The Dunn Brothers were a group of brothers from

Pawnee, Oklahoma Pawnee (Pawnee language, Pawnee: Paári, ) is a city and county seat of Pawnee County, Oklahoma, Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States. The town is northeast of Stillwater, Oklahoma, Stillwater at the junction of U.S. Route 64 in Oklahoma, U.S. ...

, who worked as

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

bounty hunter A bounty hunter is a private agent working for a bail bondsman who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. The occupation, officially known as a bail enforcement agent or fugitive recovery agent, has traditionally operated ...

s. They are best known for having killed George "Bittercreek" Newcomb and

Charley Pierce Charley Pierce (c. 1866 – May 2, 1895) was an American outlaw in the American Old West who rode with both the Dalton Gang and the Wild Bunch, Doolin Dalton Gang during the 1890s. He and George Newcomb, "Bittercreek" Newcomb were killed by frie ...

, members of the

Wild Bunch The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...

. The brothers - Bee, Calvin, Dal, George and Bill Dunn - ran a

boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...

near Ingalls and a meat market in Pawnee. Bill Dunn was the leader, and the oldest of the brothers. By the 1880s, the Dunn brothers were working as bounty hunters, although they had been involved in cattle rustling and

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...

. Their teenaged sister

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

became romantically involved with "Bittercreek" Newcomb, having met him through her brothers. On May 2, 1895, when Newcomb and Charley Pierce rode up to the Dunn house to visit with Rose, the brothers shot and killed both

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...

s as they dismounted. They then collected the bounty on both, believed to have been $5,000 each, mostly due to the notoriety of the gang by that time. It is believed that on August 25, 1896, Bill Dunn led Deputy US Marshal Heck Thomas to the hideout of Bill Doolin. Some have speculated that Dunn murdered Doolin; however, official reports from the time discount this, indicating that Thomas actually killed him. By late that year, people around Pawnee had started complaining that the Dunn brothers were involved in rustling and robbery.

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

Frank Canton - a gunman with a substantial reputation who had previously arrested Bill Dunn for rustling - began investigating the claims. On November 6, 1896, Bill Dunn rode into Pawnee intent on killing Sheriff Canton. As Canton walked out of a restaurant after having dinner, Bill Dunn appeared in front of him and tried to draw his

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

, but Canton drew quicker and fired two shots, killing Dunn. The shooting was ruled self defense. Bill Dunn's death effectively ended the bounty hunting for the Dunn brothers, as their already-questionable reputations suffered greatly.

References

Bill O'Neal, Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. pp.94-95

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110517235254/http://www.ionet.net/~okhombre/days.htm Last Days of Bill Doolin, the Dunn Brothers {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn Brothers (Bounty Hunters) Outlaw gangs of the American Old West People from Pawnee, Oklahoma Bounty hunters People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Oklahoma