The Life and Mysterious Death of Old West Outlaw Johnny Ringo
By Larry Nader, Larry Nader Photography & Art
Published June 6, 2023, for State 48 A2Z
The old west was a rough and harsh lifestyle for most people who lived it and its history is filled with legends and lore from both the outlaws and lawmen of the day. But one of the most unusual outlaws of the era has to be the enigma known as Johnny Ringo, who was associated for a short period before his death with the outlaw gang called the Cowboys, which you may remember from the infamous Tombstone gunfight with the Earp's.
Born, John Peters Ringo to Dutch immigrants Martin and Mary on May 3, 1850, in Wayne County, Indiana, Ringo was loosely related to the infamous Younger brothers, who made their name running with Frank and Jesse James. Ringo was the oldest of five children along with his three sisters and brother. During his younger years, his family moved to Liberty, Missouri for a couple of years in 1856 before moving to Gallatin, Missouri in 1858 before moving on to San Jose, California in the summer of 1864.
Martin Ringo’s health was poor due to his battle with tuberculous and had decided to move the family to California where he had heard the dryer air would be beneficial to his health. For teenage Ringo, the long, grueling trip, would be quite a devastating adventure. Relocating across country was very difficult and dangerous and during the trip, Ringo sustained a serious foot injury, the family wagon was attacked by Indians, and then he witnessed the murder of a man, a member of the wagon train. If that wasn't enough to send the teen on a dark path, he also lost his father on the trail when he jumped off their wagon to scout for Indians that may have been in the area when his shotgun accidentally discharged, killing the family patriarch instantly.
According to a witness to the accident, “At the report of the gun, I saw his hat blown up 20 feet in the air and his brains were scattered in all directions. I never saw a more heartrending sight, and to see the distress and agony of his wife and children was painful in the extreme. Mr. Ringo’s death cast a gloom over the whole company.”
Martin was buried on a hillside along the trail and Ringo, along with his mother and sisters, made their way to San Jose, California. From there, very little is known about Ringo for the next five years, but area census data shows him working as a farmer during those years.
In 1869, Ringo left his mother and siblings behind in San Jose and moved to Mason County, Texas where he met and befriended a man named Scott Cooley, an ex-Texas Ranger who was the adopted son of local rancher Tim Williamson. With the move, Ringo’s first brush with trouble was in close pursuit.
In 1875, accused rustlers Elijah and Pete Backus were dragged from Mason Jail and lynched by a predominately German mob. Then on May 13 of the year, Williamson was arrested by a hostile posse and eventually murdered by a German farmer by the name of Peter “Bad Man” Cooley. This resulted in Williamson’s friends, including Ringo, retaliating against Cooley and the posse members in what was called the Mason County War or the “Hoodoo” War as it was known locally.
Ringo’s involvement in the “War” was not over cattle but was instead the result of the slaying of Moses Baird and the serious wounding of George Gladden, both of whom were his close friends. Baird and Gladden had been tricked by local gambler James Cheyney into riding to Mason, only to be ambushed in an attack orchestrated by Mason County Sheriff John Clark.
On September 25, Johnny Ringo joined another seven men to avenge Baird’s death. When the men rode into Mason, Ringo and a man named Bill Williams separated from the party and headed for Cheyney’s home, where they killed the gambler dead without warning. Arrest warrants were never issued for Ringo in Cheyney’s murder despite reports of their boasting of the murder when they got back to town. According to reports at the time, either Ringo or Williams were quoted as saying that they “made beef of Cheyney and if someone did not bury him he would stink.”
The “War” officially ended in November 1876 with a final toll of roughly twelve individuals dead. Scott Cooley was also believed dead, and Ringo and his friend George Gladden were in jail. While incarcerated, one of Ringo’s purported cellmates was the notorious killer John Wesley Hardin. While Gladden was sentenced to 99 years, Ringo was acquitted. Two years later, Ringo was a constable in Loyal Valley, Texas for a short time before he traveled to Arizona.
It was 1879 when Ringo arrived in Cochise County, Arizona along with Joseph Graves Olney, aka Joe Hill, a friend of Ringo’s from his Mason County War days. And. In December of that same year, a drunk Ringo was bending an elbow at a saloon in Safford when he shot Louis Hancock when Hancock had the audacity to refuse a free shot of whiskey from Ringo, stating that he preferred beer. Shortly following that killing, Ringo moved on to Tombstone.
Ringo quickly gained a reputation in Tombstone for having a bad temper. It is believed that he was connected with the notorious outlaw group called the Cowboys and was possibly involved in several murders and robberies with the group, but none of that is documented in historic pieces. While Ringo was not directly involved in the infamous “Shootout”, he was suspected of being involved in the ambush of Virgil Earp in December 1881, which left the elder Earp crippled, as well as the murder of Morgan Earp while he was shooting pool in Tombstone in March 1882.
Ringo had a very strong hatred of the Earps and all things Earp-related, including Doc Holliday. Things between Ringo and Holliday came to a hard boil on January 17, 1882, when the pair traded threats. Things got so heated that Tombstone Chief of Police, James Flynn, who was nearby and witnessed the two threatening each other, arrested both men and brought them before a judge for carrying weapons within town limits. Both men were fined and released. Judge William H. Stilwell would then follow up on Ringo’s outstanding robbery charges from Galeyville, Arizona, re-arresting Ringo who was held in jail for the weekend and was released when no witnesses would speak against him.
In March 1882, Wyatt Earp and his posse killed Cowboy member Frank Stilwell in their quest for “justice” for the ambushing of his brother Virgil and the murder of Morgan. Following the killing, Cochise County Sheriff, Johnny Behan received warrants from a Tucson judge for the arrest of Earp and Holliday. Behan formed his own posse to ride after the Earp posse. This Behan posse consisted of Ringo and 19 others, many of who were friends of Stilwell and the Cowboys.
During his “vendetta” ride, Earp killed a close friend of Ringo’s and fellow Cowboy, “Curly Bill” Brocius, in a gunfight at Iron Springs (later called Mescal Springs) about 20 miles west of Tombstone. According to a statement that Earp gave to his biographer, a man named Florentino Cruz confessed to being the lookout during Morgan’s attack and identified Ringo, Stilwell, Swilling, and Brocius as the killers of Morgan Earp. Later-day historians have cast serious doubt on Earp’s account being factual. While the Behan posse would come close to encountering the Earp posse, they never faced each other.
Meanwhile, back in Tombstone on July 4, 1882, we find a celebratory Ringo getting fully liquored up for the Independence Day celebrations. Ringo sobered up a couple of days later and left Tombstone and a couple of bottles of whiskey in tow for the ride. A couple of more days passed before Deputy Billy Breakenridge saw Ringo near Dial’s Ranch in the South Pass of the Dragoon Mountains. Breakenridge later wrote that “Ringo was very drunk, reeling in the saddle.” He said that 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.” At about 3 pm on July 13, ranch hands at a nearby ranch heard a shot.
The following day, Teamster James Yoast was hauling wood in Turkey Creek canyon when he came across Ringo’s lifeless body still seated on a large rock in the middle of a grouping of five Blackjack oak trees that grew from a single root forming a semicircle. Ringo’s body, missing his boots, had already turned black from the desert heat. The coroner said that Ringo had likely been dead for 24 hours when he was found and that he had strips of undershirt wrapped around them for protection as if he had walked a distance without his boots.
In his report, the coroner stated, “He (Ringo) had evidently traveled but a short distance in this footgear.” 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.” With that Ringo’s official cause of death was determined to be suicide. Ringo would have been 32 at the time. Items found in Ringo’s possession at the time of his death included his Colt 45–222 Revolver, Winchester 45 Model 1876 Octagon barrel rifle №21,896: with 11 cartridges, Cartridge belt with 9 rifle cartridges & cartridge belt with 2 revolver cartridges. American Watch Company silver pocket watch & chain. Cash of $2.60 [equals about $76 in 2023], six revolver cartridges in a pocket, five shirt studs, a small pocketknife, comb, block of matches, a small bit of tobacco, and part of a letter addressed to Ringo from Tucson Attorneys Hereford & Zabriskie
The coroner also found that Ringo’s revolver still had five rounds left in it with the hammer resting on the gun’s only empty chamber. Ringo’s horse was found eleven days later, about 2 miles from where his body was found, with his boots still tied to the saddle. Despite the ruling of suicide, others believe Ringo’s death was not at his own hand, citing a lack of gunpowder burns on Ringo’s head as one reason, while the advanced state of his body’s decomposition when he was found. The coroner’s report does not mention finding, or not finding, powder residue on the body. Ringo’s body was also found with a cut on his scalp and his cartridge belt being on upside down.
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.”
It is now 141 years later and, while we still do not know for certain if Ringo’s death was by suicide or murder, a few things are certain. One, the man had a lot of blood on his hands, and that can weigh heavily on a mind, especially when you drink heavily as he was known to do regularly. Two, Ringo was reported to have a history of threatening suicide. And three, both Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had motives to see Ringo dead, and both were likely in the area around the time of Ringo’s death, searching for Cowboy members involved in the shooting of Virgil Earp and the murder of Morgan Earp.
As if those reasons weren’t enough to muddy the water, in another storyline twist, while serving time in the Yuma Territorial Prison for killing his wife, Buckskin Frank Leslie allegedly confessed to a guard that he had killed Ringo. Few people 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. One thing’s for certain, we will probably never know how Ringo days that day, especially since Ringo’s not talking.
Today you can visit the grave site of Johnny Ringo in Cochise County. The grave is located on private property, but a gate on a nearby road allows visitors to view the gravesite.
With that, we will wrap things up for this week’s trip. Until next week, share our posts with your friends and family, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Linked In to have our posts and photos delivered directly to your newsfeeds, and feel free to comment on these articles either on our site or social media pages. Peace!
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