Stock manipulation and bilking investors. At least that is what immediately came to mind when I saw this question. Except, of course, this wasn't a crime at the time.

Although these sorts of misdeeds were common nationally - and internationally - the West was particularly primed for this sort of thing. Mining, in particular, is prone to this sort of thing because of the excitement that precious metals can inspire combined with the fact that no one can be sure what one will find and yet promises are easily made (and believed). Fraud can be an obvious alternative: when confronted with the prospect and expense of mining for elusive pockets of gold underground, it is much easier to mine for gold in the pockets of fools.

Then there are the wide variety of other investments that were being made - or promised - as the West attempted to build an infrastructure to accommodate the burgeoning population. Writing for the Nevada "Territorial Enterprise in 1863, Mark Twain failed at a journalistic hoax, in which he attempted to bring attention to an investment scam perpetrated in California's Bay Area, focused on development of the East Bay. An(unedited) excerpt from my forthcoming book, "Monumental Lies: Early Nevada Folklore of the Wild West (anticipated late summer 2023):

With the publication of “A Bloody Massacre near Carson,” Clemens, now writing as Mark Twain, found himself attacked for a poorly played hoax. Editors who reprinted the article – together with many readers – felt Twain had violated the important rule that required a conspicuous clue, a tip that the article was an intended joke. There were calls for Twain’s dismissal because this effort was too believable. People maintained that it had ceased to be satire and was merely a lie deprived of humor.

“A Bloody Massacre near Carson” described a despondent investor who had lost everything, swindled by a California developer in the Bay Area, the intended object of ridicule. Twain maintained that the fraudulent nature of the story should have been obvious because he described the killings as being in a forest situated at Empire to the east of Carson City where barely a tree could grow. He also had the father of the family, the murderer of his wife and children, riding into Carson City after slashing his own throat, an injury that would have quickly killed him.

Learning of his explanation, critics nevertheless pointed out that the clues were less apparent than the author maintained and that most readers were so horrified by the blood-soaked description that they did not realize the deception. In addition, misdirection about the location would not have been recognized by California editors, and the murderer’s wound to the neck might not have been that deep and immediately fatal. Although Clemens protested that the subterfuge was obvious, he violated an honored rule in comedy, namely that if a joke needs to be explained, it is not funny.

Stock manipulation, particularly when it come to mining, was even more rampant. One could hope to become wealthy by investing in the stock market, but the system was "rigged" - as they say about this modern world. Since mining companies often had monopolies that controlled the entire line of production from resource gathering to mining to milling, all including transport, profit could be shifted up and down the line causing parts of the business to appear to fail or thrive at the convenience of the rich and as an enticement to the workers. More importantly, one could hide important discoveries or pretend to have made important discoveries. The people in power could create a stock market rollercoaster, selling high and buying low as investors clamored to cash in on a system that was being manipulated by others.

There was a story that became widespread in the West, describing James Fair (who purchased a seat in the U.S. Senate and proved to be one of the worst all time people to sit in that chamber - at least the few times he sat there!). Again, an (unedited) excerpt from my forthcoming book, this referring to a book by journalist C. C. Goodwin:

Goodwin included several other stories about Fair, which usually depict him as affable but capable of inflicting harm on innocent victims. An account featuring Fair in this trickster-like way involves his wife and the stock market. Referring to Fair as “Uncle Jimmie,” Goodwin told of the incident as occurring in the 1860s, before the discovery of the Big Bonanza in 1873 [the following from Goodwin]:

Mr. Fair, as he got up from the breakfast table one morning, said to his wife: “My dear, have you any money?” Mrs. Fair replied that she had $7,000 in the bank. By this time Uncle Jimmie had put on his hat, and said: “Don’t mention the matter to a soul, but I think there are a few dollars in Curry,” and went out.

Mrs. Fair thought the matter over for a few minutes. Then she said to herself, “Surely there would be no harm in letting my brother know,” and crossed the street. Her brother was away, but his wife was home and Mrs. Fair told her.

She had a brother and like Mrs. Fair, her thought was, that there would be no harm in telling her brother. By noon all Ireland in Virginia City was buying Curry and Uncle Jimmie was unloading it upon them.

By the end of the week the stock had dropped out of sight and in the Fair house there was a thunder cloud in every room. As Uncle Jimmie rose from the breakfast table he said to his wife: “My dear, did you not tell me that you had some money in the bank?”

Here the storm broke. “I had $7,000 and it is all lost in that old Curry,” said Mrs. Fair, and she burst into tears.

“My, my, but I am sorry,” said Fair then with a deep sigh, he went into his library and a moment later returned with a check for $7,000. Handing it to his wife he sighed again and said, “I will help you out this time, my dear, but I fear you are not constituted just right to successfully deal in stocks."

[resuming with my writing] Although, there are variations of the story, they all depend on the fact that Fair needed to unload worthless Curry stock and he knew he could count on his wife to spread the deception that it was a good investment. The accounts include returning his wife’s money while victimizing everyone else. According to the narratives, Fair swindled his neighbors, but at the time, this brand of stock manipulation was not a crime.

This sort of white-collar crime was not defined as such until financial reforms following the 1929 stock crash - and even then, definitions have been slow to coalesce and the acts are rare to be prosecuted. Nevertheless, those who lived with this system in the nineteenth century recognized that horrible injustices were being committed.