Andrew Kehoe's Execution Essay: The Bath School Disaster

The Bath School disaster was three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, on May 18, 1927, which killed 38 school children, two teachers, four other adults and the bomber himself; at least 58 people were injured. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7–14 years old) attending the Bath Consolidated School. This was one of the deadliest school massacres in the history of the United States.

The bomber was school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe, 55, who was enraged about a property tax made to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the extra tax for financial hardships which led to the foreclosure of his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack. He died in a car bomb he set off after he drove up to the school as the crowd gathered to rescue survivors from the burning school.
As fire fighters arrived at the farm, a bomb exploded the north wing of the school building, killing many schoolchildren. He used a detonator to ignite dynamite and pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside the school over the course of many months. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his rifle, killing himself and the school superintendent, and killing and injuring several others. During rescue efforts searchers discovered an additional unexploded dynamite and pyrotol planted throughout the basement of the school's south wing. Kehoe apparently had intended to blow up and destroy the whole