When the Klondike Gold Rush began in 1897, Soapy Smith knew the tenderfeet headed for northern goldfields would be ripe for the picking, and chose raw, lawless Skagway as his headquarters. He built an empire that any Mafia don might envy. However, less than a year later, the town had had enough of Soapy. This is a rip-snorting portrait of the rise to power of a man without a conscience. It reveals the strong-arm robberies, bloody trail murders, illegitimate businesses, rigged card games, and garish, candle-lit honky tonks of the Gold Rush.