That Fiend in Hell: "Jeff Smith fails to mention," except that he did "mention"..., and a lot more about the murderer of Soapy Smith.

THE END OF SOAPY SMITH
The Shootout on Juneau Wharf
Smith and Reid shoot one another as Jesse Murphy (left)
rushes in to aid Reid. Murphy kills Smith with Smith's rifle.
Artist Andy Thomas worked closely with Jeff Smith to get the details precise.
(Courtesy of Andy Thomas)

    

(Click image to enlarge)

elow is the latest post from my blog, Examining "That Fiend in Hell": Soapy Smith in Legend. Please let me know what you think.

     On pages 192-93 of "That Fiend in Hell," author Cathy Spude offers an example of how I make an "effort to convince … readers that Jesse Murphy 'murdered Soapy'…." She points to a news report that I cite in the July 19, 1898, issue of the Portland Morning Oregonian and asserts that I cite only the portion of the sentence that serves my point (that Murphy claimed to have killed Soapy Smith) and that I purposely left out the rest because it disputes my point. To make her case about the omission from the Portland paper, she uses phrases like "Jeff Smith fails to mention" and "he fails to point out."

      This is indeed a very strange quibble because I did quote the entire sentence. In fact, I quote not just the entire sentence but the entire paragraph in which the sentence appears. The matter is made even stranger because to document her accusation, she cites the numbers of three surrounding pages on which discussion of the matter appears, but she fails to list the page on which appears the entire sentence and paragraph from the Portland Morning Oregonian. Here for clarity is that paragraph as it appears on page 548 of Alias Soapy Smith.

The shooting, Dr. Cornelius says, is the best thing that ever happened to Skagway next to the new railroad. Dr. Cornelius performed the autopsy on Smith’s body for the coroner’s jury. A man named Murphy claimed after the first autopsy that it was his bullet that killed the gambler, and it was necessary to perform a second [autopsy] to determine that Reed’s [sic] bullet did the work.

      I would like to think that the author of "That Fiend in Hell" just made a mistake. Mistakes happen. I even made one once … perhaps two. But Cathy Spude takes such a heavy handed approach that it seems there is much more than a mistake at work in her thinking. In writing that "Jeff Smith fails to mention" and "fails to point out," she does not imply but rather outright accuses me of intentionally leaving out text in order to "justify" a conclusion. I cannot know what was in Cathy Spude's mind, but the stern, accusatory tone of her language does make itself known and felt as she apparently intended. Then in light of how her example is in complete error, revealed is not just a mistake or careless inattention to detail but a deep and determined bias against my biography of Soapy Smith. I am at a loss for any other way to explain such a focused indictment based on an error of her own making.

      Cathy Spude in her criticism of my treatment of Soapy's death and the cover up that followed would have a reader believe my conclusion is based on half a sentence rather than the 23 pages of evidence and interpretation that appear in chapters 25 and 26 of Alias Soapy Smith (pages 538-561). I took much time and care in laying out the evidence, evaluating it, and drawing reasoned conclusions about it. To my knowledge, nothing has been omitted or obscured.

      The story of the murder of Soapy Smith has just appeared in a feature-length article I was invited to write for Wild West magazine (April 2013, pages 44-51). It's a nice spread, with many illustrations. Though a feature piece, its space requirements called for compression, so only the most pertinent facts and the overall conclusion appear. For the full story, my book is the ultimate source for a survey of all known evidence and an even-handed examination of it.

      Cathy Spude on page 193 of her book also claims that Jeff Smith lacks "understanding of [the] historic context" of Skagway in 1898. Probably no one will be surprised to learn that Jeff Smith disagrees. For three decades I have studied the players of this period and the details of their doings. I know this context extremely well; I just don't follow Cathy Spude's interpretations of people or events. Each of these disagreements, as well as correction of errors—one at a time—will make good reading for other days.

 

"She told lies so well a man would be a fool not to believe them."

— Unknown

APRIL 12

1782: The British navy wins its only naval engagement against the colonial navy at the Battle of Saints, off Dominica, during the American Revolution.

1799: Phineas Pratt patents the comb cutting machine.

1811: The first colonists arrived at what would later be named Cape Disappointment, in the future state of Washington.

1833: Charles Gaylor patents the fireproof safe.

1861: Confederate forces fire on the U.S. at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, starting the Civil War.

1864: Confederate General Nathan Forrest captures Fort Pillow, in Tennessee and murders the black Union troops there.

1867: From Fort Larned in Kansas, General Hancock tells Cheyenne Indians to abide by the treaty of 1865 and stay on their lands south of the Arkansas River, or risk starting a war.

1872: The outlaw Jesse James gang robs a bank in Columbia, Kentucky of $1,500 and killing one person.

1877: A catcher's mask is used in a baseball game for the first time.

1883: Charles “Black Bart” Bolton robs the Lakeport-Cloverdale stage a second time, this time about 5 miles from Cloverdale, California.

1888: John Billee and Thomas Willis rob and murder W. P. Williams and bury his body in a ravine in the Kiamichi Mountains, Oklahoma Territory. They would eventually hang for the crime on January 16, 1890.

1889: Buffalo Bill's Wild West leaves New York for a tour of France.

1892: Voters in Lockport, New York became the first in the U.S. to use voting machines.

1898: Soap Gang member Harry Green signs his name as “Jeff Smith” on the register of the Hotel Northern in Seattle, causing newspaper there to falsely report that Soapy Smith was in their city. The real Jeff Smith, aka “Soapy,” was in Skagway, Alaska.

1905: The Hippodrome opens in New York City.

Was the research for the book, Alias Soapy Smith, unscholarly and lazy?

y ninth, and far from last, post on the blog, Examining "That Fiend in Hell:" Soapy Smith in Legend looks into the accusation that my research for my book Alias Soapy Smith was unscholarly and lazy. You can also find it online here.

      Throughout That Fiend in Hell, author Cathy Spude assails my research as unscholarly and at times implies that I was lazy in its conduct. Emphasized is the assumption that the bulk of my research was performed online, but as explained in the preface of my book, that was far from the case. Newspaper research was especially difficult in 1985 when I began the task as there were no online collections that allowed one to simply to open a screen and type in a key search word. My early research took me to numerous libraries, archives, and museums in Alaska, Colorado, and Washington to view microfilm unavailable through inter-library loan. On page 192 of her book Spude assumes and implies that I accessed Alaska newspapers online, but as she researched the same Alaska newspapers I did, she is fully aware that, even now, these newspapers are not available online. Further, she assumes I accessed other sources for quotation from these newspapers. This is not the case. Every quotation in my book that is from Alaska newspapers in Skagway for 1897-98 comes from photocopies in my possession from library-held microfilm of those newspapers, cranked through a "reader" page by page.

      In my home state I ordered microfilm rolls, one at a time, for two decades. As microfilm has no search capability or index, thousands of hours were invested in scouring each of the many reels, reading page-by-page, day-by-day, year-by-year, researching my subject and those in his circle in newspapers of that time and place. I was extremely successful in finding and publishing information that otherwise might never have been uncovered and explored because much of it lay buried until I found it, assembled it, gave it interpretive context, and published it in 2009. "Reading upwards of 90,000 pages took years. It was a daunting task but proved a goldmine of information not known to have been republished anywhere...." (Alias Soapy Smith p. 6).

 

"People have a tendency to make things turn out the way they want them, not necessarily as they are. They find ways of making the evidence tell them what they want it to mean."

— Miss Pierce, English 211 professor

APRIL 9

1682: Robert La Salle claims the lower Mississippi River and all lands that touch it for France.

1833: Peterborough, New Hampshire opens the first municipally supported public library in the U.S.

1865: Confederate General Lee surrenders, effectively ending the Civil War, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The four year war claimed 360,000 Union lives and 260,000 Confederate for a total of 620,000 lives lost.

1866: The Civil Rights Bill passes over President Andrew Johnson's veto.

1867: The Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia that includes the purchases of the District of Alaska for 7.2 million dollars.

1870: The American Anti-Slavery Society is dissolved.

1872: S. R. Percy receives a patent for dried milk.

1878: Marshal Ed Masterson is killed in Dodge City, Kansas by Jack Wagner at the Lady Gay Dance Hall. His brother Bat was a short distance away and shot Jack Wagner and Alf Walker. Wagner died the following day and Walker died of his wounds about one month later.

1892: Nate Champion is shot dead at the K.C. ranch near Buffalo, Wyoming when a posse of hired gunmen, led by Frank Canton, Tom Smith and Frank Wolcott who had been hired to by cattlemen to wipe out the settlers during the Johnson County War.

1892: Parson Tom Uzzell has $75 and his pants stolen in Creede, Colorado. Soapy Smith helps him get his money back.

1892: McGinty the petrified man is “discovered” and then purchased by Soapy Smith in Creede, Colorado.

1892: Soap Gang member, Cornelius “Con Sullivan” Sullivan is elected to the Creede, Colorado city council.

1898: John Addison Porter, Secretary to President McKinley, writes to Soapy Smith acknowledging the minutes and letter from the Skagway Military Company. Soapy hangs this letter on the wall in Jeff Smith’s Parlor.

Is the book, Alias Soapy Smith, "Unscholarly and biased?"

Demand Evidence - Think Critically
I made this poster for myself as a constant reminder
to seek scholarly and unbiased information

(Click image to enlarge)

n her book "That Fiend in Hell:" Soapy Smith in Legend author Cathy Spude states that I, in my book Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, over-emphasized Soapy Smith's good works and under-emphasized his bad behavior. Although she does have a right to her opinion I worked too hard and long to be so quickly dismissed as "unscholarly and biased." See the scholarly way I defend my work on the blog That Fiend in Hell: A comprehensive study.

 

"The truth is still the truth even if no one believes it.
Error is still error even if everyone believes it."

—Archbishop Fulton Sheen

MARCH 4

1634: Samuel Cole opens the first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts.

1681: England's King Charles II grants a charter to William Penn for an area that later becomes the state of Pennsylvania.

1766: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, which had caused bitter and violent opposition in the American colonies.

1778: The Continental Congress votes to ratify the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance. The two treaties are the first entered into by the new government.

1789: The first Congress of the United States meets in New York and declares that the Constitution is in effect.

1791: Vermont is admitted as the 14th state. It is the first addition to the original 13 American colonies turned states.

1794: The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by Congress. The Amendment limits the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by citizens of another state. Later interpretations expanded this to include citizens of the state being sued, as well.

1826: The first railroad in the U.S., the Granite Railway in Quincy, Massachusetts, is chartered.

1837: Chicago, Illinois is granted a city charter.

1861: The Confederate States of America adopts the "Stars and Bars" flag.

1868: John Chisholm, trailblazer of the Chisholm Trail dies in Oklahoma before the trail is named in his honor.

1877: Emile Berliner invents the microphone.

1880: Halftone engraving is used for the first time in the Daily Graphic, published in New York City.

1881: Eliza Ballou Garfield becomes the first mother of a U.S. President to live in the executive mansion.

1881: Outlaw Billy the Kid writes and sends a letter to Governor Lew Wallace, asking for a meeting to discuss the situation in regards to the Lincoln County War, as well as a pardon for himself.

1886: The University of Wyoming in Laramie is chartered.

1902: The American Automobile Association is founded in Chicago, Illinois.

1908: The New York board of education bans the act of whipping students in school. 

Were John and Frank Clancy partners of Soapy Smith?

(Click image to enlarge)

e sure to catch my latest examination post on the blog "That Fiend in Hell:" A comprehensive study. It is entitled Clancys as partners of Soapy Smith and revolves around author Cathy Spude's claim that John and Frank Clancy were not really partners of Soapy, but rather merely rented the building that housed Jeff Smith's Parlor to him. It's an interesting look at the details of this business/criminal association. I'd love to hear what you think?

 

"Some the most clueless people I have met had P(iled) H(igher) and D(eeper) behind their name so academia is a poor substitute for experience. I was satisfied with MS (more of the same) and BS."

— Ken Cleghorn

FEBRUARY 21

1842: John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine.

1858: The first electric burglar alarm is installed in Boston, Massachusetts.

1862: Texas Rangers fighting for the Confederacy win a victory in the Battle of Val Verde, New Mexico Territory.

1866: Lucy B. Hobbs becomes the first woman to graduate from a dental school, the College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1874: The Oakland Daily Tribune begins publication in Oakland, California.

1878: The first telephone directory in the U.S. is distributed to residents in New Haven, Connecticut. It is a single page of fifty names.

1896: Judge Roy Bean hosts the Maher-Fitzsimmons heavyweight boxing championship on an island in the Rio Grande, Texas.

1900: The U.S. government gives a full military funeral to chief Washakie, one of the few Indian chiefs who never warred against white settlers.

Jeff Smith's article on Soapy Smith in Wild West magazine

WILD WEST MAGAZINE
April 2013
On sale now!

he April 2013 issue of Wild West magazine is on sale now at larger bookstores near you. This is the issue that published my article Soapy Smith's Showdown with the Vigilantes (page 44-51). This is a condensed version of the research explored in my book Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel. I am very pleased with the layout the magazine used for it. See the entire article online HERE.

      Starting on page 1, the contents page, readers are greeted with a half-page photograph of Soapy at his bar inside Jeff Smith's Parlor. Page 4 is designated as the Editor's Letter (Gregory Lalire) and this issues letter title is Soapy Smith Was the Most Famous Con Man On the Frontier, But Was He Significant? The first half of editor Lalire's letter is devoted to my views of Soapy and the second half explores author Cathy Spudes beliefs that Soapy was little more than a "petty criminal." Lalire adds my counter in her section of the letter that she "ignored solid facts he [I] provided, and that many of her interpretations miss the mark."
      See Gregory Lalire's complete Editor's Letter HERE.  
      An added pleasure in this issue is the Wild West review of Cathy Spude's new book "That Fiend in Hell:" Soapy Smith in Legend. Although it is a review of Spude's book my book is actually the main topic. Best of all is the last sentences.

"It was clear," Spude writes, "that more than one man had been involved in bringing Smith to his end, just as many more than one would be involved in creating a legend out of the death of a petty confidence man." Author Smith would no doubt argue that's like calling Jesse James a petty train robber.

See the review of Cathy Spude's book HERE.

Anyone wishing to purchase a copy of this magazine issue may do so HERE.

 

"It was clear," Spude writes, "that more than one man had been involved in bringing Smith to his end, just as many more than one would be involved in creating a legend out of the death of a petty confidence man." Author [Jeff] Smith would no doubt argue that's like calling Jesse James a petty train robber. 

—Gregory Lalire
Wild West magazine editor

FEBRUARY 13

1635: The first public school building in the United States, the Boston Public Latin School, is established.
1741: The American Magazine, the first magazine in the U.S., is published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1862: Jeff Pelkey is the first known white person born in Hellgate, Montana Territory.
1866: Outlaws Frank James, Cole, Bob, and Jim Younger and possibly Jesse James, hold up their 1st bank in Liberty, Missouri. $60,000 is said to have been taken. The Liberty raid is also the first daylight bank robbery in the U.S. by an organized band of robbers. (The first U.S. bank robbery was committed by lone postal employee Edward W. Green, who held up a bank in Malden, Massachusetts, on December 15, 1863).
1875: Mrs. Edna Kanouse gives birth to the first quintuplets in the United States. All five of the baby boys pass away within two weeks.
1879: The first passenger train arrives in New Mexico Territory.
1880: Thomas Edison observes what became known as the Edison Effect for the first time.
1889: Norman Coleman becomes the first U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

Reversing Soapy Smith photo of him on horseback.

ne of the new bits of information to come from Cathy Spude's book "That Fiend In Hell": Soapy Smith in Legend is the fact that the famed photograph of Soapy on his horse has actually been published in reverse since 1898. The photograph itself has always been somewhat of a mystery to begin with. Reverend John Sinclair is probably the person who snapped the picture on July 7, 1898 however, his son James claims the picture was taken on Broadway. New information shows this photograph to have been taken on State Street. Over the decades various copies of the photograph have been published with the date "July 4th, 1898" etched into the negative as seen in the photographs shown here. other versions show "July 4th 1898" in larger size across the side of the picture by the horses head. Up to now, no one had properly identified exactly where in Skagway the photo had been taken.

Soapy on his mount
as published since 1898
Is it reversed?
note: someone wrote "July 4th 1898"
Alaska State Library, William R. Norton Col. ASL-P266-067

Never having seen a copy in the reversed (correct) fashion I cautiously looked into Mrs. Spude's claim. In her book she published a cropped closeup of a photograph in the Frank Barr collection at the Fairbanks University. In that photograph Mrs. Spude points out the location of a very similar looking building in the background and identifies the street as being Fifth Avenue. Before agreeing with her conclusion I found and examined my copy of the non-cropped Barr photograph to verify that the street is actually Fifth Avenue, and it is. The building she points out sits on the s.e. corner lot of Fifth and Main Street. In the photograph above that same building appears to be on the n.e. corner which is incorrect, therefore Soapy would have to be have been riding north rather than south as always believed.

Skagway, Alaska June 1898
Note the edits in yellow.
The red X indicates where Soapy was when photographed.
Soapy's saloon (Jeff. Smith's Parlor) is also noted
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Barr Coll.

(Click image to enlarge)

Before seeing the entire Barr photograph of Skagway (see above) I wrote to Karl Gurke of the Skagway unit of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park (NPS) and asked him to look on,

page 65 of Cathy Spude's book in which she describes that the photo of Soapy Smith on his horse is actually reversed. I'm still undecided about this possibility as I have not looked closely enough at other photographs of the street to see if more of the buildings line up correctly. Perhaps the one main issue I have is that there are no other "non-reversed" photos known to exist.

Soapy on his mount
In correct direction
Alaska State Library, William R. Norton Col. ASL-P266-067

I consider myself very fortunate to have such willing member of the Park Service in which to help gather additional information. I learn a lot from Karl and in this instance he was up to par as usual. He replied that,

... regarding reversed photos - yes we have a few - some I was able to catch - pretty obvious - and some not so obvious. For example there's a photo of the Sunset Telephone Office in Dyea. Although you can read the caption, all the signs are reversed. We had to scan it, reverse the image, and now the signs are right but the caption is reversed. I know of at least two Skagway waterfront images that are reversed. Dave Neufeld, the Canadian historian, has pointed out one or two reversed historic images on the Canadian side of the Chilkoot Trail that I had not been aware of. There are others - so while reversed gold rush era images are not common, they are known to exist and perhaps more common than you would suspect. I know of at least 11 reversed images not counting this Soapy one, that we have in our collection and I'm sure if I closely inspected every image we had, I'd find more. 

Karl Gurcke

Close-up details
Fifth Avenue
Skagway, Alaska June 1898
Red "X" and arrow show location and direction of Soapy
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Barr Coll.

(Click image to enlarge)

In her book Mrs. Spude makes the claim that a building blocking State Avenue just north of Fifth was intentionally blackened out so that it would appear that Soapy was heading south. She states that it is part of the Soapy legend, but I disagree for the following reasons. The Sinclair archives in Victoria, British Columbia noted in a 1979 letter that some photographs from the collection are "latern slides," thus most likely Glass. In searching many photographic collections of Skagway and the Klondike during the gold rush I noted many photographs in glass form, and many had blackened sections just as Soapy's mounted on horseback photograph. Sinclair sold about 20 of his photographs to another photographer and others were stolen so it's reasonable to assume that some of these photographers published the photograph in reverse. What is most strange to me, as I had mentioned to Mr. Gurcke, is the fact that thus far no correct non-reversed examples of photograph have surfaced in any known collection, nor have any been published anywhere.

Close-up details
Holly Avenue (Sixth Avenue)
Red arrow points to Jeff. Smith's Parlor.
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Barr Coll.

(Click image to enlarge)

It is always exciting to find new information on Soapy. Cathy Spude deserves recognition for figuring out the error. Well done Cathy.

 

Rev. John A. Sinclair: pages 17, 437, 452-53, 505, 513-14, 522-23, 542-43, 546-47, 557-61, 565-66, 576, 595.

"My name is Smith—Soapy Smith—an' when
you’re in trouble say so an’ I'll help you."

—as said to Cy Warman in 1892
San Francisco Call September 4, 1898.

"That Fiend In Hell: A Comprehensive Study"

Logo for the blog
That Fiend In Hell: A Comprehensive Study

(Click image to enlarge)

s some of you may already know, Cathy Spude's book, "That Fiend In Hell:" Soapy Smith in Legend has been published. Originally I had planned to simply do a review of the book, however, after reading it I found that review would not suffice. The book definitely needs to be fully examined and discussed so I decided to create a new blog just for that purpose. This is exciting for me and should be of great interest to the hard-core historian as topics are utilizing most of what is known about Soapy's reign in Skagway, Alaska, which the book centers on.
      As of this post the blog has only 4 entries. The posts are a little slow in coming as I am taking great care in disclosing everything known about the topics. This blog will be continually updated for some time to come as there are a lot of items to discuss. The link is below the logo above. Do let me know what you think. 

 

"The end came quickly; in frontier phrase, he died of “defective vision,” that is, the other fellow with the gun saw him first."

— George Buffum,
Smith of Bear City and Other Frontier Sketches, 1906