The Bath School Massacre ~ May 18, 1927

On a recent trip to Lansing we drove a few miles northwest to Bath Township to visit the site of the worst school massacre in American history, albeit one of which most people have not heard. Forty five people died, thirty eight of whom were children.

The perpetrator, a man named Andrew Kehoe, set up dynamite and pyrotol under the floor boards of the school and after blowing up his home and barn (where his wife already lay murdered), detonated the school, and then pulled up in his rigged truck and killed himself along with three others. He was upset over tax increases and the fear of losing his farm (to put it in the simplest terms). The following two photos of the aftermath were found on the internet.

Luckily, if one can use that word, 500 pounds of undetonated explosives were found under the South wing of the school, which if exploded would have taken down the entire school. Today there is a memorial park on the site where the school once stood.

A plaque on a rock holds the names of those who died.

The cupola from the school was saved and stands in the center of the small park.

There is a small museum dedicated to this tragedy but, unfortunately, it is located inside Bath Middle School and is, therefore, not very accessible to the public.

In nearby Mount Hope Cemetery, we paid our respects to two of the children lost that day.

Rose Cemetery in Bath holds the graves of the Hart family. Irene and Eugene lost three of their children that day.

Many of the children who died are buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, also located in Bath. 

Glenn Smith was helping to rescue children from the school after the bombing. He stepped away to get some air and was killed along with Kehoe and the school superintendent when Kehoe set off the truck explosion.

On May 20 in 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off for his Atlantic voyage and landed in Paris on May 21. The Bath school story then disappeared, but Bath still remembers.

The following books are recommended reading for more information on the tragedy, "Maniac" more so over the earlier "Bath Massacre."

The man who snuffed out so many lives lies buried in an unmarked grave in this corner of Mount Rest Cemetery in St. Johns, Michigan.