The infamous Soapy Smith was a late 19th century American old west confidence man and gambler par excellence. Known as the "king of the frontier confidence men" he was beyond comparison the most artful grifter of his time. As a crime lord Soapy organized a large and powerful gang of talented scoundrels and rogues in order to assume control of the criminal underworlds in Denver and Creede, Colorado, between the years 1884 and 1895, and in Skagway, Alaska, during the Klondike gold rush of 1896-1898. In the latter, he was known in the newspapers around the nation as the "uncrowned king of Skagway."

Soapy Smith was the last of his kind, an old west crime figure who refused to give up the old ways for a constantly changing, modernizing nation. He was shot dead in a horrific gunfight while facing angry vigilantes on July 8, 1898. Four days prior, he had been the man of the hour. He had led Skagway’s first Independence Day parade as one of its grand marshals, and he stood on stage alongside Alaska Territorial Governor John Brady. Four days later he died, labeled a criminal outlaw.

This is the story of a very complex criminal. Although a bad man, he was also a self-styled patriot and a charitable man, strikingly generous to those in need. He was known to his peers and enemies for his bravery and loyalty to his gang, friends, and family. His motto was "Get it while the get'in's good." In the days of the old west, no one proved more slippery.

From the Back Cover:

(from back cover) This comprehensive biography of an extraordinary confident man, gambler, and an all-around bad man is set against the carefully researched historical times of the evolving Old West. Author and great-grandson Jeff Smith spent 25 years researching and writing life and murderous death of one of the West's most infamous, and some say often unfairly maligned, masters of the criminal arts and natural-born leaders of men. Was Soapy Smith a "good man"? This history points to Sometimes. Was he a "bad man"? Without a doubt, Often. In this book, from Georgia to Texas, from Denver and the silver and gold boomtowns of Colorado to Mexico and the Western states to the great Northwest, and to the last frontier, Alaska, you will travel with "Soapy" Smith to his criminal empires and final bold, deadly showdown with vigilantes