Johnny Ringo stepped off the wagon holding a shotgun. The weapon accidentally discharged, and in an instant, Martin Ringo was dead. According to the Liberty Tribune, an eyewitness saw the hat propelled twenty feet into the air, the man’s brain scattered in multiple directions. The scene left a profound mark on those present, who had never witnessed such heart-wrenching agony as that of a wife and children in unbearable grief.
The family buried Martin on a hillside along the trail. Johnny, only fourteen years old at the time, would carry that moment with him for the rest of his life, and it influenced the path he would take into the lawless frontiers of the West. John Peters Ringo was born on May 3, 1850, in Greensfork, Indiana. He came from a good family, and after the move to Liberty, Missouri, he attended college.
The tragedy on the trail to California changed everything. In 1869, Ringo said goodbye to his mother, brother, and sisters in San Jose, California, and began a journey that took him to Mason County, Texas. There he formed a relationship with Scott Cooley, a former Texas Ranger and adopted son of rancher Tim Williamson. Trouble erupted in Mason County with the brutal execution of two American thieves, Elijah and Pete Bachus, at the hands of a predominantly German mob.
Anarchy broke out on May 13, 1875, when Tim Williamson was captured by a hostile army and murdered by a German farmer named Peter Bader. Driven by vengeance, Cooley and his friends, including Johnny Ringo, launched a campaign of terror against their rivals, sparking what authorities called the Mason County War, though locals referred to it as the Hoodoo War. In an act of revenge, Cooley sought justice by ending the life of former German deputy police chief John Worley. He gained a reputation as a dangerous and respected man, a Texas Ranger who had taken many lives with his own hands during the conflict.
After a Cooley supporter named Moses Baird was killed, Ringo murdered James Cheney on September 25, 1875. Along with a friend named Bill Williams, he rode to Cheney’s house. Cheney, who had led Baird into an ambush, greeted them unarmed and invited them in without suspicion. Waiting for the right moment, both Ringo and Williams shot him dead.
The duo then searched for Dave Doole, trying to call him out, but Doole had prepared in advance. He stormed out with a gun, fired, and they fled back to town. Sometime later, Scott Cooley and Johnny Ringo mistook Charlie Bader for his brother Pete and killed him. The consequences of this action led to Ringo being jailed in Burnet, Texas, under the supervision of Sheriff A.
J. Strickland. With the help of friends, they managed to escape, then split up to evade the law. The Mason County War ended around November 1876 after about a dozen people were killed.
Scott Cooley’s fate remained uncertain, with many assumptions about his death. Meanwhile, Johnny Ringo and his friend George Gladden were taken to prison after a period of evading the law. While in prison, one of Ringo’s inmates was the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin. Gladden received a hefty ninety-nine-year sentence, but Ringo served nearly two years for his actions in the feud until the charges were dismissed.
He later settled in Loyal Valley, Texas, where he worked as a police officer for a short time. His career as a lawman did not last long, however, as he ventured west, heading for Arizona. Johnny Ringo’s notoriety as a deadly gunslinger stems from accounts of his prowess in shooting competitions, where he reputedly displayed exceptional skill by effortlessly shattering the necks of bottles with his revolver. His proficiency with guns began at the age of twelve, and he excelled with both pistols and rifles.
This formidable talent, however, is often overshadowed by cases of gun violence perpetrated by Ringo. One such incident occurred at a saloon in Safford, Arizona, where a drunken Ringo spoke to a man named Louis Hancock. Seemingly friendly at first, Ringo offered to buy Hancock a drink. When Hancock declined, Ringo grew angry, pulled out his pistol, and shot him without warning.
By some stroke of luck, Hancock survived. Another incident also took place in Safford. While drunk, Ringo heard a man insult a woman on the street. Amidst his temper, Ringo approached the man, whipped him with a pistol, and quickly ended his life by firing a fatal shot into the man’s neck.
These unsettling episodes of violence, coupled with Ringo’s formidable reputation as a marksman, contributed to the enduring legend of this enigmatic figure. It was during his time in Tombstone that Ringo came into conflict with Doc Holliday. Tensions were high between the Earps and the cowboy factions and had threatened to boil over into violence at any time. Ringo had formed a relationship with the Clanton gang, a notorious outlaw gang widely known as the Cowboys of Tombstone.
In fact, Ringo himself has been dubbed the King of the Cowboys. On January 17, 1882, Ringo and Doc Holliday threatened each other and appeared to be on the verge of a gunfight. The conflict caught the attention of Tombstone police chief James Flynn, leading to the arrest of both men for carrying weapons within town limits. Both were fined.
Judge William H. Stilwell continued to prosecute Ringo for a Gayville robbery, leading to his arrest and incarceration on January 20. After a brief release, Ringo was suspected by the Earps of taking part in the December 28, 1881 ambush of Virgil Earp, which left him permanently disabled, and the murder of Morgan Earp on March 18, 1882, when he was playing pool in a local saloon in Tombstone. Johnny Ringo joined a posse pursuing the Earps on March 20, 1882.
Deputy U. S. Marshal Wyatt Earp and his party confronted and shot Frank Stilwell in Tucson. After the shooting, Earp and the federal team embarked on a mission to track down the individuals responsible for the ambush of Virgil and Morgan.
Meanwhile, Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan obtained a warrant from a Tucson judge seeking the arrests of Earp and Holliday. He represented Ringo and nineteen other men, many of them friends of Stilwell and the Cochise County Cowboys. In the so-called Vendetta Ride, Wyatt Earp finished off Curly Bill Brocius, Ringo’s best friend, in a gunfight at Iron Springs, later called Mescal Springs, about twenty miles from Tombstone. Earp later revealed to his biographer Stuart Lake that Florentino Cruz had confessed to witnessing Morgan’s murder.
According to Cruz, Ringo, Stilwell, Swilling, and Brocius were the perpetrators of Morgan’s murder. Historians have cast doubt on the veracity of Earp’s account. The events of this tumultuous period are deeply intertwined with the notorious feud between the Earp factions and their enemies, leaving a lasting impact on the history of the American West. Johnny Ringo was a highly charismatic outlaw.
Despite coming from a struggling working-class family in Indiana, he proved to be more educated than many of his associates and was regarded as a gentleman. The exact extent of his education is unknown, though it was probably not enough that he would trade profanities in Latin with Doc Holliday as he did in the movie Tombstone. Kate, Doc Holliday’s companion, wrote an account of her Tombstone experiences, and her description of Ringo is worth retelling. She described him as a fine man in every way, physically, intellectually, and morally.
She said he stood six feet tall, rather slim in build although broad-shouldered, with a medium fair complexion, gray-blue eyes, and light brown hair. Toward all women, his attitude was gentlemanly. He was always neat, clean, and well-dressed, and she noted that he was noble, for he never fought anyone except face to face.