Editing Johnny Ringo (section)

== Death ==

[[File:RingoJohn Grave.jpg|thumb|400px|Memorial Plaque and Grave of Johnny Ringo on private property]]

During Tombstone's Fourth of July festivities, Ringo drank heavily. He left town two days later, taking several bottles of liquor for the ride. Deputy Billy Breakenridge saw him two days later near Dial's Ranch in the South Pass of the Dragoon Mountains. He later wrote that "Ringo was very drunk, reeling in the saddle." He encouraged Ringo to follow him back to the Goodrich Ranch, but "he was drunk and stubborn and went on his way. I think this was the last time he was seen alive."<ref name="docringo"/> At about 3pm on July 13, ranch hands at a nearby ranch heard a shot.<ref name="docringo"/>

=== Suicide ===

Teamster James Yoast was hauling wood when he found Ringo's body on July 14 seated in "a bunch of five large black jack oaks growing up in a semicircle from one root, and in the center of them was a large flat rock which made a comfortable seat." He was "not more than 700 feet from Smith's house" in West Turkey Creek Valley, near [[Chiricahua Peak]] in Arizona Territory. His body had already turned black from the desert heat.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/johnny-ringo|title=Johnny Ringo: The Wild West Outlaw Too Fearsome To Ever End Up In Prison|date=2019-01-25|website=All That's Interesting|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-08|archive-date=2019-10-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191008065056/https://allthatsinteresting.com/johnny-ringo|url-status=live}}</ref>

His feet were wrapped in strips of cloth torn from his undershirt. Ringo had lost his horse with his boots tied to the saddle. The coroner's report noted that "He had evidently traveled but a short distance in this foot gear." There was a bullet hole in his right temple and an exit wound at the back of his head. The fatal wound was upward at a 45-degree angle between the right eye and ear. His revolver was still in his right hand.<ref name="docringo">{{cite journal |last1=Bell |first1=Bob Boze |last2=Roberts |first2=Gary |last3=Morey |first3=Jeff |last4=Tefertiller |first4=Casey |last5=Boessenecker |first5=John |title=Did Doc Kill Ringo? |journal=True West Magazine |date=March 2022 |url=https://truewestmagazine.com/article/did-doc-kill-ringo/ |access-date=2022-01-24 |archive-date=2022-01-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124220838/https://truewestmagazine.com/article/did-doc-kill-ringo/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to the coroner's report, Ringo's [[Colt Single Action Army]] .45 revolver held five cartridges.  A knife cut was found at the base of his scalp, as if "someone had cut it with a knife." His horse was found eleven days later about {{convert|2|mi}} away with Ringo's boots still tied to the saddle. A coroner's [[inquest]] officially ruled his death a [[suicide]].<ref name="docringo"/><ref name="thewildwest">{{cite web |url=http://www.thewildwest.org/cowboys/wildwestoutlawsandlawmen/186-wildwestoutlawjohnringo|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150130224744/https://thewildwest.org/cowboys/wildwestoutlawsandlawmen/186-wildwestoutlawjohnringo |title= Wild West Outlaws and Lawmen John Ringo |archive-date=January 30, 2015 |publisher=Wild West |access-date=January 24, 2022}} </ref>

Ringo's body is buried near the base of the tree where it was discovered. The grave is located on private land. A gate on a nearby road permits visitors to view the site.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=28365|title=John Ringo Historical Marker|website=www.hmdb.org|access-date=2022-01-24|archive-date=2022-01-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124220807/https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=28365|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="thewildwest" /> Despite the coroner's ruling and contemporaneous newspaper reports that Ringo had "frequently threatened to commit suicide, and that the event was expected at any time",<ref>''The Tombstone Epitaph'', July 18, 1882</ref> alternative theories of doubtful plausibility about Ringo's death have been proposed over the years. Some assert that the lack of powder burns on his head suggest he was shot from a distance. The coroner's jury report does not mention the presence or absence of powder burns. Furthermore, Ringo's body was already turning black due to decomposition.<ref name="docringo"/>

Robert Boller, a member of the coroner's jury, wrote in 1934,  "I showed [James Yoast] where the bullet had entered the tree on the left side. Blood and brains [were] oozing from the wound and matted his hair. There was an empty shell in the six-shooter and the hammer was on that. I called it a suicide fifty-two years ago, I am still calling it suicide. I guess I'm the last of the coroner's jury."<ref name="docringo"/>

=== Wyatt Earp claims ===

According to the book ''[[I Married Wyatt Earp]]'', which author and collector Glen Boyer claimed to have assembled from manuscripts written by Earp's fourth wife, [[Josephine Earp|Josephine Marcus Earp]], Earp and Doc Holliday returned to Arizona with some friends in early July and found Ringo camped in West Turkey Creek Valley. As Ringo attempted to flee up the canyon, Earp shot him with a rifle.<ref name=ortega29may /> Boyer refused to produce his source manuscripts, and reporters wrote that his explanations were conflicting and not credible. ''New York Times'' contributor [[Allen Barra]] wrote that ''I Married Wyatt Earp'' "...&nbsp;is now recognized by Earp researchers as a hoax."<ref>{{cite book |last=Lubet |first=Steven |title=Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp |year=2006 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, CN |isbn=978-0-300-11527-7}}</ref>{{rp|154}}<ref name=ortega29may>{{cite web|last=Ortega|first=Tony|title=I Married Wyatt Earp|url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1999-03-04/news/i-varied-wyatt-earp/|publisher=Phoenix New Times|access-date=29 May 2011|date=March 4, 1999|archive-date=2012-10-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020095737/http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1999-03-04/news/i-varied-wyatt-earp/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Tombstone historian Ben T. Traywick thought the story about Earp's involvement was credible, reasoning that only Earp had sufficient motive, he was probably in the area at the time, and near the end of his life he told one historian "in circumstantial detail how he killed John Ringo".<ref>Lockwood, F. ''Pioneer Days in Arizona''. MacMillan (1932), p. 224. {{ASIN|B00085XW16}}</ref>  Earp was interviewed in 1888 by an agent of California historian [[Hubert H. Bancroft]], and in 1932, Frank Lockwood, who authored ''Pioneer Days in Arizona'', wrote that Earp told both of them that he killed Ringo as he left Arizona in March 1882 – almost four months before Ringo died. He included other details that do not match what is known about Ringo's death. Earp repeated his story to at least three other people.<ref name=gattoringo /><ref>{{cite web|title=An Arizona Vendetta|url=http://tombstonehistory.tripod.com/fhmsin.html|format=manuscript|year=c. 1918|access-date=April 16, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831071433/http://tombstonehistory.tripod.com/fhmsin.html|archive-date=August 31, 2011}}</ref> In an interview with a reporter in Denver in 1896, Earp denied that he had killed Ringo; but later, privately, claimed once again that he had.<ref name=gattoringo>{{cite web|last=Gatto|first=Steve|title=Johnny Ringo – The Death of Johnny Ringo|url=http://www.johnnyringo.com/jrdeath.html|access-date=April 16, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406002032/http://www.johnnyringo.com/jrdeath.html|archive-date=April 6, 2011}}</ref>

=== Doc Holliday story ===

The Holliday theory is similar to the Earp theory, except that Holliday is alleged to have killed Ringo.<ref name=tanner>{{cite book |last1=Holliday Tanner |first1=Karen |first2= Robert K. |last2=Dearment |title=Doc Holliday: a Family Portrait |year=2001 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman |isbn=978-0-8061-3320-1}}</ref> A variant, popularized in the movie ''[[Tombstone (film)|Tombstone]]'', asserts that Holliday stepped in for Earp in response to a gunfight challenge from Ringo and shot him.<ref name=ortega29may /> Records of the [[Pueblo County, Colorado]] District Court indicate that Holliday and his attorney appeared in court on July 11, 14, and 18, 1882 to answer charges of "larceny". However, a [[Capias ad respondendum|writ of capias]] was issued for him on the 11th, suggesting that he did not in fact appear in court on that date. Ringo's body was found on the 14th. Six days before Ringo's death, the ''Pueblo Daily Chieftain'' reported that Holliday was in [[Salida, Colorado]], about {{convert|670|mi}} from Turkey Creek, Arizona; and then in [[Leadville]], about {{convert|700|mi}} distant, on July 18.<ref>''Pueblo Daily Chieftain'', July 19, 1882.</ref> There was still an arrest warrant outstanding on Holliday in Arizona for his part in [[Frank Stilwell]]'s murder, making it unlikely that he would have entered Arizona at that time.<ref name=tanner />{{rp|295}}

=== Michael O'Rourke theory ===

Some accounts attribute Ringo's death to [[Michael O'Rourke (gambler)|Michael O'Rourke]], an itinerant gambler who was arrested in [[Tucson]] in January 1881 on suspicion of murdering a mining engineer named Henry Schneider. Wyatt Earp is said to have protected him from being lynched by a mob organized and led by Ringo. O'Rourke escaped from jail in April 1881 and never stood trial on the murder charges.<ref name="bell">{{cite web|last1=Bell|first1=Bob Boze|title=Gunfight at the Stilwell Corral|url=http://www.truewestmagazine.com/gunfight-at-the-stilwell-corral/|access-date=24 March 2015|date=March 1, 2005|archive-date=9 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009142145/http://www.truewestmagazine.com/gunfight-at-the-stilwell-corral/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The last documented sighting of O'Rourke was in the [[Dragoon Mountains]] near Tombstone during May 1881, "well-mounted and equipped", and presumably on his way out of the territory.<ref>[http://tombstonehistory.tripod.com/weresign.html The Johnny Behind the Deuce Affair] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009173447/http://tombstonehistory.tripod.com/weresign.html |date=2016-10-09 }} tombstone history.com, retrieved October 7, 2016.</ref> From then on he is referred to only in unsubstantiated rumors and legends; according to one, a combination of the debt he owed Earp and the grudge he held against Ringo prompted him to return to Arizona in 1882, track Ringo down, and kill him. While some sources consider the story plausible,<ref>[http://www.wyattearp.net/duece.html "The Johnny Behind The Deuce Affair] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428074254/http://www.wyattearp.net/duece.html |date=2016-04-28 }} at wyattearp.net, retrieved October 6, 2016.</ref> others point out that O'Rourke, like Holliday, would have been reluctant to re-enter Arizona with a murder warrant hanging over his head, particularly to commit another murder.<ref>Davis, GM. ''Keeping the Peace: Tales from the Old West''. Booklocker (2012), p. 123. {{ISBN|1614349029}}</ref><ref>The Arizona ''Daily Star'', January 26, 1964.</ref>

=== Frank Leslie claim ===

While in the [[Yuma Territorial Prison]] for killing his wife, [[Buckskin Frank Leslie]] reputedly confessed to a guard that he had killed Ringo.<ref name="docringo"/><ref name="death" /> Few believed his story, and some thought he was simply claiming credit for it to curry favor with Earp's inner circle, or for whatever notoriety it might bring him.<ref name="death">[http://www.johnnyringo.com/jrdeath.html The Death of Johnny Ringo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406002032/http://www.johnnyringo.com/jrdeath.html |date=2011-04-06 }} at johnnyringo.com, retrieved October 6, 2016.</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Bell|first1=Bob Boze|title=Wyatt Earp vs. the Tombstone Mob|url=http://www.truewestmagazine.com/wyatt-earp-vs-tombstone-mob/|access-date=October 6, 2016|date=March 1, 2005|archive-date=May 31, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160531125121/http://www.truewestmagazine.com/wyatt-earp-vs-tombstone-mob/|url-status=live}}</ref>