John Ringo, King of the Cowboys: His Life and Times from the Hoo Doo War to Tombstone, Second Edition

Foreword

ix Foreword ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN YEARS after his suicide, the name John Ringo continues to fascinate historians, writers, movie goers and the public at large. The fact that he developed a reputation as a fighting man in Texas before becoming involved in the Tombstone, Arizona Territory conflicts of the early 1880s only added to his reputation. One obituary spoke of him as a well-known individual who needed no introduction . In fact one editor called him the “King of the Cowboys” when that word was synonymous with the words “rustler” or “hardcase.” Even without such works as Stuart N. Lake’s fictionalized biography of Wyatt Earp, in which the claim is made that Earp cleaned up the wild cow-towns of Kansas, as well as bringing law to Arizona Territory, Ringo would have no doubt become a famous—or notorious—individual of the Old West. Lake’s book, Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal, published in 1931, tended to downplay Ringo’s importance in the Tombstone saga, certainly not giving him the attention Walter Noble Burns did in his Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest, wherein Ringo becomes the Hamlet of the Southwest, quoting Shakespeare and speaking Latin among other languages. These two works brought great attention to Ringo’s name; numerous magazine articles also focused on Ringo as well, mainly during his Tombstone period. Today the writings of Lake and Burns are considered semi-fictional; certainly what either author said of Ringo is to be treated with caution. Ironically Wyatt Earp, who, according to some writers, killed Ringo but in reality did not, gained immortality in gunfighter literature by creating the myth of his own invincibility. Earp’s initial efforts at getting his life story into print with the help of John Flood, failed x Foreword miserably. Only through the literary talent of Stuart N. Lake did this man’s name become a household word. Consequently there are perhaps over a score of biographies of various degrees of accuracy available to the Earp buffs. Ringo was just the opposite, never trying to gain notoriety, at times perhaps covering his “paper trail,” much to the dismay of the serious historian. Had he been followed around by an amanuensis, however, his reaction no doubt would have been whatever the 19th century equivalent of “get lost” was. But Ringo’s life needs to be told; his career needs to be researched and recorded accurately. Now, over a dozen decades after his body was discovered, Ringo has achieved the status of a celebrity. Two recent efforts from Hollywood—Tombstone and Wyatt Earp—have John Ringo as a prominent character, in particular the former. Prior to these recent films Hollywood gave some attention to Ringo, albeit basically in name only. In 1939 John Ford produced what some have called the “best western ever made”—Stagecoach—which catapulted John Wayne to stardom for his portrayal of the Ringo Kid. If not the character, at least the name was taken over by this United Artists production. A little over a decade after Stagecoach another top Hollywood star utilized the name: Gregory Peck starred in the role of Jimmy Ringo in the 1950 production The Gunfighter. Here there is little similarity to the real life Ringo’s career. Peck portrays an aging gunfighter who wishes to forget his violent past, yet younger would-be gunfighters want to challenge him to take on his reputation. Of course he can not simply forget his past to live normally and must sacrifice his own life. In 1954 Republic Pictures produced a series of television westerns, Stories of the Century, released now in DVD format entitled Legends of the Old West—placing their hero, railroad detective Matt Clark, up against most of the big names of the Old West: Doc Holliday, Geronimo , Judge Roy Bean, Quantrill, and of course John Ringo. There is still very little factual about the production, in spite of the claim that the story was “based on official newspaper files and records.” Ringo Foreword xi is described as a “famous and notorious gunfighter and smuggler” although no smuggling is portrayed in the program, unless an oblique reference to cattle rustling can be counted as “smuggling.” Ringo is also described as the “most dangerous killer in Arizona.” In reality he killed no one in Arizona Territory. Ringo has become a fatalist, knowing he will succumb to the dread 19th century...