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| BASCOM SMITH IS FREE. The Colorado Terror The Butte Miner Butte Montana December 10, 1896 |
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ascomb Smith: The Colorado Terror
I previously published a Butte newspaper clipping for October 2, 1896 in which a drunken Bascomb Smith had an altercation with a Miss Dora Harris, who retaliated by instigating Bascomb's arrest on a concealed weapons charge. Bascomb turned around and accused her of stealing $25 of his. It appears that in between October and December Bascomb got into hot water again, this time for pulling his pistol and menacingly pointing it at Elsie Edwards. Below is the transcribed article.
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BASCOM SMITH IS FREE.
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Elsie Edwards Gets Scared of Him and Digs Out.
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Elsie Edwards Gets Scared of Him and Digs Out.
Bascom Smith, the Colorado terror, a brief sketch of whose career in that state was contained in the Miner a few days ago, was discharged by Justice Almon yesterday for want of prosecution, the complaining witness, Elsie Edwards, having made tracks out of the city. At the time of his arrest the woman was positive that she would prosecute Smith for drawing a weapon upon her but she recalled the bloody record of the man in Denver and lost her nerve.
Smith has appealed to his more famous brother “Soapy” Smith on several occasions when he was in trouble but he did not know this time where “Soapy” might be found or this community would not have been large enough to have held the greatest confidence man west of the Mississippi river.
Bascom Smith is now making ready to return to Colorado.
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Bascomb states that he did not know where his brother ("Soapy") was, and this was likely a legitimate claim. Bascomb had spent a year in prison, while his older brother had already spent the good portion of that year traveling the west and northwest, including two months marooned in Alaska, Seattle, Spokane. Soapy was also looking for Bacomb, asking friend Bat Masterson in a letter dated November 18, 1896, if he had seen Bascomb in Denver, of which Bat had not actually seen him, but wrote
"I hear of him, however, and always in some kind of trouble. He has been arrested twice of late for disturbance and discharging firearms down in the neighborhood of 20th and Market streets, and you know the kind of people who frequent that locality. If I were you I would advise him to leave here, as it is only a question of time until he will get a “settler” and every time the papers speak of him they generally say the brother of “Soapy” Smith, who was last heard of skinning suckers in Alaska. So you see you are not getting any the best of it."
Masterson was not exaggerating Bascomb’s troubles. The Denver Evening Post lists five charges against him, including vagrancy, drunkenness, disturbing the peace, carrying concealed weapons, and discharging firearms. He was fined a total of $153 and had his “elegant, silver-plated, highly engraved revolver confiscated.” On November 5, 1896, he was in court for stealing a woman’s expensive diamond-encrusted jewelry. According to the Post, Bascomb still had some friends in the current administration and received an order to leave town rather than face fines still owed from his October melee. Bascomb left Denver and landed in Butte, Montana leading up to his current affair.
Bascomb Smith
Bascomb Smith: pages 22, 41-42, 67, 75-76, 88-89, 92, 120-22, 139, 143, 162-63, 165, 167,
169, 176, 178, 182, 214, 247, 264, 273-75, 336, 340, 352, 355, 361, 363,
367, 370-77, 381-86, 391-99, 403-05, 408-09, 412, 420-23, 519, 554-55,
584, 588-89, 594.
"It’s only a gambling problem if I’m losing."
—Unknown
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