Albert Johnson (Trapper)

Albert Johnson

Albert Johnson († February 17, 1932 ), also known as The Mad Trapper of Rat River , was a criminal whose pursuit by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) degenerated into a 150- mile manhunt in Canada's Northwest Territory and Yukon . His life is the subject of several books and has already been filmed several times.

Life, Crime, Hunt and End

The first reports of Albert Johnson come from his arrival at Fort McPherson , which he reached from the Peel River on July 9, 1931 . His Scandinavian accent stood out, as did the close shave and the apparently ample money for food, tools and equipment. Soon after arrival, Johnson built a small cabin about 2.5 mx 3 m (equivalent to 7.5 m²) on the banks of the Rat River near the Mackenzie Delta.

Because by the global economic crisis, there was a migration movement from the United States in the traditional hunting grounds of indigenous people, there may have been the intention to get rid of him by complaints. A survey by the RCMP constable Edgar Millen revealed little that was new. He waived a trapper license, which was strange for the time and place.

In December of that year, a trapper complained to the Aklavik Police Department about Johnson, who was believed to have tampered with the traps, set them off and hung them in the trees. When the constables Alfred King and Joe Bernard tried to question Johnson about this, Johnson refused entry into his hut. The officers returned to Aklavik without a search warrant. Five days later, the police were back with orders, now four of them. When Johnson again refused to answer questions, they began smacking the cabin door. Johnson shot through the wooden door and wounded King, who was brought to Aklavik for wound care after a brief response from fire.

A command of nine men and 42 dogs, equipped with around 9 kg of dynamite , surrounded the hut shortly afterwards. A concentrated charge brought it to collapse. Johnson survived thanks to the lowered or double floor of the hut (countersink cabin), which, intended to insulate against the arctic cold, served as a foxhole here. When the men came to the storm, he opened fire. There were no injuries, but the mess could not be remedied. After 15 hours of siege at around 40 degrees below zero, the command withdrew to Aklavik at around 4 a.m.

At this point the news had already spread over the radio. By the time command returned on January 14 , delayed by persistent winter storms and blizzards , Johnson had already left the remains of his hut. On January 30th, he was placed in a thicket. In the subsequent gun battle, Constable Edgar Millen was killed and the trail lost again. The command was reinforced by Inuit and Gwich'in recruited in the meantime , who knew their way around the wilderness better and could move there faster.

Johnson managed to cross over to the neighboring Yukon Territory despite the RCMP posts on the two only passable mountain passes of the Richardson Mountains . Johnson climbed a 2,100-meter peak and was out of sight of the public, invisible until an Inuit hunter discovered strange footprints on the opposite side of the mountain and reported this to the Mounties. The RCMP then hired Wilfrid R. Wop May , who had already worked several times for the police and had made a name for himself through a battle with Manfred von Richthofen during the war and as a bush pilot. With a Bellanca , which was equipped with snow runners, he discovered that Johnson moved in the tracks of the wandering caribou on the frozen rivers and only camped on the banks at night. The snow, trampled by the hooves, made it possible to move quickly without snowshoes and hid one's own tracks. Johnson used the flat ice, as is quite common in Canada, as a path that was relatively passable on foot even in winter.

After May's arrival on February 5, it was nine days before he discovered Johnson's tracks on the banks of the Eagle River, and another two before it could be found. The group of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officers came round a bend towards him on the riverbed and parked him in the middle of the ice a few dozen meters away. Johnson's attempt to save himself on the bank failed because the snowshoes were not on. In the following firefight, Johnson was killed by a shot in the stomach, an equally seriously injured police officer was flown out with the Bellanca, which saved his life and earned May praise.

After Johnson's death, the RCMP calculated that Johnson had covered the first 140 km from his cabin in less than three days, probably consuming around 10,000 kcal per day. Johnson's body was found to have over $ 2,000 in Canadian and American currencies, as well as some gold and some gold-filled teeth belonging to him. A pocket compass, razor, knife, fish hooks, nails, some tablets of Beecham's laxative and, as prey, a dead squirrel and a dead bird were also found.

Johnson, who is said to have a Scandinavian accent, never spoke a single word throughout the argument and hunt. Only after the shot at Constable Millen was a laugh reported. To this day, the mystery and discussion of who Johnson was, where he came from, what his reasons were for coming to Canada and the Arctic, and whether he was responsible for the traps that were destroyed continues to exist.

Identity question and exhumation

The first research in the 1930s was concerned with the question of whether Albert Johnson was identical to a rather questionable individual named Arthur Mickey Nelson, who at the same time was in Ft. McPherson arrived with a similar or identical arsenal. Another theory dealt with John Johnson from North Dakota, who had already spent some time in San Quentin and Folsom Prison and who had originally immigrated from Bardu (Norway) under the name Johan Konrad Jonsen.

Another lead and discussion leads to Owen Albert Johnston from Pictou in Nova Scotia , who emigrated to the United States in search of work at the beginning of the Great Depression and who last contacted his family from Revelstoke in British Columbia in 1931 before the lead was lost. Sigvald Pedersen Haaskjold from Norway, who evaded being drafted in World War I and withdrew to a fortress-like wooden hut on Digby Island off British Columbia for fear of persecution before his disappearance, was also considered.

With financial support from the Discovery Channel , Johnson's body was exhumed, examined, and reburied after DNA was removed. All names discussed so far could be excluded by DNS comparison. A comparison of traces of isotopes in the tooth material indicates a youth in America or Scandinavia with a later immigration to Canada. The age of Johnson was given as around 30-40, an asymmetrical tailbone caused a slight curvature of the spine, and his legs were of different lengths. The report was broadcast in 2009.

media

• In the film Trapper, Wolf und Fängerensucher ( Challenge to be free , USA, 1975) the material is treated more on a fictional basis, the character of Johnson ( Mike Mazurki ) - only named as Trapper or Trapper Man - is similar to James Capen Adams ( The Man in the Mountains ) as largely innocent and nature-loving.
• In the film A Man Becomes a Beast or Yukon ( Death Hunt , USA, 1981) plays Charles Bronson Johnson, with Lee Marvin as the largely bitter opponent Millen, who fictionally leads the hunt. The bush pilot Wop May becomes RCAF pilot Hank Tucker, who is killed by the hunting squad after he has shot a police officer.
• a song by Wilf Carter
• Fictional and non-fictional books (selection) by Rudy Wiebe (1980), Thomas York (1981), Dick North (2003 and 2005), Hélèna Katz (2004), Mark Fremmerlid (Sigvald) and Heritage House Publishing (1986).
• various radio reports on the Canadian broadcaster CBC.