The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1911-05-26
LIFE TERM FOR DIETZ.
Cameron Dam Defender Convicted
OF FirSt-Degree Murder.

Hayward, Wis, May 13.-John T.
Dietz will spend the remainder Of his
natural life at hard labor in the State
Penitentiary at Waupun, by the YER
dict OF the jury today, for the murder
Of Deputy Oscar Harp in the battle
OF Cameron Dam on October last.
The jury brought in the following
verdict:
John +. Dietz guilty of murder
in the first degree.
Hattie Z. DietZ his wife, not guilty
Of murder in the first degree.
Leslie Dietz, not guilty of the muir
der in the first degree
Dietz smiled as the judge read the
verdict.
There was a moments silence after
the reading of the verdict, and then
Judge Reid told Mrs. Dietz and Leslie
Dietz that they were discharged.
Dietz, asked by the Court if he had
anything to say before sentence was
passed, replied:
do you suppose haven't known
that sooner or later the Lumber
Trust, because it Is big and ! am lit
tie, would kill me or put me out Of the
way? I have fought my fight and de-
L
done nothing wrong, and this con
viction does not alter the fact. The
trust has one creed, one law, one pur-
pose. That is, rule or ruin. They
could not rule John DietZ; SO they
tried for six years to ruin him. This
morning it looks as il they have got
what they were after.
II have done nothing wrong, and the
Ard fr t6n Gfnfn hot
sends me to jail. 1t is the State that
has come in here, in a court of law,
and told the jury I was bad man,
even never been allowed, to tell what
started this whole trouble.
TT is the State that waylaid my
children and took one away to jail
and put a bullet through the other
young girl"
'I cannot see, Mr.. Dietz,that that
has anything to do with the killing OF
Oscar Harp" said Judge Reid.
Dietz made the usual motion for a
new trial and followed it with an ar
gument principally composed Of a
denunciation Of what he termed the
lumber trust" He ignored the sug-
gestions Of counsel for the State as
well as Judge Reid that he get an at
torney to draw up the motion in prop
er legal form.
Judge Reid overruled the motion for
new trial but gave DietZ 10 days in
which to file exceptions. The Judge
then sentenced Dietz to prison for life.
Trouble between John F. Dietz and
the lumber companies operating in
Sawyer county, Wisconsin, began in
February, 1904, through Dietz's refusal
to allow the companies to float logs
over the Cameron Dam on quarter
section bought by Mrs. Deitz without
paying him the toll he demanded.
Attempts to capture Dietz has been
marked by bloodshed. Oscar Harp, a
deputy sheriff, was killed on October
s last; several men were wounded:
Myra DietZ was shot through the body !;
Clarence Dietz was wounded in the
forehead, and John Dietz was shot
through the hand. The shooting of
Bert Horel in Winter, Wis, by Dietz
September last is declared to be
more or less closely traceable to the
original trouble.
The tenth armed effort to take Dietz
was successful and he became a pris-
oner the day Harp was killed.
Mrs. Dietz and her son, Leslie, were
co-defendants in the murder case
They ,Myra, Clarence and John F.Dietz
are co-defendants in other actions
pending against the Dietz family.