1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you missed in history class from 2 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:12,319 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. You've heard the rumors before, 3 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:17,320 Speaker 1: perhaps and whispers written between the lines of the textbooks. Conspiracies, 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:22,240 Speaker 1: paranormal events, all those things that disappear from the official explanations. 5 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:24,960 Speaker 1: Tune in and learn more of this stuff they don't 6 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: want you to know in this video podcast from how 7 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:38,880 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 8 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:41,559 Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm fair Daddy, and we have 9 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:45,240 Speaker 1: a history mystery for you today, suggested by a listener 10 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:48,520 Speaker 1: named Barry who emailed us, and it's about the guy 11 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:51,600 Speaker 1: with the coolest nickname. I think I've ever heard Mad 12 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: Trapper of Rat River, and the Mad Trapper was the 13 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:58,960 Speaker 1: center of a massive Canadian man hunt in the middle 14 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,080 Speaker 1: of a harsh you on winter. But who was he 15 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 1: and what happened? So, whoever he was, he was very 16 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:09,279 Speaker 1: secretive and he used a lot of aliases, which makes 17 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:12,920 Speaker 1: it hard to know much about his early years. So 18 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:18,440 Speaker 1: there are several candidates for the Mad Trapper, Johann Johnson, 19 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:26,440 Speaker 1: Albert Johnson, Arthur Nelson, and Spigbald Peterson hawks Gold I think. 20 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:30,679 Speaker 1: And the crazy thing is is some of these people 21 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: could be the same person just aliases, or it could 22 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 1: be different candidates. So we're just starting this off by 23 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,520 Speaker 1: trying to confuse you. We want to be upfront, no 24 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: one knows who this guy is. We know the story, 25 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: but we don't know the man behind the body that 26 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,920 Speaker 1: we actually have because despite all this confusion over the name, 27 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: there is a body. Um It was actually exhumed recently 28 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:57,640 Speaker 1: as part of the documentary and by analyzing the isotopes 29 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: in the skeleton's teeth, sign has found that the Trapper 30 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: grew up in the northern United States or northern Scandinavia. 31 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:08,720 Speaker 1: So we know where he's from, we know how he died, 32 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: but his name, he made that very confusing for us. 33 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,799 Speaker 1: So the Mad Trapper gets his start in the collective 34 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:23,840 Speaker 1: public consciousness on July nine nine when a man calling 35 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:28,240 Speaker 1: himself Albert Johnson wanders into Fort McPherson and buy supplies 36 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 1: from the Northern Traders Store. And because he's so secretive, 37 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:34,200 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously there are a lot of loner types 38 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,240 Speaker 1: up here. You don't you don't move to the Canadian 39 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:40,640 Speaker 1: wilderness if you like a lot of company, probably, But 40 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,800 Speaker 1: because this guy is so secretive, the Royal Canadian Mounted 41 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,160 Speaker 1: Police keep a really close eye on him, and he's 42 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: even questioned by one constable at a certain point, just 43 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:53,079 Speaker 1: trying to find out some basic information about where he's 44 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: from and where he's going. Who is this person under 45 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:58,639 Speaker 1: midst pretty standard questions, you know, most people wouldn't be 46 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: put off by them. But the future mad trapper Johnson 47 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:06,520 Speaker 1: sets off for Rat River about a week after questioning, 48 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 1: and it's a very very isolated place way up in 49 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 1: the Northwest Territories, and he survives by trapping beaver, along 50 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:14,840 Speaker 1: with a lot of other people who were living in 51 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:18,640 Speaker 1: the same area. But by December of ninety one, the 52 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: Royal Canadian mount of Police the RCMP received complaints from 53 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:26,880 Speaker 1: other trappers in the Rat River area that somebody is 54 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: deliberately springing their traps, which you can imagine would be 55 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: pretty infuriating if you're out in the cold trapping beaver 56 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: and somebody or somebody stealing yours well, and whoever made 57 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: the complaint also said they thought it was him, so 58 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 1: they had a suspect already and the babe loner guy, 59 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: you know, the creepy guy, no one knows who he is. 60 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:50,360 Speaker 1: So two men come to talk to him, but he 61 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: refuses to answer the door or engage with them in 62 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: any way, so they come back two days later with 63 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:59,160 Speaker 1: a search warrant, and when they knock on his door, 64 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: Johnson shoots through the door and wounds one of the officers, 65 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: Alfred King gets shot in the chest and one of 66 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: the others has to take him away and they they 67 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:16,880 Speaker 1: high tail it back there. They're not Johnson's cabin is 68 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:22,040 Speaker 1: built in a very fortified area. It's high above the river, 69 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:24,520 Speaker 1: and they really don't have even though there are two 70 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:27,000 Speaker 1: of them, again's one. They don't they're not in a 71 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: position to fight, plus one of them has been shot. 72 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,760 Speaker 1: So they come back a few days later and set 73 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,719 Speaker 1: up a fifteen hour siege, this time with a lot 74 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: of guys, lots of rifles. They brought dynamite to dynamites cabin, 75 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:44,279 Speaker 1: but a blizzard ends up cutting everything short. They got dogs, 76 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: men and all this stuff, and he won't surrender at all. 77 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 1: He's just hunkering down in this fortress of a cabin. 78 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:53,920 Speaker 1: I can't I can't imagine how this guy constructed this 79 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:59,159 Speaker 1: apparently impenetrable cabin by himself in the middle of the 80 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:02,799 Speaker 1: Yukon he's quite the survivalist as well, see soon. Because 81 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: he escapes during this gigantic blizzard and he heads off 82 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:11,480 Speaker 1: into the wilderness. Search parties are sent out right away. 83 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:15,600 Speaker 1: Obviously the police really want to get this guy. He 84 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 1: shot one of their own, and they've got this gunfight, 85 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,720 Speaker 1: and they compose their search party of Aboriginal people and 86 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:29,200 Speaker 1: the Royal Mounties and just some volunteer trappers who are 87 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: probably outraged that their beavers have been stolen. And at 88 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 1: one point in January, he's completely surrounded at the bottom 89 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:40,359 Speaker 1: of a cliff and he shoots a constable, Constable Edgar Millen, 90 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:42,600 Speaker 1: and somehow in the night, because they all stay in 91 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:47,240 Speaker 1: their position, he scales the cliff and gets away again. 92 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,800 Speaker 1: And we should say too, when he escapes his cabin 93 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:54,040 Speaker 1: in the blizzard, it's not like he's got a big 94 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,839 Speaker 1: pack of wilderness supply. He's on foot and he has 95 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,640 Speaker 1: no food, he doesn't have any extra clothe those and 96 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:04,120 Speaker 1: it's scaling a cliff, I mean, did he just climb 97 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,640 Speaker 1: it bar handed? He's better than bear grills, as we 98 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,160 Speaker 1: will see, because he keeps going and at some point 99 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:13,719 Speaker 1: they got airplanes on him as well as dog teams. 100 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:15,960 Speaker 1: And guides. And this is also the first time two 101 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: way radios are used in Canadian police work, which is 102 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: a fun little historical tidbit. So the pilot of the 103 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,480 Speaker 1: airplane What May is useful because he can see the 104 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: tracks or see patterns in the tracks, and he's starting 105 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: to close in. But another blizzard comes in February nine 106 00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: of ninety two, which gives Johnson time to cross the 107 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:39,120 Speaker 1: mountains into the Yukon, so even more wild than the 108 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:42,000 Speaker 1: wilderness he's spent in. And what May, by the way, 109 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:45,039 Speaker 1: was a World War one and two flying ace. He 110 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,880 Speaker 1: was really well known, so he's getting a celebrity pilot 111 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: and on it, not just any guy. And he realized 112 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:54,520 Speaker 1: that Johnson had been walking in Caribou tracks to hide 113 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:59,240 Speaker 1: his own tracks. By February fourteenth, What May spots Johnson's 114 00:06:59,279 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 1: tracks on the Bell River and starts following them to 115 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,479 Speaker 1: where they turned south up the Eagle River, and the 116 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:08,839 Speaker 1: police begin to close in at this point. So on 117 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: February sevent he's trapped on a frozen river, but he 118 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:17,400 Speaker 1: still won't surrender and he goes down shooting instead. The 119 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: end of our Mad Trapper came when one of the 120 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 1: bullets struck some of the ammunition he had in his pocket, 121 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,880 Speaker 1: and it exploded, blew a hole in his hip, and 122 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: the shot hit him in the spine, and that's when 123 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:33,520 Speaker 1: he finally died. He was one hundred pounds from this 124 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:36,440 Speaker 1: chase of forty eight days, covering one hundred and fifty 125 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: miles in the Northwest territories in a Yukon winter. And 126 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: the things found on this body here are real survivalist material. 127 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: He's got two rifles, and he also has two thousand 128 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:51,400 Speaker 1: dollars in both Canadian and American money. He's got gold, 129 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:55,160 Speaker 1: a compass, a razor, a knife, some fish hooks and nails, 130 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,960 Speaker 1: and Sarah's favorite items, a dead squirrel and a dead bird. 131 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:01,280 Speaker 1: And I guess if he was hundred pounds, maybe he 132 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 1: should have eaten those. I probably should have, because he 133 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:08,320 Speaker 1: was probably planning on it. The crazy thing is that 134 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:10,760 Speaker 1: throughout this entire thing, no one ever heard him talk, 135 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:13,440 Speaker 1: No one knows who he is, and no one even 136 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: knows if he did the thing he was accused of. 137 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 1: They never saw evidence of him making fires, they rarely 138 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 1: ever saw his tracks. No one's entirely sure how he 139 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:24,920 Speaker 1: even got away through some of this well and so 140 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: the question of was he really mad as his name 141 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:32,840 Speaker 1: implies comes up a lot too. He clearly knew what 142 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: he was doing. He certainly wasn't incapacitated in the sense 143 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:39,040 Speaker 1: that he knew how to cover his tracks, he knew 144 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 1: how to survive out there. But what was motivating him 145 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: to run away? Why did he hate authority so much? 146 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: And some people really admired him for that when they 147 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:51,080 Speaker 1: did exhume his body, and people had requested it before, 148 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:55,240 Speaker 1: but the elders of this village aklavic, I don't know 149 00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:58,560 Speaker 1: if I'm pronouncing that correctly, I'm sorry, finally agreed when 150 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: a film company, the one in the documentary, told them 151 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: that they would do it very respectfully and they would 152 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 1: have ceremony and there would be priests present, and then 153 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:09,120 Speaker 1: they said it was okay. And when DNA ruled out 154 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:11,200 Speaker 1: a lot of the people who thought they had relatives 155 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: who might be the mad Trapper, they were really disappointed. 156 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:17,520 Speaker 1: He was this figure that people wanted to be related to. 157 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:22,120 Speaker 1: That's so that's a strange that with several generations worth 158 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:26,839 Speaker 1: of distance between this guy and these want to be relatives. 159 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:31,360 Speaker 1: It's interesting that somebody who goes down in this man hunt. 160 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:35,439 Speaker 1: Maybe committed crimes is just as desirable a relative as 161 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:39,320 Speaker 1: somebody who's illusterous and famous for good reasons. But you 162 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:40,880 Speaker 1: have to admit it's kind of cool when he was 163 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:44,079 Speaker 1: able to do with the little he had, and you 164 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:47,840 Speaker 1: can figure and of the Mad Trapper Rap River, I mean, 165 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:49,560 Speaker 1: I think that's a lot of it. He was the 166 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:52,200 Speaker 1: epitome of the strong and silent type. We still don't 167 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:53,960 Speaker 1: know anything about him other than the fact that he 168 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:56,560 Speaker 1: was in his thirties when he died, and it was 169 00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: either Scandinavian or North American. But there's a great folk 170 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:04,080 Speaker 1: song that we found written about him, called, of course 171 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 1: the Mad Trapper of Rat River, because why would anyone 172 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,959 Speaker 1: deviate from that title? It's too good. It's by Stanley G. 173 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:14,320 Speaker 1: Triggs and it was recorded in the sixties, so not 174 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:18,600 Speaker 1: too long after the Mad Trapper went down here, Yeah, 175 00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:38,040 Speaker 1: about thirty years. So let's take a listen journey. But 176 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: I really liked the final line of that song. But 177 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:43,959 Speaker 1: give the credit to the Mounties. They always get their 178 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:48,680 Speaker 1: man good. And that ties into a really cool email 179 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:51,800 Speaker 1: we got from a listener named Jonathan and Belgium who 180 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:54,439 Speaker 1: said that we broke his writer's block and sent us 181 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:58,560 Speaker 1: song lyrics to a ballad about the Northwest Passage and 182 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:01,880 Speaker 1: Franklin's Lost Expedition, in which was a podcast we had 183 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: done a few months ago and it was really cool. 184 00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:07,280 Speaker 1: So we'd like to challenge you to send us song 185 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,080 Speaker 1: lyrics to some sort of historical mystery. The mad work 186 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:15,560 Speaker 1: like yes to history podcast at how stuff works dot com. 187 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:18,840 Speaker 1: So hopefully one day we'll find out the true identity 188 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:22,000 Speaker 1: of the mad Trapper. For now, his DNA is still 189 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 1: waiting there in the lab. So I guess if anybody 190 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:30,160 Speaker 1: thinks they have a plausible relationship, maybe contact this scientist. 191 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:33,120 Speaker 1: It's still up for grab. So if you'd like to 192 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:36,080 Speaker 1: read some more survival content with that, how to survive 193 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:38,560 Speaker 1: a shipwreck, how to survive a plane crash, a build 194 00:11:38,559 --> 00:11:41,880 Speaker 1: a fire, all sorts of stuff, come to our homepage 195 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 1: at www dot how stuff works dot com for more 196 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how 197 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:52,200 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think. 198 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:55,400 Speaker 1: Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot 199 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: com and be sure to check out the stuff you 200 00:11:57,440 --> 00:11:59,840 Speaker 1: missed in history Glass blog on the how stuff Works 201 00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:00,720 Speaker 1: dot card p page