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| BAD MAN FROM COLORADO The Butte Miner Butte, Montana December 4, 1896 |
(Click image to enlarge)
As of this newspaper article, Bascomb was a recent released one-year prisoner of the Colorado prison system. His brother was gone, having fled Colorado to keep from being placed behind bars, likely he was looking at a longer sentence than Bascomb. Soapy tried to convince Bascomb to leave Colorado with him, and though Bascomb had numerous chances, he chose to stay. This article is one of the harshest accountings of Bascomb I have ever seen. I do not know how much of it is accurate. Below is the transcription of the article.
Butte, Montana
December 4, 1896
—
BAD MAN FROM COLORADO.
—
Bascom Smith, Brother of the Famous “Soapy” Smith, Makes His Bow.
Bascom Smith, bad man from Colorado, and brother of Col. Jefferson Randolph Smith, better known throughout the west as “Soapy” Smith, has turned up in Butte and it is not unlikely that the police will have as much trouble with Bascom as the authorities of Denver have during the past four years.
Colorado is very glad to lose Bascom. The atmosphere in Denver got a little too sultry for “Soapy” about two years ago. He was wanted on a charge of flim-flamming a “guy” out of several thousand. “Soapy” disappeared with his sudden wealth and was afterwards heard from in old Mexico. Since then he has given the Queen City a very wide berth.
As a confidence man and now and then gun player “Soapy” was king of the rollers in Colorado for years. Bascom Smith, who has unexpectedly honored Butte with his presence, worked in “Soapy's” team for a time but his art got to coarse, so his slick brother deserted him. Bascom in other words used his gun on a man down there and sent him to a swift account. He was tried in the district court and served a slight sentence. He figured in other gun plays and came near breaking up “Soapy” in business. For genuine toughness Bascom has many marks against his name on the criminal blotter of that city.
His first bow to Butte was in the role of a person who subsists on the earnings of a low woman. Officer Griffith arrested the man on complaint of Elsie Edwards. She says that Smith has been living with her both in Denver and Butte. They came to this city two weeks ago and since that time Smith has spent over $100, earned by the woman, drinking it up over the bar of a Galena street saloon. She complains of ill-treatment, more particularly described as threats to kill, and several beatings.
Whether the woman's story is true or not, such brutal treatment would be nothing else than a repetition of the man's wild career in Denver. He was taken before Justice Holland and released on bonds of $100, which were furnished by Edmund Levi. Smith will enter his plea this morning. In the meantime Elsie Edwards is in absolute dread that Smith will take her life, but the police are apprised of his history and will keep an eye on the bad man from Colorado.—
Points to consider
- Soapy was not wanted ('about two years ago') "on a charge of flim-flamming a guy out of several thousand." Both he and Bascomb were awaiting trial for the assault on John Hughes, proprietor of the Arcade restaurant, saloon and gaming rooms in Denver.
- It is well-known that Bascomb "worked
in 'Soapy's' team for a time," but did "his art get to coarse, so his slick
brother [Soapy] desert him?" I don't believe that this is true. Soapy always backed his brother.
- "Bascom in other words used his gun on a man down
there and sent him to a swift account. He was tried in the district
court and served a slight sentence. He figured in other gun plays and
came near breaking up 'Soapy' in business." I believe the article is referring to Bascomb's killing of Harry Smith in Denver, June 23, 1893. Bascomb got off using the self-defense plea, and there were enough witnesses to back it up the story.
Bascomb Smith
"And when I die,
don't bury me deep;
leave one hand free
to fleece the sheep."
—From the film, Honky Tonk (MGM, 1941).
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