4 minute read The name Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith is well known amongst magicians, Old West historians and cheating aficionados. Soapy evolved from being a street swindler to a full-time racketeer with dozens of bad men and ladies of negotiable affection on his payroll. But it all started with a simple little scam that not only gave Jefferson Randolph Smith his nickname, it seeded the future of a criminal enterprise that ended, inevitably in disaster. Soapy Who? Before I describe the scam, a few words on who Soapy Smith was. Between 1879 and 1898, Soapy owned several crooked gambling joints and ran a campaign of