feelings they certainly have a good reputation with those red coats they do the uh us put shiny red coats on all of their police the george floyd riots probably wouldn't have happened that's right yeah they called them the red coat riots there you go Eames requested Constable Edgar Millen of the Arctic Red River Detachment to interview Albert on his next trip to Fort
Public Fascination and Johnson's Evasion
00:10:00
Speaker
McPherson. That next trip came on July 21st. Constable Millen met Johnson at the fort and asked where he came from. Now, Millen didn't do this out of idle curiosity. The Depression was in full swing and many men headed north to try their hand at trapping. At that time, sable skin was worth almost $100 or two grand today.
00:10:19
Speaker
A good cross fox fur, which is a partially melanistic variant of the red fox, went for about $500 and an arctic fox fur fetched a high price as well. Many were not... good for Just just to know, ah like when they're trapping these animals for their fur, they're selling them off to like a Hudson Bay company or other traders that will eventually put them in the line of becoming fashionable objects. Absolutely. oops Interesting. All right.
00:10:43
Speaker
Many who that came were not prepared for such a strenuous occupation in such an inhospitable winter climate. When these trappers got into trouble, the RCMP had to get them out. So the Mounties tried to make sure newcomers were well equipped and knew what they were doing. Now that's just skiers who get out over their skis in the glaciers. Yeah. Snowboarders out there on the going off the trail.
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's the backcountry. That's right. Johnson told Millen that he spent the previous year on the prairies and came to the Arctic by the Mackenzie River system. Millen was aware that Johnson came down the Peel River and doubted the story, but he didn't press the matter.
00:11:18
Speaker
Many men in the North Country wouldn't elaborate on their itinerary, particularly prospectors and trappers. The itinerary of a prospector just sounds like the most, um I don't know, grizzled, taciturn, brief thing in the world.
00:11:33
Speaker
Wake. Lunch. Prospect. Eat. Coor. As I say, strike it rich, spend it all on booze, whores, back to work.
00:11:46
Speaker
ah Booze and broads. That's right. Beer. All respect to sex workers. I'm just using the language of the time. Oh, no. i To be very clear, all respect to sex workers, no respect to prospectors.
00:12:00
Speaker
Exactly. Sorry, prospectors. Screw you, buddy. What you going to do? Come at me. you going to do? Pan me? I don't know what that means, but hey. I imagine it involves a clang.
00:12:13
Speaker
I'm going to get sifted so hard. Oh, no. Not but that. Millen concluded the interview with Johnson by advising him to pick up a trapper's license from the police and save himself a trip to the Arctic Red River Post later on. Asking them to get a license for anything? Asking for trouble? From the government?
00:12:34
Speaker
get a sense this guy doesn't love the government too much. He doesn't seem like a licensing type. No. At the confluence of the Rat and Longstick Rivers, a tent city was built on the shores among the flotsam and wrecked boats. There was a sign calling it Destruction City.
00:12:49
Speaker
yeah Amazing. all Destruction City on the Rat River. I'm just picturing, you know, oh that that pirates and beavers and trappers and it beaver pirates.
00:13:01
Speaker
Oh, the beaver pirates just coming right. oh god Oh, God. I think that's actually a local term for the sex workers. Oh, no!
00:13:12
Speaker
Oh, to be a sex worker in Destruction City. oh my God, what a name. It's a tough living. Yeah. so Well, what's up for those flying pans, you know? Oh, it's just beards and beavers everywhere. God.
00:13:27
Speaker
Flotsam and Jetsam. Don't forget that. Yeah. Yes. Good Jetsam. Honestly, that double act never aged very well. Their jokes were shockingly racist. And about the about strange different people groups. Really? Yeah. really had Just really had it up for Macedonians. Just odd. Very 40 people were camped out at Destruction City and in the nearby Shacktown.
00:13:51
Speaker
Oh, lovely. These names. It's like the Twin Cities of Destruction City and Shacktown. That's right. I mean, if you listen to the news commentary about the state of the Twin Cities, Destruction City and Shacktown sounds like, that generally sounds like what conservative media is probably calling them. So there you go.
00:14:12
Speaker
God, what names. Like, do they know it's funny? You start there. yeah You move up to Shacktown and maybe you get like the, i don't know, Squat Complex. Yeah. I imagine Shacktown as being more rural and Destruction City as very urban.
00:14:31
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah, guess you're right. It's a city versus town divide. it's like you know it's a bedroom community for Destruction City. So you get more single family shacks in Shacktown. Well, in Destruction City, it's ah mostly tenements built out of, ah you know, broken down ships and the hollowed out insides of beavers. To commute in there to work, which is doing your trapping. Mm-hmm.
00:14:53
Speaker
you know, and then you commute back home to shack Shacktown after. The public transit is just the moose. Yeah, it's great. do i hit your right Johnson chose a point eight miles upstream of Destruction City to build himself a cabin.
00:15:09
Speaker
He was roughly in the vicinity of three men, William Vatrekwa, Jacob Drymeat, and William Narysew. Johnson spent the rest of the summer and fall working on an eight by 10 foot cabin and preparing for the winter trapping season. It's building your own house yeah i think i'll have house here why not yeah wouldn't that be nice you just pick your spot and build your house right there you don't have to worry about building on somebody else's land exactly there's no mortgage it's way from the northwest territories without electricity it's great so this guy's loaded i guess that's why you don't get rich buying your own house no that's true
00:15:45
Speaker
That's true. He met James Hogg at the headwaters of the Rat River at Loon Lake. He was civil to Hogg, but noncommittal about his presence in the area. So he's not telling anybody why he's there. So maybe he's not there for trapping.
00:16:00
Speaker
Johnny Tightlips. yep On Christmas Day 1931, William Narysew walked into the Arctic Red River Post and complained to Constable Millen that Albert was springing Narysew's traps and hanging them in the trees. The next day, Millen ordered Constable Alfred King and Special Constable Joe Bernard to go question Johnson about the traps.
00:16:19
Speaker
yeah Sorry to interject, but like, so he's committing what is likely a cardinal sin in ah a region of trappers, which is sabotaging his neighbor's traps. yeah that's Yeah, that's pretty serious. If you rely on this to survive... No, that's the only source of income. There's an unbelievable amount of money to be made. And if you sabotage your neighbor's traps, you have to be committing the most cardinal sin in the area. Yep. Yeah. It's surprising that that he went to the authorities. Like my ah grandfather was a trapper out of Manitoba. a little bit after this time. He was born in 21. So he would have been 10 at the time of this story. But he would not suffer trespass lately, I would say. So I can only imagine...
00:17:01
Speaker
If you're Albert Johnson, that much scarier. The temperature dropped to minus 40 as they wait made their way to Fort McPherson. Now, with this story, the book that I used as my main resource called The Mad Trapper of Rat River by Dick North, he doesn't give any units. So he doesn't say if it's Celsius or Fahrenheit, but at minus 40, they're the exactly the same, so it doesn't matter. But later...
00:17:32
Speaker
The temperature will change later on, and I have no idea what he used. At the time, Canada hadn't moved to the metric system at the time this book was written. Oh, really? So it's very likely that he used Fahrenheit because he's got miles in there and he uses pounds. right.
00:17:48
Speaker
Oh, so we don't have to translate this to heathen then? No, we don't. Oh, wonderful. So if you've never experienced minus 40 Celsius or 45, it's torture. Your exposed skin is painful instantly. So thinking about this time...
00:18:04
Speaker
It's ah not hospitable weather at all. It's a weird feeling to Yeah, face hurts. If you breathe, if you've got a scarf on and you breathe through it, the scarf freezes up. It freezes your eyelashes together so you can't open your eyes anymore. The inside of your nose freezes, which is so unpleasant. Yeah.
00:18:24
Speaker
Wet hair will snap. oh free And your forehead freezes, right? If your forehead's exposed, it gets like, it just feels odd and painful because it's just skull behind it, right? There's not much meat, get a lot of heat going.
00:18:38
Speaker
So yeah, it's ah minus 40 Celsius and Fahrenheit, same temperature, avoid it. even taking it from god a good winter coat Even if you've got a good winter coat, it sounds like it's it's cracking when you move.
00:18:49
Speaker
yeah Yeah, everything becomes brittle. Yeah, you have to plug your car in at that temperature. Learned that the hard way. Yeah. Yeah, I think we've all made that mistake at least once.
00:19:00
Speaker
Yeah. So they stayed the night with John Firth, the Hudson's Bay trader, who invited them to come back for New Year's Eve. Firth was known to throw a good party, and the Mounties agreed that they'd try to make it. So good party, they're just getting trashed, right?
00:19:13
Speaker
Yeah, probably. Just moonshine and sex It's dest Destruction City. Can you imagine? They're going into town for New Year's Eve. yeah I'd want to observe but not participate because I think it's terrifying. To avoid drunk driving, they have a ah moose set up coming in from Shacktown. Oh, that's fair. Sensible.
00:19:34
Speaker
Two days later, on December 28, 1931, King and Bernard arrived at Johnson's Rat River cabin. King yelled a greeting, but there was no answer from Johnson. His snowshoes were out front, and there was smoke coming from the stovepipe, so someone was home.
00:19:49
Speaker
King introduced himself and stated why he was there. Still no answer. He looked in the window and found Johnson looking back at him. Johnson quickly closed the burlap curtain. equal just Just imagine his face. Okay.
00:20:03
Speaker
I'm not here. Where'd he go? He's not here, sir. Can't see him anymore. no object permanence. I'm an RCMP. That's mean. Forget that. You know, it's also true. If you play peekaboo with the cops, you get away from from any traffic stop.
00:20:18
Speaker
That's right. Sorry. Can't see no more. Yeah, exactly. My eyes are closed. I guess this car is gone. They don't get a ticket. Under normal circumstances in the North, a traveler could expect to be asked in for tea or to spend the night if needed. But they weren't getting that kind of hospitality today. King suspected Johnson might be wary of them because they were the law.
00:20:39
Speaker
Da-da-da! Or if you have a can with like $60,000 in it, I'd be wary of the law too. Everybody's eyeing Albert Johnson's sweet can.
00:20:55
Speaker
he is yeah If I'm Albert Johnson, I maybe wouldn't attract the attention of the law in the first place. But... Yeah, maybe just talk to them and agree to what they're saying so they'll go away. Yeah, this all seems like a lot of ah unforced errors. Like, why would you sabotage your neighbor's trap line, assuming he did it? Yeah. Yeah. Right. yeah You don't want negative attention.
00:21:19
Speaker
So they waited for about an hour, but Albert never came out, nor did he say anything to them. I love what Canadian that is. police. Go away!
00:21:31
Speaker
oh what do we do now? Sir Chief. but like One hour later, you hear a wolf howling. They're still outside. ah King knew they'd have to come back with a warrant, which meant they needed to go to a clavik 80 miles away. But this might not be such a bad thing for the Mounties. It would give them a chance to get reinforcements. Are they going by dog sled? Just out of curiosity. what are What are they doing at this time? This is, are we in the winter yet? I forget.
00:21:58
Speaker
Yes, this is yeah around New Year's Eve. Okay. Yeah. So they are traveling by dog sled. Right. Because it's, yeah, because he showed up in the summer. We've now moved on to New Year's Eve and which is why he's also minus 40.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yep. Checks out. Inspector Eames provided a warrant and sent Constable R.G. McDowell and Special Constable Lazarus Siddichinly back with King and Bernard. So they have their warrant and their reinforcements, but why did they need them in the first place?
00:22:27
Speaker
What had Johnson done to require these things? So ah that's interesting. So according to the histories you have, he was uncooperative, but he's just accused of something and they don't have a warrant and they're coming back with reinforcements.
00:22:45
Speaker
Why do they need reinforcements? What's the threat? Yeah, exactly. That's more keeping in how I understand police behave, but nonetheless. Yeah, I know. Get the tank. At least they got their warrant, right? yeah I mean, give them that.
00:22:58
Speaker
That's true. Followed the procedure by the books.
Johnson's Legendary Evasion Skills
00:23:01
Speaker
The group left early on the morning of December 30th and they traveled fast. They wanted to make the New Year's Eve party at Firth's. They reached Albert Johnson's cabin by noon on December 31st. Johnson was home, but there was no answer when King called out, are you there? No.
00:23:17
Speaker
shouted their chief sorry oh yeah King shouted that he had a warrant and would force the door open if Johnson didn't open it. Still nothing from inside. So King approached the door, turned partially sideways, extended his left arm and knocked with the back of his left hand. I love the specificity of yeah extended his left arm. Suddenly the narrative slows and then a shot rings out. Yes. Got it. A shot rang out sounding like a bomb going off in the extreme cold.
00:23:46
Speaker
King was hit and the shot knocked him back into the snow, but he recovered enough to crawl to the riverbank. A series of shots were then fired by the Mounties into the cabin. Johnson returned fire, but he never came out and he never said a word. We knew we should have brought that tank.
00:24:01
Speaker
Where'd you get a tank? Walmart. It's pulled, pulled by head head the Walmart. It pulled some dogs. You had to have dogs. pulled No, you got to have dogs. and Everything's by dog sled, right? So you have the dogs hooked up to the tanks. The treads aren't going to be working. They haven't been invented yet. And so it's like, and then this tank slowly being dragged through the tundra.
00:24:20
Speaker
Just a spectacle alone. Yeah. Yeah. That would scare the average person out of their cabin for sure. So the Mounties lashed King to a sled and started away, hopeful that they could save King's life. But it was a long trip back and the dogs were already tired from running half the day.
00:24:36
Speaker
The wind kicked up snow, covering their tracks, forcing every everyone to have to break trail all over again and exhausting the dogs further. Also, they were dragging a tank. Yeah. yeah That sounds like a shitty journey, though. Yeah. Yeah. On top of breaking trail again, they had to stop regularly to rub King's face in an attempt to stave off frostbite. Oh, no. Jesus. Yeah. Just put a scarf on him or something, you know? You've got a balaclava, you know? Yeah, cover him up a little.
00:25:04
Speaker
Put one of the dogs on his face. they're cuddly. Give it a break. Let it chill out. Yeah. Yeah, they're already tired from running half the day, so just break give them a break one at a time.
00:25:16
Speaker
I know that sled dogs are not really domestic animals and are working animals and are not necessarily cuddly, but those ones there were. And if that guy had a cuddle, maybe he would have been okay. Yeah. It's just like some group of dogs from the local humane society. They're all just like golden retrievers and like a few pugs.
00:25:38
Speaker
get chihuhua on there But he'd need a little hat and a little jacket and little booties. i Ah, yeah. Too cold for them.
00:25:49
Speaker
The trail continually rose and fell over steep banks. They had to lower and hoist King in the sled, meaning they averaged only four miles per hour, which is like walking speed. That's walking pace, yeah. It took them nearly 20 hours to reach a clavic, which was actually pretty good, all things considered. And now he's hit in the arm? I think he was hit in the chest. Ooh, okay, gotcha.
00:26:10
Speaker
With a shotgun slug. God. Yeah. King was rushed to the small hospital. Dr. J.K. Urquhart found the bullet passed through the left side of King's chest and out the right, somehow missing vital organs.
00:26:23
Speaker
Oh god! How? He was a good shot, but he was also a terrible shot. Like front to back through your chest. I guess you could sort of skim over the top of the lungs. That's wild. Yikes. King was in excellent physical condition otherwise. And he was up and around again in about three weeks. My God. I think he's going to live. i It sounds like he got grazed. I mean, like by graze, it still went through his chest. But like, you know, didn't go through his the lungs or and, you know, his spine, all the important stuff.
00:26:56
Speaker
God, that's insane. Yeah, none of the vital organs. I guess that's where they're called that. But yeah, nothing too important. Inspector Eames chose a force of nine men and 42 dogs to go after Albert Johnson.
00:27:09
Speaker
He sent word to the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals radio station for Millen to meet them at the mouth of the Rat River. Just a sea of pugs. They're top dogs on the job.
00:27:20
Speaker
Their beady eyes, like being rimmed with icicles. Just like completely ill-suited, but they had to get what they needed from the Humane Society. So it's 42 dogs and one dog sled?
00:27:31
Speaker
Wow. Is that really... dad No. yeah it's like But if it was pugs. Yeah. As fast as a bullet train. guess it's 42 of them. Damn. damn Need more dog power.
00:27:46
Speaker
Yeah. 42 dog power. Two days later, the police posse stopped briefly at ex-constable Arthur Blake's trading post on Peel River and found constable Edgar Millen and his guide waiting for them.
00:27:58
Speaker
Millen and Blake were, as far as they were aware, the only ones who saw Albert face to face, but Blake wasn't going with them, so it was just Millen. Eames purchased 20 pounds of dynamite from Blake as a just-in-case.
00:28:12
Speaker
Look, shoot at the guy, didn't work. Clearly he's, you know, some kind of super human mech suit creature, so dynamite it is We know that the tank was a bit, and so they needed the tank of the RCMP, which is 20 pounds of dynamite. Yeah. Yeah. The next day they made camp at the junction of Longstick and Rat Rivers. So probably fairly close to Destruction City. Right.
00:28:37
Speaker
Everything in this area is just given the best name. It's all prospector names without a hint of irony. I don't think there's any jokes here. They just think Destruction City. Well, you know, it's destroyed things. Therefore, it's Destruction City. Just and Rat River. God.
00:28:55
Speaker
Full of rats, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe than they thought the beavers were rats or something and they just thought they were, I don't know. Are they called the beavers rats? The legendary rats of the Northwest Territories are, ah yeah. Wait, is that real? No.
00:29:09
Speaker
No. I don't think rats were much of an issue there at that point. and think so. I gotta be careful with you guys on this podcast, though, because i don't I'm so ignorant about many aspects of Canadian history. I'll probably believe anything you tell me. so oh all right. just I'll be on my ground.
00:29:28
Speaker
ah So Johnson's cabin should have been about eight miles away. At dawn the next morning, they set out following a trapline trail. There were too many places where they could be ambushed by Albert Johnson if they just followed the river.
00:29:39
Speaker
The following day, they discovered they were eight miles above Johnson's cabin. By the time they reoriented themselves near their long stick starting point, they had gone 28 miles in two days and used up most of their supplies. Oof. Jesus. Just go to the grocery store, you know.
00:29:55
Speaker
see Yeah. A tank to the Walmart. Pulled by 42 pounds. Well, and... well so Just getting to this guy's goddamn house and getting back from his house, it like expends everything they have. And they still don't know what's up with him.
00:30:14
Speaker
No. He's just not saying nothing. Nope. Meanwhile, Carl Gardland and Canute Lang were sent to scout out the cabin by going directly down river. Smoke coming from the stovepipe led them to believe that Johnson was still there. Fair. So despite the fact that he shot a police officer, he's just stayed in his house.
00:30:32
Speaker
Oh, wait, I guess he did do that now. Genuinely Like what what is going through anybody's head at this point? I mean, I guess it's minus 40, so you don't want to leave if you don't have to.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah, true. Eames had set up camp close to the cabin, and the next morning the posse advanced up the river. The temperature was minus 45. hu Too cold. Shortly before noon on January 9th, 1932, the men moved up to the riverbank. Eames shouted for Johnson to come out, that King had survived and Johnson wouldn't be charged with murder.
00:31:04
Speaker
But there was dead silence. The Mounties ran a series of sorties in an attempt to gain access to the cabin, but nothing worked. They were under heavy enough fire from Johnson that it was impossible for them to attack long enough to batter down the four-foot cabin door.
00:31:18
Speaker
Oh, wait. So Johnson has started firing. Yes. Okay. I, I, I think I missed that, which is why they're running sword. He's and not just walking up and knocking on the door. Yeah. Got it. So what are they doing? They're kind of running up shooting in the window, running away, like kind of. Yeah.
00:31:33
Speaker
The level of fire showed that. I guess they want to hold off and see if they can get, not have to use dynamite until they have to, perhaps. Yeah. Leave that as a last resort. The level of fire showed that Johnson was either lying prone on the floor or standing or kneeling in a pit.
00:31:47
Speaker
During one sortie by Gardland and Lange, Lange slammed the butt of his rifle against the door, jarring it open. Lang reported that Johnson was firing from a pit. He noted that Johnson was firing two handguns, but later this proved to be a sawed-off shotgun and a.22 rifle with the stock sawed off. So one in each hand. Damn. He's in a pit, too? Actually, that might explain why this legendary shot is missing a lot and not murdering everybody. Because he's trying to get bullets in the air to keep them back. But yeah, it's just what like a sawed off shotgun in one hand and a and a rifle in the other. That's insane. Yeah. Come on. Yeah.
00:32:26
Speaker
As if the intense cold and heavy fire wasn't enough, the posse was also running low on supplies. Again, they'd either have to break through soon or retreat. So the posse also had questions. Why had Johnson shot King? Why didn't he try to escape after that?
00:32:40
Speaker
just standing on his ground. okay there There is something about this type of person. It's like the people who wouldn't leave in the path of a hurricane, you know? It's like, no, this is my place. This is my home.
00:32:51
Speaker
You know, it's almost a self-destructive urge. Yeah, he's made everything worse for himself. Yeah. And has also done so in a way that shows such unbelievable self-confidence and well-earned, I think. But also, like, where does this go, buddy? Getting too confident. I'm a crack shot. I can just take these guys out. But eventually, get out done. Yeah, maybe he's trying not to hit anybody else. Just keeping them away. genuinely might be going. They had to go 80 billion miles here.
00:33:25
Speaker
They're almost out of pugs. And i have I am warm. I'm inside my house. And I can fill the air with enough bullets that they're going to find out I'm not worth it. That very well might be the ah yeah might be the strategy. Because again, if he's a crack shot and he's got two gigantic two-handed guns in each hand and it's going pew, pew, pe pew, um nothing's going to hit anything.
00:33:51
Speaker
It's just going to fill the air with bullets. Yeah. Yeah. because that's so inaccurate and also like how do you not break your wrist like i can't i'm not a gun i know but that's insane to me yeah yeah there's be kickback on those things too right like that's oh god yeah difficult you'd think at 9 p.m inspector eames ordered the dynamite thawed out they threw it well i guess if it's minus 45 Well, and of course it's thought. Never occurred to me.
00:34:19
Speaker
Now, one the way they thought is what they do the is that... Do you know how honeybees kill giant hornets? Yes. No. They flap their wings to create heat for the yeah air. That's exactly it. So if one of those giant Asian murder hornets shows up at a honeybee nest because they kill bees, they...
00:34:38
Speaker
all jump on it and then flap their wings really quickly and cook it. And that's how they kill it. Because otherwise it will destroy an entire hive on its own because it's too big and tough to wait for honeybees to hurt it. So what happens when you need to thaw the dynamite is you get the pugs on the dynamite and they start vibrating like little dogs do and that thaws the dynamite.
00:34:58
Speaker
Oh, yeah. the You know, the little cool dog shake, little the the small dog shakes. the Yeah, I mean, our little dog definitely has the small dog shake, and we use her to thaw our dynamite. oh Oh, perfect. Oh, don't give away your family secrets. Yeah, sorry. This is a a rural backcountry wisdom yeah from, a you know, you live in middle nowhere in Canada. As dynamite, it's just part of the tools of everyday life, you know. It's part of our local culture.
00:35:24
Speaker
And I don't care what Justin Trudeau says. Exactly. My dynamite. That's right. Yes, there's more modern explosives. Maybe I could use C4 and FO. No, I want to use dynamite like my forefathers did before me. That's right. Traditional style. and this see Fuck you, Mark Carney.
00:35:41
Speaker
yeah The C4 and FO, they're probably even harder to thaw. you' need more dogs. Yeah. No don't. That's why the old ways work better. It's like how the Russians use a pencil in that old joke rather than special space pen. We use rural Albertan dynamite because you can't thaw C4 quite as well. There we go. And thankfully, we have a healthy, humane society with a lot of pugs to go through. Yay. Our dog is also half pug. Okay.
00:36:11
Speaker
So the posse threw sticks of dynamite at the cabin, but it wasn't effective. Well, you should have lived the first asshole. if Keep the bugs from fetching.
00:36:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Remember the golden retriever joke I had earlier? The golden retrievers that have fetched the dynamite? Yeah. but they didn't light it first, so they'll bring it back and it's okay. But I'm assuming even if they did light it they throw the dynamite and it explodes and doesn't blast in the wall because that's not how setting explosives works. really a Bugs Bunny cartoon, unfortunately. It kind of sounds like one. It's very Bugs Bunny. Oh, God, are you somebody, Sam?
00:36:49
Speaker
you know devil You've got Yosemite Sam in the pit. And you've got police who have munitions beyond their expertise that they have no idea how to use in this ludicrously overwrought attempt to take out a a criminal who did kill a policeman. comma Everyone's kind of committing some errors here. yeah anyway so dynamite yeah well the The dynamite was from Acme also, so not ah not smart. Oh, that was their mistake.
00:37:18
Speaker
It's the public government. It's got its sole supplier. And someone was a friend and it's all Acme all the way up. That's why the country is in the state it is You said it.
00:37:29
Speaker
At midnight, Lang volunteered to go over the bank and throw the dynamite on the cabin's roof. Under covering fire, he was successful. The dynamite blew a large hole in the roof and knocked the stovepipe off.
00:37:41
Speaker
Lang launched himself through the cabin door, but froze for whatever reason and failed to shoot Johnson. Then he retreated. Albert Johnson was unfazed. And once the smoke cleared, he started shooting again. What you Johnson just made a face at him.
00:37:55
Speaker
Yeah. ti yeah Jumping into the breach, your, your, your brave moment and your, your freeze. It might've been just that cold. Like literally just... No, he literally froze. yeah Yeah, and I mean, the pugs are already on the next stick of dynamite, so they're not available to thaw him. Yeah, they're low on supplies. It's a whole thing. At 3 a.m. on January 10th, Eames bound up the remaining four pounds of dynamite and heaved it at the cabin. The blast ripped the... Oh no!
00:38:30
Speaker
Lost three our pugs. All right, now for the dynamite. oh We lost good bugs that day. I'm sorry. We really do love our little dog. Okay. No, we don't. know That's why you can make fun.
00:38:45
Speaker
The blast ripped the roof off and partially collapsed the walls. Gardland and Eames charged the building. Gardland carried a flashlight as well, which he hoped would blind Johnson. But when he reached the door and shone the flashlight in, Albert was not only alert, he was also able to shoot the flashlight.
00:39:00
Speaker
Gardland and Eames retreated. Oh, that's so cool. That's just Batman shit. But that's a perfect target, though. The one circle of light in the dark. like It's very clear he is not trying to kill anybody here. because Right. And so if we're trying to interrogate this guy's brain, then we're like, okay, I didn't kill a cop.
00:39:22
Speaker
Therefore, if I don't kill a cop still and all this falls apart, I still haven't killed a cop, but I don't want them to get me. So right this is this does follow a certain pattern of reason. Some of the men suggested burning Albert out, but Eames wanted to take him alive. They decided to retreat for more supplies, and they all departed at 4 a.m. m after a 15-hour standoff. In minus 45 weather.
00:39:48
Speaker
Wow, but they're all leaving, too. So it's like, ah, well, all of that. We tried. gotta take off, you know, we'll leave him by himself. But maybe they're assuming, yeah, well, he ain't going anywhere. and Do not go anywhere. I'm giving you an order. Stay in the rubble.
00:40:04
Speaker
Now that your house is no longer secure, you need to stay there and not go anywhere. I know, yeah. We'll be right back. Yeah. like Give us two to three months and we will come back and arrest you, okay?
00:40:18
Speaker
Don't shoot at us again. That would be really bad. but god He didn't say anything, so we'll take that as a yes. All right, let's get more pugs. On January 14th, Millen and Gardland were sent back to keep an eye on Johnson. They found that he abandoned the cabin and escaped. No way! He abandoned his house with no roof. He didn't want to stay in anymore.
00:40:41
Speaker
In minus 45 weather. In early January in the Northwest Territories. With the police after him. I'm shocked. Shocked. no Absolutely. He's got his sweet can out of there, you know.
00:40:56
Speaker
All they want is my sweet can. News flashed over the long wave radio that Johnson was still holding out. The first news about Johnson was the shooting of King broadcast on January 6th. Somewhere along the line, someone called him the Mad Trapper of Rat River and the name stuck.
00:41:12
Speaker
Because it's amazing. yeah The whole thing is made for like a tabloid. Mad Trapper of Rat River. And it is actually accurate. Yeah, it is. He's a trapper.
00:41:23
Speaker
Rat River. There you go. He does seem pretty mad. The mad trapper of Destruction City would not work because it's too goofy. Despite the fact he's also the mad trapper of Destruction City. Well, he lives outside of Destruction City.
00:41:36
Speaker
No, that's true. He's the mad trapper of the Destruction City metropolitan area. There we go. The GDA. The greater destruction area. Yeah. how why It's like every urban center, really. Greater construction area. man How widely known was this tale? Was it going out on the airwaves in Canada, like on the radio, the newspapers? Yeah, it had been picked up by the media.
00:42:02
Speaker
Right. And people were glued to their radio sets listening to it, just following every step. Right, because it goes out over Longwave and we're in the 30s, so there's a radio in every house. Yeah, everyone's listening to this. How could you not? This is the coolest shit. Yeah, it's a live podcast, pretty much.
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah, there was a lot of public sympathy for Albert I'm joking. There was a lot of public sympathy for him? Yes. Amazing. Again, you always you cheer for the underdog. on Every time. Yeah, he's clearly like fucked up. He's done. He's he's done fucked up and he's in the wrong. And now that he's shot somebody. But everybody has had ah the RCMP throw pugs and dynamite at their house and they know who's, you know, whose side they're on. That's fair.
00:42:52
Speaker
Yeah. You don't want that. Those pugs. So the public, it seemed, preferred to root for the underdog.
The Final Showdown with Albert Johnson
00:43:02
Speaker
I guess so. Sorry, all the stupid pug bit coming back to the underdog. Anyways, more like the underfoot dog. yeah Got him. Take that, pugs. Yeah.
00:43:16
Speaker
Gardland and Millen went through the wreckage of the cabin. There was no sign of Johnson or anything to indicate his identity. There was nothing there other than a cache of goods and a canoe. The two marveled at how Johnson managed to escape.
00:43:28
Speaker
Eames called Johnson, and a quote, an extremely shrewd and resolute man capable of quick thought and action, a tough and desperate character. so left him on his own for three days and he got away. He's too smart for us. Yeah.
00:43:43
Speaker
brilliant it's like moriarty fighting off the rcmp when they uh came in with a with an armada of you know puggle might um yeah i get that but the escape was not particularly brilliant he just left him alone for a while and he walked off without leaving his id in the rubble he just was ah to his identity yeah because he left And they blew his cabin, so they probably blew up his passport, I guess. I don't know. No, that's true. His international prospector passport.
00:44:16
Speaker
That's right. His birth certificate was left behind. Yeah, and had attend he had like visa stamps from like Gumption Island and Tarnation Town. That's right. Yeah. Whore Peninsula.
00:44:30
Speaker
that's right it's actually an island sorry i just no that was how that was actually set up for that so you're good oh okay touche or no cheers cheers eams got on the long wave radio and broadcast an appeal for volunteers and two men from the royal canadian signals and several white and indigenous trappers spoke up to help i'm exciting think about that yeah trapping the most dangerous game of all man yes a crazy man well we don't know we don't know Madman. yeah A crazy man with some guns.
00:45:04
Speaker
That's right. Yeah, the most dangerous game of all is actually not a man that you lose to chase down. It's a man with a lot of guns who doesn't want you to come near him.
00:45:15
Speaker
Yeah. It's more of a fair fight. Yeah. On January 16th, the second posse left a clavic. One of the members was quartermaster Sergeant SF Riddle of the Signals. He was known as a great bushman and a bridge between the old world and the new. He could take care of engines, but he was also an expert on dog sledding.
00:45:35
Speaker
He brought several... can't tell you a great bushman. Hey-oh. Sorry. Sorry.
00:45:43
Speaker
Also, who are the signals? The Royal Canadian signals. Fair enough. Well, they're Royal, they're Canadian, they're signals. I get the impression that they're maybe like Rangers or airplane, ah Bush pilot kind of folks. The Royal Canadian Corps of Signals is a component within the Canadian Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Branch.
00:46:01
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So they provide communication support and information systems for the Canadian army. of this sound I'm literally imagining, though, like flags and like smoke signals, though. So yeah, I'm little bit Maybe more advanced by the 30s. Arranging the pugs on the ground to spell letters. ah They'll just stay like, you know, they'll stay in place. so're not They're not wiggly or anything.
00:46:22
Speaker
Riddle also brought several homemade beer bottle bombs and a few more made from outboard engine cylinders, just in case. Damn. What do you call a Molotov cocktail? That sounds like a punchline, but i don't have an answer. or Yeah. i don't have an answer. We'll set up or we'll answer that punchline multiple episodes from now. And I guess a beer bottle bomb is probably just going be gunpowder and beer bottle or something, since we know what a Molotov is, but wild. Okay. So more explosives. Okay. Yep.
00:46:51
Speaker
They took along a low-powered radio to relay messages to Sergeant Neary, who was running the radio station. The posse ran into a blizzard that covered Johnson's tracks, and they set up a base camp nine miles east of Johnson's cabin.
00:47:03
Speaker
Eleven Athabascan men turned up to help in the search for Johnson, but no one was able to locate any sign of him. Teams again faced the issue of diminishing supplies. He chose to cut down to the bare minimum so they could go for 10 days. Yeah, gotta feed all those dogs. Yeah.
00:47:18
Speaker
You know? Yeah. Hugs have a big appetite. They eat so much. Eames elected Millen to lead the search. He was accompanied by Gardland, Riddle, and a trapper named Verville. Millen and Party found themselves faced with the question of which way to go. The Rat River was full of cottonwood, willow, poplar, and spruce, and there was a lot of windfall. They decided that what they would do if they were Johnson was continue upriver.
00:47:41
Speaker
Along their way, they discovered two caches. One had half a ton of food, which they left there and watched, treating it as bait, if Johnson happened to come back for it. but he half a ton? Yeah, that's a lot of stockpiling. like yeah Good lord. So he's trapping and setting up food, and ah rather than carrying half a ton of weight with him. as is I have a vision of him with like a gigantic bag, 16 times his own size, carrying it like an ant. No, yeah he just filled the cache because he knew how to live off of the land. I'm an idiot. Right. Go on. So what is it? like Yeah, but he didn't. And he didn't have. oh yeah. just So what is it? Is it like canned goods, pemmican, dried meat?
00:48:22
Speaker
Trying picture it this time. The kind of supplies. mean, one moose. Well, yeah or yeah, I suppose. he Actually, half a moose. There you go. be Very heavy. Yeah. Yeah. we know that he didn't have a dog sled because he came down, originally came down the Peel River on a raft. yeah and he's you know that all they found was a canoe at the house where his snowshoes no and he ate all of his pugs weeks ago yeah he would have had to it's multi-purpose it's great every prospector has a few yeah well you can't eat a snowmobile right so yeah you're probably you can try gotta have the dog team yeah i guess yeah that's true yeah there was a guy who ate a plane anyway that's another story altogether oh god but
00:49:02
Speaker
On January 28th, the temperature hit minus 47. These men were incredibly fit and even used to the low temperatures, but they were still having trouble. Supplies dwindled and they were almost out of dog food.
00:49:15
Speaker
Riddle circled the camp while the others were warming up by the fire. He found the faint hint of a trail on glare ice, which went to the top of a ridge and disappeared. He was a good tracker, though, and was able to find it again in a small creek. It was approximately two days old. Oh, wow. so He's got a yeah couple days lead on them. But they're also closing in on this guy who, to be clear, has tried to just vanish into the Northwest Territories and into mountains. And they still managed to predict where he was going to go and then pick up his trail, which is- yeah genuinely impressive. impressive
00:49:48
Speaker
It'll be the first time I'll ever say you got to hand it to the RCMP or more specifically the very skilled trappers that they hire. That's right. And I think Riddle was a member of the Corps of Signals so he wasn't even RCMP.
00:50:01
Speaker
Oh, fair enough. Even better. Hmm. So Riddle was preparing to snowshoe back to camp when, quote, a sharp crack behind him split the northern silence like a thunderclap. He dived into a snowbank at the same time, levering a shell into the chamber of his rifle. Stoically, he waited for the inevitable second shot.
00:50:18
Speaker
Then he realized the sound was nothing more than a tree popping under the strain of the piercing cold. End quote. Having heard that, it is terrifying. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Just a crack of a tree. Yeah, when a tree cracks due to the cold, ah it sounds like an explosion.
00:50:35
Speaker
Our house cracks in the cold and it sounds like small explosions, but it hasn't collapsed yet. So we're doing pretty good. Well, no one's thrown all the dynamite at it. That's the thing. Yeah. You haven't had the dynamite issue with the RCMP. So that's good. Or they just throw it against the side of the house without lighting it. So it's not a problem.
00:50:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:58
Speaker
What was that? Oh, well, who cares? And then we just take it inside, use Norda, thaw the dynamite, and we're good. That's right. Yeah. It's how do the ecosystem works in rural Alberta. It's pretty great. Yeah. Dogs, dynamite, you know. Yeah. The next day, January 29th, the temperature continued to drop, sitting at minus 49 degrees. They followed the trail Riddle found through several old camps, but then they lost the trail completely. The group was getting to know Albert Johnson's habits. He never crossed a creek except on glare ice. He traveled ridges where the snow was packed and the trail was hard to find. Often he made long zigzag patterns. Doing that, he'd be able to watch the men from one side of the Zed. Oh, that's very clever.
00:51:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's like he's run away from the cops before. I was about to say. And also just seems like one of the most competent men who's ever lived. Maybe not competent at not having the police shoot at him, but still competent. Yeah. He has the skills, but has trouble, you know, maybe in the social aspect of life. He makes poor decisions for himself.
00:51:58
Speaker
He does. Johnson's stamina seemed to be almost superhuman. With his traveling patterns, he was snowshoeing two steps for every one by the trackers. He couldn't use his rifle to hunt because of the noise, so he'd be limited to snaring squirrels and rabbits. Fires could only be built under the cover of a snowbank.
00:52:16
Speaker
He expertly ran such a pattern of trails that once two of the trackers met head on. And again, these are trackers. They know what they're doing. They're not fools. They're people who live in this area and know how to live there. Like it...
00:52:29
Speaker
Just incredible. ah Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck scenario. Circling around, maybe following a path and same trail run into each other. No, it's like Daffy and Elmer Fudd are shooting Bugs Bunny or hunting down Bugs Bunny and then they meet each other and Elmer shoots Daffy. Yeah, that's right. The bee just flies back.
00:52:47
Speaker
yes yeah Just like real life. The group was trying to decide which way to go when an Indigenous man on a dog sled caught up with them. He heard a shot in the vicinity of Bear River, where Millen and company had first picked up the trail.
00:53:00
Speaker
It was possible that Johnson took a chance to replenish his food supply when the trackers lost his trail and wouldn't be able to hear the shot. They acknowledged that anyone could have fired that shot, but Millen took a chance and decided to go for it.
00:53:12
Speaker
They followed him from the Bear River, down the Rat, and five miles up a small creek. Along the way, they found the odd piece of caribou, leading them to believe he was on the right track. Oh, he's getting sloppy now.
00:53:25
Speaker
I'm desperate. Took a shot. Well, and they got his supply cash. And yeah, even though he genuinely appears to be beard Batman, actually. And again, I think we know he looked like he didn't have a beard, but as a ah but as a trapper, you just assume they do.
00:53:43
Speaker
And yeah there are pictures available online, but um we'll talk about those later. They lost the trail until someone noticed a wisp of smoke in the steep canyon below from the ridge they were on.
00:53:55
Speaker
They followed the ridge until they were above his camp and could see the edge of a tarp and a fire. They couldn't see Johnson, but they could hear him puttering around and whistling in the trees. Wow. The group waited for two hours but never actually saw him, and at dusk they headed back to camp. Staff Sergeant Hersey set out to deliver supplies to Millen's party. He arrived at the out camp on Saturday, January 30th, but missed them.
00:54:18
Speaker
The temperature had warmed up to minus 36 with a raging blizzard when the group of four went in to apprehend Johnson. Toasty, comparatively. Yeah, yeah, it's warmed up. It's practically spring now.
00:54:30
Speaker
They're probably using the ah the blizzard deliberately because, you know, good shot and all. Yeah. They arrived at the canyon unnoticed. Riddle and Gardland managed to get within 15 yards of the camp, hemming Johnson in against a cliff.
00:54:44
Speaker
Verville and Millen started down the ridge to the creek bed when one of them slipped. They made enough noise to alert Johnson, who loaded a shell into his rifle. Then he spotted Millen and shot at him.
00:54:55
Speaker
Millen and Verville dropped to the ground and shot back. Johnson jumped across the campfire and Gardland shot at him. It seemed that Johnson may have been hit. He appeared to collapse behind a fallen tree. Millen yelled for Johnson to give up, but there was no reply.
00:55:09
Speaker
Minutes went by and there was no sign of Johnson. Then an hour and there was still nothing. Just silence. Huh. It's a trick. Get an axe. Sorry. Ha ha ha. I about to say, he's ah like, well, I shot him and he fell down and there's been nothing for an hour. Is it fine? After two hours, Millen elected to go in after Albert Johnson against the advice of Verville. Riddle joined Millen.
00:55:35
Speaker
Quote, they had walked about five paces when Riddle suddenly shouted, watch it, and ran and dived headlong over a nearby embankment, just as the shot thundered and the rifle slug whistled through the trees above his head.
00:55:47
Speaker
End quote. Jesus. Millen saw the movement of Johnson's rifle barrel, dropped down and fired off a shot. Johnson shot back. They both missed. Millen fired again and Johnson got off two quick shots. So quick they sounded like just one. And this is a rifle in the Yeah.
00:56:03
Speaker
yeah Quote, Millen suddenly rose up, whirled and fell face down in the snow, his rifle falling beside him. End quote. Alas! Gardland was able to drag him out of Johnson's line of fire. Mellon had been killed instantly by a shot through his heart.
00:56:19
Speaker
Damn. So now he's killed someone. Now it's going to get serious. Yeah. Now, you know what? This has escalated the situation. This gunfight just got a little bit more serious. Get the puggle, mate. Hear this as these vibrating little dogs start thawing the bombs. Yeah.
00:56:38
Speaker
to warm up that dynamite. Yeah. The three remaining men decided to send Riddle back to a clavik with the news. They built a stage cache to keep Millen's body out of the reach of predators and retired to their camp a mile away.
00:56:51
Speaker
Hersey was waiting for them with supplies. The next morning, they found that Johnson had made his escape up the cliff. Damn, up the cliff. Yeah. They're fighting Batman. Yeah.
00:57:03
Speaker
The longer Johnson held out, the greater his support from the public became. They were hoping for the underdog to win and escape. People sat by their radio sets for news of the chase. and everyone seemed to have an opinion. There was even a spike in the purchase of radio sets at this time, as everyone wanted news on the chase. Well, think of the water cooler conversations people are having. day right yeah Yeah, the entire office is talking about it. Here with this Johnson fella. But at certain point, I don't know, it is like every, like said, the underdog case, but now he's like a killed somebody and kind of, I don't know sounds like a jerk. but Yeah. you know Yeah, he doesn't sound like the most pleasant person.
00:57:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want him my neighbor, I guess. To put it delicately, plan for one of my future episodes to be at the about the history of the RCMP, and there's probably a reason why they didn't get a lot of public support.
00:57:55
Speaker
Also that. Yeah. yeah They didn't endear themselves to everyone. Not to mention that the humane societies were effectively yeah puppy mills at this point, just so they could like feed into this deranged pug habit.
00:58:11
Speaker
Oh, yeah. See, that is a whole episode in itself, too. There are some great stories on the history of the RCMP during the settlement of the West. Totally look into those. Oh, God, yes. Oh, yeah. When they were still the Northwest Mounted Police.
00:58:25
Speaker
Yeah. that's the thing too, you know, our history, we love to gloss over that for sure. So I, you know, I know the general bad news about the RCMP, but I haven't gone into too much detail. So curious to hear more for sure at a later time.
00:58:40
Speaker
There is, ah it's one of those things is that are all national identities are a kind of myth making. And one of the fun things about looking into history and really looking at it is you can start looking at those myths from a different perspective and what they're doing and what they're for. And that's fun. Yeah, sure is. Because the truth actually is more interesting than the myth, I think. Always. yeah yeah. yeah Eames requested a plane to be dispatched to the north. People scoffed. A plane had never been used by the RCMP to track a man down.
00:59:13
Speaker
Necessary landings and takeoffs would be dangerous under the conditions. However, it would alleviate the constant supply problem in feeding all the sled dogs involved. Each dog ate about two pounds of fish per day. Five teams of five dogs could eat up to 500 pounds of food in 10 days.
00:59:29
Speaker
Jesus Christ. Eames radioed the plane request to A.E. Ackland, the commander of G Division in Edmonton. He's the guy who's got the tie to Acme, by the way.
00:59:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That's their connect. Yeah. The request was forwarded to the RCMP headquarters in Ottawa, where it was expedited to the cabinet of the Canadian government. Major General J.H. McBrien and Hugh Guthrie, the Minister of Justice, debated the idea only briefly before approving it. Because I guess it would get to the ah corridors of power if it's a huge story.
01:00:04
Speaker
The RCMP just can't get this guy. Eventually, it's like, all right, at all costs. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it becomes a humiliation, right? That's right, yeah yeah. And everyone's cheering against them, and they're all sad, and yeah. Yeah.
01:00:18
Speaker
By Wednesday, February 3rd, Blanca monoplane leased from Western Canadian Airways was ready for use, and to be piloted by none other than World War I flying ace, Wilfred Wop May. Oh no! thing That nickname is... yeah It's an unfortunate nickname. Yeah.
01:00:37
Speaker
But it was given to him by a young niece who probably couldn't say his name properly. Yeah, that's all right. There's nothing nefarious there. Nonsense. i His niece was a fervent anti-Italian racist, and that niece's name was Bowser. Bowser. That's right.
01:00:55
Speaker
Yeah. Bowser and the anti-Italian bigotry has to stop. You know, like we have Mario and Luigi on the case though. So yes, that does help. The day before inspector Eames set off for rat river with riddle and four other men.
01:01:10
Speaker
February 5th, the party that originally located Albert Johnson lost him in the creek beds and the canyons of the Rat and Barrier River watersheds. Johnson took to hard-packed snow, which enabled him to make good time. Watt May piloted the plane into a clavik on the same day and actively joined the search on February 7th. He was able to land near Eames party and began ferrying supplies to the searchers near Barrier River.
01:01:33
Speaker
On February 8th, Constable Sidney May, no relation to WAP, a second constable and several trappers joined the search after traveling over the Richardson Mountains from LaPierre House.
01:01:45
Speaker
WAP May, but Sidney will. yeah There you go. They got a lot guys on this now. That's
01:01:53
Speaker
an old joke. yeah I'm not sure how many are on the case total, but they've started bringing in people from just all over the North. No, there's and there's like 42 sled dogs per person, a bandolier of pugs. There is just, yeah, they're all resources are coming in here.
01:02:11
Speaker
And that means that there's at least 14 tons of fish required per person. The supply trains are just treacherous. Yeah. Well, i all it's kind of wild. It's all for one guy, but then it becomes like a sunk cost fallacy. Plus he did kill somebody. So yeah. Yeah. Gotta keep going. Can't really get up. There's one rule with the police. There's one rule with the police and that's don't kill one.
01:02:36
Speaker
That and all the other rules. That's it. That is their entire job to enforce. I mean, they might be kind of lax when it comes to solving, I don't know, the Picton case. But when you you shoot one of their own, they'll fall to the ends of the earth with their pugs. Oh, yeah. That'd be an episode. Anyways. Yeah.
01:02:54
Speaker
No one had any idea where Johnson was heading. Some thought Alaska, but no one was entirely sure. Ultimately, Johnson decided to cross the Richardson Mountains and headed west so he could have been making his way to the border. Percy later said that one of the reasons Johnson likely went that way was because the snow was deeper on the western side and didn't pack like it did on the eastern side. This would slow down a dog team and give a man on snow shoes a better chance at escaping.
01:03:20
Speaker
Clever. the manhunt spt the breadth of the northland from white horse and the yukon to fort norman now called toleda on the banks of the mackenzie river in the northwest territories patrols were sent out from dawson city and mayo in the yukon territory too much was at stake for the rc p to let johnson get away they had a reputation for always getting their man the overwhelming publicity of the chase had put that reputation on the line i wish That seemed to be their desired reputation for maybe, what, five or ten years?
01:03:50
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I don't know where that reputation came from. I knew it growing up, right? The RCMP or the Mounties always get their man was something in sort of the national, again, the national mythology. Yeah.
01:04:03
Speaker
But yeah, certainly my understanding about law and modern law enforcement or having RCMP in a local town. Yeah. Don't get their man, so no. kind of gave up on that. Eames ordered Constable May and three others to the headwaters of the Barrier River to continue the search. Others were ordered to check the most traveled routes to LaPierre House.
01:04:26
Speaker
The first break in the case came February 12, 1932. Several Indigenous men reported seeing strange snowshoe tracks east of LaPierre House. It was incredible to everyone for Johnson to have outwitted and outrun all the searchers, the patrols, and even the plane while traveling on foot and living off the land with no supplies.
01:04:45
Speaker
It was incredible that he managed to cross the Richardson Mountains on foot during a blizzard. Jesus Christ. It's like a reverse Donner party. Well, yeah, it is. It totally is. Yeah. Because I think of with that context, he's one guy taking care of himself. He can slip to the trees or whatever he's doing where you got a whole gang of dudes and all their supplies, all their dogs, all this stuff. They got to kind of constantly be moving like a whole party of people. so you can kind of see that slowing him down a bit, I guess. Right.
01:05:16
Speaker
and And the Richardson mountains are not like, they're pretty beefy. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're not, uh, because they're not exactly what we're driving past all the time, but they're not like low hills that might be kind of called a mountain. They're mountainy. They're pointy.
01:05:31
Speaker
Mm-hmm. February 13th. Eames, Gardland, Riddle, and another man flew to LaPierre House. At the same time, Signal Staff Sergeant Hersey, Constable Sid May, and six other men started across the mountains through Rat Pass.
01:05:46
Speaker
They arrived at noon and May immediately took off again for the Johnson... Rat Pass just made me laugh. We're going to do the rat pass. That stuff has to be named after muskrats, right? Which is why they're probably called muskrats, is they're somewhat rat-looking. Right. But the the lack of rats in the area and everything named after rats is just quite something. I'm just picturing rat bouncers, like, you know.
01:06:12
Speaker
In tight t-shirts. Sorry, bud. No lemmings. yes right yeah sorry Yeah, that's right. They arrived at noon and May immediately took off again to look for Johnson's trail. He found it leading up Eagle River, but the tracks disappeared among the caribou herd trails.
01:06:28
Speaker
smart February 14th. Conditions were poor for flying and Wap May only managed an hour of flying time, but this was long enough to pick up the trail 20 miles up Eagle River. That's pretty impressive. Look, looking, just looking down, seeing what you can see, finding the trails. Yeah. in the snow. Yes.
01:06:46
Speaker
February 15th, Hersey's party arrived at LaPierre house. Fog forced the plane to stay on the ground. The party took a short break and then set out to follow Eames group. They were able to meet up and proceed together.
01:06:57
Speaker
In order to show Watme where they were, they cut down spruce trees and formed arrows in the snow that he could follow once the visibility was good enough to fly. February 16th. The fog was still bad, so no plane. The searchers continued up Eagle River. February 17th. The fog began clearing in the morning. The searchers were on one side of a hairpin in the river, with Johnson on the other. He very likely heard them, though was possible Johnson thought that they were coming downriver rather than up.
01:07:24
Speaker
He ran into ski tracks from trappers and probably thought they were from the posse. So he turned around and backtracked. First mistake. So yeah he thought they were going one way. And so he backtracked thinking he'd be behind them, following them. He's going to walk right into them. Yeah. yeah Just before noon, they ran head on into Albert Johnson. Hersey was in the lead.
01:07:45
Speaker
Quote, he was startled when he saw me. He put on his homemade snowshoes and started for the bank of the river. End quote. Hersey grabbed his rifle and got a shot off. Johnson took a few steps and then turned and fired. The bullet went through Hersey's left elbow and knee because he was kneeling oh and then ripped through his chest. Oh, yeah, that'll do it. Sid May thought Hersey was dead and signaled for the party to break in two, and they moved up both sides of the river. Johnson threw himself in the snow and used his backpack as a bulwark. The two groups moved quickly while Eames and Sid May went up the middle, with Eames shouting for Johnson to surrender.
01:08:20
Speaker
Group one was on the high bank with Johnson below stuck between the two groups. Group one started shooting. One bullet hit ammo in Johnson's pocket. It took out a chunk of his thigh. yeah Bullet hit his shoulder and his side, but Johnson kept firing. Again, Eames called for surrender and again Johnson said nothing and continued to fire.
01:08:39
Speaker
The posse rained bullets down on Johnson, who was taking cover in a shallow depression. I.e. he had poor cover. So, yeah. Yeah. Walt May and Jack Bowen shot pictures from their plane. Quote, we came roaring down the river and once again i peered down at johnson in his snow trench then i realized as i circled over the posse i saw a figure laying on a bedroll and realized that one of our party had been hit I circled back upriver, passing over the posse and Johnson. As I flew over the fugitive's lair, it seemed as though he was lying in an unusual position. I nosed the Blanca down until our skis were tickling the snow. Johnson, I could plainly see as I flashed past, was lying face down in the snow, his right arm outflung, grasping his rifle.
01:09:23
Speaker
I knew as I looked that he was dead. End quote. Damn. What an end. Wow, yeah. Didn't say a word, just running and shooting. Sid May went forward, rifle in hand, ready for
Albert Johnson's Enigma Continues
01:09:35
Speaker
anything. He used his rifle to turn Johnson's body over. He was definitely dead with a bullet through his spine.
01:09:41
Speaker
Watt May said that Johnson's lips curled back in, quote, the most terrible sneer. It was the most awful grimace of hate, end quote. Yikes. Yeah, that would look pretty creepy. Yeah.
01:09:52
Speaker
Hersey was seriously wounded but conscious the whole time. They loaded him on a plane and he was in a clavik in an hour. Dr. Urquhart, quote, went through the hole in my chest and tied off the arteries, which were bleeding so much. An anesthetic was not used, end quote.
01:10:07
Speaker
Ah! Oh, no. I heard an echo on that one. Christ. I keep that slug. Sorry. Yeah. The body of Albert Johnson was taken to LaPierre house by dog sled.
01:10:20
Speaker
The next day it was flown to a clavik. Pictures were taken of him. Then the doctor conducted a complete physical exam. Fingerprints were taken and sent to Ottawa and Washington. And later Johnson was buried in an unmarked grave, having never uttered a single word the entire time. Damn. Damn.
01:10:36
Speaker
So total mystery man. Don't even know if that's even his name. Yeah. Yeah. We don't know. Huh. Johnson was about five feet, nine and a half inches tall, 150 pounds with light blue hair.
01:10:47
Speaker
i mean, light blue eyes. Light brown hair. what a freak. Sorry. The doctor also noticed it.
01:10:58
Speaker
He's one of the white walkers. Get him. ah Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. The doctor also noted that Johnson had an upturned nose and his ears were lobed. He was estimated to be approximately 35 to 40 years old. Aren't all of our ears lobed?
01:11:13
Speaker
Now, some people have the lobes connected. Oh, right. It's like a single thing. It doesn't like dip. One of those things you learn about in biology class is how ear lobes may or may not be connected, according to the way Gene you have. Yeah.
01:11:25
Speaker
At the time of his death, Johnson carried with him a Model 99 Savage 30-30 rifle, a.22 Winchester rifle sawed off at the butt, an Ivor Johnson 16-gauge shotgun with both barrels sawed off and the wooden butt removed so that it looked a bit like a handgun. He also had his bedroll, a backpack, a small compass, a large tin used for brewing tea, and an axe.
01:11:47
Speaker
Johnson also carried $2,410 in and hundreds and had $20 American. There were also two small bottles. One contained five small pearls worth about $15, and the other held five pieces of dental bridgework.
01:12:03
Speaker
He also had a number of little white pills. dental bridge the corners jury said that did pcp it's almost like everything pcp good the the bridge race it sounds like he's almost like a it's like a serial killer trophy or something you know what i mean unless it's his own bridge work yeah it could be out yeah there were some theories that it was his yeah because where did he get all the this all the money and the pearls it's very interesting Well, it's not uncommon for a trapper who's just sold off like a winter's worth of pelts to have that kind of money on him.
01:12:37
Speaker
Makes sense. All right. The pearls may be in trade. I've got goods and like I've trade rather and and barter rather than just straight cash. Yeah. The coroner's jury said Albert Johnson came to his death from concentrated rifle fire by RCMP members on February 1932.
01:12:55
Speaker
That's a very accurate coroner's report. How'd he die? Oh, yeah. How you shot at him for a straight hour? Yeah. Yeah. that I don't want to dive concentrated gunfire. That's just, uh, sounds like a lot of bullet holes. Yeah.
01:13:11
Speaker
There's a documentary called The Hunt for the Mad Trapper. And in it, they go through the story of the Mad Trapper. But they also talk about how his body was exhumed in, I think it was 2009. they could...
01:13:25
Speaker
so they could Yeah, so they could look for any way to identify him and DNA is starting to become a thing. And in 2017, did a familial DNA test to see if they could track down any family members, but that was unsuccessful. Interesting. Just wild.
01:13:45
Speaker
Just a mystery guy. Yeah. Yeah. And in this documentary, they say that the shot that killed him likely came from an indigenous trapper. So it wasn't the RCMP at all that got him.
01:13:57
Speaker
They did not get their man. No. Somebody else got their man. They just happened to be there. Yeah. Well, take whatever help you can get, I suppose. oh Someone had to get shot while a lot of the competent people did the real work. Yeah. I'm like, the important thing is a man is dead. like Yeah.
01:14:14
Speaker
We got him. yeah know So, you know, so fascinating. And you wonder if they'd taken him alive, if he would have spoken, but I would not imagine so. Hey, yeah, I don't think he would have.
01:14:24
Speaker
Yeah. He wasn't gonna get taken alive. He's like, ah nope, nope, no. So whatever, whatever he had done in his past, clearly was bad enough that he could not let the cops take him alive.
01:14:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah. or he's just a sovereign citizen. And I would say he has cooked his brain online, but it's too really bad. His on that long wave radio. Oh, God, he was a griper. Yeah.
01:14:49
Speaker
Yeah. Or something. Because, you you know, people, you do wonder about people who have extreme reclusive habits, sometimes create the apocalypse they're planning for. yeah You know what I mean? oh now you get the self-fulfilling prophecy. If your entire life is about how the government's going to get you, yeah um and then the government says, hey, how's it going? And it turns into a gigantic gunfight, you have yeah yeah created your own future. Yep, that's right. In Curious Case. The Mad Trapper is being identified by others as being Swedish, Russian, American, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Canadian.
01:15:24
Speaker
I guess that sounds like the standard white Canadian. Yeah, it can't be too far off. i was i'm I'm basically that. As are you. yes Missing British Isles blend.
01:15:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. like And I'm mostly British, I was bland. Never mind. The theories about the Mad Trapper's motives are numerous. He had cabin fever. Ooh, maybe. I mean, the cabin fever would eventually wear off after months in the mountains. Yeah, no kidding. He was a spy for a foreign state, possibly Russian. I don't think Russian spies do that.
01:15:55
Speaker
He was wanted in the US for bank robbery, murder, or both. Plausible. He became involved with an indigenous girl and a jealous lover set him up. ah That might explain the initial concern with the police, but not literally all his behavior. He hated all Mounties because one once stole his girl. I mean, of all the reasons.
01:16:13
Speaker
Also, he just would have shot them then. He stole a Mounties girl. Who hasn't? His wife was raped and killed by minors. That's horrible and doesn't make sense. Okay, these are theories. They're not your theories. And he was an ex-mountie or a provincial policeman. Just kind of baffled by that one. But fair enough. People are thinking of anything they can. Yeah. So these are a lot of the the rumors going around.
01:16:37
Speaker
One theory was that he was actually from the United States. Oh, no, I talked about that one already. Right. The notion that he was from the United States and committed some horrible crime and was hiding out. Yeah. That, I mean, that would actually explain a lot. That's not incongruent with the, with his behavior, like most of the other theories are. Yeah. I had mentioned pictures of Albert Johnson and you can find them online, but unfortunately they are pictures that the doctor took after Albert Johnson died. So they are, they are of a dead body. They're super easy to find. you will see a frozen corpse making a weird face at you. Yes.
01:17:17
Speaker
Well, that was a great episode, Tracy. That was delightful.
Conclusion and Reflection
01:17:21
Speaker
Thank you very much. That was excellent. So that was episode one of the Wonder Camera. Next week, it is going to be me Be hearing from me, my tale of woe and wonder, or whatever you might want to call it. We have our ah next story next week. Yeah, so come back for more Wonder Camera.
01:17:38
Speaker
Do you want to sign off, Dave and Tracy? do you have anything particular you want to say? about this tale about next week's episode. I think there's a moral lesson to be learned from all of this, which is that just leave him alone.
01:17:53
Speaker
Just leave that guy alone. You know what? He sabotaged some traps. Wasn't worth it, but I think that's good. Thank you everyone. I'm Dave and Jen. I'm Tracy. We are three dilettantes. Bye. Three dilettantes. Wonder Camerang. Bye-bye.
01:18:07
Speaker
That's right. Thank you for listening to The Wonder Camera. Find us under The Wonder Camera on Blue sky YouTube, and Instagram. can