Clay Wilson & Doc Baggs: Bonco Men

What is the crime of Bunco You Ask? 
According to the National Association of Bunco Investigators (NABI), these schemes are also called confidence, or con, games. The NABI states that in a con game the bunco operator gains the participant's help or promises the participant money or goods. They were also called confidence Men: The National Police Gazette coined the term "confidence game" a few weeks after Houston first used the name "confidence man". A confidence trick is also known as a con game, a con, a scam, a grift, a hustle, a bunko (or bunco), a swindle, a flimflam, a gaffle, or a bamboozle.

Wanted Poster sent to San Francisco Police Department from Ohio 1912.

Clay Wilson & Doc Baggs operated together for more than 30 years. Clay Wilson shot and killed James Moon (John E Wilcoxen) 16 June 1891 in Denver, Co at the Arcade a famous restaurant and saloon. I found a newspaper article.

The link for the above article: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41274662/clay_wilson/

Doc Baggs never served a day in prison, he would have thousands of arrests and even boast about them, but as soon as he entered that court room in his nice suit of clothes and his intellectual conversation, acting as his own lawyer. He would pull a large dictionary out and ask the judge and people of the court this.

"Gentlemen", he'd tell the court, "No such terms as bunco=steerer appears in the statutes defining criminal acts. How could I possibly be guilty of a charge not prohibited by the statutes?"

The judge judge was so baffled and couldn't find it and would dismiss the case. 
Here are some newspaper articles I found as early as 1882.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41257624/doc_baggs/


 The Saint Paul Globe
Saint Paul, Minnesota
11 Apr 1883, Wed  •  Page 4

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41257316/doc_baggs/

St. Louis Globe-Democrat
St. Louis, Missouri
08 Mar 1882, Wed  •  Page 11

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41257535/doc_baggs/


Memphis Avalanche
Memphis, Tennessee
19 Feb 1888, Sun  •  Page 3

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41258193/doc_baggs/

The Wichita Star
Wichita, Kansas
16 Jul 1890, Wed  •  Page 1

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41258144/doc_baggs/

The Buffalo Commercial
Buffalo, New York
26 Feb 1894, Mon  •  Page 5


https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41257756/doc_baggs/


Lead Daily Call
Lead, South Dakota

03 Jul 1900, Tue  •  Page 1

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41258253/doc_baggs/

The Nebraska State Journal
Lincoln, Nebraska
16 Apr 1903, Thu  •  Page 10

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41258224/doc_baggs/

The Morning Call
Paterson, New Jersey
22 Apr 1915, Thu  •  Page 11

https://pelicanpub.com/content/Old%20West%20Swindlers_ch1.pdf

The above link is a PDF of Old West Swidlers, it's a great read, I know you will enjoy it.

Clay Wilson died in 1917 in San Francisco.  I sadly did not find any genealogy information on these two men, although Clay Wilson may not have been his real name as he had many alias', Clay was younger than Doc at the time of their arrest Clay was only 58 years old and Doc was 71 in 1912.  They had families as it was mentioned in some articles but no names were ever given. 

Doc Boggs had a huge payoff of $100,000 he swindled from Miguel Otero (1829-1882) a Las Vegas & New Mexico Business man. He also took $15,000 from L. H. Taylor.

I would bet in his lifetime he swindled a million dollars, he was considered the best of the best. There's a few blogs about Doc you can read up on him, they give more details about the Miguel swindle.

http://www.blongerbros.com/news/Otero.asp

So next time your out and about and see a man on the street corner with dice or cards or maybe even a brick, walk as fast as you can the other way or you could get bamboozled.