Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith II (1860–1898) was an American con artist and gangster who had a major hand in the organized criminal operations in Denver, Colorado; Creede, Colorado; and Skagway, Alaska, from 1879 to 1898. He was killed in a famous Shootout on Juneau Wharf. He is perhaps the most famous confidence man of the old west.
Smith was born in Coweta County, Georgia. His grandfather was a plantation owner and his father a lawyer. The family met with financial ruin at the close of the American Civil War, and in 1876 they moved to Round Rock, Texas, to start anew.
In 1879, in Fort Wor
th, Texas, Smith began his career as a confidence man. He formed a close-knit, disciplined gang of shills and thieves that became known as the Soap Gang. Smith became known as the “king of the frontier con men.” The gang moved from town to town, plying their trade on their unwary victims. Their principal method of separating victims from their cash was the use of “short cons” — swindles that were quick and needed little setup and few helpers. The cons included the shell game, three-card monte, and any game in which they could cheat.
The prize soap racket
Some time in the early 1880s, Smith began duping entire crowds with a ploy the Denver newspapers dubbed “The prize soap racket.” Smith would open his “tripe and keister” (display case on a tripod) on a busy street corner. Piling ordinary soap cakes onto the top, he began expounding on their wonders. As he spoke to the growing crowd of curious onlookers, he would pull out his wallet and begin wrapping paper money, ranging from one dollar up to one hundred dollars, around a select few of the bars. He then finished each bar by wrapping plain paper around it to hide the money.
He mixed the money-wrapped packages in with wrapped bars containing no money. He then sold the soap to the crowd for one dollar a cake. A shill planted in the crowd would buy a bar, tear it open, and loudly proclaim that he had won some money, waving it around for all to see. This performance had the desired effect of enticing the sale of the packages. Through manipulation and sleight-of-hand, he hid the cakes of soap wrapped with money and replaced them with packages holding no cash. More often than not, victims bought several bars before the sale was completed. Midway through the sale, Smith would announce that the hundred-dollar bill yet remained in the pile. He then would auction off the remaining soap bars to the highest bidders.
Smith quickly became known as “Soapy Smith” all across the western United States. He used this swindle for 20 years with great success. He was able to build three criminal empires during his lifetime: the first in Denver, Colorado (1886–1895); the second in Creede, Colorado (1892); and the third in Skagway, Alaska (1897–1898).
In 1886 Smith moved to Denver and began to build the first of his empires. By 1887 he was reputedly involved with most of the criminal bunko activities in the city. Newspapers in Denver reported that he controlled the city’s criminals, underworld gambling, and accused corrupt politicians and the police chief of being bribed.
In 1888 Soapy opened the Tivoli Club, a saloon and gambling hall. Legend has it that above the entrance was a sign that read caveat emptor, Latin for “Let the buyer beware”. Soapy’s younger brother, Bascomb Smith, joined the gang and operated a cigar store that was a “front” for dishonest poker games and other swindles, operating in one of the back rooms. Other operations included fraudulent lottery shops, a “sure-thing” stock exchange, fake watch and bogus diamond auctions, and the sale of stocks in nonexistent businesses.
Soapy’s political influence was so great that some of the police officers patrolling the streets would not arrest him or members of his gang. If they did, a quick release from jail was arranged easily. A voting fraud trial after the municipal elections of 1889 focused attention on corrupt ties and payoffs between Soapy, the mayor, and the chief of police — a combination referred to in local newspapers as “the firm of Londoner, Farley and Smith.”
Soapy was not without enemies and rivals for his position as the underworld boss. He faced several attempts on his life and shot several of his assailants.
In 1892, with Denver in the midst of anti-gambling and saloon reforms, Smith sold the Tivoli and moved to Creede, Colorado, a mining boomtown that had formed around a major silver strike. Using Denver-based prostitutes to cozy up to property owners and convince them to sign over leases, he acquired numerous lots along Creede’s main street, renting them to his associates.
With brother-in-law and gang member William Sidney “Cap” Light as deputy sheriff, Soapy began his second empire, opening a gambling hall and saloon called the Orleans Club. He purchased and briefly exhibited a petrified man nicknamed “McGinty” for an admission of 10 cents. While customers were waiting in line to pay their dime, Soapy’s shell and three-card monte games were winning dollars out of their pockets.
BACK TO DENVER
Creede’s boom waned and corrupt Denver officials sent word that the reforms there were coming to an end. Soapy took McGinty to Denver.
On his return to Denver, Smith opened new businesses that were nothing more than fronts for his many short cons. One of these sold discounted railroad tickets to various destinations. Potential purchasers were told that the ticket agent was out of the office, but would soon return, and then offered an even bigger discount by playing any of several rigged games. Soapy’s power grew to the point that he admitted to the press that he was a con man and saw nothing wrong with it. In 1896 he told a newspaper reporter, “I consider bunco steering more honorable than the life led by the average politician.”
Colorado’s new governor Davis Hanson Waite ordered the closure of all Denver’s gambling dens, saloons and bordellos. Eventually, Soapy and his brother Bascomb Smith became too well known, and even the most corrupt city officials could no longer protect them. Their influence and Denver-based empire began to crumble. When they were charged with attempted murder for the beating of a saloon manager, Bascomb was jailed, but Soapy managed to escape, becoming a wanted man in Colorado.
NORTH TO ALASKA
When the Klondike Gold Rush began in 1897, Soapy moved his operations to Skagway, Alaska. He put the town’s deputy U.S. Marshal on his payroll and began collecting allies for a takeover. Soapy opened a fake telegraph office in which the wires went only as far as the wall. Not only did the telegraph office obtain fees for “sending” messages, but cash-laden victims soon found themselves losing even more money in poker games with new found “friends.”
Soapy opened a saloon named Jeff Smith’s Parlor, as an office from which to run his operations. Although Skagway already had a municipal building, Soapy’s saloon became known as “the real city hall.”
When a group of vigilantes, known as the “Committee of 101,” threatened to expel Soapy and his gang, he formed his own “law and order society,” which claimed 317 members, to force the vigilantes into submission.
In July 1898, John Douglas Stewart, a returning Klondike miner, came to Skagway with a sack of gold valued at $2,700 ($71,093 in today’s dollars). Three gang members convinced the miner to participate in a game of three-card monte. When Stewart balked at having to pay his losses, the three men grabbed the sack and ran. The “Committee of 101” demanded that Soapy return the gold, but he refused, claiming that Stewart had lost it “fairly.”
On the evening of July 8, 1898, the vigilantes organized a meeting on the Juneau Company wharf. With a Winchester rifle draped over his shoulder, Soapy began an argument with Frank Reid, one of four guards blocking his way to the wharf. A gunfight, known as the Shootout on Juneau Wharf began, and both men were fatally wounded. Soapy died on the spot with a bullet to the heart. He also received a bullet in his left leg and a severe wound on the left arm by the elbow. Reid died 12 days later with a bullet in his leg and groin area. The three gang members who robbed Stewart received jail sentences.
Soapy Smith was buried several yards outside the city cemetery. His grave and saloon are on most tour itineraries in Skagway.
Editor Phil Robertson is an award-wining journalist and graphic designer. With a degree from the University of Florida’s School of Journalism, his career in journalism and publishing spans over 30 years, and includes positions as editor and publisher for several newspapers and magazines. During his career he has received a first-place award for investigative journalism from the Society of Newspaper Editors, and five ADDY awards for advertising design.
