November 2, 1860
On this day the West’s most notorious swindler, Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith was born in Coweta County, Georgia, Infamous when he 
died and famously transformed, he became Robin Hood of the North a half century later.
The son of wealthy planter, things might have been different if the Civil War hadn’t upended the Smith family fortune. Hoping for a fresh start, they moved to Round Rock, Texas, but never gained their former prosperity.
Young Smith signed on as a cowboy but quickly tired of the low pay and hard work. He quickly discovered he could make more money separating trusting Westerners from theirs. (Above, Smith, circa 1880s)
Still living in his hometown in 1878, Smith and his cousin were witnesses to the shootout between Texas Rangers and the outlaw Sam Bass. (Right) Bass escaped through a hail of bullets but collapsed in a nearby cornfield and died the next day.
Apparently the 18-year-old failed to absorb the message that crime doesn’t pay. Determined to make it pay, however, he began his career as a confidence man in Fort Worth soon after.
Arriving in Colorado just ahead of the 1879 silver boom, he earned his life-long nickname in Denver, selling ordinary soap for $1 a bar, about $23 today. Eager customers lined up to buy the soap, having been convinced a $100 bill was hidden under a number of the wrappers. Only Smith’s shills ever found any money, earning them the name the “Soap Gang.”
Leaving small time con games behind, Smith became a full-fledged crime boss as the owner of the Trivoli Club, headquarters for a variety of scams and payoffs to Denver’s City Hall officials.
Tripoli Club, on the left, in 1898
The silver strike in Creede next drew Smith where a number of prostitutes on Smith’s payroll sweet-talked lonely prospectors out of their mine leases.
When the silver boom ended, however, so did Denver’s tolerance for Soapy. Smith and his brother, Bascom, were charged with murder in the beating death of a fellow saloon owner. Soapy hightailed it out of town, moving to Alaska in time to cash in on the Gold Rush.
Settling in Skagway, Smith picked up where he left off in Colorado, reportedly investing in two different drinking establishments, The Klondike and Clancy’s. It wasn’t until 1898 that he opened Jeff. Smith’s Parlor, (right) the most famous of the Soapy enterprises.
His well-oiled confidence machine eventually overreached, however, relieving gullible prospector John Stewart of his $2,700 grub stake, $75,000 dollars today, in a three-card monte game. Skagway’s civic improvement “101 Committee” demanded that Smith return the money and called a meeting on July 8 at the Juneau Wharf for the purpose of expelling Smith from Skagway.
Soapy’s scruffy “Soap Gang” outside the parlor
Carrying a Winchester rifle, Smith attempted to crash the meeting and began arguing with Skagway’s city engineer, Frank Reid. Reid had been 
hired as a guard by the vigilante 101 Committee to prevent the Soap Gang from crashing the meeting.
Reid (left) may have been a marginal one-time Soapy employee. Before signing on with the city he had worked briefly as a bartender at the Klondike Saloon. But neither Smith nor Reid survived their last encounter. Smith was shot in the chest and died at the scene. Reid died from his wounds 12 days later.
Despite his nefarious reputation as a worm at the time of his death, by the 1950s Smith somehow emerged as a butterfly, a Robin Hood figure who took from the miners, using the spoils to aid poor widows, orphans, stray dogs, and criminals who lived by their wits. Smith, the anti-hero, his fans said was a loyal friend who stood by his men, 
outwitted the stuffy reformers and conventional citizens; just a rascally con man who never meant any real harm.
Characters based on Jefferson Randolf “Soapy” Smith appear in dozens of books, movies and television episodes. He was portrayed in Hollywood and on TV by the likes of Rod Steiger is the 1980 movie, “Klondike Fever” and by John McIntire of television “Wagon Train” fame for starters. Tinsel town’s historic leading man, Clark Gable, played a Soapy style character in the 1941 film “Honky Tonk.” Legal wrangling regarding the use of Smith’s name led to the Gable character being recast as Candy Johnson. (Above, Gable as Candy Johnson)
And at this writing, the celebratory Soapy Smith Wake is still held annually in Skagway on the anniversary of the con man’s death.
The Jeff. Smiths Parlor Museum, Skagway, Alaska, like Soapy, has a checkered past. An orginal Klondike Gold Rush-era building, it was first a bank. When the bank moved out, Soapy moved in with his band of merry con men. The building housed a variety of businesses after Soapy’s death in 1898.
Tourism promoter Martin Itjen began a homespun museum there in 1935, opening with a collection of Gold Rush artifacts. In 1963, the building reopened with new owners, George and Edna Rapuzzi. In 2007, the Rapuzzi estate sold the museum to the Rasmusson Foundation and in 2008 the Foundation donated the building to the National Park Service.
The improved Jeff. Smiths Parlor Museum
In 2016, the Jeff.Smiths Parlor Museum reopened once again after eight years of restoration by the Park Service, one of four museums located in Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. For information on hours, fees and services in the park go to nps.gov/Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, call (907) 983-9200 or write Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, P.O. Box 517, Skagway, AK 99840.
© Text Only – 2019 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.
*Head On West strives for historic accuracy and uses a number of sources considered reliable. When research differs on significant facts, the various points of view will be cited.