Alaskan historian Jane Haigh chronicles the life of clever, conniving, confidence man Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith, and his death in a vigilante shootout on a wharf in Skagway at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush.
King Con documents Soapy's life from his infamy as a Denver crook and gang leader and his takeover of early Creede, Colorado, to the fake businesses, rigged card games, and brutal murders that marked his years of dominance in the Gold Rush Skagway. This fascinating biography is illustrated with period photographs that show Soapy and his gang from their glory days to his autopsy in 1898.