John Ringo and Billy Claibourne go on an extended drinking spree with Buckskin Frank Leslie. It looks like the end of the trail for Ringo.
Ringo was still drinking heavy and one day he and Billy Claibourne, one of the Clanton gang, began an extended drinking spree with another fellow of dubious reputation, by the name of Buckskin Frank Leslie. Astride their horses, these three sang, drank, and galloped all over southern Arizona. After about two weeks of this the three split up.
The next time anyone, within knowing, saw John Ringo he was lying beneath an oak tree in Sulphur Springs Valley, near Turkey Creek Canyon. At first glance, or from a distance, a person might figure Ringo was just sleeping off his big drunk. But that was far from the case-much farther, in fact.
On closer inspection a person would soon learn that gunslinger John Ringo was not peacefully sleeping there beneath that tree, but sporting a head that was half shot away. His coat had been torn off of him. His hands and feet were bound with strips of cloth from his own shirt. Some distance up the canyon his horse was found. Ringo's boots were tied across the saddle.
There were those around Tombstone, Arizona who figured that either Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday, or both together, had done the deadly deed that ended Ringo's 'cattle' career. Even though both of these men admitted that they would have liked to have been the one who gunned down John Ringo, they both denied performing the act. Even with Earp and Holliday attempting to clear their names the bloodletting wasn't finished.
Photo Identification:
The lynching of John Heith at Tombstone, Arizona, Feb. 22, 1884. Heith was implicated in the robbery of the Goldwater-Castaneda store in December of 1883. During the robbery three men and one woman were killed. Five other men who were involved in the robbery were apprehended and legally hanged at Tombstone, March 6, 1884.
John Ringo continued.
