|
The first mad bomber in U.S. soil, on May 18, 1927,
Andy blew up a school in Bath, Michigan, killing 45 people, 37 of them
children.
After detonating explosives he planted under the school,
"maniac bomber" Andrew Kehoe, a school board member and
treasurer and farmer, blew up his pickup truck, killing himself and the
Bath School superintendent.
"I don't remember hearing any noise, but I
remember flying in the air and seeing things fly between me and the sun,"
remembers AdaBelle McGonigal, then 11 and in the fifth grade. "But
I don't ever remember falling."
AdaBelle's ear was nearly torn off in the blast that
killed 38 of her classmates. Seven adults also died that day.
"Criminals are Made, Not Born.''
Kehoe painted this on a fence at his farm
Injured: 43+
Andrew Kehoe, a farmer who served as treasurer of the
local school board, was furious with new taxes levied to pay for the
then 5-year-old school. Kehoe was described by those who knew him as
"a surly and disliked character." He openly opposed the
creation of the consolidated school in 1924, believing it would create a
heavy tax burden.
For much of the spring in 1927, Kehoe strung wires and
hid dynamite in the basement of the 250-student school about 10 miles
northeast of Lansing. He was sble to do this because school
administrators thought Kehoe, known for his penny-pinching ways, was
doing odd jobs to save the school the expense of hiring an electrician.
Obviously that thought would return to haunt them.
Kehoe, not the most together person in the world, was
pushed over the edge when the mortgage on his farm was foreclosed. It
seems that by wiring up the school he was punishing Bath's citizens. In
particular the one's that had voted for the new tax, a tax that he
believed had left him with not enough money to keep paying the mortgage
of his farm.
So, A few minutes before 9:45 on May 18, 1927,
apparently a sunny May morning, Kehoe entered the school. Most students
were inside, finishing up exams the day before school was to recess for
the summer. It would seem he set a timing device for his 'gift' to the
townsfolk of Bath.
When Kehoe left, he was almost running. Two minutes
after he drove away, the north wing of the school exploded. A
malfunction kept more than 500 pounds of dynamite in the rest of the
school from detonating, but what did go off tore through glass, wood and
bricks, leveling the south wing. One can only imagine what would have
happened if the whole lot had blown. If only he had double checked all
his wiring.
As parents and residents rushed toward the blast,
Kehoe drove back into the school yard. He motioned school Superintendent
Emory Huyck, a man he despised more than any other, over to his car,
spoke to him briefly, then aimed a shot from his gun into the back seat,
setting off more dynamite.
By the time the roar from the two explosions faded, 38
children, the town's postmaster, a retired farmer, the superintendent,
two teachers and Kehoe himself were dead.
The next morning, the body of Kehoe's wife was found
at his farm. He had apparently killed her the morning of the blast. His
house and six outbuildings on his farm had burned, set afire by
explosions he'd programmed to go off after he left for the school.
Today, a granite stone with the engraved names of the
victims rests next to a green plaque that tells the story of the
explosion. The park with the markers is on the site of the old school.
Also in this park is the cupola that once sat atop the Bath Consolidated
School, its red roof topped with a small spire.
Across the street are the schools built since the
blast. Newspaper accounts of the explosion are displayed near the middle
school auditorium.
Bath School survivor: You never forget
April 22, 1999
By Eric Johnson
DETROIT, April 22 (UPI) In the wake of the Colorado
killings, an elderly survivor of the worst school massacre on U.S. soil
is speaking publicly about her experience for the first time.
In an interview with UPI today, 85-year-old M.
Josephine Vail described painful memories of the 1927 explosion that
killed 45 people _ 38 children and seven adults at the Bath School in
Bath, Mich., about 100 miles west of Detroit. Vail says she vividly
remembers "the loud explosion and kids hollering . . . You never
forget."
Vail was 13 years old when a local farmer with a
grudge used dynamite to blow up the two-story building. She was injured
and her 7-year-old brother, Ralph, was killed.
Vail survived because she was outside the building.
Her leg was hit by shrapnel when the bomber, Andrew Kehoe, detonated his
dynamite-packed pickup truck minutes after the school exploded. The
truck blast killed Kehoe and two other men who were trying to stop him.
Before destroying the school, Kehoe killed his wife
and burned their farmhouse.
Vail remembers Kehoe as a former school board
treasurer who was "real friendly" and often greeted children
outside the school.
But Kehoe clashed with the school superintendent and
other board members. And he was angry about the taxes on his farm that
helped pay for the school, built just four years before the blast.
Vail says her father was among those who rushed to the
bloody scene to retrieve bodies, help the 58 injured and remove "bushels
of dynamite" that did not detonate. She says body parts were
scattered around the site.
That day Vail says she was excused from classes. But
she had accompanied her little brother to the building "so he
wouldn't be lonely." She did not go inside because he was afraid of
being teased.
Like other local survivors, Vail says the memories
have been too painful to discuss publicly. But this week's deaths at a
Colorado high school moved her to speak.
Springtime is especially difficult. The Bath School
exploded on May 18, and she says "it always bothers me this time of
year."
When asked what comfort she could offer to the victims'
families in Colorado, Vail said "You gotta just have faith, you
gotta be strong and go on, and take care of other people."
She says survivors of the Columbine school rampage
"will never forget it in their lifetime, but they just gotta go on."
A memorial plaque now stands at the explosion site.
Vail says, "I don't like to go down there."
The Bath School disaster was a
series of bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927,
which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children
in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. The
bombings comprised the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S.
history, claiming more than three times as many victims as the Columbine
High School massacre.
The perpetrator was school board
member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had
been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed
the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure
proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to
plan his attack.
On the morning of May 18, Kehoe first
killed his wife and then set his farm buildings on fire. As fire
fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion rocked the north wing of the
school building, killing many of the people inside. Kehoe used a
detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he
had secretly planted inside the school over the course of many months.
As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped,
and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself
and the school superintendent and killing and injuring several others.
During the rescue efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds
(230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol planted throughout the
basement of the school's south wing.
Background
Bath Township
Bath Township is a small community
located ten miles northeast of Lansing, Michigan, and contains the
unincorporated village of Bath. In the early 1920s, the area was
primarily agricultural. In 1922 Bath voters voted to form a district for
the purpose of funding and constructing a consolidated school. There
were 236 students enrolled when the school opened, ranging from the
first to twelfth grades.
The early part of the 20th century saw
the disappearance of many small one-room schools, where different grades
shared the same classroom and teacher. Educators of the era believed
that children would receive a better and more complete education if
students could attend a single school at one location. The grades could
be age-divided into classes, and the facilities could be of a higher
quality. After years of debate, when Bath Township created the district,
it raised property taxes to pay for the project. As a result, new taxes
were imposed on landowners, including Andrew Kehoe.
Andrew Kehoe
Andrew Kehoe was born in Tecumseh,
Michigan, on February 1, 1872, in a family of thirteen children. Kehoe's
mother died when he was young, and his father remarried. Reportedly,
Kehoe often fought with his stepmother. When Kehoe was fourteen, the
family's stove exploded as she was attempting to light it. The oil
fueling the stove soaked her, and the flames set her on fire. Andrew
watched his stepmother burn for a few minutes before dumping a bucket of
water on her. She later died from the injuries. The stove malfunction
was left unresolved, and Kehoe was not charged.
Kehoe attended Tecumseh High School
and Michigan State College (later Michigan State University), where he
met his wife, Ellen "Nellie" Price, daughter of a wealthy Lansing
family. Married in 1912, they moved around until 1919, when the couple
bought a 185-acre (75-hectare) farm outside the village of Bath from
Nellie's aunt for $12,000, paying $6,000 in cash and taking out a $6,000
mortgage.
Kehoe was regarded by his neighbors as an intelligent man who
grew impatient with those who disagreed with him. Neighbors recalled
that Kehoe was always neat, dressed meticulously, and was known to
change his shirt at midday or whenever it became even slightly dirty.
Neighbors also recounted how Kehoe was cruel to his farm animals, having
once beaten a horse to death.
Kehoe's neighbors were not impressed
by the level of his farming ability. As neighbor M.J. "Monty" Ellsworth
wrote, "He never farmed it as other farmers do and he tried to do
everything with his tractor. He was in the height of his glory when
fixing machinery or tinkering. He was always trying new methods in his
work, for instance, hitching two mowers behind his tractor. This method
at different times did not work and he would just leave the hay
standing. He also put four sections of drag and two rollers at once
behind his tractor. He spent so much time tinkering that he didn't
prosper."
With a reputation for thriftiness,
Kehoe was elected treasurer of the Bath Consolidated School board in
1924. While on the board, Kehoe fought endlessly for lower taxes. He
blamed the previous property tax levy for his family's poor financial
condition, and repeatedly accused superintendent Emory Huyck of
financial mismanagement.
While on the school board, Kehoe was appointed
the Bath Township Clerk in 1925, but was unsuccessful at retaining this
position in the election later that year. During this time Nellie Kehoe
was chronically ill with tuberculosis, and her frequent hospital stays
may have played a role in putting the family into debt. At the time of
the bombing, Kehoe had ceased making mortgage and homeowner's insurance
payments, and the mortgage lender had begun foreclosure proceedings
against the farm.
Purchase and
planting of explosives
There is no clear indication as to
when Kehoe conceived and planned the steps leading to the ultimate
events. A subsequent investigation concluded that, based upon the
activity at the school and the purchases of explosives, his plan had
likely been underway for at least a year.
In the winter of 1926, the board asked
Kehoe to perform maintenance inside the school building. Regarded by
most as a talented handyman, he was known to be familiar with electrical
equipment. As a board member appointed to conduct repairs, he had free
access to the building and his presence was never questioned.
Beginning in the summer of 1926, Kehoe
purchased over a ton of pyrotol, an incendiary introduced in World War
I. Farmers during the era used the substance for excavation. In November
1926, Kehoe drove to Lansing and purchased two boxes of dynamite at a
sporting goods store.
Dynamite was also commonly used on farms, and
Kehoe's purchase of small amounts of dynamite and pyrotol at different
stores and on different dates did not raise any suspicions. Neighbors
reported hearing explosions set off on the farm, as well as recalling
conversations where Kehoe explained he was using dynamite for tree stump
removal.
The day of
the disaster
There were a few warning signs prior
to the events. Kehoe passed out employee paychecks the prior week and
told bus driver Warden Keyes, "My boy, you want to take good care of
that check as it is probably the last check you will ever get." Teacher
Bernice Sterling telephoned Kehoe two days before the blast and asked to
use his grove for a class picnic. Kehoe told her that if she "wanted a
picnic she would better have it at once."
Prior to May 18, Kehoe had loaded the
back seat of his car with metal debris. He threw in old tools, nails,
pieces of rusted farm machinery, digging shovels, and anything else
capable of producing shrapnel during an explosion. After the back seat
was filled, Kehoe placed a large cache of dynamite behind the front seat
and a loaded rifle on the passenger's seat.
Records at Lansing's St. Lawrence
Hospital reflected that Nellie Kehoe had been discharged on May 16.
Between her release and the bombing two days later, Kehoe killed Nellie
by what was later determined to be blunt force trauma to the head with
some unknown heavy object. Her body was found in a wheelbarrow located
in the rear of the farm's chicken coop.
Piled around the cart were
silverware, jewels and a metal cash box. Ashes of several bank notes
could be seen through a slit in the cash box. Kehoe had completely wired
the farm, and inside every building he inserted homemade pyrotol
firebombs. Farm animals were found tied up in their enclosures,
apparently to ensure their deaths in the subsequent fire.
At approximately 8:45 a.m., Kehoe
detonated the firebombs. The neighbors noticed the fire, and volunteer
fire departments from all over the area began rushing to the scene. At
9:45 a.m. an explosion was heard from the school building. Rescuers
heading to the scene of the Kehoe fire turned back and headed toward the
school. Parents within the rural community also began rushing to the
school.
First-grade teacher Bernice Sterling
recounted the explosion to an Associated Press reporter as being like a
terrible earthquake. "It seemed as though the floor went up several
feet", she said. "After the first shock I thought for a moment I was
blind. When it came the air seemed to be full of children and flying
desks and books. Children were tossed high in the air; some were
catapulted out of the building."
The north wing of the school had
collapsed. Parts of the walls had crumbled, and the edge of the roof had
fallen to the ground. Monty Ellsworth, a neighbor of the Kehoes
recounted, "There was a pile of children of about five or six under the
roof and some of them had arms sticking out, some had legs, and some
just their heads sticking out. They were unrecognizable because they
were covered with dust, plaster, and blood. There were not enough of us
to move the roof." Ellsworth volunteered to drive back to his farm and
obtain the heavy rope from his slaughterhouse needed to pull the
structure off the children's bodies.
On the way back to his farm, Ellsworth
reported seeing Kehoe in his car heading in the opposite direction
toward the school. "He grinned and waved his hand; when he grinned, I
could see both rows of his teeth," said Ellsworth.
The scene at the school building was
chaotic. One witness, Robert Gates, recounted how "mother after mother
came running into the school yard, and demanded information about her
child and, on seeing the lifeless form lying on the lawn, broke into
sobs. In no time more than 100 men were at work tearing away the debris
of the school, and nearly as many women were frantically pawing over the
timber and broken bricks for traces of their children."
About a half hour after the explosion,
Kehoe drove up to the school and saw Superintendent Huyck. Kehoe
summoned the superintendent over to his vehicle. According to one
eyewitness, when Huyck drew close, Kehoe pulled out his rifle and fired
into the back seat. Whether by gunshot or otherwise, the dynamite in the
vehicle ignited and the resulting explosion killed Kehoe, the
superintendent, Postmaster Glenn O. Smith, and Smith's father-in-law
Nelson McFarren, a retired farmer. Cleo Claton, an eight-year-old second
grader, had wandered out of the collapsed school building and was killed
by the shrapnel from the exploding vehicle. Several others were injured
as the shrapnel flew through the crowd.
After Kehoe's car exploded, Ellsworth
recounted that "I saw one mother, Mrs. Eugene Hart, sitting on the bank
a short distance from the school with a little dead girl on each side of
her and holding a little boy, Percy, who died a short time after they
got him to the hospital. This was about the time Kehoe blew his car up
in the street, severely wounding Perry, the oldest child of Mr. and Mrs.
Hart."
O.H. Buck, foreman of the road crew,
recalled the scene after the final explosion: "I began to feel as though
the world was coming to an end. I guess I was a bit hazy. Anyway, the
next thing I remember I was out on the street. One of our men was
binding up the wounds of Glenn Smith, the postmaster. His leg had been
blown off. I went back to the building and helped with the rescue work
until we were ordered to stop while a search was made for dynamite."
Telephone operators stayed at their
stations for hours to summon doctors, undertakers, area hospitals and
anyone else who might help. The Lansing Fire Department sent three men
and the city's chemical truck.
The local physician was Dr. J.A. Crum.
He and his wife, a nurse, had both served in World War I, and they had
returned to Bath to open a pharmacy. After the explosion the Crums
turned their drugstore into a triage center. The dead were removed to
the town hall, now converted into a morgue. Private citizens were
enlisted to use their automobiles as additional ambulances to take
survivors and family members to area hospitals. By the afternoon some 13
ambulances were at the township hall to transport the dead to
undertakers.
Hundreds of people worked in the
wreckage all day in an effort to find and rescue the children pinned
underneath. Area contractors had sent all their men to assist, and many
ordinary people came to the scene in response to the pleas for help.
Eventually, 34 firefighters and the Chief of the Lansing Fire Department
arrived on the scene, as did several Michigan State Police officers, who
managed traffic to and from the scene.
The injured and dying were
transported to Sparrow Hospital and St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing.
The construction of the latter facility had been financed in large part
by Lawrence Price, Nellie Kehoe's uncle and formerly an executive in
charge of Oldsmobile's Lansing Car Assembly.
Michigan Governor Fred Green arrived
during the afternoon of the disaster and assisted in the relief work,
carting bricks away from the scene. The Lawrence Baking Company of
Lansing sent a truck filled with pies and sandwiches, which were served
to rescuers in the township's community hall.
The bombing had destroyed the north
wing of the school. During the search rescuers found an additional 500
pounds (230 kg) of dynamite Kehoe had placed in the south wing, which
had failed to detonate. The search was halted to allow the Michigan
State Police to disarm the devices. After this was completed and a sweep
of the building made, the recovery efforts recommenced.
In the south wing, the State Police
found unexploded materials along with an alarm clock timed to go off at
9:45 a.m., the same time as the explosion went off in the north wing.
The reason why these explosives failed to detonate could never be
conclusively determined. Investigators speculated that the initial
explosion may have caused a short circuit in the second set of bombs.
Police and fire officials also
gathered at the Kehoe farm to investigate the fires. It was not until
the following day, May 19, that investigators identified Nellie Kehoe's
charred body among the ruins of the farm. The body was so disfigured it
went unnoticed by hundreds who walked past it the previous day.
All the Kehoe farm buildings were
destroyed, and the animals trapped inside the barn had perished.
Ironically, the amount of unused equipment and materials on the farm
could have easily paid off the Kehoes' mortgage. Investigators found a
wooden sign wired to the farm's fence with Kehoe's last message, "CRIMINALS
ARE MADE, NOT BORN,"
written on it.
Aftermath
The American Red Cross, setting up
operations at the Crum drugstore, took the lead in providing aid and
comfort to the victims. The Lansing Red Cross headquarters were kept
open until 11:30 that night to answer telephone calls, update the list
of dead and injured and provide information and planning services for
the following day.
The Red Cross also managed donations
sent to pay for both the medical expenses of the survivors and the
burial costs of the deceased. In a few short weeks, $5,284.15 was raised
through donations, including $2,500 from the Clinton County board of
supervisors and $2,000 from the Michigan legislature. Unlike the
Columbine High School massacre, there was no legislative response,
either by the state or federal governments, aimed at preventing a
recurrence, although pyrotol was quietly taken off the market.
Over the next few days there were
multiple funerals, with the most, eighteen, held on Saturday, May 22.
The disaster had made the front pages of national newspapers until news
of Charles Lindbergh's completion of the first solo transatlantic flight
broke on May 23, 1927.
Vehicles from outlying areas and
surrounding states descended upon Bath by the thousands. Over 100,000
vehicles passed through on Saturday alone, an enormous amount of traffic
for the area. Some Bath citizens regarded this armada as an unwarranted
intrusion into their time of grief, but most accepted it as a show of
sympathy and support from surrounding communities. The Ku Klux Klan
interjected that the Roman Catholic Kehoe's actions were the result of
his adherence to the stance of the Roman Catholic Church against
"Protestant or godless schools".
Coroner's
inquest
The coroner arrived at the scene on
the day of disaster and swore in six community leaders to serve as an
investigative jury. A coroner's inquest into the matter was held the
following week. Dozens of Bath citizens and law enforcement personnel
testified before the jury, and the Clinton County Prosecutor conducted
the examination. Although there was never any doubt that Kehoe was the
perpetrator, the jury was asked to determine if the school board or its
employees were guilty of criminal negligence.
Kehoe's neighbor Sidney J. Howell
testified that after the fire began, Kehoe warned him and three boys to
leave the farm, telling them, "Boys, you're my friends. You'd better get
out of here and go to the school house." Three telephone linemen working
near Bath testified that after first going to the farm and then to the
school, Kehoe passed them en route, and they saw him reach the school
right before them. Kehoe's car swerved to the right and stopped in front
of the building.
In the next instant, according to the linemen, the car
blew up, and one of them was struck by shrapnel. This testimony
contradicted statements from others that Kehoe paused after stopping and
called Superintendent Huyck over before blowing up the vehicle.
After more than a week of testimony,
the jury exonerated the school board and its employees. In its verdict
the jury concluded that Kehoe "conducted himself sanely and so concealed
his operations that there was no cause to suspicion any of his actions;
and we further find that the school board, and Frank Smith, janitor of
the school building, were not negligent in and about their duties, and
were not guilty of any negligence in not discovering Kehoe's plan."
The inquest determined that Kehoe
murdered Superintendent Emory Huyck on the morning of May 18. It was
also the jury's verdict that the school was blown up as part of a plan
and that Kehoe alone, without the aid of conspirators, murdered 43
people in total, including his wife Nellie. Suicide was adjudicated to
be the cause of Andrew Kehoe's death.
Kehoe's body was eventually claimed by
his sister. Without ceremony, he was buried in an unmarked grave in an
initially unnamed cemetery. Later, it was revealed that Kehoe was buried
in the paupers' section of Mt. Rest Cemetery, St. Johns, in Clinton
County. Nellie Kehoe was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing by her
family under her maiden name of Price.
On August 22, some three months after
the bombing, fourth-grader Beatrice Gibbs died following hip surgery.
She was counted as the 45th and final death directly attributable to the
Bath School disaster.
Rebuilding
Governor Fred Green created the Bath
Relief Fund with the money supplied by donors and the state and local
governments. Numerous people from around the country donated to the
fund. The school board began a separate fund for the repair of the
school building.
School resumed on September 5, 1927,
and, for the 1927–28 school year, was held in the community hall,
township hall, and two retail buildings. Most of the students returned.
The board appointed O. M. Brant of Luther, Michigan, to succeed Huyck as
superintendent. Lansing architect Warren Holmes donated construction
plans, and the school board approved the contracts for the new building
on September 14. On September 15, Michigan's United States Senator James
Couzens presented his personal check for $75,000 to the Bath
construction fund to build the new school.
In
1928, artist Carlton W. Angell presented the board with a statue titled
"Girl With a Kitten." The statue is presently in the Bath School Museum
located within the school district's middle school, adjacent to the site
of the destroyed building. Angell's inscription states that it is
dedicated to the courage and determination of the people of Bath. The
sculpture was financed by penny donations from young students from the
state of Michigan. It was rumored that the donated pennies were melted
down to make the cast of the statue.
The board demolished the damaged
portion of the school and constructed a new wing with the donated funds.
The "James Couzens Agricultural School" was dedicated on August 18,
1928. In 1975 the Couzens building was demolished and a small park
dedicated to the victims replaced it. At the center of the park is the
cupola of the building, the only part preserved. At the park entrance, a
bronze plaque affixed to a white boulder bears the names of the adults
and children killed.
References
Ellsworth, M.J. (1928). The
Bath School Disaster.
LC Control Number: 29010236.
Gado,
Mark (2005). Crime Library:
Hell Comes to Bath.
Parker, Grant (1992).
Mayday, History of a Village Holocaust.
ISBN 0960495800.
Pawlak, Debra (2000).
Mediadrome: Just Another Summer Day.
Wilkins, Gene H. (2002).
The Bath School Disaster, May 18, 1927.
ASIN B0006RW8CU.
Chronology of
deaths in the disaster
Died before the bombings
1. Nellie Kehoe,
age 52, wife of Andrew Kehoe.
Killed in the
school bombing
2. Arnold V.
Bauerle, age 8, third grade student.
3. Henry Bergan,
age 14, sixth grade student.
4. Herman Bergan
age 11, fourth grade student.
5. Emilie M.
Bromundt, age 11, fifth grade student.
6. Robert F.
Bromundt, age 12, fifth grade student.
7. Floyd E.
Burnett, age 12, sixth grade student.
8. Russell J.
Chapman, age 8, fourth grade student.
9. F. Robert
Cochran, age 8, third grade student.
10. Ralph A.
Cushman, age 7, third grade student.
11. Earl E.
Ewing, age 11, sixth grade student.
12. Katherine O.
Foote, age 10, sixth grade student.
13. Margory
Fritz, age 9, fourth grade student.
14. Carlyle W.
Geisenhaver, age 9, fourth grade student.
15. George P.
Hall Jr., age 8, third grade student.
16. Willa M.
Hall, age 11, fifth grade student.
17. Iola I.
Hart, age 12, sixth grade student.
18. Percy E.
Hart, age 11, third grade student.
19. Vivian O.
Hart, age 8, third grade student.
20. Blanche E.
Harte, age 30, fifth grade teacher.
21. Gailand L.
Harte, age 12, sixth grade student.
22. LaVere R.
Harte, age 9, fourth grade student.
23. Stanley H.
Harte, age 12, sixth grade student.
24. Francis O.
Hoeppner, age 13, sixth grade student.
25. Cecial L.
Hunter, age 13, sixth grade student.
26. Doris E.
Johns, age 8, third grade student.
27. Thelma I.
MacDonald, age 8, third grade student.
28. Clarence W.
McFarren, age 13, sixth grade student.
29. J. Emerson
Medcoff, age 8, fourth grade student.
30. Emma A.
Nickols, age 13, sixth grade student.
31. Richard D.
Richardson, age 12, sixth grade student.
32. Elsie M.
Robb, age 12, sixth grade student.
33. Pauline M.
Shirts, age 10, fifth grade student.
34. Hazel I.
Weatherby, age 21, teacher.
35. Elizabeth J.
Witchell, age 10, fifth grade student.
36. Lucile J.
Witchell, age 9, fifth grade student.
37. Harold L.
Woodman, age 8, third grade student.
38. George O.
Zimmerman, age 10, third grade student.
39. Lloyd
Zimmerman, age 12, fifth grade student.
Killed by
explosion of Kehoe's car
40. G. Cleo
Claton, age 8, second grade student.
41. Emory E.
Huyck, age 33, superintendent.
42. Andrew P.
Kehoe, age 55, Bath School Board/perpetrator.
43. Nelson
McFarren, age 74, retired farmer.
44. Glenn O.
Smith, age 33, Postmaster.
Died later due
to injuries from bombing
45. Beatrice P.
Gibbs, age 10, fourth grade student.
|