Editing Johnny Ringo (section)

== Life in Tombstone ==

Ringo first appeared in [[Cochise County]], [[Arizona Territory]] in 1879 with [[Joseph Graves Olney]] (alias "Joe Hill"), a friend from the [[Mason County War]]. In December 1879, a drunk Ringo shot unarmed Louis Hancock in a [[Safford, Arizona]] saloon when Hancock refused a complimentary drink of whiskey, stating that he preferred beer. Hancock survived his wound. Soon after arriving in  [[Tombstone, Arizona]], he met editor Sam Purdy of ''[[The Tombstone Epitaph]]'', who later writes of their talk: "He said that he was as certain of being killed as he was of living then. He said that he might run along for a couple years more, and may not last two days."<ref name="docringo"/> In Tombstone, Ringo developed a reputation as having a bad temper. He may have participated in robberies and killings with the [[Cochise County Cowboys]], a loosely associated group of outlaws. He was occasionally erroneously referred to as "Ringgold" by local newspapers.<ref name=roberts>{{Cite book | last1 = Roberts | first1 = Gary L. | title = Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend | year = 2007 | publisher = Wiley, J | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-470-12822-0 | page = 544 }}</ref>{{rp|238}} He described himself as a "speculator" in the 1882 Cochise County Great Register.

=== Confrontation with Doc Holliday ===

On January 17, 1882, Ringo and [[Doc Holliday]] traded threats and seemed headed for a gunfight. Both men were arrested by Tombstone's chief of police, James Flynn, and hauled before a judge for carrying weapons in town. Both were fined. Judge William H. Stilwell followed up on charges outstanding against Ringo for a robbery in [[Galeyville, Arizona|Galeyville]] and Ringo was re-arrested and jailed on January 20 for the weekend.<ref>Roberts (2007), p. 548</ref> Ringo was suspected by the Earps of taking part in the December 28, 1881, ambush of Virgil Earp, that crippled him for life, and the March 18, 1882, murder of [[Morgan Earp]] while he was shooting pool in a Tombstone saloon.<ref>Roberts (2007), pp. 551–552</ref>

=== Joins posse pursuing Earps ===

Deputy U.S. Marshal [[Wyatt Earp]] and his posse killed [[Frank Stilwell]] in Tucson on March 20, 1882. After the shooting, the Earps and a federal posse set out on a [[Earp Vendetta Ride|vendetta]] to find and kill the others they held responsible for ambushing Virgil and Morgan. Cochise County Sheriff [[Johnny Behan]] received warrants from a Tucson judge for arrest of the Earps and Holliday. He deputized Ringo and 19 other men, many of them friends of Stilwell and the Cochise County Cowboys.<ref name=historynet/>

During the Earp Vendetta Ride, Wyatt Earp killed one of Ringo's closest friends, [[William Brocius|"Curly Bill" Brocius]], in a gunfight at [[Iron Springs (Cochise County, Arizona)|Iron Springs]] (later Mescal Springs) about {{convert|20|mi}} from Tombstone. Earp told his biographer, Stuart Lake, that a man named Florentino Cruz confessed to being the lookout at Morgan's murder and identified Ringo, Stilwell, Swilling, and Brocius as Morgan's killers,<ref>Lake, S. ''Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal''. Houghton Mifflin (1931), p. 277. {{ASIN|B00085IQ0I}}</ref> 
The local posse pursued and came close to the federal posse at [[Henry Hooker|Henry C. Hooker's]] ranch, but never faced the Earp lawmen.<ref name="historynet">{{cite web |url=http://www.historynet.com/wyatt-earps-vendetta-posse.htm |title=Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Posse |date=January 29, 2007 |publisher=HistoryNet.com |access-date=15 February 2013 |archive-date=5 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110405084114/http://www.historynet.com/wyatt-earps-vendetta-posse.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="legends">{{cite web |url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-earpvendetta.html |title=Earp Vendetta Ride |publisher=Legends of America |access-date=15 February 2013 |archive-date=26 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426172425/http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-earpvendetta.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Roberts, Gary Boyd (2007). Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-12822-0</ref> Former Pima County Sheriff [[Robert H. Paul|Bob Paul]], who had been in Tombstone at the time and volunteered to ride with the Behan posse, wrote a letter to the ''Tucson Citizen'' on March&nbsp;3, 1898 in response to an earlier story he said was full of errors. He said the Earp posse had told Hooker to tell Behan and his posse where they were camped. Hooker told Behan where the Earps were camped but the posse left in the opposite direction.<ref name=historynet/>