#soapy smith

Soapy Smith

Some time in the late 1870s or early 1880s, Smith began cheating 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 keister 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 appeared to mix the money-wrapped packages in with wrapped bars containing no money, and 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 more packages. 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, unpurchased. He then would auction off the remaining soap bars to the highest bidders.

The Soapy Smith autopsy, Alaska, July 1898

From Wikipedia: 

Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 – July 8, 1898) was a con artist, saloon and gambling house proprietor, gangster, and crime boss of the 19th-century Old West. His most famous scam, the prize package soap sell racket, presented him with the sobriquet of "Soapy", which remained with him to his death.

Although he traveled and operated his confidence swindles all across the western United States, he is most famous for having a major hand in the organized criminal operations of Denver and Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska, from 1879 to 1898. In Denver, he ran several saloons, gambling halls, cigar stores, and auction houses that specialized in cheating their clientele. In Denver, Soapy began to make a name for himself across the country as a bad man. Denver is also where he entered into the arena of political fixing, where, for favors, he could sway the outcome of city, county, and state elections.

He used the same methods of operation when he settled in the towns of Creede and Skagway, opening businesses with the primary goal of gently robbing his customers, while making a name for himself. He died in spectacular fashion in the shootout on Juneau Wharf in Skagway.

Some time in the late 1870s or early 1880s, Smith began cheating 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 keister 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 appeared to mix the money-wrapped packages in with wrapped bars containing no money, and 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 more packages. 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, unpurchased. He then would auction off the remaining soap bars to the highest bidders.

Through manipulation and sleight-of-hand, he hid the cakes of soap wrapped with money and replaced them with packages holding no cash. The only money "won" went to shills, members of the gang planted in the crowd pretending to win, in order to increase sales.

Seattle waterfront, ca.1900.

The second ship from the right in the foreground is the steamship Cottage City, built by New England Shipbuilding Company in 1890. It was marked as the first ship manufactured at the New England Shipbuilding Company in partnership with what was to become the Bath Iron Works, both located on the Kennebec River at Bath, Maine. 

The 232-foot-long Cottage City was an important milestone in the history of American shipbuilding. Although built as a coastal steamer, with a wooden hull launched in February, 1890, and her machinery installed by the Bath Iron Works by the end of that year, the Cottage City was a successful venture and its launch lead to an order for a sister ship, the Manhattan. After that came contracts for the iron and steel-hulled warships. She ran between Portland and New York City for 7-1/2 years. Then sold and used to transport passengers and freight between Seattle, Washington and Alaska. It serviced Alaska from 1898 until January 26,1911.

It was on that run that the vessel was wrecked in a severe winter gale along the Canadian coast.

The details of the wreck are sketchy at best. From the best information we can find, the Cottage City was caught in a blinding snowstorm and heavy fog and went on a reef off Quadra Island, North British Columbia, on January 26, 1911.

The ship was equipped with radio telegraph equipment so an S.O.S. call brought help from Victoria, British Columbia, and Port Townsend, Washington. Everybody on the wreck was rescued, but the Cottage City was lost.

This is the same steamer that in 1898, after Soapy Smith was killed, transported the four Soap Gang members (Foster, Bowers, Jackson and Triplett) who robbed miner John Stewart, out of Skagway for trial and prison. Bowers and Foster were charged with larceny, or theft, and assault and battery while Triplett was charged with larceny only. They were all found guilty, sentenced, and taken aboard the steamer Cottage City for transport to Sitka to serve their sentences. 

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Jefferson “Soapy” Smith cut quite a figure across the American West on the late nineteenth century.  He was a con-man, best known for his Soap Scam that led to his nickname.  From a base in Denver, Colorado, he would pose as a traveling soap salesman in a town and as a gimmick would wrap money around some of the bars of soap – ranging from $1 to $100.  People would crowd around to buy the soap,…

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