Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-10-14
VERDICT FINDS THAT SHOT WAS
FIRED FROM ROOF OF
BARN
ALL FACE CHARGE OF MURDER
Mother Tells Chldren's Plight
rather States That He Surrend-
cred Only at the Pleading
of His Wife.

L
last surrendered and are in jail here.
John F. Dietz, his wife and son
Leslie are accused of the murder of
Deputy Sheriff Oscar Harp. War
rants were issued following the rec
ommendation of the coroners jury
to that effect.
After having viewed the Dietz
premises and the body of Harp, the
jury met with Coroner w. H. Noyes
at the town hall here and rendered
the verdict given above
The evidence given by deputies
tended to show that the fatal shot
could not have been fired at Harp
from any other point than the roof
of the Dietz barn.
Dietz himself has stated that he
ran to the barn during the battle, in
the hope of drawing the fire from the
cabin in which his family were hud-
died. He and his wife have stated
that Leslie did not fire a shot during
the battle, and Dietz said his wife
did not handle gun.
The news of the capture spread
like like wildfire. Crowds gathered
on every corner and the one topic
of discussion was "Dietz."
Sheriff Madden gave his version of
the affair as follows:
Friday evening after Attorney
General Gilbert and Mr.. Munson,
secretary to the governor, had ar
gued and pleaded in vain with Dietz
for hours to give up for the sake of
his family, if not for himself, Of
fering him all manner of induce
ments, in vain, Gilbert said to me,
we have endeavored to induce DietZ
to give up, but have been unsuccess-
full. He will not surrender to any
thing. The matter is in your hands;
do your duty
81 then called the deputies to-
gether, twenty-seven Winter residents
and three from Radisson, every one
citizens of Sawyer county, many of
them farmers living in the neighbor-
hood of the Dietz home. We closed
in on the house Friday evening late,
assisted by the darkness, some of
our men being within six rods of the
of Dietz' barbados. In fact, they
property.
cat about 10 o'clock Leslie started
off down the field toward the pasture
where the COWS were kept. On top
of the hill two men were stationed,
in a protection erected by Dietz, in
the shape of triangle built up out
of rocks. They called out to Leslie:
g Throw up your hands!
"He refused, and started running
back to the house, the deputies firing
at him, though no attempt to kill
Leslie was made At his heels one
of the dogs was running along, which
the men killed, showing that it
would have been an easy matter to
get the young man, had they wanted
to kill him. A large number of bull
lets were fired in this fracas, possibly
forty.
John Dietz himself was in the
barn and fired from there continu-
ously during the day. After Leslie's
retreat he did not show up again,
though all this time we kept up a
steady fire on the places where we
supposed John and Leslie were in
the barn.
"About 8 o'clock in the afternoon
Dietz started for the house. He was
fired at, the bullet hitting him. Dietz
then beat it back to the house.
cat about o'clock Mrs. Dietz and
the little girl, Helen, came out
with a white flag, were met by
Father Pilon and Hefflefnger Of St.
Paul. The girl asked to see Madden.
II went up to her and she said:
Father wants to surrender if
you will promise not to let the dep
uties kill him.
81 promised absolute protection.
The priest with Heffiefinger went
back to the house, and came back
stating that Dietz wanted me to agree
to allow them a doctor and to let
the newspaper men in. l told them
they could not consent to such an
arrangement as to- sending the news
paper men in, and requested that
they come out with their hands raised
above their heads.
"His surrender was half-hearted
way of doing it. He would not march
out with appraised hands, and Thor
balm, Van Alstyne and myself walked
up to the house, where Thorbahn I'M
mediately handcuffed Leslie. and be-
fore Handwriting DietZ Thorbahn took
his gun away from him, which he
still wore in his belt.
Mrs. DietZ was then handcuffed
and everything was done with the
exception of bringing them back to
Hayward to be lodged in the county
jail