Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith (2 November 1860-8 July 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the Wild West. He earned the nickname "Soapy" from his prize package soap sell racket, and he organized criminal operations in Colorado and Alaska from 1879 to 1898, when he was killed in a shootout on Juneau Wharf in Skagway.
Biography[]
Jefferson Randoph Smith was born in Coweta County, Georgia in 1860 to a family of education and wealth, but the family met with financial ruin at the close of the American Civil War. In 1876, they moved to Round Rock, Texas to start anew, and Smith left home shortly after the death of his mother in 1877, becoming a con man in Fort Worth. He spent the next 22 years as a professional bunko man, using quick "short cons" to separate victims from their cash. In the late 1870s, he began cheating crowds in Denver, Colorado with the prize soap racket, and he was nicknamed "Soapy" for his scam. His scams helped pay graft to police, judges, and politicians, and his influence at city hall protected him from prosecution. However, he became increasingly known for his gambling andn bad temper, and he moved to Creede in 1892 due to antigambling and saloon reforms in Denver. However, as Creede's boomtown status began to end, Smith returned to Denver, which had ended its reforms. The new Populist governor Davis Hanson White cracked down on corruption, gambling dens, saloons, and bordellos, and Smith's influence in Denver began to crumble.
Smith in Skagway, 1897
In 1897, during the Klondike Gold Rush, Smith moved his operations to Skagway, Alaska. He put the US Marshal on his payroll and began making allies for a takeover, and he opened a saloon in March 1898. During the Spanish-American War, he formed the "Skagway Military Company" with the permission of President William McKinley, and he used his officially-recognized company to strengthen his hold on Skagway.
Death[]
Smith got into trouble with the townspeople when he swindled a man out of his recently-acquired gold in a card game and refused to give it back. This led to him facing both legal trouble and the threat of vigilante committees being formed, and Smith armed himself and decided to attend the first meeting of the Citizens Committee on Juneau Wharf. Frank Reid, who guarded the approach to Sylvester's Wharf, ordered Smith to stop at the wharf entrance. The two got into an argument, which turned into a fight. The two fired at each other nearly simultaneously, and both men fell mortally wounded. Vigilante Jesse Murphy then proceeded to shoot Smith in the heart, killing him. Reid died 12 days later.