The Legend of Soapy Smith, The Old West’s Great Con Man,Originally I had a much different topi

The Legend of Soapy Smith, The Old West’s Great Con Man,Originally I had a much different topic in mind for tonight’s history post, but life events have intervened and inspired to touch on something else.  Unfortunately today Peashooter was snookered by some con men posing as Microsoft tech support agents, who gratefully called him to inform him that his computer was going kabonkers.  Gullible Peashooter handed his credit card number, and faster than you can say “humbuggery” a charge for a $29.95 maintenance warranty morphed into three $200 Western Union money transfers to a man named Ping Lian in China (if he exists).  The worse part about being scammed it not the money aspect, but the feeling left knowing that you have been so easily bamboozled, especially when I have daftly avoided similar scams before.  The art of the con is a practice that goes back to the dawn of civilization, and throughout history there have been countless people who have devoted their talents and skills towards tricking people out of their hard earned money.  Back in the days of the Old West, one of the most famous con artists of the era was a man named Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith, who made a living as a cheat, gambling house operator, and gangster operating out of Denver, Colorado in the late 19th century.  Soapy Smith earned his nicknamed from his most famous racket, the “Prize Package Soap Con”.  He would arrive in a bustling town or street corner with a display case full of packaged bars of soap.  He would then take out 100 dollar bills, unwrap some of the bars, re-wrap them with the bills inside, then mix them all up so that nobody knew which bars had the $100 bills.  He would then sell each of the bills to gathered onlookers for large sums of money.  Little did the people know that using sleight-of-hand, he had secretly replace the bars containing money with bars containing no money.  A couple of plants would be placed in the crowd, who shout with joy that they had bought a bar containing money, but of course the whole thing was a farce.  Sometimes, if the crowd was particularly enthusiastic, Smith would announce that the remaining bars still had money in them, and would auction them off to the highest bidder.Soapy Smith grew so rich with his scheme that he eventually became a powerful man, eventually becoming the crime boss of Denver while also rigging local and state political elections.  When the Great Klondike gold rush started in 1897, he moved to Skagway, Alaska in search of greener pastures and new marks.  In 1898 he cheated a pair of gold miners in a game of Three Card Monte.  Moments later he was confronted by a large group of vigilantes, who demanded he return the money.  When he refused, the riddled him with bullets.What is most embarrassing for Peashooter is the fact the Microsoft Tech Support scam was not that much more complex than Soapy Smith’s legendary soap con, although the Microsoft hoaxsters played more on ignorance and fear rather than greed.  I have a feeling Soapy would have been proud. -- source link

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