W. C. Jameson - Cold Case: The Tombstone Mysteries

W. C. J AMESON IS THE MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF more than a hundred books and over fifteen hundred articles. He has served as a consultant for film and television and has appeared on the History Channel, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, PBS, NPR, and Nightline.

When not writing, Jameson, who has recorded ten albums of his original music, is on the road 180 days each year performing at music festivals, concerts halls, college campuses, roadhouses, and on television. He lives in Llano, Texas.

M ANY THANKS TO R OBERT B UCKLEY FOR SHARING HIS FINDINGS and notes on William Graham, aka Curly Bill Brocius. I am grateful to have the stellar artwork of Richard Pee Wee Kolb grace the pages of this book. Muchas gracias to superagent Sandra Bond for all of her efforts and for tolerating my inability to understand and deal with most things having to do with computers. Thanks to editor Erin Turner for her patience and talents. Finally, Im grateful for the attention given to my work by Laurie Jameson, who has edited for New York Times best-selling authors but still finds time to make certain my manuscripts are as clean as they can be before I ship them off.

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Burrows, Jack. Johnny Ringo: The Gunfighter Who Never Was. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1987.

Chaput, Don. Buckskin Frank Leslie. Tucson, AZ: Westernlore Press, 1999.

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J OHN P ETERS R INGO was born M AY 3, 1850, IN GREEN FORK , Indiana, to Martin and Mary Ringo. Some writers have stated that his surname was Ringgold, but this is not true. Ringgold was the erroneous spelling employed by newspapers in Cochise County, Arizona. It has also been written that Ringo came from an affluent background, but this too was not the case. Ringo did possess a modicum of education. Some believe he attended college, but evidence for such cannot be found. When he was sober, which was not often, Ringo appeared to be quite literate and well read, and was known to quote poetry.

In 1858 the Ringo family moved to Gallatin, Missouri. When he was six years old, his family moved sixty miles south to Liberty, at the time a small town near Kansas City and the hometown of his mother. There, Martin Ringo, along with a partner, owned and operated a grocery store. He also pursued farming on a modest plot of land just outside of town. The elder Ringo was regarded as a prominent member of the community.

In 1864, when Johnny Ringo was fourteen years old, Martin Ringo was suffering from tuberculosis and believed the California climate would be more agreeable to his health. During a stop in Wyoming as the family was en route to California, Martin was accidentally killed when a shotgun he was carrying suddenly discharged, the buckshot blowing away much of his head. The remaining members of the family continued on to California, settling in and around San Jose.

When Johnny Ringo was twenty-one years of age, he decided to leave California. He had been employed on a farm and in time decided he was not suited for what he considered tedious work. He packed up and headed east. He stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas, for a time to visit relatives there, then traveled to Hopkins and San Saba Counties in Texas before settling in Burnet County. On December 25, 1874, Ringo was arrested for disturbing the peace as a result of the unlawful discharge of a pistol in and around the public square. He was released on bond, and in October was living in Mason County, sixty-five miles to the west.

A S J OHNNY R INGO SETTLED IN AT M ASON C OUNTY , T EXAS , HE soon became friends with Scott Cooley, a former Texas Ranger. Ringo learned that two brothersElijah and Pete Backushad been arrested for cattle rustling. They had not been in jail long when the two men were dragged from the facility and hanged by a mob made up of a number of area German settlers.

The overriding conflict in the area was between the German and non-German settlers. The Germans hurled numerous charges that Americans were stealing their cattle. Those charged maintained that they were only gathering stock that they already owned, that had been stolen from them earlier by the Germans. According to one author, the confrontations between the two groups were the result of confusion over stock laws. Violence soon erupted, and masked vigilantes rode the countryside exacting their own brand of justice.

On May 13, 1875, Cooleys employer, rancher Tim Williamson, was seized by a vigilante posse and killed by a German farmer named Pete Bader. Cooley, along with Ringo and a number of others, sought vengeance and waged a campaign of terror against the German settlers. Referred to as the Mason County War in history books, it was known locally as the Hoodoo War. (Hoodoo is a reference to masked or hooded members of a vigilance committee.) One of the first victims of Cooleys forces was John Worley (also spelled Wohrly), an exdeputy sheriff. Worley was shot on August 10, 1875, scalped, and his body tossed into a well.