Andrew Kehoe: Difference between revisions

| causeknown_for = Perpetrator of =the [[Suicide attack|SuicideBath bySchool explosivesdisaster]]

| motive = Inconclusive{{efn|Potential motives include:

*[[Revenge]] for perceived social and political slights<ref name="ellsworth ch 1">{{cite book |date=1991 |last=Ellsworth |first=Monty J. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003118919 |chapter= Chapter One – The Bath Consolidated School |title=The Bath School Disaster |orig-date=First published 1927 |publisher=Bath School Museum Committee |edition=1991 online |oclc=6743232 |access-date=April 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024231535/http://daggy.name/tbsd/tbsd-t.htm#ChapterOne|archive-date=October 24, 2017|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref name="ellsworth ch 5">{{cite book |date=1991 |orig-date=First published 1927 |last=Ellsworth |first=Monty J. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003118919 |chapter=Chapter Five – Made Own Troubles |title=The Bath School Disaster |publisher=Bath School Museum Committee |edition=1991 online |oclc=6743232|access-date=April 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024231535/http://daggy.name/tbsd/tbsd-t.htm#ChapterFive|archive-date=October 24, 2017|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

*Financial difficulties combined with ana dangerous injustice collector personality{{efn|Mary Ellen O'Toole in her article in the journal ''Violence and Gender'' makes a clear distinction between a nonagressive injustice collector and a dangerous injustice collector. "But, in a threat assessment context, being able to distinguish between the nonaggressive injustice collector and the dangerous injustice collector is important. Here is what I believe is the distinction: Dangerous injustice collectors have at least one incident in their past when they reacted to a real or perceived injustice in a manner that was (1) disproportionate to the original event and (2) aggressive."}}<ref name="otoole Injust Cltr">{{cite journal |first=Mary Ellen |last=O'Toole |date=September 2014 |title=The dangerous injustice collector: Behaviors of someone who never forgets, never forgives, never lets go, and strikes back! |doi=10.1089/vio.2014.1509 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=97–99 |url= https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/vio.2014.1509|journal=Violence and Gender |publisher=Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. |location=Rochefort, New York |archive-date=June 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609210644/https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/vio.2014.1509 |url-status=live}}</ref>

| fatalities = *45 people (includingIncluding himself){{refn|group=Note|38 people were killed in the school bombing, 5 in the truck bombing (including Kehoe). He killed his wife at their farm sometime before the mass casualties and a 44th victim initially survived the school bombing but later died in the hospital.}}

[[Bolt action|Bolt-action rifle]]:

* [[Winchester Model 54]] ([[.30-06 Springfield|.30-06]])

'''Andrew Philip Kehoe''' (February 1, 1872 – May 18, 1927) was an American [[mass murderermurder]]er. Kehoe was a [[Michigan]] farmer who became disgruntled after losing reelection as treasurer of the [[Bath Township, Michigan|Bath Township]] [[school board]]. He subsequently murdered his wife and then detonated bombs at the Bath Consolidated School on May 18, 1927, resulting in the [[Bath School disaster]] in which 44 people{{refn|group=Note|38 children and 6 adults}} were killed and 58 more people were injured. Kehoe killed himself near the school by detonating [[dynamite]] in his truck, causingkilling anhimself explosion which killedand several other people and woundedwounding more. He had earlier set off [[incendiary device]]s in his house and around his farm, destroying all the buildings. The event remains the deadliest act of mass murder at an American school.

After college, Kehoe went southwest, apparently working for several years as an electrician in [[St. Louis, Missouri]]. During this period, in 1911, he suffered a severe head injury in a fall<ref name="Mayo2008">{{cite book |first = Mike |last = Mayo |title = American Murder: Criminals, Crime, and the Media |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=L1uj6s-d44UC&pg=PA175 |page = 175 |access-date = May 3, 2020 |date = 2008 |publisher = Visible Ink Press |location=Detroit, Michigan|isbn = 978-1-57859-191-6 }}</ref> whichand resulted in him beingwas in a coma for two weeks.<ref name="BernsteinInterview">{{cite web |title = Interview with Arnie Bernstein |url = https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472116065_qa.pdf |location = Ann Arbor, Michigan |publisher = [[University of Michigan Press]] |access-date = August 4, 2017 |date = 2009 |quote = ...{{nbsp}}an accident that put him in a coma for two weeks }}</ref>

Kehoe then moved back in with his father after the injury. During Kehoe's time away his mother had died and his father had married Frances Wilder, whom Kehoe did not like.<ref name="BernsteinInterview" /> On September 17, 1911, Frances was severely burned when the family's stove exploded as she was attempting to light it. The fuel soaked her, with her body catching fire. Kehoe threw water from a nearby bucket on her; due to the oil-based nature of the fire, the water did nothing to put the flames out. Frances latersoon died from her injuries, with allegations being made that the stove had been tampered with.<ref name="Bernstein ch2">{{cite book |first = Arnie |last = Bernstein |year = 2009 |title = Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing |chapter = Chapter Two: Andrew P. Kehoe |location = Ann Arbor, Michigan|publisher = [[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn = 978-0-472-11606-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title = Frances Kehoe Death Certificate |url = http://seekingmichigan.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p129401coll7/id/378196/rec/88 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170805100641/http://seekingmichigan.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p129401coll7/id/378196/rec/88 |archive-date = August 5, 2017 |via = Michigan History Foundation |access-date = May 31, 2017 |date = September 19, 1911 }}</ref>{{refn|group=Note|Monty Ellsworth's version of these events in ''The Bath School Disaster'' incorrectly differs on one detail—he says that the fire happened when Kehoe was 14 but agrees with other sources on points of fact. He does mention the rumors that the stove was tampered with.<ref name="Ellsworth1927_3">{{cite book |orig-date=First published 1927 |url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003118919 |chapter= Chapter Three — Life of Andrew Kehoe |date=1991 |title = The Bath School Disaster |last = Ellsworth |first = Monty J.|publisher = Bath School Museum Committee |edition = Online |access-date = January 31, 2020 |url-status = usurped |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171024231535/http://daggy.name/tbsd/tbsd-t.htm#ChapterThree |archive-date = October 24, 2017 |via = Daggy Space m}}</ref>}}

After his return to Michigan, in 1912 he married Nellie Price. In 1919 the couple bought a {{convert|185|acre|ha|adj=on}} farm outside the village of [[Bath Township, Michigan|Bath]]<ref name="ellsworth ch 1"/><ref name="mayday p 27">{{cite book |last = Parker |first = Grant |date = 1992 |chapter=Chapter VI: Challenge |title = Mayday, History of a Village Holocaust |pages = 23–31 |publisher = Liberty Press |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/B-001-002-145/page/n35/mode/2up |location=Springville, Utah|isbn = 0-9604958-0-0 }}</ref>{{rp|27}} from Nellie's aunt for $12,000 (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|12000|1912|r=-3}}}} in {{inflation-year|US}}{{inflation-fn|US}}). He paid $6,000 in cash and took out a $6,000 [[Mortgage loan|mortgage]].<ref name="mayday p 27"/>{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/B-001-002001–002-145/page/n37/mode/2up 28]}}

Kehoe was regarded by his neighbors as a highly intelligent man who grew impatient and angry 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.<ref name="Ellsworth1927_3"/> The Kehoes initially attended services at the [[Catholic]] church in Bath, but he refused to pay the church's parish assessment of members and later prevented his wife from attending.<ref name="Ellsworth1927_3"/>

{{quoteblockquote|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 did not work at different times 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.<ref name="Ellsworth1927_3"/>}}

Recent analysis labelsidentifies himKehoe aby the term "dangerous "injustice collectorcollector”:" a person who remembers slights and holds a grudge for a long time. While many people may hold grudges, it becomes dangerous when a person begins to feel like a victim and lashes out.<ref name="otoole Injust Cltr"/>

During these years, Nellie Kehoe was chronically ill with [[tuberculosis]], and had frequent hospital stays—at the time there was no effective treatment or cure for the disease. By the time of the Bath School disaster, Kehoe had ceased making mortgage and [[homeowner's insurance]] payments. The mortgage lender had begun [[foreclosure]] proceedings against the farm.<ref name="Ellsworth1927_3"/><ref name="dynamiter">{{cite web |title = School Dynamiter First Slew Wife |url = httphttps://freepagesweb.historylib.rootswebunb.ancestry.comca/instruction/bcull/~bauerleARTICLES/nyt520SchoolDynamiter.txtpdf |work = [[The New York Times]] |via = Bauerle[[University FreePagesof @New Brunswick]] Library RootsWeb.com |access-date = JanuaryApril 152, 20132024 |date = May 20, 1927 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/2014101814222820240402010212/httphttps://freepages.historyweb.rootsweblib.ancestryunb.comca/~bauerleinstruction/nyt520bcull/ARTICLES/SchoolDynamiter.txtpdf |archive-date = OctoberApril 182, 2014 2024|url-status = deadlive }}</ref>

The Bath School disaster is the name given to a series of explosions perpetrated by Kehoe on May 18, 1927, in Bath Township, Michigan, which killed 45 people including Kehoe himself, and injured at least 58. Of the 44 directly- attributed fatalities, thirty-eight were of children, all aged between 7 and 14 years of age (most under 12 years), attending the second to sixth grades at the Bath Consolidated School.<ref name="bernstein pp"/>{{rp|xvi}}<ref>{{cite news |url-access=subscription |title=Blast Depletes Grades at Bath |url=https://lansingstatejournal.newspapers.com/newspage/218235865/ |work=Lansing State Journal |date=23 May 1927 |page=9 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> The disaster remains the deadliest act of [[mass murder]] in a school in U.S. history.<ref name="WaPo2022">{{cite news |last1=Vargas |first1=Theresa |title=Remembering the deadliest school massacre in U.S. history |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/24/bath-consolidated-school-massacre-uvalde/ |access-date=25 May 2022 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=24 May 2022}}</ref>