The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-08-10
Say That John Would Not Shoot
at the towards.
COULD HAVE KILLED THE BUNCH
God Will Avenge the Wrongs That
Have Been Done Against Them,
One Member Writes.

Milwaukee. Aug. Sword from Glen
Flora says another attack on Dietz Is
expected. Arthur Hoeft of this city who
hired Milwaukeeans for the recent at
tack. saws he's through with the whole
business.
The following letters from members
of the Deitz family will prove of pecu-
liar interest now that the Deitz cam
paign is occupying SO much of the public
attention. The letters were sent to Mrs
Herman Vogt, daughter of John F.
Deitz, who lives six miles from Bar
ron, Wis:
Winter, Wis, July 29.-Dear May and
Herman: | will now answer your wei
come letter we received last evening, and
was pleased to hear from you. We are
all well. but Clarence, as you already
know. / will give you the true facts of
what happened July 20, 1906. We were
unloading hay in the barn about
O'Clock in the afternoon, Clarence on the
load, papa and Leslie in the barn, driv-
ing the team, ma pulling back the rope
of the hay fork, when just as we were
ready to hitch on the wagon ma saw one
of the cows looking at something below
the fence, just above the house, so she
sent Helen to 90 and see what was
there.
Just as she looked over the bank into
the fowage she saw men with guns. She
came running to hc&barn and told us.
Leslie was just coming down from the
barn, and they ran for the house and
got their guns in time. We did not
have a gun with us when we saw them.
[ was just about rod from Clarence
when the fellow shot him.
saw him fall. | thought he had been
turned and shot right by Leslie's head.
The fellow was in the willows so they
could not see him. Clarence never shot
shot. We could see them creeping in
all directions out of the hay in the flow
age. We could have killed every one of
them if we had wanted to, but pa don't
believe in shooting a coward, anyhow
not in the back when he is running to
get out of the way, but we never shot
until they started. About a hundred and
fifty shots were fired all around us in
the house and yard. Little Johnny
came nearly getting hit. So you see we
were all out in the hottest of it. We
heard they said that pa drove them out
of the camp. 1t is a lie.
We did not know how long it would be
before we could let you know about
Clarence being shot, but about two
hours after the shooting Andrew Bishop
and James and William Rankin, the as
SCISSORS from Winter, came and saw
Clarence and the holes in the house
Clarence's head had not stopped bleed
ing when they came. We have seen
that there have been men in the camp
for over month. We could see them in
front of the window, and we think there
are some hanging in the old barn there
yet, as they had our cows in the fence
and they had been MIXED. Uncle Will is
going home tomorrow, so / will have to
close, hoping to hear from you soon,
remain as before your loving sister
MYRA M. DEITZ
Winter, July 29.-Dear Children: We
were glad to hear from you. We are
all well but Clarence, and he is lit
tie better today. He is shot in the
front of his head The wound is about
two and one-half inches long. We
think his skull is cracked and his brain
exposed as he has not been able to
stand the least bit of noise
When he was shot he threw up both
hands and fell on his back. The chill
dren told us how it happened. The
poor boy never fired a shot. Father and
the boys could have killed every one of
them, if we had wanted to. The man
that shot Clarence stayed in the will
lows right below them. He shot Clar-
ence and then shot at Leslie; came
within half an inche of hitting him.
Then they began shooting at me and
the children, and all of them shot
through the house, and the bullets tore
the ground in the yard all around
Myra, | and the little ones. You un-
derstand the men were on the knoll, a
little ways form the house. They lie
when they say we shot first. The first