Tag Archives: History

LAST WEEK’S REAL GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL

A31The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is the most famous event of the American Old West. That 1881 showdown between lawmen and outlaws is re-enacted each week, pleasing thousands of people. It’s a major tourist attraction in the desert town of Tombstone, Arizona. But something in the show went terribly wrong last week when one of the performers used live rounds instead of blank cartridges, sending another actor to hospital with a nasty gunshot wound and an aghast audience scurrying for cover.

I was surfing the net when a headline popped up: “Actor Shot in Old West Gunfight Re-Enactment”.

WTF? How the hell did that happen? I clicked the link. Here’s the article:

A3TOMBSTONE, Ariz. 19Oct2015 — An actor staging a historical gunfight in the Old West town of Tombstone was shot with a live round during a show that was supposed to use blanks, leading officials to call for the re-enactments popular with tourists to be put on hold.

The shooting happened Sunday afternoon during Helldorado Days as two performers from the Tombstone Vigilantes group re-enacted a gunfight in the 19th-century mining town made famous by Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the O.K. Corral. A bystander also was hurt but declined medical treatment.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOne of the actor’s guns fired live rounds, hitting a fellow member of the group, the Tombstone Marshals Office said. Ken Curtis fell to the ground and was flown to a hospital in Tucson, where he underwent surgery to remove the bullet. Curtis was listed in good condition Monday at Banner-University Medical Center in Tucson, hospital spokeswoman Elyse Palm said. She declined to give further details about his injuries.

At least two bullets struck nearby businesses, hurting a bystander, the Tombstone Marshals Office said Sunday. The woman was not seriously injured, Marshal’s dispatcher Dee Jackson said Monday.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAuthorities inspected the weapon fired by fellow actor Tom Carter and found one live round and five casings. “That indicated his gun was filled with live rounds prior to the skit,” the Marshal said. Tombstone authorities called the shooting unprecedented. The Marshals office says Mayor Dusty Escapule advised the Tombstone Vigilante group to suspend gunfight skits as the investigation plays out.

“Tombstone takes pride in the safety and security of its townspeople and tourists alike, and the citizens of Tombstone can be assured that stringent safety protocol will be enforced prior to allowing any further gunfight skits,” the Marshal said in a statement.

A9Tombstone, about three hours southeast of Phoenix, was once a bustling mining town in the 1800s that now has about 1,500 residents and mostly caters to visitors who come to see gunfight re-enactments and historical sites. The Tombstone Vigilantes were formed in 1946 and are dedicated to preserving and passing along Tombstone’s history to tourists who visit the town near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Whoa. Now there’s something you don’t read every day. I bookmarked the page. Hmm… Good stuff for DyingWords followers. They’ll wanna know more. Better get on this, but first I gotta find some history about the original gunfight.

Tombstone got its name appropriately. It really was the epitome of the lawless Wild West where everyone packed a gun—a good time and place to be in the undertaking business, as the Boot Hill cemetery proved.

Town of Tombstone, Arizona circa. 1880

Town of Tombstone, Arizona circa. 1880

There was a long-simmering feud between outlaw cowboys—Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and opposing lawmen—Town Marshal Virgil Earp, Assistant Town Marshal Morgan Earp, and temporary Deputy Marshals Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

A12It came to a head at 3:00 p.m. on October 26, 1881, in a Tombstone alley near the O.K. Corral when about thirty shots were fired in thirty seconds. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Ike Clanton, who’d repeatedly threatened to kill the Earps, claimed he was unarmed and ran from the fight along with Billy Claiborne. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday were wounded. Wyatt Earp was unharmed.

Ike Clanton later filed murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday, but the lawmen were exonerated by a grand jury.

The O.K. Corral gunfight represents a romantic period in the American Old West when the frontier was an open range for outlaws—largely unopposed by lawmen who were spread thin and out-numbered.

A17No wonder the re-enactment’s so popular. I Googled some more. Who are these Tombstone Vigilantes that are so dedicated in re-creating the gunfights year after year? And how’d they get themselves into this pickle?

I found their website at http://www.tombstonevigilantes.com/. The Vigilantes have been around a long time. They’re a well-organized, highly-professional theater group. There are over forty volunteer members dedicated to preserving the fascinating heritage of Tombstone and they do more than entertain tourists with a play gunfight. The group hosts an annual toy drive, an Easter egg hunt, raise funds for the small animal shelter, donate to the food bank, and assist with the seniors meals-on-wheels program.

A23

Seem like a right nice buncha folk. Certainly didn’t need this mess happening to them. I picked up the phone. I’ll call and see how they’re making out.

A25I talked with Tombstone Vigilantes Chief, Jeff Miller — Very pleasant man who was deeply concerned about the damage his organization’s reputation suffered. Understandably, he declined to comment on the cause of the incident and he told me the investigation is currently waiting for a Marshal’s report to the Cochise County District Attorney.

Chief Miller reminded me his group had an impeccable safety record in sixty-nine years of operation, although he conceded this was the first time they’d used live rounds in the show. And the Chief said the wounded man’s gunshot strike was in the “lower abdomen area” and was recovering “best as could be expected”.

A20I thanked the Chief for his time and then read some more internet reports. Seems actor Tom Carter was running late for the show. He forgot to unload the live ammunition from one of his six-shooters and failed to replace his revolver’s live rounds with blanks before taking the stage. One of Tom’s bullets got Ken Curtis in the nuts.

Well. Not so bad… Not like Ken’s a young feller with a family ahead of him. Mistakes happen. Like Chief Miller said, “Don’t overlook the impeccable safety record, till now. That’s what gets lost in all this.” He’s right. I’m sure the Vigilantes will grow from the incident and the show will go on.

And there’s more to the Tombstone Vigilantes show than just the gunfights.

A34One of the crowd pleasers is a mock hanging where they grab an unsuspecting victim from the crowd and put a lynch-noose around their neck. For ten bucks, the terrified tourist gets released with a framed souvenir photo that they can hang on their wall.

It’s all in good fun.

But I hope the Vigilantes are a bit more careful with their ropes than they were with their ammo.

A33

THE REAL JACK THE RIPPER

AA11Who was the real Jack The Ripper? The man who terrorized London in the fall of 1888 by butchering at least five prostitutes is the world’s most famous serial killer who’s never been caught.  What did the original investigation tell us about him and what has modern forensics learned about his true identity? 

The name originates from a letter sent to police by someone claiming to be the murderer and it was signed ‘Jack The Ripper’. Like so much in the Ripper case, it’s difficult to sort fact from fiction as evidence has been lost over time and many ‘facts’ are actually opinions by writers from the past century.

AA12Jack The Ripper has remained in the public’s fascination thanks to the mass of publicity that the murders originally received in the press. It was at a time of immense social change and the public were becoming more literate. As well, technology had advanced and allowed the immediate flow of information to the world. Readers followed the case daily as the cat and mouse game between the police and the Ripper appeared to play out in the newspapers. The mysteries surrounding this killer add to the romance of the story and create an intellectual puzzle that people still want to solve.

Interestingly, the series of murders stopped as abruptly as they started. Over the years, hundreds of books have been written about the Ripper and dozens of suspects have been named. No one was ever charged, however strong accusations are now made as the result of applying modern forensic techniques to hundred year old evidence.

First let’s look at the crimes. 

AA5It’s not clear how many women Jack The Ripper killed. Five for sure. Probably six. And possibly up to eleven murders that occurred in the Whitechapel area of London over a several year period. The nexus (connection) to the core group, known as the Canonical Five, comes from the killer’s unique MO (modus operandi) and the proximity in area and time in which the bodies were found. The victims were:

  1. Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols – murdered 31 August 1888.

  2. Annie Chapman – murdered 08 September 1888.

  3. Elizabeth Stride – murdered 30 September 1888.

  4. Catherine Eddowes – murdered 30 September 1888.

  5. Mary Jane Kelly – murdered 09 November 1888.

AA10All of the victims were killed in the dark and in isolated locations. Pathology confirmed they were first strangled to unconsciousness, then finished off with lacerated throats. The degree of mutilation varied. One only had her throat slit (it may be that the killer was interrupted and scared off) while the others were extremely mutilated with organs removed. There was no evidence of recent sexual activity indicating, as with most serial killings, violence was the key element.

There’s been much speculation that the killer had advanced medical knowledge and used precision instruments in his work. This is not the case when analyzed objectively. The original autopsy reports are publically available, all confirming that the incisions and organ extractions could be done by anyone with reasonable strength using a large butcher knife in a rage.

There were an unconfirmed number of taunting letters received by the police and the press from different people, with different handwriting, claiming to be the killer.

AA13The first was on September 25th and was signed ‘Jack The Ripper’. None of the letters are believed to be from the killer and none contained what would be ‘hold-back’ information, known only to the police and the actual killer. It’s certain that most were from media people fueling newspaper sales and some came from quacks.

The investigation was principly handled by the City of London police with Scotland Yard assisting. Hundreds of leads were followed and forensic techniques of the day were applied, mostly sketches and photographs. This was long before DNA science and even proper fingerprinting, so there’s no actual evidence or signature available to identify the perpetrator. Unfortunately, most of the investigation files and physical exhibits were destroyed during the Blitz in World War Two.

Three men were primarily identified as suspects.

AA15M.J. Druitt was a troubled barrister turned teacher who committed suicide a month after the last murder. Aaron Kosminiski was a Polish Jew who was locked in an asylum shortly after the murders and died in 1919. Michael Ostrog was the third police suspect, but the evidence against him was non-existent except that he was a demented con-man.

Many conspiracy theories popped up over the decades blaming the Freemasons, Irish extremists trying to terrorize the British, occultists, and even the grandson of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Victor. A visit to Wikipedia finds a list of twenty-eight documented suspects – some quite a stretch.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper_suspects

In 1988 the FBI did a psychological profile on Jack The Ripper, describing him pretty much as a white male with mommy issues. It’s an interesting read and can be downloaded here:  https://vault.fbi.gov/Jack%20the%20Ripper/Jack%20the%20Ripper%20Part%201%20of%201/view

AA4Recently, two books were published that profess to conclusively solve the Ripper mystery. One was by famed crime novelist Patricia Cornwell titled Portrait of a Killer – Jack The Ripper – Cased Closed. She identifies a tormented artist named Walter Sickert who undoubtedly penned a few of the Ripper letters and she makes a case at forensically proving his authorship. But she comes a long way from providing any link to his hands-on being the Killer and I’m surprised she stuck her neck out, given her prominence as a crime writer.

The second book is titled Naming Jack The Ripper. It’s by Russell Edwards who claims that he privately funded a research project which identified DNA linked to Aaron Kosiminski on a shawl associated to victim Catherine Eddowes. This molecular identification is seriously questioned by DNA experts, including the discoverer of the technique, Sir Francis Crick.

AA3And at this writing, August 2015, another forensic venture is underway in an attempt to solve the Ripper mystery. Dr. Wynne Weston-Davies claims in his new book The Real Mary Kelly that Jack The Ripper was actually Kelly’s husband who staged the first four murders in a set-up to hide his fiendish plan to kill his prostitute wife, making it look like a serial killer was at work. Weston-Davies has applied to the British Ministry of Justice for an exhumation order to dig up Mary Kelly for a DNA sample to support his belief that he’s Mary Kelly’s great, great nephew. How all that ties together, I’m not sure.

So who, really, was Jack The Ripper?

He remains a bogey-man from the shadows and it’s unlikely we’ll ever know his identity.

WHO WAS THE MAD TRAPPER OF RAT RIVER?

AA3Albert Johnson, known as the Mad Trapper of Rat River, was a murderer and a fugitive from the largest manhunt in the history of Canada, leading a posse of Mounties through the Arctic on a six week, winter wilderness chase in 1932. He killed one Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and wounded two others before dying from police bullets in a firefight on a frozen river. Today, the Mad Trapper tale is symbolic of the North American frontier. He is an icon. A legend. But was he really Albert Johnson? Find out what modern forensic science tells us.

AA14The story began on July 9th, 1931, in the Northwest Territories when a stranger arrived in Fort McPherson. Constable Edgar Millen of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police routinely questioned the newcomer who identified himself as ‘Albert Johnson’ but provided no other personal information. Millen satisfied his responsibility to ensure Johnson was equipped for survival in a frontier land with sufficient money and supplies but thought it odd that Johnson declined to buy a trapping license. He noted Johnson was slight of stature, clean in appearance, and spoke with a Scandinavian accent.

Albert Johnson ventured far into the McKenzie Delta and built a small, log cabin on the banks of the Rat River where he reclused. Come the winter, local natives found their traps being raided and concluded the only suspect was Albert Johnson. They complained to the RCMP in Aklavik, causing two Mounties to dog-sled 60 miles through waist-deep snow, arriving at Johnson’s cabin on December 26th, 1931. Johnson was there but refused to speak, forcing the police to return to Aklavik and get a search warrant.

On December 31st four Mounties returned to Rat River. As they attempted to force into Albert Johnson’s shack, he shot at them with a 30-30 Savage rifle, seriously wounding a constable. The police retreated to form a larger posse.

AA1They came back with nine, heavily-armed men, forty-two dogs, and twenty pounds of dynamite. Johnson again opened fire, causing the police to hurl in explosives which blew the cabin apart. Rather than himself also being in pieces, Johnson emerged from a foxhole under the cabin and blasted back with his rifle. A 14-hour standoff, in -40F temperatures, took place until the posse backed-off to Aklavik for more help.

A severe blizzard delayed the return, but on January 14th, 1932, a huge squad of police and civilians arrived to find Albert Johnson long gone. The pursuers caught up with Johnson two weeks later far up the Rat River where Johnson opened fire from a thicket of trees on the bank and shot Constable Edgar Millen dead. Again the police retreated.

AA11By now the news of the manhunt had reached the outer world through an emerging medium called radio. Listeners all over Canada, the United States, and the world, were fixed to their sets to hear the latest on the cat and mouse game between a lone, deranged bushman and the might of the famed Canadian Mounties who ‘always got their man’. It was like the OJ Simpson case of the time.

The ‘Arctic Circle War’ represented the end of one era and the beginning of another as the police turned to technology to capture Albert Johnson. They embedded radio into another new tactic – the airplane. World War One flying ace W.R. ‘Wop’ May and his Bellanca monoplane were hired to find Johnson from the air and radio his position to the dogsled and snowshoe team on the ground.

On February 14, May spotted Johnson on the Eagle River in the Yukon Territory, confirming Johnson had traveled an incredible 150 miles, crossing a 7,000-foot mountain pass in white-out conditions, in temperatures with windchill hitting 60 below Fahrenheit. He’d eluded his trackers by wearing snowshoes backward and mingling with migrating caribou herds.

AA7The police overtook Johnson on a river bend on February 17th, 1932. It ended in a mass of bullets leaving another Mountie seriously wounded and Albert Johnson, the Mad Trapper of Rat River, dead on the snow.

They sledded Johnson’s body back to Aklavik where it was examined, fingerprinted, and photographed. Remarkably, dental examination showed sophisticated, gold bridgework which indicated this man, age estimated at 35 – 40, came from an affluent background. In his effects was $2,410 in Canadian money (worth $34,000 today) but absolutely no documents on his identification. An extensive investigation ensued to find his true identity. His death photos and description were circulated word wide, causing some leads to come in, but nothing definite. No one came forward to claim the body and ‘Albert Johnson’ was buried in a perma-frost grave near the village of Aklavik.

Here are the GPS coordinates for significant Mad Trapper locations.

These latitudes and longitudes can be plugged into iTouch Maps for satellite viewing. https://itouchmap.com/latlong.html

  1. Cemetery / Gravesite at Aklavik:   +68.222979N   -135.010579W
  2. Trapper’s Cabin on Rat River:  +67.713444N  –135.127873W
  3. Settlement of Fort McPherson:  +67.436700N  -134.88100W
  4. Richardson Mountain Pass:  +67.278236N  -136.122161W
  5. Eagle River Death Scene:  +67.165926N  -137.172716W

AA12The Mad Trapper case was of enormous public interest, many sympathizing how a loner – almost super-human – could endure the environment, living off the land for forty-eight days and outwitting some of the most bush-wise and toughest people of the time. As with the mystery of Albert Johnson’s identity, so was the question of his motive.

Over the years, a number possible identities were offered for who ‘Albert Johnson’ really was.

AA8The most widely accepted theory was Arthur Nelson, a prospector who was known to be in British Columbia from 1927 to 1931 and had left for the Arctic. Photos of Nelson appeared to be a dead-ringer for ‘Albert Johnson’ and descriptions of Nelson’s effects (rifle, pack, and clothing) were identical to those recovered from Johnson.

Another promising lead was a man known as John Johnson, a Norwegian bank robber who’d done time in Folsom Prison. Again, the physical description was similar and the Scandinavian accent noted by Constable Millen seemed to fit.

The Johnson family of Nova Scotia identified the Mad Trapper as their lost relative, Owen Albert Johnson, who was last heard of in British Columbia in the late 1920’s. Again all the pieces fit – physical appearance, personal effects, and disposition.

AA6Sigvald Pedersen Haaskjold was suggested as being the real ‘Albert Johnson’. Haaskjold, who was last seen in northern British Columbia in 1927, was a recluse who was paranoid of authorities because he’d evaded conscription in the First World War. He’d built a fortress-like cabin near Prince Rupert before disappearing. Once more the looks, age, accent, and mentality fit the Trapper’s profile.

As with advances in 1930’s technology like the radio and the airplane which tracked ‘Albert Johnson’ down, forensic technology in the twenty-first century came into play for a once-and-for-all attempt at solving the mystery of who the Mad Trapper of Rat River really was.

AA10In 2007, seventy-five years after his death, ‘Albert Johnson’ was exhumed for another look. As part of a Discovery Channel documentary, a team of eminent scientists including forensic odontologist and DNA extraction expert Dr. David Sweet, forensic pathologist Dr. Sam Andrews, and forensic anthropologist Dr. Owen Beattie, examined the skeletonized remains.

This forensic story is every bit as exciting as the hunt for the Trapper himself.

It took a pile of wrangling to get legal approval for exhumation, then obtain the consent of native peoples who laid claim to the land in which the Trapper was interred. Due to permafrost, there was only a slight window of time when the archeological dig could be made. And the exact location of the grave was in doubt.

AA9Perseverance came down to the last available day when the team and film crew zeroed-in on a shallow grave with a rotten, wooden casket. Using archeological skill and precision, the forensic scientists carefully detached the lid and exposed a perfectly preserved male skeleton. There were no longer traces of flesh or fabric, but what gleamed in their faces was gold bridgework from a sneering skull. Dr. Sweet used dental records made in 1932 to positively identify the ghostly remains as that of the Mad Trapper.

The team cataloged the bones, making three interesting observations. One was a deformity in the spine which led to questions as to how the man could have performed the physical feats described in legend. Second was that one foot was considerably longer than the other, again questioning his mobility. And third was the entry and exit marks of a bullet path through the pelvis which was consistent to the reported fatal wound.

AA13The team had the right remains but were no further ahead in determining identity. Dr. Sweet sectioned the Trapper’s right femur and extracted bone marrow samples as well as pulling four teeth for DNA examination. The remains were replaced in a new casket and re-interred in the original grave.

Back at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Sweet and his colleagues developed a perfect DNA profile of the Trapper. Extensive field investigation located relatives of the primary suspects – Arthur Nelson, John Johnson, Owen Albert Johnson, and Sigvald Pedersen Haaskjold. Descendant DNA profiles were developed for these men and compared to the known biological signature of the Trapper.

And guess who’s DNA matched?

AA4No one’s.

All four suspects were conclusively eliminated by modern forensic technology as being the Mad Trapper – as were a number of other remote possibilities. One sidenote is that oxygen isotopes developed from the teeth enamel indicated that the Trapper originated from either the mid-western United States or from Scandinavia.

So who really was Albert Johnson, the Mad Trapper of Rat River?

The mystery of who lies in the Aklavik grave remains unsolved.

*   *   *

Here are links to the fascinating made-for-television documentary on the forensic exhumation of the Mad Trapper’s skeleton.

http://www.mythmerchantfilms.com/index.php/mnu-library/mnu-lib-madtrapper

https://vimeo.com/channels/vidalbdoc/65414821

And author Barbara Smith wrote The Mad Trapper – Unearthing a Mystery which documents the forensic adventure.  Click Here