Who killed Ringo?

[Billlanders]

I thought Ringo got drunk for a week in St David and rode up Turkey Creek to behind the Smith place where he left his brains up in a tree.  The family buried him behind the house on the creek and a few years ago you could see the grave from the road.  Big ole grave with bit rocks to mark it!  Does my memory serve me well or am I getting senile?

[Nicholas Narog]

There is a debate as to whether or not Ringo killed himself or was murdered. 

I have attached a picture of me leaning against the tree that Ringo's body was found. He was sitting on a flat rock that later became his grave stone.

[Billlanders]

Thanks for the info and pic.  I read about this many years ago in a very old book. We've been by there many times.  Is the old log building still there? I hope that's not water in the creek behind you.  It was dry as a bone every time I saw it.  At least I'm not losing it as I get older.  I've visited most of the historical places in southern AZ and NM but I've still not able to get to Skeleton Canyon.  The ranchers seem to keep the roads cabled off.  I've been trying for the past 40+ years to see it with no luck!  Keep up the good work cause when old guys go on their journey a lots of knowledge goes with them.

[Nicholas Narog]

I can't recall if the house next to it was a log building... but it was old. The owner (Mr. Sanders) had several peacocks as well!

When I went there they had a wet season so there was a little water. I'm willing to guess it dried up.

[Thomas E. Kelly]

Yes there is a debate as to whether or not Ringo killed himself or was murdered. Guess the facts of the case are only Ringo knows what happened or the killer.

[Billlanders]

Thanks much Thomas!  Now I have something else to start researching.  You have a good day!

[Thomas E. Kelly]

You're welcome

[Chuck Sawyer]

Please reference the book  " John Ringo The Final Hours " by Michael M. Hickley's with an intro by Ben T. Traywick of Tombstone. This book tells the story of John Ringo and his possible demise for really only Johnny knows but there is plenty of speculation and books on this topic.  Had he lived, who knows what Wyatt and his brothers might have done, if they would have been killed or if Tombstone would have been changed forever.  All in all, it is good reading.  John Ringo was an important elelment of the Tombstone story.

[Chet Rollins]

I have to respectfully disagree, I don't think Ringo was anything more than a secondary character if that. Certainly the Earps cared little about him, they proved that by thier actions the day that a drunken Ringo called out an unarmed and wounded Morgan.

[Thomas E. Kelly]

He was a show off, Killer and outlaw that we know for sure. He had  mental problems, so who know if he killed himself, was bushwhacked or if the Earp's  or Doc got him. Ringo was a self serving kind of fella.

[Steve McCarty]

He had a "fling" with Katy Elder while Doc and Wyatt were in the slammer after the OK Corral tussel.

In her later years Katy seldom talked about Doc, and was more animated when she talked about Ringo.  

 

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Mary Katherine Horoney--that was 'Kate Elder's' actual name--died in the Arizona Old Pioneers' Home in 1940.  She actually died on the anniversary of Doc's death--& was buried on her 90th birthday.  The name on her tombstone is Mary K. Cummins.  She was legally married to a man named Cummins and was, at the time of her death, a widow.  She was born in Pest, Hungary--that's the part of Budapest that's east of the river--& her father was a physician.  He was appointed court physician of Maximilian von Habsburg when Napoleon III installed him as emperor in Mexico.  Kate spoke 5 languages fluently--her native Magyar (Hungarian), Austrian German, French, Spanish, & heavily-accented English.  With the fall of Maximilian the family refugeed to Davenport, Iowa, where there was a colony of Hungarian expatriates.  Both her parents died when she was in her teens, probably in an epidemic.

In the '30s she gave an interview to William Bork, a doctoral candidate, in which she described in detail the OK Corral shootout.  She & Doc were living together at Fly's boarding house, above his studio, & she witnessed the whole thing from their window, which overlooked the site.  However, the gunfight as she related it was so different from what appeared in Lake's book that Bork couldn't get the interview published, though it was an eyewitness account from a person not actually involved in the shooting.

There are 3 photographs of Kate, all of which were obtained from the Haroney family, which is how they spell the name these days.  One was taken when Kate was 16 or 17 and, except for a slightly misshapen nose, shows she was a very pretty girl.  The 2nd is the image she gave Bork after the interview, taken when she was probably in her mid-50s.  The 3rd is a snapshot taken in the '20s, when she visited her brother's family in Colorado.  According to the family she stayed with them in Colorado, not far from Glenwood Springs, while Doc was in the sanatarium there amd. again according to the family, visited him often.

[Chet Rollins]

History shows that in Oct. 1875, Ringo and another fellow named Williamson shot an unarmed Cheney on his front porch while he was inviting the two in for dinner. On Dec. 14, 1879, Ringo shot Louis Hancock in the head at point blank range and missed. Ringo was not at the OK Corral, didn't hold up the Benson stage, wasn't at Skeleton Cyn the night Newton Clanton was killed, wasn't in Tombstone either of the nights that Virgil and Morgan were shot and wasn't on the Earp's hit list.

He did however die of a single gunshot wound to the head while resting at the base of a tree next to a running stream. Oh, and he had a magical sounding name, one with a ring to it.