Bath School disaster
Also known as: Bath School bombing, Bath massacre
- Active
- 1927–1927
- Region
- Bath Township, Clinton County, Michigan, USA
- State
- MI
- Kind
- Mass
- Status
- Identified, never tried
- Victims
- 44
On May 18, 1927, Andrew Kehoe, the treasurer of the Bath Township school board, set off dynamite he had hidden under the Bath Consolidated School, killing 38 people, most of them children. He had already killed his wife and set his farm on fire. About half an hour later he detonated explosives in his truck in front of the school, killing himself, the superintendent and three others; the toll reached 45 with one later death. A Clinton County coroner's inquest found that Kehoe, who resented taxes for the new school and faced foreclosure on his farm, planned and carried out the attack alone. It remains the deadliest attack on a school in US history.
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Victims
We remember the people whose lives were taken.
- Ellen "Nellie" Price Kehoe · May 1927
Andrew Kehoe's wife, who was ill with tuberculosis. He killed her shortly before the attack.
- Arnold Victor Bauerle, 8 · May 18, 1927
- Henry Bergan, 14 · May 18, 1927
- Herman Bergan, 11 · May 18, 1927
- Emilie Marian Bromundt, 11 · May 18, 1927
- Robert F. Bromundt, 12 · May 18, 1927
- Floyd Edwin Burnett, 12 · May 18, 1927
- Russell Chapman, 8 · May 18, 1927
- Forest Robert "Bobby" Cochran, 8 · May 18, 1927
- Ralph Albert Cushman, 7 · May 18, 1927
- Earl Edwin Ewing, 11 · May 18, 1927
- Katherine Onalee Foote, 10 · May 18, 1927
- Marjorie Fritz, 9 · May 18, 1927
- Carlyle Walter Geisenhaver, 9 · May 18, 1927
- George Hall Jr., 8 · May 18, 1927
- Willa Marie Hall, 11 · May 18, 1927
- Iola Irene Hart, 12 · May 18, 1927
- Percy Eugene Hart, 11 · May 18, 1927
- Vivian Oletta Hart, 8 · May 18, 1927
- Blanche Elizabeth Harte, 30 · May 18, 1927
A teacher at the school.
- Galen Lyle Harte, 12 · May 18, 1927
- LaVere Robert Harte, 9 · May 18, 1927
- Stanley Horace Harte, 12 · May 18, 1927
- Francis Otte Hoeppner, 13 · May 18, 1927
- Cecil Lorn Hunter, 13 · May 18, 1927
- Doris Elaine Johns, 8 · May 18, 1927
- Thelma Irene McDonald, 8 · May 18, 1927
- Clarence Wendell McFarren, 13 · May 18, 1927
- James Emerson Medcoff, 8 · May 18, 1927
- Emma Amelia Nickols, 13 · May 18, 1927
- Richard Dibble Richardson, 12 · May 18, 1927
- Elsie Mildred Robb, 12 · May 18, 1927
- Pauline Mae Shirts, 10 · May 18, 1927
- Hazel Iva Weatherby, 20 · May 18, 1927
A teacher at the school.
- Elizabeth Jane Witchell, 10 · May 18, 1927
- Lucile June Witchell, 9 · May 18, 1927
- Harold LeMoyne Woodman, 8 · May 18, 1927
- George Orval Zimmerman, 10 · May 18, 1927
- Lloyd Zimmerman, 12 · May 18, 1927
- G. Cleo Clayton, 8 · May 18, 1927
A schoolboy. Some sources spell the surname Claton.
- Emory E. Huyck, 33 · May 18, 1927
Superintendent of the Bath Consolidated School.
- Nelson McFarren, 74 · May 18, 1927
A retired farmer.
- Glenn O. Smith, 33 · May 18, 1927
Bath's postmaster. He died of his injuries before reaching the hospital.
- Beatrice Gibbs, 10 · August 1927
Injured in the school explosion; she died in August 1927.
Timeline of locations
- May 18, 1927Bath Consolidated School (now James Couzens Memorial Park) (Crime scene)
Dynamite hidden under the north wing exploded on a timer during the school day, killing 38 people, most of them children, and injuring dozens more. Rescuers later found about 500 pounds of unexploded dynamite under the south wing. The building was demolished in 1975; the site is now a memorial park with the school's cupola and a historical marker naming the victims.
- May 18, 1927Truck explosion in front of the school (Crime scene)
About half an hour after the first blast, Kehoe drove his explosives-laden truck to the school. While he was talking with Superintendent Emory Huyck, he set off the explosives, killing himself, Huyck and three others.
- May 18, 1927Kehoe farm, Bath Township (Crime scene, approximate area)
Kehoe, who had stopped paying his mortgage and faced foreclosure, killed his wife Nellie and set the house and farm buildings on fire with incendiary devices on the morning of the attack. Her remains were found in the ruins.
- May 23, 1927Coroner's inquest, Bath (Other, approximate area)
A Clinton County coroner's jury of six local men heard more than 50 witnesses in Bath. It found that Kehoe planned and carried out the bombings alone and cleared the school board of wrongdoing.
Watch, listen, read
Read
- Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing (2009, Arnie Bernstein)
- Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer (2021, Harold Schechter)
- The Bath School Disaster (1927, Monty J. Ellsworth)
Sources
- Bath School disaster (Wikipedia)
- Andrew Kehoe (Wikipedia)
- 97 years later, this small-town Michigan massacre remains deadliest in US history (WDIV Local 4)
Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.