HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: Wendigo Crimes, Trials and Murders

The Wendigo. Today we will examine the origins of the mythological beast, and explore three cases of supposed Wendigo possession that ended in madness, murder and cannibalism.

Swift Runner was a Cree Native American in Saskatchewan who is said to have succumbed to the Wendigo spirit and butchered and ate his entire family during the harsh winter of 1878. He would become the first person legally executed in the Canadian Northwest Territories.

The Suker were the last indigenous peoples in North America to still be living by their own laws and customs. That would all change when their shaman and leader Jack Fiddler was arrested for the murder of a suspected Wendigo and brought to trial.

In 2008 Tim McClean was riding a Greyhound Bus through the lonely prairies of Saskatchewan, prime Wendigo territory, when the passenger next to him suddenly erupted into violence, stabbing him to death, beheading him, and eating his eyes, heart and flesh. Was it the spirit of the Wendigo?

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Creepy Amusement Park theme by Brandon Fiechter and Derek Fiechter, used by permission and with many thanks.

References:

Dangerous Spirits the Wendigo in Myth and History by Shane Smallman

The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture: Backwoods Horror and Terror in the Wilderness by Bernice M. Murphy

The Terrifying Tale Of Swift Runner And The Wendigo - KnowledgeNuts

Beware the Wendigo, the Frostbitten Flesheater of North America’s Chilly Heartland - Atlas Obscura

Wendigo (Folklore) - Terrifying Monster | Mythology.net

Jack Fiddler - Wikipedia

Jack Fiddler - The Last Wendigo Hunter (anomalien.com)