New Ulm review., 1910-10-19
OUTLAW LOSES
I YEARS. SIEGE
Wisconsin's Famous Court De-
fier Faces Trial For Life.
SIX HOUR BATTLE BEAT DIETz

Slk HOUk BAL liz bEAl UlElL
FusiIIade of a Thousand Shots and
illness Of His Wife Necessary to
Compel Surrender of Defender Of
Cameron Dam and Spurner of Eiqtt
Indictments.
After seven years defiance of state
and federal authorities John Fl. Dietz,
known throughout Wisconsin and ad-
| jacent .commonwealths as 'the outlaw
Of Cameron dam,' is not only in Jail,
a. the little logging camp of Winter,
but is. charged with the Staying Of a
deputy sheriff by a coroner's jury.
Not only is the famous outlaw Of the
northern Wisconsin woods facing a
! trial for murder, but two members Of
| his family as well-his wife, Mrs. Hat
| tie Dietz, and his son Leslie-as none
Of the successful attacking party can
| tell who fred the shot which killed
| Deputy Oscar Harp.
Thus the end of a prolonged battle
! draws near-one in which several men
have been slain and many wounded.
| Throughout Dietz, beleaguered though
he was in his log castle, has retain
| ed not only the spoils of victory from
the opposing corporation, but the SYM
| pathy of the loggers and woodsmeA
generally.
The warfare arose over Dietz's con-
| tention that the Cameron dam, on the
Thornapple river, was on his property,
| and he refused to allow the Chippewa
eral winters cut Of logs unless toll
was paid.
Courts Successfully Defied.
He was fought in the courts by the
lumber company, but defed bench
warrants and held off officers who at
tempted to serve them with a shotgun
Then Diez won, and the lumber COM
pany paid him large sum to have the
logs sent through the dam.
Then there were township wrangles,
and in all there were eight indict-
ments against Dietz. A few days be-
fore the final assault on the Dietz
home deputies fired upon three of the
outlaws children, wounding a son.,
Clarence, and a daughter, Myra, but
Leslie escaped and gave the alarm to
his father.
Dietz did not surrender until his
cabin and every other building in his
clearing had been riddled with bull
let's. For six hours and five minutes
every volley fired by the attacking
forces was replied to vigorously from
the loopholed wall of the cabin.
Almost every inch of the floor was
covered with fattened, twisted bits Of
lead that had been bullets until they
tore through the cabin walls, knocking
off splinters from the inside and fall
ing harmlessly to the floor.
Sobbing on a chair in one corner Of
the room, with an apron thrown over
her head, sat Mrs. Dietz, while Leslie
sat on a chair across from her, scowl-
ing savagely, but making no attempt
to resist the officers entrance. The
youngest son, John junior, was called
up from the cellar where he had been
hidden from the bullets.
Dietz Only Fighter.
81 don't know how I ever lived
through it, sobbed Mrs. Dietz. sIt
was terrible. I sat through it all in a
corner of the sitting room with Helen,
and we did not move during it all. I
did not fire shot, nor did the chill
dren'
Dietz himself was so weak he could
not stand. He had been shot in the
hand, but had kept on shooting his re-
peating rife and automatic pistols un-
| til the threatened collapse of his wife
| brought him to realization that his
was at best losing fight.
The battle had been one of the
| iercest 'last ditch stands ever made
by lone fighter against desperate
| Tended his cabin and his family with
the desperation that pioneer settlers
| were wont to display when hostile In
dams surprised them and attacked in
| force.
More than 1000 shots had been fred
into the house by 100 picked sharp
shooters. There was no telling how
many times Dietz had replied, but the
| floor Of the cabin was Uttered with
empty rifle and revolver shells, and
the powder smoke within the house
was so dense as to make breathing al
most impossible