Andrew Kehoe lived in the small community of Bath, Michigan, with his wife on his farm. He was elected to the school board in 1924 and later won another community post to serve as the town clerk.
But two years later, his fortunes seemed to be in decline. He lost the nomination for the clerkship and was having trouble with school board. His wife was also ill. And, to top it all off, Kehoe was grappling with financial problems. These were caused in part by a special tax to build a new school; a tax he had fought against. Kehoe was facing the possibility of losing his 80-acre farm.
On May 18, 1927, Kehoe orchestrated a sinister plot against the people of Bath, especially the town’s children. He killed his wife and set fire to their home and other farm buildings. This was a diversion, leading neighbors and others to the farm to fight the blaze.
Meanwhile, Kehoe drove to the Bath Consolidated School – the new school he opposed building – where he had planted hundreds of pounds of dynamite. An experienced electrician, he had served as the district’s volunteer handyman and had unfettered access to the building. After months of careful planning, Kehoe took his revenge on the town and the school by setting off a bomb at round 8:45 a.m. that morning. Even though not all of the dynamite he had hidden went off, the resulting explosion was catastrophic. Thirty-seven children, most only 6 to 8 years old, and one teacher were killed and scores of others were injured by the blast.
Still, Kehoe’s rampage was not complete. His truck was loaded with explosives as well, which he set off during an altercation with the school’s superintendent. This final destructive act killed Kehoe, the school official, and several others.
Kehoe’s act was one of the largest school-related mass murders in US history.
“I separated the joints, the arm joints, the leg joints, and had to do two boilings. I think I used four boxes of soilex for each one, put in the upper portion of the body and boiled that for about two hours and then the lower portion for another two hours. The soilex removes all the flesh, turns it into a jelly-like substance and it just rinses off. Then I laid the clean bones in a light bleach solution,left them there for a day and spread them out on either newspaper or cloth and let them dry out for about a week in the bedroom.”
“I took the knife and the scalp part off and peeled the flesh off the bone and kept the skull and the scalp… If I could have kept him longer, all of him, I would have.”
🔥 There is beauty in destruction🔥 