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Rachel Kehoe Biography & Facts

The Bath School disaster, also known as the Bath School massacre, was a series of violent attacks perpetrated by Andrew Kehoe upon the Bath Consolidated School in Bath Charter Township, Michigan, United States, on May 18, 1927. The attacks killed 38 children and 6 adults, and injured at least 58 other people. Prior to the explosions at the school, Kehoe had murdered his wife, Nellie Price Kehoe, and firebombed his farm. Arriving at the site of the school explosion, Kehoe died when he set off explosives concealed in his truck. Kehoe, the 55-year-old school board treasurer, was angered by increased taxes and his defeat in the April 5, 1926, election for township clerk. It was thought by locals that he planned his "murderous revenge" following this public defeat. Kehoe had a reputation for being difficult, on the school board and in personal dealings. In addition, he was notified in June 1926 that his mortgage was going to be foreclosed upon. For much of the next year, Kehoe purchased explosives and secretly hid them on his property and under the school. On the day of the disaster, Kehoe set off explosions at his farmstead and at the Bath Consolidated School, destroying his farm and ripping through the north wing of the school. As rescue efforts began, Kehoe drove up to the schoolyard in his shrapnel-filled truck and triggered a second explosion, killing himself and four others, as well as injuring bystanders. During the rescue and recovery efforts, searchers discovered a further 500 pounds (230 kg) of explosives under the south wing of the school that had been set to go off simultaneously with the initial explosion. Kehoe had apparently intended to destroy the entire school, and everyone in it. Background Bath Township Bath Charter Township is a civil township located 10 miles (16 km) northeast of the city of Lansing in the U.S. state of Michigan. The township covers 31 square miles (80 km2) and the small unincorporated village of Bath is within its borders. The township itself lies within Clinton County, Michigan, an area of some 566 square miles (1,470 km2). In the early 1920s the area was primarily agricultural. After years of debate, Bath Township voters approved the creation of a consolidated school district in 1922, along with an increase in township property taxes to pay for a new school. When the school opened, it had 236 students enrolled from grade 1 to grade 12. The school's creation was controversial, but Monty Ellsworth wrote in his book about the disaster that consolidated schools had great advantages over the smaller rural schools they replaced. All landowners within the township area had to pay higher ad valorem property taxes. At the time of the bombing, Bath Township had about 300 adult residents. Andrew Kehoe Andrew Philip Kehoe was born in Tecumseh, Michigan, on February 1, 1872, into a family of thirteen children and attended the local high school. After graduating he studied electrical engineering at Michigan State College in East Lansing and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as an electrician for several years. At some point during this period, Kehoe suffered a head injury in a fall and was semi-conscious or in a coma for a period of several weeks. He later returned to Michigan and his father's farm. After his mother's death, Kehoe's father married a much younger widow, Frances Wilder, and a daughter was born. On September 17, 1911, as his stepmother attempted to light the family's oil stove, it exploded and set her on fire. Kehoe threw a bucket of water on her, but the fire was oil-based and his action spread the flames more rapidly, which engulfed and immolated her body. The injuries were fatal and she died the next day. Some of Kehoe's later neighbors in Bath Township believed that he had caused the stove explosion. Kehoe married Ellen "Nellie" Price in 1912, at the age of 40. Seven years later they moved to a farm outside Bath Township. Kehoe was said to be dependable, doing favors and volunteer work for his neighbors. He was also described as being notoriously impatient with any disagreement; he had shot and killed a neighbor's dog that had come on his property and annoyed him by barking. He had also beaten one of his horses to death when it did not perform to his expectations. Kehoe had a reputation for frugality, and was elected in 1924 as a trustee on the school board for three years and treasurer for one year. He argued strongly for lower taxes, and later superintendent of the board M. W. Keyes said that he "fought the expenditure of money for the most necessary equipment". Kehoe was considered difficult to work with, often voting against the rest of the board, wanting his own way and arguing with the township financial authorities. He protested that he paid too much in taxes and tried to get the valuation of his property reduced so he would pay less. In 1922, the Bath Township school tax was $12.26 for every $1000 valuation of a property, with the valuation on Kehoe's farm being $10,000 (equivalent to $182,028 in 2023). In 1923 the school board raised the tax to $18.80 per thousand dollar valuation and in 1926 the taxes went up to $19.80. This meant that Kehoe's tax liability went from $122.60 in 1922 (equivalent to $2,232 in 2023) to $198.00 in 1926 (equivalent to $3,408 in 2023). In June 1926 Kehoe was notified that the widow of his wife's uncle, who held the mortgage on his property, had begun foreclosure proceedings. Following the disaster, the local sheriff who had served the foreclosure notice reported that Kehoe had muttered, "If it hadn't been for that $300 school tax I might have paid off this mortgage". Mrs. Price, the mortgage holder, also reported that Kehoe had stated, "If I can't live in that house, no one else will", when she had mentioned foreclosure to him. Kehoe was appointed in 1925 as temporary town clerk, but he was defeated in the April 5, 1926, election for that office. This public rejection by the community angered him. Ellsworth speculated that this defeat triggered Kehoe's desire for "murderous revenge", using the bombings to destroy the Bath Consolidated School and kill the community's children and many of its members. In Bath Massacre - America's First School Bombing, Arnie Bernstein cites Robert D. Hare's Psychopathy Checklist and says that Kehoe "fits the profile all too well". Carnegie Mellon University's Dr. Mary Ellen O'Toole, head of CMU's Department of Forensic Science, has stated that Kehoe could be described as an "injustice collector", meaning someone who obsessively collects perceived slights along with their personal misfortunes, latching on to these feelings of persecution until the individual feels forced to lash out. Kehoe's neighbor A. McMullen noted that Kehoe had stopped working on his farm altogether for most of the preceding year, and he had speculated that Kehoe was planning suicide. Kehoe had given him one of his horses about April 1927, but McMullen returned i.... Discover the Rachel Kehoe popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rachel Kehoe books.