George Robert Johnston (1954 – 2004), better known as the Ballarat Bandit or John Doe #39-04, was a Canadian-born burglar who gained nationwide attention as he spent the last several years of his life hiding from police in

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...

, California, United States. The nickname of Ballarat Bandit was given to Johnston in accordance to where his criminal career began, inside of the town of Ballarat, California.

Life before Death Valley

George Robert Johnston was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada. He had been employed as a drywaller when he met his wife, Tommi, and they eventually had four daughters. When Tommi developed leukemia, Johnston began to grow and sell

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

. In 1997, when his activities were discovered, Johnston received a total of eight years in prison (of which he only served a year and a half before being paroled). However, within just weeks of incarceration, he suffered a breakdown from which he never fully recovered. Tommi believes that medication Johnston was given in prison had exacerbated, or possibly caused, his breakdown, which left him unable to support his family. In 2000, Johnston left his family, saying he wished to leave Canada for the U.S., where he would seek help from a

faith healer Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...

Years at large and death

In 2003, Johnston began his criminal career by burglarizing multiple areas of

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

, California, for various odd items with which he supported himself, as well as stealing weapons and hiding them inside of his various campsites. Johnston was described as being elusive, and police spent many months attempting to capture him. It was suspected for some time that he might have been a terrorist, or at the very least that he had military training, as his endurance and evasion techniques were rather impressive and foiled the police for months. Recognizing that he was near capture and unable to face being incarcerated once again, Johnston instead took his own life with a single rifle shot to the head. As police were unable to identify Johnston's body for eighteen months, he was known as John Doe #39-04. Johnston did have a distinctive tattoo, but this did not initially assist with identification. His body was identified by fingerprint identification in 2006 when the

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

thought to send his details to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Lost to his family for years, his wife and four daughters were devastated at the news, as they had not heard from Johnston since his departure. He was buried in an unmarked grave in a

potter's field A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pu ...

in San Bernardino, California.

In media

In 2008, Johnston's case was detailed on the TruTV television series, ''The Investigators'', on an episode titled "Lone Fugitive".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, George Robert 1954 births 2004 suicides 2004 deaths 21st-century Canadian criminals Canadian male criminals Crime in California Death Valley National Park Drug dealers Fugitives Suicides by firearm in California