Fluhmann had reportedly quarreled with [[Benjamin Ratcliff]], a rancher who lived thirty miles away in the Tarryall Valley. Author Midge Harbour in her 1982 book ''The Tarryall Mountains and the Puma Hills: A History,'' espouses the view that Ratcliff hunted down Fluhmann until he found the cave-cabin, where he shot Fluhmann dead without warning. Harbour proposes a scenario by which Ratcliff demeaned Fluhmann in a saloon, having claimed then to be eating tasty beef from Fluhmann's stock. The Ratcliff children then taunted Fluhmann.<ref name=restlessnative>{{cite web|url=http://tri-lakestribune.net/stories/Gottlieb-Fluhmanns-ghost-and-Ratcliff-side-of-the-story,66720|author=Rob Carrigan|title=Gottlieb Fluhmann's ghost and Ratcliff side of the story|date=October 27, 2012|publisher=trilakestribune.net|accessdate=January 21, 2014; material no longer accessible on-line}}</ref> | Fluhmann had reportedly quarreled with [[Benjamin Ratcliff]], a rancher who lived thirty miles away in the Tarryall Valley. Author Midge Harbour in her 1982 book ''The Tarryall Mountains and the Puma Hills: A History,'' espouses the view that Ratcliff hunted down Fluhmann until he found the cave-cabin, where he shot Fluhmann dead without warning. Harbour proposes a scenario by which Ratcliff demeaned Fluhmann in a saloon, having claimed then to be eating tasty beef from Fluhmann's stock. The Ratcliff children then taunted Fluhmann.<ref name=restlessnative>{{cite web|url=http://tri-lakestribune.net/stories/Gottlieb-Fluhmanns-ghost-and-Ratcliff-side-of-the-story,66720|author=Rob Carrigan|title=Gottlieb Fluhmann's ghost and Ratcliff side of the story|date=October 27, 2012|publisher=trilakestribune.net|accessdate=January 21, 2014; material no longer accessible on-line}}</ref> |