Friends of the Wild West Agriculture and Music Society ®History of Alberta - Famous Outlaws & Lawmen of Alberta - Swift Runner the Cannibal
History of Alberta - Famous Outlaws & Lawmen of Alberta
*WARNING* Some of the material presented here is extremely graphic in nature, therefore discretion is advised. *WARNING*
Swift Runner the Cannibal
Easily the most horrific and gruesome story in Alberta's history belongs to a Cree man called Swift Runner, also known as Katist-chen. In March of 1879, Swift Runner emerged from the woods north of Fort Edmonton, and headed to the Roman Catholic Mission located at St. Albert. The priests at the Mission were recounted a tragic tale of desperation and starvation. Swift Runner told them that he had taken his wife and six children, along with his mother and brother, into the woods around the Sturgeon River area the previous fall for the annual winter hunt. The hunting was the worst he had ever experienced, and after no kills in two months, the family had exhausted all of their initial food supply. They staved off starvation by eating small rodents for a time, and when this supply disappeared, they cut strips off their tent, and boiled and ate them.
The youngest child was the first to die of starvation. Swift Runner's mother and brother went into the woods to hunt, and never returned. As the other children died one by one of starvation, Swift Runner's wife grew more and more despondent, and eventually shot herself rather than deal with the grief. Only Swift Runner survived the terrible ordeal.
Despite a great swelling of sympathy for the man, the priests at the Mission could not help but notice some inconsistencies in his story. Other hunters had reported good hunting in the area that Swift Runner had claimed was devoid of game. Furthermore, Swift Runner weighed upwards of 200 lbs. and did not have the appearance of a man who had spent most of the winter slowly starving to death. Regardless, the priests took the man in, and gave him sanctuary. He was popular with the children at the Mission, telling them stories about the wars between the Cree and Blackfoot, and various personal tales.
In contrast to his cheerful nature during the day, Swift Runner was plagued by terrible nightmares at night. He told the priests that Ween-de-go, the Native spirit of evil, was plaguing him, though did not tell them why. The priests became uncomfortable around the man, and when in late May of 1879, some of the children asked Father Kemus if they could accompany Swift Runner on a hunting expedition, the Father took his suspicions to the NWMP at Fort Saskatchewan.
Sub-Inpector Severe Gagnon was the officer who Father Kemus presented his concerns to. Gagnon had already heard of Swift Runner from various sources, warning him that the man was dangerous. He decided to investigate the matter, and dispatched Sergeant Richard Steele, along with the interpreter Brazeau, to interview Swift Runner. After an interview that failed to produce any coherent results, Gagnon decided to arrest Swift Runner, and brought him to Fort Saskatchewan on May 27, 1879.
On June 4th, Gagnon, along with a party of police and Brazeau the interpreter, returned to the north woods with Swift Runner. His usually jovial and friendly mood quickly changed to a very uncooperative and stubborn one. He tried to escape twice, refused to answer questions, and led the party around in circles. Brazeau then proposed giving Swift Runner some strong medicine
, a concoction of tea and chewing tobacco brewed overnight. Swift Runner drank the mixture greedily, and his good mood quickly returned. Cooperative again, Swift Runner led the police to a heavily forested island in the middle of a lake.
The police discovered a horrific scene. Strewn about the former campsite were human skulls, bones, pieces of skin, and clumps of hair. Swift Runner calmly stated that bears must have gotten to the bodies of his family. Sgt. Steele suspected something far more insidious. To begin, there were no bear tracks or claw marks. The tent that Swift Runner had claimed to have cut up and eaten, was found intact, in the trees away from the campsite. A kettle, found on the outskirts of the campsite, had its insides coated with fat. Then Sgt. Steele made a terrifying discovery; a pair of baby's stockings stuffed into the eye sockets of one of the human skulls. The horrible truth suddenly and blatantly obvious to everyone present, Sgt. Steele ordered all the evidence to be collected and brought back to Fort Saskatchewan.
The trial of Swift Runner began on August 16th, 1879. Presiding over the trial was Stipendiary Magistrate Richardson, assisted by Justices of the Peace E. McGillivray and George Verey, and the jury consisted of 6 men, 4 of whom spoke both English and Cree. When he was placed on the witness stand, Swift Runner changed his story. He now confessed to killing his wife along with five of his six children, but maintained that his brother and mother had disappeared into the woods, and that the sixth child had died of starvation. After two days, the trial was over, and Swift Runner was found guilty of killing his entire family. He was sentenced to death by hanging for December 20th, 1879.
Father Leduc took over ministrations to Swift Runner just prior to his execution. The Father convinced him to confess the truth, rather than have Ween-de-go torment him through eternity. Swift Runner told him that he had taken his family about eight miles north of Fort Saskatchewan. The hunting was good at first, but Swift Runner soon took ill. No one else was as good a hunter as he, and they never caught anything to eat. Beginning to starve, the family was forced to kill their dogs, and eat them. The nourishment provided by the dogs helped Swift Runner recover a little, and he travelled to a nearby HBC post to obtain what provisions he could afford. These foodstuffs were soon exhausted, and the hunger pangs returned. His brother and mother left to go hunting, and a few days later, Swift Runner convinced his wife and five of his children to follow them. His 10 year-old son stayed behind with him.
Father Leduc's translation of Swift Runner's account continued:
I remained many days with my boy without finding any game and consequently without having a mouthful to eat. One morning I got up early and suddenly an abominable thought crossed my mind. My son was lying down close to the fire, fast asleep. Pushed by the evil spirits, I took my poor gun and shot him. The ball entered the top of his skull. Still he breathed. I began to cry, but what was the use. I then took my knife and sunk it twice into his side. Alas, he still breathed and I picked up a stick and killed him with it. I then satisfied my hunger by eating some of his flesh, and lived on that for some days, extracting even the marrow from the bones.
For some days afterwards, I wandered through the woods. Unfortunately, I met my wife and children. I said to them that my son had died of starvation but I noticed immediately that they suspected the frightening reality.
They then told me that they had not seen either my mother or brother. No doubt both had died of starvation, otherwise they would have been heard of, as it is now seven months since then. (NOTE: Swift Runner had already confessed to the police that he was responsible for the murders of his mother and brother. He had actually complained to the officers recording his confession that his mother had been a bit tough. Father Leduc was likely aware of this.) Three days after joining my family, the oldest of my boys died. We dug a grave with an axe and buried him. We were then reduced to boiling some pieces of our leather tent, our shoes, and our buffalo robes, in order to keep ourselves alive.
I discovered that my family wanted to leave me from fear of meeting the same fate as my boy. One morning, I got up early, and I don't know why - I was mad. It seems to me that all the devils had entered my heart. My wife and children were asleep around me. Pushed by the evil spirit, I took my gun, and placing the muzzle against her, shot her. I then without delay took my hatchet and massacred my three little girls. There was now but one little boy, seven years old, surviving. I awoke him and told him to melt some snow for water at once. The poor child was so weakened by long fasting to make any reflection of the frightful spectacle under his eyes. I took the bodies of my little girls and cut them up. I did the same with the corpse of my wife. I broke the skulls and took out the brains, and broke up the bones in order to get the marrow. My little son and I lived for seven or eight days on the flesh - I eating the flesh of my wife and children, he the flesh of his mother and sisters.
At length I left there all the bones and started with the last of my family. Snow began to melt now. Spring had commenced. Ducks arrived and flew every day around us, and I could find enough to live upon, but I felt reluctant to see people. I then told my son that after some days we would meet people; they will know very soon that I am a murderer, and they will certainly make me die. As to you there is no fear; say all you know; no harm will be done to you. One day I had killed many ducks. I was a few miles from Egg Lake, where some relations of mine lived. I was sitting at the campfire, when I told my son to go and fetch something five or six paces off. At that moment the devil suddenly took possession of my soul; and in order to live longer far from people, and to put out of the way the only witness to my crimes, I seized my gun and killed the last of my children and ate him as I did the others. Some weeks after I was taken by the police, sentenced to death, and in three days I am to be hanged.
Swift Runner's last confession, specifically where he mentions the burial of his eldest son, did clear up why only eight skulls had been found at the campsite, when it was known that nine people had died. It also freed Swift Runner, in his mind anyway, from the grip of Ween-de-go.
When the death warrant was read to Swift Runner by Sheriff Richards on December 19th, his only reaction was a smile. On the morning of December 20th, 1879, with a temperature of 42 degrees below zero, Swift Runner was led to the gallows. As he was awaiting his execution, he thanked the police for their kindness, the priests for their mercy, and admitted he had commited a terrible wrong. He then turned to the executioner and belittled him for making him wait in the cold. The executioner, for his part, cut Swift Runner off mid-sentence by opening the gallows door. Swift Runner died instantly, the first prisoner to be legally executed in the west under the NWMP. An onlooker named Jim Reade was quoted as saying,
"It was the purtiest hangin' I ever seen, and it's the twenty-ninth."
A more detailed version of this story was written by R.G. Evans, in Outlaws & Lawmen of Western Canada, Volume One (1986, 1999 Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd.).
