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Blonger Day, April 22, 2006
Three years ago today, Scott finally turned over the right rock, and there was long-lost Uncle Lou. Since then, we have tried on this anniversary to assess the findings of the year past, and take a look at the questions at the top of our list going forward.
In April, we learned a bit about the Blonger businesses in Salt Lake City circa 1874, including Booth's Select Canned Oysters and the Omaha Beer Saloon.
Shipman and Blonger.
[We] call attention to the card of
[Ship]man and Blonger, who have remo-
[dele]d Reid's Building. This firm are
[the ]Sole Agents for the Brewer and
[Bemi]s' celebrated Ales, Porter, and
[Lage]r, of which, every man who likes
...[b]eer, speaks in words of commen-
[datio]n.
In May, Jeff Smith got SoapySmith.net up and running.
In June, we received a Nigerian scam email addressed to Philip Van Cise. Boy did they pick the wrong guy.
A batch of fleeting references to the Blongers hint at discoveries to come regarding their role in Colorado politics:
Breckenridge Bulletin, May 19, 1906
But if this great moral leader, O.K. Gaymon, flunks on us and won't give us lessons just because we have said a mean thing or two about him, the people will simply have to endure our immorality until we can make arrangements for lessons with Lou Blonger of Denver, or some other moral star of the Gaymon-Blonger stripe. It's morality or bust with us.
Durango Democrat, October 15, 1907
As it stands now, the Brewers Association, Bill Evans, and Blonger are the only endorsers of Parson Buchtel's administrative acts. We doubt if his own wife endorses him. —Breckenridge Bulletin
Breckenridge Bulletin, August 1, 1908
Wouldn't Charles J. Hughes, the Denver corporation lawyer, make a daisy colleague of Senator Guggenheim? Where's Lou Blonger?
Creede Candle, February 16, 1924
The Albanians want Harry F. Sinclair, of Teapot Dome fame for king. He should bring home the bacon. Sam Blonger should not despair.
The last is most interesting — Sam was already dead ten years.
Killer prostitute Kitty Blonger appears with dead letters at Aspen in 1889, and Deadwood in 1893 — despite having said at her acquittal in 1888 that she was going back east to the bosom of her family.
We also learned of the crackdown on Denver gambling in 1894, not realizing yet this was connected to the infamous City Hall War.
Aspen Weekly Times, April 28, 1894
Blonger's, Argyle's, and other places on Larimer and Market, including Jeff Smith's Tivoli, were closed tight and so were the three policy shops on Larimer and Fifteenth streets respectively.
But we started to put the pieces together, and getting a handle on the cast of characters in this Denver drama that stretched from the 1880s through the 1920s. Governor Waite and General Tarsney, Chief Armstrong, Soapy Smith, Ed Chase and Johnny Hughes of the Arcade. Detective DeLue, Sheeny Sam, Mayors Speer, Londoner and Bailey, and the list goes on...
Elbert County Banner, Nov. 14, 1902
SPICY NOTES FROM GEORGE'S WEEKLY.
[Selected excerpts from that column]
Apparently a lot of evidence is being collected in Denver for the prosecution of the ballot-box stuffers of that city. But nobody believes that any one will suffer for the crimes they committed in this line except the poor widow who was made a dupe of by scheming politicians, and who admits that she voted oftener than the law allows.
Throw out Arapahoe county and make it unaimous [sic]. It is rotten to the core. The gamblers and bunco steerers were too raw, as Jack Hall's dirty work amply indicates. Throw out this county—decency demands it.
Talk about Republican outrages against the ballot-box! Ye Gods! In the palmiest days of Brady and Connors (and they were the limit in their day) they weren't a circumstance ro Jack Hall and the police force. At Eighteenth and Arapahoe streets on election day we saw repeaters marched up to the polls under the protection of policemen in uniform while Chief Armstrong and Smithwick stood complacently looking on.
When Stimson was nominated we declared openly that it "appeared like a walkover for Stimson." During the past three weeks, however, our readers have noticed we predicted the election of Peabody. Not many of our friends believed it possible, but when we saw the rawness and the ignorance displayed by the Democratic leaders in winking at the dirty work of the Blongers, the Halls and the other criminals, we felt such decent Democrats would revolt, and they did with a vengeance. Then too, every decent Republican got hot and went to the polls to record their protests. Thousands of decent people voted Tuesday who have not voted in years.
Jack Hall voted fourteemn men four times each at one polling place last Tuesday, we are told. This certainly makes the record for "efficient work." Jack deserves hanging for his splendid work. We believe everybody who is entitled to vote ought to be permitted to vote once and have the vote counted. People who sell their votes or repeat ought to be taken out quietly and strung up.
Peabody voted for Stimson and the latter returned the graceful compliment. "Brooks voted for Adams," says the Post, "and Adams went to the polls and voted for himself."
For decades the gamblers held sway in Denver, openly influencing elections with their money and manpower. Arrests on bunko charges were rare, and even those facing jail time rarely served it. And even the Gov. Waite and the Colorado state militia couldn't crush the gambling fraternity's machine.
Finally for June, we heard from Bill Baxter of New Mexico, expert in the mines of the Cerrillos Hills. More to come from Bill...
July was time for WOLA, the convention in Albuquerque of the Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association. We met noted authors and other experts on the Wild West, including Bob DeArment, Mark Dworkin, Bob Alexander and Chuck Hornung.
We visited Santa Fe, Joe's home of many years, Las Vegas, Anton Chico, and of course Albuquerque.
Bill Baxter took us into the desert hills of Cerrillos, where Joe prospected and worked mines for a decade or so.
A typical Cerrillos mine, just a hole that goes eighty some feet straight down.
This is where Sam, Albuquerque's fifth city marshal, and brother Lou chased horse thieves, got shot at, and where Lou pistol-whipped poor old Prof. Van Tassel. It's a pedestrian mall now.
Here is the first balloon ascension in New Mexico, Park Van Tassell's flight of July 4, 1882.
Here I am standing near the spot where Park's balloon took off, on 2nd between Gold and Central. Curiously, the mural in the background is silent on the significance of the location.
In August, Jeff found a few interesting articles, published after Lou's arrest:
Rocky Mountain News, August 26, 1922
Newspaper records of the history of the two Blongers in Denver are meager.
They reveal little of their activities. The police blotter, on the contrary,
is rich with accounts of the two men and their checkered careers.. First
entries were made about 1881. After that year they follow at irregular
intervals, reaching a climax in the 90's. One of the famous raids made by
the police on the ... tourist's club, 1740 Larimer Street operated by the
"Blonger boys" was that of Feb. 13, 1892. Both Lou and Sam, together with
men named Walker and Phour, were captured and charged with the robbery of C.
I. Tolly, a mining engineer and assayer of Longmont, Colo. Tolly had
complained to the police that he had come to Denver and had been discussing
a money transaction with a friend in the Markham hotel, when two men, who
had been listening, approached him and began talking of mining. On the
pretense of showing him some ore from Creede, they invited Tolly to walk
with them to Larimer Street. As they passed the Tourists club, the story
goes, one of the men asked Tolly if he would mind stepping in for a few
minutes. Tolly stood behind one of the men as they engaged with a some
others in a friendly game of poker. One of the men drew three aces and a
king and turning to Tolly asked him what he would bet on it. Tolly
reluctantly replied that if he were playing he would put $100 on it. The man
on the other side of the table made a pretense of taking the bet. Of course,
the aces and the king lost. The men then insisted that he pay, and when
Tolly attempted to escape they threatened his life if he did not sign over
the money. Tolly made out a check for $100 and went back to Longmont.
Friends urged him to return to Denver and complain to the police. His
complaint resulted in the raid.
Deneen, the Wonder Horse
Deneen, or Denin, was an imaginary horse used by the gang in Denver in fake horse race betting schemes. Never lost a race.
In Lou Don't Trust
In August we learned a lot about the Blongers' rap sheet, as long as your arm, of course. We learned about Charlie Ronan, gambler and associate of the Mastersons in Dodge, and then part of Sam's posse in Albuquerque. We also got acquainted with Charles Fegenbush, the man who conned Lou Blonger.
Come October, it was Ronan at the Battle of the Plaza, and Sam's troublesome deputies.
In December, we got to know O.K.Gaymon, and we stumbled across Simon's small role in the so-called Ballinger-Pinchot controversy, a political scandal that split the Republican party and paved the way for Wilson to take the presidency.
In January, the Grafters Club got a new look. This one still has a lot of additions in the wings. We also took a closer look at Leadville in 1879, and Sam's first trip West around 1860.
We touched on John Maybray's operation in Council Bluffs, and the rise of the mafia and KKK in Colorado after Lou's conviction.
In February, we looked at Ed Chase and Denver's policy shop racket, as well as Wolfe Londoners and the mayors of Denver.
In March, mayors Speer and Bailey, and Detective Sam Emerich.
We also analyzed a letter written from jail by Bascomb Smith, after his arrest for assaulting the Arcade's Johnny Hughes. The letter mentions Sam, and a few other interesting characters, including Col. Neil Dennison and Perry Clay.
A magazine article popped up in True Detective Mysteries, 1932. Written by one of Van Cise's detectives, it tells the story of his surveillance of Lou's office.
So far this April we found an article in the Westerners Brand Book about Doc Baggs that touches on the Blongers, and a bit about Buffalo Bill, Sam's supposed old friend.
That's just a summary, of course, but you can see we were busy. But what about the year to come?
A Wish List
Where was Lou between 1883 and 1887? In Deming, where he said he was, with same traveling around Colorado, or elsewhere? The 1885 territorial census tells us nothing, and no other clues have surfaced.
What was Sam doing during the Civil War? We know he was in Colorado and California, like Joe said. But doing what, exactly?
We'd love to see Howe's scrapbook of Denver criminal activity.
And where's Sam's badge? Maybe this year...
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