Download or read book Alias Soapy Smith written by Jeff Smith and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jefferson Randolph Smith II written by Todd Sulima and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-21 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 - July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier. Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States and had a large hand in organized criminal operations in both Colorado and the District of Alaska. Smith gained notoriety through his "prize soap racket," in which he would sell bars of soap with prize money hidden in some of the bars' packaging to increase sales. However, through sleight-of-hand, he would ensure that only members of his gang purchased "prize" soap. The racket led to his sobriquet of "Soapy." No other scoundrel could match "Soapy" Smith's utter audacity and unrelenting pursuit of skinning a sucker. Jefferson Randolph Smith II was a genius at running a scam, organizing a gang of confederates, and paying off authorities. Smith presented himself as a man of wisdom, a philosopher, a philanthropist, a supporter of law and order, and above all else, an American patriot. He had the inherent ability to look a man in the eye and lie like every word was etched in stone. But, on July 8, 1898, Soapy was killed in a shootout in Skagway, Alaska. At the time, newspapers attributed a man, Frank Reid, with putting the fatal bullet through Soapy's heart. Now, 100 years later, historical research has shown that was not the case. Death of a Con Man is a concise, accurate account of the truth behind the myth.
Download or read book The Reign of Soapy Smith i e Jefferson Randolph Smith Monarch of Misrule in the Last Days of the Old West and the Klondike Gold Rush Illustrated with Photographs written by William Ross COLLIER (and WESTRATE (Edwin Victor)) and published by . This book was released on 1935 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Death of a Con Man written by G. R. Williamson and published by Indian Head Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-29 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The undisputed king of the confidence men of the Old West, Jefferson Randolph Smith II (Soapy Smith) ruled criminal gangs in Colorado and Alaska. No other scoundrel could match Soapy Smith’s utter audacity and unrelenting pursuit of skinning a sucker. He was a genius at running a scam, at organizing a gang of confederates, and at paying off authorities. He had the inherent ability to look a man in the eye and lie like every word was etched in stone. But, on July 8 1898, Soapy was killed in a shootout in Skagway, Alaska. At the time, newspapers attributed a man, Frank Reid, with putting the fatal bullet through Soapy’s heart. Now, 100 years later, historical research has shown that was not the case. Death of a Con Man is a concise, accurate account of the truth behind the myth. Entertaining, as well as informative, the story of the most notorious con man is told with many vintage photographs
Download or read book Event Of Soapy s Demise written by Lemuel Saenphimmacha and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-21 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 - July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier. Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States and had a large hand in organized criminal operations in both Colorado and the District of Alaska. Smith gained notoriety through his "prize soap racket," in which he would sell bars of soap with prize money hidden in some of the bars' packaging to increase sales. However, through sleight-of-hand, he would ensure that only members of his gang purchased "prize" soap. The racket led to his sobriquet of "Soapy." No other scoundrel could match "Soapy" Smith's utter audacity and unrelenting pursuit of skinning a sucker. Jefferson Randolph Smith II was a genius at running a scam, organizing a gang of confederates, and paying off authorities. Smith presented himself as a man of wisdom, a philosopher, a philanthropist, a supporter of law and order, and above all else, an American patriot. He had the inherent ability to look a man in the eye and lie like every word was etched in stone. But, on July 8, 1898, Soapy was killed in a shootout in Skagway, Alaska. At the time, newspapers attributed a man, Frank Reid, with putting the fatal bullet through Soapy's heart. Now, 100 years later, historical research has shown that was not the case. Death of a Con Man is a concise, accurate account of the truth behind the myth.
Download or read book That Fiend in Hell written by Catherine Holder Spude and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-09-28 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Klondike gold rush peaked in spring 1898, adventurers and gamblers rubbed shoulders with town-builders and gold-panners in Skagway, Alaska. The flow of riches lured confidence men, too—among them Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith (1860–98), who with an entourage of “bunco-men” conned and robbed the stampeders. Soapy, though, a common enough criminal, would go down in legend as the Robin Hood of Alaska, the “uncrowned king of Skagway,” remembered for his charm and generosity, even for calming a lynch mob. When the Fourth of July was celebrated in ’98, he supposedly led the parade. Then, a few days later, he was dead, killed in a shootout over a card game. With Smith’s death, Skagway rid itself of crime forever. Or at least, so the story goes. Journalists immediately cast him as a martyr whose death redeemed a violent town. In fact, he was just a petty criminal and card shark, as Catherine Holder Spude proves definitively in “That Fiend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend, a tour de force of historical debunking that documents Smith’s elevation to western hero. In sorting out the facts about this man and his death from fiction, Spude concludes that the actual Soapy was not the legendary “boss of Skagway,” nor was he killed by Frank Reid, as early historians supposed. She shows that even eyewitnesses who knew the truth later changed their stories to fit the myth. But why? Tracking down some hundred retellings of the Soapy Smith story, Spude traces the efforts of Skagway’s boosters to reinforce a morality tale at the expense of a complex story of town-building and government formation. The idea that Smith’s death had made a lawless town safe served Skagway’s economic interests. Spude’s engaging deconstruction of Soapy’s story models deep research and skepticism crucial to understanding the history of the American frontier.
Download or read book Soapy Smith written by Charles River Editors and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-27 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading Before there was Charles Ponzi, there was Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II. The famed Old West con artist and gangster's criminal career ranged from Texas to Alaska, from Denver to the Klondike. But Smith was not predestined to become a criminal; if genetics and environment typically determine one's destiny, he could have become a farmer, a lawyer, or a politician. He was born in Coweta County, Georgia, on November 2, 1860, to Jefferson Randolph Smith, Jr., and Emily Dawson Smith, right as the Southern society his family was a part of was on the verge of suffering the cataclysm of the Civil War. Like many men in the years after the Civil War, Soapy would make his way west, where frontier towns often popped up immediately and were established long before the law could reach them. At the same time, the Civil War had come less than 15 years after the California Gold Rush brought an estimated 300,000 people to the Pacific Coast, with men dangerously trekking thousands of miles in hopes of making a fortune. This was a pattern that would repeat itself across the West anytime a mineral discovery was made, from the Southwest and Tombstone to the Dakotas and Deadwood. Of course, it was all made possible by the collective memory of the original gold rush, and when gold was discovered in the Yukon and Alaska almost 50 years after the rush in California, it drew tens of thousands of prospectors despite the unforgiving climate. Mineral resources had gone a long way in the United States acquiring Alaska a generation earlier, but the lack of transportation kept all but the most dedicated from venturing into the Yukon and Alaska until the announcement of the gold rush. For a few years, the attention turned to the Northwest, and thanks to vivid descriptions by writers like Jack London, the nation became intrigued with the idea of miners toughing out the winter conditions to find hidden gold. Of course, despite the mythology and the romantic portrayals that helped make the Klondike Gold Rush, most of the individuals who came to make a fortune struck out instead. The gold rush was a boon to business interests, which ensured important infrastructure developments like the railroad and the construction of westward paths, but ultimately, it also meant that big business reaped most of the profits associated with mining the gold. While the miners are often remembered for panning gold out of mountain streams, it required advanced mining technology for most to make a fortune. In most places where miners showed up, the real money lay in "mining" the miners, something Soapy Smith would quickly come to understand and use to his advantage. Utilizing a famous con involving soap "prizes," Soapy would earn his nickname while also possessing outsized influence in various forms of swindling, from shady political dealings to outright fraud. His reputation as a criminal began to spread, yet he still plied his trade across the frontier, and ultimately to the Northwest at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, where he would meet his fate and cement his legend. Soapy Smith: The Life and Legacy of the Wild West's Most Infamous Con Artist looks at the controversial times and crimes of the Western huckster, and the career that led to a notorious end. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about Soapy Smith like never before.
Download or read book Death of a Con Man written by G. R. Williamson and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Death of a Con Man -Soapy Smith's Demise in 1898No other scoundrel could match "Soapy" Smith's utter audacity and unrelenting pursuit of skinning a sucker. Jefferson Randolph Smith II was a genius at running a scam, at organizing a gang of confederates, and at paying off authorities. Smith presented himself as a man of wisdom, a philosopher, a philanthropist, a supporter of law and order, and above all else, an American patriot. He had the inherent ability to look a man in the eye and lie like every word was etched in stone. But, on July 8 1898, Soapy was killed in a shootout in Skagway, Alaska. At the time, newspapers attributed a man, Frank Reid, with putting the fatal bullet through Soapy's heart. Now, 100 years later, historical research has shown that was not the case. Death of a Con Man is a concise, accurate account of the truth behind the myth.Entertaining, as well as informative, the story of the most notorious con man is told with many vintage photographs and illustrations.
Download or read book How Much for Just the Planet written by John M. Ford and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2000-09-22 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling Star Trek: The Original Series adventure featuring Captain James T. Kirk and the USS Enterprise in a strange battle for dilithium crystals against the Klingons. Dilithium. In crystalline form, the most valuable mineral in the galaxy. It powers the Federation’s starships...and the Klingon Empire’s battlecruisers. Now on a small, out-of-the-way planet named Direidi, the greatest fortune in dilithium crystals ever seen has been found. Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, the planet will go to the side best able to develop the planet and its resourses. Each side will contest the prize with the prime of its fleet. For the Federation—Captain James T. Kirk and the Starship Enterprise. For the Klingons—Captain Kaden vestai-Oparai and the Fire Blossom. Only the Direidians are writing their own script for this contest—script that propels the crew of the Starship Enterprise into their strangest adventure yet!
Download or read book The Jefferson Bible written by Thomas Jefferson and published by Wyatt North Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2014-01-05 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was a book constructed by Thomas Jefferson in the latter years of his life by cutting and pasting numerous sections from various Bibles as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson's composition excluded sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists. In 1895, the Smithsonian Institution under the leadership of librarian Cyrus Adler purchased the original Jefferson Bible from Jefferson's great-granddaughter Carolina Randolph for $400. A conservation effort commencing in 2009, in partnership with the museum's Political History department, allowed for a public unveiling in an exhibit open from November 11, 2011, through May 28, 2012, at the National Museum of American History.
Download or read book Soapy Smith s Utter Audacity written by Marion Kirbie and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-21 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 - July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier. Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States and had a large hand in organized criminal operations in both Colorado and the District of Alaska. Smith gained notoriety through his "prize soap racket," in which he would sell bars of soap with prize money hidden in some of the bars' packaging to increase sales. However, through sleight-of-hand, he would ensure that only members of his gang purchased "prize" soap. The racket led to his sobriquet of "Soapy." No other scoundrel could match "Soapy" Smith's utter audacity and unrelenting pursuit of skinning a sucker. Jefferson Randolph Smith II was a genius at running a scam, organizing a gang of confederates, and paying off authorities. Smith presented himself as a man of wisdom, a philosopher, a philanthropist, a supporter of law and order, and above all else, an American patriot. He had the inherent ability to look a man in the eye and lie like every word was etched in stone. But, on July 8, 1898, Soapy was killed in a shootout in Skagway, Alaska. At the time, newspapers attributed a man, Frank Reid, with putting the fatal bullet through Soapy's heart. Now, 100 years later, historical research has shown that was not the case. Death of a Con Man is a concise, accurate account of the truth behind the myth.
Download or read book Correspondence of a Crook written by R. D. Jones and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Scandal at Bizarre written by Cynthia A. Kierner and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1790s Richard Randolph was accused of fathering a child by his sister-in-law, Nancy, and murdering the baby shortly after its birth. Rumors about the incident, which occurred during a visit to the plantation of close family friends, spread like wildfire. Randolph found himself on trial for the crime largely because of the public outrage fueled by these rumors. The rest of the household suffered too, and only Nancy, who later married the esteemed New York statesman Gouverneur Morris, would find any degree of happiness. A tale of family passion, betrayal, and deception, Scandal at Bizarre is a fascinating historical portrait of the social and political realities of a world long vanished.
Download or read book Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings written by Annette Gordon-Reed and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1998-03-29 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Annette Gordon-Reed's groundbreaking study was first published, rumors of Thomas Jefferson's sexual involvement with his slave Sally Hemings had circulated for two centuries. Among all aspects of Jefferson's renowned life, it was perhaps the most hotly contested topic. The publication of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings intensified this debate by identifying glaring inconsistencies in many noted scholars' evaluations of the existing evidence. In this study, Gordon-Reed assembles a fascinating and convincing argument: not that the alleged thirty-eight-year liaison necessarily took place but rather that the evidence for its taking place has been denied a fair hearing. Friends of Jefferson sought to debunk the Hemings story as early as 1800, and most subsequent historians and biographers followed suit, finding the affair unthinkable based upon their view of Jefferson's life, character, and beliefs. Gordon-Reed responds to these critics by pointing out numerous errors and prejudices in their writings, ranging from inaccurate citations, to impossible time lines, to virtual exclusions of evidence—especially evidence concerning the Hemings family. She demonstrates how these scholars may have been misguided by their own biases and may even have tailored evidence to serve and preserve their opinions of Jefferson. This updated edition of the book also includes an afterword in which the author comments on the DNA study that provided further evidence of a Jefferson and Hemings liaison. Possessing both a layperson's unfettered curiosity and a lawyer's logical mind, Annette Gordon-Reed writes with a style and compassion that are irresistible. Each chapter revolves around a key figure in the Hemings drama, and the resulting portraits are engrossing and very personal. Gordon-Reed also brings a keen intuitive sense of the psychological complexities of human relationships—relationships that, in the real world, often develop regardless of status or race. The most compelling element of all, however, is her extensive and careful research, which often allows the evidence to speak for itself. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy is the definitive look at a centuries-old question that should fascinate general readers and historians alike.
Download or read book Martha Jefferson Randolph Daughter of Monticello written by Cynthia A. Kierner and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-05-14 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the oldest and favorite daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836) was extremely well educated, traveled in the circles of presidents and aristocrats, and was known on two continents for her particular grace and sincerity. Yet, as mistress of a large household, she was not spared the tedium, frustration, and great sorrow that most women of her time faced. Though Patsy's name is familiar because of her famous father, Cynthia Kierner is the first historian to place Patsy at the center of her own story, taking readers into the largely ignored private spaces of the founding era. Randolph's life story reveals the privileges and limits of celebrity and shows that women were able to venture beyond their domestic roles in surprising ways. Following her mother's death, Patsy lived in Paris with her father and later served as hostess at the President's House and at Monticello. Her marriage to Thomas Mann Randolph, a member of Congress and governor of Virginia, was often troubled. She and her eleven children lived mostly at Monticello, greeting famous guests and debating issues ranging from a woman's place to slavery, religion, and democracy. And later, after her family's financial ruin, Patsy became a fixture in Washington society during Andrew Jackson's presidency. In this extraordinary biography, Kierner offers a unique look at American history from the perspective of this intelligent, tactfully assertive woman.
Download or read book Master of the Mountain written by Henry Wiencek and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book—based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers—opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money. So far, historians have offered only easy irony or paradox to explain this extraordinary Founding Father who was an emancipationist in his youth and then recoiled from his own inspiring rhetoric and equivocated about slavery; who enjoyed his renown as a revolutionary leader yet kept some of his own children as slaves. But Wiencek's Jefferson is a man of business and public affairs who makes a success of his debt-ridden plantation thanks to what he calls the "silent profits" gained from his slaves—and thanks to a skewed moral universe that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. We see Jefferson taking out a slave-equity line of credit with a Dutch bank to finance the building of Monticello and deftly creating smoke screens when visitors are dismayed by his apparent endorsement of a system they thought he'd vowed to overturn. It is not a pretty story. Slave boys are whipped to make them work in the nail factory at Monticello that pays Jefferson's grocery bills. Parents are divided from children—in his ledgers they are recast as money—while he composes theories that obscure the dynamics of what some of his friends call "a vile commerce." Many people of Jefferson's time saw a catastrophe coming and tried to stop it, but not Jefferson. The pursuit of happiness had been badly distorted, and an oligarchy was getting very rich. Is this the quintessential American story?
Download or read book Jefferson s Daughters written by Catherine Kerrison and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes a partial Heming's family tree.
