Maniac's Revenge Sends Forty-two To Death In Schoolhouse Blast

Body of Madman's Wife Is Found In Debris Near Home

Injured Pupils Crowd Hospitals After Huge Dynmaite Cache Is Exploded

By Walter W. Schramm of the Blade Staff

Bath, Mich., May 19 - Finding the body of Mrs. Andrew Kehoe, wife of the 
demented farmer who dynamited the Bath Consolidated schoolhouse Wednesday 
morning, raised the death toll to 42 and cleared the remaining mystery 
connected with the tragedy.

Her body, horribly mangled, was found in the ruins of the barn on the Kehoe farm,
a short distance from the village.  Her skull had been crushed, which led officers
to believe that Kehoe, in his madness, clubbed his wife before he hurled her 
into the barn and set off the dynamite that ruined the barn and house.

BATH AWAKENS TO TRAGEDY
         
There were no classes at the Bath schoolhouse Thursday.

With one out of every four children in the village dead and more injured and 
dying, Bath just began to realize Thursday morning the awfulness of the tragedy.
There is not a home in the village that has not lost a child, relative or friend.

While thousands from surrounding cities viewed the wreckage which took a toll 
of 42 lives Wednesday morning, residents of the village remained in their homes,
too stricken with grief even to go near the mass of debris which once was the 
pride of the town.

RELATIVES SEARCH RUINS

Thursday morning, however, instead of hurrying children off to school, mothers 
and fathers ventured forth to claim the coats and hats and little treasures 
so dear to their children who were hurled into eternity by a crazed farmer. 
The farmer, Andrew Kehoe, had planted enough dynamite in the building to wreck
the entire town.  Kehoe, who was treasurer of the school board, blew himself 
to atoms, together with Emory E. Huyck, superintendent of schools.  Bits of
their bodies still are lying in a field of clover.

36 PUPILS DEAD

Of the 42 who were killed, 36 were pupils of the school.  About 4O others were
injured, some so seriously that little hope is held for their recovery.  The 
injured are being cared for in Lansing hospitals, about 10 miles south of here.

GROUP FUNERAL PLANNED.

While plans for a group funeral of 36 children are under way, details of the 
grim tragedy are being told over and over to an endless line of curious visitors.

The general belief is that Kehoe became crazed several days ago when a mortgage
on his farm was foreclosed by his wife's aunt, who resides in Lansing.  He had 
been opposed to the building of the school.  His taxes became much heavier 
and he blamed that for failure to make both ends meet at his model farm.

STEALS AND BUYS DYNAMITE.
         
He stole some dynamite from a construction camp, bought some and borrowed more.
Every bit of it - more than 600 pounds, was planted in the basement of the
school and in his home and buildings on the farm.

Conflicting stories are told of the explosion in the car that sent Kehoe 
and the superintendent of schools to their deaths: Some say that Kehoe fired 
a rifle into a bushel of dynamite and immediately after touching off the 
dynamite in the basement of the school, white others insist, on account
of the wiring, that the two charges were linked together.

SETTING OF DEATH SCENE.

The setting immediately before the catastrophe was this: Kehoe was sitting
in his car; Superintendent Huyck was standing by the machine, talking to Kehoe;
Glenn O. Smith, village postmaster, and Nelson McFarren were talking a few feet away.

The blast came from the machine - Kehoe and Mr. Huyck were blown to bits.  
McFarren was killed outright and Smith was injured fatally.  On account of 
examinations, there were not as many pupils in the school as there generally are.
Many escaped death because thqy had been excused from taking the tests at the 
end of the semester.  But the plant of dynamite which really did the most damage
was placed under the rooms occupied by little children of the lower grades.  
More than 500 pounds of dynamite, planted in strategic positions in the basement
were carried out by state troopers after the blast.
         
And then started the gruesome work of digging the little victims from the mass
of ruins.  Teachers, police and every able-bodied man in the town volunteered 
their services.  One after another, tiny bodies were removed from the snarled 
debris.  Others, crying pitifully or unconscious from serious injury, were given
first aid attention on blankets, placed on the school grounds and then taken 
to hospitals in Lansing as fast as transportation could be arranged.

Mothers and women living near the school, which is in the center of town, 
ran to buildings when they heard the thunder of the explosion and with 
wet cloths, bathed bleeding heads and bodies.  Boys of the upper grades,
who were hurled uninjured through windows, aided the men as soon as they 
had recovered sufficiently to be of use.

All through the day the men worked on.  Members of the state militia and state 
constabulary came to take charge of the rescue work and to direct the hundreds 
of automobiles which came from a radius of 100 miles.  Searchlights were 
installed on the crumbled walls so that even darkness would not stop the work.

SHORT CIRCUIT SAVED TOWN

Investigation by state troopers and officers from the sheriff's office after 
the blast revealed that, were it not for a short circuit, the entire building 
would have been destroyed and possibly, most of the town wiped out. 
Besides 500 pounds of unexploded dynamite, several cement sacks 
filled with gun powder were carried from the basement of the building.

While windows across the street for 50 yards were blown out by the blast, 
most of the windows in the rear of the building were not damaged.  Many rooms 
in the school still are in the same condition as they were when the blast 
shook the building.

BOOKS OPEN ON DESKS

Books are open on the desks - pencils were found scattered around on the floor
where they had been thrown by the pupils.  Maps and diagrams still were hanging
on the walls - in fact, in the rear of the building, there is little or 
no indication that the tragedy happened.

Rumors that Kehoe had an accomplice are spreading through the village.  
Officials, however, said the possibility of such a person is slight, 
but admitted that they are conducting a thorough investigation.

It is safe to say that every resident of Bath is an unsung hero.  Many of them 
piloted cars at break-neck speed over gravel roads to Lansing: with every 
minute meaning life or death to a bleeding little passenger in the rear seat.
Others braved falling bricks and timber to rescue children trapped beneath 
a mass of wreckage.

Mrs. Kehoe was a niece of a wealthy Michigan family.  It was her aunt who 
foreclosed the mortgage on her husband's farm two days ago.  She had been ill 
for some time and, for hours following the explosion, it was thought that
she might be with relatives in Lansing or Jackson.

WAS COLLEGE GRADUATE

Kehoe was a graduate of Michigan State college, having taken a course in 
electrical engineering there.  Officers who made investigations after the blast
marveled at the care and effort Kehoe had used in setting his fiendish trap.

Scenes at the wrecked building flaunt their gruesomeness at any attempts at 
description.  One teacher, Miss Bernice Sterling of the first grade, said 
that she had her children marching around the room for their morning exercise
when the blast occurred.  For a moment, she said, she was blinded and when 
her sight returned, she saw children, books, papers and desks flying through 
the air.  She fainted.