On July 8, 1898, criminal boss Jefferson “Soapy” Smith’s iron‑fisted reign over Skagway, Alaska, came to an end during the height of the Klondike gold rush. A group of vigilantes known as the Committee of 101 confronted Smith and his gang at the Juneau Wharf, resulting in a sudden shootout that killed Soapy and mortally wounded city defender Frank Reid, who succumbed to his injuries twelve days later.
Soapy earned his bizarre nickname through one of the most successful street scams of the 19th century: wrapping ordinary bars of soap in paper money—ranging from one dollar to a one‑hundred‑dollar bill—and then covering them in plain wrappers. Using hidden accomplices to pretend to win the cash prizes, he tricked desperate miners into paying exorbitant prices for worthless soap, accumulating a fortune that he used to bribe local law enforcement.
From LOC via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US
