Soapy smith biography

A disgruntled city engineer in Skagway, Alaska, murders “Soapy” Smith, one of the most notorious con men in the history of the West.

Born in Georgia in 1860, Jefferson Randolph Smith went west while still a young man, finding work as a cowboy in Texas.

How did soapy smith die

Soapy smith grave

Soapy smith denver bar

Soapy smith skagway

Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier and the Klondike.

Smith eventually tired of the hard work and low wages offered by the cowboy life, though, and discovered that he could make more money with less effort by convincing gullible westerners to part with their cash in clever confidence games.

One of Smith’s earliest swindles was the “prehistoric man” of Creede, Colorado.

Smith somehow obtained a 10-foot statue of a primitive looking human that he secretly buried near the town of Creede. A short time later, he uncovered the statue with much fanfare and publicity and began charging exorbitant fees to see it.

Wisely, he left town before the curious turned suspicious.

Smith earned his nickname “Soapy” with a more conventional confidence gam