8. Soapy’s criminal empire began to come under pressure in the late 1880s
The Smith criminal enterprises continued to grow in Denver, and expanded into other Colorado towns. Soapy recruited his brother-in-law, a Texas deputy marshal named William Light, to join him in Denver. Light was known to all as Cap. Cap joined Soapy in Denver in 1891, hired as an enforcer. In 1892 Soapy expanded into the town of Creede, little more than a mining camp, and assigned Cap as its deputy marshal. In March, 1892, a drunken faro dealer, William McCann, shot out streetlamps on Creede’s main street before entering a saloon. Cap found him there, and while attempting to arrest him a gunfight broke out. McCann was killed, and Cap quit Smith’s employ and returned to Texas.
Soapy’s power in Denver was by then beginning to deteriorate, in part because rival gangs had established themselves in other areas of the city and encroached upon his. He was also an inveterate gambler and a heavy drinker, both of which added to his difficulties. The Denver newspapers, led by the Rocky Mountain News, continued their calls for reform, and the more sober-minded citizens of Denver began to pressure the local government. Soapy decided to yield to the forces conspiring against him and move his main operations to Creede, which was booming as a silver town, and was still free of the restrictions steadily choking his operations in Denver.