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MAD TRAPPER IS KILLED BY POLICE POSSEAklavik, N.W.T. Albert Johnson finally came to the end of his bliz-zardv trail. The wild man of the Arctic went down fighting, but Canada's red-coated Royal Canadian M tinted Police won out.Battling cold, hunger blizzards and overwhelming odds, the ecoentr ic trapper defied the police for eight solid weeks, now running through the bleak hills of the Arctic, now standing at bay and shooting down his pursuers if they came within tange of. his deadlv rifle.IWhen his fate overtook him. John-I son was perpetrating one of the . foxy, trail-muddling tricks with which I he has managed to keep out of lange I of the police and trapper pursuers.. He was doubling back on his trail.I This time, however, his pursuers were too close.; He was seen by Staff Serg* ant E.: F. Hersey, and a trapper named Noel Verville. plugging along in advance of the main posse. Hunter and hunt-lt; ed at once prepared for a gun battle.: Hersey and Verville jerked then lifles f fr 111 their toboggan.1 The wild man drew first blood. As ! Hersey knelt to take aim a bullet from Johnson's rifle stiuck him in the f knee, glanced up through hs thigh and another enterd his chest, \erville ’ continued hung.Only a few shots had 1 e* n ex-changed when the main polite party, hearing the firing, ran up. They opened tire at once and the desperado went down under a hail of lead from ,. half a dozen rifles.While the battle raged on the , gr und. Pilot W. P.. ' Wop Maycircled overhead in his 'plane He t had bombs ready to drop on the ' i ap-1 per but could not use them as the r posse was too close.1 As soon as Johnson was killed, May- landed, picked up the wounded Iler-- sey and flew balt; k to Aklavik.e In all the long years of police e work in Canada's Arctic no other man 1 has proved as tough a customer as s Johnson. The police casualty list now stands at one dead, two wounded. Every policeman in the district, members of the Royal Canadian Signals Corps who operated the radio station here, trapperss and Indians were pressed into service in the chase. They gave their services gladly, knowing the country was safe for r.o man while Johnson was still atn„ large.The straight-, hooting hermit car-j ries with him to hi - death the sec ret of his strange behaviour. .Since he first appeared in the Rat River country not far from where the* mighty Mackenzie River empties its waters into the frozen mass of the Arctic Ocean he has shunned ail human contact.Making his home in a little cabin or. the side of a hill, Johnson started trapping. As men passed by on the Ion fly Arctic trails they occ-asi nally called on him, for the Arctic wanderer likes to see a fellcw -n.an on« e :n a while. But Johnson received them coolly. He -lammed his door in their faces, and seemed to hate the -ight of Aher men. A sturdily-built man of medium height, the hermit appeared to be about 40 year- of age. He spoke w.th a slight Scandinavian accent. and always appeared well-.supplied with money for the purchase of ammunition and supplies.The most that he ever told anyone about himself was that he had walked into the country from the :t Yukon.c Thus he lived his solitary life. For ■ ) in the Arctic men mind their owni- business and when they learned John-• ...that one appl Gen air v ’•Ifor lt;plica saill gent bui tion • i s F gest TnnotduritalklCHIVleadCanbefiforof •by 1 X was acci C. \ ask J. J (il bail A ist r 000 .\pairYoiwawhtwoiatteledepUsBetandratiwitI iIer s bee !ai fro rna tun ingCO!*T1CoiMashiingpOSrattruopithihtzcovcarprrarefari*rotferCakn*meruithfPawhyeaoldedhii
Newspaper Details
MacGregor Herald
MacGregor, Manitoba, CA
Thu, Feb 25, 1932
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA 15 Aug 2016
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