From the Rocky Mountain News, 1884 a prominent Denver hotel keeper speaks."What is to become of the city if bunko men are to be allowed the swing they have now?
We have had over a dozen guests of our hotel bunkoed in the fortnight and travel is actually falling off on account of it. People are getting afraid to come to Denver.... There are about a dozen bunko sharks hanging around this hotel all the time, and by the time a guest gets in he is either robbed or talked to death."
A fantasy handbill James Ellis, from Jackson, Mich., complained to the police that he had been buncoed out of $110 in the Tivoli gambling rooms. The proprietors returned the cash.
John Sullivan, who stole a coat from the central fire station, was sentenced to sixty days in jail by justice Stidger.
Roy Chadu and Fred Williamson were each sentenced to four months in jail for working a flim flam game on a florist named Hickman.
John Morris and Harry Fink were arrested yesterday by Officer Cornell. They were found locked in a box car at Fortieth and Market streets. They are wanted in Pueblo on the charge of drugging and robbing a man of $17.Rocky Mountain News, 1893It is probable that this is John "Fatty Gray" Morris of Soap Gang fame that Soapy Smith had first met in Fort Worth, Texas.John Morris, well known in Deadwood and a well liked gambler in Fort Worth, is probably best known for his altercation with "Longhair" Jim Courtright. In 1880 Morris was on trial for murder when he left Fort Worth, very possibly with Soapy. Details, along with the only known photograph of Morris, together with famed gang member John "Reverend" Bowers are in Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.
SOAPY SMITH WINS AGAIN!
GRANGER HELD UP.
Twice inveigled into a Gambling Den on Seventeenth Street.
The latest hold-up on Seventeenth street is reported from the gambling rooms over the Tivoli saloon, Seventeenth and Market streets. As the result of a brief experience in the notorious resort Rudolph Hann mourns the loss of $95 in hard cash which he earned by the sweat of his brow on a Kansas ranch. The lamb from the Sunflower state floated into Denver Friday night and put up for the night at one of the cheap down-town lodging houses. There he was evidently spotted and yesterday forenoon as he meandered out to view the scenes of the rising metropolis he was approached by a smooth stranger who inveigled him into the Tivoli gambling rooms. Three men were playing cards at one of the tables. The new comer was presented with a handful of checks and in five minutes he arose, loser by $130. Upon applying at the police station he was sent back to the place accompanied by an officer, and succeeded in recovering $35. Before night Hann was inveigled a second time into the building but made his escape and took the first train for his old home in Kansas. He related his story to a News reporter as the train left the union depot.
Leah
Didja hear the one about.....Soapy's buddy and the Judge?
Sun Aug 9, 2009 11:06pm.
Judge - "This man's watch was fastened in his pocket by a safety chain. How on earth did you ever get it out?"
Soapy's Buddy - "Well gosh your honor, I usually get $10.00 for six lessons."
I'm a peaceful man. Yuh just might uh heard uh me ... the professor with a high degree in the teachin' uh the evils uh games uh chance. I'm known far and wide, as mah whole plan in life's tuh demonstrate tuh people how gamblin's destructive tuh the human spirit an' bank account just by rubbin' their noses right in it. Prove to 'em how they can't win so's tuh send 'em back tuh their wives an' little children tuh sit by the hearthstone, better an' wiser for the experience.
SOAPY CASHES IN HIS CHIPS AT 6TH ANNUALThe Magic Castle's 6th Annual "Soapy" Smith Party took place once again on the anniversary of the shooting of the infamous frontier con man Wednesday, July 8th, and scores of sharps, grifters, soiled doves and dance hall girls pervaded the hallways of the Mecca of Magic, decorated in their finest 1890's attire. The annual fundraiser for the Dai Vernon Fund took in more than $2,500 for the Academy of Magical Arts' emergency humanitarian trust fund for magicians.
Co-sponsored by Whit Haydn's and Chef Anton's School for Scoundrels, the Smith family's Soapy Smith Preservation Trust [that's us!] and the AMA Trustees, this year's event continued the tradition of grand and glorious excess, including games of chance for the rubes and marks in "Soapy's Parlor" in Peller Theater, Pop Haydn's latest pitch for his Amazing Miracle Oil, a demonstration of Chef Anton's diabolical trick pool shots, music from Dave Bourne's Medicine Show Band, colorful candy girls Vanessa Lauren and Stephanie Carter and an auction of rare and delightful memorabilia conducted by Judge Mark Nelson.
Soapy's great grandson Jeff Smith and Larry Bitterman, the proprietor of Old Frontier Clothing Company, served as judges for the Costume Contest. Bob Muenckler was awarded the "most authentic" prize, while "Best Male Costume" and "Best Female Costume" were presented to Jon Tonsic and Pamela Waggoner, respectively. The Dealer's Prize for the most "Soapy Dollars" earned in the course of the evening, a $500 set of Colorado Sterling Silver Shells [shell game] from the School for Scoundrels, was won by Erik Taik, Erik was obviously channeling the devious spirit of bad man Soapy Smith, as he won by selling tickets to a raffle that wasn't even being held!
On behalf of the Trustees and the Academy of Magical Arts, our thanks to everyone who volunteered and all of the members and guests who participated in this year's celebration, marking the 111th Anniversary of the death of the King of the Frontier Con Men, Jefferson Randolph Smith.
An outbreak of lawlessness reign in Nome. Desperadoes have turned themselves loose and are committing burglary and larceny right and left. It has all happened within the last week. The gang seems to be organized and to work under the direction of a new "Soapy Smith" under other name. It works in one part of town one night and in another part the next. Tents are entered and the money and watches of the occupants taken while they sleep. There have been altogether about one hundred cases of this kind. One man was caught red-handed in the act but his "pal" escaped. He was knocked down with a piece of firewood. The commotion aroused the neighbors, and a squad of soldiers passing by to relieve the guard of the first part of the night saved him from being lynched by the angry crowd. Robbers even enter private rooms and dwellings with skeleton keys and go through the clothes of the sleepers. Much worse than burglary happened to a lone woman in a tent last Sunday night. Robbers cut into her tent, chloroformed her, took what money and gold trinkets she had, and then abused her while she was still under the influence of the drug. The next morning the poor woman was almost insane.Last night soldiers raided a saloon called the " Montana." which had been quietly kept under surveillance by Captain French, provost-marshal. for some time. A regular "fence" for stolen goods was found in a tent back of the saloon but in the same enclosure with it. Every description of stolen articles was found in the tent, from gold watches to rockers used to work the beach sands. A man named Kulling, who is suspected of being the mainspring of the "fence," was arrested and his bonds fixed at $2,000. He is still in the guardhouse. The proprietor of the saloon was warned but he was not arrested. Within a radius of one hundred feet of where I sit writing, a man in a tent was robbed of $15, his watch and a steamship ticket to Seattle, which he had bought the evening before, and another man connected with the Minnesota-Alaska Development Company was relieved of $170. Soldiers are making arrests wherever the act is justified, but the policing of the camp seems unable to keep up with the wholesale and rapid pace maintained by the lawless element. The people are greatly aroused and a lynching is expected any night, of the first man caught. A man was knocked down on the beach last night and his money, only $10, taken away from him. Another man was found a few days ago near the North American Trading & Transportation Company's store with his head crushed in and his body half covered with debris. There is no clue to his identity.
