That’s John Ringo
John Ringo, popularly known as Johnny Ringo or just Ringo, died and is buried in a lone grave in southeastern Arizona. Dwight approaches the gravesite with the same sense of history, awe, and respect that I feel walking through the plaza where another John (Kennedy) was murdered. There are very few parallels between the Dealey Plaza and Turkey Creek incidents: JFK was a popularly elected president; John Ringo was a self-made alcoholic. But each is an historic figure, a murder victim destined to live on in fact and legend long after most of us cross over to whatever fate or choice awaits us. Someone doesn’t have to be psychic to feel a sense of being in the presence of history in such places, whether surrounded by the skyscrapers of Dallas or the tall pines of the Chiricahua Mountains. What really happened to John Ringo here is a matter of much speculation—for some.
Dan, Dwight, and Rhonda outside of
the fence near John Ringo’s gravesite.
Dan and Rhonda combine pendulum dowsing and intuitive skills to communicate with John Ringo.
And why should we refer to Ringo as John and not Johnny as he is portrayed in film, television, radio, and print?
Because he said so.
A Fast Verdict at West Turkey Creek
As with many Wild West characters, their history is a careening mix of fact, fiction, and folly. That rule certainly applies to the mysterious death of the man now known just as Ringo, one of the most famous and iconic names in all of Western history. He has been portrayed in popular media as hero, anti-hero, villain, and victim. The truth is probably lost somewhere in those conflicting tales.
John Peters Ringo (sometimes spelled Ringgold) rode into Arizona Territory in 1879 and eventually took up with the infamous cowboy element in and around Tombstone. The cowboys were rustlers, thieves, and murderers, and so threatened the peace that the President of the United States threatened marshal law. Their raiding into Mexico was so intense that at one time the government feared war was inevitable unless the gang was corralled. But many of the cowboys were also legitimate businessmen. Ike Clanton owned a restaurant and several ranches. Other members of the gang were ranchers, saloon owners, and businessmen. As in much of Western history, who you were depended largely on your attitude, who you met on the street, or in the saloon, the time of day, or the amount of “tangleleg” you had consumed. Ringo consumed a lot of “tangleleg” and was known to have a bad temper when drunk.
He often threw verbal punches at Doc Holliday and was an enemy of Wyatt Earp and his brothers. It is suspected, but has never been proved, that Ringo participated in the wounding of Virgil Earp and the murder of Morgan Earp. In a “well, that’s Arizona for you” episode, Wyatt Earp set out leading a federal posse to track down the killers (the famous vendetta ride). Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan then organized a state posse to track down the federal posse. Ringo was one of the nineteen members of that party, but the two groups never crossed paths.
In July 1882 Ringo went on a drunken binge. On July 14th a teamster traveling from West Turkey Creek found his body sitting in the fork of a nearby oak tree with a bullet hole in the top left side of his head. July in Arizona is hot and deceased persons exposed to the elements did not hold up well under such conditions. A coroner’s jury was called on the spot and it was determined that Ringo had committed suicide. He had a bullet hole in his temple, the bullet exiting through the back of his head. He was buried on the spot.
The suicide verdict isn’t accepted by all. His feet were wrapped in pieces of his undershirt. His revolver was hanging by one finger. A small portion of his forehead and part of his hair had been removed, apparently by a knife. The belt for his revolver cartridges was buckled on upside-down. Curiously for a victim of a shot through the skull, his hat was still on his head. Two weeks later his horse was found. Ringo’s boots were still tied to the saddle.
Many authors say it was murder. Suspects include Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, “Buckskin” Frank Leslie, and Michael O’Rourke (Johnny Behind-the-Duce). In the hopes of adding some legitimate information to the historical record, we decided to go to the source.
Heating Up a Cold Case
John Ringo was one of Dwight’s favorite characters in the West. “I was always interested in the West and John Ringo just fascinated me—his persona and the stories about him,” Dwight said. His interest was heightened when he and Rhonda moved to Sierra Vista, Arizona and met one of their new neighbors. Kandace (Kandie) Sanders was surprisingly familiar with the case because her family owned the ranch where Ringo was killed. She offered to take them to the site; an offer they immediately accepted.
They were able to meet her uncle who lived there all his life. The Sanders family lived on that property for generations, so the stories told were as firsthand as possible, handed down from the people who lived there during the times in question. “The best way to describe it is to say that it was my Graceland,” said Dwight. “Just walking out there experiencing that feeling and that energy on that hallowed ground and basically knowing that this is where it happened. This is where one of my Western heroes still is. He’s buried there. It was just a very in-your-gut, spiritual experience out there.”
In talking with the family they learned that the death—ruled a suicide at the time—was still carried as an open case in Cochise County. The family’s side of the story brought up a number of serious questions. “I heard a completely different story than what is told in the papers and that really got me thinking and researching it after that,” said Dwight. “You could see both sides—either murder or suicide—and the more I looked into the suicide, it just didn’t make any sense, forensically or any other way.”
The couple was committed to bringing the case out of a dark past and into the light of modern investigation. The first step was to do a lot of research in the archives to find out anything they could regarding the death, beginning with the coroner’s report and some eyewitness testimony from people who were around there at the time and who wrote reports of the incident.
The big moment came during a psychic investigation and an EVP session and actually hearing answers to their questions, Dwight said, “That made me think, ‘Now wait a minute … he’s saying something different from what appeared in the papers.’ I asked him, ‘Did you commit suicide?’ I got a no. This was from John Ringo on the recorder. So, the quest began.”
He and Rhonda put together a really solid package about their investigation and then contacted the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office through Sheriff Mark Daniels. They told him that the case should be at least reopened to “undetermined” as far as cause of death. Rhonda commented, “We weren’t trying to pin a murderer at this point. We just wanted them to reevaluate it.” They had several conversations with Daniels. The response, not unexpected, was that the county just didn’t have the financial and manpower resources to reopen such an old case.
Dwight said, “He did look over all our stuff and said that it was extremely interesting and that it was thought provoking.”
As of this writing the case is in a stalemate. Daniels is interested in the case, but again the bureaucracy and red tape have blocked progress for the moment. “We have thought about contacting different pathologists to see if they would be interested in looking over our stuff because they have the power to reopen a case as well. They haven’t given up and are always looking for new avenues of approach. If we have a pathologist who sees something that could possibly change it, then they legally have the power to open it to at least undetermined status,” Dwight said. “We’ve not gone that route, but it may be a way to go.”
Meeting John Ringo
One of the first things Dwight and Rhonda discovered about Ringo was that he did not like to be called Johnny. Dwight said, “My first time out there I was doing an EVP session and I walked up there and said, ‘Johnny Ringo. Okay, Johnny, we’re here for you. We want to hear your story.’ As soon as I was done saying that we got a really gruff EVP saying, ‘Fuck the Johnny.’ At that point I was like, okay, so it’s John or Mr. Ringo from here on out. I’m absolutely convinced that the voice recorded is the voice of John Ringo. I respect his wishes.”
Again, our approach on every investigation was non-confrontational. We sought positive interaction, not conflict, with any spirit willing to invest time with us. This approach has led to an increase in the knowledge base about spirits, the spirit world, and the afterlife “over there.”
Obviously, the top question on their minds concerned the nature of Ringo’s death. Was it truly a suicide or was it murder? The trip was conducted as an investigation of a crime scene. Dwight said, “Measuring the distance across the wash, Kelsie Sanders (ranch owner’s descendent) asked Ringo point-blank if Frank Leslie was the one who murdered him. We got a yes. Now whether that voice is John Ringo or whomever, we did get a yes, a very faint and light yes, but a very definite yes.” The voice was identical to the voice they captured on other EVPs at the site.
It’s impossible to say for sure, but Dwight and Rhonda believe they spoke directly to the spirit of John Ringo.
People who have looked at the evidence and who have taken the time to visit the site believe the killer was Frank Leslie because he was seen in the area and had asked if anyone had seen John Ringo. He asked Mr. Sanders, who was a teamster at the ranch at that time.
Additional investigations revealed the presence of other spirits out there. One of them was an older man or someone who sounded like an older man on the EVPs. A male friend accompanied Dwight to the site hoping to capture more EVPs. Dwight took his usual polite and respectful approach, but his friend became confrontational. He called Ringo a back shooter among other things. This continued until he finished the tirade and said, “Now what do you think about that?”
An older man’s voice (recorded) said, “Oh, no. Don’t say that.”
It was very clear and it was not the same voice that they had recorded before. Further research into the Sanders Ranch history turned up the fact that one of the relatives who lived on the ranch around that time was thrown from his horse and crushed by a wagon right there at the ranch house, so there was a tragic death in the family there as well. “I’m thinking it was that person as the second voice, someone who is staying around and watching over his ranch,” Dwight said.
On another trip they encountered a child, a girl that has not been identified. She was calling out, “Mommy, mommy, come help me” in a clear, child’s voice.
“It was one of those times during an investigation that just breaks your heart,” Rhonda said, “because you hear a child in need, a small child, and of course we didn’t listen to this until we got home and we were like, ‘Aghh.’ We have somebody out there who really needs help and we didn’t hear it at the time and now we have to go back out and try to talk to her and try to help her.” That story is yet to be concluded.
Historical research is essential (whenever possible) in paranormal research. For example, as with the gravesite of Mattie Earp, the actual burial place of John Peters Ringo isn’t the official plot seen by the tourists who drop by. If someone is visiting such a site it is only polite and respectful to attempt communication at the actual location. It’s impossible to say, but considering Ringo’s temperament, it is possible that he would resent an investigator paying attention to a false location for his grave. Accuracy is not only important in conducting this type of work; it is also a sign of respect for those who have crossed over.
Ringo at Rest at Last
We arrived at the gravesite in June of 2016. Dwight and Rhonda had been to the location many times before. The gravesite is on private property, but is marked, easily accessible, and open to the public. A wide, “washboard” dirt road leads to a barbed-wire fence with a metal gate. A narrow pathway leads through tall grass and scattered pine and juniper trees to the edge of a cattle tank—an area that overlooks West Turkey Creek some 100 yards away. The ranch house of Ringo’s friend Will Sanders was and still is about 50 yards distant. The official gravesite is marked by a large pile of stones with a painted rock headstone. “John Ringo July 13, 1882” is inscribed in dark letters on white paint. An Arizona state plaque is nearby. “John Ringo—The remains of this noted gunman and outlaw lie here.”
The actual site of John Ringo’s grave is nearby, but it is unmarked and will not be further identified here.
Rhonda sensed spirit activity from the moment she stepped through the gate. “Absolutely. I knew there were people there … spirits there. And I knew John was there. That’s why when we were walking up the pathway I told them that we were coming up there to talk.”
We walked easily to the actual gravesite and stood around a moment to get acclimated to it and to let the impact of history sink in. “This is an interesting, hallowed place,” Dwight said, “at least for me anyway. Even when I was a kid I heard the name John Ringo and heard the stories about the gunfight at the OK Corral and all the characters in Tombstone. I’ve always been a big fan of John Ringo.”
While getting ready to conduct an EVP session, Dwight revealed his theory of how John Ringo died. “Buckskin” Frank Leslie and Billy Claiborne were the killers. They traveled up through Turkey Creek close to sunset and came up out of the creek about 100 to 125 yards east/northeast of where Ringo was camped on a bluff. They were hidden and well-protected by trees, brush, and other vegetation on the flats. “That’s where I think Buckskin saw his shot, so to speak. He took his rifle out, knelt down, and shot Ringo once in the head.” Dwight conducted a forensic examination of the area at the site and down on the flats. “We took GPS coordinates of the area where I feel Buckskin was. I did that by looking at the open terrain, looking at the open areas, and determined where I would be if I had to take a shot at somebody. So I plotted that point, plotted where the tree was, basically, and figured in a five-foot-eight, five-foot-ten-inch man and plotted those GPS coordinates, and it wasn’t until after we got home that I got everything into the computer and got a look at everything. The angle of a rifle shot from that point would have matched the angle in John’s head from the right temple to the outside to the left, coming out. That was kinda’ the telling of the tale there.”
Billy Claiborne, who had run from the gunfight at the OK Corral, was brought down in another gunfight outside the Oriental Saloon in Tombstone. “Buckskin” Frank Leslie was the man who pulled the trigger. The killing was ruled justifiable homicide, but some speculate that the killing was related to Claiborne’s knowledge of the Ringo killing.
We conducted a 15-minute session right next to the gravesite, but did not get any clear EVPs. Apparently five to six spirits, including John Ringo, were present. The combination of intuition and pendulum dowsing did produce some interesting results. I said at the time, “It’s surprising to me considering this is where he was murdered, but all three of us got the definite impression that he is perfectly happy being right where he is.”
Rhonda said, “Absolutely. He’s hanging out with the Sanderses and anybody else who’s there. It’s a very pretty, happy place. It’s not a place where you feel a need to help somebody cross over. They don’t want to cross over. It’s not a place where anybody would be stuck.”
In earlier visits to the sight, Dwight and Rhonda did capture some startling EVPs.
The EVPs
D: I believe we’ve solved this one.
EVP: Oh, don’t say it.
D: Because this is the inside of the tree here.
Sources for additional reading on John Ringo include:
John Ringo: The Gunfighter Who Never Was
Inventing Wyatt Earp by Allen Barra
Doc Holiday by Gary L. Roberts
To listen to the EVPs go to:
www.beelieveparanormal.com/our-book.html
Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend by Casey Tefertiller
The best research material on the Earp years in Tombstone is A Tenderfoot in Tombstone: The Private Journal of George Whitwell Parsons.