Spooktober 5: The Story of Jack Fiddler, Wendigo Killer

Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Curiouscast

True Crime, Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 291: Jack Fiddler was a chief and shaman among the Anishinaabe in northwestern Ontario. Born around 1839, he became renowned for his abilities in white magic, particularly his claimed power to defeat the Wendigo, a cannibalistic spirit. Fiddler asserted that he had vanquished fourteen Wendigos during his lifetime. Some of these were believed to be sent by enemy shamans, while others were individuals from his community who developed an uncontrollable craving for human flesh. Families often asked him to euthanize a gravely ill loved one to prevent them from becoming Wendigo. In 1907, the North-West Mounted Police arrested Jack and his brother Joseph Fiddler for the alleged murder of a woman believed to have turned Wendigo. The arrest was part of a broader effort to impose Canadian law on Indigenous communities. The story garnered significant media attention, with many newspapers sensationalizing the events. Jack Fiddler died by suicide while in custody, and although Joseph went to trial and was convicted, he passed away in 1909, shortly before an order for his release arrived. Sources: Killing the Shamen : Fiddler, Thomas | Internet Archive Windigo | The Canadian Encyclopedia Wendigo Lore by Chad Lewis and Kevin Lee Nelson Canadian Mysteries of the Unexplained by John Marlowe - Ebook Dangerous Spirits: The Windigo in Myth and History - Ebook Biography – ZHAUWUNO-GEEZHIGO-GAUBOW – Volume XIII (1901-1910) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography Biography – PEEMEECHEEKAG – Volume XII (1891-1900) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography (PDF) Wendigo Psychosis The Windigo in the Material World on JSTOR The Power to Punish: Conflicts of Authority in the Case of Jack Fiddler | Deborah Rose Peña | The Hypocrite Reader Windigo of First Nations oral tradition — fearsome and loathsome creature Free Press Prairie Farmer 23 Oct 1907, page 8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Mike here, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Dark Poutine early and
0:04.7	add free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.
0:18.4	Welcome back to Dark Poutine, I am Mike Brown and with me today as per usual is my good friend
0:26.2	Matthew Stockton. Hello Matthew. I'm Mike. Why do you sound like Kathleen Turner today? Why do I
0:32.1	sound the smoky tones of Kathleen Turner brought to you by COVID-19? Oh no. Yes. So just so you know
0:41.7	I'm not exposing Matthew to COVID because he is not here. He and I record remotely. So yeah, I may
0:49.8	have to stop and cough and all that kind of stuff. And just to pull the curtain back a little bit,
0:54.9	we had already recorded this show, parts of it. And I was going to record the rest of it today,
1:01.2	but your voice is so different. My voice is so different. We have to redo it because it's
1:06.7	going to sound ridiculous. Did you imagine? Hi, welcome to Dark Poutine. This is Mike Brown. Yeah,
1:12.4	exactly. Yeah. And people would be like, what's wrong? Something's not right. Like having a
1:19.0	bipolar day. Right. And before we get started, we have to point out that this is Dark Poutine's
1:25.1	Sixth Anniversary Show. And it's hard to believe that I've been at this for this long and Matthew
1:30.4	and I have been at it for three years. Crazyness. Right. And I want to thank everyone of you who
1:37.8	continue tuning into this little show every week. And we're so grateful that we get to share these
1:43.1	stories with you. And my life has changed a lot since Dark Poutine launched on Halloween in
1:49.4	2017. And there's been so many incredible high moments, too many to mention. And frankly,
1:56.0	a lot of personal and professional adversity. So you folks have seen me through a lot. And I
2:01.2	appreciated it means so much that there are so many of you who stuck with us from the beginning.
2:07.6	I really, really appreciate it. I am grateful for you. And this is also our Halloween episode.
2:13.6	Oh my gosh, it's all kinds of things. It's Mike's COVID-19 episode. It's the Sixth Anniversary
2:20.3	episode. And it is, yeah, Halloween. And do you know what I'm doing? I don't know what you're doing.
	...

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