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Episode: Episode 625: Albert Johnson: The Mad Trapper of Rat River

Author: Morbid Network | Wondery
Duration: 01:01:58

Episode Shownotes

In late 1931, several Native trappers in Aklavik, Northwest Territories, reported to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) that a newly arrived white man, Albert Johnson, had been tampering with their traps. The RCMP dispatched two officers to Johnson’s remote cabin, but he refused to speak with them, so they

left to get a warrant to search his home. When the officers returned and tried to gain entry, Johnson fired a shotgun blast through the cabin door, wounding one of the RCMP officers.The incident quickly escalated when a posse of RCMP officers returned and tossed dynamite into the cabin, initiating a firefight in which one officer was killed, and a manhunt that would last more than month and unfold across more than 150 miles of some of the roughest terrain in the world. In the end, Albert Johnson would not be taken alive. And while his death may have ended the wild pursuit across the Yukon territory, it was just the beginning of another mystery that would endure into the twenty-first century.Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesCanadian Press. 1932. "Long chase of slayer." New York Times, February 18: 3.Edmonton Journal. 1932. "Cornered by pursuers, wounded and fighting to last, Johnson slain." Edmonton Journal, February 18: 1.—. 1932. "Think Mad Trapper hiding in Arctic wilderness cabin." Edmonton Journal, January 27: 1.Journal, Edmonton. 1932. "Eyewittness tells story last desperate stand trapper Albert Johnson." Edmonston Journal, February 19: 1.New York Times. 1932. "Mad, hunted trapper kills constable." New York Times, February 1: 38.North, Dick. 2005. Mad Trapper of Rat River: A True Story Of Canada's Biggest Manhunt. New York, NY: Lyons Press.Roden, Barbara. 2022. "The Mad Trapper part 3: Shootout on the Eagle River." North Thompson Times, December 8.—. 2022. "The Mad Trapper part 5: The mystery of Albert Johnson endures to this day." North Thompson Times, December 22.—. 2022. "The Mad Trapper part II: A tragic manhunt plays out." North Thompson Times, December 1.—. 2022. "The Mad Trapper, Part I: a man of mystery arrives in the Arctic." North Thompson Times, November 24.Thompson Reuters. 2021. "Scientists narrow search for mysterious Mad Trapper to Sweden." Comtex News Network, July 30.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Summary

In this episode of Morbid, hosts Ash and Alena recount the intriguing story of Albert Johnson, the Mad Trapper of Rat River. In late 1931, Johnson's suspicious behavior led local Native trappers to report him to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). After an escalating confrontation that turned violent, a month-long manhunt ensued across harsh northern terrain. Johnson's extraordinary survival skills and the mystery surrounding his identity captivated the public. Unfortunately, Johnson was ultimately shot during the manhunt, leading to enduring questions about his past and true identity.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (Episode 625: Albert Johnson: The Mad Trapper of Rat River) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_02
Hey weirdos, it's Ash. Before we dive into today's twisted tale, let me tell you about the spooky perks of Wondery Plus. It's like having a skeleton key that unlocks ad-free listening and early access to new episodes.

00:00:10 Speaker_02
So don't wait, try Wondery Plus today. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

00:00:18 Speaker_00
You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.

00:00:24 Speaker_02
What a year it's been, you guys. I know that I have a lot to celebrate and a lot to give myself credit for.

00:00:29 Speaker_02
Honestly, the past few years have been pretty tough, especially for me and Elena, and it feels like a good time to step back and, you know, look at your life in this moment and commemorate it with something beautiful, something sparkly even.

00:00:41 Speaker_02
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00:01:04 Speaker_02
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00:01:17 Speaker_02
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00:01:34 Speaker_02
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00:02:23 Speaker_02
After drinking Ketrava first thing in the morning, because that's when I always drink it, I feel satiated for hours. I feel focused, calm, and ready to take on my day.

00:02:32 Speaker_02
Something that I really love to do if I even want like a little bit more protein is just add a scoop of peanut butter to the vanilla and chai concoction that I make. and that, oh, is just scrum-diddly-umptious honey.

00:02:43 Speaker_02
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00:03:01 Speaker_02
Did you get your invite to our next Weirdos Audio Book Club? No? Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Well, consider yourself invited.

00:03:08 Speaker_02
This time, you guys, we are covering the audible title, Bluebeard, a suspenseful radio-style dramatization of true life events leading to the capture of infamous, the infamous Bluebeard Watson, who conned and killed countless women in the early 1900s.

00:03:24 Speaker_02
Join us and a special guest on Friday the 13th of December while we talk about this title. Join the conversation on Instagram, Friday, December 13th, Weirdos Audio Book Club.

00:03:39 Speaker_01
Hey Weirdos, I'm Alena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. Hey there brothers. It's also morbid with a little bit of ambiance because it's lightly raining, which we, I know I've, I'm an elderly person when I say this, but my goodness, we needed it. No, we did.

00:04:12 Speaker_02
Oh my God. Wait, isn't there a song about like needing the rains? Um, I miss,

00:04:18 Speaker_01
I miss you like the desert misses the rain. Yes!

00:04:21 Speaker_02
You knew exactly what I was talking about. And I miss you like the deserts miss the rain. Is that J-Lo? No. Sorry. No. Like the deserts miss the rain. Hold on. Oh and it goes and I miss you. Exactly.

00:04:40 Speaker_02
I feel like I can picture that music video in my head right now.

00:04:44 Speaker_01
I think the J-Lo one that I was thinking of is like, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na,

00:05:09 Speaker_02
I don't like JLo. Well, yeah, no, I don't like her as a person.

00:05:12 Speaker_01
No, I don't like her songs either. So there's really nothing there for me.

00:05:17 Speaker_02
Wait, you don't like, don't be fooled by the rocks that I got. You don't like that song?

00:05:21 Speaker_01
I do not. I remember it was on like TRL when I was you know for the TRL days and I remember that but it was never I don't know.

00:05:30 Speaker_02
Let me see how old I was when that song came out because I feel like I remember bopping hard to that.

00:05:35 Speaker_01
I like um oftentimes I don't always but the things I've seen her in I like J.Lo the actress. Like the sell? The Cell is such a film. Oh, we got to cover that on Scream. I was like, fuck am I doing here?

00:05:52 Speaker_02
The Cell I've never seen. The Cell is a wild movie. See, I like Monster-in-Law. I haven't seen that. Is that what that one's called?

00:06:01 Speaker_01
Is that like you say? Yes. Yeah. And Mikey, we trust. I haven't seen that one. You haven't seen Monster In-Law? No. That's a fun one. I've seen her in The Cell. What else have I seen her in? I'm sure I've seen her in other things.

00:06:17 Speaker_02
Jane Fonda's in Monster In-Law and Jane Fonda is everything. Yeah, I haven't seen that. Yeah. I'm trying to think of other J-Lo things.

00:06:24 Speaker_01
I'm sure there's many that I'm missing right now that people are screaming and I'm like, what?

00:06:29 Speaker_02
A lot of them are rom-com, so it makes sense that you can't think of them.

00:06:31 Speaker_01
Yeah, because I like a rom-com every once in a while. It just has to be a very specific one.

00:06:35 Speaker_02
Yeah, those are all like the early aughts ones and those ones are always fun. Those are great. Yeah.

00:06:40 Speaker_01
Yeah.

00:06:40 Speaker_02
What a random intro. We didn't plan to talk about any of that. No, but just happened. We went from the deserts missing the rain to J-Lo. Hello.

00:06:50 Speaker_01
Hello. Hello. You know what? A random intro for a random episode. Tell me everything. Because this episode, so this is about the mad trapper of Rat River.

00:07:04 Speaker_02
You couldn't even finish that. The Mad Trapper of Rat River? Yes. I think I come from the Rat River. From the Rat River?

00:07:12 Speaker_01
I feel like... This is a wild and random and very different tale, I would say, than we normally cover. But it's one that, unfortunately, people die during this. Like, this is not without death, not without murder. Yeah. Not without mystery.

00:07:29 Speaker_01
Because at the end of this, there is still a mystery that's involved with it to this day. Unsolved? It's unsolved. But you think you know the answer?

00:07:39 Speaker_01
There's a theory and like it's a pretty good one, but it's still, there's still mysterious elements to this, which makes it very interesting to talk about. Makes me think of your kids when they were like, the quack of mysteries. The quack of mysteries.

00:07:51 Speaker_01
There's mysteries in there. The cave of mysteries. The cave. Cave of Blanche. Blanche is like, wait, I have something to say. He said, mysteries. So basically this is his name was, and I should say in air quotes, Albert Johnson. But it wasn't.

00:08:06 Speaker_01
Because we don't know his real name. Oh, an alias. That is the name that that people know him as. OK. Like you said, an alias. This is a manhunt that was so wild and so long and so scary and so iconic that it honestly doesn't sound real.

00:08:23 Speaker_01
I can't believe I've never heard of this. It's a crazy one. So let's go back to when this all began. Canada, like the United States, like down here, was hit really hard by the economic and social effects of the Great Depression.

00:08:42 Speaker_01
It was a widespread issue, obviously. It wasn't just in certain parts feeling it.

00:08:47 Speaker_01
You know, there was a ton of droughts, which wreaked havoc on the agricultural industry, and that caused a ripple effect that by 1930 had put as much as 30% of the workforce out of a job. Wow. And that's huge. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah.

00:09:02 Speaker_01
The economic shock and the hardships of the depression was really really like specifically hard on the residents of the more rural and remote parts of the country because they were lacking you know like the social welfare structure that a lot of people in urban areas and more like well-populated areas were really relying on.

00:09:20 Speaker_01
Yeah. And many of these people were self-sufficient.

00:09:23 Speaker_01
And instead of taking any kind of charity or anything like that, they chose to seek out alternative means of employment in the small towns and villages and, you know, like military outposts in Canada, um, in the North and West.

00:09:36 Speaker_01
And in the summer of 1931, at the absolute peak of the depression, a man calling himself Albert Johnson arrived in Fort McPherson,

00:09:46 Speaker_01
which was a remote village in the Northwest Territories, about 650 miles from the nearest cities of Whitehorse and Dawson City. So very remote. At that time, it wasn't super unusual for like random strangers to wander into Fort McPherson.

00:10:02 Speaker_01
It was usually they were like either on their way to or coming from the more remote parts of the area. So it was kind of like a pass through. Yeah.

00:10:10 Speaker_01
In those cases, it was the practice of the local RCMP agents to briefly question these people, the random people coming through, because like as journalist Barbara Rodin put it, they basically wanted to ascertain their plans and try to ensure that the person was equipped for life in the rugged north.

00:10:30 Speaker_01
This was obviously about that person's safety. They didn't want them wandering out into the mountains and just like, see you later, goodbye.

00:10:36 Speaker_01
But it was also about resources because if somebody inexperienced was going out there to trap or hunt and they got stuck and needed help. It's going to cost a lot. It was a lot of effort.

00:10:46 Speaker_01
And the RCMP, you know, they didn't want to have to expend all those extra resources that they really didn't have at their disposal at that time on somebody who shouldn't have been out there in the first place. You know, it makes sense. Makes sense.

00:10:57 Speaker_01
Yeah. On July 21st, 1931, the day that Albert Johnson got to town, the task of questioning the man fell to Constable Edgar Millan. Remember that name? He's going to come up later. Writing it down.

00:11:09 Speaker_01
He was one of just three RCMP officers stationed in the area. And Millan found him, you know, Albert Johnson, purchasing supplies in the general store. And Johnson told the Mountie that he had come into the Arctic through the McKenzie River system.

00:11:26 Speaker_01
He had obviously, at this point, he had been made aware of Albert Johnson's presence from some of the local Native trappers in the area.

00:11:34 Speaker_01
And basically, the Native trappers were saying that they believed this man was, like, fucking with their traps, essentially. And they had, like, described him and everything.

00:11:46 Speaker_01
So Millen knew Johnson was lying to him about where he'd been because he was like, I know you've been fucking with those traps. So I know you're not just coming in from the Mackenzie River system.

00:11:55 Speaker_01
But he was kind of accustomed to dealing with people like this so you know. And apparently trappers and fishermen kind of like guard their territories pretty closely because they don't want to avoid competition.

00:12:06 Speaker_01
So it's all like a little bit of a game. Yeah. Of secrecy and all that. Right. And honestly to Millen it didn't really matter where Johnson had come from as much as where he was planning to go. He's like you going into my territory or nah?

00:12:20 Speaker_01
Like what are you doing? From the look of things, Albert Johnson was a skilled trapper and he honestly wasn't going to need and it didn't seem like he was really even going to accept any assistance from the RCMP.

00:12:32 Speaker_01
So Millen didn't really press the whole thing. He was like, I'm pretty sure he'll just go out there and we'll never see him again. Yeah. He's like, that's ideal.

00:12:40 Speaker_01
And Johnson was giving like super short, very curt answers to him and he wasn't making a lot of eye contact. He was making it very clear to Millen that like,

00:12:48 Speaker_01
I'm an isolated person, I live an isolated life, I would like to keep it that way, leave me alone kind of thing. He said, leave me alone. So Millen was like, cool.

00:12:57 Speaker_01
So before leaving the store, he kind of left it alone, but Constable Millen told Johnson, fine, whatever, whatever you're doing, I don't give a shit. But he was like, if you're planning to do any trapping in the area, you do need to obtain a license.

00:13:08 Speaker_01
Yeah. And you need to know that. But Johnson was just like, whatever. Now a week later, Johnson was back at the general store and he purchased a 12 foot canoe and some other, a ton of other supplies.

00:13:20 Speaker_01
And the clerk behind the counter was like, hey, you might want an outboard motor for this boat. And I guess Johnson flexed his arms and said, no, these are good enough for me. Oh no. He's like an OG Chad. But you know what's crazy? He was kind of right.

00:13:40 Speaker_01
He wasn't really like over overzealous. Yeah, he wasn't he wasn't exaggerating his abilities at all. All right.

00:13:48 Speaker_01
like this is well you know what still though good for him doesn't doesn't come off great yeah we love a humble king we love a humble king now after getting all the supplies johnson headed out to the canoe and began paddling downstream in the direction of the rat river

00:14:04 Speaker_01
Now, he spent the rest of the summer and fall building a small 8x12 cabin on a plot of land that he had staked out for himself, about 70 miles from Arctic Red River.

00:14:13 Speaker_01
And that's the Arctic Red River is where Millen and the other two RCMP officers were stationed out there. So he was either building that cabin, and if he wasn't building the cabin, he was hunting and building up his food storage for the winter season.

00:14:29 Speaker_01
He also spent a lot of time surveying the area. He was getting to know where he was. And during this time he definitely learned where the trap lines were for local trap trappers.

00:14:41 Speaker_01
Where like, like I said, they're very like territorial about their trap lines. That's like where they set their traps. So he made a point of learning that. He would know where those were.

00:14:51 Speaker_01
So it's not like he like accidentally stumbled upon their traps and like, fuck them up. Like he knew he was like looking out for that. Okay. Um, specifically William, and I hope I said everybody's name right.

00:15:01 Speaker_01
William Vitrequa, Jacob Drymeat, and William Nerysu, which were all members of the local Lusho tribe. And I hope I said that right. I looked it up several places, Lusho tribe. Okay.

00:15:15 Speaker_01
Edgar Millen hadn't thought about Albert Johnson since he had left Fort McPherson in early, like early in the summer when he had met him in the general store. Right.

00:15:25 Speaker_01
So he wasn't even thinking about him, especially when Nary Sue showed up at Arctic Red River Trading Post on Christmas Day to report that Johnson had been fucking with their traps. Oh, come on, dude. So initially he was like, what?

00:15:37 Speaker_01
Like, I don't know who that is. Now, according to Narysu, Johnson had encroached on their trap lines, and in recent weeks, he had been springing the traps and hanging them from tree branches.

00:15:47 Speaker_02
So, like, really fucking with them.

00:15:49 Speaker_01
Yeah, he's being, like, deliberate about this. And he was also making it very obvious that his interference with these traps wasn't an accident. Right. Like, he could have said before it was an accident and nobody could really prove otherwise. Yeah.

00:16:00 Speaker_01
He's hanging them from a tree. Like, he's being very obvious about it. So then Millen was like, oh shit, I do remember this guy. I remember that interaction I had with him.

00:16:09 Speaker_01
And he remembered that he also hadn't purchased a trapping license before leaving Fort McPherson like he had told him to. And he was like, and I'm pretty sure he probably didn't get one anywhere else.

00:16:20 Speaker_01
So not only was his interference a matter that was going to be taken seriously by the RCMP, but now he was also poaching and that was going to be a problem. Yeah.

00:16:30 Speaker_01
So the next day, Millen directed constables Alfred King and Joe Bernard to travel more than 60 miles out to Johnson's cabin.

00:16:48 Speaker_02
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00:16:57 Speaker_02
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00:18:59 Speaker_01
and talk to him about what was going on. He's got some accusations now. Yeah. The two officers traveled by dog sled and arrived a little past 10 a.m. on December 27th.

00:19:09 Speaker_01
And when they reached the cabin, they noticed that there was smoke coming from the chimney and there were snowshoes propped up by the door. So it seems like somebody's home. He's home.

00:19:18 Speaker_01
Uh because he also he literally couldn't have traveled far without those snowshoes so they knew he was either home in there or he's like right there. Yeah like they literally came from by dog sled so that makes sense. Exactly.

00:19:31 Speaker_01
So King knocked loudly on the door and announced that they were there but no one replied. Despite getting no response, the constables knew he was home, and they definitely knew he heard them knock.

00:19:42 Speaker_01
So at one point, he had even watched them through the window, and they saw him. They're like, hey, it's you we're looking for. They were like, hi. And he saw that they saw him, and he just closed the curtains. That's moderately iconic.

00:19:56 Speaker_01
Now, after spending an hour trying to convince Albert Johnson to open the door, and they still got no response, the officers had to give up and walk back to their sleds.

00:20:06 Speaker_01
And they didn't have any way of contacting Millen to tell him what was going on and that they had made this trip for nothing. For no reason.

00:20:13 Speaker_01
So King and Bernard decided to travel the shorter distance to the RCMP headquarters at, I hope I'm going to say this, a clavic. I looked that up many places as well. A clavic. Okay.

00:20:26 Speaker_01
Where they could obtain a search warrant for the cabin and then they could come back the next day with more officers. Oh, that's smart. They were trying to do it on the up and up. Yeah, and trying not to, like, waste too many resources it seems.

00:20:36 Speaker_01
Like, let's just get this done. And take too many trips, you know? They could have never predicted how this would go. I'm so, I'm like, what's gonna happen?

00:20:46 Speaker_02
You can't, it's bonkers. Also, I'm just picturing him for an hour, like, you know when somebody's at, like, you know when somebody's at your door, like, they're gonna sell you something and you're like, oh, I'm not answering the door.

00:20:56 Speaker_02
What do you do for an hour?

00:20:58 Speaker_01
That's at the end in a cabin. Yeah. And like a tiny, like, yeah. Yeah. What'd you say? Like eight by 12 cabin. Do you have a good book in there? You gotta. Damn.

00:21:06 Speaker_01
Now, early in the morning on December 30th, after obtaining their search warrant, King and Bernard left Diklovik for Johnson's cabin. This time they added more RCMP constables. They added R.G. McDowell and Lazarus. I hope I say this again.

00:21:23 Speaker_01
Some of these names are really tough. Siddy Kinley. Okay. Lazarus is a sick name. It's true, it is. The four men reached the cabin around noon on December 31st and they went to the door, knocked, announced they were there.

00:21:37 Speaker_01
Again, smoke was coming from the chimney so they knew he was inside ignoring them.

00:21:42 Speaker_01
So King shouted that they had a warrant to search the premises and if Johnson didn't open the door they were going to force it and enter anyway because they had the warrant. Yeah. So they approached the door and they were coming from a side angle

00:21:55 Speaker_01
and King reached out to knock again and seconds later a loud shot rang out. Oh no. And splinters shot in every direction from the door and Johnson had shot a shotgun blast out the front door and it hit King in the chest. Oh god.

00:22:14 Speaker_01
And it knocked him off the porch into the snow and McDowell and Johnson ended up like returning fire with each other with pistols. Right.

00:22:22 Speaker_01
And attempting to keep King down long enough so they could get him off to the riverbank out of the line of fire because he had just fallen back into the snow. Yeah. So they're like, we're not trying to get you shot again. Exactly.

00:22:35 Speaker_01
But they, but it was like crazy, like gunfights ensued, like barely missed McDowell at one point. Like it was gnarly. Damn.

00:22:43 Speaker_01
And the constables did manage to get back to the sleds at the riverbanks, where they loaded King onto one of the sleds and, like, fled out of there. King was bleeding, like, super badly. Shotgun blasts to the chest. Yeah, like, close range, too.

00:22:55 Speaker_01
And they needed now to get back to Aklavik to save his life. That's where the doctors were. And that sounds like it's not, like, a short distance. They were 80 miles from where that is. And the temperature was almost 40 below zero. Oh my God.

00:23:10 Speaker_01
And when they factored in the wind, it could drop as low as 90 below zero. Sorry. Where are we? Um, we're in Canada. Holy shit. That's cold. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. So.

00:23:23 Speaker_01
The going back to Aklavik from this place it would take a skilled outdoorsman with all of the things he needs two days. Yeah that makes sense. Conditions and that was like in you know ideal conditions. Conditions were not ideal here. No.

00:23:39 Speaker_01
Like not ideal anything but ideal. Quite the opposite. Their sled dogs were already exhausted from getting to the cabin. The first trip right.

00:23:46 Speaker_01
And strong winds and snow drifts had covered all the tracks that they had laid on the way there, so they would have to run through fresh, dense snow to get back. Oh, my God.

00:23:55 Speaker_01
And despite that, McDowell drove the dogs, like, as hard as he possibly could just to save this man's life, and they managed to get to Oklavik in 24 hours. Holy shit. So they cut a whole day off. Remember, it takes skilled outdoorsmen two days. Damn.

00:24:11 Speaker_01
In ideal conditions.

00:24:12 Speaker_02
This is like a legend.

00:24:14 Speaker_01
Yes. Is this folklore? You would think it is, that's the thing. I mean, you cannot understate how fast this was and how unbelievable and incredible it is. In 1931, the Northern Territories were so remote.

00:24:28 Speaker_01
And the route they traveled was like this winding, crazy trail too. And it went over like steep banks and across frozen terrain. I mean, they were hitting every kind of terrain on the way there.

00:24:41 Speaker_01
It's not like it was a straight shot like down a hill or something. Like they were going up a hill, down a hill, around the trees. Yeah, like winding everywhere. And under any circumstances, the windchill would be the biggest challenge.

00:24:53 Speaker_00
Yeah.

00:24:53 Speaker_01
Because the windchill is gnarly. Yeah. According to author Dick North, quote, even with a parka, fluid from a running nose freezes in a man's nostrils.

00:25:03 Speaker_02
Oh.

00:25:03 Speaker_01
And an ice film will collect on his eyelids.

00:25:06 Speaker_02
Oh. Imagine how uncomfortable that would be.

00:25:09 Speaker_01
And you're flying through it.

00:25:11 Speaker_01
like at high speed you must just be like blinking non-stop oh yeah it's so apparently in order to stop frostbite from happening they all so there was four men sure on the way with king all of them took turns rubbing king's face to keep him warm to prevent frostbite so they would all just be like rubbing his face and this man has been shot in the chest by a shotgun and he was alive when they got there the next day holy shit

00:25:36 Speaker_01
I wonder if those conditions helped keep him alive somehow. I know you wonder if it helped somehow. They immediately when they got there rushed him to the hospital and he was taken into surgery by the resident doctor J.A. Urquhart. Hey!

00:25:48 Speaker_01
Which immediately I have like we have like um ancestry that like went over to Nova Scotia in Canada so I'm like Am I related? I'll update you. I'm going to look at my shit. Well, I'm going to have John take a look-see.

00:26:03 Speaker_01
But I was like, Oh my God, that's not the same. I never see it in any of these. I know. But the bullet had entered through the upper left side of King's chest and exited through the right and had missed all vital organs. Wow. Like miraculously.

00:26:17 Speaker_01
I just think of that Bring It On thing. You've been touched by an angel, girl. You've been touched by an angel, girl. That's crazy. Yeah.

00:26:24 Speaker_01
While he recovered in the infirmary, the other three returned to RCMP headquarters to report what the fuck had just happened at that cabin. Yeah.

00:26:32 Speaker_01
Now in Oklavik, Inspector Alexander Ames had 11 RCMP officers under his command, and he had three additional constables where they just were at the Arctic Red River outpost. That's where they initially were.

00:26:46 Speaker_01
Ames selected his nine most experienced officers to go back to the cabin. and then sent word to Red River instructing Millen and his two constables to meet them at the mouth of the Rat River. Okay.

00:26:58 Speaker_01
Because Millen was from the beginning, remember, and he was one of those three that was at the Red River. Yep. Now, the men set out for the cabin early in the morning on January 4th, 1932, and they made camp about eight miles from the cabin.

00:27:11 Speaker_01
Their plan was to ambush Johnson and take him in with no shots fired. That's ideal. They didn't want all this shit. The next morning, two officers were sent ahead of the others to scout the cabin. They found smoke coming from the chimney, so he's home.

00:27:24 Speaker_01
So they made camp a little closer, and then the whole team met up shortly before noon on January 9th. Once they got to the cabin, they spread out and surrounded the house while Ames shouted for Johnson to come out.

00:27:37 Speaker_01
He shouted to him, King was still alive, so at the very least you will not be charged with murder. Okay. And there is still time to resolve this matter without trouble. Okay.

00:27:46 Speaker_01
So he's really trying to talk him down like nobody, I know you're probably freaking out because you shot someone in the chest with a shotgun. Right. A literal man of the law. Yeah. Like out in the wilderness. But have no fear, we can talk about it.

00:27:57 Speaker_01
But like you didn't murder him, so there's that. Why don't you come out? Yeah, but no reply. So instead, they were greeted with gunfire from inside the cabin again, kicking off what would be an 18-hour siege at the cabin. I'm sorry, what? 18 hours.

00:28:17 Speaker_01
How did it take that long? How did they have that much gunfire? It's wild. So initially, the officers tried to get close to the cabin, basically assuming if they could get inside, they could take Johnson down. Yeah, that makes sense. Stop the whole thing.

00:28:28 Speaker_01
Right. But anytime they would get close to the small front door, they would have to push back because it was endless gunfire.

00:28:35 Speaker_01
And it was coming not from the windows, but from holes that Johnson had drilled near the floor in anticipation of them coming back. That's on another level. Yeah. This man is not well. No.

00:28:48 Speaker_01
In fact, the angle where the gunfire was coming at them was like so perplexing to them because they were like, where the fuck is this coming? It sounds it feels like it's coming out of the ground. What is going on? Seems like it was.

00:28:59 Speaker_01
And they only learned it later when they were able to search this place that he had dug a trench, a deep trench. Motherfucker at a trench? Motherfucker is in the trenches.

00:29:08 Speaker_01
He's in the trenches in his cabin where he has drilled holes into like near the floor where he can shoot from. What the fuck? And he's in the trench firing at them from his position near the floor.

00:29:20 Speaker_01
And from that position, it was impossible for the RCMP officers to hit Johnson because they couldn't get close enough to the inside and shooting through the windows from their position was pointless. They were just shooting through the fucking cabin.

00:29:32 Speaker_01
He's in the trenches. Now, given their location, the gunfire wasn't the only problem that they were facing. At 45 below zero, they were having to continuously move just to avoid frostbite. Right.

00:29:45 Speaker_01
They couldn't stay in one position or they'd fucking freeze. Yeah. And to make matters worse, they didn't know they were going to be involved in an 18-hour standoff tonight. So they weren't prepared.

00:29:54 Speaker_01
So they didn't pack enough food to sustain themselves or the dogs. for a long period of time. At the riverbank, they built fires and officers were rotating between watching the cabin and warming themselves by the fire.

00:30:08 Speaker_01
And this kept the frostbite from happening, but it didn't solve the other problems. And Ames knew he had to come up with a plan quick or they were going to have to go back to Aklavik and maybe risk losing Johnson.

00:30:20 Speaker_01
So when the sun started to set and the temperatures really started to drop even lower, Ames ordered the men to retrieve the dynamite from the sleds and begin warming it in their coats. The dynamite?

00:30:32 Speaker_01
When it was warm enough to use, Constable Newt Lang volunteered to toss the explosives into the room. I'm sorry. Which I was like, you know he was like me. He was like, I'll do it.

00:30:41 Speaker_02
I love that they didn't bring enough food for this ordeal, but they did bring dynamite.

00:30:45 Speaker_01
Just in case. When midnight came and all the flares had gone out, Lang approached the cabin quietly, and the other officers distracted Johnson by continuously, like, answering the gunfire, essentially.

00:30:58 Speaker_01
And he lit the stacks of dynamite and tossed them onto the roof. The explosion blew a big hole in the roof, sending the chimney flying in all directions. No more fire.

00:31:08 Speaker_01
And in the chaos of the explosion, Lang burst through the front door and found himself face-to-face with Albert Johnson. That must have been horrifying.

00:31:15 Speaker_01
But according to North, who I mentioned above and we will link in the show notes, for some unexplained reason, the constable froze and failed to shoot him.

00:31:26 Speaker_01
And in that moment, Johnson regained his composure and began firing a pistol in one hand and a sawed-off shotgun in the other. So Lange stumbled back out of the cabin and went running back to the riverbank. Lange. Lange. Lange. That's what I said.

00:31:42 Speaker_01
Like, what happened there? Shoot him. You threw the dynamite. You couldn't finish it off? Come on.

00:31:48 Speaker_01
But the CMP agents held out until the next morning, January 10th, and that's when Inspector Ames decided to make one last attempt at getting him the fuck out of that cabin. Ames gathered the remaining four pounds of dynamite.

00:32:02 Speaker_01
bundled it together, lit the fuse and hurled the explosives at the cabin. The explosion ripped the roof clear off the structure and caved several parts of the walls in. Oh my gosh. So basically the entire cabin came down. Yeah. On Johnson.

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00:34:39 Speaker_01
So they were like, cool, we'll catch him off guard because this whole place just blew up.

00:34:43 Speaker_03
This should work.

00:34:45 Speaker_01
I have a feeling this will do the trick. Ames and one of the other constables, Carl Gardland, rushed in and they had flashlights in their hands and they were basically expecting to find him unconscious at the very least, you know.

00:34:57 Speaker_01
But when they pulled away the front door, Johnson was not only alert and like with it. But he shot them. But he fired at them with his pistol.

00:35:05 Speaker_02
And he shot the flashlight out of Garland's hands. What? Who? How did we just pop off like this? I don't know what this man's M.O. is at all. All I know is he's just going crazy. He's going bonkers. Yeah, balls to the wall.

00:35:20 Speaker_01
So this was clearly unexpected, this attack. So it drove them both back to the riverbank where they had no choice but to load the sleds and get the fuck out of there and go back to Aklavik. Because they're like, we've blown him up twice.

00:35:33 Speaker_01
And he's still shooting. Like, what is going on? It's Michael Myers. Literally. Back at the RCMP headquarters, the teams regrouped and were like, we need a new strategy for getting Michael Myers out of this house. What would it be?

00:35:47 Speaker_01
All you can do is literally light it on fire. Several of the officers wanted to go back and firebomb the cabin. They were like, let's just literally firebomb this thing. But Ames wanted to take him alive. He was like, I do not want to kill him.

00:35:59 Speaker_01
I mean, I could see why. On January 15th, he sent the constable's guard, Lyndon Millen, back to the mouth of the Rat River to keep an eye on the cabin. But by the time they got there, Johnson had cleared out and was on the run.

00:36:12 Speaker_01
Well, that makes sense, too. I'm like, guys, you blew the roof off this place. He can't stay there very long. But by then, also, the news of King being shot and the siege of the cabin was already national news. And this is all just over traps. Yeah.

00:36:26 Speaker_01
He would have just got like a fine or something. Like it's like, holy shit. Or tried to kill a cop. Yeah. So this is national news. Journalists are reporting all of these antics of Albert Johnson. And they started calling him the mad trapper of Rat River.

00:36:42 Speaker_01
Whoever came up with that, hats off to them. Honestly, a rave.

00:36:45 Speaker_02
The mad trapper of Rat River, motherfucker.

00:36:49 Speaker_01
Now, while the rest of the team were strategizing back at RCMP headquarters, Gardland and Milland were cautiously approaching the cabin to search it for things. You know, they wanted to find any clues, any plans he might have had. Right.

00:37:02 Speaker_01
And the cabin had been, like, obliterated, essentially. I mean, yeah, we just heard. But according to Gardland, the agents found it hard to believe their adversary had survived the last dynamite blast. Oh, so they thought he died?

00:37:14 Speaker_01
They were like, maybe he, like, was in shock or something when we saw him and he popped up with fucking two guns.

00:37:20 Speaker_02
It's like Billy Loomis out in these streets.

00:37:22 Speaker_01
Yeah, truly, but honestly there was, he wasn't there and there was little of value in the cabin. They did find a lot of like a concealed load of supplies hidden high in the trees nearby, which was a testament really to like his outdoor skills. Yeah.

00:37:38 Speaker_01
He had hid tons of shit in the trees. She's got shit in the trees. He's wild. This is Wiley. The constables also discovered Johnson's canoe still tied up at the river edge, so that meant that he had fled into the wilderness on foot. On foot, yeah.

00:37:51 Speaker_01
Now on January 16th, the search team departed Aklavik in the direction of the cabin, and this time they were well prepared for what they knew could be a very extended search on very rough terrain.

00:38:03 Speaker_01
among other things they had with them a two-way radio that would let them communicate quickly and communicate I just said I'm so happy you went there because I was like you can't skip because I was going to say quickly quickly communicate quickly and I was like communicate quickly

00:38:18 Speaker_01
Wow. I loved that. This would help them communicate very quickly and easily with headquarters, you know, if they need an emergency assistance, because now we don't know what this dude is capable of in the streets.

00:38:29 Speaker_02
I'm surprised anybody was even willing to go out at this point.

00:38:31 Speaker_01
Yeah, I'd be like, fuck that. I'd be like, you know what?

00:38:33 Speaker_02
I think I'm going to put my two weeks in and actually I mean my one day. Here you go. I'm going to try baking. Like, I don't want to do this.

00:38:38 Speaker_01
Yeah. Now, at the same time, warnings were going out to everyone living in and around Klovik, alerting them to any of the potential risks. We don't know what this dude is capable of. He was shooting everybody.

00:38:49 Speaker_02
Well, and he's eventually going to need more supplies, too.

00:38:51 Speaker_01
Yeah, exactly. So, break in. Now, as a result, many of the people living in the more isolated areas chose to stay in Klovik while Johnson was captured. Oh, okay.

00:39:00 Speaker_01
Now, for nearly two weeks, the team of our CMP officers just scoured the area around the cabin, looking for any signs of Johnson, any evidence of where he might have gone. Two weeks they were looking for him. Damn.

00:39:14 Speaker_01
Unfortunately, it was so bitterly cold and the wind and sub-zero temperatures were making it so difficult to search for, like, long periods of time.

00:39:23 Speaker_01
And then there was recent snowfall and heavy drifts that were covering any tracks that he could have left, so it was like perfect for him. But in late January, Ames and his team received a report of gunshots near Bear River.

00:39:37 Speaker_01
Thinking it might be Johnson hunting for food, Ames sent Millen and three other men ahead to scout the area with a plan for them all to meet up together after this if they found evidence of him being around.

00:39:48 Speaker_01
When they arrived, Millen spoke to several members of the local tribe, who told him that they believed the man suspected B. Johnson had holed up in a remote cabin nearby, because they said he could not have crossed over the hills under the current weather conditions.

00:40:04 Speaker_01
did. I think he crossed them hills. One of the things they learned after this was maybe don't underestimate Albert Johnson because holy shit. Exactly.

00:40:13 Speaker_01
So with assistance from several native men, the four constables soon found tracks matching those of Johnson's very distinct snowshoes and followed the trail until they reached an area covered by this like

00:40:26 Speaker_01
Basically, it was like an area that was covered by a barricade that was like a natural barricade of trees and boulders and all that stuff. And there were tracks leading in, but no tracks coming out.

00:40:37 Speaker_01
So the four constables spread out and approached the entrance very quietly. Yeah, they better have. But without warning, Johnson began firing at them from behind the tree line, pushing them all back. Of course he did.

00:40:49 Speaker_01
All four opened fire in the general direction from where the shots were coming from. But there was no return fire after that. So they were like, oh shit, we either incapacitated him or killed him.

00:41:00 Speaker_01
So they waited two hours before going to check the area because they were that nervous that he was just fucking with them.

00:41:06 Speaker_02
You know that everybody on the banks was like, no, you go in.

00:41:09 Speaker_01
No, you go in. I'm not going in, man. We'll just wait a minute. So when they got within about 25 yards of the tree line, one of the constables, Noel Verville, shouted, watch it.

00:41:20 Speaker_01
and then dove for cover behind a snowbank as a rifle shot struck the ground exactly where he had been standing. Oh, my God. Literally yelled, watch it, dove out of the way, and it hit right where he was sitting. Damn.

00:41:33 Speaker_01
And two of the other officers also scrambled for cover. This is like an action movie. It doesn't sound real. No, it does not. But Millen stood his ground and dropped to his knee and fired three rounds in Johnson's direction. Damn.

00:41:47 Speaker_01
Johnson returned fire and hit Millen in the chest. Millen apparently bolted upright and spun around and then fell face down on the ground. And two other officers provided cover for, like cover fire for Carl Gardland.

00:42:02 Speaker_01
I just did like a, you literally made the thing. Um, and they crawled towards Millen and tied the laces of his boots together and dragged him out of Johnson's line of fire essentially. Why'd they tie his boots together?

00:42:15 Speaker_01
So they can literally pull him by the boots. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Because the other one like he was he's literally shooting at them. Two officers are providing cover fire while he's literally like trying to drag him out of the way. Got it.

00:42:26 Speaker_01
Then when they were finally in a safe spot, Gardland turned Millen over and saw that the bullet had torn straight through his heart and had killed him instantly. So when he bolted upright, he just fell and died immediately.

00:42:38 Speaker_01
And that's why I said, remember Millen. I know, what a brave fucking dude. Yeah, he was the one, he was like, fuck that, I'm gonna take this guy out.

00:42:45 Speaker_01
Now the remaining officers retreated into the woods away from Johnson's line of sight, and they built a lean-to to try to protect Millen's body from animals until they could return. And then they made their way back to the campsite about a mile away.

00:42:58 Speaker_01
Okay. The next day, one of them returned to the area to retrieve Constable Millen's body, while another returned to Oklavik to report about what had happened.

00:43:06 Speaker_02
Why is this guy so aggro?

00:43:08 Speaker_01
And they had to tell them that Johnson had escaped again. Now, Sergeant Riddle made it back to Aklavik in a little over 24 hours on January 22nd and reported the death to Ames. And Ames sent out the report across the RCMP wire.

00:43:25 Speaker_01
And the news of Millen's murder and Johnson's third escape made headlines across North America. A reporter from the New York Times called Johnson a two-gun hermit.

00:43:37 Speaker_01
That's what they referred to a gun hermit while the press maintained that, like, I'm glad, like, they definitely maintain like a pretty, like, somber tone when they were talking about the murder, essentially.

00:43:48 Speaker_01
But it also made like the fact that he escaped three times and this was his third time escaping. It didn't make the RCMP look good. And they were very open about that in the press.

00:43:59 Speaker_01
And the longer he remained kind of like on the on the yam there on the yam, on the land, the sweet potato.

00:44:07 Speaker_01
He was like, the more he was out there, and the more he's on the run, and the more he's escaping, and the more these things get more and more, like, crazy and, you know, dramatic and all that.

00:44:16 Speaker_01
There was running a risk of him becoming a sort of, like, anti-hero among the anti-establishment residents across the territories. It just, like, it was starting to turn the story a little bit. I didn't even think of that.

00:44:27 Speaker_01
And you don't want that to happen, obviously. So not wanting to waste any time for that to happen, Ames radioed for additional assistance.

00:44:35 Speaker_01
specifically requesting a plane that could scout the area, while the RCMP agents and volunteers took to ground searches.

00:44:42 Speaker_01
In response, they got a small craft piloted by William May, who was a member of the Royal Flying Corps and one of the flying aces who successfully shot down the notorious Red Baron during World War I. Oh wow! That's incredible.

00:44:58 Speaker_01
And May wasn't just a talented and experienced pilot. He was literally like a living legend who'd helped to open up the Northern Territory. So he was like a big deal. That's incredible. Yeah.

00:45:07 Speaker_01
Unlike Ames' team on the ground, he could cover big like swaths of territory in a short amount of time in the plane and was immediately useful in ruling out the leads that ultimately provided false in the end.

00:45:20 Speaker_01
Anybody saying like, I think I saw him, they were able to like get these out.

00:45:25 Speaker_01
Now, while May looked for Johnson overhead, Ames' team was, you know, making their way to the site of Millen's murder on February 5th, but there was no sign of Johnson anymore. From what they could tell, he had never emerged following the shootout.

00:45:39 Speaker_01
Like, he had never come back out of that, like, barricade that he had set up. So you're probably like, then how the fuck wasn't he there? Yep. Oh, he had climbed the nearly 7,000 foot cliff. Yeah.

00:45:52 Speaker_01
He climbed a nearly 7,000 foot cliff wall to escape by traveling on the hard pack snow above the creek beds.

00:45:59 Speaker_02
Does anybody else have those relatives that tell like crazy stories from like their days of youth and you're like, yeah, grandpa, like that's cool. That didn't happen though. This guy? That feels like this. Like I'm like, yeah.

00:46:10 Speaker_01
What? This happened? So I didn't come out of the front. I just climbed a 7,000 foot cliff.

00:46:16 Speaker_02
It's not real. That motherfucker is not real!

00:46:20 Speaker_01
But he is. Yeah. Yep. What? Yep. Yeah, he basically, he went like, so there was hard pack snow above the creek beds and it allowed him to move quickly and put a lot of distance very quickly between him and whoever was hunting him.

00:46:39 Speaker_01
Also working to Johnson's advantage was the fact that, unlike the large group who required supplies and needed to manage, you know, animals that they were using, he was traveling alone and he seemed to know where he was going.

00:46:51 Speaker_01
So he didn't, he was just bopping away. See you later. By mid-February? Shut up.

00:46:57 Speaker_02
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00:48:29 Speaker_01
By mid-February, he was joined by several men from the Inuvialuit and Gwich'in tribes. And again, I apologize if I'm not saying that as correctly as I should, but I looked it up, I promise.

00:48:43 Speaker_01
They were familiar with the region and were just as interested in capturing Johnson as the RCMP. Yeah, they're like, get this guy the fuck out of our territory. They had a lot of help from these like native tribes. Like local tribes.

00:48:55 Speaker_01
Yeah, and on February 12th, one of the Native men reported that Johnson had been spotted snowshoeing on the west side of the Richardson Mountain, which indicated that he'd traveled at least 90 miles since he was last spotted three days earlier.

00:49:09 Speaker_01
My God. Three days, 90 miles on foot. By himself. In crazy weather. No animal, like no dog sled, no nothing. And many of these people, even like these Native men who were helping them, were like, this feels impossible. Like, this seems impossible.

00:49:25 Speaker_01
Who is this man? So the group began making their way towards the west side of the mountain, and on February 14th, Valentine's Day, May spotted Johnson's tracks from the air, and it appeared he'd been traveling west.

00:49:38 Speaker_01
So when the whole team finally reached the area, they realized Johnson was traveling across the frozen riverbed and his tracks appeared to be less than 24 hours old.

00:49:48 Speaker_01
So in the two days that followed, the group continued following his trail, finding evidence of him along the way. And the further they traveled, the more recent the evidence became.

00:49:58 Speaker_01
Until on February 17th, they discovered tracks and a campfire that was less than a day old. So for nearly five weeks,

00:50:08 Speaker_01
The RCMP and volunteers had been tracking Albert Johnson and having repeatedly underestimated his outdoor skills and allowing him to slip away several times.

00:50:19 Speaker_01
By the afternoon of February 17th, though, it appeared that it was Johnson who may be underestimated Ames's men.

00:50:26 Speaker_01
because in a reconstruction of the day's events that was later shown, a little before noon that day, Johnson had left the center of the river where he had been walking and climbed a tree on the bank to basically look out for where the search party was.

00:50:40 Speaker_01
And he appears to have believed that the party was moving away from him to the south, but in reality, they were approaching a bend in the river that would take them northward again. So he was thrown off by what he was seeing.

00:50:53 Speaker_01
Although Ames and the other trackers knew they were on the right trail, they didn't really know that they were this close to catching him, even at that point. It was a happy accident. It was.

00:51:02 Speaker_01
Now, assuming he was in the clear, Johnson got down from the tree and continued following the creek because he thought they were going the other way. Right. and he turned a sharp corner and suddenly saw a search party about 300 yards in front of him.

00:51:15 Speaker_01
So he quickly strapped on his snowshoes and made a break for the cover of the forest, firing at the group as he moved. How many guns does he have? He is a gun at this point, I think. Guns run through his blood, I think. He can just create them at will.

00:51:31 Speaker_01
Now, Sergeant Earl Heresy, who was leading one of the dog teams, jumped from the sled and grabbed his rifle and returned fire.

00:51:39 Speaker_01
And in the exchange, Heresy caught a bullet in the knee, which ricocheted off the bone and traveled upward through his elbow and into his chest. I'm sorry, what the actual fuck? Right?

00:51:51 Speaker_01
oh god that's gotta be awful the damage so while a few of the men were trying to help him the remaining men pursued johnson into the woods and they followed his tracks and chased him to one of the cover stations that he had made for himself oh my god which is basically a ditch surrounded by short snow banks

00:52:09 Speaker_01
And it's possible he simply underestimated how determined Ames and the others were at that point. Or maybe he just thought he was going to get lucky or like, he's got away before, so why wouldn't I know?

00:52:21 Speaker_01
But by that point, there was really no chance he was coming out of there alive. When he's just one dude, he's got to be fucking tired at this point. You've got to get to the end of the road at some point.

00:52:30 Speaker_01
And as one team approached Johnson from the ice, another group circled around and took up positions behind him at a slightly elevated angle. Johnson kept firing at the men on the ice.

00:52:41 Speaker_01
And when he rolled onto his side into the ditch to reload, the men above him fired. And one of the bullets hit him in the spine. Oh! By the time they reached his position in the ditch, Albert Johnson had been shot seven times.

00:52:55 Speaker_01
And it was the spinal wound. That was the fatal wound. So they killed him. Yeah. So, why did he do this? What's crazy too is they were aware that they had been fucked around by him before. They'd been tricked by him before.

00:53:09 Speaker_01
So they waited 10 or 15 minutes before even approaching his dead body. I don't blame them. To confirm that he was dead. They were like, I don't even want to run up on this dude. Like, I don't know what he's got going on. Like Sydney in the end of Scream.

00:53:21 Speaker_01
After five weeks of pursuing this man in the fucking treacherous, like Canadian sub-zero, windchill, a billion percent fucking wilderness. The manhunt finally came to an end here. This is like a Discovery Channel fucking episode.

00:53:41 Speaker_01
And throughout the whole ordeal, Albert Johnson never spoke a word to them. From the time they appeared at his cabin knocking on the door until the time they shot him in that ditch, they never heard a word out of this man. What a mysterious fellow.

00:54:03 Speaker_01
For some reason, that just gets me. No, that gets you.

00:54:06 Speaker_02
He was silent. Because you just picture him being like, ha, ha, ha, you will not catch me. Just being like, fuck y'all.

00:54:12 Speaker_01
Just being like, suckers. I am gone. And just running away.

00:54:16 Speaker_01
yeah or just like yelling nothing nothing never made a sound nothing just shot and ran who is he that's a great question so once they had received word of that he was finally dead may who's in the plane there he landed his plane nearby and heresy who was the one that was shot was loaded on board and taken back to um a clavic where he was treated oh good the following day may returned to get johnson's body and the rest of the team traveled back by sled

00:54:45 Speaker_01
Now the news of his death was honestly celebrated across North America as a fitting end to a scary and also pretty exciting adventure for everybody to follow on the outside. It was like It was like a story, like this didn't feel real.

00:55:01 Speaker_01
No, it's like folklore, like I said. Yeah, it just felt like this, like, unbelievable tale that you were just following along with. And you have to remember, too, the time period where this was happening, like nobody had anything. No!

00:55:12 Speaker_01
So they were just like, whoa. So they did have this story. They did have this, exactly. And then the days after that, several members of the team provided the press with descriptions of the manhunt and the shootout that sounded

00:55:24 Speaker_01
More like a fucking film, like a film. You're watching like a war film than something that really happened. Sergeant Riddle told a reporter, Johnson fought desperately to the end, emptying his rifle and was in the act of reloading it when killed.

00:55:38 Speaker_01
The accurate shooting of the posse had riddled his body with bullets. And the more the story went around, the more it became a little embellished as it went, or at least exaggerated.

00:55:47 Speaker_01
In the New York Times, for example, May, the plane, the pilot, the guy who took down the Red Baron, he went from being an essential figure in the third phase of the hunt. Because he absolutely is.

00:55:59 Speaker_01
to being a major player in the story the entire time, who, quote, tried to bomb Johnson from his cabin. Damn. And he did not. He's like, nah. He's like, nah, I just came in with my plane at the end. He's like, what I did was enough. Don't embellish.

00:56:11 Speaker_01
You don't need to say it. Now, once Johnson's body was returned to Aklavik, it occurred to several people that the man who had been shot and killed by the RCMP didn't look at all like the photos of Johnson that had appeared in the press. Shut up.

00:56:28 Speaker_02
One journalist said, you shut your mouth over there.

00:56:31 Speaker_01
Pictures purporting to be of him were published in several papers, but they turned out to be that of a respected resident of Princeton, British Columbia. That poor man. Yeah.

00:56:40 Speaker_01
So it seemed that, well, a few people in and around Aklavik had spoken to Johnson at one point or another when he was passing through, at least for like a second, you know, like a clerk and all that. Yeah, yeah.

00:56:51 Speaker_01
And they were given the name Albert Johnson by him. Nobody knew who the fuck he really was. That wasn't his real name.

00:56:58 Speaker_01
So a journalist for the Edmonton Journal wrote, the secret of Johnson's true identity may never be known, and it may never be possible to clear up who he was or where he came from. And why the fuck he did any of this?

00:57:11 Speaker_01
In the early 20th century and before, It was like your identity when you, it was a given. Like if someone told you your name and your biological information, like biographical information, there was no way to confirm that information.

00:57:25 Speaker_01
Yeah, they weren't like checking his Insta. So you just assumed it to be true. Like that's, you say your name is that, that's your name. Okie doke. And I'm sure he had some kind of paper saying it too.

00:57:33 Speaker_01
And it's like, well, and it's especially true of the more rural regions, like the Northwest territories, because a lot of people go there to escape any modern life, you know? So like, you say your name is Albert Johnson, that's your name. Okie doke.

00:57:46 Speaker_01
So it was when the trapper gave the name Albert Johnson to Millen when he first arrived at Fort McPherson the previous year, like, that's what it was. He assumed that was his name. But if it wasn't Albert Johnson, who the fuck was he?

00:57:58 Speaker_01
That's what I'm saying. And also, like you said, why the fuck had he responded so aggressively to the RCMP? Yeah. Like, he was just being confronted about trapping. Yeah, like messing with people's traps. Illegally, like messing with people's traps.

00:58:10 Speaker_01
And poaching. Why the fuck did he respond like that? There was no reason. Unless he was wanted for other shit back in the States, which is what I think.

00:58:18 Speaker_01
So in the months that followed, the RCMP circulated the only known photographs of the man who they knew as Albert Johnson, which were taken after his death. That's all they had. Okay. In the hope that someone would recognize him.

00:58:31 Speaker_01
and be like, oh, that's my crazy-ass brother. And most, like, for a while, nothing was coming.

00:58:35 Speaker_01
And then the first theory as to his identity came in late 1932, when RCMP officials got a tip that Johnson strongly resembled a man named Arthur Nelson, who had been living in Dease Lake, British Columbia, in the mid-1920s, but had traveled north to the Yukon and was last seen in May 1931.

00:58:54 Speaker_01
Okay. Just a few months before Johnson arrived at Fort McPherson, They said that's when he had been traveling like into the Yukon. That was the last time.

00:59:05 Speaker_01
But other than that name, the fact that he had lived at Dease Lake, no one seemed to know really much about Nelson's life or his history.

00:59:14 Speaker_01
So years later, author Dick North put forth his theory that Johnson and Nelson were in fact a North Dakota criminal by the name of Johnny Johnson. So those were actually aliases for Johnny Johnson.

00:59:27 Speaker_02
It's like John Janssen, my Bravo heads.

00:59:29 Speaker_01
So according to North, Johnson had been born in Norway in 1898 and immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1904. There, when they got there, they settled on a farm in North Dakota.

00:59:41 Speaker_01
And in 1915, Johnson was involved in a bank robbery with another man, and his partner was wounded and captured, but Johnson escaped. See, this sounds more like it.

00:59:51 Speaker_01
Johnson was eventually arrested and served jail time in Wyoming in 1918, then returned to the farm in the early 1920s, and then disappears from the record. And it was around this time that Arthur Nelson appeared in Dease Lake. Huh.

01:00:08 Speaker_01
And it turned out that North's theory had also been the theory of the RCMP. They requested Johnny Johnson's fingerprints from the US authorities. I was going to ask that. To compare to those of Arthur Johnson. Yes. But the test proved inconclusive. Huh.

01:00:24 Speaker_01
Now, Albert Johnson's identity came up again in 2007. Shut up. When a team of filmmakers working on a documentary about this mystery got permission for their team of forensic experts to have Johnson's body exhumed and DNA testing done.

01:00:41 Speaker_01
The examination of the remains revealed some interesting shit. At the time of his death, Johnson, quote unquote, had been about 30, between 30 and 40 years old and was of Swedish ancestry.

01:00:54 Speaker_01
He had spent a lot of time in the American Midwest in his youth and had suffered from scoliosis. Hmm. Which is interesting that he was shot in the spine. Ironic. Very ironic. Don't you think?

01:01:04 Speaker_01
And perhaps most unusual that despite his like clearly like you know mountain man individualistic like drive like where he was like I'm very isolated very like I live in the outdoors. Yeah DIY king. He had a DIY king exactly.

01:01:21 Speaker_01
He had quote undergone sophisticated and expensive dental work for the period. Really? Which is, like, not lining up. Yeah, no, not at all.

01:01:30 Speaker_01
And although they were able to learn a great deal more about, you know, the remains known as Albert Johnson, many of those things do, like, kind of support that theory of Johnny Johnson. Yeah.

01:01:41 Speaker_01
The forensic team were unable to conclusively give him a name. And maybe it's because his like, I mean, his antics were so iconic, so scary, so intense, so gnarly.

01:01:55 Speaker_01
His identity is so mysterious that that's, I think that's why we will just like, I can't give up on this. The Mad Trapper. like, who the fuck he is and why he did this, you can't let it go. I will never let it go as long as I live.

01:02:09 Speaker_01
And it has been a huge fixture in Canadian culture for more than 90 years at this point. Like, what the fuck is that about? This is truly one of the wildest stories I've ever heard. Yeah.

01:02:18 Speaker_01
It's inspired countless songs, poems, novels, films, which I was like, where's... I gotta watch the film. Show me the film. Yeah, like, let's go. I might write a fucking song about this. Let's go. Let's go. I've never written a song before in my life.

01:02:27 Speaker_01
I'll write a song. Like, let's go. And still we don't conclusively know who this man was and why the fuck he reacted the way he did and how he was able to survive out there. Well, so Johnny Johnson is the one who robbed the bank. Yeah.

01:02:43 Speaker_01
And the other two are aliases. They're all the same person.

01:02:46 Speaker_02
I feel like I feel like it's got to be him because he's the only one they have. And who knows what else he did, like what other criminal things would have popped up had the RCMP got him.

01:02:55 Speaker_01
Yeah. You know, it's just like, but not knowing conclusively is driving me fucking nuts. And what a way to go out. What a way to go out. In a ditch, reloading your gun after five weeks of running in the wilderness in Canada.

01:03:10 Speaker_01
when you could have just paid a fine. Yeah, don't keep it that weird. Don't keep it that weird. Wow, what a tale.

01:03:16 Speaker_02
I love that story. I don't love that people die along the way.

01:03:20 Speaker_01
No, of course not.

01:03:20 Speaker_02
That is so deeply upsetting.

01:03:22 Speaker_01
But the actual story itself is riveting. That is a riveting, truly, that's a nail bite up. Yeah, it had me on the edge of my seat. I don't have my curlix on. Looking at this, it's crazy. Damn. Yeah. Wow.

01:03:36 Speaker_01
So that is the story of Albert Johnson, quote unquote, the mad trapper of Rat River. I'd like to say thank you. You're welcome.

01:03:45 Speaker_02
And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But definitely not so weird as this guy. We already told you not that weird. No, that's weird. What a freaking tale. I love it. This might be one of my favorite episodes.

01:03:59 Speaker_03
Whoa.

01:04:59 Speaker_02
If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

01:05:09 Speaker_02
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01:05:15 Speaker_00
Hello, ladies and gerbs, boys and girls. The Grinch is back again to ruin your Christmas season with his The Grinch Holiday Podcast.

01:05:22 Speaker_00
After last year, he's learned a thing or two about hosting, and he's ready to rant against Christmas cheer and roast his celebrity guests like chestnuts on an open fire.

01:05:32 Speaker_00
You can listen with the whole family as guest stars like Jon Hamm, Brittany Broski, and Danny DeVito try to persuade the mean old Grinch that there's a lot to love about the insufferable holiday season. But that's not all.

01:05:44 Speaker_00
Somebody stole all the children of Whoville's letters to Santa, and everybody thinks the Grinch is responsible. It's a real Whoville whodunit. Can Cindy, Lou, and Max help clear the Grinch's name? Grab your hot cocoa and cozy slippers to find out.

01:05:58 Speaker_00
Follow Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Unlock weekly Christmas mystery bonus content and listen to every episode ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.