Confidence man "Soapy" Smith in Georgetown, Colorado, 1885

"Loose money in Georgetown"
Denver Rocky Mountain News
September 14, 1885

(Click image to enlarge)

id "Soapy" Smith operate in Georgetown, Colorado, in September 1885?

Short answer: Most likely. 

 

The following was published in the Denver Rocky Mountain News, September 14, 1885.

There must be considerable loose money in Georgetown, to judge from the number of quack doctors and soap and jewelry peddlers and other confidence men who have been flocking in here for the past few weeks.

This is the first I have seen where Soapy Smith likely went to Georgetown, known as the "silver queen of Colorado." It makes perfect sense to me that Soapy operated there. Soapy's timeline for this period is sparse but does open up the possibility of a trip to Georgetown.
     On August 25, 1885, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reported a robbery in Denver in which the victim was drugged.

John Lewis wandered into a Larimer Street dive last night and became intoxicated. While in that condition he was placed in a hack, taken outside the city limits and robbed of between $400 and $500. He was then dumped out on the prairie where he lay insensible till nearly morning, when he made his way to the city and reported his loss. He claims that he was drugged, and he probably was, as the gang who hangs around the notorious resort would not stop at murder if a $5 bill were in sight. This is the second occurrence of the kind that has happened at the same place within the past week.

Drugging victims in saloons became popular for a period in Denver. It has not been established that Jeff knew anyone involved in these robberies or whether he was receiving tribute from those responsible. It can be guessed that he was and that probably he called a halt to them. They shocked the residents of Denver, who demanded something be done. A large percentage of these drug-induced robberies dropped off as quickly as they had begun, but they did not cease entirely.

     Interest in arresting the guilty did not come from law enforcement but the ever-vigilant Rocky Mountain News. On the day of the story about the Lewis robbery, the News reported that about thirty bunco men were headed for Boulder and the fireman’s tournament:

“There are pickpockets and soap men and shell men, eight die men, top and bottom men, flim-flamers and the smiler with the shells, and all the rest of the boys.”

Associating Soapy Smith and “the boys” with the robberies was an easy link for readers. Did the robbery of Lewis raise the profile of Soapy and the bunco brotherhood? The answer seems clear. Why else would “the brotherhood’s” travel to Boulder be newsworthy?
     Nineteen days after the Georgetown report, on October 3, 1885, "Jeff Smith" and Mike Rainey are arrested for assaulting John Koch, a probable victim.

CONCLUSION: Though Soapy's name is not mentioned in Georgetown, it's likely that the soap peddler in Georgetown was Soapy Smith.

 

 

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

"History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days."

—Winston Churchill