Following the killing of gunslinger and outlaw John Ringo, Billy Claibourne pointed a long finger of accusation at Buckskin Frank Leslie, which turned out to be a serious mistake on Claibourne's part. Not appreciating being accused of a murder he had not done, Leslie, being the deadly killer that he was, drew his Colt .45 and "cut Claibourne to pieces."
The murder of John Ringo was finally solved when another fellow, John O'Rourke, also known as Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce, brazenly admitted that he had killed Ringo. O'Rourke said he'd found Ringo drunk and passed out under the tree where his body had been found. O'Rourke said he'd found it easy to shoot Ringo under these circumstances.
John Ringo was 38 years old when he was murdered in 1882. And it was well noted that John O'Rourke could not have bested the big cattle rustler and gunslinger any other way than what he had.
Recommended Reading:
Gunfighter and killer Bill Longley was hung three times. The last one took in 1878 when Longley was the age of 27 and had killed 31 men.
The life of William Thompson, later known as Texas Billy, spanned forty-three violent years from the alleys and by-ways of Knottingley, England, where he was born in 1845, to the streets of Laredo, Texas, where he died in 1888.
The good folks around the grand state of Missouri, and particularly Clay County and St. Joseph, would like to extend a hardy Happy 34th Birthday to their home-state hero-Jesse Woodson James. Mr. James was born 1847, to the Reverend and Mrs. Robert James of Clay County, Missouri. Robert and Zerelda are also the proud parents of Jesse's older brother, Frank.
Source:
McCarty, Lea F. The Gunfighters. Mike Roberts Color Productions, Emeryville, California, 1959.
