Transcript
Ryan Seacrest (0:00)
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Chris Wimmer (0:30)
Being a marketer is no sweat. You just have to manage dozens of channels, launch hundreds of campaigns, score thousands of leads and okay, fine, it's a lot of sweat unless you have HubSpot's AI powered marketing tools to help you do all that and more. Get started@HubSpot.com marketers warning this episode contains moments of graphic violence that some may find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised. Over the years, few legends of the American west have been requested as many times as the story of Jeremiah Johnson, a man who in truth never existed. The movie Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford and directed by Sidney Pollock, is adapted from the novel Mountain Man, a novel of male and female in the early American west by Vardas Fisher. His novel was in turn inspired by the account of John Johnson's life penned by Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker titled Crow Killer. Presented as a non fiction biography of John Johnson, Crow Killer is closer to what we would now call historical fiction. It began with Raymond Thorp, whose primary sources were a 90 year old trapper known as White Eye Anderson and a Wild west showman named Doc Carver. Carver, a one time partner and lifelong rival of Buffalo Bill Cody, persuaded Thorpe to write his own largely fictionalized biography and connected Thorpe to Whitey Anderson. The old trapper claimed to have heard stories of Johnson from Johnson's partner Del Gu, but the historical record reveals no trace of a Del Gu in the American west during that time. That isn't conclusive proof that he didn't exist. Lots of people changed their names when they went west, but it's impossible to know who the man really was. And when it's added to Anderson's other claims, it becomes more dubious. Beyond the Crow Killer book, the only other mention of Del Gu appears in White Eye, Anderson's own book. In that book, Anderson claimed to have heard the shot that killed Wild Bill Hickok, helped bury him, and was with Johnson at the side of Texas Jack Omahundro when Texas Jack died in Leadville, Colorado. There's no historical evidence to support any of those claims, so all of White Eye Anderson's accounts have to be taken with a healthy measure of salt. But after meeting Carver and Anderson and hearing their stories, Raymond Thorpe wrote a rough draft of Johnson's story. He sent the draft and his extensive notes to Bunker, but Thorpe and Bunker never met and they never talked about the book. Bunker ignored Thorpe's draft and notes and wrote his own version of the story, which became the final book. In the introduction to the modern edition of Crow Killer, historian Nathan Bender at the Buffalo Bill Cody center of the west in Cody, Wyoming, notes that the authors, quote, intentionally created a mythic American saga under the guise of passing on legitimate oral traditions of a historical frontiersman. It's a fancy way of saying, more than likely, very little of the original Crow Killer book is true. It's closer to what we would call a collection of campfire stories today to unravel the mystery of the man most people know as Jeremiah Johnson. We're going to have fun with this two part series. The next episode will present the true story, to the extent that it's known, of the man who was probably born John Johnston. But first, this episode will present the legend of the Crow Killer. Liver Eating Johnson, known as John Johnson in his own time and often called Jeremiah Johnson today. Virtually none of the legend can be supported by any kind of historical documentation, and much of it was later disputed by the hero of the story. But it is entertaining. From Black Barrel Media, this is an American frontier series on legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're beginning regular stories of the earliest days of American expansion across the continent. In this series, we'll focus on the lives and legends of mountain men, Jedediah Smith, Hugh Glass and Jeremiah Johnson. This is episode five, Jeremiah Myth and Legend. In the legend, the man most people call Jeremiah Johnson today was known as John Johnson. He didn't eat liver because he was hungry. He didn't murder members of the Crow Nation, scalp them and expertly cut out their livers with his bowie knife and then eat them raw in order to survive. He did it on principle. He did it for revenge. The Crow had killed his wife, a beautiful woman called the Swan from the Flathead tribe. Johnson had been away from home, trapping beaver on the Yellowstone River. When he returned, he found his cabin cold, his wife dead on the floor, and signs that she had been carrying his unborn child. That day, Johnson swore a blood oath he would kill as many Crow as he could, wherever he could find them. The Crow didn't know Johnson's name when they committed the violent act that set him on his righteous path. But they soon called him by a name that translated to Crow Killer. Later they learned he removed the livers of the Crow men he killed. In the Crow tradition, the liver was tied to a person's soul. Removing the liver was like stealing the soul. That's when they started calling him by a different name, the Liver Eater. Johnson became a living legend. His story was told around campfires by hunters, traders, and mountain men of the West. But every good legend has to start somewhere, and this one started in the fall of 1843. A steamer docked in St. Joseph, Missouri, and John Johnson, 19 or 20 years old, stepped off. He was a powerful and imposing figure with auburn hair, and he immediately confronted, fought, and defeated a thief who attempted to steal his belongings. After besting the thief, John Johnson walked to the store of Joe Robidoux, a notorious trader. Johnson presented a note from the Hawkin Brothers of St. Louis requesting one of their finest rifles along with traps, a Comanche pony, and a Comanche saddle. Robidoux sold Johnson overpriced goods, but he did include a free tomahawk. The next morning, Johnson headed for the Big Blue river in Kansas to trap beaver. He then worked his way north toward the Platte, and along the way, he met old John Hatcher. Old John was a seasoned mountain man who took Johnson under his wing after recognizing the young man's potential. Despite the fact that Johnson was trying to trap in streams that had been emptied decades earlier. Hatcher taught Johnson the ways of the wilderness, including trapping, combat, and survival tactics. Soon enough, Johnson had his first fight with Native Americans. Hatcher and Johnson were surprised by a dozen Arapaho warriors. Johnson was hit by an arrow in the right shoulder, but managed to shoot one of the warriors with his Hawken rifle. Hatcher shot two others before the remaining warriors retreated. Hatcher removed the arrow from Johnson's shoulder before showing him how to properly scalp the Arapaho warrior he had killed. As they trapped and hunted, Hatcher's mentorship shaped Johnson into a formidable figure who was known for his strength and cunning. They pressed on toward the mountains, with Hatcher imparting crucial survival wisdom and solidifying Johnson's transformation from a novice greenhorn to a seasoned trapper and mountain man. When John Johnson ventured into the mountains with old Hatcher, beaver populations were depleted, forcing the trappers to hunt bear and mink. Johnson developed unique tactics, such as his swift, powerful kicks and keen sense of smell. Johnson's learning was practical and intense. When a full grown grizzly bear surprised Hatcher, who shot and wounded it. Johnson raised his own rifle and fired, but the bear kept charging. Johnson grabbed his bowie knife and thrust the blade into the bear's heart. The stab didn't kill the bear, but it ran away. Johnson rushed to help Hatcher. Hatcher commented that it was a clever move to leave the knife in the bear so it would bleed out. Johnson replied with a measure of modesty. There wasn't no time to pull out the knife. Johnson lived in Hatcher's cabin near a camp in the Little Snake Valley in Wyoming and met other seasoned trappers. Gaining wisdom and witnessing the harsh realities of frontier life, Johnson formed close bonds with figures like Bear Claw Chris Lapp. Despite the man's surly reputation, Johnson's physical prowess grew, earning him respect and fear. Soon, John Johnson became the law in the camp. He maintained order with ruthless efficiency, often using his strength to quell disputes between mountain men. His heightened senses and natural suspicion kept him vigilant, making him an exceptional manhunter. His survival depended on his ability to detect and confront danger, and no mountain man was more keenly focused than John Johnson.