The Mad Trapper's History of "Violence"

The Carter Report let us know the truth about what happened. But it doesn't tell us why. That information we got from the Ben Larson article. It tells us who the Mad Trapper was and what kind of a person he was. We now know he was a war veteran and a war hero. But he must have been a bad person, right? Well, we finally know what kind of trouble he got to in his past. It turns out, it's just as predicted in the book Webhunt: The Search For The Mad Trapper Online.

So what was the big "criminal identity" of the Mad Trapper? What was so bad about him and what did he do in his "criminal career" that was so bad it justified the six week manhunt? What was the reason for his silence in the face of police pursuit and swatting? What was he hiding?

Was he honoring a Mafia Code of Silence? Was he a Hitman for the Mob? Was he a Prohibition Gangster? Was he running away from a hit—maybe the hit on reporter Jake Lingle? Was he really "reading about himself in the news" like witnesses said, when the Jake Lingle hit in Chicago was front page news?

No. It was none of that. So what did he do? Well, he stole a bag of oats and a quarter of a moose from some Doukhobors. (Those are Russian dissenters who came to Saskatchewan around the turn of the century.) Then he shot at their feet when they came looking for their stuff.

That's it. Then he was unable to leave the Territory as planned when he couldn't make it up the Rat River and had to winter there. That's it.

Oh yeah, He also didn't uphold the unwritten rule of Artic hospitality. You have to let everyone come in for tea and biscuits, including the police, especially on Boxing Day and New Years Eve. PTSD from the Great War not withstanding. Obviously not. Can anyone say Rambo?