Did Soapy Smith murder gambler Cliff Sparks?

Perhaps one of the most controversial actions by Soapy Smith was the shooting of gambler Cliff Sparks in 1892. This is one of the few unsolved cases of murder in Denver history and it is believed that Soapy held so much power in the underworld that he and those involved with the shooting went unpunished. There is a lot of information on this gunfight, here is a little bit just to wet the appetite. The following content comes direct from my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel. 

It was the evening of October 11, 1892, when Jeff used his gun and a gambler named Cliff Sparks died on a barroom floor.

Cliff Sparks, a gambler, was killed in Murphy’s Exchange at 11:50 last night. He was shot through the body by either Jim Jordan, another gambler, or by Jeff Smith, known more familiarly as “Soapy.”

The tragedy was the culmination of a row between Jordan and Tom Cady. Cady is a shell game fakir, working for Smith. Sparks fell and died in a few minutes. The abdominal aorta was severed by the bullet which passed through him. Smith and Cady escaped from the rear of the building. Jordan was arrested by Officer Hunt, who met him as he was going out of the side front entrance of the saloon. Jordan had a hot revolver of heavy caliber in his hand…. All he would say was that it was an accident.

Earlier in the night Jeff Argyle, proprietor of the Missouri gambling house, and Tom Cady had trouble in the exchange gambling room, next door above the scene of the homicide. They had a quarrel over poker chips. Cady sprang to his feet and struck Argyle in the face, knocking him off his chair. Argyle rose and pulled his revolver. Special Officer Gardiner seized Argyle’s arm as the latter fired. The bullet, through this move, struck Cady’s chair. Both men were arrested and Cady was subsequently released. Cady went directly to Murphy’s Exchange again and was joined by Jeff Smith and Cort Thomson.

“Troublesome Tom” Cady had the altercation with “The Black Prince” Jeff Argyle in the upstairs gambling room of Dale & Company above Murphy’s Exchange, and both had been arrested. However, the Denver Republican states that the row between Cady and Argyle started in the Missouri Club, in which Argyle was actually the manager, not the proprietor as stated in the News. Argyle, a noted killer, a year before had gunned down a bricklayer playing at one of his Missouri Club faro tables. Upon learning of Cady’s arrest, Jeff posted bail for his friend at the jail, and together they went to Murphy’s Exchange. In the first-floor saloon were Clifton Sparks, James B. “Gambler” Jordan (aka Henry Gilmore), and Corteze “Cort” Thomson, a friend of Jordan’s and not known to be on good terms with Jeff or Cady. As Jeff and Tom

entered the bar-room of the saloon Jordan met them. They drank together and the affair earlier in the night came up. Jordan said to Cady that he was sorry for it. “Yes, you are, you ___ ___ ___ ___” responded Cady as he instantly struck Jordan in the face.

The News published what it could learn of the details.

Jordan drew his pistol. Smith drew his. Mart Watrous grabbed Jordan and carried him toward the front of the bar-room near the lattice work partition.

In a statement, Watrous said he grabbed Jordan and threw him down in an attempt to keep him from drawing his gun. As he did, Jordan said, “Let me go, or we’ll be killed.” …

Murphy pushed Cady, Smith, and Thompson back toward the rear of the room. The two principal combatants were fully thirty feet apart. Cady started for Jordan again and Murphy struck him. Cady said to Smith: “Shoot him,” meaning Murphy.

Sparks, who had been standing back from the bar, midway between the front and the rear, stepped forward to protest against the shooting and Murphy jumped back out of range and Jordan and Smith shot at almost the same instant. The bullet from Smith’s pistol crashed through a plate glass … partition leading to the front, an elevation of seven and a half feet from the floor. Jordan’s bullet was not found up to 2 o’clock this morning. Which hit Sparks has not yet been determined. Jordan intended to kill Cady, and Smith meant to kill Murphy, without doubt.

When the patrol wagon arrived the doors of the place were closed and an eager crowd surged outside in the pouring rain, vainly endeavoring to see through the drawn curtains.

Inside was confusion. Policeman Hunt … held Jordan by the collar with one hand, while in the other he held the smoking revolver taken from his prisoner. … At the other end of the bar lay the innocent victim of the evening’s quarrels, breathing his last. The bullet, fired either by Jordan, his friend, or Jeff Smith, his enemy, had entered just over the left hip, passed clear through the body, severing the abdominal aorta, and came out an inch above the right hip bone.

The cutting of the artery caused death before Surgeon Wheeler had time to examine the wound. A dozen men stood about … gaping at the dead body and the hole in the partition made by the other bullet. Murphy was applying ice to a huge contusion under his left eye, caused by the blow from Cady’s cane in his attempt to arrest the latter and Jeff Smith. …

Mart Watrous, the proprietor…, saw the quarrel leading up to the shooting and had just released Jordan when the gun, or guns, went off. … “I was standing in front of the bar,” he said, “and Cady and Jeff Smith had just finished drinking. Jordan was standing near them at the time and as Cady turned around, he said to him: ‘Tom, I’m sorry you got into trouble.’”

“’You’re a liar, you ____ ____ ____ ____, said Cady, and he hit Jordan in the face. Jordan reeled back, and drew his gun as he did so. I jumped and caught him and ran him against the bar in the corner near the folding door. I saw a gun in Jeff Smith’s hand. I let go of Jordan, and as I did so I heard a shot go and saw Sparks fall.

“There may have been two shots—I think there were, judging from the course the bullet must have taken that went through the glass—but I only heard one report.”

“As soon as Cady had been bailed out after his trouble with Argyle, he returned to my place, accompanied by Jeff Smith. Jordan, Sparks and the others were there, and Smith proposed the drinks. In the conversation that followed, the latter accused Watrous and myself of acting unfairly in not trying to get bail for Cady as well as Argyle.

“In the heated discussion that followed, Cady called Jordan a ____ ____ ____ ____, and struck him. The men were separated, Thompson and Mart hauling Jordan back to the front of the room, while I pushed Cady the other way.

“As I made for Cady he cried to Smith, “Shoot, Jeff; shoot the ____ ____ ____ ____, I called to Sparks, who was behind me, to stop the row, and he stepped forward. At that instant I heard two shots in close succession and saw Sparks stagger. As he reeled toward the bar Cady ran at him and felled him with a blow on the head. … “Just then I heard Smith cry, ‘Tom, let’s get out of this,’ and he and Cady started for the rear room. I followed … and knocked Cady down, and turned toward Smith. As I did so Cady picked up the cane I had dropped and dealt me a blow under the eye. Both … ran out the back door and disappeared. …

“Sparks was facing Cady and Smith when he was shot, and I can’t tell which shot him.”

Thompson’s statement corroborates that of Murphy in all its details. He helped pull Jordan back and held the latter until he had drawn his revolver and threatened to shoot him, when he let go. He heard two shots and saw Smith shoot, but couldn’t say which it was that shot Sparks.

Smith gave himself up at 1:30 o’clock this morning. He had a heavy revolver, with all the chambers loaded, and Thompson and Murphy were arrested and jailed as witnesses.

The police restrained people from entering the saloon, but outside, within ten minutes, there were fully 300 men.

Sparks has been a gambler in Colorado and Denver for fourteen years. He was 40 years of age and unmarried. He was dressed finely and wore good jewelry. His father is a physician in St. Joseph.

Cliff Sparks: pp. 79, 250-259, 263, 268, 289, 291-92, 502, 507, 529.

Jeff Smith

.

Tom Cady rules over Dyea, Alaska

"Troublesome Tom" P. Cady
Denver Post, March 3, 1902

 

(Click image to enlarge)

roublesome Tom Cady

    Years ago, while researching for Alias Soapy Smith, I came across the name Tom Cady as being Dyea's underworld boss. Previous to the publication of my book some historians gave Cady's name as an indication that Soapy probably had no control in Dyea. None of these historians had connected Cady as a member of the Soap Gang in Colorado, where he was known as "Sure-Shot" and "Troublesome Tom." My book covers quite a bit about Cady, as well as Dyea.
    I came across the following from the Morning Oregonian, May 10, 1898.

A "sure-thing" operator named Keady is held at Dyea on a charge of stealing about $2000 worth of silk and other merchandise while it was in transit to the summit. The marshal is very reticent about the robbery, and it is suspected that other and more reputable persons than Keady are implicated in it.

    The fact that the marshal was said to be "very reticent about the robbery" indicates that he was probably under the pay of the bunco men.

U.S. Marshal's office
Dyea, Alaska
Note sign regarding telephone service between Skaway and Dyea.

 

(Click image to enlarge)

    Tom Cady, sometimes spelled "Kady" or "Keady," was known in Colorado as “Sure-Shot” and “Troublesome Tom.” As a member of the Soap Gang he operated shell games for Soapy. He was known for his nasty temper and habit of carrying a 12-inch dirk. He followed Soapy to Creede, Colorado in 1892 and then back to Denver after that town's silver rush faded. Accompanied Soapy to Mexico in the 1894 in effort to recruit a private army for the President of Mexico. Cady became a prime suspect with Soapy in the 1892 shooting death of gambler Cliff Sparks. He followed Soapy to Alaska and became Dyea’s underworld boss. It is not known when Cady left Alaska, but it surely happened soon after Soapy was killed in July 1898.

• January 12, 1899: Cady did return to Denver, where he was arrested, along with others in a theft case. 
• June 9, 1899: Cady is mentioned in Denver newspapers regarding his wager on the Fitzsimmons-Jeffries boxing bout.
• December 19, 1901: In a Dallas, Texas theft case a "Tom Cady" pleaded guilty. He spent five-days in jail and a $10 fine.
• February 18, 1902: A comical article published in the Denver Post indicates that Cady plans to return to Denver, using Wolfe Londoner, Denver's old mayor.
• March 3, 1902: The Denver Post announces Cady's death in San Francisco, California on February 26, 1902. Because it is linked to the same joke from February 18th, this may be a false death report, common among the bunco men running from the law.

Tom Cady (link 1) (link 2)

Tom Cady: pages 79, 210-11, 229, 251-52, 253-57, 260, 264, 362, 450.

I had seen a carpenter pause at Tom’s three-legged stool that day, watch the game for a moment, then slowly slide his tool bag from his shoulder to the ground, put $5 on the table and pounce upon one of the shells. He lost this five and two more, called the shell man a thief and demanded his money back.
     "Yes," said the man, with his cold eyes fixed upon the top of the mountain. "I presume that’s what you wanted with my money—to give it back."

—San Francisco Call, 09/04/1898.

JUNE 16

1858: In a speech in Springfield, Illinois, Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln stated that the slavery issue had to be resolved. He declared, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

1867: Indians and the 3rd Cavalry do battle in the Gallinas Mountains, New Mexico Territory.

1868: Four members of the 1st Cavalry are killed by Indians while on mail escort in Toddy Mountains, Arizona Territory.

1880: Jim Tyler and Matthew Gray are indicted in Tyler, Texas for their involvement in the Sam Bass gang and the Eagle Ford train robbery of April 4, 1878. Tyler is not captured until July 21, 1881.

1890: The second Madison Square Gardens opens.

1881: John E. Wilcoxon, more commonly known as “Jim Moon,” is shot and killed by gambler, bunco man, Clay Wilson, in the Denver, Colorado Arcade Cafe, saloon, and gaming house.

1897: The U.S. government signs a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.

1898: The first issue of the Klondike Nugget is published in Dawson, Yukon.

1903: The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.

1906: An act of congress is signed by Theodore Roosevelt, which combines Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory into a single state, called Oklahoma.

Town of Dyea, Alaska, 1897

DYEA, ALASKA 1897

(Click image to enlarge)

yea, Alaska 1897 covered in a layer of campfire and fireplace smoke, was located five miles from Skagway where Soapy Smith went. Dyea was founded first but the docking for ships was too unmanageable and Dyea died out, along with much of its early history. I found this photograph online at the University of Washington. The original is very poor in visibility, so I took the liberty of using photoshop to "clean" it up.

      Years ago, while researching for my Soapy book (Alias Soapy Smith), I came across the name Tom Cady as being Dyea's underworld boss. Up until my book was published, several historians gave Cady's name as proof that Soapy probably had no control in Dyea, but none of them had connected Cady as a member of the Soap Gang in Colorado, where he was known as "Sure-Shot" and "Troublesome Tom." My book covers quite a bit about Cady, as well as Dyea.

Courtesy of University of Washington Digital Collections. 

 











The following links will open new windows for additional research. Be sure to scroll.
Dyea
Tom Cady

Dyea: pages 13, 79, 414, 430, 432, 434-35, 440, 442, 450-51, 455, 460, 466, 470, 473, 477, 481-82, 489, 492, 495-96, 499, 506, 513-14, 520, 527-28, 550-51, 562, 566, 569-70.

Tom Cady: pages 79, 210-11, 229, 250-51, 253-57, 260, 264, 362, 450.

"The only certainty is that nothing is certain."

— Pliny the Elder

OCTOBER 12

1492: Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, sights Watling Island in the Bahamas, believing that he had found Asia while attempting to find a Western ocean route to India. The same day he claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain.

1792: The first monument honoring Christopher Columbus is dedicated in Baltimore, Maryland.

1860: Inventor Elmer Sperry is born. During his lifetime he will hold patents on more than 400 inventions. The most important being the Sperry Automatic Pilot.

1870: Horace Greeley visits Greeley, Colorado, the city named in his honor.

1870: Robert E. Lee dies peacefully in Lexington, Virginia at age 63. Lee is most famous as a confederate general during the American Civil War.

1872: Indian chief Cochise and General O. Howard sign a peace treaty in Arizona Territory.

1878: Eight cowboys from Dallas County get into a shootout with Deputy Sheriff Tom Gerren in Lewisville, Texas. One of the cowboys is shot in the hip and two horses are killed.

1882: The Tombstone Epitaph reports that bad man Johnny Ringo is drunk in Galeyville, Arizona Territory.

1892: In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Columbus landing the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in public schools.

1895: the first amateur golf tournament is held in Newport, Rhode Island.

Traps for Klondikers, the newspaper story of Soapy Smith's shell and pea operators.

Operating a shell and pea game
One of the Soap Gang
along the trail

(Click image to enlarge)

RAPS FOR KLONDIKERS.

Soapy Smith's shell and pea operators in Alaska

      From the day that Soapy Smith arrived in Skagway, Alaska his gang operated the old shell and pea swindle in town and along the White Pass and Chilkoot trails with great success. In fact, they became so well known that nearly every city newspaper covered the plight of those taken in by the hucksters. One might think that all that coverage would have educated enough of the stampeders to stay away from the confidence game, but there were plenty of dupes for the taking and this was solely Soapy's domain. Any con men arriving in Skagway could not work without Soapy's permission and a generous piece of the profits.
     The May 23, 1898 edition of the Daily Republican of Monogahela, Pennsylvania published detailed account of the shell and pea men working the trails, their method of operations and how they lured the victims into playing their games of no chance.

TRAPS FOR KLONDIKERS.

______________

THE TRAILS TO THE GOLD MINES

SWARM WIT SWINDLERS.

______________

Ingenious Snares That the Sure-Thing

Gamblers Set for the Unwary — A

Spell-binder Who Carries a Bogus

Pack — The Shell Game — Salted Mines.

     Since the grass has begun to grow too short for them in town, some of the confidence workers who still remain at Skagway, Alaska, have taken to the trails, where they continue to set snares for the dollars of unwary Klondikers. On the Skagway trail the sure-thing gambler seldom goes higher than the foot of White Pass summit. Half a dozen or so of the tribe usually travel together, sharing as the close of the day the profits of the tricks they have turned. One of the party is chosen as active operator. His necessary qualifications are a capacity to judge human character and a tongue that is gifted with glibness.

     The successful confidence operator is best described by the term spellbinder. His confederates—the steerers—carefully disassociate themselves from him whenever a possible victim is in sight. The better to disguise his wolfish character the steerer frequently dons the sheep’s clothing of a packer. It is no uncommon incident on the trail to see two or more notorious bunco steerers faring along, one after the other, apparently heavily burdened with packs which, if analyzed, would prove to be nothing more than straw or ships in canvas sacks. A little ahead of them always is the operator, equipped with a small portable table, three shells and the elusive pea.

     When the first one reaches the manipulator of the ancient, but to the victim ever new, game, he stops, watches and listens, and finally lays down his pack as if to rest and be amused. Steerer No. 2 follows his example, as do the others in turn. By the time the prospector victim arrives he finds a spurious Klondiker just winning a bet from the shell game player amid the half-envious congratulations of his confederates.

     “Well, well, this is my unlucky day, “ says the man with the table, “but I’ll give some other gentlemen a chance to win with the little pea.”

     Back and forth and round about go the little shells again, a glimpse of the pea being given the watchers at seductively frequent intervals. Another steerer guesses its location and wins a greenback or two.

     “If you fellows are hitting me too hard,” dubiously comments the operator, “I must size up my roll before taking any more bets.”

     He opens a well-lined pocketbook, an, while his attention is taken up with its contents, one of the steerers slyly raises the shell under which the pea is hidden. That catches the outsider, unless he be invulnerable against the temptations of bunco.

     Laying his finger on the shell indicated to him, he offers to bet $10, $20, $50, or a higher sum that it covers the pea. His bet is taken, the shell is lifted, and the pea proves to be somewhere else. Usually the victim makes a second, and perhaps a third, bet in the hopes of retrieving his loss, always with the same result. A witness to one of these episodes tells of having seen a prospector who had lost $90 sit upon his pack and burst into tears. He said that his last dollar had gone on the game.

     Still higher up the trail that same day a man who runs a tent restaurant bet and lost $20, but the shell-game player was glad to disgorge it when the victim’s wife, a 200-pound lady of German nativity, seized him by the coat collar and screamed lustily for help. …

     On the Skagway trail the shell game is not in operation regularly. The men engaged at it are supposed to be a detachment of “Soapy” Smith’s gamblers. Those who operate in Dyea, Sheep Camp and along to the base of Chilkoot are under the leadership of Tom Cady, a notorious Colorado camp confidence man. …

     As United States Deputy Marshal [John] Cudihee is now the sole guardian of the peace for Skagway and Dyea, it is almost impossible to keep the sure-thing gamblers and others of their ilk off the trails …”

The Daily Republican

May 23, 1898

     Near the end of the article there is mention of Tom Cady, "a notorious Colorado camp confidence man," as being the "leader" in Dyea. As the town just outside the entrance to the Chilkoot trail, and being only five miles away from Skagway, it is plausible that Soapy maintained operations and control of the criminal underworld in Dyea as well as in Skagway. Having men on both trails meant close to double the profits as only working one of them would provide, thus logic would suggest that Soapy would divide and divvy up responsibility to men he could trust. The fact that Tom Cady has a well-known and detailed history with the Soap Gang beginning in 1892 it seems very likely that Cady was working for Soapy in Alaska.

The original article.

(Click image to enlarge)

Tom Cady: pp. 79, 210-11, 229, 250-51, 253-57, 260, 264, 362, 450.

"Jefferson Randolph (“Soapy”) Smith II was an American, 19th-century confidence man, gambler, and crime boss par excellence–perhaps the most accomplished street hawker and all-round bunco artist of his day."

—Alias Soapy Smith

AUGUST 14

1805: A peace treaty between the U.S. and Tunis is signed on board the USS Constitution.

1831: John Xavier Beidler is born. He is best known for being a zealous vigilante in Montana.

1848: The Oregon Territory is established.

1849: Congress creates the Oregon Territory, made up of today's states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming.

1851: John “Doc” Holliday is born in Griffin, Georgia. Most famous as a combatant at the gunfight by the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881.

1864: During a Civil War battle with Union forces in Missouri, Confederate guerrillas, William “Bloody Bill” Anderson, 16-year-old Jesse James, Tucker Hill, and Arch Clement are wounded. Frank James takes his brother, shot through the right side of his chest, to the Carroll County home of Dr. John H. Rudd.

1864: Fort Collins, Colorado Territory is established to guard the Overland trail.

1868: Ten settlers are killed in Indian raids along the Republican and Saline Rivers in Kansas.

1880: Virgil and Morgan Earp help a Fort Grant sheriff locate a rustler in Arizona Territory. The thief surrendered “when a six-shooter was run under his nose by Morgan Earp.”

1883: “Big Ed” Burns, Soap Gang member, escapes an arresting Denver police officer while still wearing handcuffs.

1885: The Denver Rocky Mountain News recognizes con man Soapy Smith as a new power in Denver’s criminal underworld.

1888: A patent for the electric meter is granted to Oliver B. Shallenberger.

1890: A horse thief is dragged into Prescott, Arizona Territory and killed for stealing cattle.

1896: Gold is discovered in Canada's Yukon Territory, in the Klondike. Within the next year more than 30,000 people rush to the area to look for gold. The rush ends the economic “Panic or 1893.”

1900: The U.S and seven other nations end the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreigners.

BUNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS. San Francisco Chronicle, April 10, 1898

Shell and Pea Game on the Trail
"Sketched from life by M. W. Newberry"
San Francisco Chronicle
April 10, 1898

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

 

UNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS

 

     A wonderfully detailed description of the modus operandi of Soapy Smith's three shell and pea manipulators along the Chilkoot and White Pass trails.

 

Witnessed and reported by Joseph D. Barry, and published in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 10, 1898. Besides this article, Barry played an important role in Skagway history, as an official witness and jury member in the May 31, 1898, inquest into the death and robbery of prostitute Ella D. Wilson. Below is the transcribed text of the article, complete with my additional comments.  

 

BUNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS.

Many Are at Work on the Trails.

Weary Plodders Often Taken In.

Klondike Pilgrims and their Wealth Separated.

The Old Pea and Shell Game Finds Many Victims Among
the Climbers of the Chilcoot Pass.

SKAGWAY, March 27, 1898.—Since the grass has begun to grow short for them in town, some of the confidence workers who still remain have taken to the trails, where they continue to set snares for the dollars of unwary Klondikers. On the Skagway trail the sure-thing gambler seldom goes higher than the foot of White pass summit. Half a dozen or so of his tribe usually travel together, sharing at the close of the day the profits of the tricks they have turned.

One of the party is chosen as active operator. His necessary qualifications are a capacity to judge human character and a tongue that is gifted with glibness. The successful confidence game operator is best described by the expressive term “spellbinder.” His confederates, the steerers carefully disassociate themselves from him whenever a possible victim is in sight.

The better to disguise his wolfish character the steerer frequently dons the sheep’s clothing of a packer. It is no uncommon incident on the trail to see two or more notorious bunko-steerers faring along, one after the other, apparently heavily burdened with packs, which if investigated would prove to be nothing more substantial than straw or chips in canvas sacks.

The "sheep's clothing of a packer" description perfectly fits the methods of soap gang member Van B. "Old Man" Triplett. According to his newspaper obituary, he was born about 1841 in Virginia and was the originator of the gold brick scam. A con man of forty years, he joined Soapy's entourage in 1894, going to Skagway where he impersonated a stampeder complete with pack (said to be filled with feathers), working three-card monte at the Skaguay entrance to the White Pass trail. It was Triplett who operated the three-card monte game against John Stewart, stealing his gold, which directly resulted in Soapy Smith's death at the hands of the vigilantes.

A little ahead of them always is the operator, equipped with a small, portable table, three shells and the elusive pea. When the first one reaches the manipulator of the ancient but to the “sucker” ever new game he stops, watches and listens, and finally lays down his pack, as if to rest, Steerer No. 2 follows his example, as do the other in turn. By the time the prospective victim arrives he finds a spurious Klondiker just winning a bet from the shell game player, amid the half envious congratulations of his confederates.

“Well, well, this is my unlucky day,” says the man with the table, “but I’ll give some other gentleman a chance to win on the little pea.” Back and forth and round about go the shells again, a glimpse of the pea being given the watchers at seductively frequent intervals. Another steerer guesses its location and wins a greenback or two.

“You fellows are hitting me too hard,” dubiously comments the operator. “I must size up my roll before I take any more bets.” He opens a well-lined pocketbook, and while his attention is taken up with its contents one of the steerers slyly raises the shell under which the pea is hidden. That catches the outsider, unless he be invulnerable against the temptations of bunko. Laying his finger on the shell indicated to him he offers to bet $10, $20, $50 or a higher sum that it covers the pea. His bet is taken, the shell is lifted and the pea proves to be somewhere else. Usually the victim makes a second and perhaps a third bet in the hope of retrieving his loss, always with the same result. A witness to one of these episodes tells of having seen a prospector who had lost $90 sit upon his pack and burst into tears. He said that his last dollar had gone on the game. Still higher up the trail that same day a man who runs a tent restaurant bet and lost $20, but the shell-game player was glad to disgorge it when the victim’s wife, a 200-pound lady of German nativity, seized him by the coat collar and screamed lustily for help.

It is also related that a man in clerical garb, said to be a missionary, dropped $100 in a single bet. He immediately picked up his daintily bound pack and resumed his journey. Without uttering a word of regret or complaint.

Yesterday a woman who said she was going to the Klondike in the interest of the Smithsonian Institution complained to Captain L. A. Matile that confidence workers were so annoying on the trail that she feared to continue her journey. She is traveling alone and had called at the Regular Army encampment on her way out of town. Captain Matile, who commands the troops here, sent an escort of two soldiers with her as far as the northwest mounted police post at Summit lake.

After working one point on the trail thoroughly the confidence workers scatter, to reappear at another point under like circumstances some time later in the day. On the Skagway trail the shell game is not in operation regularly. The men engaged at it are supposed to be a detachment of “Soapy” Smith’s gamblers. Those who operate in Dyea, Sheep Camp and along to the base of Chilcoot are under the leadership of “Tom” Cady, a notorious Colorado mining camp confidence man.

While it is true that the con men operating in Dyea and the Chilcoot (spelled Chilkoot) trail were under the leadership of Tom Cady, it is believed that Cady reported to Soapy Smith. Thomas P. "Sure-Shot" or "Troublesome Tom" Cady was a member of the soap gang in Colorado, operating the shell game for Soapy. Cady, known for his nasty temper and habit of carrying a 12-inch dirk, followed Soapy from Denver to Creede, Colorado, in 1892 and back to Denver, where he became a prime suspect with Soapy in the 1892 shooting death of gambler Clifton "Cliff" Sparks. He accompanied Soapy to Mexico in 1894 and likely followed Soapy to Alaska, becoming Soapy's manager of operations in Dyea.

Other devices for catching “suckers” besides the pea and shells are heard of occasionally. The salted-mine man is one of the most recent additions to those who seek to get something for nothing. J. T. Jones, president of the Guarantee Title and Abstract Company of Juneau, yesterday saved a Dyea merchant from falling into the clutches of one of this variety. The merchant told Jones that he had a chance to buy a placer mine for the very low price of $500. It was a new strike, only five miles outside of Dyea, and the locator, being out of funds, was willing to sacrifice his claim. Jones was then shown specimens of gold from the placer, it being in shot and smaller particles.

In the afternoon the miner accompanied Jones and the merchant to his claim, where he panned samples of the dirt. The specimens obtained looked genuine, but feeling dubious, nevertheless, the Juneau man to-day had them tested. They proved to be a composition of copper, zinc, bismuth and tin.

As a United States Deputy Marshal Cudihee is now the sole guardian of the peace for Skagway and Dyea, it is almost impossible to keep sure-thing gamblers and others of their ilk off the trails.

Amazingly, I do not have much on U.S. Deputy Marshal John Cudihee other than he was in Soapy's May 1, 1898, parade in Skagway.

 

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

Shell and pea game: pages 8, 10, 15, 27, 51, 53-55, 58, 64, 72, 78-80, 92, 99, 110, 112, 115, 141, 205, 210, 229-31, 248, 250, 256, 308, 351, 362, 368, 465-67, 471-72, 475-77, 482, 492, 498, 505, 535, 548, 594.

Joseph D. Barry: page 506.

Ella D. Wilson: pages 506-512.

Van B. "Old Man" Triplett: pages 90-92, 471, 475, 526, 554, 564-67, 575-79, 595.

Thomas P. "Troublesome Tom" Cady: pages 79, 210-11, 229, 250-51, 253-57, 260, 264, 362, 450.

 Clifton Sparks: pages 79, 250-59, 263, 268, 289, 291-92, 502, 507, 529.

 U.S. Deputy Marshal John Cudihee: page 500.

"With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spades, the emblems of untimely graves."

—William Cowper

Soapy Smith's Greatest Hoax: A review

Ashley Smith, a great-great-granddaughter of Soapy Smith
with Sylvester, alias McGinty 1998

I always felt that one of the more interesting stories to come out of my decades of research on Soapy Smith is the information on McGinty the petrified man of Creede, Colorado in 1892. Of that story, perhaps the most important part is that McGinty is still on display in the state where it was last sold in 1895.

Although the old Creede newspapers were pretty detailed about McGinty apparently few of the early biographers were able to find copies of the articles. As so usual, many authors simply made up their own information. A good example of the latter was published in November 1960 in Real West magazine by George Malcom Majors under the title, Soapy Smith's Greatest Hoax.



Soapy Smith's Greatest Hoax

Following is a list of mistakes in chronological order by page.

Page 14

• [The photograph on this page is reversed]
• Mr. Majors writes that McGinty the petrified man was found on May 14, 1892 but where he sourced this date from is unknown. The Creede Candle clearly reports the discovery on April 9, 1892.
• Majors states that Soapy placed Joe Simmons in control of the New Orleans Club and that Soapy claimed he was getting out of the business. Actually, Soapy never made the claim. He also did not (could not) place Joe Simmons in control of the Club because Simmons had passed away on March 18, 1892, a month prior to the discovery of McGinty. Joe Simmons had been manager of the Orleans Club up until the time of his death, after which, Joe Palmer was made manager of the saloon and gaming house.
• Majors makes the claim that Soapy had found McGinty on his own silver claim. Indeed, Soapy had several claims around Creede in his name but McGinty was not "found" by Soapy. It was "discovered by J. J. Dore and George W. Lewis and was "purchased" by Soapy for $3,000. This purchase was on paper only as few would have believed McGinty real had Soapy found it himself. Later it is revealed that George Lewis is one of the gang members.
  
  The story of McGinty is a fascinating one and is covered in detail in my book, Alias Soapy Smith. My book includes the theory of the identification of the corpse that became McGinty.

Page 15

• The photograph and story indicate that Soapy displayed McGinty inside Bob Ford's tent saloon. There is no accounting for this story. The Creede Herald stated that McGinty was placed into a box and placed on display at the Tortoni tent hotel. The following day, April 15, Soapy left Creede with McGinty and returned to Denver, only retuning to Creede after the June 8, 1892 fire which destroyed the business district.
• Majors mentions a couple members of the Soap Gang. He includes "'Reverend' Bowers," which is John L. Bowers, "'Fatty' Gray," which is actually John H. Morris but many early writers mistakenly thought that his alias of "Fatty Gray" meant that Gray was his last name. Majors mention of "Tom Crippen" is probably a mistake. The only connection I could find between Crippen and Soapy was that Crippen was the 'lookout" (faro table guard) during a faro game at the Denver Exchange which Bat Masterson managed in Creede. "Slim Cady" is Thomas P. Cady known as "Sure-shot" and "Troublesome Tom." "Daddy Pete" is fiction
• Majors uses the old biographies to record the history of how Soapy was initiated into the world of crime. Records show Soapy was never a cowboy who lost his pay to a shell man. Old biographies list Jeff's first mentor as a man named Taylor. Majors fictitiously gives him the first name of "Bill." Soapy did start out as a cheap John, one who sells cheap goods for high prices, much like today's jam auctions. His mentor in the business was never named, although one of Soapy's early friends who was retiring from his long career was named John Taylor and it is possible he was Soapy's mentor. How the early biographies could have determined this is unknown.

Page 16

• Majors describes how McGinty was manufactured, however, like the early biographies he believed that McGinty was man-made. What no one figured out, including myself until a few years ago, is that McGinty was manufactured from a human corpse into a "petrified man." My book goes into great detail about McGinty, including my theory about the original identity of the corpse. Very fascinating stuff.
• Majors said that McGinty was found on May 14 on page 14. On page 16 he writes that it was found and reported on July 2. Again, the real date reported on the front page of the newspaper was April 9, 1892.

Page 17

• Bob Ford was not involved with the petrified man in any way.
• Ford was kicked out of Creede once, not twice. It happened on April 22, 1892. Ford and Joe Palmer, the manager of the Orleans Club, shot up the town and made a quick exit to escape jail-time. Within a few days they were allowed to return with the promise to behave.

Page 47

• Majors uses the old biographies name of "Colonel Stone" for the petrified man. No where in contemporary sources is the name "Colonel Stone" mentioned, except in the old biographies.
• Majors describes the exhibition of McGinty but it is based on imagination only. He theorizes how Soapy and the gang made money from the exhibition by way of seeing the insides of wallets. Considering that viewing the petrified man in Creede was 25-cents and later, 10-cents in Denver it seems unlikely men would be needing to open their wallets. Change fit into pockets and the hand as it does today. In my book I theorize that Soapy's shell-and-pea men and three-card monte tossers were plying their trade while the customers waited to enter the exhibition. In this way, the victims came to Soapy's men rather than having to go out and steer them in to where the games are being operated.

Page 59 (Trivia): An "In our next issue" ad by the magazine informs readers to watch for a story on the famous Gillette, Colorado bull fight of 1895. It is believed that Soapy had the saloon and gambling concession just outside the bull ring.

October 23

1892: Soapy and five others enter a polling place and forcefully eject the pollsters, placing one of their own in charge, then proceed to allow repeat voters in to cast votes.

Jeff Smith

My gratitude goes out to Bob "Buckshot" Bradley for taking the time 

and effort to place these collectible stories from old magazine in his 

collection onto PDF format so that my viewers here can read them 

exactly as they were published. 

THANK YOU BOB!

.

The criminal history of Harry Gilmore, alias Jim Jordan.

Harry Gilmore
Alias Jim Jordan
age 48-54
Rocky Mountain News
April 19, 1894

(Click image to enlarge)

ho the hell was Harry Gilmore?

     We are all mere "students" of history. When I published my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, there was a limit to time and resources I had available to work with. I could not spend the time researching every person Soapy Smith knew. These days I have more time and resources at my disposal. Thus, as a result, I am coming across new and interesting historical information. Today's article regards a con man Soapy knew, named Harry Gilmore, alias "Jim Jordan."
     In Alias Soapy Smith I describe him as an opposition figure of "Troublesome" Tom Cady, standing at Soapy's side in Denver on October 11, 1892, the day gambler Cliff Sparks was shot and killed in Murphy's Exchange. The Denver newspapers report that his name is Jim Jordan, alias Harry Gilmore, and I accepted that at the time. A more thorough search indicates it is likely the other way around, his real name being Harry Gilmore, alias "Jim Jordan." Who shot and killed Sparks was never determined, and the murder remains a mystery, though throughout the rest of his life newspapers gave Gilmore credit for the deed when reporting on him.
     The shooting of Sparks indirectly caused problems for Soapy six years later in Skagway, Alaska, when brothel proprietor Mattie Silks arrived in town. Her husband, Corteze “Cort” Thomson, was a friend and business partner of Gilmore's and for a brief time was also implicated in the shooting. As told to a Seattle reporter, Silks accused Soapy of plotting to murder her.
     While Alias Soapy Smith contains much more detail about Gilmore, the above information summarizes what I knew about him, until very recently. Research of Gilmore in a Denver newspaper suggested that I should try to pick up his trail and follow it. That pursuit led to a landfill of new information about this criminal. For some of the following newspaper listings, the "Harry Gilmore" cited may be about some other criminal using this name. However, all of the listings suggest one and the same person based on details known about the man and the criminal nature of his crimes.

• 1840-1846: Newspapers vary on Harry Gilmore's year of birth. In 1894 the Rocky Mountain News stated he was 48 years old, where as the Morning Star (Washington, D.C.) states that he was 78 at the time of his death in 1918.
• September 15, 1876: Gilmore is incarcerated for burglary and larceny. Jamestown Journal (New York).
• October 18, 1876: Gilmore is in police court for "larceny of gas pipe from J. F. Reardon; [sentenced to] six months in jail." Evening Star (Washington D.C.).
• Unknown date prior to 1881: Gilmore was injured in "A trespassing operation [that] was unsuccessful," and as a result, "there is a silver plate in Gilmore's head to-day." November 8, 1886, Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
  
• March 14, 1881: Gilmore shoots and kills George McBride. Daily Illinois State Journal (Chicago, Illinois).


SHOT AND KILLED.

CHICAGO, March 13.—George McBride, a hostler, in the employ of William B. Simpson, was shot and killed by a well known thief named Harry Gilmore, in front of the Wabash Avenue Pavilion today. Simpson had been on a spree last night, and McBride was sent from his home to hunt him up, and found him in the Pavilion in company with Gilmore. McBride tried to get his employer away, but Gilmore interfered and called McBride names, whereupon McBride invited him outside to settle the matter with fists. When they started out Gilmore was handed a pistol by the bartender. When Simpson saw the pistol in Gilmore's hand he tried to stop the fight, and McBride said he had no intention to fight unarmed against Gilmore. The latter said he had no intention to let his adversary off so, and leveling the pistol over Simpson's shoulder, sent a ball through McBride's temple, killing him instantly. Simpson, the owner of the saloon and the bartender were arrested, but Gilmore escaped.

• March 15, 1881: "A dispatch from Fort Wayne [Indiana] says Gilmore is well known in that city, where it is thought he murdered Corner [Connor?] Webb, three years ago." Evening Leader (Chicago, Illinois). 
• June 6, 1881: Gilmore is spotted in Chicago, entering the brothel where his mistress, Monte Hamilton, lived. Police searched the brothel, but Gilmore was not found. Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
• Unknown date: Gilmore serves "a two year’s sentence in Fairfield, Iowa for some three-card monte business." November 8, 1886, Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
• 1884: Gilmore is sighted in Portland, Oregon, but disappeared before he could be captured.  November 7, 1886, Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
• November 7, 1886: Gilmore is captured in Chicago by Sergeant Max Kipley and Detective Costello as he emerged from a resort in Calhoune Place. Gilmore is described as "small and elegantly dressed." The paper also wrote that at the time of the murder in 1881 Gilmore was a "young appearing man, with luxurious black hair and beard. As he trembled in the clutch of the officers in his old haunts this morning, he was a man grown prematurely old. His hair and beard were white as snow, and he bore other evidence of having waged brisk war with fear and remorse during the five years that elapsed since the murder he is said to have done. The prisoner denies that he is Gilmore, and says the case is one of mistaken identity." Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
• November 8, 1886: Old acquaintances of Gilmore identify the man being held at Central Station in Chicago as Gilmore. The newspaper identifies him as a three-card monte tosser. Details of Gilmore's escape after the 1881 murder are published. Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).

     The facts concerning the escape of Gilmore at the time he murdered McBride have never been made public. The crime, which was a most cold-blooded one, was committed in the Wabash Avenue Pavilion, at Nos 542 and 546 of that thoroughfare. After Gilmore shot his victim through the head, he fled to the disreputable house kept by Mav Willard, a block north of the resort. There he had a woman named “Monte,” who was so called because of her relation to Gilmore, who was himself a three-card monte man. He remained there but a few hours, when he was taken on the West Side in a cab and “planted” in the house of a friend of his on Monroe street. There he remained about two weeks, when some of the police “stoolies” betrayed his hiding place, and Captain Buckley and four detectives went over to the house to get him. The officers went to the house next door to that in which Gilmore was hiding, and he was made aware of their presence. When they found their mistake, Gilmore was ready to make a desperate resistance; but a delay at the door gave him a chance to open a window and jump to a shed twenty feet below. As he stood on the sill, one of the officers caught sight of him, and as the murderer jumped a bullet was sent after him. It missed. Gilmore escaped around to Peoria street, thence north to Madison street, where he was lost sight of by the Chicago detectives until yesterday. When he disappeared from sight on Madison street, Gilmore took a car, rode to the Washingtonian Home, and there entered himself as a patient suffering from alcoholism. As such he remained for three weeks, when he sees an opportunity offered of leaving town.

     Since leaving here he has had some adventures. He has been in every State in the Union, almost, and did a two year’s sentence in Fairfield, Iowa for some three-card monte business. Two years ago his wife was in Chicago trying to make arrangements with the friends of the murdered man to drop the prosecution. Gilmore was then in California, and everything was about completed, when a [illegible word] occurred, and the negotiations fell through.

December 4, 1886: Gilmore is arrested in Chicago on five charges of larceny, falsely representing himself as an inspector for an insurance company, in which he stole four watches and gold jewelry. Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
December 10, 1886: Pleads not guilty for the 1881 murder of  George McBride. Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
January 22, 1887: Gilmore is sentenced to 3 years in prison for larceny (see Dec 4, 1886). Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
January 26, 1887: Trial begins for the murder of George McBride (1881). Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
January 28, 1887: Gilmore is convicted of murdering George McBride (1881) and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Evening Star (Washington, D.C.).
July 10, 1892: The governor of Illinois pardons Gilmore for the murder of George McBride as Gilmore is reported to be dying of consumption. Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).
Unknown date: Harry Gilmore is first reported using the alias of "Jim Jordan."
October 11, 1892: Gilmore, alias "Jim Jordan," is a key suspect in the shooting death of gambler Cliff Sparks, along with Soapy Smith and Thomas Cady. All are acquitted of the murder. Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, Colorado). See blog post of August 3, 2011.
January 3, 1893: In San Francisco Gilmore, Horace Black, "Kid" McCoy and William Edwards rob Wachhorst's jewelry store of a "large quantity of diamonds" valued at $7,000. April 19, 1894, Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, Colorado).
February 11, 1894: Gilmore is arrested in Denver along with con man Frank Salter alias "Plunk." The capture of a local criminal who had letters on his person leads to the fact that Harry Gilmore, alias "Jim Jordan," is the leader of a gang of robbers in Denver. Police corruption is suspected as Jordan is released for no apparent reason. Orders are given to rearrest Jordan on vagrancy and suspicion. By the time Gilmore was arrested, a bond for his release had been made out. Gilmore is believed to be a "go-between for the holdups" that have been occurring in Denver for several months. Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, Colorado).
March 12, 1894: A Chicago newspaper publishes an article stating that "Thomas Jordan, who is under sentence of death in Colorado for killing a watchman at the Grant smelter and whom Governor Waite has refused to pardon, is said to be Harry Gilmore, ..." [could this be just a simple mistake, or could it be an attempt to pass on Gilmore's identity to a convicted man awaiting execution?] Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, Colorado).
April 1, 1894: A San Francisco sheriff wires Denver police to hold Gilmore until they can arrive and take him back to California for defrauding Len Foster out of $4,000 in the summer of 1893. Gilmore's accomplice is Corteze “Cort” Thomson but there is not enough evidence to charge Thomson with being a co-conspirator in the crime. At some point while in California, Gilmore is also arrested on a burglary charge. Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, Colorado).
April 15, 1894: In San Francisco, Gilmore partner Horace Black, who is in jail, informs on Gilmore and confesses their Wachhorst diamond robbery. Gilmore is in jail in Denver awaiting the arrival of San Francisco police officers to arrest and return him to California to stand trial. San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California).
April 19, 1894: A snag in Gilmore's extradition occurs. Denver police had arrested and held Gilmore at the request of Sheriff O'Neil of San Francisco for the diamond robbery in that city, and a private detective was sent to collect Gilmore. However, upon arriving to take charge of his prisoner, the detective was told that Gilmore had been released. California Governor Markham was notified by wire, and a war of words ignited between him and Colorado Governor Waite. The detective was ordered to remain in Denver and follow Gilmore until the tangled legal mess could be unraveled. Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, Colorado).
May 13, 1897: In Columbus, Ohio, along with other men, Harry Gilmore is arrested, using the alias "Murnan Creet," while defrauding numerous bicycle dealers throughout the state. Cleveland Leader (Cleveland, Ohio).
The plan is a new one and brilliant in its simplicity. One of the men called up Schoedinger & Fearn by telephone, gave the name of a retail dealer, ordered a few pairs of bicycle tires, and said he would send a boy for the tires and the bill. In a few minutes the boy appeared and got the tires. The trio, of course, skipped before the monthly bills were rendered.
     From the extensiveness with which the men had operated it is believed that they bagged at least $10,000.
June 13, 1899: Denver police receive information from Seattle, Washington, that Gilmore is "wanted for working the gold brick swindle." Gilmore, J. R. Green and J. F. Gray "bilked a farmer at Walla Walla, Washington out of $8,000 recently." Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, Colorado). See blog post of December 3, 2017.
February 4, 1901: In Denver, Gilmore, alias "Jim Jordan," is identified as the "chief bunco man" among the gang being financed by Kittie Fitzgibbons. Others in the gang living at the Belmont hotel are Kid Cunningham, alias Thorne, Annie Piggott, May Sloan, George Barrett,  Chris and Charlie, known as "the Swedes," "Sleepy" Jake and Ike Cohen. Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, Colorado).
December 21, 1902: Gilmore, alias "James Carlisle," is arrested at a race track in New Orleans as a "dangerous and suspicious character." The newspaper makes mention that he had been arrested in Salt Lake City, Utah, and El Paso, Texas (winter of 1901). Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana). According to the December 22, 1902, San Francisco Chronicle, Gilmore was convicted and sentenced to five years in San Quentin for a swindle in Stockton, California.
February 3, 1905: Gilmore, alias "J. C. Martin," is arrested in Dayton, Ohio. Denver Post (Denver, Colorado).
August 19, 1905: Gilmore, alias "Jim Jordan," is a key witness in the Pollock diamond robbery in Iowa. Daily Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, Iowa).
February 1, 1907: Gilmore is identified and sought for check forgery. Morning Star (Washington, D.C.).
May 5, 1908: In Denver Gilmore and a young female are arrested for larceny and burglarizing $600 worth of furs from the store owned by J. Neilsen. Gilmore was working as a waiter in the Mining Exchange saloon so he was released on personal recognizance. Denver Post (Denver, Colorado).
June 7, 1908: Gilmore is rearrested in Denver and held pending instructions from several law police departments in the East. In St. Joseph, Missouri, the inspector of detectives recognized Gilmore as "Charles O'Hara," brother of "Cat" O'Hara, serving a life sentence for the murder of a saloon proprietor. Authorities in Omaha, Nebraska, are seeking Gilmore on a charge of forging or passing a U.S. postal order. Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado). 
January 4, 1909: In New Jersey Gilmore is charged with four counts of grand larceny as a boarding house thief working what the newspaper calls the "furnished room game." He enters a plea of non vult, or "no contest," and at age 70 is sentenced to 8 years in prison. The newspaper writes, "The aged offender, now a cripple and forced to use a heavy cane." Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey).







Harry Gilmore
"Age 70"
likely age 63-69
Jersey Journal
January 7, 1909




• April 13, 1911: A Harry Gilmore is given six months in the San Francisco county jail for petty larceny in the hold up of G. F. Fillippi. San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco).
• April 11, 1918: Harry Gilmore dies. Morning Star (Washington, D.C.).  
_______________

OLD JIM JORDAN DIES.

BALTIMORE, Md., April 10.—"Old Jim" Jordan, international confidence man, died in Baltimore today at the age of 78. Jordan was a "de luxe" card sharper, working especially the big transatlantic liners. He had killed two men in his day and was generally feared by the police. His real name was Harry Gilmore.

_______________

     So ends the recently collected, chronological data for Harry Gilmore, aka "Jim Jordan," and a host of other alias.' No stories are known about what kind of a "card sharper" he was except that he was considered to be of the "deluxe" variety. He probably did not have the polished manner, guile, and nerve of a Soapy Smith, but Gilmore approached being like Soapy in at least a couple of ways: his inveterate pursuit of criminal enterprise and his ability to evade law enforcement and short change the justice system. These are not qualities to be praised. In fact, they're not even qualities, except in how they express a wildness of spirit that refused to submit. 

Harry Gilmore, alias "Jim Jordan:" December 3, 2017
Cliff Sparks: August 3, 2011

Harry Gilmore, alias "Jim Jordan:" pages 250-55, 257-58, 507, 520.
Cliff Sparks: pages 79, 250-59, 263, 268, 289, 291-92, 502, 507, 529.

"There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more."

—Woody Allen

DECEMBER 7

1787: Delaware is the first state to ratify the U.S. constitution.

1796: John Adams is elected the second president of the U.S.

1836: Martin Van Buren is elected the eighth president of the U.S.

1863: George Ives, a member of the “innocents” outlaw gang, robs and kills Nick Thiebalt in Ruby Valley, Montana Territory.

1869: The James-Younger gang robs the Gallatin, Missouri bank. John W. Sheets, a former captain in the Union Army, is shot and killed by Jesse James. The robbers ride away with about $700.

1871: The town of Kit Carson, Colorado Territory is surrounded by thousands of buffalo, who are ranging 200 miles farther west than usual. The Indians of the region say that it is a prediction of a bad winter.

1874: Twenty-six Indians surrender to Captain Keyes and the 10th Cavalry at Kingfisher Creek, Indian Territory.

1874: Four men rob the Tishomingo Bank in Cornith, Mississippi. Newspapers and some historians say it is the work of the James-Younger gang.

1875: John Clark brings the first flock of sheep into Arizona Territory.

1878: The first train to enter New Mexico Territory comes from Colorado via the Raton Pass.

1888: Buffalo Bill Cody visits Cheyenne, Wyoming.