The Erie Daily Times, May 21, 1927 FIX BLAME FOR BLAST ON KEHOE MANIAC'S WIFE LAID TO REST Between 10 and 20 Funerals Held By Foster Eaton United Press Staff Correspondent Lansing, Mich., May 21. - The first of a sorrowful series of funerals resulting from the maniacal dynamiting of Bath Consolidated school Wednesday occurred quietly at St. Mary's Catholic church here when high mass was conducted for Mrs. Agnes Ellen Kehoe, murdered wife of the man held responsible for a toll of 44 lives. Between 10 and 20 individual funerals and one or two double ceremonies were conducted Friday in townships bordering on Bath, the school that was both the cause which had joined the diminutive community for common construction of the school that was both the cause and the scene of an overwhelming grief. FEW ATTEND Services for Mrs. Kehoe, whose body was not found until Thursday, were conducted by Rev. Father J.W. O'Rafferty, with less than 100 relatives and friends of the deceased attending. It was conducted as quietly as possible with burial following in Mt. Hope cemetery, Lansing. Father O'Rafferty's brief sermon reflected the appalling nature of the tragedy caused by Mrs. Kehoe's husband, Andrew E. Kehoe, disgruntled treasurer of the Bath township school board. The sermon contained no direct reference to the disaster but closed significantly with the simply spoken words: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." NEAR ENCOUNTER As the funeral procession moved into the church and again as it emerged after the ceremony a near bodily encounter between news photographers and friends of the Kehoe family occurred. Even after the photographers retired to a second story window across the street from the church friends of the family entered the structure and protested. The list of injured still confined to hospitals totaled 38, 26 of whom were at Edward Sparrow hospital where the condition of four was said to be serious and 12 at St. Lawrence Hospital, all reported improved. Relief agencies appointed by Governor Fred W. Green to aid in rehabilitating the damage wrought at Bath were busy perfecting their organizations and receiving first contributions of funds. The Lansing Old School Boys' club donated $500 to equip a room at one of the hospitals in memory of the victims. COMPLETE PROBE. Officials of the state fire marshall's division who late Thursday completed a secret investigation into the cause of the explosion, announced their findings, expressing preliminary satisfaction that Kehoe, and Kehoe alone, was responsible for the disaster. "Our home is less than a quarter of a mile from the Kehoe farm", Lane said Howell testified. "When we heard the explosion at the school we rode over toward town and before we had gone more than a block we heard an explosion at the Kehoe farm. "When we came abreast of the Kehoe farm I noticed Kehoe standing by a small auto truck standing in the drive near the house. Flames were visible in the buildings. His face white with a wild look in his eyes, Kehoe came around the machine and said to us "'Boys, you are friends of mine and you'd better get out of here. You'd better go on down to the school house.'" Howell was satisfied he said, that Kehoe then knew what had happened at the school although he had apparently been at his farm house for some time. Other testimony taken at the inquiry likewise failed to substantiate the original reports that Kehoe was seen to run from the school shortly before the explosion, climb into his car and drive away, only to reappear a few minutes later. He was known to have been in the school at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, however, and in the vicinity after the explosion. USED ELECTRICITY The inquest also disclosed, according to Lane, that electricity alone was used at the school and the means of setting off the quarter ton of dynamite. Two batteries were found, a wrecked small alarm clock indicating a timing of the blast and equipment of the power plants which did not explode, revealed they had been electrically wired. Lane discounted the original stories that the original explosion at the school was set by a slow burning fuse, explaining it would have been difficult to connect such an apparatus with an electrical apparatus as state troopers found. Kehoe was an experienced man with electrical equipment, Lane said the inquiry revealed. BOX IS CLUE Efforts to learn where Kehoe obtained such a large supply of explosive were slowly bearing fruit. A board box in which he shipped records of the school board to a Lansing insurance agent proved the best clue with its stamped number "569". Queries sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture brought the following reply: "Your wire regarding box 569 here. Powder sent to R.E. Decker, Jackson, Mich., Oct. 2, 1925. No other shipments to Southern Michigan points." Decker is a Farm Bureau agent at Jackson. Authorities were endeavoring to locate him Friday.