March 22, 2019 ▸ History, People, True Crime

Episode 375: Mad Trapper of Rat River: Putting the Man in Manhunt!

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we take off to the great white north and discuss one of the most notorious manhunts in Canada’s history—the story of the Mad Trapper of Rat River. It is a story of fur trapping gone wrong, miraculous feats of manliness, dog sleds, gun fights, and dynamite. In 1932, this mystery man led the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a lot of native Americans on a month and a half long chase over 150 miles of the most wild tundra the Yukon has to offer.

In 1931, a man calling himself Albert Johnson showed up in the small town of Fort McPherson. He was muscular, quiet, had a Scandinavian accent, and spread around a lot of cash. Also, he didn’t ever get a trapper’s license, which was odd since the only way to survive where he ended up building a cabin was to trap wild game. A few months after his arrival, members of a local tribe noticed their traps were being set off and put in trees, and they blamed the only new person in the region, Albert Johnson.

On New Year’s eve, two Mounties made it to his remote cabin, and he refused to speak to them, forcing them to make the incredibly long trip back. They returned a week later with a few more men and a search warrant, and The Mad Trapper fired at them through the door, hitting one officer and forcing a retreat. Well, this lead to the Mounties coming back with 9 men and lots of dynamite, and they just sort of blew up the joint. The cabin became a smoldering wreck, but The Mad Trapper was still alive inside of it and held them at bay for a 15 hour gunfight in a -40 degree blizzard!

The men retreated again and came back after the storm had passed only to find The Mad Trapper had vanished into the Yukon. But these are Mounties, damnit it, so they followed. Weeks passed, and they couldn’t catch The Mad Trapper. He was seemingly supernatural, making twice the miles per day that the Mounties did with their dogsleds. Eventually, they called in the only guy as awesome as the Mad Trapper, a Canadian hero named Wop May.

Wop spotted tracks in the snow that lead to them cornering the Trapper. But this was after he scaled a 7000 foot mountain with no climbing gear in a blizzard, somehow survived for weeks without shooting any game or lighting any fires, ultimately out Mountied the Mounties.

So, how did this guy pull it off? What made Wop such a folk hero in Canada? Who do they think the Mad Trapper of Rat River really was? What did they learn when they exhumed his body in 2007? How many times did they have to shoot him to kill him? How many Mounties did he shoot and kill? Listen, laugh, learn.