Ringo's upside down revolver cartridge belt

[Chet Rollins]

            John Peters Ringo’s body was found on the morning of July 14, 1882 by John Yoast, who was driving a wagon to Tombstone, Arizona. Ringo was sitting in the bole of a tree a few yards off the road. Mr. Yoast identified the body and then proceeded into town to report his discovery. A party was soon assembled and went to investigate. A coroner’s inquest was held on the spot and then the body was buried at the base of the tree.

            At the time only minimal and ordinary curiosity as to his demise followed. Much later interest surrounding the O.K. Corral gunfight led to rampant speculation as to who might have pulled the trigger that had inflicted the single gunshot to Ringo’s head. The hasty coroner’s inquest left sufficient wiggle room for generations of amateur and professional historical researchers.

            Recently on the cover of the April 2012 issue of True West Magazine a colored printing of a late 1800’s tintype of an Arizona cowboy may have settled just one of the questions about the coroner’s report.

Excerpts from the coroner’s report;

 

Turkey or Morse’s Hill creek

14^th July 1882

Statement for the information of the Coroner and Sheriff of Cochise Co. A. T.

 

He had on two cartridge belts, the belt for the revolver cartridges being buckled on upside down. The undernoted property were found with him and on his person;

1 cartridge belt containing 9 rifle cartridges

1 cartridge belt containing 2 revolver cartridges

 

In the TW cover photo you can see that the cowboy is wearing two cartridge belts and on the upper belt the cartridges are pointed up. This is evident by the enlarged brass base on the down side of the belt. Normally cartridges rest in the belt loops pointing down so that the base of the cartridge catches on the top of the loop preventing cartridges from falling out and becoming lost.

     Based on the belt tongues in the picture it is apparent that both belts are right side up; it is only the cartridges that are upside down. It also appears that the cartridges in the upper belt are slightly smaller than the cartridges in the lower belt, so can it be assumed that the upper belt holds the revolver cartridges? This implies that the revolver holster is being supported by the lower rifle cartridge belt. The cowboy in the picture is in a sitting position, the same as he would be in the saddle, and it does look as it would be easier to extract a cartridge from the bottom of the upper belt in this position.

     Prior to viewing this photo it was naturally assumed that the revolver belt would have been the one that the revolver holster would have hung from. Yet the coroner’s report on Johnny Ringo doesn’t mention that the revolver belt and holster are upside down. Surely it would seem that if the holster was also upside down, this would allow for pause by the inquest party as to why, and would call into question the belief that it was a suicide.

            The TW cover tintype does not solve all the questions about the Ringo coroner’s report but it does create a plausible resolution to the upside down revolver cartridge belt portion of the speculation concerning the condition in which John Peters Ringo’s body was discovered.

     Incidentally, the photo is a tintype; a mirror image that must be reversed so that the rifle saddle ring and loading gate appear on the proper side of the rifle. However, this hasn’t any bearing on the placement of the cartridges.

 

 

Chet Rollins

[Chet Rollins]

Keeping the bullets seperated by using different belts but more importantly by feel of the way they pointed, without having to look. I like it.

The Duke kept his bullets seperated in a single belt by having a large 45-70 in the middle.

My Dad grew up in the 1930's and for years wore his belt with the buckle on his left hip. This meant that the tongue had to extend past the fly and a pants loop before being buckled. Don't know why, don't know if it had anything to do with the 30's. Never asked Him.

[Stan H]

A question about the boots. If in fact he was shot by another person, why would that person remove Ringo's boots and wrap his feet?

 

Also, why would the assassin change the belt?

 

 

[Kevin Hogge]

They wouldn't Stan. But it made for good press and made some early 20th century hack writers a lot of money.

[Chet Rollins]

According to the first conspiracy theories, Ringo was coming down from a weeklong drunk and the heat forced him to dismount, remove his books and take a nap. When he awoke his horse had wandered off with his boots, forcing him to wrap his feet with a shirt and walk to water. Upon reaching water he removed his cartridge belt and sat down to die from thirst. Someone snuck up and shot him in the head and then to make it look like suicide they put his belt back on. But if you are putting a belt on, the buckle is in your left hand, so if you put it on someone else it would be upside down unless you switch hands. His horse was found a couple days later a few miles away. Saddled and with the boots hanging from the saddle. At the time of the examination and burial they didn't know where his boots or horse was. The body had been sitting in the hot arizona sun for over 24 hours and was beginning to swell and discolor. One of the examiners, Robert Boller, stated a few years later that he didn't remember any powder burns at the bullet wound. This led to conjecture that the gun had to have been fired from a distance and not self inflicted.

He was found wearing a shirt, vest, pants, socks and a torn up shirt wrapped around his feet. So if his horse wandered off with his boots, where did he find the second shirt to wrap around his feet?

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

Chet, didn't you say that the coroner said that it was an undershirt wrapped around Ringo's feet? Was Ringo wearing an undershirt under his shirt when his body was found?

[Chet Rollins]

In the 19th century the "undershirt" was the shirt that was worn under the vest and coat. In the report it said that Ringo was wearing a blue undershirt and vest.

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

I see. Thanks for the info.

 Ringo might have kept a spare shirt in a saddlebag.

[Chet Rollins]

That's my point. If his boots were hanging from the saddle and the horse wandered off, how did he get the shirt out of the saddlebag to wrap it around his feet?

I don't think the horse wandered off until after he was dead.

And I have to correct an error I made about the shirt. The coroners report said "He was dressed in light hat, blue shirt, vest, pants and drawers, on his feet were a pair of hose and undershirt torn up so as to protect his feet."

Still, the shirt as we know it was considered the under shirt.

[Chet Rollins]

I have to conceed that it is possible that he had on 2 shirts, even though by Victorian standards the shirt was under a vest and or coat. This would mean that Ringo could have undressed and then redressed. Or that he kept his undershirt in his saddlebags. Either way I would go back to the next sentence in the report that stated "He had evidently traveled but a short distance in this foot gear."

Thanks!

[John Tyson]

Very interesting.. I wondered about the latest photograph I have been studying of Fred Gray taken in 1884 or 5.  He has upside down cartridges in his single, wide belt.  I'll be darned if I'm not going to make me one of those just like he had as well as one for Jim Gray, a living relative of Fred Gray.  Keep up the good work, guys.