What immediately piqued my interest was the statement, "There is more than one man living in Cochise County who knows who did it." How would PROSPECTOR, who might as well have signed off as "Anonymous," know that? I suppose it's an intriguing, even provocative assertion, but it's an assertion absent any foundation whatever and assumes, contrary to the inquest's inconclusive verdict, that Ringo was killed by another party. "Prospector" assumes this, apparently, based upon the scalp wound and his sitting position adjacent to the tree where his body was discovered since those are the two he mentions. He does not mention any of the other so-called oddities, although he does assert in passing that Ringo "had a number" of what he describes as "enemies." Perhaps so, but then how many exactly, who were they, and how does the writer define "enemy."

Again, in my opinion, these are awfully thin reeds upon which to conclude, or even build a plausible case that Ringo did not commit suicide, particularly as I suspect that whoever "Prospector" was, he knew less about Ringo, as did those conducting the inquest, which is to say the details of Ringo's personal history and psychology, than we do now.

I know that, according to the cliche, everyone loves a mystery, but are we to take it that this statement viz. "but with them the mystery is a secret," is the origin of the notion that Ringo's death was not only mysterious, but secretly so? Always interesting to track down how these "stories" get started in the first place. (That's redundant, isn't it? Get started/first place. Mea culpa.)

I needn't mention that both Jack Burrows and Gary Roberts are satisfied that Ringo was a suicide. I will be gobsmacked if Gatto isn't as well.