# Civic Matters > Ask Anything About OKC >  Does anyone know whatever happened to the Penn Square Bank Players?

## micesu

JD Allen

Robert Hefner

Carl Swan

Bill Patterson

Bill Jennings

I know Bill Patterson did jail time and I knew his kids but didn't hear much about Penn Square until I was older.

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## MikeOKC

> JD Allen
> 
> Robert Hefner
> 
> Carl Swan
> 
> Bill Patterson
> 
> Bill Jennings
> ...


Some believe that Bobby Hefner (RKH III), was near the top of those responsible for the Penn Square disaster. He now owns and operates *GHK*.

Anybody interested in Penn Square, have two must-reads: *Funny Money* & *Belly Up* (links go to Amazon). If you've never read these - you have a shock coming. Keep in mind that sometimes past is prologue. A lot of what you'll read will sound awfully familiar to some current activities in our fair city.

Oh, Bill Jennings died about ten years ago. 

There's so much to say about so many of these guys.

A lot of the financial story (minus all the incredible stories of excess and Bill Patterson's bizarre life) is in the official FDIC Report - http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/...istory2-03.pdf

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## mugofbeer

Also, if you read Funny Money and Belly Up, note the other players from the 1970's oil boom you might not have been aware of that are pretty prominent names in other ways these days.

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## MikeOKC

> Also, if you read Funny Money and Belly Up, note the other players from the 1970's oil boom you might not have been aware of that are pretty prominent names in other ways these days.


I'm curious. Could you drop a couple of names you're thinking about?

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## OKCTalker

> Some believe that Bobby Hefner (RKH III), was near the top of those responsible for the Penn Square disaster. He now owns and operates *GHK*.


Robert ALEXANDER Hefner, III, and he was a co-founder of GHK with Laurence Glover & David Kennedy.

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## bluedogok

> Anybody interested in Penn Square, have two must-reads: *Funny Money* & *Belly Up* (links go to Amazon). If you've never read these - you have a shock coming. Keep in mind that sometimes past is prologue. A lot of what you'll read will sound awfully familiar to some current activities in our fair city.


Many of those things aren't just common to OKC, they common to business in general. The root cause of the latest economic crises (and pretty much all of them) have the same root cause, they just use a different scheme to sell to those looking to get rich quick.

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## MikeOKC

> Many of those things aren't just common to OKC, they common to business in general. The root cause of the latest economic crises (and pretty much all of them) have the same root cause, they just use a different scheme to sell to those looking to get rich quick.


The Penn Square fiasco had some fearing it was going to cause a complete failure of the banking system and plunge the country into depression. So, Penn Square was certainly "common" or "unique" to Oklahoma City because this incident happened here. Nothing else, in pure hubris, arrogance and criminality, came close to Penn Square (at the time). It was a *one-of-a-kind* (to say the least) chapter in the history of finance.

OKCTalker....Accepted correction. RAH instead of RKH and "co-owns" instead of "owns".

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## OKCTalker

> OKCTalker....Accepted correction. RAH instead of RKH and "co-owns" instead of "owns".


Just trying to keep OKCTalk the "Message Board of Record!"

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## mugofbeer

> I'm curious. Could you drop a couple of names you're thinking about?


Jerry Jones for one

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## mugofbeer

> The Penn Square fiasco had some fearing it was going to cause a complete failure of the banking system and plunge the country into depression. So, Penn Square was certainly "common" or "unique" to Oklahoma City because this incident happened here. Nothing else, in pure hubris, arrogance and criminality, came close to Penn Square (at the time). It was a *one-of-a-kind* (to say the least) chapter in the history of finance.
> 
> OKCTalker....Accepted correction. RAH instead of RKH and "co-owns" instead of "owns".


The chaos of Penn Square Bank was, luckily, limited to that one bank.  However, the effect it had on other banks around the country as well as the oil industry and the overall economy of OKC was astounding considering it was such a "small shopping center parking lot bank."  PSB sold hundreds of millions of loans upstream and caused several to either close or be bought out (SeaFirst in Seattle is the one that comes to mind)  

I'll never forget the scenes of people lined up outside the bank for their money or the other customers in the S & L where I worked at the time lined up to open accounts with their FDIC checks.

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## cinders8709

The Penn Square Bank Fiasco did NOT just affect that one bank.  UnionBank on May & 50th took a very big hit from that which also resulted in all 5 banks that Morrison Tucker owned getting hit from that.  There was most assuredly a dominoe effect felt in other banks.

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## bluedogok

It took out SeaFirst and Continental Illinois as well. The real estate bust that happened in 2008 was the same story, just another verse.

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## Bellaboo

Carl Swan died years ago also.

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## kelroy55

> The Penn Square Bank Fiasco did NOT just affect that one bank.  UnionBank on May & 50th took a very big hit from that which also resulted in all 5 banks that Morrison Tucker owned getting hit from that.  There was most assuredly a dominoe effect felt in other banks.


I know UnionBank changed names and wondered what was going on.

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## Grant

Are there multiple men named Robert Hefner III with different middle initials? If so, which Robert Hefner is this and what was his involvement in the PSB fiasco?

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## OKCTalker

Same men with the same names, but increasing numbers: RAH, RAH, Jr., RAH III, RAH IV and RAH V. 

What about the documentary (with RAH III) is a "fiasco?"

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## RadicalModerate

I think that one or more of The H's was involved in politics and for a short period of time occupied a mystery house over in Wildewood.

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## RedDollar

Wife and I were just out in Reno / Meridian area.   And were trying to think of the name of the country western club where Bill Patterson drank beer from a boot.  

Its drivin us nuts.

Anyone recall that place ?  It was off Reno.

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## RedDollar

Never mind , we just thought of it,  Graham's Central Station.

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## bluedogok

Graham Central Station is at Reno & Portland. Cajun's Wharf was a pretty active place in the same time period as well.

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## Susie

The Cowboys

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