The recent tragic school shooting news out of East Lansing had me thinking about another tragedy, much further in the past, that shattered a small community just a few miles north of where some MSU students were needlessly gunned down a few days ago...
Almost 96 years ago, the worst mass killing event ever to occur in the United States befell the small farming community of Bath Township. Known as the Bath School Disaster (or sometimes the Bath School Massacre, which I'd argue is a more accurate, albeit gruesome, label), the deliberately planned actions of one disturbed individual resulted in the deaths of 38 schoolchildren and 6 adults, including the school superintendent, the local postmaster, and the perpetrator's wife. To this day, almost a century later, it is still the worst mass killing event at a school in this country. And many have never even heard of it.
Do others here know about this tragic, almost unbelievable event? Even growing up in Michigan, I only learned about it a few years ago. I think it has largely been forgotten outside of the immediate vicinity where it occurred, perhaps due to a variety of contributing factors. One popular theory is that this story fell into relative obscurity because Lindbergh's historic transatlantic flight grabbed the headlines, and the nation's attention, just three days after this happened.
Unlike the mass shootings we have sadly grown accustomed to (or dare I say immune to) these days, Andrew Kehoe's weapon of choice was roughly 900 pounds of pyrotol and dynamite, which he strategically acquired over the better part of a year. In the years after World War 1, this wasn't that uncommon of a practice; the US Government willingly sold these explosives to farmers for legitimate agricultural uses, like blowing up tree stumps to clear more land for tilling.
Kehoe's motivation was spurred by losing a local election for township clerk. But that was just the final straw. He was likely driven towards this insane spiral of events by looming property and medical debts, high taxes, and his wife's suffering health. Many have proposed the Kehoe was the perfect definition of a psychopath. He took every offense suffered as a personal attack / injustice, and he exhibited harshness and cruelty towards both animals and people (he reportedly beat one of his own horses to death and shot a dog that he found to be a nuisance). He was described as strange, distant, and controlling. He had a keen mind for electronics and machines, which was demonstrated in the intricacies of the timed detonating systems that he would use in the attacks.
He placed the explosives that he had acquired all over his property, all over the school, and within his car. In a coordinated series of explosions on the morning of May 18, 1927 (the last day of the school year), he proceeded to first firebomb his property, then blow up the school, and finally detonate the explosives in his car, taking several more lives with his own in the process, and earning him another dubious claim to fame - the world's first suicide car bomber. He murdered his wife before setting his entire farm - outbuildings, crops, and animals included - ablaze, being sure to bind the legs of his horses so that they couldn't escape. His reasoning for this was that he wanted to ensure his wife's family received no inheritance from their farm.
Over 100,00 cars reportedly came to bath by the following day. Many to help, many to gawk. I imagine this was the most cars and humans that have ever been in Bath Township at one time. A new school was built on the site of the destroyed one shortly after. That school was demolished in the 1970s and today the site is a public park with a memorial (
location).
There's a lot more to be said here, but there is ample material out there that you can go read up on, so I won't try to regurgitate it all. There is also a docuseries that has been in development for almost 20 years, which reportedly will be released soon (watch that trailer
here).
The Bath Schoolhouse, photo taken sometime before the explosion -
Source:
Wikipedia
The school, shortly after the bombing. Miraculously, more than 1/2 of the explosives did not detonate. If they had, there would have been far more casualties (likely most, if not all of the 300+ students and staff in the building that day). Even so, the ~ 200 pounds that did detonate took down nearly 50% of the school structure, and dozens of human lives with it -
Source:
Detroit Free Press | LSJ Archives
Undetonated explosives, recovered from the school after the bombing -
Source:
MLive | Michigan Historical Archives
One of the few published photos of Andrew, seated near his wife -
Source:
Daily Telegraph
The Kehoe homestead, on the outskirts of town, prior to the explosion. It was a prominent house -
Source:
americanhauntingsink.com
The Kehoe house, after it was destroyed. Nothing remained except for some brick foundations and the chimney. Incredulous citizens look on -
Source:
Getty Images
Source:
MLive | Michigan Historical Archives
Today, there is just a field where the former homestead was situated. If you look along the
north side of Clark Road, just west of the intersection with Watson Rd. and directly across the street from a Township welcome sign, you'll see no sign of the horror that took place a century ago -
Source:
MLive | Julie Mack
Kehoe's destroyed car, which he used as a bomb to take his life and several others -
Source:
MLive | Michigan Historical Archives
An ominous sign that Kehoe crafted and strung up to a fence on his farm, intentionally left there to be discovered by others after the grizzly events unfolded -
Source:
MLive | Michigan Historical Archives
All that is left of the destroyed school is the original cupola, which stands as a stark memorial in the center of James Couzens Memorial Park (scroll back to the top two photos to see it atop the building) -
Source:
theclio.com