Tombstone: Johnny Ringo's Death Remains A Real-Life Mystery (& Doc Holliday Probably Didn't Kill Him)

The movie Tombstone features several real-life Old West heroes, but it takes liberties with the true stories surrounding them. The film follows Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) and his brothers Virgil Earp (Sam Elliott) and Morgan Earp (Bill Paxton) as they move into Tombstone, Arizona, to start a new life after leaving their positions as law enforcement officers. Tombstone then showcases the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Tombstone features several of the people involved in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, from Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang) and Billy Clanton (Thomas Haden Church) to Tom McLaury (John Philbin) and Frank McLaury (Robert John Burke). Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) is also involved, and his main target is Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn). Their final confrontation comes to an end when Holliday guns down Ringo.

This is a huge moment, since Ringo is the best gunslinger in the Cowboys gang, and Holliday is the best gunslinger on the hero's side, although Holliday is dying and is not at his best at this point in his life. While this is one of Tombstone's best moments, it is not accurate to real life as most historians know it. In fact, there are several ideas about how Ringo actually died.

Doc Holliday Might Not Have Killed Johnny Ringo In Real Life

This gunfight is foreshadowed early in the movie when Holliday and Ringo keep challenging each other and putting the other down. These are the two deadliest guns in the Cowboys and the Earp family, and their battle is the biggest one that could happen in the movie. Ringo even proves this when he is surprised that Holliday shows up, expecting that he is going to try to outdraw Wyatt Earp instead.

However, this couldn't have happened in real life. That is because when Ringo was found dead with a bullet in him in Arizona, Holliday wasn't even in the state. At the time that Ringo was killed, Holliday was hiding out in Colorado to avoid a murder warrant in Arizona for his part in Frank Stilwell's murder. He also had court dates around the time of Ringo's death, making it almost impossible that he could have been in Arizona to kill the gunslinger.

Other Theories Behind Johnny Ringo's Death

In Tombstone, Wyatt Earp is supposed to meet Ringo for the final gunfight, but Holliday shows up to face off with Ringo instead. In the movie, Earp goes after Curly Bill instead. That said, the 1976 book I Married Wyatt Earp, which author Glenn Boyer said was based on manuscripts assembled by Earp's fourth wife, Josephine Marcus Earp, claimed that Earp and Holliday returned to Arizona with some friends and found Ringo's camp.

The court records showed it couldn't have been Holliday since he showed up in a Colorado court during the time Ringo died in Arizona. Instead, the book claimed that Earp tracked down Ringo and shot him with a rifle, but this has mostly been dismissed as a hoax. However, Tombstone historian Ben T. Traywick wrote in his 1987 book John Peters Ringo: Mythical Gunfighter that Earp had a motive to kill Ringo, and he was sure Earp was in the area. Earp also told at least three people he killed Ringo.

This all flies in the face of the official cause of death. Ringo’s body was found dead on July 14, 1882, sitting in what looked like a comfortable position. His feet were wrapped in strips of cloth, and his boots were tied to his saddle. There was a bullet hole in his right temple. His revolver was still in his right hand. A coroner's inquest ruled his death a suicide. There was an empty shell in his gun, and the path of blood on the tree made it seem that Ringo took his own life.

Why Tombstone Had Doc Holliday Kill Johnny Ringo Anyway

With the coroner's inquest noting that Ringo died by suicide, and Earp claiming that he had killed the gunslinger, the movie Tombstone still chooses to go with the story that Holliday shoots and kills his rival. This is the best possible decision. The entire film has Holliday and Ringo pushing each other to see who the best gunslinger is, and this is the showdown viewers anticipate, even more than Wyatt Earp and Curly Bill.

If Ringo had died by suicide, even if it was just shown in a text transcript at the end, it would have been overwhelmingly disappointing. Westerns need the final gunfights, and while Earp and Bill's is a good one, the scene with Ringo and Holliday is the best in the film. Holliday delivers some of Tombstone's best quotes, with "Why, Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave" as one of the best in Western movie history.

Val Kilmer steals every scene he appears in, and Tombstone is made even better thanks to his performance. Michael Biehn is also spectacular in his role as Johnny Ringo, and it might be the best performance of his career. In the end, Tombstone needs Ringo and Holliday to have their showdown, and even if it never happened in real life, it helped make the movie a minor masterpiece.