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A tall, hump-shouldered man with gray, bushy hair and a hangdog look on his long, lumpy face pulled a stack of chips from the middle of the poker table toward him. Minnie Smith, the gambler who had dealt the winning hand, scowled at the player as he collected his earnings. “You’re sure packin’ a heavy load of luck, friend,” Minnie said in a low, clipped tone.
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” the man replied. “You may be right at that,” Minnie snapped back. She pushed back from the table a bit and eyed the bullwhip curled in her lap. The man gave her a sly grin, “You’re not sore about losing?” he asked. “No,” Minnie responded calmly. “I get mighty sore about cheating though.” A tense silence filled the air as Minnie and the gambler stared down each other.
In the split second it took the man to jump up and reach for his gun, Minnie had snapped her whip and disarmed him. In the process of jerking the weapon out of his hand, a breastplate holdout that had been tucked inside his jacket sleeve dropped onto the floor. The man looked on in horror as the face cards attached to the hidden pocket scattered around him.
“I hate a cheat,” Minnie snarled. All eyes were on the dealer as she reared back and let the whip fly. After a few painful strikes, the man dropped to his knees and desperately tried to find cover from the continued beating. Minnie was relentless and finally had to be subdued by the other card players around her. The gambler was helped off the floor and escorted to the town doctor.
That kind of violent exchange wasn’t unusual in the rowdy railroad town of Colorado City, Colorado, in 1887. What made the event unique, however, was that a woman was the aggressor. The public display further enhanced the quick-tempered reputation of the madam and sometimes gambler, Minnie Smith. There were very few in and around the area that hadn’t heard of her.
