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November 2, 1860 - Soapy Smith

A figure of the con-man tradition at its most organized, Smith ran criminal enterprises across the frontier West that went well beyond simple grift — he effectively controlled the underworld economies of entire boom towns. His gift was institutional: using early rackets to fund increasingly elaborate operations, he built a succession of criminal fiefdoms that blended fraud, political influence, and muscle. The gold rush brought him his largest stage in Skagway, Alaska, where he ran the town until a vigilante confrontation ended his career at thirty-seven.

From Wikipedia

Soapy Smith

Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 – July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier and the Klondike.

Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States, and had a large hand in organized criminal operations in both Colorado and the District of Alaska. Smith gained notoriety through his "prize soap racket," in which he would sell bars of soap with prize money hidden in some of the bars' packaging in order to increase sales. However, through sleight of hand, he ensured that only members of his gang purchased "prize" soap. The racket led to his sobriquet of "Soapy."

The success of his soap racket and other scams helped him finance three successive criminal empires in Denver and Creede, both in Colorado, and in Skagway, Alaska. He was killed in the shootout on Juneau Wharf in Skagway, on July 8, 1898.

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