Albert Johnson (criminal)

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Albert Johnson (alias, name unknown), known as the Mad Trapper of Rat Creek, was a lone hermit accused of criminal activity whose actions eventually sparked off a huge manhunt in the Northwest Territories in Canada. The event became a minor media circus as Johnson eluded the Royal Canadian Mounted Police team sent to take him into custody, which ended after a 150 mile (240 km) foot chase in a shootout in which Johnson was fatally wounded.

Details of Johnson's life before his arrival in Fort McPherson on July 9, 1931 are unknown. Soon after arriving he built a small 8x10 foot cabin on the banks of the Rat River, near the Mackenzie River delta. Johnson did not take out a trapping license, however, which was considered somewhat odd for someone living in the bush.

In December one of the local trappers complained to the local RCMP detachment in Aklavik someone was tampering with his traps, tripping them and hanging them on the trees. He thought Johnson might be a possible culprit. On December 31 Constable Alfred King and Special Constable Joe Bernard, each of whom had considerable northern experience, trekked out to Johnson's cabin to ask him about the allegations. They noticed smoke coming from the chimney, and approached the hut to talk. Johnson, wanting to be left alone, refused to talk to them, seeming to not even notice them. King approached and looked in the window at which point Johnson placed a sack over the window. They eventually decided to return to Aklavik and get a search warrant in violation of Johnson's rights.

They returned two days later with two additional RCMP officers and a civilian deputy. Johnson again refused to talk and eventually King decided to enforce the illegal warrant and force the door. As soon as he started, Johnson shot him through the wood. A brief firefight broke out, and the team managed to return King to Aklavik, where he eventually recovered.

A posse was formed – this time with nine men, 42 dogs and 20 pounds (9 kg) of dynamite which they intended to use to blast Johnson out of the cabin. After surrounding the cabin they thawed the dynamite inside the coats, eventually building a single charge and tossing it into the cabin. After the explosion destroyed his home the men rushed in. Johnson, fearing for his life, open fired from a foxhole he had dug under the building. No one was hit, and after a 15 hour standoff in the 40-below weather the posse again decided to return to Aklavik for further instructions.

By this point news of the events had filtered out to the rest of the world via radio. When the posse returned on January 14th, delayed because of almost continual blizzards, Johnson had left the cabin and the posse gave chase. They eventually caught up on January 30th, surrounding him at the bottom of a cliff. Johnson, having no choice, decided to defend himself, shooting Constable 'Spike' Millen through the heart [1] The troops remained in position, and that night Johnson scaled the cliff to escape his assailants once again.

The posse continued to grow, enlisting local Inuit and Gwich'in who were better able to move in the back country. Johnson eventually decided to leave for the Yukon, but the RCMP had blocked the only two passes over the local Richardson mountains. That didn't stop Johnson, who climbed a 7,000 foot peak and once again disappeared. This was only discovered when an Inuit trapper reported odd tracks on the far side of the mountains.

In desperation, the RCMP hired Wop May to help in the hunt by scouting the area from the air. He arrived in his new ski-equipped Bellanca monoplane on the 5th. On February 14th he discovered the trick Johnson had been using to elude his followers, when he noticed a set of footprints leading off the center of the Eagle River to the bank. Johnson had been following the caribou tracks in the middle of the river, where they walked in order to give them better visibility of approaching predators. Walking in their tracks hid his own footprints, and allowed him to travel quickly on the tramped-down snow without having to use his snowshoes. He only left the trail at night to make camp on the river bank, which is the track May had spotted. May radioed back his findings and the RCMP gave chase up the river, eventually being directed to Johnson by February on the 17th.

The team rounded a bend in the river to find Johnson only a few hundred yards in front of them. He attempted to run for the bank, but didn't have his snowshoes on and couldn't make it. A firefight broke out in which one RCMP officer was seriously wounded and Johnson was eventually brought down after being hit nine times. May landed and flew the officer to help, being credited with saving his life.

On examination over two thousand dollars in bills were found in his pockets, some gold, a pocket compass, a razor, a knife, fish hooks, nails, a dead squirrel, and a dead bird. During the entire chase the Mounties had never heard Johnson say a single word. To this day no one knows who he was, why he moved to the arctic, or what he was doing to the traps.

The event has been written about in a number of books, as well as a fictionalized account that was later turned into the movie Death Hunt, starring Charles Bronson.

[edit] Books

Rudy Wiebe, The Mad Trapper, 1980, Jackpine House Ltd., 186 pages, ISBN 0-88995-268-X
The Death of Alberta Johnson Mad Trapper of Rat River, 1986, Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd., 94 pages, ISBN 0-919214-16-9
Dick North, The Mad Trapper of Rat River, 2003, The Lyons Press, 338 pages, ISBN 1-59228-771-9
Hélèna Katz, The Mad Trapper, 2004, Altitude Publishing Canada Ltd., 133 pages, ISBN 1-55153-787-7
Dick North, The Man Who Didn't Fit In, 2005, The Lyons Press, 259 pages, ISBN 1-59228-838-3