Yup, that was really his handle: Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce. He became an item in Tombstone in 1881 after killing a mining official, Philip Schneider, in Charleston a few miles away. Some say folks over there were pretty chapped about the killing and were intent on lynching Johnny. Others say the mob didn't want to lynch Johnny, they wanted to set him free. Some say Johnny Ringo and Ike Clanton were the leaders of the lynch mob, but there's not much to support that claim. Regardless, the Charleston constable, George McKelvey, hustled the guy over to Tombstone where he was turned over to Wyatt Earp until things could get judged.
Wyatt (he's generally referred to in text as "Wyatt" because his brothers were usually just as involved in the going's on as he was. To say "Earp" wasn't very definitive...) Wyatt locked ol' Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce in Vogan's Saloon and Bowling Alley with Wyatt's brother, Virgil, Doc Holliday and other lawmen as guards. I'm thinkin' these guys chose the saloon so they could make themselves comfortable while they waited for whatever trouble might come their way!
And, yes, I said "Bowling Alley." In 1879, in Tombstone, Arizona, Jim Vogan and Jim Flynn opened a wholesale liquor store and "sampling room" along with a 10-pin bowling alley right there on the main street.
Well, it was a pretty tense time for awhile, but real soon Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce was taken under heavy guard on into Tucson to await trial. He never made it to the courtroom though, because he managed an escape just a couple of months later. In May he was indicted by a Grand Jury for the murder.
His last known whereabouts was about that same time somewhere in the Dragoon
Mountains. Seems he was riding hell-bent-for-leather to get out of the
Tombstone Territory, never to be seen around those parts ever again
Johnny's real name was Michael O'Rourke..
No comments:
Post a Comment