Johnny Ringo: Unknown Destiny
~ A new novel about the gunfighter many believe was the fastest gun that ever lived. Johnny Ringo is best known for his involvement with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday in Tombstone. Those confrontations occurred both before and after the gunfight at the OK Corral. Ringo was not in town that day. Many say the famous gunfight would not have happened if he had been there. It was widely known that Wyatt Earp was deathly afraid of Johnny Ringo.
Wyatt Earp has often been portrayed as a benevolent lawman who cleaned up Dodge City and Tombstone. Such stories have propagated a myth. In truth Wyatt Earp and his brothers, in addition to being lawmen, were part owners of gambling and prostitution houses. They went to Tombstone shortly after silver was discovered in hopes of becoming wealthy. Wyatt kept Doc Holliday around because he was known as one of the fastest guns in the country. With Johnny Ringo already living on a ranch near Tombstone, the scene was set for a showdown.
Several movies have portrayed Ringo. Stagecoach centered on The Ringo Kid played by a young John Wayne. Later, Gregory Peck played Ringo in The Gunfighter. There have also been numerous movies about the gunfight at the OK Corral. They included well-known actors, such as Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Henry Fonda, Kevin Costner, Sam Elliott and Dennis Quaid. Many readers will remember Tombstone, in which Kurt Russell played Wyatt Earp, Val Kilmer played Doc Holliday, and Michael Biehn played Johnny Ringo.
Some might remember the song Ringo, which was released in 1964 and made it to number one on the Top 40 Charts. The singer was Lorne Greene, the actor who played Ben Cartwright in the TV series Bonanza.
The noted historian, David Johnson, presents the most complete and accurate account of Johnny Ringo’s life in the book John Ringo, published in 1996. What was Johnny Ringo like? A man who actually knew him provided the following description.
“John was over six feet tall, rangy, bony and strong as a horse. He had light blue, baby eyes, that would cause you to love him when he was looking at you, but you wanted to travel from him like lightning when he was under the influence of liquor. He was admittedly the best pistol shot in the country. His best trick was to hold a 45 caliber Colt on the index finger of each hand, barrels down, and at the word would give the pistols a three-quarter turn, simultaneously shooting at beer bottles and always knocking the neck off one or two. I recall that John made a bet that he would send the bullets into the open necks of the bottle twice out of five, at fifty feet. He won many a bet of this kind.”
A. M. Franklin
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