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| Did Wyatt Earp murder Johnny Ringo? |
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| Written by Jazmine Woodberry |
| Thursday, 03 November 2011 03:00 |
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In time for the celebration of the 130th anniversary of the gunfight that make Tombstone famous, O.K. Corral owner Bob Love displayed a new find, one that could implicate Wyatt Earp in the murder of Johnny Ringo. Ringo was found in July of 1882, less than a year after the famed gunfight, with his shoes off and a single bullet hole in his head at the roots of a tree in West Turkey Creek Valley, near Chiricahua Peak, close to the U.S.-Mexico border in southeastern Arizona. The then-property owner found him sitting at the base of the tree, with a gun hanging off one of his hands, and turned his body over – but the coroner originally ruled his death a suicide. Many have been implicated in his death, including Doc Holliday and, of course, Wyatt Earp. Earp, who lived in what Love called “gentile poverty” toward the end of his life, tried to write a biography that he would sell to make a movie in order to scrape up money with the help of John Flood. “They’ve blamed Doc (Holliday), they’ve blamed a whole bunch of people,” Love said. But Holliday was soon ruled out of the talks, Love said, as he would have been too far away to actually commit the murder – specifically battling a Colorado court case when Ringo died. Earp has been implicated in Ringo’s death times before, including in a now-disproved book said to be written by his wife Josephine Earp, which said that Earp and Holliday came back to Arizona after their travels in order to kill Ringo. During those talks, Flood drew a map that was supposed to point to Earp’s path to kill Ringo – one that was displayed for the public to see. The maps have been bought and sold for several years, according to Love. “But after all that, this is the first time that it’s been on public display,” Love said. |