Did Soapy Smith take refuge in Phoenix, Az?

Arizona Republic
Phoenix, Arizona
Fri. July 22, 1898
page 4

(Click image to enlarge)

he confidence man sometimes took refuge in Phoenix.

      A news story published in the Arizona Republic (Phoenix Arizona) on July 22, 1898 [seen HERE] begs more answers to new questions than reveals reliable information.

The confidence man sometimes took refuge in Phoenix.

      An article in the Republican a few days ago regarding "Soapy" Smith, the confidence man killed at Dawson City not long ago, has called out many reminiscences of that unique character by men who knew him. He was a comparatively frequent visitor of Phoenix as of all the more important towns and mining camps of this territory. He last visited this city about 18 months ago.

      He was not as he has often been described, a gambler. He was once arrested for gambling and pleaded in his defense the definition of the word gambler as one who plays for a stake taking a chance of losing it. "I take no chances at all." Said Mr. Smith. This suggests that the expression a "sure thing gambler," is erroneous, a contradiction in terms. Smith was a man of imposing front, smooth voice, persuasive language and undoubted courage. He had killed many men generally those who had interfered with his "business." His operations were usually conducted with the aid of a gang to whom there was a standing instruction to never kill if it could be avoided.

      He had one weakness, playing on the outside of a faro game, at which he was so uniformly successful that in the course of his career he lost several fortunes. He played with astonishing recklessness and his roll soon disappeared. He always left the table and went on the street to work is famous "soap" scheme or one of his other various confidence games, and invariably returned with a sum sufficient to renew the excitement at faro. He was as charitable as a prince and as indiscriminate in his giving. He distributed thousands among the worthy and the unworthy.

      When he was last in Phoenix he told an acquaintance that he was ashamed and wary of his performances and resolved to abandon his manner of living. His resolutions were always broken, not because he cheated his dupes for money, but the attendant excitement without which he lived. It is said that he never followed his occupation in Phoenix. He always ran in here because he had turned a trick somewhere else and found it advisable to drop out of sight for a time. It was during his last visit to Phoenix under the name of Williams that the vault of the Western investment bank was broken. Some of those who knew him, but did not know him very well, suspected that Smith had engineered the job. But those who did know him knew better. Burglary was a species of criminality as distinctly out of his line a Sunday school teaching was.

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A mistake:

• Soapy Smith was not killed in Dawson City (Canada). He was killed in Skagway, Alaska.

A Few possibilities:

• Did Soapy Smith go to Phoenix, Arizona in October 1896? ("18 months ago.") Did he use the name "Williams?"

• Did Soapy engineer the robbery of the Western Investment bank?

"On the 11th instant, I informed you of a shooting affray which occurred in Skaguay. “Soapy Smith” attempted to murder a Mr. Reed [sic] who was organizing a party to recover money for a returning Klondiker named J. D. Stewart who had been robbed of same by some of Smith’s gang. In the struggle, etc., “Soapy Smith” was shot and killed from his own gun by a man named “Murphy.” Mr. Reed [sic] (who received two bullets from Smith’s gun) died a few days afterwards."

— Major Sam Steele, NWMP, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 547.

DECEMBER 22

1775: The Continental naval fleet is organized in the American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.

1807: The U.S. Congress passes the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe.

1856: Captain Richard W. Johnson and Company F, 2nd Cavalry, from Camp Colorado attacks a Comanche Indian camp along the Concho River in Texas. Two soldiers are killed and two wounded. Three Indians are killed and three wounded. Thirty-four horses are captured and a Mexican captive is recovered.

1864: During the Civil War Union General William T. Sherman sends a message to President Lincoln from Georgia, which reads, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

1872: Texas Jack Omohundro, who is appearing with Buffalo Bill in a stage show, The Scouts of the Prairie, in Chicago, Illinois, falls in love with Giuseppina Morlacchi, an Italian dancer in the show.

1877: The American Bicycling Journal is published.

1877: The Sam Bass gang robs a stagecoach heading towards Fort Worth, Texas. Soapy Smith would later witness the shooting death of Sam Bass in Round Rock, Texas.

1878: Outlaw Billy the Kid surrenders to sheriff George Kimball in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, but escapes a short time later and heads for Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory.

1887: “Big Ed” Burns is the defendant in the first recorded court case of the shell game in Los Angeles, California. He soon leaves for Colorado where he joins the Soapy Smith gang.

1888: Annie Oakley appears in the stage show Deadwood Dick: or the Sunbeam of the Sierras.

1888: The Denver crime boss “Soapy” Smith and his younger brother Bascomb donate $50 during subscription to aid orphans in Arapaho County, Colorado.

1890: 294 members of Sitting Bull's Indian tribe surrender in Cherry Creek, South Dakota.

1894: The U.S. Golf Association is formed in New York City.

1900: The Sherman Tunnel in Wyoming, on the Union Pacific line is completed.