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Soapy Smith
Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 – July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier. Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States, and had a large hand in organized criminal operations in both Colorado and the District of Alaska. Smith gained notoriety through his "prize soap racket," in which he would sell bars of soap with prize money hidden in some of the bars' packaging in order to increase sales. However, through sleight-of-hand, he would ensure that only members of his gang purchased "prize" soap. The racket led to his sobriquet of "Soapy." The success of his soap racket and other scams helped him finance three successive criminal empires in Denver and Creede, both in Colorado, and in Skagway, Alaska. He was killed in the shootout on Juneau Wharf in Skagway, on July 8, 1898. Early years Jefferson Smith was born on November 2, 1860, in Coweta County, Georgia, to a wealthy family. His grandfather ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coweta County, Georgia
Coweta County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is part of Metro Atlanta. As of the 2020 census, the population was 146,158. The county seat is Newnan. Coweta County is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The land for Lee, Muscogee, Troup, Coweta and Carroll counties was ceded by the Creek people in the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs. The counties' boundaries were created by the Georgia General Assembly on June 9, 1826, but they were not named until December 14, 1826. Coweta County was named for the Koweta Indians (a sub-group of the Creek people), who had several towns in and around the present-day county. In the city of Newnan, on April 23, 1899, a notorious lynching occurred after an African-American man by the name of Sam Hose (born Tom Wilkes) was accused of killing his boss, Alfred Cranford. Hose was tortured and burned alive by a lynch mob of approximately 2,000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shill
A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with said person or organization. Shills can carry out their operations in the areas of media, journalism, marketing, politics, sports, confidence games, cryptocurrency, or other business areas. A shill may also act to discredit opponents or critics of the person or organization in which they have a vested interest. In most uses, ''shill'' refers to someone who purposely gives onlookers, participants or "marks" the impression of an enthusiastic customer independent of the seller, marketer or con artist, for whom they are secretly working. The person or group in league with the shill relies on crowd psychology to encourage other onlookers or audience members to do business with the seller or accept the ideas they are promoting. Shills may be employed by salespeople and professional marketing campaigns. ''P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Sidney "Cap" Light
William Sidney "Cap" Light was a Texas lawman from 1884 until his death in 1893, when he accidentally shot himself. He had a shining reputation, except for the period (1891–1892) when he worked for his brother-in-law, the infamous badman, Soapy Smith in Denver and Creede, Colorado. Light was born in late 1863, or possibly early 1864, near Belton, Texas. The son of W. R. Light, a merchant, and Eliza Hyatt Light, both from Tennessee. William Light's first calling was that of a barber, but at age 20, he accepted a position as a deputy marshal in Belton. It is believed he was a member of the posse that tracked down and fatally shot a local desperado, William Northcott. on March 24, 1884. Light married the sister of Soapy Smith, Eva Katherine Smith, of Temple, Texas in June 1887. They had a son, William Jeff Light in 1890 and a daughter, Emma Ruby Light in 1892. Light's first confirmed kill In the fall of 1889, Sam Hasley, a trouble-maker with a deputy sheriff's commission, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boomtown
A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons, such as a proximity to a major metropolitan area, huge construction project, or attractive climate. First boomtowns Early boomtowns, such as Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester, experienced a dramatic surge in population and economic activity during the Industrial Revolution at the turn of the 19th century. In pre-industrial England these towns had been relative backwaters, compared to the more important market towns of Bristol, Norwich, and York, but they soon became major urban and industrial centres. Although these boomtowns did not directly owe their sudden growth to the discovery of a local natural resource, the factories were set up there to take ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electoral Fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of rival candidates, or both. It differs from but often goes hand-in-hand with voter suppression. What exactly constitutes electoral fraud varies from country to country. Electoral legislation outlaws many kinds of election fraud, * also at but other practices violate general laws, such as those banning assault, harassment or libel. Although technically the term "electoral fraud" covers only those acts which are illegal, the term is sometimes used to describe acts which are legal, but considered morally unacceptable, outside the spirit of an election or in violation of the principles of democracy. Show elections, featuring only one candidate, are sometimes classified as electoral fraud, although they may comply with the law and are p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments. The most common regulation is prohibition of sale to minors, and vendors must be licensed to sell lottery tickets. Although lotteries were common in the United States and some other countries during the 19th century, by the beginning of the 20th century, most forms of gambling, including lotteries and sweepstakes, were illegal in the U.S. and most of Europe as well as many other countries. This remained so until well after World War II. In the 1960s, casinos and lotteries began to re-appear throughout the world as a means for governments to raise revenue without raising taxes. Lotteries come in many formats. For example, the prize can be a fixed amount of cash or goods. In this format, there is risk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheating In Poker
Cheating in poker is any behavior outside the rules of poker that is intended to give an unfair advantage to one or more players. Minimal-skill methods The easiest and most common types of cheating require no skill of manipulation, but rather merely the nerve. Such methods include shorting the pot, avoiding house fees, and peeking at other players' cards. It is very difficult to prove because when confronted, at least the first time, the cheat often calls the cheating an honest mistake. One minimal-skill method that occurs in non-casino and casino games happens when a player who has folded appoints themselves the tender of the pot, stacking chips, counting them, and delivering them to the winning player. ''Check-chopping'' is when such a "helpful" player palms a chip. Odorless adhesive can be used for this purpose. Another minimal-skill method is going south (also known as "ratholing"), where a player covertly removes a portion of their chips from play while remaining in the g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caveat Emptor
''Caveat emptor'' (; from ''caveat'', "may he/she beware", a subjunctive form of ''cavēre'', "to beware" + ''ēmptor'', "buyer") is Latin for "Let the buyer beware". It has become a proverb in English. Generally, ''caveat emptor'' is the contract law principle that controls the sale of real property after the date of closing, but may also apply to sales of other goods. The phrase ''caveat emptor'' and its use as a disclaimer of warranties arises from the fact that buyers typically have less information than the seller about the good or service they are purchasing. This quality of the situation is known as 'information asymmetry'. Defects in the good or service may be hidden from the buyer, and only known to the seller. It is a short form of ''Caveat emptor, quia ignorare non debuit quod jus alienum emit'' ("Let a purchaser beware, for he ought not to be ignorant of the nature of the property which he is buying from another party.") I.e. the buyer should assure himself that t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sleight-of-hand
Sleight of hand (also known as prestidigitation or ''legerdemain'' ()) refers to fine motor skills when used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card flourishing and stealing. Because of its heavy use and practice by magicians, sleight of hand is often confused as a branch of magic; however, it is a separate genre of entertainment and many artists practice sleight of hand as an independent skill. Sleight of hand pioneers with worldwide acclaim include Dan and Dave, Ricky Jay, Derek DelGaudio, David Copperfield, Yann Frisch, Norbert Ferré, Dai Vernon, Cardini, Tony Slydini and Helder Guimarães. Etymology and history The word ''sleight'', meaning "the use of dexterity or cunning, especially so as to deceive", comes from the Old Norse. The phrase ''sleight of hand'' means "quick fingers" or "trickster fingers". Common synonyms of Latin and French include ''prestidigitation'' a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three-card Monte
Three-card Monte – also known as Find the Lady and Three-card Trick – is a confidence game in which the victims, or "marks", are tricked into betting a sum of money, on the assumption that they can find the "money card" among three face-down playing cards. It is very similar to the shell game except that cards are used instead of shells. In its full form, Three-card Monte is an example of a classic " short con" in which a shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact doing the reverse. The mark has no chance whatsoever of winning, at any point in the game. In fact, anyone who is observed winning anything in the game can be presumed to be a shill. This confidence trick was already in use by the turn of the 15th century. Rules To play Three-card Monte, a dealer places three cards face down on a table, usually on a cardboard box which provides the ability to set up and disappear quickly. The dealer shows that one of the cards is the target card, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shell Game
The shell game (also known as thimblerig, three shells and a pea, the old army game) is often portrayed as a gambling game, but in reality, when a wager for money is made, it is almost always a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud. In confidence trick slang, this swindle is referred to as a ''short-con'' because it is quick and easy to pull off. The shell game is related to the cups and balls conjuring trick, which is performed purely for entertainment purposes without any purported gambling element. Play In the shell game, three or more identical containers (which may be cups, shells, bottle caps, or anything else) are placed face-down on a surface. A small ball is placed beneath one of these containers so that it cannot be seen, and they are then shuffled by the operator in plain view. One or more players are invited to bet on which container holds the ball – typically, the operator offers to double the player's stake if they guess right. Where the game is played hon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Cons
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ..intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men') at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". Terminology Synonyms include con, confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, scam, and stratagem. The perpetrator of a confidence trick (or "con trick") is often referred to as a confidence (or "con") man, con-artist, or a " grifter". The shell game dates back at least to Ancient Greece. Samuel Thompson (1821–1856) was the original "confidence man". Thompson was a clumsy swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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