Ballarat Bandit

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, 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. 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.

Years at large and death

In 2003, Johnston began his criminal career by burglarizing multiple areas of Ballarat, California, for various odd items with which he supported himself, 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.

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