Soapy Smith's Soap Box: Did Soapy Smith operate in Sacramento, California in 1887-88?

April 12, 2023

Did Soapy Smith operate in Sacramento, California in 1887-88?

The soap trick man
Sacramento Daily Union
September 22, 1887

(Click image to enlarge)

as Soapy Smith operating at Sacramento, California in 1887-88?

(quick answer: Maybe.)

On April 23, 2023 I published a story on the possibility that Soapy Smith operated his prize package soap racket in Sacramento, California, in mid-July 1885. My conclusion is that “The timing, between June 23 and August 1, 1885, is right, thus Soapy may have operated in Sacramento, California, on July 14, 1885.”
Since posting that story I have found two more newspaper clippings in which a prize package soap racket operator worked the streets of Sacramento in late September 1887 and mid–February 1888. The following is from the Sacramento Daily Union, September 22, 1887.

The soap trick man—the sharper who gulls the verdant by offering for sale little packages of soap, into which he ostensibly puts a $5 greenback, the purchaser finding to his disappointment that it was only a pretense—has commenced business on the streets. His scheme is little if any better than the shell game for the public.

This newspaper account is dated just over two years after the initial prize package soap man in Sacramento, July 15, 1885. All I have at this time is circumstantial evidence that I supply from Soapy’s timeline, via my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel and my extensive files. We need to keep in mind that it is possible that any one of the three, or even all of them, are different individual bunko men. One, two, or all three may be Soapy. Also possible is that none of them is Soapy Smith.

In 1887 Soapy was an established criminal and political power in Denver, Colorado. He was married and had a child on the way. Though well established, Soapy still needed to leave Denver periodically, for short periods of time, sometimes longer, depending on the severity of his crimes, until the memory of his crimes were swept under a rug.

I investigated the known traveling plans and locations of Soapy, and whether he was in Denver previous to and post September 22, 1887, to see if a trip to Sacramento was possible. Following is what I uncovered.

On January 1, 1887, the Rocky Mountain News reported that Soapy had made a trip to St. Louis to see his wife when she was close to giving birth. Though eight months previous to the soap man in Sacramento, this is the first of many trips Soapy made going east of Denver. A February 13, 1887, letter to Jeff shows he had been in St. Louis with his wife and baby son during Christmas. A month after their son Jefferson was born, he wrote to his wife Mary on March 19, 1887, Mary and the baby were still at her mother’s in St. Louis, and trips were still being made to see them.
In July 1887 the Rocky Mountain News somehow got hold of Soapy's travel itinerary and published it.

Soapy Smith, one of the local celebrities of Denver and one of the most pushing business men in the city, left last Tuesday evening in the rain for a month’s sojourn in the East. While absent he will give away small samples of Denver’s best soap and new crisp fifty dollar bills among his friends at Saratoga, Long Branch, Coney Island, Brighton Beach and other health and pleasure resorts. We are sorry to lose “Soapy” from among us, but will console ourselves by allowing the “Hifen” to unload its surplus amount of “soft soap” on the susceptible candidates. With Smith out of the way, the “Hifen” has no rivals in the state.

How did the News obtain Soapy's itinerary? Possibly a reporter had cultivated a source within the soap gang. Equally possible, though, is that Soapy or a confederate purposely led a reporter to believe that Soapy was headed east when actually he went in another direction. No evidence shows he went east at this time. He may have gone as far east as St. Louis to see his family or in the opposite direction altogether. Soapy could not afford to have his actions and his comings and goings generally known because whether true or untrue, his reputation linked him to any criminal event within his general vicinity. Another concern for Soapy was that publication of his travel plans would not only alert the law but also any rivaling bunco operations. Either entity, or both, could spell trouble. So he learned to be secretive or to misdirect the newspapers and his enemies when he planned on traveling.

Soapy acted as timekeeper in a boxing match on November 18, 1887, eighteen miles from Denver.

So, we see that Soapy left Denver in July, about two months before a trip to Sacramento would be made. We also know that about two months after the Sacramento trip, Soapy was "eighteen miles from Denver."

Technically, the timing is right for Soapy to possibly have gone to Sacramento.

Ordered the police to stop the soap trick man
Sacramento Daily Union
February 14, 1888

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Two years, seven months after the first recorded soap scammer in Sacramento, California, and almost five months after the last incident, the mayor of Sacramento orders the city police to "put a stop" to a "soap swindler." The Sacramento Daily Union, February 14, 1888 published the blurb.

Mayor Gregory yesterday ordered the police to put a stop to the soap swindler’s operations on K street. Why does the Mayor make fish of one and fowl of another? Why does he not give the same orders regarding the Chinese lotteries and the faro banks?

Is it Soapy Smith or another soap sell operator? Again, I am working with circumstantial evidence from Soapy's timeline via my book and files. In 1888 Soapy's criminal and political empire in Denver, Colorado, is larger and more powerful than it was five months previous. In 1888 he opens his first saloon enterprise, the Tivoli Club. His wife and child are back at home in Denver, in their new home. Did Soapy travel back to Sacramento? Once again, I investigated the known traveling plans and locations of Soapy, and whether he was in Denver previous to, and post February 14, 1888, to see if a trip to Sacramento was feasible.

From January through May 1888, Denver citizens read little of Soapy Smith in the Denver newspapers. There seems to have been a reform movement going on within the city, demanding police action.
On January 26, 1888, the Rocky Mountain News reported Soapy's role of timekeeper during a boxing match in Boulder County, Colorado. During the match one of the boxers was knocked down, and possibly when Soapy completed the ten count mark before the downed fighter again arose, the referee either did not hear Soapy's ten count indicating the fight was over or he chose to ignore it and let the fight continue. Accusations of foul play were made but with no apparent repercussions.
On January 31, 1888, Police Chief Henry C. Brady had his officers sweep the streets of confidence men and tinhorn gamblers. Fourteen men were arrested, all within proximity of Larimer and Sixteenth streets. Seventeenth Street, where Jeff was based, was seemingly ignored. Soapy was likely out of the city, having been in Boulder for the boxing match there. Likely Soapy operated his prize package soap racket in surrounding towns, but likely not Boulder itself. Could be that this is when he headed to Sacramento.
At some date after February 12, 1888, when the building's owner received permission from the city of Denver to open a saloon, Soapy's Tivoli Club saloon and gambling house opened its doors. The earliest mention of the Tivoli Club is published in the Rocky Mountain News on November 22, 1888, due to an anti-gambling raid by the city police. If Soapy went to Sacramento, then it is probable that the Tivoli opened well after February 12th.
On July 8, 1888, Soapy was definitely back in Denver when he swindled two men who reacted with their fists. “A ‘soap’ man and two grangers [farmers] got into trouble yesterday morning, in which the grangers, as usual, got the worst of it.”

I was surprised when the first Sacramento date, July 14, 1885, fit into Soapy's timeline making it possible that it was Soapy operating the prize package soap racket there. However, I did not expect all three Sacramento dates to fit into Soapy's timeline. However, there is no provenance yet, so it could simply be a good coincidence. All three will go into my files as "possibles."

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