Soap Gang member "Slim Jim" Foster in 1923.

The con man Foster
Alias "Slim Jim," "The Kid," "W.E.," "J.H., and "W.F. Foster"
handcuffed to other members of the Soap Gang, aboard the steamer Cottage City

(Click image to enlarge)

oster was one of the men who led unfortunate miner John Stewart down the alley beside Jeff Smith's Parlor (Soapy Smith's saloon) in Skagway to a waiting three-card monte game, in which Foster grabbed Stewart’s gold sack and tossed it to the monte game operator, Van "Old-Man" Triplett who ran away with it.

      After Soapy's death Foster was arrested with the other members of the Soap Gang and placed in a room on the second floor of the Burkhard hotel. A blood-thirsty mob was just outside clamoring for a lynching. Fearing for his life Foster escaped by crashing out a second story window where he was nearly hanged by those who caught him. At trial, he was fined $1,000 and sentenced to a year in prison with an additional six months for assaulting Stewart.

"Slim Jim" Foster 
September 8, 2009
October 31, 2010

"Slim Jim" Foster: page 80, 92-93, 471, 475, 525-26, 554, 564-67, 569-70, 575-76, 579, 595.

You may lend “Soapy” Smith $100 or more at any time and be certain to get your money back with interest sooner or later, all without a scratch of the pen. [San Francisco Examiner]

—Alias Soapy Smith, p. 493.

MARCH 25

1634: Lord Baltimore creates the Catholic colony of Maryland.

1655: Catholic forces win a military victory over the colony of Maryland. The Puritans jail their Governor Stone.

1668: The first recorded horse race in America takes place.

1774: English Parliament passes the Boston Port Bill.

1776: The Continental Congress authorizes a medal for General George Washington.

1813: The frigate USS Essex flies the first U.S. flag in battle in the Pacific.

1856: A. E. Burnside patents the Burnside carbine.

1857: Frederick Laggenheim takes the first photo of a solar eclipse.

1865: The steamship General Lyon catches fire and sinks at Cape Hatteras, killing 400 people.

1865: Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman in Virginia, during the American Civil War.

1877: John Slaughter, a Cheyenne and Black Hills stagecoach driver, is shot and killed by Robert McKimie, of the outlaw Sam Bass Gang as they rob the stage outside of Deadwood, South Dakota. Also there is Sam Bass, Joel Collins, James “Frank” Towle, and either Bill Potts or James Berry. This is the first robbery of the Bass Gang. 17 months later bad man Soapy Smith would later witness the shootout that ended the life of Sam Bass in Round Rock, Texas.

1879: New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace orders the arrest of John Slaughter on suspicion of cattle rustling.

1879: The Army captures Cheyenne Indian Chief Little Wolf and 113 followers at Box Elder Creek, Montana Territory.

1886: Apache Indian Chief Geronimo meets with General Crook at Canon de los Embudos, Mexico to agree on terms of surrender.

1894: Jacob Coxey and his Army of the Commonweal begin their famous march to Washington. It is bad man Soapy Smith’s poem that is believed to be the suggestion idea for the march.

1898: The Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association is formed in New York City.

1900: The American Socialist Party is formed in Indianapolis.

1901: Cuba discloses a fear of annexation by the U.S.

1902: Irving W. Colburn patents the sheet glass drawing machine.

1905: Confederate battle flags captured during the American Civil War are returned to the Southern states where they came from.
2014: A question involving Soapy Smith appeared on the TV game show Jeopardy. The category was “con men.” No one got the correct answer about where he hid a little ball--under a shell.