Short Stuff: The Mad Trapper of Rat River | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hi and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh there's Chuck Jerry's here too. sitting in for Dave and the three of us. are on the run through the Canadian. Arctic recreating the story of the Mad. Trapper and it's not going very well for. us that's right the Mad Trapper of rat. River AKA perhaps I don't even know. about perhaps almost certainly uh. Canada's most infamous. unknown uh person on the land and the.

largest man hunt in Canada's history. conducted to try and get this guy yeah. um this is a I saw it referred to as. like an iconic Canadian story um this. guy just tore s up in 1931 made. International headlines um and died. still to this day no one knows who he is. and not one of those things where like. we're pretty sure it's this guy we just. can't prove it they have no idea who.

this guy is um they're starting to kind. of chew around the edges of it but the. fact that he is still unidentified just. makes it that much more interesting but. even if you were identified Chuck his. story is still just totally fascinating. on its own yeah it's not like Summerton. man because that was the most. interesting thing about that was the. mystery of who he was it it wouldn't. care it wouldn't matter if this guy was. indeed Albert Johnson who was uh his. alias.

it's a remarkable story uh that started. in July 1931 when this guy Albert. Johnson uh came and moved there um they. think he may have come from Sweden uh. according to you know certain people who. talk to him here and there but he was a. man of very few words as we'll see uh. when he arrived in the vast remote area. of the Northwest Territories near Fort. mcferson and built a little 8x10 foot. cabin near the rat River yeah and we're. talking like the northern most parts of.

Canada like basically along the Arctic. Ocean in the 30s he yeah he was. essentially living where the guys from. the terror and the arabus that we talked. about were trying to get to when they. were like on their March down toward. Canada they they had they done this in. 1931 they might have run into Albert. Johnson he was that far up right so this. is a really really rugged wild dangerous. place to live uh and like you said.

arrived in July and a few months after. that I think uh in November or December. of. 1931 December okay December 1931 a. couple of Trappers from the First. Nations who lived up there um got in. touch with one of the local police and. said hey there's this guy his name's. Albert Johnson and he's messing with our. trap lines and he's not supposed to do. that so can you go tell him to stop. doing that and 3 Days Later a couple of. cops just knocked on Johnson's cabin. door uh assuming that they were just. going to talk to him and tell him to.

stop doing that and that would be that. right yeah I mean these are the mounties. so these guys are not messing around uh. the story is a little confusing because. everywhere you look it's a little. different but from what I gathered there. were three total visits uh one visit. when he basically said get the heck out. of here and pointed a gun at them uh a. second visit when two guys came back and. this time he supposedly refused to talk. at all and when they went to look. through his window he just covered his.

windows up and ignored them and then he. pulled down his line and went. Masher I guess four total because the. third one was when those two guys plus. two more I think it was Alfred King and. Joe Bernard and two more guys uh came. back with Warren forced the door over. and he shot King and a brief uh. firefight ensued and then finally the. fourth visit when they brought a bunch. of guys with dynamite and camped out for. three days outside his cabin yeah um. they threw Dynamite on his roof to flush.

him out and it certainly blew up the. roof as expected it also took down some. of the walls of the cabin and amazingly. Albert Johnson survived and even more. amazingly he still refused to come out. and engaged in a gunfight with this posi. that the um the mounties had assembled. to go take this guy out because like. like he shot at an officer who just. wanted to tell him to stop messing with. trap lines like shot and tried to kill. him right so this guy was already a big.

deal by this time and he managed to hold. off this posi um from taking him alive. they actually had to get out of there. because they were running low on food. and the weather was terrible this is. yeah this is December in the. northernmost reaches of Canada along the. Arctic not a time you want to be outside. apparently the temperature was at -45. and this guy's holding these guys down. in a gunfight and then they leave and 4. days later they come back and now they. find that this uh destroyed cabin is now. empty he's fled and uh a blizzard has.

covered up his tracks yeah I saw that it. was like a 60m hike just to get to his. place MH so the fact that they came back. four times when this guy probably could. have opened the door the first time and. said all right I won't mess with their. traps anymore MH and that probably would. have been the end of it but uh yeah he. he managed to um evade them on this. Manhunt by stepping in Caribou tracks. and from these storms that would come. through and maybe that's a good time for.

a break yes all right we'll be right. [Music]. [Applause]. backu you. know so um I don't think we've said said. yet this this now there's a Manhunt.

underway this guy who they want to take. in for shooting at cops um is on the run. in the Canadian wilderness and this. Manhunt lasted s weeks yeah from. December to. mid-February this guy kept evading them. they'd catch up to him he'd he'd shoot. at them they'd have a firefight uh one. time he killed a cop Constable Millan um. who uh was like a member of this posi. that was hunting down and he would.

manage to fend them off every time they. caught him in a firefight and um one of. the other interesting facts about this. Chuck is this is the first time a. aircraft was ever used in a Manhunt as. far as anyone knows that's right uh they. got a pretty legendary WW1 Canadian. fighter pilot Nam uh named Wilfred. Wilfred WAP May m uh to come in uh. little side note here uh WAP May was in. the dog fight that ended the Red Baron's. life so a very sort of famous Canadian.

fighter pilot flying above for the first. time seeing if they could seeing if he. could just spot Trails uh from above. yeah I saw a photo um that he took from. his. aircraft uh of like this hu like he was. really high up and there's a little tiny. Speck in the middle of a frozen River. and it's identified as Albert Johnson. and then there's like three more tiny. specks coming out of the Woodline. chasing after Johnson and um Wat got a. picture of it and it's just when you.

understand what you're looking at it's. just astounding what these guys were. running through over the course of seven. weeks it's nuts yeah that's amazing and. so people heard about this thanks to the. radio which was still a pretty new. invention but this story that was kind. of playing out over the news in real. time actually helped sell a bunch of new. radios because people didn't want to. miss out yeah supposedly this is one of. the really first big news stories to be. broken uh via Electronic media so you've.

got your first uh search and rescue or I. guess not search and rescue Search and. Destroy sure Mission featur featuring a. plane you've got the first uh um big. news stories breaking on radio for the. first time um one of the weird parts of. this case I said he was a man a few. words is as The Story Goes this guy. didn't say a word the whole time like. there was never like you know it's my. right to be here you know get away I'm.

just trying to live like supposedly this. guy said nothing to any of them that is. so unsettling and it is totally it's. another thing that just kind of adds to. his Legend too yeah for sure so um yeah. people by this time this was during the. Depression and um a lot of the public. that was following the story were. actually rooting for him because. remember this was a time when the the. public rooted for like bank robbers and. and other criminals and outlaws because. the The Establishment had basically.

screwed everything up and taken. advantage of every Everybody um so there. were people who were pulling for him and. even if you weren't pulling for him it. was just astounding what this guy was. doing with just some I think he had a. rifle and a shotgun he had his clothes. and he was like out maneuvering and. surviving against this um posi that was. on his Trail um and I also saw Chuck. that one of The Unsung or Overlook group. that was part of this posi were some of.

the First Nation um members who helped. track him that this this posi probably. would have lost his Trail in the first. few days had it not been for the. trackers that came with them yeah I. think the L show people were the ones. who initially filed the complaint I. didn't did you see which uh tribes uh. helped out in the search I didn't I just. saw that one of the members last name. was rat so I'm guessing he was named. after the rat River of the Rat River.

Family was yeah. exactly um so another part of the kind. of a fun fact of the story is or at. least part of the lore is that at one. point they had him pinned in a Steep. Canyon and he supposedly scaled a near. vertical wall of ice basically to get. out of there yeah so at this point. they're like this guy is not human yeah. and uh again another First Nations um. member comes through I think somebody. came back and mentioned mention that. they heard a rifle shot in this like.

totally desolate area and the the Royal. Canadian mounty posi uh were like well. they can only be Albert Johnson and they. headed that way and they found his Trail. and they started chasing him and they. engaged in one last firefight with him. and this one Albert Johnson didn't come. out of alive that's right uh they got. him finally um after this long long. Manhunt uh a very Su successful um. Evasion for a long time but yeah they. eventually at him um no one know I mean.

part of the you know the second part of. this is just the mystery like uh not. only who was he literally but like who. was this guy to move way out there to. not uh you know they supposedly back you. know closer to town even though I'm sure. that was super small as well it was like. a very friendly place and he was known. as a loner and very unfriendly which was. not the norm and like who was this guy. who just moved out to the middle of. nowhere and like didn't speak a word. this entire time mhm right yeah why why.

would he do this yeah um yeah which is. just deepens the mystery further um by. the way one other thing it was Charlie. rat who was the guy that helped the. mounties find oh ni Albert Johnson what. a name so um they had a picture of him. there's a very well I guess famous if. you're Canadian picture of his dead body. on like a a morg slab boy wouldn't mess. with the guy no he looks rough and tough. for sure he does he like you could you.

could not know his story and see that. picture of his dead body and be like. I'll bet that guy could survive in the. Canadian wilderness for seven weeks with. the cops on his Trail yeah for sure I. would would want nothing to do with this. guy so um they they took this picture. because they wanted to circulate they. everybody wanted to know who this guy. was and it made it in all the papers and. Canada and the United States and no one. came forward the details of his life and. demeanor did didn't match anything that.

anybody uh knew of I mean like people. came forward with tips but none of them. were legitimate or panned out and very. quickly this guy just became this. Anonymous weirdo who did some crazy. stuff in the winter of. 1931 yeah so like you said they exhumed. his body in. 2007 uh once uh DNA um sampling was you. know a viable thing and uh that has. enabled some genetic comparisons to. possible relatives um they obviously.

didn't you know no one has come forward. with a with like a perfect match or. anything uh but they made comparisons. with more than two dozen families and uh. they have some strong circumstantial. evidence uh that what family he may have. been from and where they have landed now. is that they're pretty sure that his. background is Swedish and uh he has been. linked to multiple descendants of a. gentleman named Gustaf Magnuson who died. in 1853 and br br.

sind uh who passed away in. 1846 and they they are pretty sure that. he's a descendant of them but nobody. from any of those Bloodlines has come. forward either no and this company. called um o aam uh a genome sequencing. company they um have figured out a few. other things about him that that he. almost certainly grew up in the. midwestern United States uh his autopsy. revealed that he had extended iive and.

expensive dental work and he had. scoliosis this guy did this for seven. weeks scaled a near vertical face Cliff. uh with scoliosis as well um he was just. amazing in in a really kind of specific. way I think one foot was bigger than the. other one too which good Lord I thought. was a very strange little uh add-on yeah. so but also if he grew up in the midwest. like the stuff he was doing there's not. many places to learn that I mean I guess.

if you're from like upper Minnesota or. something but I'm guessing comparing an. upper Minnesota winter to an Upper. Canada winters like night and day so. they contend he was never like a Swedish. resident uh they don't necessarily. contend that he could have been a. transplant from Sweden who was just. raised in like a swedish-speaking. community yeah so he could what I wonder. SW about like ice wall climbing and. stuff he could probably do that in. Sweden oh I see what you mean yeah um. apparently based on his teeth isotopes.

that he was B he was raised in or grew. up in the midwestern us yeah all right. so maybe one day we'll. know maybe I mean we found out the. Summerton man's identity right yeah but. I don't think we ever mentioned it on. the episode on the podcast did we yeah I. think we read a listener mail because we. got like 10,000 Australians writing us. okay great great well if it ever comes. out who the Mad Trapper of rat River was. everybody we want to know so we can tell. everybody else for sure yeah and in the.

meantime Chuck I think short stuff is. [Music]. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts iHeart Radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite shows. [Music].