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!
References
Canadian 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.
Плейлист
Morbid
Join us for a special bonus episode with Tobias Forge, the man behind the mythos that is The Band Ghost. Hear exclusive news about their latest album, the process behind the music and some you heard i...
When Jean Harris met Herman Tarnower in the winter of 1966, she quickly fell in love the charming doctor. Having just come out of a disappointing twenty-year marriage, Harris was desperate to find the...
Weirdos! Today we've got a special guest -Andrew McMahon of 'Something Corporate', 'Jack's Mannequin', and 'Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness'. In addition to heating about his journey as an artist, Al...
Weirdos! Grab your sleepingbag, bags of snacks, and facemasks, and get ready for a slumber party! This month, we're giving you a fresh batch of listener tales brought TO you, BY you, FOR you, FROM you...
You know those messages that you get all the time, the ones that pop up out of nowhere? They could be real, but something about them seems fishy. You likely dismiss these texts and emails as mere anno...
On the morning of January 15, 1947, a woman walking with her young daughter spotted something pale and white lying in the weeds of a vacant lot. When the woman walked closer to get a better look, she...
On the morning of January 15, 1947, a woman walking with her young daughter spotted something pale and white lying in the weeds of a vacant lot. When the woman walked closer to get a better look, she...
On the afternoon of August 7, 1972, sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma left her house in Springfield, NJ and was never seen alive again. Six weeks later, Jeannette’s remains were discovered when a nei...
Two decades before the Lindbergh baby became America’s most famous missing child, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar, went missing in Opelousas, Louisiana, setting in motion one of the strangest kidnapping st...
Today we are joined by Emmy award winning film directors, Chapman & Maclain Way to discuss the wild story behind their Netflix Documentary "The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga". This documentar...
After his arrest, investigators would learn that, by the time he appeared on the game show, he was also a killer. In the year that followed, Alcala would go on to murder several other women until he w...
At the time of his appearance on The Dating Game in 1978, Alcala was a convicted sexual predator who had served time for sexual assault and had only avoided a charge of attempted murder on a technical...
Weirdos! We're giving you a fresh batch of listener tales brought TO you, BY you, FOR you, FROM you, and ALLLLL about you!Today we have ghostly peaches, possessed dogs (question mark?), dolls in a wal...
When Cheryl Bradshaw appeared on the popular game show The Dating Game in 1978, she was charmed by bachelor number one, Rodney Alcala, and by the end of the episode, she’d chosen him to take her on a...
On December 1, 1994, nineteen-year-old Melissa Witt planned to meet her mother at a Fort Smith, Arkansas bowling alley, but by all appearances, she only made it as far as the parking lot. Two days lat...
On October 13, 1972, a chartered aircraft carrying forty-five passengers, including 19 members of the Old Christians’ Club rugby team, departed from Montevideo, Uruguay bound for Santiago, Chile. Abou...
In the winter of 1924, the boroughs of New York City were plagued by a series of robberies ostensibly committed by a young couple. This was not the first time a woman had been involved in armed robber...
In February 1942, Gordon Cummins, a twenty-eight-year-old Royal Air Force Serviceman, murdered four women and attempted to murder two others over a six-day period in London, leading the press to dub h...
In response to the onset of German bombing raids during World War II, many of England’s most vulnerable citizens evacuated or were temporarily evacuated out of urban areas to safer, more rural parts o...
On January 12, 1983, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department received a call from a frantic driver who reported they’d just witnessed a shooting on the side of the side of the road in Fulton, Californi...
Happy New Year, weirdos, and we're celebrating the holidays with Holiday tales brought TO you, BY you, For you, FROM you, and ALLLLL about you!Today we have boogens, a Hanukkah haunting, horrible Four...
When a girl walking on a Provincetown, Massachusetts beach discovered the decomposing body of a young woman in the summer of 1974, it began an investigation into what would become one of the most noto...
This episode was that was originally published as Episode 240. We are revisiting it as a refresher before we update the case next Monday! We hope that you have a happy and safe holiday! We’re bringin...
This episode is a fan favorite that was originally published as Episode 476. We hope that you have a happy and safe holiday! Juliane Koepcke's story will have you questioning any recent complaint you'...
On the morning of April 10, 1936, Nancy Evans Titterton, novelist and wife of NBC Radio executive Lewis Titterton, was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death in the bathtub of her apartment i...
When thirty-four-year-old St. Paul housewife Carol Thompson was murdered in the spring of 1963, her entire neighborhood was shocked by the evil that had invaded their middle-class neighborhood. As far...
Weirdos!! It’s our second SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE brought to YOU by our friends at Audible!Today we’re joined by a member of the PodFam, Spencer Henry from Cult Liter, Obitchuary & Gossip's Bridle! Join...
When Kathryn Wombacher suspected her husband, Walter Andrew, of having an affair in the spring of 1920, she hired a private detective to follow him on one of his many “out-of-town” trips that he’d tak...
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 th...
When police were called to the scene of shooting at the Castillion Apartments in Los Angeles on April 20, 1968, they assumed the victim, twenty-two-year-old Cheryl Perveler, had been shot in a robbery...