| Though the prostitution racket was
overlooked, when Allen began the wholesale distribution of drugs in the
mile high city, the law no longer turned a blind eye. His home was raided
in 1919 and significant quantities of heroin and opium were seized.
Big Time Charlie was sent to
Leavenworth
to serve five years for illegal drug trafficking and his empire fell.
What became of him after his release from prison is unknown.
"Dr." Samuel Bennett (1791?-1853)
– From Shreveport, Louisiana, Samuel Bennett was one of the best known
"thimble artists” to ever cruise the Mississippi River. Bennett was born
in New Hampshire on January 1, 1791 and worked as a fur trader, merchant
and tavern keeper, before making a name for himself as a "thimble artist."
Bennett was never actually a physician, but somewhere along the line,
acquired the honorific title of "Dr."
A variation on the "shell game,”
Bennett's con game was played with three thimbles and a tiny ball of paper.
Bennett claimed that he had been playing the game since he was a boy and
as an adult, he was so proficient at it that he soon earned the nicknames
of "the King of the Thimbles" and "the
Napoleon of the Thimble-Riggers.”
Bennett made his living at the thimble ruse and other con games so
proficiently that in the early 1840’s, stringent laws were passed in
several states that specifically prohibited the game. Inevitably, his name
was so associated with the game, that curious passengers on the riverboats
would often ask him to demonstrate. Though, Dr. Bennett would feign
reluctance, in the end, he would show his "skills” to the other
passengers. Ironically, even though he was well known as a con artist,
someone was always sure they could beat the crafty conman, only to walk
away without their money. Samuel Bennett died on September 21, 1853 in
Shreveport, Louisiana.
Lou "The Fixer"
Blonger, aka Louis H. Blonger (1849-1924) – The leader of the Blonger
Brothers, Lou was the organizer of an extensive ring of confidence
tricksters that operated for more than 25 years in Denver,
Colorado.
More ...
Albert John Bothwell
(1855-1928) - A self-important cattle baron of
Wyoming,
Bothwell was one of the main instigators of the infamous
Wyoming
Johnson County War. Born in Iowa around 1855,
Bothwell migrated to
Wyoming
and quickly became one of the most prosperous cattlemen in Sweetwater
County.
Described as an arrogant man,
Bothwell had been freely grazing
his cattle on unclaimed homestead land until
James Averell and
Ellen "Cattle
Kate" Watson came along in 1886 and filed homestead claims on the
property.
Bothwell was so sure that no one
would claim the lands, he had even gone so far as to illegally fence much
of the land with barbwire.
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When
Averell and his girlfriend,
Ellen Watson,
moved on to the land,
Bothwell's illegal use of the
property, of course, led to repeated disputes between the couple and the
large cattle baron.
When
Averell wrote to the Casper Daily Mail criticizing
Bothwell and claiming that the
cattle barons had too
much power,
Bothwell retaliated by claiming that
Averell and
Watson
were stealing his cattle. Dubbing
Watson
with the moniker of "Cattle
Kate," he also accused her of being a prostitute who sometimes
accepted stolen cattle in payment.
As the dispute continued to rage over the next
several months, Bothwell convinced other area ranchers of
Averell and
Watson's
guilt, and on July 20, 1889, he, along with five other men, hanged the
pair at a small canyon by the Sweetwater River. Though the men were
charged with murder, key witnesses began to mysteriously die or disappear
and all of them were acquitted. Both
Averell and "Cattle
Kate" were "tried" in the press, which was owned or influenced by the
cattle barons, and branded as "outlaws."
Bothwell later acquired both
homesteads of the murdered victims.
Later investigations into the whole affair
have found that most likely neither
James Averell, nor his girlfriend
Ellen "Cattle
Kate" Watson, were guilty of any crime. In the meantime, this event, as well as
several others, led to the
Johnson County War in
Wyoming.
Albert Bothwell retired to
Los Angeles,
California,
where he died on March 1, 1928.
More ...
 George
H. Devol
(1829-1903)
- Probably the greatest riverboat
gambler in the history of the Mississippi River, Devol was also a con artist, a fighter, and a master
at manipulating men and their money. Hailing from Ohio,
Devol
had plenty of good opportunities for an early education,
but he didn't like school and was prone to playing hookey and fighting. He
ran away at the age of the ten and quickly learned the intricacies of
cards and gambling. By the time the Civil War broke out, Devol had made
hundreds of thousands of dollars working mainly on the steamboats in the
South. After the war was over, he followed the railroad expansion between
Kansas City and Cheyenne taking advantage of the many towns that sprang up
along the railroad that were filled with miners, cowboys, and railroad
workers, ripe for his gambling skills. In 1892,
Devol
published his autobiography, Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi,
telling of his life and most likely exaggerating much of it.
Shortly after he published his book, the great days of railroad and
riverboat gambling were over and he retired from gambling for good in
1896. It is estimated that
Devol
won over two million dollars in his forty years of gambling.
However, when he died in Hot Springs,
Arkansas in
1903, he was nearly penniless.
More ...
James Joshua
Dolan (1848-1898) -
One of the primary instigators of
New Mexico's Lincoln County War,
James Dolan attempted to control the
economy of Lincoln County in the 1870s. More
...
Mike Fink (1770?–1823?)
- Most likely born at the frontier post of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fink
grew up to be a keelboatman on the flatboats of the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers. Before taking his place on the rivers he allegedly took part
in the Indian Wars of the Ohio region and worked as a trapper. Once on the
water, his reputation became notorious for his practical jokes and
willingness to fight anyone who was not amused. In those days, these
hard working men, with the strength to pole and pull their boats upriver
were seen as heroes. And, Fink was no exception, especially given
his superior physique. He stood over six feet tall, weighed nearly
200 pounds, and claimed he could "outrun, outshoot, throw down, drag out
and lick any man in the country.” What is not in doubt is that he
was an excellent marksman.
In 1822, Fink
joined
William Ashley's expedition up the Missouri River from St. Louis and
somewhere along the line his shooting "skills" became deadly. In his (not
so) practical joking manner, one of Fink's favorite games was to shoot a
mug of brew from the top of some fellow's head. However, on this
particular night in 1823, when the
Ashley group had stopped somewhere near the mouth of the Yellowstone
River, his shooting skills would fail him. Having had much to much
to drink, he missed and killed the guy who was wearing the mug on his
head. In no time, the dead man's friends retaliated by killing Fink.
For whatever reasons, his legend was being told for decades along with the
likes of Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. The legend grew until some told of
him riding a moose like a horse, wrestling alligators, and drowning wolves
with his bare hands. These tales were further exaggerated in the
dime novels that were so popular at the time to such a point that he
became a folk hero. In actuality, however, Fink was a drunken bully
who deserves his place on these Scoundrel pages.
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