ALL WHO WANDER

Hunting Ringo's Ghost

JERRY SANDERS ADMITS THAT STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN in his back yard, alongside Turkey Creek on the west side of the Chiricahua Mountains.He blames Johnny Ringo-or, at least, his ghost.

Makes sense, considering that one of the West's most famous outlaws lies buried at the foot of the oak tree beneath which he died on the Sanders ranch, which has been in the family for five generations.

Jerry is happy to show folks Ringo's grave and asks only that they knock first on his front door before coming onto his property. He notes that sometimes just standing alongside Ringo's grave will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Yeah. Right. I sniff not a whiff of Ringo, who died sleeping among the roots of this tree on his way to the ranch of the Sanders' ancestors.The coroner's jury called it suicide, but Jerry blames Wyatt Earp's buddy "Buckskin" Frank Leslie. I expected all sorts of things when I set out to find Ringo's grave, but not the descendant of the fellow who had Johnny to dinner. Then again, you find all sorts of surprises when you start time traveling in this fascinating attic of the Old West.

Movies and potboilers have nurtured Ringo's legend, although the facts are fuzzy. Maybe he killed three people in a Texas range war, two shopkeepers and a cowboy rash enough to ride his horse into a saloon. Maybe he also helped shoot two of the Earp brothers. Ringo definitely did shoot Louis Hancock in the foot-either because Hancock refused to let Ringo buy him a drink or said something mean about a prostitute. Ringo also definitely challenged Doc Holliday to a Tombstone gunfight, but a deputy sheriff intervened.

Yet, The Tombstone Epitaph observed, “He was recognized by friends and foes as a recklessly brave man, one who would go any distance or undergo any hardship to serve a friend or punish an enemy. He was a strictly honorable man in all his dealings, and his word was as good as his bond.” Jack Burrows, in John Ringo, the Outlaw Who Never Was, huffs and puffs at the thick haze of myth and concludes Ringo was the outcast black sheep of a California family bulging with lawyers, teachers, a state supreme court justice and other pillars of society. After his father was killed by an accidental shotgun blast in 1864, Ringo helped his mother raise his four siblings before leaving home at 19, already drinking too much.

After a stint as a gunman in a Texas range war, Ringo moved to Arizona and took up with the “cowboys,” a gang of rustlers led by the Clantons. That embroiled him in the West's most famous feud. When someone killed Morgan Earp, Wyatt sought revenge. Ringo survived Earp's brief killing spree and stuck around after Earp fled for Colorado.

led by the Clantons. That embroiled him in the West's most famous feud. When someone killed Morgan Earp, Wyatt sought revenge. Ringo survived Earp's brief killing spree and stuck around after Earp fled for Colorado.

Three months later, William Smith passed Ringo on his way to the Smith ranch. A bit later, Smith encountered Frank Leslie, who asked him if he'd seen Ringo.

The coroner's report noted that the bullet entered Ringo's right temple and came out the top of his head. A small piece of Ringo's scalp had been cut off and left on the body, and his cartridge belt was strapped on upside down. Moreover, his bare feet were wrapped in an undershirt, and his horse turned up several miles away with Ringo's boots tied to the saddle. Burrows accepts the coroner's verdict and concludes Ringo committed suicide in a drunken fit of depression and that a raven “scalped” the dead outlaw.

However, all sorts of people have taken credit for killing Ringo, including Earp and a small-time gambler named “Johnny Behind the Deuce.” The Sanders clan blames Leslie, who reportedly killed 15 people, including a friend of Ringo's. While in prison for murdering his wife, Leslie told a guard he killed Ringo. Moreover, both Coyote Smith and Wilgus Smith, who served on the coroner's jury, later blamed Leslie. Coyote Smith was then found dead in his livery stable, which the coroner ruled another suicide. Apaches killed Wilgus Smith just up the canyon.

Heck. I'm with Jerry, who welcomes me like an old friend and invites me into his 100-year-old adobe ranch house for lemonade.

He tells me about the time a teenaged girl who was going blind showed up on his doorstep to see Ringo's grave before she lost her sight. Some people who have camped near the grave reported hearing strange moans all through the night.

So I finish my lemonade and head for the grave alone.

I take a seat among the roots, close my eyes and relax.

A twig snaps, my eyes pop and I briefly consider the list of people who might shoot me in my sleep.And the hairs on the back of my neck are standing straight up.