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Crawford, Samantha

Confidence woman and grafter.[1] Born March 11, 1850, died November 12, 1910.[2]

In 1855,[2] Samantha moved with her parents from Springfield, Missouri on a wagon train and settled in the Dakota Territory. When she was 12 years old, her parents were killed by Arapaho. Suddenly alone to fend for herself, she learned to us every trick she could to survive.[3] In her teens, she learned she could play the part of an innocent young girl and manipulate men into helping or and giving her such things as food, shelter and money.[2] She often used an affected Southern accent to come across as more refined and innocent. By the time she was in her 20s, using men's natural weaknesses for her own survival and profit had become second nature to her.[4]

According to Hoyle: In 1876, Samantha was working with George Cross, a former banker-turned-extortion artist, in a plan to take Bret Maverick for all his money, same as Cross believed Bret had done to him years earlier. Using an obscure rule of Hoyle, Samantha succeeded. Afterwards, Bret proposed a partnership between the two of them to achieve some mutual goals. They used some of Samantha's winnings to buy gambling equipment to take to Wagon Wheel, Wyoming Territory, to run a clean casino and put a local brace joint there out of business. Cross caught on, and lured Samantha back to partner with him, double-crossing Bret. The scheme ultimately backfired on Cross and Samantha, but she and Bret became wary friends.[3]