A Brief History
On July 8, 1898, gangster and con artist Jefferson R. “Soapy” Smith was killed in a shootout with a vigilance committee on the Juneau, Alaska wharves. Soapy got his name from a soap related scam he used to run, but nothing was funny about him running organized crime in Denver and other locales in Colorado and in the gold rush town of Skagway, Alaska.
Digging Deeper
Sometimes gangsters and criminals have sort of cool sounding nicknames, such as “Iron Mike” Tyson (a shot at the miscreant boxer, a convicted rapist), Sammy “The Bull” Gravano (a Gambino Family underboss), and John “The Dapper Don” Gotti (Gravano’s boss and known for his natty clothes). Gotti was also called “The Teflon Don” because criminal charges did not seem to stick to him.
Sometimes nicknames described the criminal’s M.O., such as “Machine Gun” Kelly, who oddly enough used a machine gun, “Pistol Pete” Rollack, or Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso, who may have gotten his nickname for using a gas pipe in some nefarious way. Or maybe it had something to do with flatulence, we really do not know, but we know he did not like the name. People called him “Gas” for short, not all that flattering.
“Bugsy” Siegel hated that nickname as it implied he had bugs (lice, crabs), and I did not find out why “Bugs” Moran got his moniker, perhaps because he bugged Al Capone by trying to kill “Scarface” who ended up killing a bunch of Moran’s gang at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
“Scarface” got his nickname because of a scar on his face, though he did not tolerate being called that in person. For some reason Capone was also called “Snorky.“ Vincent Gigante was known as “The Chin” or just “Chin” because of his prominent facial feature, but also earned the more colorful name “The Oddfather” when he pretended to be insane to avoid prosecution. He died in prison. Physical characteristics such as “Big,” “Little,” and “Fat” can precede a name as well.
Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd earned his sobriquet when he was described by a robbery witness as a “pretty boy.” Floyd ended up getting gunned down by the cops led by the famous Melvin Purvis in Ohio in 1934.
Jack “Legs” Diamond was another one of those guys with a second nickname, being also called “The Clay Pigeon” because he was shot so many times. Not a good nickname to earn! Sort of like “Lucky” Luciano, who earned his nickname the hard way, by surviving a severe beating and then a throat slashing, both meant to kill him.
Some of the other nifty names gangsters have been called include “The Cigar,” “Jimmy the Gent,” “The Butcher,” “Big Tuna,” “The Bear,” “The Brain,” “The Clown,” “The Fox,” “The Toad,” “Greasy Thumb,” “The Hunchback,” “Iceman,” “Joe Bananas,” “Johnny Sausage,” “Lord High Executioner,” “Patty Muscles,” “No Nose,” “Tony Tea bags,” and “The Wolf.”
It seems you need a nickname to be a notorious criminal. Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite goofy criminal nickname? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Buffum, George Tower. Soapy Smith: a Sketch of the Notorious Gambler and Scoundrel in Colorado’s Mining Camps (1906). 2016.
SMITH, Jeff. Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel. Klondike Research, 2009.
Spude, Catherine Holder. “That Fiend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend. University of Oklahoma Press, 2012.
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