[S]hortly after two o'clock that night, shotguns and pistols blew out windows along the front of the farmhouse. As the Dahmers ran from their bed to scoop up Bettie from her nearby room, some attackers threw torches and open bottles of gasoline inside, while others kept up the fusillade. Inside, the Dahmers ran into walls of flame at every door. "Jewel!" shouted [Vernon] Dahmer to his wife. "Get the children out while I hold them off!" He grabbed his shotgun from the closet. Firing from window to window through the smoke, he aimed at masked figures behind trees and at a Pontiac in the front yard, beyond which he could see his general store also in flames. Harold, an older son on Army leave, retrieved Dennis and pushed the family out a back window where the ground sloped downward a story below. Dahmer kept shooting in retreat from the fire, then jumped himself. He and young Bettie were badly burned about the hands and face. As cars roared off in the front, Harold helped the family stumble through the woods for help. The house and store burned to the ground, leaving two chimneys.

Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-64By Taylor BranchPage 606-607