Andrew Philip Kehoe

Mass Murderer. He was responsible for the series of bombings made on May 18, 1927, in Bath Township, Michigan that killed forty-four people, mostly school children, and injured fifty-eight others. He was the Bath Township School Board Treasurer, the building's maintenance man and school bus driver when he was not working his farm. He was interested in explosives and had been involved with them in the military. Kehoe became angry over the increase in school taxes which be blamed for his financial woes. It is believed his act was caused when he became obsessed with a desire for revenge on the School Board. On the day of the massacre he used hundreds of pounds of dynamite and wire to blow up the school. Most of his victims were all the school-age children of the very small community. Earlier in that same morning he had also murdered his wife, Nellie and blew up his house and barn. He then drove the school bus with many of the students to school. When he dropped them off, he was heard to say, "Well kids, this is your last day." He then went home and, after the initial explosion, drove to the school where he then called three prominent community men over to his truck and blew it up, killing himself and 4 more people, which included the School Superintendent, Emory Hyuck, whom he hated. There was no mass nor mourners at his burial, as he was childless. His wife was buried separately in another cemetery under her maiden name. This disaster remains as the worst attack upon a school in the history of the United States.