On this day in 1915, a 16-year-old North Dakota boy from Williams County was on the run from the law for a bank holdup. Also on this day, seventeen years later, a thirty-something year-old man dubbed the Mad Trapper of Rat River was leading the Royal Canadian Mounted Police through a frigid wilderness on one of the longest and most arduous manhunts in Canadian history. Decades later, some investigators have reached the conclusion the two fugitives were one and the same person.

Johan Jonsen was born in Norway in 1898 and immigrated to the U.S. with his family at age six. The Jonsens settled on a 320-acre homestead in northwestern North Dakota, not far from the Montana line. Johnny Johnson, as he became known, attended school, learned English, and worked long hard hours on the farm, growing into a strong young man.

Like any young North Dakotan of that time and place, Johnny was good with horses and could shoot a rattlesnake or rabbit with deadly accuracy. Guns were a part of life, as was killing of animals for food, and trapping of animals for furs. These were means of supplementing the family’s meager income derived from farming and breaking horses.

But Johnny took a wrong turn when he began spending time with Bert Delker, a neighbor who dealt in cattle and horses, and didn’t always come by them honestly. In fact, Delker had done time in the Montana State Pen for horse rustling. He also may have been a member of the infamous Wild Bunch under the leadership of Butch Cassidy.

In February 1915, under Delker’s tutelage, Johnny and his older brother Magnor made plans to supplement their income by robbing a bank. First though, Delker and Magnor thought a test of the 16-year-old’s nerves was in order. He passed the test and acquired some additional handguns and ammunition by holding up a hardware store in Bainville, Montana. Thus began a life of running from the law and frequently changing identities.

On February 11th, the two brothers rode into Medicine Lake, Montana, chatted with the bankers (whom they knew personally), pointed four revolvers at them. They cocked them to convince the victims it wasn’t a joke and rode out of town with $2,800 in their saddlebags. A posse set out after them, and a phone call to the next town resulted in a second posse riding out to meet them. There was little chance of escape. A shootout ensued, and Magnor was shot and arrested. But, Johnny managed to avoid capture.

He made his way to Wyoming and some months later landed in jail for stealing horses. Although he entered jail under a different name, they found out who he was, and when his term was finished in Wyoming, he was shipped to Montana to stand trial – and then joined his brother in the penitentiary at Deer Lodge.

The brothers were release from prison in 1918. Magnor joined the army, and Johnny returned to the farm to help his struggling parents. He stayed for awhile but then headed for the west coast. Soon he was in Folsom Prison in California for…you guessed it…stealing a horse. He was released in 1922 and was not seen again…in the U.S.

Historians and investigators have since meticulously pieced together the story of a so-called Mad Trapper, also known as Albert Johnson. His earliest known presence in Canada was in British Columbia in the mid-1920s under the name Arthur Nelson. The timing, physical descriptions, demeanor, and other evidence point to Johnny Johnson, Arthur Nelson, and Albert Johnson all being the same person.

Tune in tomorrow to learn more about the Mad Trapper of Rat River and how the Mounties finally “got their man.”

Sources:
North, Dick. The Mad Trapper of Rat River: A True Story of Canada’s Biggest Manhunt Guilford, Connecticut: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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