The RCMP and the Mad Trapper of the Rat River
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2024
- The day after Christmas in 1931, a constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went to check on a man named Albert Johnson on suspicion that he was trapping without a license. The confrontation that followed would leave a fiery standoff, an epic manhunt, and an enduring mystery. The History Guy recalls the strange story of "The Mad Trapper of the Rat River."
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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Recent DNA analysis done since the making of this video has narrowed the search, but still not positively established the true identity of Albert Johnson. dnasolves.com/articles/mad-trapper/
What could have been the potential crime that he committed before that very first encounter with Constable Millen?
@@keithtorgersen9664 Maybe there was no crime.
At that time many northern native traditional trapping areas were being invaded by outsiders fleeing the Great Depression and some complaints may have been intended to remove him. - Wikipedia
You're quite an engaging story teller .
Maybe he was an innocent man who was fed up with the modern world and decided he wanted to live peacefully in solitude. Maybe when that peaceful solitude was challenged, he simply defended himself and his new (old) way of life... The fact that he fired first doesn't mean he MUST have been a criminal. Perhaps he saw it as his right to defend his home. That may be why he was disarming other people's traps... if he had his own traps along the same stretch of river and depended on them to provide food for him.
Fusillade, NOT fewlasahd, sorry...........
Some dudes just want to be left the hell alone. A friend of mine did that. Sold all his possessions except for a some camping gear and disappeared into the northern wilderness with some guns, lots of ammo, and a little bit of money. He had no criminal record, he just got sick of the rat race.
What happened to him
@@farhanatashiga3721 I have no idea. He's completely left everything and everyone from his past behind. Sometimes I wonder if he was eaten by a grizzly. I hope not, but I guess we'll never know.
Some things are left better unsaid. Philadelphia USA 🇺🇲❤️ AMEN
I'm on the verge of doing just that. It take a special type of person to do that. Much respect
@@jackandblaze5956 I guess he wanted to be like Grizzly Adams and become a hermit or just be with nature
Albert Johnson may have been a criminal or a madman or paranoid or shell shocked from WW1 but no one can deny his woodsman skills.
Until you have lived and worked in such a place it is impossible to appreciate his skill.
He appears to be a guy who just wanted to separate from humanity and be left alone.
There were lot's of these guys after WW1. And every other war.
It's not easy... It's hard to do!!! AMEN Philadelphia USA 🇺🇲❤️
I agree, but by the time the first shooting occured, Johnson was "bushed" and had gone a tad wonkers. One of the symptoms is paranoia.
It should be noted that the Mad Trapper never had a " pair of automatics" as reported by Maclean's magazine. He had a single shot .22 and a shotgun, both sawed off. He was seen briefly holding these weapons in hand and it was reported as pistols. The gun he used most in the gun battles and at his death was a Savage .30-30. The weapons are displayed in the RCMP museum in Regina.
Yeah, with the media circus I'm guessing they picked up on the popular outlaws of the US for inspiration.
Apparently exaggerated reporting is not new.
That makes more sense-- Thanks for that update-- Was he getting his ammo at a trading post near there?
also they only got him cus that savage missfired
@@smokeymacpot76 no they got because a young native snuck up behind him , and shot him through the cheeks of his butt into his liver. Read the three documentary books by dick north. No bs in his reports.
The fact that Albert Johnson was able to cross the Richardson Mountains, an area that the local indigenous tribes considered impassable, in the middle of winter with minimal supplies and suffering from scoliosis is nothing short of superhuman.
He must have been a Norwegian.....no other way to explain it.
You would be amazed at the kind of motivation being chased by the law has on people.
Up there living his last years and all of a sudden "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help." This is not the only version as to what happened way back in the bush.
@@donniegombel Tossing the locals traps in the trees wasn't a way to win friends, influence neighbors or keep the Mounties away. Obvious but worth a repeat statement.
What a great video! Nice work
The History Guy has the best story telling skills I have ever heard. He really brings the story alive.
Ikr. He has a great voice for it. He is kinda like the Bill Nye of history
Michael Medved does an amazing job in that regard too, don't always agree with his politics though.
Charles Kuralt. The King.
@@61Benster I was going to say that if there is ever a new version of Charles Kuralt's America, He'd be the best choice for a host.
Don't I look like discharged military .
I knew Major Hersey for quite a few years up until his death. He was a very compassionate and charitable man. And very humble. My mom told me the story of the mad trapper and Major Hersey's involvement, when I told him what I found out about him, he blushed and said yes, pointed to his cane and said I remember it everyday.
Wow!
Thanks for using that many words to say so little
Not only Do military men not blush
Your tale is incoherent
And the cane...Cane and dis-Abel, anyone...?
I saw Death Hunt when I was a kid. Now just hearing the foundational story at 60 years old. Thanks for such an interesting and engrossing historical account. You always present the best videos on historical subjects
If you are a classic firearms fan, that movie was particularly solid in it's accurate use of period piece rifles.
One of my favorite movies as kid,going to have to watch it this weekend
The part was a great fit for Charles Bronson.
@@karlyoung5089 Yeah. Stoic tough bastard.
Great performances all around 🤓😎✌🏻
I have studied this story for many, many years. Most of the people who had encountered him in the small villages tended to say that the man known as Albert Johnson was a quiet man who was always willing to help but preferred the solitude. It was widely believed by these people that he simply wanted to be left alone. They believe that he had what we now call PTSD. No excuse for taking someone’s life, but the old timers all said that they should have just left him alone. But hindsight is 20/20. Great video. Thanks
Always nice to see a story about us up here. 🇨🇦
Thanks for being our hat during the cold winters, Canada!
Eric Kaufman “toque” 🧐
@@wheelzwheela touque also. :)
Quiet up there!!!!
@@heatherrenaestrigens8409 :-o
My brother was a guide in that area for many years. He found a rifle leaning against a tree. It had been there for quite a while because most of the stock was covered in moss and all the metal parts were rusty. While no way to prove it, many people told my brother that it most likely belonged to the mad trapper.
This reminds me of an incident in my childhood. I was 7 or 8, riding bikes w/ my friend through the woods that stretched behind our house. We had stopped riding and were climbing a half fallen tree, when an old recluse came out from under the tree stump waving a shotgun and telling us to "get the hell outa here, you little bastards!" We both jumped off that tree like it was on fire and ran for our bikes. For some reason this old man decided we needed to move faster and shot at us, tagging me in the right leg/butt. It was only rock salt, but it might as well have been a .50 cal slug. We rode as fast as we could, but when we crossed the creek I fell. I can't recall anything since, that burned quite so badly as that salt, now disolving under my skin, and I howled in pain. It took the police a full day to extricate that old man, cause he had dug himself in a good four to five feet under the stump and they finally had to use tear gas to get him out. Ended up being an old WW2/Korean War vet that went a little bonkers after Korea. Another tough old bird!
I've heard stories about people using shotguns loaded with rock salt (usually against chicken thieves, etc.) but this is the first time I've heard from someone who was actually on the receiving end of it.
@@raydunakin I ended up feeling badly for that old vet and convinced my folks not to press charges, he had enough issues to deal with. Sad that our country doesn't take better care of our Vets. Had a Nam vet friend who took his life because of his PTSD. Sad.
V. E. Less than 2% of Vietnam vets saw combat, yet 100% of the ones you talk to where in the thick of it.
@@ViktoriousDead Usually spoken by a guy who never served at all!
@@stevebell4906 not in this case
I don’t want too many Canadian stories packed too quickly, but the story of Mr. Bombardier, pronounced Bombardeeaa, is very interesting. He was a French Canadian who lost a son to appendicitis in the early thirties because they couldn’t get him to a doctor in time because of all the snow. He was very mechanically inclined and eventually created the first snow machine. It was large and not the small, personal size we know today. The company he started is in existence today.
Thank you for that. Having lived in Canada's high arctic for several years, I consider the Skidoo a marvelous invention. I travelled hundreds of miles with it visiting friends from other settlements and caribou hunting with the local Inuit people. Even did a trip from Grise Fiord to Qanaq, Greenland and back.
They treat their employees like sh*t.
The story of Wop May & Vic Horner & their mercy flight to Fort Vermillion in January, 1929 is another amazing story of the early use of bush planes in Canada's north. A worthy story for THG some day.
Yup - the legendary Wop May deserves an episode all to himself ... !
Agree! And then another episode on “The Lost Patrol”.
FROM Fort Vermilion, I believe .....?
Wop May was about to be shot down by the legendary red baron in 1918. Another canadian pilot,Roy Brown, came to his rescue . Shortly after the red baron was shot down and killed most probably by australian troops. May later became a legendary bush pilot .
Great story. My Grandfather came to Canada from Yorkshire and joined the Mounties. He was posted to the NWT and took part in the hunt for the Mad Trapper. As a consequence of his postings my Mum was raised up North and on a more humorous note, several years ago when we were checking her into an old folks home, some busy body came up starting bragging about being a bush pilot. Mum was very quiet and unassuming but turned and said "Oh, I had a friend(and she did) that was a bush pilot, Wop May, maybe you knew him?" Slam dunk hard stop, and then shuffled away with her walker and a wry smile.
Wop May, the top Canadian pilot of the day………. The chorus from Stompin Tom’s song. Quite the pilot he was.
@@bobk18 May was also the last pilot the Red Baron tried (but failed) to shoot down in WW1. The baron was killed, probably by ground fire though there is some dispute about that, while pursuing May.
@@stog9821 Yes I know that, it’s all in Stompin Tom’s song. Johnson wasn’t the first person that May helped the cops track with his plane.
LOL!
@@stog9821 A. Roy Brown another Canadian ace was always given credit for shooting down the Red Barron. Even if he did not fire the rounds (which seems unlikely) it was Brown who forced the Red Barron to go down so slow to try and escape him and may have been hit by ground fire. Both May and Brown were superb air aces but did not compare to Billy Bishop who was not only a fellow Canadian but the greatest allied ace of them all with the most confirmed kills. This included 6 or 7 "kills" on the last day of the war when Bishop raided a German aerodrome single-handedly. There is a tendency for Canadian media to attack our war "heroes", and there was even a documentary at one time claiming Bishop had "padded" his score and the aerodrome attack was pure fiction. The CBC was probably very proud of its little smear campaign, until German records were found...confirming Bishop's attack. If men like Bishop and Brown say they did something, then they did it.
My 82 yo father and I learned about the Mad Trapper story in the 1980s and found it fascinating. We even watched the live exhumation with great interest years later. We just watched this video together and we actually learned something new about the pilot who was involved. We agreed that this story was well researched and presented. Thank you!
I lined a canoe up the Rat River some years back as part of a long trip that started in the Yukon and ended in Alaska. There is a log monument built and maintained by the RCMP at the site where one of them was killed. I encountered an RCMP boat patrol in the Mackenzie at the mouth of the Rat.
Pretty lonely country even now.
Sounds lovely
Would love to see some pictures.
Sounds like a great trip👍
Good on you. I was a part of the Mackenzie River Canoe race in 1970. Fort Providence to Inuvik, 1160 miles. It was a part of the 100 year celebration of the formation of the NWT. It was quite a party!
At one point, “Johnson” wore his snowshoes backwards and the Mounties tracked him in the wrong direction
Haha is that true? If so that's awesome
Nunya Dibness - that is a fact! And which part of the shoe makes the deepest impression will also tell the direction one is headed.
He back tracked several times, although it isn’t cleat if he was wearing the shoes backwards or was walking backwards.
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered - who knows what he was doing? He’s dead! But it makes for a great history lesson either way?
Ryke Haven - sometimes people just want to be left alone?
A very interesting story that I had not heard of before - despite living in Canada for a few years. Also, FYI, -40° is actually the only temperature where you do NOT have to specify which of the two common scales is used, because the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales intersect at that point.
And the pedants can't point to Kelvin.
I did not know that , thank you
I didn't know Celcius and Fahrenheit met at -40.
I believe it was made into a movie featuring Charles Bronson?
@@gregheitland4392 Death Hunt (1981)
I was maybe 11 or 12 and came across a magazine article about the mad trapper. I asked my father about it and he told me his version of the story of how they would follow along on the radio at the time and how everyone was fascinated by the broadcasts.
Was just telling a friend about Albert Johnson and his exploits leading the Mounties on a chase across the landscape. Blank stares were all I received.
Great story
Thanks for the research done on this mysterious man. Its interesting to note that Hollywood made a movie about Albert Johnson starring Lee Marvin, Andrew Stevens, Carl Weathers and Charles Bronson as Albert Johnson called "Death Hunt". An entertaining movie to say the least set in the mountains of Western Canada showcasing breath taking scenery.
One of the best movies when I was a kid. Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and Carl Weathers. Angie Dickenson too...
Death Hunt was pure fiction and painted the heroes as villains and the villain as a hero.
That is a good movie.
I knew I had heard a story like this before. Gotta see if Death Hunt is on Amazon
0351nick terrible sacrilege of a Canadian Story
@Ross Cox Tell that to a Mountie if you dare.
I _absolutely love_ when you cover *Canadian* history. 🇨🇦
My Grandfather trapped in the Canadian north. He told me a story I'll never forget. He told me one day he was checking his line he found a single human footprint, he said that was the scardest he'd ever been in his whole life and the way he said it still runs a chill up my spine.
I visited Fort McPherson about 30 years ago in the summer.
I drove up the Dempster Highway ( a must do for the scenery alone).
Ft. McPherson is in an area of rolling hills, rivers and lakes.
The trees are stunted due to the harsh, long winters
Very tiny village.
The RCMP station and the small Church next to it were the only large structures there.
In the church graveyard are the graves of 'The Lost Patrol" .
A group of inexperienced Mounties that went out on patrol and became lost and froze to death.
We purchased some gas at the gas station and I wanted to buy more film for my camera.
The young teenage girl behind the counter couldn't speak English. She only spoke the local dialect Gwitchen. A man behind me interpreted what I wanted and she happily sold me the film.
A whole different part of Canada.
👍🏼 Excellent telling of this extraordinary story! Tough guys in tough country! 🇨🇦
Well if you can't have a pirate a Bonafide flying ace is just as good
Maybe Johnson was a pirate. He got that money somehow.
Maybe an unidentified trapper, who evaded skilled Canadian Mounted Police and trappers WAS a land pirate. Arrrrrrrr
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel You should do a video on Capt. Edward York, the pilot of the B-25 during Doolittle's Raid who landed in the Soviet Union to be interned before finally being "smuggled" by the NKVD into occupied Iran. It is history that deserves to be remembered...
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel well all good stories contain corsairs.
Heck yeah!
My dad told me about the Mad Trapper at least 65 years ago. I am glad to see you cover him. My dad never knew who is father was And I just found out by DNA than I am 25% Scandinavian. Maybe my Dad was on to something. You would think in this day and age they could have figured out who this guy was.
As a northern Canadian whose partner is a Mountie, thank you for this video. Maintiens le Droit!🇨🇦
I recommended this as an episode a while back. I was pretty happy to see it on my feed this morning. The next best (probably a tie, really) story of survival is that of Hugh Glass.
That's another good story!
It does have elements of Glass ....in the end, Glass we can identify with...living to get revenge. This guy was just a maniac...
@@marklittle8805 Exactly. I've always wondered if he was on the run or just snapped toward the end. It would be interesting and maybe a little scary to know what was going on in his head.
@@timsgotissues3581 It would be a great movie done in Alfred Hitchcock style and sticking to the facts.
@@absue Hollywood always has a problem utilizing the facts in movies--- They embellish or dream up things for entertainment reasons--
A classic tale. Many books have been published about this story. I myself have been on some of the trails in this series of events.
Hopefully NOT in 40 below. 📉😵📈
Really?! Did you find the location of the cabin by chance? Is it still as remote as it was then?
VERY interesting!
That is pretty cool.
I’ve spent a lot of time doing wildlife surveys in that region, in both summer and winter. It was hard enough for me and my crew and we had helicopters for long-distance moves. Everyone involved in this event must have been true woodsmen and hard as steel. If you haven’t experienced -40 degrees in winter, as a Canadian I can say that mechanical things break, cars barely work and exposed skin freezes very fast!
Andre- we do a winter camp, 2nd week of February in Michigan...one learns to pass water as fast as possible, and hold on as long as possible. we've done -44f and that makes for a long miserable night. most of us sleep on straw on hard pack...when we sleep. lol~cheers!
I personally love when the vapour from your breath collects on your eyelashes and you blink and they fuse together. Stupid winter
@@kennethcrane9848 I'm calling bs on -44 in MI unless your talking windchill
Same. Have worked there with all the modern comforts. Huge respect for them. The mercury dips to the -40’s and stays there... and then the winds pick up!
@@fishhaggisify My experience in Fort Smith NT is that there's no wind (zero) at -40 and it is just horrid and extremely dangerous. He was up at the MacKenzie delta when the story began just after Christmas. That's just about at the Arctic Circle and the sun barely clears the horizon for an hour at midday. You'd have to be an iron man to make it.
That was a great story. Please report more about the RCMP. There must be hundreds of stories of the RCMP I have always been a fan of them. A report of the Sargent who saved Parliament a few years back. What a great shot he was all while under pressure. Thank you
As usual YOUR STORY TELLING is just amazing to listen to!!!
Any Glossier and I would think I was listening to Damon Runyan himself... :)
Didn't know about the DNA tests that were done. Love this channel. Always well researched and the presentation is second to none.
As a Canadian, I only heard about this story from a friend a few weeks ago. I’ve been doing some research into it because it’s a fascinating story, and what a pleasant surprise to see one of my favourite RUclipsr’s has a video on it!
The 1981 movie "Death Hunt" is a loose retelling of this story. Charles Bronson played Albert Johnson, and Lee Marvin played Constable Millen. Millen didn't die in the movie.
@@andyharman3022 Neither did Johnson.
@@andyharman3022 Kind of like the "Great Escape." There was no American motorcycle-jumping, baseball-tossing rebel involved in the escape.
@@joebush1663 That's right!! While it was a great scene, McQueen insisted on playing that part in the movie--- the Cooler King!!!
I grew up with stories of the Mad Trapper. Learning to walk backwards in snow shoes and survive in the bush. Thanks for covering it. Another Canadian oddity you should do is the White Otter Castle.
There is more to Albert Johnson than we know. Great to see some Canadian history.
I bet that this person was D.B. Cooper's great grand dad.
HA! ya beat me to it! That's just what I was thinking
@Ryke Haven Yup. No proof of any wrong-doing, just RCMP reports, and back then there was NO oversight, so they put whatever they wanted in their reports.
@Ryke Haven Great yarn! Have you written the script yet?
@@nozecone Movie has been made....." Death Hunt" with Charles Bronson playing the part.
@@Trimtank Ryke Haven's version is vastly superior - far more imaginative.
Thank you for covering this story, when I was a kid one of my favorite movies was Death Hunt. I later read some books on the real story and realized the truth was wilder than fiction. I remember watching the DNA thing. Out of all that you summed it up best at the end of the video. Whoever the mad trapper was he may never really be caught because even in death he is still evading the investigators.
Maybe the fiction was because the truth is so wild.
Thanks so much for this. So enjoy your channel. The name of the pilot credited with shooting down Richthofen was, as you are probably aware, Roy Brown. His own story is remarkable. I will just say that one of the more interesting aspects of the air battle was that Richthofen was protecting his cousin Wolfram, who was on his first battle sortie. "Wop" May was similarly on HIS first battle sortie, under Roy Brown's protection. Both disobeyed their orders not to join battle, but May, seeing a Fokker being poorly flown, came down from the height at which he had been commanded to fly to attack Wolfram. This resulted in Richthofen uncharacteristically breaking his usual rules of combat to chase May. Brown then broke out of the melee to pursue Richthofen. Wop May's son Denis May told me about how in 1968 (50 years after the event), he was taken to the town of Poinville in France where he met a man who, as a boy, had watched all three planes race down the main street of the town--at ground level! It is uncertain whether Brown shot down Richthofen, but if it was indeed an Australian machine-gun on the ground, Brown would not much have cared. He was (contrary to two egregiously false portrayals of him in film) a modest and conscientious commander, whose proudest claim was not shooting down others, but the fact that, as squadron commander, he never lost a man to German air action. -K. Brown, Edmonton, Canada
T hi I😢
Fascinating story!!! The latest findings in history concludes that Richthofen was indeed shot by ground fire-----
@@thomasfoss9963 Yep! an Australian Lewis gunnner (303 cal) the slug was found on the body.. there was no ally plane near the incident at the time. Richthofen broke his cardinal rule of not flying close to the ground, but the chance of an easy kill to take out the british plane pulling out of the fight overuled his caution.
@@robertcarveth8722 Not only close to the ground, but over enemy territory, both of which he had cautioned his pilots not to do.
2:30
That's the most metal name for a location I've ever heard.
I see that name and raise you. In the high Arctic there is a location called "Starvation Cove".
No points for guessing why it got that name.
@@squamish4244 How about a town in Newfoundland called "Dildo."
Lee Marvin “Death Hunt” a great movie with Charles Bronson, Carl Weathers & Angie Dickinson...
Yes sir good movie.
Art Nickel aye
Trump said great guy!!
I was thinking of that movie as I watched this video.
I grew up in the Northwest Territories, the story was in books but also in stories told to us as we grew up. The movie is trash, the RCMP were the villains attacking him with machine guns from aircraft, the trapper was an innocent man hounded by government..
The real story is better and still unbelievable.
I first read the story of the Mad Trapper 15 years ago. Glad to see it still generates interest. Nice job on this video.
What an incredible story you've shared with everyone. Very glad to have heard this one.
What a twist at the end. Good story.
Many years ago I worked for an exhibit/museum fabrication company and we were contracted to kit out the new RCMP Heritage Museum in Regina with all of their exhibits . . . one of the displays I was involved in putting together included a number of artifacts from the Mad Trapper - I do believe I handled his firearm and some of his other personal trinkets whilst installing them in their display case. The Mad Trapper is a great Canadian story that I hope will never be forgotten.
Yes I've seen that in Regina
I got to visit the museum at Regina, back in '97. If I remember right, one of the reasons they had a hard time catching him, was because he was wearing his snow shoes backwards, sending the mounties in the wrong direction. Also, the pack the trapper was wearing, was a whopping 230 lbs.! That was one hell of a tough guy!
@@skindianu That was the old museum - this thing is very new and very modern looking. He did indeed wear his snowshoes backwards - he was also able to conceal his campfires and he traveled when at unexpected times. A very interesting tale.
@@skindianuWhile he was a problem in the Canadian wilderness, that was a brilliant move by Johnson to wear his snowshoes backwards!!! The dynamite blast didn't kill him either!!! But what was his real motive? To simply harass, or push out the other trappers?
@@thomasfoss9963 from what I've read, he may have been carrying all that cash from a possible bank heist. But it's still just a guess.
Born and raised in northern Michigan. I’ve always loved the northern forests and atmosphere. I’d like to travel the northern US and Canada some day. Stories like this keep me intrigued and excited.
Thanks for another gem of an episode! You must have written this one, Lance--you were so animated, even impish, at the end that I could tell how much fun it was for you to tell this story. Keep at it--I greatly look forward to new THG episodes!
One of the best so far! Thanks so much. You are a tremendous resource of forgotten history. Our family cherishes every episode. You’ve inspired both my sons to pursue a career in history education.
Wop May needs an episode of his own.
His exploits are legendary, though you only mentioned a couple.
Found your channel last week and I am thoroughly enjoying it. You tell obscure stories in a compelling manner. Many of your topics are things I had never heard of before. I would have never stumbled on these in any other way.
Great job, keep it up.
thanks for doing this story. Mad Trapper is one of my favourite Canadian tales
An amazing story, and told well. Thank you.
Great story. I heard about The Mad Trapper in school as a child. There's an interesting photo of him dead with the look of intense hatred on him, which I was surprised The History Guy didn't use. You should do more stories about Canadian history. And yes I'm Canadian eh.
If you got shot up and someone took a photo of your corpse you might also have a " look of intense hatred" on your face.
Non of us are canadians no more sadly weve been sold out to china
The guy probably had gold diggers cabin fever and lacked a good piece of beaver .
I've heard about Albert Johnson the 'Mad Trapper' but really did not pay much attention to the details of his story.
I love this channel. The a History Guy is my favourite RUclipsr. As a Canadian, I already knew this story but always fun to watch a video on history!
Thank you, you're accuracy is spot on.
I've always been fascinated with the story of "Wop" May. In an era where pilot training was more wishful thinking than reality, he was the new kid in the squadron, instructed to only observe, and wound up in the sights of a living legend. From that day when he did not die, he went on to become a legend in his own right.
Exceptionally well done.
He was a Hero of mine since boyhood. Read the book as a Child and always thought there could be much more to this story. Fantastic job of re-telling, HISTORY. :)
How is a psychotic murderer a hero in your mind? He had, obviously, severe mental issues. That's like saying you think the Son of Sam hung the moon.
Everyone wants to be social engineer but it's not that easy and probably abused .
You did a fantastic job on this story and as always your pictures are far superior to any that I can find. Thank you.
I’m always thankful to my late father, for instilling a lifelong love of history in me. I love your channel, and I’m sure he would’ve as well!
I remember this tale being the basis of a less than stellar 1981 film, Death Hunt, starring Charles Bronson, and Lee Marvin.
The true story is so much more compelling!
I love the stories of the mad trapper, ever since I saw Bronson and co. in Death Hunt when I was a lad. In hearing the background, it is hard not to be suspect that Millan might have come across as a government goon perpetrating a "shakedown." "You need a license, you need a guide, what is your business here? I'm here to push you around for the benefit of your own safety, etc..."
It was a shakedown. The purpose of government is to hound you as long as you still have a penny in your pocket. After they've taken the last penny, they'll use you for political purposes now that you're poor. It really is a great racket.
Just like today. You need or permission.
The reason the native people asked the police to assign traplines was to stop outsiders from over trapping their land. They also had discovered that people who were not accustomed to the North often became lost or went insane, which is why they advised outsiders to hire a native guide (many people get confused about directions when the sun does not rise in the east and set in the west but seems to slide around the horizon, except in winter when it doesn't rise at all.
This was a fantastic story! Very well done, sir! I particularly enjoyed it being from the Corn Belt of the Upper MidWest and of Scandinavian extraction. -40!
I love the way you present these little tidbits of history. The cadence of your voice is very soothing.
Death hunt is one of my favorite movies.Listening to your story sent a chill up my spine.Good job!
I love the Mad Trapper! I’ve always had a big hunch that he was a WW1 vet who had shell shock (PTSD). He had fortefied his home, built trenches and was able to cover large areas of land in a short amount of time. Whoever he is the trapper is a badass and a true mountain man.
He did steal furs from someone else's trapline. And murdered someone also. Not sure I would call him a true mountain man (mountain man is an American term...not really used in Canada). I would call him a trapper though. A paranoid schizophrenic trapper.
@@shawnyt6368 There is no scientific evidence to support your assertions. All you have presented is your unsubstantiated opinion.
@@cvr527 He sprang other men's traps and tossed the traps into trees, leaving footprints all over the place so the owner of the trap line would know who did it. That seems like a strange thing to do for a mentally healthy man.
@@absue You do not have a shred of evidence to prove that,
I was intrigued by the movie as a young kid and did some research to confirm truth to it. I remember reading that he scaled an ice covered mountain in the pitch dark to escape, which dumbfounded his pursuers who said it was an absolute super human feat that he accomplished that. It does nothing but add to the mystery of this strange character. I've read stories of Alaskan nobodies that just decided to do super feats like climb Mount McKinley on a whim and in the process break new ground or some record in the process. Living in the wilderness' of North America sure will make a human tough as nails.
As a former cheechako, I agree. I loved that country but only got to spent three years there. Three wonderful years.
You always do a great job. Thanks for doing this one.
Thank you, History Guy. Your channel is a blessing. 👍🏼
I have read quite a bit about this story over the years and I think it's a tragedy all around. I'm not excusing anything he did (if, indeed, he did anything before they started hunting him down, which is not certain), but I think Johnson was just a poor soul who only wanted to be left alone. I think he suffered some sort of mental health issue(s) and knew it, so just planned on living out a solitary life away from a world he didn't fit in or understand. In 1930, you couldn't get much further from civilization than northern Canada.
That’s a stretch. He was messing with traps and hurting the jobs of other trappers. Sane enough to buy guns and shoot people and survive in attic conditions
@@kevinwells4444 I know several people who are severely mental ill and could accomplish everything he did. Being able to function or survive is really no gauge on how severely mentally ill someone is. Some of the most brilliant people are bat shit crazy!!
@@ClintonCaraway And then again some of the most un-brilliant people are also bat shit crazy....ala Donald Trump.
One could argue that it was the Police with the mental health issues or personality disorder that led to this tragedy.
@@kevinwells4444 Found a bootlicker!
As a Canadian I have to thank you for making this video... this story is well-known in BC and was recently the subject of an article in a popular game warden magazine
That was absolutely fascinating! Your flare of prose sure added to the story!
I know ive said this before...i wish you were my history teacher when i was in school....you are the the best teacher i ever had....thank you
Wow, never knew the movie Death Hunt with Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin was based (somewhat) on this story.
Loosely based, but yes, based on this story.
Yes, I thought of this movie immediately on hearing the names and the synopsis at the beginning.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Complete BS is a more accurate description. The movie made Johnson the hero and portrayed some of his pursuers as either villains or incompetent clowns. The portrayal of the Canandian flying ace was particularity insulting.
@@Paladin1873 why? most people who live off the taxes of others are clowns..and always incompetent
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Pretty loosely based for sure!
Dear History guy,
While exploring my own family history I ran into a fascinating biography of someone my family knew back during the revolutionary war.
His name was Silas Deane, and for all intents and purposes, a true American Patriot, perhaps even more so than Ben Franklin, with whom he was friends with, and shared diplomatic duties with in France.
His story is rags to riches, to patriot to loyalist, and possibly even murdered by a British double agent, who was Doctor that studied poisoning!
His story began in Wethersfield Connecticut and ends in a paupers grave somewhere in England.
If you can research this , I think you’d be quite happy in what you discover.
PS... he’s also mentioned briefly in the book John Adams.
Sincerely
Sean
Fantastic job on this story, you captured it
Thanks THG! A very well described event of Canadian history, including Wop May, that deserves to be remembered and appreciated. From a very fervent history buff and FAN of THG!
As a Canadian, the story of the Mad Trapper was a part of our remembered history in school, definitely
Man, you are a fantastic storyteller.
Thia is one of my favorite channels. Your narration reminds me of Paul Harvey, the great radio personality, who I listened to back in the day. Thanks for the video and "that's the rest of the story".
This has always been one of my favorite pieces of Canadian history.
Sounds like someone with PTSD that should have just been left alone.
These are the kinds of stories that make us love your channel !
P.S. you should look into the story of Claude Dallas . I was a kid at the time , but The Mad Trapper case was mentioned during the man hunt for Dallas . I think he was on the lam for way over a year .
I was enthralled with the Claude Dallas story in the 80s-- I was living in Flagstaff at the time, reading about the trapper in Nevada on the run!!! Amazing that he survived--
He was finally caught in 1987 at a 7-11 in California---
Once again Mr History Guy, you have thoroughly entertained me with this unique all be it strange, but interesting story. Thank you for your style of delivery as well, your showmanship is very unique & charismatic. Which is what makes your channel, vids & podcast so interesting & entertaining. Please sir, do not stop.
Your channel sir is one of the finest on RUclips and I know I’ve said before your voice sounds like the actor James Stewart but it’s also very comforting , thanks again 👍🏻
Great video about an interesting character in history, and I do love the movie that is loosely based upon this. Sure, Death Hunt took many liberties, but it still entertains.
THG, good re-telling of a favourite Canadian story. Johnson's Savage Model 99 rifle and other personal items were on display in the RCMP Training Depot museum in Regina, Saskatchewan when I was a boy 50 years ago, and may be there still. It's a story that engages a broad audience. A man possessed of estimable bush skills and surprising toughness goes 80 miles out in the far north bush and builds a tiny cabin where he wants to live modestly off the harsh land and be left alone, but some folks just couldn't let him be. If the policeman had found a bear in the cabin, it would have reacted similarly, but no one would have felt obliged to kill it for being a bear.
I just finished reading the book about The Mad Trapper and happened to just find this video! Great story!!
Incredibly interesting story that was very well told. Thank you for posting.
Sounds to me like Albert Johnson liked his privacy.
Lil bit Lol
I love how you covered the Mad Trapper, best retelling ever! They should use the familial DNA to see if they can figure out if there are any living relatives.
Thank You! Awesome episode of Canadian history!
I've read and followed this story all my life and thought I had nothing else to discover but THG did teach me one new thing I did not know; he used caribou tracks to hide his trail and avoid using snowshoes. Kudos for a great story so well told. Thanks.
I wanted to be a Mountie when I was a little kid...my mom said I couldn't.."You are a Tennessean, not a Canadian."
I feel you. I wanted to be Indiana Jones, but I wasn't Harison Ford.
I also wanted to be a mountie when i was a kid but i was a us citizen
Move to Alaska and be an AST. Closest thing we've got, and they're very similar.
@@philliphampton5183 I'm kinda old now, but thanks for the tip. :-)
I wanted to join the USMC, but I'm Canadian....
Who else has been binge watching these videos
I did a project for my 5th grade class about the Mad Trapper. I've memorized the story and have retold it over the years. Its nice to hear the story is still alive for a new generation to learn about.
Great job!
Great video, thank you so much -
and a bunch of fascinating comments!
This would have been amazing to listen to over the radio.
my grandmother and great grandmother did just that.
There was a radio program years ago that reminds me of THG's style. It was Paul Harvey's "The Rest Of The Story".
@@-jeff- I have thought that myself. Both of these great men were and are able to keep you hanging on for the next sentence, and the next, till they finally got to the conclusion. The stories were always over way too soon!
I've read most books written about Albert Johnson. Radio was just becoming a common item in the home and these events captured the audiences of both Canada and the US. Even Europe was grasping for the latest news about the hunt. One interesting fact was that the reporting was predominantly pro Albert Johnson. Sentiment at the time ran hard against the NWMP and the government. Johnson was thought of as a folk hero at the time. The populace was rooting for him.
Excellent tale.🥶
Wow what a story!! Thanks for bringing it to us. I enjoyed listening!