Mad Trapper of Rat River

Hey, Hey, Hey, I'm Ben and I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim.

A true crime podcast.

Yeah.

Morning.

The following podcast content and material intended more mature audience listener discretion.

What's up? Welcome to Episode four?

Episode four. It's so exciting.

We're actually we're getting like some momentum on this and I'm digging it. Yeah, it's it's becoming in our routine, sit down, do the podcast, do the Instagram thing.

Talk to people.

I like it, But the next one, the next one, I'm gonna have to research and I haven't started.

So do you even know what you're gonna be?

Do you want me to be truthful?

The truthful answer is no, isn't it no idea?

I've got like a plethora of cases that I want to cover it.

I just haven't spent the time yet. Like I'm so interested in true crime, and I know, like if I just spend five minutes, I'll probably have a list of like ten, but I just haven't done that yet, gotcha.

Yeah, Yeah, Like I listened to true crime podcasts and I watch like the Netflix and YouTube videos and stuff, and I'm constantly adding to it and people talking to me about it lately too, because this podcast being like, hey, you should cover this one or cover this one, so my list is growing by day.

Well, it's actually funny because I feel like you listen to true crime podcasts more than me now and before it was reversed.

Yeah, definitely, that's definitely the case. Now I probably listened to like a true crime podcast well like Monday to Friday on the way home and from to and from work sort of.

Thing, because you get you can listen to one episode in one day, right, because you listened half on your way and half on the way on a way to work in half on the way home.

Yeah, which kind of sucks.

That would sup because I'm like, I'm in the story, the suspense.

Is building, how can you turn it off? Well, I have to. I gotta work, so then I couldn't do it. I got to work for.

Like nine hours a day, and then I have to like stew on the episode all day at work and then I get to finally.

Listen to it.

That sounds awful.

It is terrible, but it works.

But I just also want to throw it out there if anyone has any like recommendations or stories that they want us to do like by all means hit us up. Yeah, I would be totally fine with doing one that someone recommended, So probably just via Instagram. Hey, Wicked and Grim, send us a message.

Yes, send us a message. We'll make sure that there's a story up so you can apply.

We were supposed to do that already.

We'll make sure we do it after recording this episode. Yeah, so make sure there's a story up where you can just like watch a story. It's gonna be right at the very top. Click on it and you can just type in your your response to us and what you want.

Us to talk about and ongoing submit requests exactly. Yeah.

I don't know about you, but I'm like freezing right now.

Our host is freezing.

I have like a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie on hood up over.

Top of my head, drinking cold beer, which I mean isn't helping you.

I mean, when am I not drinking cold beer?

That's very true, And it's funny because it's actually the warmest it's been in forever. It's like one degree outside and we're freezing.

I know it like spring is on its way, although it's still technically winter right now. We got a little ways to go before springs here.

They've still got snow, lots of snow, lots of cold.

Yeah, it's making the huskies happy though.

We went for a nice walk today. That was so nice though. That's probably what that's always what chills.

Me well in the wind out there today.

Yeah, that that definitely sets in a chill and like your bone, so that's going to do it for us.

And now the doggles are chewing on bones nomnam.

Maybe they'll leave us alone and Ripley won't fart in this podcast.

Yeah. Oh that was brutally Oh yeah, yeah, I mean at the if they're listening to this one, you probably listened to episode three and I could hardly get through what I was saying because the stench was so bad.

I had a good laugh. I didn't even smell it.

I don't know how.

One what else? They don't know how what. I don't know how this case happened.

I'm excited a transition or not.

I don't know.

But you put a lot of giving me a lot of suspense for listening to this. I've told you nothing, yeah, but you've also said it's like so crazy, so wild. That's basically all you've said. So I'm quite intrigued.

It is.

It's it's not like crazy and wild in a way that you're.

Going to think it is.

Can you guys hear the bones in the background, the dogsturreing the bottles, You probably can. I know Meek is being really loud, So if you hear.

That, sorry, it's just apologize. I mean, it's better than them doing other things.

Yeah, well, it's probably going to happen lot.

We're in a tiny home recording a podcast with two huskies beside us.

Yeah, well, they don't even know we're moving into a tiny home.

Oh, we're moving into a tiny home this year.

Guys. In the summer bomb dropped boom. We're at our house. We're going to go to a tiny home.

Anyways, we'll talk about that maybe on our Instagram or something or another.

Other time later.

To get into this, I'm ready. So this is the Canada's largest man hunt.

To date, like to date, which is kind of weird that I haven't heard of this.

Then I haven't heard of it until recently. Either happened in nineteen thirty one.

Okay, that's probably why I haven't heard about.

And it is the case of the mad trapper of rat River suspense naming their hand river. Okay, so it takes place in the northwest, in northwest Canada and of course the early nineteen hundreds, so we're talking like Northwest territories, the Yukon, like north of US even, which is kind of crazy because yeah, so a lot of like fur trading is still really prominent. Native North Americans, the Gwichin tribe lived in this area and they practiced many of

To say here.

Yes, way back in the day, our parents weren't even alive then. Dang, it's way back in the day, no.

Kidding, Well, it's almost one hundred years ago. Yeah, So in the summer of nineteen thirty one, a man going by the name of Albert Johnson arrived in Fort McPherson by the way of the Peel River on a raft. He entered Fort McPherson and he entered the Trading Post, the local trading post owned by the Hudson Bay Company. The chief trader at the Hudson's Bay Company named Bill Douglas, he was at the trading post and he spoke shortly

What he was doing.

He was on a mission.

He was on a mission.

He was definitely not going to stop by our deans and you know, look at some stuff there and maybe go over to Sears, not ordering her to the catalog.

Like he knew what he was doing. He was going to get his stuff and leave.

Okay, yeah, I like that, right.

So he spoke shortly and ordered to supplies and evaded like any questions as he could. He was kind of like a shady looking figure sort of thing, like Bill Douglas described him. He was a medium sized man between thirty five to forty years old, slightly stooped shoulders, sun red, and skin fly bitten most likely.

Well, he was just journeying on a raft.

Well, he said he looked like he was a loner and obviously lived alone in the wilderness for months because of his sun redd and skin the fly bitten, that sort of thing.

Like a hermit.

Yeah, pretty much.

He also said he was this is actually kind of funny, you kind of like a jab at him. He's the most unlikely material for romance.

Oh, thank gosh.

Like burn.

That's like a burn like but very subtle.

Wow.

Okay, there he went there.

Okay, yeah, definitely he went there.

So he ordered some supplies and you know, he left and over the course of the next ten days he spent fourteen hundred dollars on supplies, which.

Is rob a ton of money back then, right.

In nineteen thirty one, And of course you don't have debit or credit or anything.

You're paying in cash. It's a ton to this.

It would equal out today to be about twenty two thousand, two hundred and forty dollars.

Holy man, he's roaded now.

Of course, there's inflation and stuff like it's probably going to change today to tomorrow.

Yeah, exactly. So it's an estimate.

And one thousand dollars today is a little less than sixteen thousand dollars. Sorry, A thousand dollars then is a little less than a fixed thousand dollars then is a little less than sixteen thousand dollars to day. Just to kind of give you a perspective. Okay, So over the course of the ten days, he spent fourteen hundred dollars and he was carrying thousands in cash on him really, which is really weird, not necessarily just for the inflation even but trappers they didn't do that.

Oh yeah, I'm very intrigued of how he got all his cash. Well everyone is am I going to find out?

Well, no, no, you won't. I wish we could, but it's not the case here. So Bill Douglas also figured out that Albert was outfitting himself to trap up the

Himself, he kept to himself.

He didn't announce himself and Gwichin tribe a lot of times even when a new guy came in, they would like help him out, you know, make sure that he knew the area, knew the land, or even would like sew clothing for him.

Mean, he was well equipped. None of that happened here. So it was a very strange situation.

Yeah, it seems like it is interesting.

So Edgar Millan traveled to Fort McPherson to investigate this guy.

I'm sure everything was fine.

So Milne was thirty years old and he was known for his good humor, common sense, and really good bush crafts. So he was an all around like good RCMP individual and he was literally the perfect man to approach and talk to Johnson and learn more.

So that's why he was dispatched.

Right, okay, makes sense.

So consper Constaber, I can't talk today. Constable Millin first went to the trading post when he arrived in Fort McPherson to talk with Bill Douglass and get some more information before he tracked down Albert Johnson.

While talking to Bill.

Douglass, he learned, you know everything we've already learned. Then he came down the Peel River and he described him. And he also said that recently, in the last couple of days, he bought a nine foot canoe off a local witchen and by all indicate indications, he still intended on trapping.

Up the Rat River.

What happened to his raft?

Well, I'm pretty sure that a canoe would be better than a sitty little raft that he managed to put together, right, so he upgraded basically there.

Well, yeah, he's loaded might as well.

Yeah, no kidding.

So Constable Millan said, you know, I better talk to him. He doesn't know the Rat River area. He doesn't know what's going on because there's there's some rough waters up there. There's a Rat River rapids which are known for people to like.

Not do too well.

Long okay, okay, So.

Millan found Albert Johnson at a steamboat landing just down by the river, introduced himself, you know, shook his hand, and Albert was like reluctantly shaking his hand back, and he was just kind.

Of like leave me alone pretty much. That was kind of his attitude.

He asked Johnson if he could do anything for him, and Johnson was like super abrupt and hurried, and he was like, no, no, I'm just leaving.

So it's just just like wants to brush him off pretty much.

So Milan described Johnson again as thirty to forty years old. He's about five foot ten inches, upturned nose, a broad, flat face, curiously stiff features, ice blue eyes, and clean shaven, which was like really uncommon for trappers to be clean shaven. Well, he wasn't like completely clean shaven, but like fairly clean shaven. You maybe stubble or something like that. A lot of trappers, you know, get the big old burly.

Beard, and that's what actually, that's what I would picture in my head for sure.

So he did not have that.

And from his accent, Millan figured he was Swedish or from another Scandinavian region, so not local to the area at all.

So where the heck did this guy come from?

Well, we don't know, but we're gonna carry on and see what happened.

Let's see.

So Millan asked Johnson, you know, have your how he arrived at Fort McPherson, and Johnson said he arrived via the Mackenzie River. That's not true or not what Millan was told by Bill Douglas at the trading post. He came down the Peel River.

Oh so this guy is already shady now.

Like Millan, he's got his wits about him. He's a very common sense driven guy. He knows that like these rivers are fairly close together, could be that they were mistaken for one another, something like that.

So he's kind of note to self. But it's not like a giant red.

Flag giving him the benefit of.

The doubt exactly.

And also, trappers were known to lie about where they're going, very secretive, right, they don't want people coming in the trapping area or knowing if they're in like good trapping country or something. And to this day you talk to like a fisherman.

Or a hunters, they're kind of still like that.

Very secretive. I'm a hunter, I know a lot of hunters. I know family members who are hunters. They're very secretive, even though they're still close with me. So it's it's not uncommon for people to lie about.

That sort of stuff either.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

So even if he was lying, it's not like it's again a red flag. So anyways, Johnson would need a trapping license though.

Okay, they even had licenses and stuff back in the day.

Okay, so Officer Millan offers, he's like, you know, you're if you're going to be trapping or anything, you need a trapping license. I can get one for you, like right here, I can write one up. You're good to go then, And he also said that I recommend you hire a guide to go up the rat with you because of the dangerous conditions the rapids and all that sort of thing.

Someone that knows where the rapids are exactly you're going to go up the rat, you're gonna might drowned.

You might want a guide who can like take you through the rapits properly, no one to portage whatever it might be. But at this suggestion, Johnson got visibly upset and he's like, no, I like to be alone.

Just shut down. He was getting angry and.

This guy is just trying to help him. He seems like he's being really nice.

Oh just wait. He even said, I don't know if this is a direct quote.

It was in quotations from the site I've picked it up on, but I don't know if it's a specific quote or they were just kind of writing dialogue for it. Okay, but he said that police caused trouble for him.

That's what he said to the police officer. Yeah. Oh interesting.

Yeah, he's like, please cause trouble for me. He's like, leave me alone.

He doesn't like them just putting it right out there.

Yeah.

So at that point Milane was like okay, he shrugged it off and just kind of left Johnson alone and walked away.

So, and that was in the summer.

Of nineteen thirty seven. So alert Johnson takes off in his canoe. Don't really hear of him for a while until the winter. So winter came around, the local gwitchen reported a man, of course, it's it's Albert Johnson was sabotaging their traps. Oh in the Rat River.

Someone else sabotaging someone else's traps.

Yeah, which is like a big old no no.

Yeah, what the heck? Back off, buddy.

So he failed to pass these Rat River rapids and set up at the mouth of the Rat River Canyon. You know, he was flinging the trap the traps into the trees and sometimes on reports, even replacing him with his own. So he doesn't have a trapping license. He's messing with other people's traps and he's just causing all sorts of trouble.

He sounds kind of like an asshole.

He sounds even more like an asshole when the Gwitchen tried to approach him about it.

Okay, he threatened him with a rifle. What yeah, He's like, fuck, oh, buddy, get out of here.

This guy needs to just go back wherever he came from.

Right.

So the RCMP's like, yeah, okay, we need to take this report series. So like, this dude's caused some shita. So they dispatched two constables, Second Constable A. W. King and Which and Special Constable Joe Bernard. There's a fair bit of names in this, different constables and stuff. I'm terrible with names, so I'm going to do my best to keep track of these people. At times, there's like ten people. I just like there's a bunch of them.

Oh yeah, and I will probably not be able to help you, so good luck, I know.

So it was Boxing day when they set out via dog sled to go talk to Albert Johnson.

Okay, that's fun.

They want to keep this civil, you know, just be like, hey, dude, like stop being a dick. If you're going to be trapping, you need your trapping license, all this sort of stories.

Want a dog sled. So I'm just going to put that out there.

Well, they were doing this in like minus forty degree temperature, Okay.

And you can't want that. Then I take it back.

But they knew this area well though, so even though it was like super cold, it was winter, all that sort of stuff, they knew where.

They were headed and it was known as Destruction City.

Destruction City is at the mouth of the Rat River Canyon before the Rat River Rapids, and it's called Destruction City because during the Yukon Gold Rush, hundreds of prospectors ship.

Wrecked at the rapids.

They couldn't make it through and they wintered there and died of scurvy.

Oh my, that's so awful.

Again, Millen knew this whitch and tribe knew this. All the locals knew this and tried to, you know, tell Albert Johnson, you should get a guide, help you do the rabbits want this happen, And of course he turned his nose away, and it happened.

He couldn't make it through.

Surprise surprise, right, should listen to your locals. They know their shit, they know what they're doing. So three days later they rounded the bend on the ice of the Rat River and spotted the cabin that Johnson had built. So Bernards stayed down with the dogs as King approached. I'm just referring by last names now, just you know. So King approached the cabin and they noted that like snow smoke was billowing from the stovepipe, like someone was

You know it's winter.

Now, that's so impressive to me that someone can just like build that alone.

Right, and only in like a few months.

Like, wow, this guy seems really I don't know he's got it. He just seems like he's a good outdoors person.

Well, there was something weird about the cabin. It didn't stand very tall. So King figured that it looked like the cabin was like sunk into the gravel bed like a good like three feet, So he would have like dug down three feet in the gravel bed on the side of a river before he built.

His cabin up.

Interesting, which is a little odd.

Well, I mean he's already odd.

Yeah.

So King knocked at the door and there was no reply. You know, he's kind of waiting and he's like, hello, Albert. You know, RCMP was making sure everything's okay, and we heard of the incident blah blah. So no reply, and King peered in through a small frosted window and immediately from the inside the window was covered up. So someone is inside someone's home.

Oh, like he could see in and then all of a sudden it got covered up. Yes, Oh that's awkward, right, So I was awkward when someone came to my house.

I mean, generally you are even.

If someone answers the phone, you're like, sh don't answer it.

I don't want to talk to anybody. I think it's just like people nowadays.

Oh that is fun.

But he covered up the window. He's definitely home. So King was like, pissed. He's going to now have to go back all this distance that he traveled to get a search warrant and back to the side of the cabin, which is going to be approximately one hundred and sixty miles.

Oh my goodness, just because his asshole doesn't open the door, right.

So King was pissed.

I would be too, Yeah.

So Inspector Eames, in charge of the RCMP dispat District, gave the warrant and sent Constable R. G. McDowell and Special Constable Lazarus sit A Chewless. I'm going to refer to him as Lazarus because sit of Chewless is really hard for me to remember and pronounce, sent them along with them. So they went back to Clavic, got these people and.

They're heading back to the site.

So mid morning on December thirty first, they once again came up on the cabin. Bernard again stayed behind with the dogs. Lazarus went around back as King approached with McDowell as his cover. So you got Lazarus going around back the cabin, King heading to the front door, McDowell covering him.

In case he runs or something.

Yeah, and you got Bernard down at the river with.

The sleds Okay, whole team.

The whole team.

They got four of them and one dude hunked down in the cabin.

Maybe if he's home.

So King called out, are you there, mister Johnson? And he thought he heard a noisseman inside to indicate like someone's in there, right, So he knocked in the door and there's no answer.

So King goes, you know, we have.

A warrant, you know, open up RCMP. So he begins, He's like, I'm not going to go back.

You have no answer.

I'm pretty sure there's someone in there. We have a search ward he starts kind of like shouldering door trying to.

Like budget open. He's like kind of body checking it right.

Shoulders at once, you know, it's not really moving. His shoulders again didn't move. Then all of a sudden, bang there was a shot through the door and King was shot.

In the chest.

What yeah, Kings shot in the chest. King so King fell backwards. He was shot in the chest and a gunfight began to ensue. King King managed to stand to his feet and stumble to a nearby little bit of willows and fell down and began crawling down the bank of the river. Because what had happened was there's gun holes. There's holes drilled in all four corners of the cabin where Albert Johnson could stick his rifle out and shoot. So now the gunfight was ensuing through these holes.

To McDowell and Lazarus.

Holy, this guy has planned it out. Okay, yah, yeah, this King I gonna live.

Well, we'll get there. So King crawled back down to the river bank. Lazarus and McDowell as well made it down.

King was bandaged.

He was bundled up and strapped to the dog sled, and they rushed him back to the hospital. But remember this is not like.

It takes the three days to get there rightly.

So day and night they traveled, and they made it back in twenty four hours, half the normal time.

Wow.

They were like they were described.

As like their thighs were like ice cold, like freezing and numb. And they carried him in.

But also these poor dogs that's where my mind went right.

They were okay, they were like dead tired.

Yeah, dead tired.

They deserved a good meal.

So the bullet just missed his heart by an inch.

Wow, so he's lucky.

Yes, King managed to survive.

Oh, thank goodness. But then they just left this crazy mofo out there.

What else are they gonna do?

I guess he's obviously nuts.

So they managed to make it back. Kings barely made it with his life. He almost got shot in the heart. Inspector emes At a Clavic learns of this and quickly makes a team.

To go back.

Quickly establishes like, okay, we need to get some guys out here, because now we have we want.

We have a wanted man. Now, not just like.

A well he injured a freaking narci.

Yeah, he shot an rcmpof s. Yeah, it's no longer just like a tough.

Between a couple of traps now.

Yeah.

So the team was Inspector Eames McDowell, Lazarus Bernard, and they'd also brought three trappers along with them, three local trappers who are you know, really good shots and they really know the area. And they also brought them because they thought maybe Albert would have an easier time surrender, surrendering to trappers, just like he's a trapper, more relatable people.

Right, Oh my goodness, But I feel like these trappers wouldn't have had to go. I wouldn't want to go. I would not be volunteering for that.

They went along and Millan also joined in as well. So there's the five of them plus the three trappers, so there's eight.

But King is in the hospital.

Oh yeah, kings. King's out of the story now, okay.

I have a feeling that that's probably lucky for him.

Probably.

So they settled for the cabin, armed with the guns as well as dynamite.

Oh okay.

So they arrived and they set up on both sides of the cabin and they waited.

He knows they're there, guaranteed.

Well.

After waiting, eventually they heard some clanging of what they think were dishes inside. So, okay, clearly he's in the cabin. Because they weren't sure if he's in there, maybe he could be out on doing some trap and stuff. He knows Robin went out in the bush.

Maybe I'm not sure.

I doubt that.

I doubt it.

May do that in the comfort of your home.

Probably a little warmer.

So after hearing the utensils and dishes clanging, Eames calls out, Johnson, this is the RCMP.

Come out.

There's no serious charge against you. The man you shot isn't dead.

There's still serious charge against.

Well, like not serious.

He didn't kill kill someone. I guess you know, it's.

Not a murder charge. So he's trying to lure him out.

He's trying to like, you know, it's a bargaining situation sort of thing.

So there's no response.

It was quiet, even though they clearly know he's in there.

But oh yeah, and after a while, all of a sudden, gunfire from the cabin again again, So gunfight ensues. So two men actually managed to make it up to the door during this gunfight, and they start trying to smash in the door.

Because he's he's not shooting, but he is shooting at the door at the door too though, right, Well, so they're brave.

Because they've got eight guys surrounding the cabin, right and he's shooting out through these little tiny holes in each corner, so he can't really see very well, so you can't really see these guys coming up there.

And they know where the holes are now and stuff.

So okay, okay, So they try to start breaking down the door, and they get the door about half broken down by the time they are drove off by gunfire through the door. Now inside, they said, when they were smashing this door, they saw that it was double walled. It was like reinforced inside. So you have your outside log wall and there was an inside log wall as well.

Interesting, I'm so intrigued to here what the inside looks like.

Oh, it was like fortified.

So the shooting continued for a long while.

And it was basically a standoff.

They couldn't get Albert to come out or anything, and they're not going anywhere, so it's just shooting back and forth, back and forth.

They set up a fire down by.

The river, and they decided, you know, we need to do something. We've got this dynamite here, let's thaw it out.

So they won't. They don't.

It's not a dangerous situation. Really, They're they're thawing it out by the fire.

They're not lighting it on fire.

I just want to make note of that because it sounds dangerous thawing dynamite out by a fire.

But it's good.

I feel like anything involving dynamite is.

Dangerous, but well, what happens next is a little dangerous for sure. They decide that they're gonna throw a stick of dynamite at the door of the cabin and try and blow it open.

Well, yeah, that point, you're going to do that.

Unfortunately, the first one fails that no one was injured, Like mid are it blew up before it hit the door sort of thing, right, So they continue to use dynamite and try and get this door blown open, and they kind of get the.

Door blown open, there's still it's just not working.

So all the cabin is so reinforced that the dynamite isn't doing a lot of damage.

This guy knows what he was doing.

Hey, oh definitely he's a.

Serious plan in action right now, I feel like, so.

Continuing this gunfight and some dynamite at three am in the dark, because you know, they've been doing this all day now and into the night, Eames and another man rushed the cabin in the dark, and when they reached the door, because the door is like mostly broken open now right at the door, they turned on the flashlight to try and like surprise, him blind them. Immediately as the light was turned on, the flashlight was shot out of his hand immediately.

Holy, who is this guy?

This guy is like an excellent marksman. He's building a freaking bunker and he's holding off the RCMP like no tomorrow.

Yeah, this is insane.

So that failed.

Now, the temperature that they're they're dealing with is approximately fifty below zero. These guys are dealing with frostbite on their face, their fingers, they're tired, they're freezing.

Of course they're dogs as well.

Oh no, so they had to go back to a clavic again and restrategize.

This is insane.

It gets brutal, trust me. We're just ramping up here.

Okay, Well, I already feel like this is a bit much. The sky is like nuts.

He's the mad Trapper of Rat River. And actually funny that we're onto that topic right now, because around this time, the radio and news sources began picking up the story. And it's like mostly like amateur radio stations and stuff at the time, like nothing big, but word was starting to get out of the situation and it was getting across like all across North America. It wasn't just the local area, and now it was like a lot of people knew about the story, and media dubbed him at

Okay, that media, Yeah, yeah, they.

Do it every time. They got to get the nicknames in there.

I think I'm picturing this to be happening way earlier time, like eighteen hundreds or something, because I'm like, oh, they have radio, I think you might be one. Imagination is just like, okay, I'll call him down.

I mean, let your imagination go, that's for sure. But they definitely did have radios.

So Eames and his crew arrived on January seventeenth and set up base camp at the mouth of Rat River. So they've already gone to Klavic and they're now back on the Rat River Canyon to try and take him on once more. However, this time the cabin was abandoned.

Oh so they got to look at the bunker or the cabin, which everyone you want to call it.

I mean, it's so smart actually that it's a band and of course they'd come back.

Yeah, So inside the cabin there was bunkers dugout just big enough for Albert to sit in in the gravel in the ground, and they're aligned with spruce boughs. There was a fire designed on the back wall, designed perfectly to reflect the heat right back into these little bunkers. Very well thought out.

He's smart, he is.

There was no signs of trapping activity. The only thing they really found in there was like, of course, gunshells and some like half eaten like elk scraps of like meat and.

Things like that.

So there wasn't really much to find in there. But they did find that.

You know, it's double walled. It's not a cabin.

It's basically a military bunker that this guy built.

I was expecting it to be a little bit more exciting in there, but okay, I'll take it.

So they knew he couldn't have gone far because of the weather and in all this there was a recent blizzard and they knew he was on foot. So he's in this canyon minus fifty degrees. He can't be going that far even if he has days on them. So they combed the Rat River Canyon for four different days trying to find him, and due to supply issues with all the men that he has Eames decides that he's going to send most of people back, himself included, and he's going to keep a couple of guys there to

Yes, so those four stayed.

And when I say like best shots, I mean like with a rifle, like good aim, good accuracy. Yeah, so he's not he's not making it very far. That's why these guys are staying to track him. Hopefully they can get a trail because he like, he can't use his rifle he's got he's all his food that he's carrying is in his bag. He can't hunt because if he uses his rifle, he'll be given away.

Right well, yain even to set a fire, right fire.

Smoke's gonna give you away. The flame at Knight's going to give you away. So he's got.

A heavy backpack. He can't really do much.

He's going to be given away.

They estimated that because of the conditions and everything, he's gonna need to intake about three to four times the normal calories because he's essentially running a marathon every day as far as he's traveling and going through the snow and the weight.

He's packing, right, and even just like the coldness and having to keep your body warm would burn calories.

I feel like all the conditions and everything. Yeah, so hold on, where am I here?

Okay?

So they tracked Johnson the best of their ability, picking up his trail occasionally, and they he did his best to hide tracks, walking on like frozen ice, frozen spots of the snow. So there's even at points he wore his snow shoes backwards to try and send them in the wrong direction.

Really, yes, yes, okay, I think that's genius.

And they could tell that he was headed for Alaska across the Great Divide, so he's headed west. On Jane twenty eighth, Riddell found an old trail and spotted a light off in the distance after he followed it. Now this is at night, so he can kind of clamb up on.

This ridge and get a look.

And Riddell goes back and get Verville, and they see this man tending a fire.

He's not very far away, only like.

I think it was like sixty yards or something like that.

The city was and he actually is lighting a fire.

Yeah, and he didn't know they were there, but they didn't they didn't do anything about it. They were contemplating taking a shop. But these two guys are trappers, they're not RCMP officers, so they don't want to get charged with manslaughter.

Yeah, but isn't that what they're there for.

Well, they don't even know if it's the right guy.

Oh okay, okay, that's smart, then that's good.

So they go back and get Constable Milling. And the next morning, all four men they peer over the same ridge and no person's in sight, but the camp is still there. They approached the camp and Johnson was immediately seen diving into a trench, a snow trench that he had dug out. So this guy is already ready, he's on the ball.

He probably knew they were there.

Then maybe, or he's just that prepared every time, I guess. So, of course, gunfight ensues, shots are being fired. Milan even called out to Albert Johnson to give up, and then two hours of silence, two hours of them waiting for Albert to give.

Up or say something.

Trench.

Yeah, So there's a couple fires or a couple gun shots back and forth. He's like, give up in silence, maybe little map maybe. So after two hours, finally they decide to move in and more shooting begins, and unfortunately, the two trappers see Millan fall face forward into the snow.

Oh no, they managed to.

Crawl up behind him, tie his boots together and drag him back. And there's reports, not that I've seen any facts on it, but there's some people claiming that at this time they heard Johnson laughing.

Ah, but they turned him over and yes.

Johnson, sorry, Officer Millan was unfortunately dead.

Okay. Was he the only RCMP there because the other one was army and the two are trappers?

Yes?

Sorry, So there's there's a Constable Millin, two trappers and the army sergeant Greig.

This guy is a piece. I'm getting angry now.

So they inspected his rifle and they found that a screw caused a misfire in his gun, giving Albert Johnson the moment he needed to shoot Officer Milan.

Unfortunately, as it was his gun that did it.

Yeah, So the three remaining men took care of ensuring that animals couldn't get to Officer Millan and everything like that, and Riddell after that they made sure or sorry, Riddell went back to a clavic to get Eames. So he's the two guys are staying there and Riddell goes back and on February fourth, Emes and ten others. This is where I start not talking about names because there's too many people to keep trying.

This is a man hunt.

Oh it's it's a man hunt and a half. And remember this started on was it Boxing day? So we're now into February fourth?

Oh wow?

Just as over a month now.

Yeah, So ten others arrived on the scene, and unfortunately Johnson escaped during one night silently.

They didn't know he left, and he left.

No tracks except to come over and look at Officer Milan's body.

Seriously, yes, and then he left and that pissed me off, like really, just oh okay, that's nice of him.

Three more days they were eluded by Johnson as he cleverly hit his tracks constantly, you know, making sure he's on and off his snow shoes, back tracking snow shoes on backwards, walking on icy patches, doing what he can to hide he's zig zagging everywhere. He's out running dog sleds on his or by foot, and he's backtracking, going in circle, all this sort of stuff, and he's out running dogs lives.

Exactly hiding here. This is so intriguing.

So by this time there was a pilot, Captain C. W. May, who served in World War One and actually even fought against the infamous Red Baron. He solved their reoccurring supply issue because again Eames is going to have to take guys off because they're running out of food, especially for the dogs.

Even food supplies.

So this pilot manages to bring those supplies and can go back and forth and get supplies as needed. So now they don't have to abandon and rejoin. It's just a solid man hunt.

Now good.

And by this time he goes up in the air and he kind of sees where Johnson's been heading, and they realize he's going to cross the Great Divide?

Do you know what the Great Divide is?

But I actually don't. I was going to ask when I was like, did you already say what it was?

And I forgot, So a continental divide is what it is. Great Divide is like its nickname it's a large drainage divide on a continent where one side of the mountains drain off into one ocean and the other side of the mountains drain off into another. So it's that big that it actually divides the drainage of the continent.

Interesting.

And so this runs right down Canada into the States from the yukon the mountain in the Rockies, right, Okay, So he's crossing that rocky range in the middle of winter, so low by foot in minus forty to fifty weather, in blizzards and snow. It's an impossible task. The local witches are even saying there's no way a man can make that alone.

It's impossible.

The fact that he's still even alive, I feel like is a miracle.

Yeah, it is.

So. February thirteenth, Captain May led a recon flight where they found his tracks where he that's right, he found his tracks where he joined tracks of a caribou herd on.

The other side of the divide. He made it across.

He did it.

He did it.

So by February fifteenth, the crew made it to the other side the divide, and they are four days now estimated behind Johnson, Oh right, and like I said, by foot, they've got a plane. These guys have dog sleds and he's four days ahead.

I can't believe this.

Oh, it's it gets crazier.

Luckily, there was an old trapper on the other side of the mountain in a local area there by the name of Frank Johnson that showed them a pretage route that helped them gain on Johnson, and by February sixteenth they found his trail where he left the caribou herd tracks and they estimated that they were no more than thirty six hours old, so they have gained significant Yeah. And at this time another another individual joined the hunt, Major Earl Hershey, among other people. So he was a

This I know well, and I'm just so I'm very engaged.

Soon noon the following day, after finding his trail, they're going down the Frozen Eagle River when Hersey, I think that's how you say his name, Hersey. He turns a bend and he sees Albert. Unfortunately, Albert sees him too.

Oh dagn for whatever reason, he.

Was walking towards him.

He was backtracking, most likely to confuse their trail again.

So oh okay, so he had probably has no idea how much they gained on him. Yeah, he thinks they're still.

Way back, so face to face around this bend, I mean they're they're a little bit of ways, They're not like nose right.

Yeah.

So it was a mad scramble and they're in the middle of a river, steep river banks and either side of them. Hersey takes a knee and fires a shot as well as another individual behind him takes a shot as Johnson scrambles and tries to make it up one bank.

What the frig I thought this Johnson guy was gonna get shot for sure at this point, because they caught him when he wasn't prepared. Finally, they did catch.

Him when he's not prepared. We'll see what happens. He tries to get up the other side of the river.

Again, it's too steep. He's stuck on the frozen river. So he tries to run. But of course, by this time, the entire crew has caught up and he's got a whole lack of people firing at him. Now, yeah, not everyone's firing yet because they're STI trying to get him to surrender. They're shouting at him, give up, give up. As he's running away, they see him stumble a little bit, and some reports stay. Some reports say they think he

Yeah, they have to get him at this point.

Then, So what happens? Shooting back and forth?

Shooting back and forth, because you know, Albert's not answering.

Again, he never answers.

They never heard a single peep from him, but they could see him WinCE every time.

A bullet hit.

Oh, I never made a noise, but they could see him WinCE, they could see him move, they could see him flinch, but not a noise came.

Out of him.

Yeah, I feel like this guy's just a machine.

And ten minutes after noon when they ran into him at noon, So ten minutes later, after this firefight, Albert laid still.

Now they're thinking this might be.

A trick because he's definitely pulled tricks on them in the past.

Yeah, but I also feel like, how bad are their shots? He has to be done, Well.

You have an army sergeant, you have our CNP.

Like, he has to be done.

So they walk over to him and turn him over. He is, in fact dead. Autopsy showed that he was shot with five bullets and one of the bullets actually severed his spine.

Which reallyz shot that killed him, I guess so.

And when they turned him over, he was a withered shell of a man, scrawny, but he had this like smirk on his face.

Almost.

I looked at the photo and I'm going to post like the drawing on our Instagram, and that drawing is from the photo taken when he's turnover.

You saw the photo of him after he died.

Yes, it's not gruesome whatsoever. I just don't want to post a photo of a dead guy on Instagram, so I'll post the drawing of it because it's like an infamous photo. But he doesn't look like he's smirking to me, but he's His teeth are definitely showing.

He's burying his.

Teeth for sure, But I don't know if it looks like a grin to me or not.

But he's probably just like I don't, all hunkering down like oh like yeah, yeah.

So they estimate he traveled by foot approximately one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty kilometers over the course of this man hunt. Ah, it was far more than third days and an average temperature of minus forty degrees celsius.

Maybe that's a good diet plan. Maybe that's what I need to get on.

I mean, it would work.

I don't know if I would say it's a good diet plan, but it's a diet.

Plan, yeah, the New Age diet plan.

And to this day, they still don't know who Albert Johnson was.

Are you kidding me?

It's a mystery if that's even his name.

Oh. I was just ready for the juice to come out. Of what this guy was up to.

Several hundred people have Wroten written into the RCMP claiming to know him. Some called him the Blueberry Kid, which is some criminal guy. I didn't research the Blueberry Kid at all, but others claimed him to be a murderer from the Michigan a World War One sniper, ex provincial policeman, a husband, father, brother son.

A definitely a badass.

Sorry for in No, Yeah, he's a badass for sure.

Oh that reminds me. There was an article I came across. I'm going to see if I can find it again and put it down the notes below.

It was like Badass of the Week or something like this, and someone wrote an article in this guy.

Their description was hilarious of this events because they don't hold back.

They're cursing, it's wearing.

This motherfucker did this and this god damn like it was just the way they wrote it hilarious.

I highly recommend you check it out.

Well, he seems like a machine like but.

Just like the RCNP investigated, is meant like all these calls that they could they use fingerprints DNA run testing at the time, like it's not very advanced, but and nothing came up from any of them.

Wow.

The most promising call or sorry lead they got called him Arthur Nelson from nineteen twenty five. He was from British Columbia and he went to the Yukon where he disappeared in nineteen thirty one. And it was only two months later where Albert Johnson appeared. There are other there's some other like deep theories out there. I didn't want to get into theory stuff on this, yeah, but still

Clavic where he was buried.

Interesting to run some DNA tests on these, you know, like Arthur Nelson. Yeah, it's not too long ago, and all DNA tests have ruled out all known potential matches, including this Arthur Nelson. So we still to this day have no fucking clue who Albert Johnson was really bad trapper of Rat River.

Wow, that's amazing to me that he killed He only was a He only killed one person, all right, that other because wasn't there. He got shot, but he didn't die.

He killed one other individual, so he shot. Now I can't remember names.

He shot the first.

Individual through the chest through the door, who survived. Second individual was Millon, yeah.

Passed away.

And the third individual was Hersey who was shot and he actually just survived that The doctor said if they arrived minutes later, he would have passed. So they got him to the hospital literally just in time, Okay, thankfully via the plane.

Oh yeah. I can't believe how many people that he had coming after him and he freaking got away, like for a long time.

He didn't make a peep and he just didn't talk. He just kept going out running the dog sleds by foot and backtracking like it doesn't make sense.

Like crazy, as like a mofo as this guy is, he actually is like a little bit admirable.

Like you said, he's a badass. I'm not gonna say admirable. He can do some shit and he's a badass.

Okay. Well, the fact that he can outrun that many people and is like so well in the outdoors and stuff, I guess I just think that's like holy because I'm the furthest from that. They should be a movie of this.

They should, I wonder if they have. I know there's books written about it. I know there's documentaries about it, but I don't know if there's a movie. I didn't come across anything like that.

Well done you.

To Hayden at work for putting me on this one. So that was a good, good one.

Yeah, good job. I've never heard of it. That's all.

Now you have there.

You go again with your ones that don't have proper outcomes for me.

I like the mystery ones.

I like to know when that's happened, where they are now.

It's all like there is you know everything except you know when he appeared, and you know how he died, you know everything in between there.

Yeah, but I want to know a bit more.

Well, if you want to know a bit more, I recommend you research it. Because they they dove into it. They released everything that was in his pack and all this sort of stuff. It's just too much for me to really get into.

What's in his pack. Might be a little bit.

I did actually take a screenshot on my cell phone, So if you really want to know what's in his backpack when he died, I can tell you.

I just got to pull up the picture.

On my phone. You make some other like hopefully none of the dogs or anything died during this chase, because that would have been hard on them too.

There was no report of it.

I'm very so we have two huskies. I think we mentioned this before, so I'm all about this dog tape.

Like one third of a dog team already. Okay, So what was in his pack? He had a razor, a comb, a mirror, needle, thread oil, rag fish hooks, wax matches, nails, acts, pocket compass, one hundred and nineteen shells, a knife made from an old tarping strap, a tarping spring sorry, all in neatly sewn moose hide case, five freshwater pearls, some gold dust, two tho four hundred and ten dollars in bills, and two pieces of gold bridgework that were not his own. So by bridgework like gold teeth.

Oh interesting, huh okay, that I mean, I guess that's what I kind of expected to be in there.

You expected him to have someone else's gold teeth in this bag.

I don't know. Nothing in that pack surprised me overly. Well, we went through the information, so huh interesting. I guess now I know when I have to pack if I'm going out in the wilderness.

This was one bad assitude. Or if I if I may one Wicked dude.

Yeah, I mean yeah, he wasn't a good dude.

All right, Well let's wrap this up.

So you're doing next episode though, I am doing the next episode and I'm giving no hints because I don't know what it's going to be on yet.

You gotta do your research, gotta hurry out.

Yeah, And why I'm doing my research, I'm definitely gonna dot down a bunch of cases that I'm interested into, because I know there's lots.

So if you guys have any in any cases you want to recommend us, hit us. Hit us up on Instagram at Wicked and Grim. It's as simple as that. Just give it a search. You'll find us and let us know what you think.

Perfect.

Okay, you want to send us out here.

I'm ready. Okay, stay Wicked