Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1910-10-07
0|ETz CHILDREN
ARE AMbUSHED.
SHERIFF MADDEN HIDES IN AM.
BUSH AND DISTINGUISHES
HIMSELF.
DIETZ SENDS WORD HE'S COMING
Terrible Villages Pians.-Smali
Army Defends Town Against
theh Desperate Man.

winter, WIS.,, OCT. 3.-IWO Clll0ren
Of John Deitz are under arrest, the
boy Clarence, with slight wound in
his arm, and the daughter Myra, in q
critical condition, with bullet thru
her abdomen.
Sheriff Madden decided Saturday
evening to make an effort to stop pub
lie criticism of his failure to get Deitz.
and posted an ambuscadc along the
road to Winter, expecting Deitz to
come for his mail. Instead of Detz,
three of his children, unarmed were
the victims, and when they laughed
at Madden's commands to hold up
their hands, the sheriff and his posse
opened fire at fifteen feet and after a
rain of bullets the girl and one boy
fell, while the younger boy escaped
through the woods to their house.
I'm coming in" was the statement
made by John F. Deitz, the outlaw of
Cameron Dam, when he learned that
his eldest son and daughter had been
shot and wounded and were now in
the custody of the law, the boy in
cell at the county Jail at Hayward,
Wisconsin,. aud the girl under guard
in the doctors care in the Hotel Win
ter.
Since Saturday afternoon, Winter
has been village wrapped in fear.
That any one man could be so greatly
feared by community of strong, able
bodied men Of the woods as to justify
the measures taken by the sheriff is
nothing short of unheard Of.
Eighteen more men were deputized
and given arms to protect the town
against single-handed siege by Deitz.
This. added to the present garrison of
s deputies who were sworn in in the
village Saturday almost composes the
male population of the town.
At the head of the stairs in the Ho-
tel Winter, and sitting in the door
way of the room in which Myra, the
wounded girl is confined in bed, six or
more armed guards are stationed night
and day.
Where the main street crosses the
railroad tracks the deputies have i'm.
pressed the use of store room and
from the windows of this constant
watch is kept up the road which turns
to the Dietz farm ten miles out.
Heretofore those who have feared
Dietz because they knew he was
man who feared no man, now know
that they are justified in increasing
their fear tenfold because now they
are dealing with father whose two
children have been shot and arrested,
The fear has even extended to the
countryside and one family at least
has fled before the wrath Of the much
feared man. They are the wife and
three children of Roy Van Alstyne, the
town assessor who was one of the
posse that shot down Clarence and
Myra Dietz from ambush Saturday.
Van Alstyne brought his wife and
family to Winter where they have
found quarters. Van Alstyne also re.
mains in town taking charge of the
men.
Deputies have been sent to his farm
house several miles out in hopes OF
preventing 1t being set on fire by
Dietz.
When Deitz's own wagon, contain.
ing his son handcuffed and his daugh.
ter unconscious and bleeding in the
wagon box. drove into town Saturday
on mad gallop the deputy sherifs
leaped out and intimated that Deitz
could be expected right away as Les,
ter. the boy who escaped the ambus.
cade. had carried the news to him.
Clarence, securely locked in a cell
in the town hall and Myra, under
heavy guard at the hotel, the town did
not feel safe until Clarence had been
removed to Hayward.
Declares He Will Defend His Home.
Two newspaper men to the Deitz
home and told him of the situation
in the village. Deitz laughed when he
learned Of the preparations which had
been made to receive him, had he
been lured to town by the knowledge
that his son and daughter had been
taken.
In parting Deitz said: "They can
only kill me once and don't know OF
any nobler way of losing my life than
in defense of my home and family,
Their object now is to worry my wife
50 that she will sell out her birth.
rights and property for song. If we
do that the whole business would stop
right here, but I won't be driven
step"