Citizens of Ponca City who knew John B. Dunn here in the early days are very doubtful if it is Dunn who is in jail in Nevada where it is reported that he has been identified. Following the killing of Sheriff John Powers of Johnson County, Arkansas, At Clarksville during the robbery of the First National bank there in 1902, Dunn escaped from St. Francis hospital in Wichita, Kansas, in the garb of a nurse.

Several days after the Clarksville robbery Dunn appeared at the St. Francis hospital for treatment. There was no intimation of his connection with the bank robbery and the killing of Sheriff Powers until two well-known bad characters called on him at the hospital. These two were arrested, taken back to Clarksville, convicted and hanged. They said in their death statements that it was Dunn who actually shot the sheriff.

Dunn lived in Ponca City from 1895 to 1902, owing a 200 acre farm near here. He was well known to all early day citizens who say he was very shred and cunning. The two men who were with him in the robbery and who were later hanged were also Ponca Cityans and were known in those days as "Swayback George" Durham and "Frenchy," no other name being known for the later. It has always been believed that the bank robbery at Clarksville was hatched here. On the scaffold both Durham and "Fenchy" confessed that Dunn was their leader and fired the shot that killed Powers. A fourth man, connected with the robbery was given a life sentence.