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The worst school disaster in US history
2 years ago
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for the following announcement... The worst school disaster in US history occurred on May 18, 1927 when Andrew Kehoe detonated a pair of bombs killing numerous children and adults.
The following was copy/pasted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
The Bath School disaster, also known as the Bath School massacre, was a series of violent attacks perpetrated by Andrew Kehoe upon the Bath Consolidated School in Bath Charter Township, Michigan, United States, on May 18, 1927. The attacks killed 38 elementary schoolchildren and 6 adults, and injured at least 58 other people. Prior to his timed explosives detonating at the Bath Consolidated School building, Kehoe had murdered his wife, Nellie Price Kehoe, and firebombed his farm. Arriving at the site of the school explosion, Kehoe died when he set off explosives concealed in his truck.
Kehoe, the 55-year-old school board treasurer, was angered by increased taxes and his defeat in the April 5, 1926, election for township clerk. He was thought by locals to have planned his "murderous revenge" after that public defeat. Kehoe had a reputation for difficulty on the school board and in personal dealings. In addition, he was notified in June 1926 that his mortgage was going to be foreclosed upon. For much of the next year until May 1927, Kehoe purchased explosives and secretly hid them both on his property and under the school.
On the day of the disaster, Kehoe set off almost simultaneous explosions at his farmstead and at the Bath Consolidated School. His devices destroyed the farm's buildings and ripped through the north wing of the school building. As rescuers began working at the school, Kehoe drove up to the schoolyard and triggered an explosion in his shrapnel-filled truck. The blast killed Kehoe plus four other people, and also injured bystanders.
During the rescue and recovery efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol in the south wing of the school that had been set to go off at the same time as the initial explosions in the north wing; Kehoe had apparently intended to destroy the entire school and kill everyone in it.
Purchase and planting of school explosives
boxes of Pyrotol, sticks of dynamite, sacks of explosives and wiring in a pile
Explosives recovered from under the school
There is no clear indication of when Kehoe had the idea of massacring the schoolchildren and townspeople, but Ellsworth, who was a neighbor, thought that he conceived his plan after being defeated in the 1926 clerk election. The consensus of the townspeople was that he had worked on his plan at least since the previous August. Bath School Board member M. W. Keyes was quoted by The New York Times:
I have no doubt that he made his plans last Fall [1926] to blow up the school ... He was an experienced electrician and the board employed him in November to make some repairs on the school lighting system. He had ample opportunity then to plant the explosives and lay the wires for touching it off.
Kehoe had free access to the school building during the summer vacation of 1926. From mid-1926, he began buying more than a ton of pyrotol, an incendiary explosive used by farmers during the era for excavation and burning debris. In November 1926 he drove to Lansing and bought two boxes of dynamite at a sporting goods store. Dynamite was also commonly used on farms, so his purchase of small amounts of explosives at different stores and on different dates did not raise any suspicions. Neighbors reported hearing explosions on the farm, with one calling him "the dynamite farmer".
Following the disaster it was reported that Michigan State Police investigators had discovered that a considerable amount of dynamite had been stolen from a bridge construction site and that Kehoe was suspected of the theft. Investigators also recovered a container of gasoline, rigged with a tube, in the school's basement; investigators speculated that Kehoe had planned that the gasoline fumes would ignite from a spark scattering burning gasoline throughout the basement. In the undamaged section of the school it was found that Kehoe had concealed the explosives in six lengths of eavestrough pipe, three bamboo fishing rods and what were described as "windmill rods" that were placed in the basement ceiling.
Kehoe purchased a .30-caliber Winchester bolt-action rifle in December 1926, according to the testimony of Lieutenant Lyle Morse, a Michigan State Police investigator with the Department of Public Safety.
Further preparations:
Prior to the day of the disaster, Kehoe had loaded the back seat of his truck with metal debris capable of producing shrapnel during an explosion. He also bought a new set of tires for his truck to avoid breaking down when transporting the explosives. He made many trips to Lansing for more explosives, as well as to the school, the township, and his house. Ida Hall, who lived in a house next to the school, saw activity around the building on different nights during May. Early one morning after midnight she saw a man carrying objects inside. She also saw vehicles around the building several times late at night. Hall mentioned these events to a relative but they were never reported to police.
Nellie was discharged from Lansing's St. Lawrence Hospital on May 16, and was murdered by her husband some time between her release and the bombings two days later. Kehoe put her body in a wheelbarrow at the rear of the farm's chicken coop, where it was found in a heavily charred condition after the farm explosions and fire. Piled around the cart were silverware and a metal cash box. The ashes of several banknotes could be seen through a slit in the cash box. Kehoe placed and wired homemade pyrotol firebombs in the house and throughout the farm buildings.
Day of the disaster:
Farm bombs:
At approximately 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, May 18, Kehoe detonated the firebombs in his house and farm buildings, causing some debris to fly into a neighbor's poultry brooding house. Neighbors noticed the fire, and volunteers rushed to the scene.
O. H. Bush and several other men crawled through a broken window of the farmhouse in search of survivors. When they found no one in the house, they salvaged what furniture they could before the fire spread into the living room. Bush discovered dynamite in the corner; he picked up an armful of explosives and handed it to one of the men. As Kehoe left the burning property in his Ford truck, he stopped to tell those fighting the fire that they should get to the school and then drove off.
North wing explosion:
Classes at Bath Consolidated School began at 8:30 a.m. Kehoe had set an alarm clock in the basement of the school's north wing which detonated the dynamite and pyrotol he had hidden there at about 8:45 a.m. Rescuers heading to the scene of the Kehoe farm fire heard the explosion at the school building and turned back in that direction. Parents within the rural community rushed to the school. The school building resembled a war zone, with 38 people killed in the initial explosion, mostly children.
Eyewitnesses and survivors were interviewed afterwards by newspaper reporters. First-grade teacher Bernice Sterling told an Associated Press reporter that the explosion was like an earthquake:
"... the air seemed to be full of children and flying desks and books. Children were tossed high in the air; some were catapulted out of the building."
Eyewitness Robert Gates said the scene was pure chaos at the school:
Mother after mother came running into the school yard, and demanded information about her child and, on seeing the lifeless form lying on the lawn, sobbed and swooned ... In no time more than 100 men at work tearing away the debris of the school, and nearly as many women were frantically pawing over the timber and broken bricks for traces of their children. I saw more than one woman lift clusters of bricks held together by mortar heavier than the average man could have handled without a crowbar.
Ellsworth recounted:
I saw one mother, Mrs. Eugene Hart, sitting on the bank a short distance from the school with a little dead girl on each side of her and holding a little boy, Percy, who died a short time after they got him to the hospital. This was about the time Kehoe blew his car up in the street, severely wounding Perry, the oldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Hart."
The north wing of the school had collapsed, leaving the edge of the roof on the ground. Ellsworth recalled that "there was a pile of children of about five or six under the roof". He volunteered to drive back to his farm and get a rope heavy enough to pull the school roof off the children's bodies. Returning to his farm, he saw Kehoe driving in the opposite direction, heading toward the school. "He grinned and waved his hand," Ellsworth said. "When he grinned, I could see both rows of his teeth."
Truck explosion:
the almost destroyed chassis of Kehoe's Ford pickup truck, surrounded by onlookers
Remains of Kehoe's Ford truck after the explosion
Kehoe drove up to the school about half an hour after the first explosion. He saw Superintendent Emory Huyck and summoned him over to his truck. Charles Hawson testified at the inquest that he saw the two men grapple over some type of long gun before Kehoe detonated the explosives stored in his truck, immediately killing himself; Huyck; Nelson McFarren, a retired farmer; and Cleo Clayton, an 8-year-old second-grader. Clayton had survived the first blast and then wandered out of the school building; he was killed by shrapnel from the exploding vehicle.
The truck explosion spread debris over a large area and caused extensive damage to cars parked a half-block away, with their roofs catching on fire from the burning gasoline. It injured several others and mortally wounded postmaster Glenn O. Smith, who lost a leg and died before making it to the hospital. O. H. Bush recalled that one of his crew bound up "the wounds of Glenn Smith, the postmaster. His leg had been blown off."
Recovery and rescue:
Telephone operators stayed at their stations for hours to summon doctors, undertakers, area hospital workers, and anyone else who might help. The Lansing Fire Department sent several firefighters and its chief. Local physician J. A. Crum and his wife, a nurse, who had both served in World War I, turned their Bath Township drugstore into a triage center. The dead bodies were taken to the town hall, which was used as a morgue.
Hundreds of people worked in the wreckage all day and into the night in an effort to find and rescue any children pinned underneath. Area contractors sent all their men to assist, and many other people came to the scene in response to pleas for help. Eventually, thirty-four firefighters and the chief of the Lansing Fire Department arrived, as did several Michigan State Police officers who managed traffic to and from the scene. Michigan Governor Fred W. Green arrived during the afternoon of the disaster and assisted in the relief work, carting bricks away from the scene. The Lawrence Baking Company of Lansing sent a truck filled with pies and sandwiches which were served to rescuers in the township's community hall.
The injured and dying were transported to Sparrow Hospital and St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing. The construction of the St. Lawrence facility had been financed in large part by Lawrence Price, Nellie Kehoe's uncle and formerly an executive in charge of Oldsmobile's Lansing Car Assembly.
Sign that Kehoe made and left on a fence at his farm, black lettering on a white painted board – "Criminals are made, not born."
During the search for survivors and victims, rescuers found an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of dynamite which had failed to detonate in the south wing of the school. The search was halted to allow the state police to disarm the devices, and they found an alarm clock timed to go off at 8:45 a.m. Investigators speculated that the initial explosion may have caused a short circuit in the second set of bombs, preventing them from detonating. They searched the building and then returned to the recovery work.
Police and fire officials gathered at the Kehoe farm to investigate the fires there. State troopers had searched for Nellie Kehoe throughout Michigan, thinking that she was at a tuberculosis sanatorium, but her charred remains were found the day after the disaster, among the ruins of the farm. All the Kehoe farm buildings were destroyed. Kehoe's two horses had burned to death, trapped inside the barn. Their carcasses were found with their legs hobbled together with wire, preventing their escape or rescue. Investigators found a wooden sign wired to the farm's fence with Kehoe's last message stenciled on it: "Criminals are made, not born."
Aftermath:
Killed in the disaster:
Before the school bombing
Nellie Kehoe, wife of the perpetrator
Killed in the school bombing
Arnold V. Bauerle, age 8, 3rd grade
Henry Bergan, age 14, 6th grade
Herman Bergan, age 11, 4th grade
Emilie M. Bromundt, age 11, 5th grade
Robert F. Bromundt, age 12, 5th grade
Floyd E. Burnett, age 12, 6th grade
Russell J. Chapman, age 8, 4th grade
F. Robert Cochran, age 8, 3rd grade
Ralph A. Cushman, age 7, 3rd grade
Earl E. Ewing, age 11, 6th grade
Katherine O. Foote, age 10, 6th grade
Marjorie Fritz, age 9, 4th grade
Carlyle W. Geisenhaver, age 9, 4th grade
George P. Hall, Jr., age 8, 3rd grade
Willa M. Hall, age 11, 5th grade
Iola I. Hart, age 12, 6th grade
Percy E. Hart, age 11, 3rd grade
Vivian O. Hart, age 8, 3rd grade
Blanche E. Harte, age 30, teacher
Gailand L. Harte, age 12, 6th grade
LaVere R. Harte, age 9, 4th grade
Stanley H. Harte, age 12, 6th grade
Francis O. Hoeppner, age 13, 6th grade
Cecial L. Hunter, age 13, 6th grade
Doris E. Johns, age 8, 3rd grade
Thelma I. MacDonald, age 8, 3rd grade
Clarence W. McFarren, age 13, 6th grade
J. Emerson Medcoff, age 8, 4th grade
Emma A. Nickols, age 13, 6th grade
Richard D. Richardson, age 12, 6th grade
Elsie M. Robb, age 12, 6th grade
Pauline M. Shirts, age 10, 5th grade
Hazel I. Weatherby, age 20, teacher[44]
Elizabeth J. Witchell, age 10, 5th grade
Lucile J. Witchell, age 9, 5th grade
Harold L. Woodman, age 8, 3rd grade
George O. Zimmerman, age 10, 3rd grade
Lloyd Zimmerman, age 12, 5th grade
Killed by the truck bombing
G. Cleo Clayton, age 8, 2nd grade
Emory E. Huyck, age 33, superintendent
Andrew P. Kehoe, age 55, himself
Nelson McFarren, age 74, retired farmer
Glenn O. Smith, age 33, postmaster
Died later of injuries
Beatrice P. Gibbs, age 10, 4th grade
The American Red Cross set up an operations center at the Crum drugstore and took the lead in providing aid and comfort to the victims. The Lansing Red Cross headquarters stayed open until 11:30 that night to answer telephone calls, update the list of dead and injured, and provide information and planning services for the following day. The local community responded generously, as reported at the time by the Associated Press: "a sympathetic public assured the rehabilitation of the stricken community. Aid was tendered freely in the hope that the grief of those who lost loved ones might be even slightly mitigated." The Red Cross managed donations sent to pay for both the medical expenses of the survivors and the burial costs of the dead. In a few weeks, US$5,284.15 (equivalent to $82,431 in 2021) was raised through donations, including $2,500 from the Clinton County Board of Supervisors and $2,000 from the Michigan Legislature.
The disaster received nationwide coverage in the days following, sharing headlines with Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic crossing (though Lindbergh's crossing received much more attention) and eliciting a national outpouring of grief. Newspaper headlines from across the U.S. characterized Kehoe as a maniac, a madman, and a fiend.
People from across the world expressed sympathy to the families and the community of Bath Township, including letters from some Italian schoolchildren. One 5th grade class wrote: "Even if we are small, we understand all the sorrow and misfortune that has struck our dear brothers." Another Italian class wrote: "We are praying to God to give to the unfortunate mothers and fathers, the strength to bear the great sorrow that has descent on them, we are near to you in spirit."
Kehoe's body was claimed by one of his sisters and was buried in an unmarked grave in the paupers' section of Mount Rest Cemetery in St. Johns, Michigan. The Price family buried Nellie Price Kehoe in a Lansing cemetery under her maiden name.
Vehicles from outlying areas and surrounding states descended upon Bath Township by the thousands. Over 100,000 vehicles passed through on Saturday alone, an enormous amount of traffic for the area. Some residents regarded this as an unwarranted intrusion into their time of grief, but most accepted it as a show of sympathy and support from surrounding communities. Burials of individual victims started that Friday, two days after the disaster.[58][56] Funerals and burials continued on Saturday and Sunday until all the dead were buried. For a time following the tragedy the town and Kehoe's burned-out farm continued to attract curiosity seekers.
Coroner's inquest
The coroner arrived at the scene on the day of the disaster and swore in six community leaders that afternoon to serve as a jury investigating the death of Superintendent Huyck.[59] Informal testimony had been taken on May 19 and the formal coroner's inquest started on May 23. The Clinton County prosecutor conducted the examination, and more than 50 people testified before the jury. During his testimony, David Hart stated that Kehoe had told him that he had "killed a horse" and The New York Times reported people as saying that Kehoe had "an ungovernable temper" and "seemed to have a mania for killing things". Neighbors testified that he had been wiring the buildings at his farm about that time and that he was evasive about his reasons.
Kehoe's neighbor Sidney J. Howell testified that after the fire began at the Kehoe farm, Kehoe warned him and three men to leave there, saying, "Boys, you are my friends, you better get out of here, you better go down to the school." Three telephone linemen working near Bath Township testified that Kehoe passed them in his truck on the road toward the school, and they saw him arrive there. His truck swerved and stopped in front of the building. In the next instant, according to the linemen, the truck blew up, and one of them was struck by shrapnel. Other witnesses testified that Kehoe paused after stopping, calling Huyck over to the truck and that the two men struggled before Kehoe's truck was blown up.
Although there was never any doubt that Kehoe was the perpetrator, the jury was asked to determine if the school board or its employees were guilty of criminal negligence. After more than a week of testimony, the jury exonerated the school board and its employees. In its verdict, the jury concluded that Kehoe “conducted himself sanely and so concealed his operations that there was no cause to suspect any of his actions; and we further find that the school board, and Frank Smith, janitor of the school building, were not negligent in and about their duties, and were not guilty of any negligence in not discovering Kehoe's plan.”
The inquest determined that Kehoe murdered Huyck on the morning of May 18. It was also the jury's verdict that the school was blown up as part of a plan and that Kehoe alone, without the aid of conspirators, murdered 43 people in total, including his wife Nellie. Suicide was determined to be the cause of Kehoe's death, which brought the total number of dead to 44 at the time of the inquest.
On August 22, three months after the bombing, fourth-grader Beatrice Gibbs died following hip surgery. Hers was the 45th and final death directly attributable to the Bath School disaster, which made it the deadliest attack ever to occur in an American school to date. Richard Fritz, whose older sister Marjorie was killed in the explosion, was injured and died almost one year later of myocarditis at the age of eight. Although Richard is not included on many lists of the victims, his death from myocarditis is thought to have been directly caused by an infection resulting from his injuries.
Rebuilding:
Governor Green quickly called for donations to aid the townspeople and created the Bath Relief Fund with the money supplied by donors, the state, and local governments.[12] People from around the country donated to the fund.
School resumed on September 5, 1927, and, for the 1927–1928 school year, was held in the community hall, township hall, and two retail buildings. Most of the surviving students returned. The board appointed O. M. Brant of Luther, Michigan, to succeed Huyck as superintendent. Lansing architect Warren Holmes donated construction plans, and the school board approved the contracts for a new building on September 14. On September 15, U.S. Senator James J. Couzens presented his personal check for $75,000 (equivalent to $1,169,971 in 2021) to the Bath construction fund to help build the new school.
The board demolished the damaged portion of the school and constructed a new wing with the donated funds. During the reconstruction dynamite was found in the building on three separate occasions. The James Couzens Agricultural School was dedicated on August 18, 1928.[70] The Kehoe farm was completely plowed to ensure that no explosives were hidden in the ground and was sold at auction to pay the mortgage.
The following was copy/pasted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
The Bath School disaster, also known as the Bath School massacre, was a series of violent attacks perpetrated by Andrew Kehoe upon the Bath Consolidated School in Bath Charter Township, Michigan, United States, on May 18, 1927. The attacks killed 38 elementary schoolchildren and 6 adults, and injured at least 58 other people. Prior to his timed explosives detonating at the Bath Consolidated School building, Kehoe had murdered his wife, Nellie Price Kehoe, and firebombed his farm. Arriving at the site of the school explosion, Kehoe died when he set off explosives concealed in his truck.
Kehoe, the 55-year-old school board treasurer, was angered by increased taxes and his defeat in the April 5, 1926, election for township clerk. He was thought by locals to have planned his "murderous revenge" after that public defeat. Kehoe had a reputation for difficulty on the school board and in personal dealings. In addition, he was notified in June 1926 that his mortgage was going to be foreclosed upon. For much of the next year until May 1927, Kehoe purchased explosives and secretly hid them both on his property and under the school.
On the day of the disaster, Kehoe set off almost simultaneous explosions at his farmstead and at the Bath Consolidated School. His devices destroyed the farm's buildings and ripped through the north wing of the school building. As rescuers began working at the school, Kehoe drove up to the schoolyard and triggered an explosion in his shrapnel-filled truck. The blast killed Kehoe plus four other people, and also injured bystanders.
During the rescue and recovery efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol in the south wing of the school that had been set to go off at the same time as the initial explosions in the north wing; Kehoe had apparently intended to destroy the entire school and kill everyone in it.
Purchase and planting of school explosives
boxes of Pyrotol, sticks of dynamite, sacks of explosives and wiring in a pile
Explosives recovered from under the school
There is no clear indication of when Kehoe had the idea of massacring the schoolchildren and townspeople, but Ellsworth, who was a neighbor, thought that he conceived his plan after being defeated in the 1926 clerk election. The consensus of the townspeople was that he had worked on his plan at least since the previous August. Bath School Board member M. W. Keyes was quoted by The New York Times:
I have no doubt that he made his plans last Fall [1926] to blow up the school ... He was an experienced electrician and the board employed him in November to make some repairs on the school lighting system. He had ample opportunity then to plant the explosives and lay the wires for touching it off.
Kehoe had free access to the school building during the summer vacation of 1926. From mid-1926, he began buying more than a ton of pyrotol, an incendiary explosive used by farmers during the era for excavation and burning debris. In November 1926 he drove to Lansing and bought two boxes of dynamite at a sporting goods store. Dynamite was also commonly used on farms, so his purchase of small amounts of explosives at different stores and on different dates did not raise any suspicions. Neighbors reported hearing explosions on the farm, with one calling him "the dynamite farmer".
Following the disaster it was reported that Michigan State Police investigators had discovered that a considerable amount of dynamite had been stolen from a bridge construction site and that Kehoe was suspected of the theft. Investigators also recovered a container of gasoline, rigged with a tube, in the school's basement; investigators speculated that Kehoe had planned that the gasoline fumes would ignite from a spark scattering burning gasoline throughout the basement. In the undamaged section of the school it was found that Kehoe had concealed the explosives in six lengths of eavestrough pipe, three bamboo fishing rods and what were described as "windmill rods" that were placed in the basement ceiling.
Kehoe purchased a .30-caliber Winchester bolt-action rifle in December 1926, according to the testimony of Lieutenant Lyle Morse, a Michigan State Police investigator with the Department of Public Safety.
Further preparations:
Prior to the day of the disaster, Kehoe had loaded the back seat of his truck with metal debris capable of producing shrapnel during an explosion. He also bought a new set of tires for his truck to avoid breaking down when transporting the explosives. He made many trips to Lansing for more explosives, as well as to the school, the township, and his house. Ida Hall, who lived in a house next to the school, saw activity around the building on different nights during May. Early one morning after midnight she saw a man carrying objects inside. She also saw vehicles around the building several times late at night. Hall mentioned these events to a relative but they were never reported to police.
Nellie was discharged from Lansing's St. Lawrence Hospital on May 16, and was murdered by her husband some time between her release and the bombings two days later. Kehoe put her body in a wheelbarrow at the rear of the farm's chicken coop, where it was found in a heavily charred condition after the farm explosions and fire. Piled around the cart were silverware and a metal cash box. The ashes of several banknotes could be seen through a slit in the cash box. Kehoe placed and wired homemade pyrotol firebombs in the house and throughout the farm buildings.
Day of the disaster:
Farm bombs:
At approximately 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, May 18, Kehoe detonated the firebombs in his house and farm buildings, causing some debris to fly into a neighbor's poultry brooding house. Neighbors noticed the fire, and volunteers rushed to the scene.
O. H. Bush and several other men crawled through a broken window of the farmhouse in search of survivors. When they found no one in the house, they salvaged what furniture they could before the fire spread into the living room. Bush discovered dynamite in the corner; he picked up an armful of explosives and handed it to one of the men. As Kehoe left the burning property in his Ford truck, he stopped to tell those fighting the fire that they should get to the school and then drove off.
North wing explosion:
Classes at Bath Consolidated School began at 8:30 a.m. Kehoe had set an alarm clock in the basement of the school's north wing which detonated the dynamite and pyrotol he had hidden there at about 8:45 a.m. Rescuers heading to the scene of the Kehoe farm fire heard the explosion at the school building and turned back in that direction. Parents within the rural community rushed to the school. The school building resembled a war zone, with 38 people killed in the initial explosion, mostly children.
Eyewitnesses and survivors were interviewed afterwards by newspaper reporters. First-grade teacher Bernice Sterling told an Associated Press reporter that the explosion was like an earthquake:
"... the air seemed to be full of children and flying desks and books. Children were tossed high in the air; some were catapulted out of the building."
Eyewitness Robert Gates said the scene was pure chaos at the school:
Mother after mother came running into the school yard, and demanded information about her child and, on seeing the lifeless form lying on the lawn, sobbed and swooned ... In no time more than 100 men at work tearing away the debris of the school, and nearly as many women were frantically pawing over the timber and broken bricks for traces of their children. I saw more than one woman lift clusters of bricks held together by mortar heavier than the average man could have handled without a crowbar.
Ellsworth recounted:
I saw one mother, Mrs. Eugene Hart, sitting on the bank a short distance from the school with a little dead girl on each side of her and holding a little boy, Percy, who died a short time after they got him to the hospital. This was about the time Kehoe blew his car up in the street, severely wounding Perry, the oldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Hart."
The north wing of the school had collapsed, leaving the edge of the roof on the ground. Ellsworth recalled that "there was a pile of children of about five or six under the roof". He volunteered to drive back to his farm and get a rope heavy enough to pull the school roof off the children's bodies. Returning to his farm, he saw Kehoe driving in the opposite direction, heading toward the school. "He grinned and waved his hand," Ellsworth said. "When he grinned, I could see both rows of his teeth."
Truck explosion:
the almost destroyed chassis of Kehoe's Ford pickup truck, surrounded by onlookers
Remains of Kehoe's Ford truck after the explosion
Kehoe drove up to the school about half an hour after the first explosion. He saw Superintendent Emory Huyck and summoned him over to his truck. Charles Hawson testified at the inquest that he saw the two men grapple over some type of long gun before Kehoe detonated the explosives stored in his truck, immediately killing himself; Huyck; Nelson McFarren, a retired farmer; and Cleo Clayton, an 8-year-old second-grader. Clayton had survived the first blast and then wandered out of the school building; he was killed by shrapnel from the exploding vehicle.
The truck explosion spread debris over a large area and caused extensive damage to cars parked a half-block away, with their roofs catching on fire from the burning gasoline. It injured several others and mortally wounded postmaster Glenn O. Smith, who lost a leg and died before making it to the hospital. O. H. Bush recalled that one of his crew bound up "the wounds of Glenn Smith, the postmaster. His leg had been blown off."
Recovery and rescue:
Telephone operators stayed at their stations for hours to summon doctors, undertakers, area hospital workers, and anyone else who might help. The Lansing Fire Department sent several firefighters and its chief. Local physician J. A. Crum and his wife, a nurse, who had both served in World War I, turned their Bath Township drugstore into a triage center. The dead bodies were taken to the town hall, which was used as a morgue.
Hundreds of people worked in the wreckage all day and into the night in an effort to find and rescue any children pinned underneath. Area contractors sent all their men to assist, and many other people came to the scene in response to pleas for help. Eventually, thirty-four firefighters and the chief of the Lansing Fire Department arrived, as did several Michigan State Police officers who managed traffic to and from the scene. Michigan Governor Fred W. Green arrived during the afternoon of the disaster and assisted in the relief work, carting bricks away from the scene. The Lawrence Baking Company of Lansing sent a truck filled with pies and sandwiches which were served to rescuers in the township's community hall.
The injured and dying were transported to Sparrow Hospital and St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing. The construction of the St. Lawrence facility had been financed in large part by Lawrence Price, Nellie Kehoe's uncle and formerly an executive in charge of Oldsmobile's Lansing Car Assembly.
Sign that Kehoe made and left on a fence at his farm, black lettering on a white painted board – "Criminals are made, not born."
During the search for survivors and victims, rescuers found an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of dynamite which had failed to detonate in the south wing of the school. The search was halted to allow the state police to disarm the devices, and they found an alarm clock timed to go off at 8:45 a.m. Investigators speculated that the initial explosion may have caused a short circuit in the second set of bombs, preventing them from detonating. They searched the building and then returned to the recovery work.
Police and fire officials gathered at the Kehoe farm to investigate the fires there. State troopers had searched for Nellie Kehoe throughout Michigan, thinking that she was at a tuberculosis sanatorium, but her charred remains were found the day after the disaster, among the ruins of the farm. All the Kehoe farm buildings were destroyed. Kehoe's two horses had burned to death, trapped inside the barn. Their carcasses were found with their legs hobbled together with wire, preventing their escape or rescue. Investigators found a wooden sign wired to the farm's fence with Kehoe's last message stenciled on it: "Criminals are made, not born."
Aftermath:
Killed in the disaster:
Before the school bombing
Nellie Kehoe, wife of the perpetrator
Killed in the school bombing
Arnold V. Bauerle, age 8, 3rd grade
Henry Bergan, age 14, 6th grade
Herman Bergan, age 11, 4th grade
Emilie M. Bromundt, age 11, 5th grade
Robert F. Bromundt, age 12, 5th grade
Floyd E. Burnett, age 12, 6th grade
Russell J. Chapman, age 8, 4th grade
F. Robert Cochran, age 8, 3rd grade
Ralph A. Cushman, age 7, 3rd grade
Earl E. Ewing, age 11, 6th grade
Katherine O. Foote, age 10, 6th grade
Marjorie Fritz, age 9, 4th grade
Carlyle W. Geisenhaver, age 9, 4th grade
George P. Hall, Jr., age 8, 3rd grade
Willa M. Hall, age 11, 5th grade
Iola I. Hart, age 12, 6th grade
Percy E. Hart, age 11, 3rd grade
Vivian O. Hart, age 8, 3rd grade
Blanche E. Harte, age 30, teacher
Gailand L. Harte, age 12, 6th grade
LaVere R. Harte, age 9, 4th grade
Stanley H. Harte, age 12, 6th grade
Francis O. Hoeppner, age 13, 6th grade
Cecial L. Hunter, age 13, 6th grade
Doris E. Johns, age 8, 3rd grade
Thelma I. MacDonald, age 8, 3rd grade
Clarence W. McFarren, age 13, 6th grade
J. Emerson Medcoff, age 8, 4th grade
Emma A. Nickols, age 13, 6th grade
Richard D. Richardson, age 12, 6th grade
Elsie M. Robb, age 12, 6th grade
Pauline M. Shirts, age 10, 5th grade
Hazel I. Weatherby, age 20, teacher[44]
Elizabeth J. Witchell, age 10, 5th grade
Lucile J. Witchell, age 9, 5th grade
Harold L. Woodman, age 8, 3rd grade
George O. Zimmerman, age 10, 3rd grade
Lloyd Zimmerman, age 12, 5th grade
Killed by the truck bombing
G. Cleo Clayton, age 8, 2nd grade
Emory E. Huyck, age 33, superintendent
Andrew P. Kehoe, age 55, himself
Nelson McFarren, age 74, retired farmer
Glenn O. Smith, age 33, postmaster
Died later of injuries
Beatrice P. Gibbs, age 10, 4th grade
The American Red Cross set up an operations center at the Crum drugstore and took the lead in providing aid and comfort to the victims. The Lansing Red Cross headquarters stayed open until 11:30 that night to answer telephone calls, update the list of dead and injured, and provide information and planning services for the following day. The local community responded generously, as reported at the time by the Associated Press: "a sympathetic public assured the rehabilitation of the stricken community. Aid was tendered freely in the hope that the grief of those who lost loved ones might be even slightly mitigated." The Red Cross managed donations sent to pay for both the medical expenses of the survivors and the burial costs of the dead. In a few weeks, US$5,284.15 (equivalent to $82,431 in 2021) was raised through donations, including $2,500 from the Clinton County Board of Supervisors and $2,000 from the Michigan Legislature.
The disaster received nationwide coverage in the days following, sharing headlines with Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic crossing (though Lindbergh's crossing received much more attention) and eliciting a national outpouring of grief. Newspaper headlines from across the U.S. characterized Kehoe as a maniac, a madman, and a fiend.
People from across the world expressed sympathy to the families and the community of Bath Township, including letters from some Italian schoolchildren. One 5th grade class wrote: "Even if we are small, we understand all the sorrow and misfortune that has struck our dear brothers." Another Italian class wrote: "We are praying to God to give to the unfortunate mothers and fathers, the strength to bear the great sorrow that has descent on them, we are near to you in spirit."
Kehoe's body was claimed by one of his sisters and was buried in an unmarked grave in the paupers' section of Mount Rest Cemetery in St. Johns, Michigan. The Price family buried Nellie Price Kehoe in a Lansing cemetery under her maiden name.
Vehicles from outlying areas and surrounding states descended upon Bath Township by the thousands. Over 100,000 vehicles passed through on Saturday alone, an enormous amount of traffic for the area. Some residents regarded this as an unwarranted intrusion into their time of grief, but most accepted it as a show of sympathy and support from surrounding communities. Burials of individual victims started that Friday, two days after the disaster.[58][56] Funerals and burials continued on Saturday and Sunday until all the dead were buried. For a time following the tragedy the town and Kehoe's burned-out farm continued to attract curiosity seekers.
Coroner's inquest
The coroner arrived at the scene on the day of the disaster and swore in six community leaders that afternoon to serve as a jury investigating the death of Superintendent Huyck.[59] Informal testimony had been taken on May 19 and the formal coroner's inquest started on May 23. The Clinton County prosecutor conducted the examination, and more than 50 people testified before the jury. During his testimony, David Hart stated that Kehoe had told him that he had "killed a horse" and The New York Times reported people as saying that Kehoe had "an ungovernable temper" and "seemed to have a mania for killing things". Neighbors testified that he had been wiring the buildings at his farm about that time and that he was evasive about his reasons.
Kehoe's neighbor Sidney J. Howell testified that after the fire began at the Kehoe farm, Kehoe warned him and three men to leave there, saying, "Boys, you are my friends, you better get out of here, you better go down to the school." Three telephone linemen working near Bath Township testified that Kehoe passed them in his truck on the road toward the school, and they saw him arrive there. His truck swerved and stopped in front of the building. In the next instant, according to the linemen, the truck blew up, and one of them was struck by shrapnel. Other witnesses testified that Kehoe paused after stopping, calling Huyck over to the truck and that the two men struggled before Kehoe's truck was blown up.
Although there was never any doubt that Kehoe was the perpetrator, the jury was asked to determine if the school board or its employees were guilty of criminal negligence. After more than a week of testimony, the jury exonerated the school board and its employees. In its verdict, the jury concluded that Kehoe “conducted himself sanely and so concealed his operations that there was no cause to suspect any of his actions; and we further find that the school board, and Frank Smith, janitor of the school building, were not negligent in and about their duties, and were not guilty of any negligence in not discovering Kehoe's plan.”
The inquest determined that Kehoe murdered Huyck on the morning of May 18. It was also the jury's verdict that the school was blown up as part of a plan and that Kehoe alone, without the aid of conspirators, murdered 43 people in total, including his wife Nellie. Suicide was determined to be the cause of Kehoe's death, which brought the total number of dead to 44 at the time of the inquest.
On August 22, three months after the bombing, fourth-grader Beatrice Gibbs died following hip surgery. Hers was the 45th and final death directly attributable to the Bath School disaster, which made it the deadliest attack ever to occur in an American school to date. Richard Fritz, whose older sister Marjorie was killed in the explosion, was injured and died almost one year later of myocarditis at the age of eight. Although Richard is not included on many lists of the victims, his death from myocarditis is thought to have been directly caused by an infection resulting from his injuries.
Rebuilding:
Governor Green quickly called for donations to aid the townspeople and created the Bath Relief Fund with the money supplied by donors, the state, and local governments.[12] People from around the country donated to the fund.
School resumed on September 5, 1927, and, for the 1927–1928 school year, was held in the community hall, township hall, and two retail buildings. Most of the surviving students returned. The board appointed O. M. Brant of Luther, Michigan, to succeed Huyck as superintendent. Lansing architect Warren Holmes donated construction plans, and the school board approved the contracts for a new building on September 14. On September 15, U.S. Senator James J. Couzens presented his personal check for $75,000 (equivalent to $1,169,971 in 2021) to the Bath construction fund to help build the new school.
The board demolished the damaged portion of the school and constructed a new wing with the donated funds. During the reconstruction dynamite was found in the building on three separate occasions. The James Couzens Agricultural School was dedicated on August 18, 1928.[70] The Kehoe farm was completely plowed to ensure that no explosives were hidden in the ground and was sold at auction to pay the mortgage.
And it would have been the ultimate irony if only his truck bomb went off with enough force to kill only him.
295 dead in 1937. East Texas, school was getting natural gas straight from a well bring the school. No odor to give notice of a leak
.
"Suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me."
Jesus gets kids.
the stupidity would be on the part of the fire station and the school staff for not knowing the procedures.
the new Collinwood Memorial School was built and stands today in a lot right across the street.
but its in a rough area of town now.
how things change.