Swift Runner was a Cree man and former Hudson’s Bay Company employee who, in the winter of 1878–1879, became infamous for one of Canada’s most disturbing murder cases. After being stranded with his family in the wilderness, he killed and consumed several of them, later claiming to be possessed by the Wendigo—a malevolent spirit from Algonquian folklore associated with insatiable hunger and cannibalism. Swift Runner’s case became one of the most well-known examples linking the Wendigo legend to real-life events, and he was eventually arrested, tried, and hanged at Fort Saskatchewan in 1879.