School Dynamiter First Slew Wife/Death List now totals 44/ Governor Starts Aid Fund

The New York Times ^ | 05/19/1927 | Special to NY Times from Bath, MI

[John S Mosby]

BATH, Mich., May 19,1927. - Still stunned by the deed of the madman Andrew Kehoe, who yesterday killed his wife and then blew up the consolidated school here and his own automobile causing the death of forty-three persons, including himself, this little community today was groping its way through tears trying to meet the awful consequences of the tragedy.

Sad-faced parents of the thirty-seven children killed in the school came to console one another in their grief, but funeral arrangements were left until tomorrow.

Governor Fred W. Green Issued a proclamation appealing to the people of Michigan to raise funds with which to rebuild the school and to provide relief in cases where families were deprived of support by the catastrophe.

[John S Mosby]

This is still the worst school mass murder in US history, occurring on May 18,1927 in Bath, MI and it involved only one firearm and tons of pyrotol and two boxes of dynamite. That and a clearly insane person. It is PEOPLE who kill other people, and not the firearm or the explosives on their own.

With the logic of 2nd Amendment repealers, the US should have banned all Muslims from all US entering or US based airliners.

Asking the right questions, first before any emotionally linked "banning" would be too logical for political types who have another agenda altogether. Let us look at Switzerland and Israel. The do NOT have these problems.

The link to the wikipedia description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_Disaster

[griswold3]

mark

[John S Mosby]

correction, the=they.

Link corrected to wikipedia: http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_Disaster

[cripplecreek]

As with the rest he was a nutjob for a long time.

The Facts about Mass Shootings

[Mark]

Yes, but did the President back then visit this tiny community and shed a few tears?

[pepsionice]

When you open the Andrew Kehoe file...you observe three things. First, he...like all these others...is often described as extremely intelligent. Second...he had a huge amount of frustration as a kid....adjusting to the new-stepmother in the house. He would eventually trigger a fire-event where the stepmother got burned badly, and eventually died from that burn. Third and final...while continually claiming a vast amount of debt in the last ten years of his life...after his death, the judge responsible for personal property came to interesting conclusion. Kehoe’s personal property included alot of items that were unused (equipment he bought without any purpose). A major part of the pressure that existed in Kehoe’s life was all that debt that he kept referring to.

[GeronL]

aren’t those symptoms of Aspbergers Syndrome?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Two more that could have been as bad or worse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cokeville_Elementary_School_hostage_crisis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping

[cripplecreek]

From what I’ve read, his neighbors said he was pretty unfriendly and abusive to his animals. Seems that he was pretty erratic with his attempts at farming too.

[Gene Eric]

No doubt possession of dynamite these days is generally illegal. And the gun-grabbers will make a connection to the similar treatment guns.

The intent of guns should be clear: to interrupt the unlawful aggressor.

The Left is attempting to disarm the citizens in order to strip Liberty from the individual. Such threats to the 2nd Amendment are threats to civility.

[cripplecreek]

The explosives that failed to detonate. He planned on killing everybody.

[Figment]

This is not new at all. There was a bomber at an elementary school in Houston in the late 1950’s as well. Evil has been around forever and it isn’t the fault of the gun or the bomb. People try to understand these incidents from their rational point of view, that won’t work.There is no understanding the acts of a deranged person. Their actions are not sane or rational. We can only mourn and increase the security of ourselves

[John S Mosby]

In the full story of a local, which is referenced on wikipedia—the writer who knew this guy well, referred to a 1926 election for the council or county office, which he ran for and lost— he felt the whole community rejected him.

In the writer’s opinion, this plus the “debt” he owed (having spent on stuff he didn’t need), his inablity to simply farm a single crop, plus his wife’s tuberculosis hospitalization, all these led to this planned revenge. As you say, he wanted to kill everybody. The building having been destroyed (if it had) he intended to drive up to the crowd outside and kill them all and himself ( his car, according to the writer who saw what was in back, and testified to it at the coroner’s inquest— was filled with all kinds of scrap, a box of over a thousand rifle shells and on top of that, dynamite).

So, in this sense he was a real narcissist politician, and cannot handle rejection. Writer also said that it was “his way or no way at all” and he would adjourn meetings. These behaviours similar to our most self involved politicians, who have to insert themselves in everything. Comrade Stalin.

[gibsosa]

bfl

[John S Mosby]

Yes, and I would submit people need to pay attention to other people, in an informed way, and not relate to the world through television or movies. TV and media have a lot to answer for, as they “inform” us and at the same time divide people from their humanity and substitute an alternate- and call that entertainment.

The computer age that takes an inward person with disorders and a lot of inner rage and gives this one a “game” with realistic death and blood. And then, the dam bursts and the person has to act out for real, not making the distinction. As you say there is no understanding the acts of derangement- though there has been a lot of progress in brain chemistry as such. In cases like these- someone needs to have brought him down, pronto. An armed populace is a civil one it is said.

In this long ago event, the small community was aware of his peculiarities and it was hard times in the 20s. They were willing to help him, but he rejected them. There is also a history of head injury in this guy— head injury features in a majority of serial killers medical history interestingly, with personality changes reacting to brain pain and or tumor formation around the injury.

[Arthur McGowan]

And President Coolidge had this to say about this incident:

[alexander_busek]

This is still the worst school mass murder in US history, occurring on May 18,1927 in Bath, MI and it involved only one firearm and not a single person died of a gunshot wound [...]

Regards,

[chuckles]

ping for later.

[pepsionice]

Kehoe probably would be a Aspbergers’s candidate. Whatever developed in his youth...stayed on throughout his entire life. The odd thing is that people saw his money management skills (he had a reputation as a guy who spent wisely) and that’s how he got into the local job as the treasurer of the school board.

[GeronL]

Aspberger’s savant?

If he did have it, he must have handled it well enough for most of his life