In April, 1884, Brown and Wheeler concocted a story convincing the mayor to give them leave to travel into the Indian Territory to hunt a murderer. With two Cherokee Outlet cowboys, William Smith and John Wesley, they rode to Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and attempted to rob the Medicine Valley Bank. Almost immediately, their attempt fell apart in disaster when gunfire erupted and two of the bank officers were shot. Most conventional accounts name Brown as bank president Wylie Payne's murderer. But T. A. McNeal, author of "When Kansas Was Young", sat at his friend Payne's bedside as he lay dying and reports that Payne named Wesley as his killer. Wheeler (and possibly, Wesley) shot George Geppert, the bank's chief cashier who, just before he died, sealed the vault, preventing the robbers from escaping with any money.