Under investigation by his union and the state for sexual harassment and rejected by a woman he tried to date, 28-year-old Dale Chamberlain’s anger brooded as Christmas approached until his fascination with guns and bombs took over.
In the bitter cold and darkness of late Dec. 19 or early Dec. 20, 1983, the U.S. Army veteran who was working as a unit operator for a power plant went to the home of friends and a coworker on Union Chapel Road outside Gillette and killed the homeowner, his girlfriend and her two young sons by gunshot, then blew up the kitchen with a pipe bomb.
A few hours later, Gillette police received a call for a burglary in progress at a home across the street from 3001 Harder Drive in a Gillette neighborhood.
When officers Jon Hardy, 26, and Del Wright, 25, responded, Hardy was gunned down with a bullet through the neck and Wright was shot in the thigh. A third officer who arrived took a bullet through his windshield, slumped down in the seat, threw the car in reverse and called for help.
For two former Gillette Police Department detectives, the day marked a series of events that remain vivid in their memories. And for the GPD, a memorial there to Hardy ensures they remember his name.
“From 1975 to 1985 there were homicides there,” said Steven Rozier, who retired from the Gillette Police Department after 25 years in 2005. “There was nothing on the scale of this where somebody went out and killed a family of four and then shot two officers.
“That was probably the biggest incident that had occurred up until that time.”
For Marty Wozniak, in his third year at the department and a good friend and roommate of Hardy, the incident triggered thoughts about a new line of work.
“Being involved in something like that was just one of those things that added up to the totality (of incidents). My luck is running out,” he recalled thinking. “It was time for me to get the hell out of it.”
A pre-police department era photo shows Jon Hardy, the officer who lost his life responding to what he thought was a burglary in progress. (Courtesy Findagrave.com) 
Dale Chamberlain was facing a sexual harassment complaint when he went on a rampage. (Courtesy Findagrave.com. Newspapers.com) 
Douglas Olsen and Pamela Houle are buried side-by-side in Gillette’s Mount Pisgah Cemetery. The couple were gunned down by Dale Chamberlain at Olsen’s home along with Houle’s two children. (Courtesy Findagrave.com) 
A pre-police department era photo shows Jon Hardy, the officer who lost his life responding to what he thought was a burglary in progress. The grave of Gillette Police Officer Jon Hardy at the Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota. (Courtesy Findagrave.com)
Bitterly Cold Morning
Both were on the job that morning and they recall how cold and bitter the weather was with a temperature of 30-to-40-below zero before adding on the windchill. Rozier said he was dressed in a suit jacket and had driven to a Gillette school for an interview. He remembers officers that week had to leave the cars running to keep them from freezing up.
While in the interview at the school, a school secretary came in an interrupted him reporting that something was happening with the police department. He excused himself from the interview, went out to his car and learned that there was “automatic fire” taking place down on Harder Drive.
When he arrived, he could see officers at the scene who had already established barricades on the street. A command center was set up in a house down the block from the downed officers.
“In 1983 in Gillette, we really didn’t have mobile command units and didn’t have much of a special weapons and tactics team,” he said.
For Wozniak, he remembers hearing the call of the shooting and going to the scene knowing that at least one of the officers who was shot — Del Wright — was still alive. They had heard nothing from Hardy, but Wright had been able to make an initial radio call.
“He needed to get the hell out of there because he was hit,” Wozniak said. “So, it was kind of an exigent situation that we had to do something really quick.”
The Background
The roots to how that morning shattered the community later became clear to Rozier as one of the investigators on the case.
Rozier said Chamberlain and Mary Alice Beatty, who lived at 3001 Harder Drive, had dated while Chamberlain worked as a unit operator at the Pacific Power & Light Co.’s Wyodak Power Plant and Beatty as an equipment operator.
Chamberlain helped Beatty pass some of the testing for her job and “at some point the relationship went south.”
Beatty filed a sexual harassment complaint against Chamberlain and newspaper accounts from the time report he was being investigated by the power company, the Utilities Workers Union Local 127 and the Wyoming Fair Employment Commission. She then left the company citing Chamberlain as the reason she quit.
A report in the Casper Star-Tribune on Dec. 28, 1983, quoted local union president John Faunce as giving high marks to both Beatty and Chamberlain as employees.
“I never suspected Dale would do anything like this,” he said. “I was shocked to say the least.”
A real “outdoorsy person” and “survivalist,” Rozier said Chamberlain had a lot of weapons and ammunition and was not happy about the complaint. Chamberlain was likely worried about keeping his job.
Chamberlain had been friends with Douglas Olsen, who lived in a farmhouse off Union Chapel Road with his girlfriend Pamela Houle, and her two sons, aged 11 and 9. Houle worked at the power plant and was friends with Beatty.
Rozier said Chamberlain may have been upset that Olsen and Houle had taken sides with Beatty about the sexual harassment complaint.
Former Gillette Police Department Detective Steven Rozier remembers how cold it was on Dec. 20, 1983, when he responded to the shooting reported in a Gillette neighborhood. (Courtesy Steven Rozier) 
Marty Wozniak, a former detective with the Gillette Police Department, was roommates with slain Gillette officer Jon Hardy and said they jokingly called him “Little Jon” because of his short stature. (Courtesy Marty Wozniak) 
The location on Harder Drive in more recent years where officer Jon Hardy was killed and officer Del Wright was injured by Dale Chamberlain in December 1983. (Courtesy Google Earth)
Ammo And Pipe Bombs
Chamberlain was off work two weeks before the incident, Rozier said, and the investigation showed he appeared to have spent a lot of time loading ammunition and making pipe bombs out of galvanized pipe and gunpowder.
“We’re not sure exactly what time, but in the wee hours of the night or very early in the morning he drove his vehicle over to the (Olsen) Houle residence and killed the woman, then the two kids,” Rozier said. Chamberlain was using an AR-15-type weapon as well as weapon similar to an Uzi submachine gun. He had converted both to automatic weapons.
“He waited in the house until the boyfriend came home then he killed him,” Rozier said. “He put a pipe bomb, it looked like, in the oven, lit it and left the residence.”
Instead of taking his own vehicle, Chamberlain drove Olsen’s vehicle to Harder Drive and the duplex condominium where Beatty lived. Rozier said Chamberlain likely didn’t want Beatty to look out and see his vehicle because she might have called the police.
He said Chamberlain took Beatty captive and was verbally, physically, and sexually abusive to her.
“He feels he’s been wronged and she’s the cause of all the problems in his life,” Rozier said. As the December morning dawned and people started going to work, Chamberlain called in a burglary in progress across from Beatty’s home.
Rozier said officers Hardy and Wright responded to the call-in separate cars, searched around the home, and then gathered out front near the street to discuss the situation as the minus-50-degree windchill penetrated their coats and gloves.
Both Rozier and Wozniak describe Hardy as a great officer for the department. He was 5-feet-5-inches and Wozniak said they called him “Little Jon,” but he was “scrappy.”
“He was always there for you,” Wozniak said. “He had a reputation of, you know, just because he was small that didn’t make any difference He’d dive in in a heartbeat.”
Hardy was an U.S. Air Force veteran and while in the service had served in a security squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
Automatic Fire
As Hardy and Wright talked, Chamberlain from Beatty’s residence across the street opened up with automatic fire from his AR-15-type weapon, Rozier said.
Hardy was hit in the neck and immediately went down. Wright could not tell which direction the shots came from and dove on the other side of his squad car — but it was the side facing Chamberlain, Rozier said.
Chamberlain then opened up with automatic fire from the Uzi-style weapon. Wright was hit in the thigh and got to the other side of the vehicle.
“The pictures of the squad cars show that they were absolutely shredded, the light bars, the door panels, the windows,” Rozier said. At that point Gillette officer Joe Jacobson came down Harder Drive from the other direction and Chamberlain put a round through the passenger front window to the driver-side rear that just missed Jacobson’s head.
Rozier said Jacobson put it in reverse, slumped down and got out of harm’s way.
As sheriff’s deputies, highway patrol and every other available law enforcement officer responded to the scene, Rozier said he was in incident command and with Wozniak they volunteered with only their sport coats to fight the cold with bullet proof vests to try and get the downed officers.
The department asked the city for a sand truck.
Rozier said he had driven those types of trucks before. They positioned the truck so the driver’s side was on the opposite side of the street from the shooter. Rozier drove backwards as Wozniak and two EMTS who also volunteered walked alongside with the truck for cover.
Rozier said he had a shotgun in the cab with him but was still unsure exactly where Chamberlain was firing from until he reached the squad cars and two downed officers. He could see the shattered window in Beatty’s home — which mean Chamberlain could see him.
Rozier said negotiators had been talking with Beatty and tried to talk with Chamberlain, but he refused to talk. Across the street from Beatty’s home, two officers had set up sniper positions in a house.
The Rescue
Wozniak said when Rozier pulled up beside the bodies they put Hardy’s body first on a wheel well on the side of the truck and then Wright’s body on top of him.
Rozier got out of the cab to help load the bodies. Once the bodies were in place as Rozier got back in the cab and slowly pulled away down the street.
“After we moved about 4 or 5 feet there was a burst of automatic fire, like about a 20-round magazine,” Rozier said. “We thought, well, Chamberlain is trying to get us now. About the same time there was another rifle shot, a single shot which came from the sniper team.”
As they continued slowly down the road, Rozier there were four or five explosions and debris from Beatty’s duplex being blown into the street. They were able to get Wright to the ambulance for transport to the hospital. It was clear that Hardy was dead.
Members of the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office team, after some minutes of silence, went into the house and rescued Beatty who had several wounds, Rozier said. Chamberlain was dead in the living room.
Rozier who helped process the Harder Street scene, said Chamberlain had several shrapnel wounds.
“And what we kind of seen, or at the time determined, was that he either on purpose or accidentally knocked over or dropped one of the bombs, which then, when it went off caused a chain reaction with the other bombs,” he said. “And Mary Alice Beatty who was in the kitchen and would have been on the phone to the negotiator … she got hit by shrapnel.”
Shortly after the Harder Street rescue, Rozier said the sheriff’s office learned of the murders on Union Chapel Road and responded.
Rozier later learned that the single shot he heard from the sniper team came as an officer saw a figure in the Beatty’s house holding up an object to their head. Thinking it was Chamberlain about to throw a pipe bomb, he tried to shoot the person in the chest.
An autopsy that Rozier attended in the local funeral home showed Chamberlain did not have a wound in the chest.
But at the hospital, Beatty did. She had been holding a phone up to her head talking with negotiators, Rozier said.
The Casper Star-Tribune provided front-page coverage of the Gillette shooting and bombings on Dec. 20, 1983. (Courtesy Newspaper.com) 
A Casper Star-Tribune article on Dec. 23, 1983, talks about a community in shock after the actions by Dale Chamberlain, 28. (Courtesy Newspapers.com) 
The Casper Star-Tribune reported on the settlement between the City of Gillette and Campbell County with Mary Alice Beatty, who was injured after being taken hostage by Dale Chamberlain. (Courtesy Newspapers.com) 
A photo of the side of Mary Alice Beatty’s Gillette home in the Casper Star-Tribune on Dec. 21, 1983, shows the damage from bombs and gunfire. (Courtesy Newspapers.com) 
The Rapid City Journal on Dec. 28, 1983, covered the funeral of Jon Hardy, who was buried in Sturgis, South Dakota. (Courtesy Newspapers.com)
A Lawsuit
Rozier said Beatty was lucky to be alive and he has no doubt that Chamberlain planned to kill her at some point. He said two attorneys from out of town showed up and immediately limited police access to Beatty, who had surgery for her injuries.
“And so, the attorneys (on Beatty’s behalf) sued the police department and the sheriff’s department for being inadequately prepared and for mistakenly shooting their client,” Rozier said. “Never mind that we lost an officer that day, had another one shot, and lost a family out on Union Chapel. That left a bitter taste in my mouth.”
Wozniak said he believes that with ballistic testing available today it would show that the chest wound Beatty had was from pipe bomb shrapnel and not from the sniper weapons.
“I’m just saying that because of the way the angles were where everybody was located,” he said. “I never thought she was hit by one of our rounds.”
The Casper Star-Tribune on Aug. 9, 1985, reported that Beatty accepted a $700,000 settlement in the lawsuit. Her attorney at the time told reporters that there was “miscommunication” that resulted in her mistaken identity that led to her being shot.
The Campbell County Sheriff D.B. Hladky told The Associated Press those claims were not established, and the injury could have been the result of shrapnel.
Wozniak also said he believed that Chamberlain was “cranked up” on meth, which was very available in Gillette. That information was not able to be confirmed.
Both Wozniak, Rozier and Wright, along with the EMTs who helped rescue Wright, were commended by the Gillette City Council for going beyond the call of duty in the incident.
New Beginnings
After leaving the department, Wozniak eventually moved to Southport, North Carolina, where he taught basic law enforcement and started a company called Dynamic Entry that developed and manufactured tools for police and special operators around the world to breach doors and windows as well as other police tools.
The company became very successful and was bought by Blackhawk Products Group.
He now characterizes himself as “the world’s worst retiree” and is building a house, working in a recording studio mixing space for a friend, and other activities. He spends four of five months a year in North Carolina and the rest of the time in Deadwood, South Dakota.
Rozier following retirement from the police department became a businessman and property developer, and also served as the deputy coroner for Campbell County for four years. He’s now focused on his second retirement.
Attempts to reach Wright, who continued to serve as an officer for the city after his recovery, were unsuccessful.
Beatty moved out of the state following her recovery. News reports and comments from her attorney said injuries to her arm and hand were permanent and she would never have full use of the arm again. Attempts to reach her also were unsuccessful.
In her only public statement three months after the incident as quoted in a UPI article on Dec. 22, 1984, Beatty said it was difficult to express how much the incident changed her life.
“There's not a whole lot that's the same,” she said. “I don't think anyone who's severely injured ... doesn't want to wake up from the dream. I dream of myself whole.”
Gillette Deputy Chief of Police Brent Wasson told Cowboy State Daily the department continues to have a memorial service for Hardy every year and a special memorial spot in the building honors their only officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty.
He said department training about responding to calls addresses the issues that Hardy and Wright faced in 1983 when they were made targets at a bogus burglary.
“We certainly still talk about Jon Hardy and his impact on the department,” he said. “All of our officers know who Jon is and what he sacrificed for our community. We will never forget him.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
