The Gem Theater and Saloon
Swearengen’s operations at the Cricket were so lucrative that he was able to close it in 1877, opening the much larger facility which he called the Gem Variety Theater in the spring of that year on Wall Street where it intersected Main. He continued the entertainments which he had featured at the Cricket, on a much larger scale, and recruited a band to play nightly, advertising the services offered at the Gem. Swearengen was well known for the ruthlessness with which he treated the young women whom he brought to his establishment on false pretenses, including beatings and making them more tractable by providing them with opium.
The Gem often brought Swearengen as much as $10,000 a night, funds which he used to increase his power in the town and his influence over the emerging government. Many of the women he brought to Deadwood ended up on the street after their usefulness to him was over, forcing them to continue a life as a prostitute and often an addict until disease or starvation brought their lives to an end. There was also the constant threat of beatings and even falling victim to murder at the hands of Swearengen’s men. Despite efforts by the town leaders to clean up the vice in Deadwood, Swearengen remained for a time immune, protected by his henchmen and his money.