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| Soapy Smith in Benson? Daily Tombstone September 2, 1885 |
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id Soapy Smith operate in Benson, Arizona in 1885?
Daily Tombstone
September 2, 1885
September 2, 1885
Went Broke.Tim and Brigham, two well known Johns, went to Benson Tuesday to take in the circus and among other sights they saw there was a man selling soap, wrapped around which was greenbacks of various denominations, among others, a $50 note. Our two knights of the lines watched the soap vendor unwrap the bill and show it, and then placed it in the box again for over half an hour, and both had their eyes upon what they thought to be the package containing the $50 bill. They then pooled their issue and forfeited a dollar for a package, picking out the right one, as they supposed. After they had got the package they walked up the track for a distance of half a mile, so that nobody would know of their good fortune, and opened the package, when lo, there was nothing there but a piece of soap worth possibly a quarter of a cent. This so enraged our two friends that they returned and kept buying soap until they went broke, and as a consequence, we learn that the Bisbee stage will only run every other day hereafter.
The timing is right, but without the identification of the man selling prize package soap in Benson it remains a question to answer. It is known that Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith operated in numerous locations in Arizona between 1882-1883, but what about September 1885? Soapy was not the only prize package soap man working the West.
It is known that in 1885 Soapy was rising as a criminal and political force in Denver, Colorado. Soapy's name was absent from the Denver newspapers for much of 1884 and for the first five months of 1885. He seems to have kept an extremely low profile as he established himself in the city. During this period, he might still have been traveling. The absence of Soapy's name from the newspapers ended in May 1885 when J. Brockman, a Denver resident, had Soapy arrested for swindling him. Soapy was able to continue his street business for a solid month before the city council adopted a resolution on June 23, 1885, to rescind his peddler’s license.
Thus Soapy left Denver for an extended cooling off period. For forty-two days, from June 23 to August 1, 1885, there is no sign of him. Then his name appeared in an August 2, 1885, news account of a boxing match in Rawlins, Wyoming. Soapy was the timekeeper.
Soapy's name does not appear in Denver newspapers again until October 3, 1885, when he and another bunco man named Mike Rainey were arrested for assaulting John Koch, a probable victim. Koch failed to identify his attackers as Jeff and Rainey, so they were discharged. This means that the time window (August 2 - October 3, 1885) opens the possibility that the soap man in Benson may very well have been Soapy.
Thus Soapy left Denver for an extended cooling off period. For forty-two days, from June 23 to August 1, 1885, there is no sign of him. Then his name appeared in an August 2, 1885, news account of a boxing match in Rawlins, Wyoming. Soapy was the timekeeper.
Soapy's name does not appear in Denver newspapers again until October 3, 1885, when he and another bunco man named Mike Rainey were arrested for assaulting John Koch, a probable victim. Koch failed to identify his attackers as Jeff and Rainey, so they were discharged. This means that the time window (August 2 - October 3, 1885) opens the possibility that the soap man in Benson may very well have been Soapy.
Read the entire story of Soapy Smith in, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.
"It can be argued that man's instinct to gamble is the only reason he is still not a monkey up in the trees."
—Mario Puzo, Inside Las Vegas
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