When the Mad Trapper arrived in Lassen County he used an alias. It would not be the first or last time, and even when he died it took authorities some time to put together his identity.

On May 21, 1921, Charles Johnson was loitering about the Sierra Packing House slaughterhouse, just north of Susanville.  The next minute he was gone, and so was a saddle horse that belonged to the  packing house.  Sheriff Church enlisted the aid of Henry Baughman, a noted tracker. Three days later, when Johnson was near Hayden Hill, he had caught wind that the authorities were looking for him. He turned the horse loose and sought refuge in a cabin, but Church and Baughman found and arrested him. There would be total of three jury trials to convict him for horse stealing, the first two the jury could not reach a verdict. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but would only serve a year.

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Albert Johnson, better known as the Mad Trapper of Rat River, of Canada’s Northwestern Territorties is a compelling story.  In the bitter winter of 1931-32 Johnson eluded the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for forty-eight days in a running battle that ranged over 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in temperatures that averaged forty below zero. He was finally killed in shot out on February 17, 1932 on the Eagle River, Yukon Territory.

So, dear reader, you are probably wondering why I am writing about an incident in Canada. Before Johnson became known as the Mad Trapper, he had a little foray in Lassen County before moving north. That incident we will examine tomorrow.

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