Arnie Bernstein
Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing
On May 18, 1927, in a horrific conflagration of dynamite and blood, a madman forever changed the small town of Bath, Michigan. Bath Massacre takes readers back more than eighty years to that fateful day, when Andrew Kehoe set off a cache of explosives concealed in the basement of the local school, killing thirty-eight children and six adults.
Among the dead was Kehoe, who literally blew himself up by setting off a concealed dynamite charge in his car. The next day, on Kehoe's farm, his wife's remains—burned beyond recognition after Kehoe set his property and buildings ablaze—were found tied to a hand cart, the skull crushed and objects placed with macabre ritualism next to her body.
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With the horrors of bombings in Oklahoma City Federal Building and the Boston Marathon still fresh in Americans' minds and the seemingly endless stories of school violence from Columbine to Sandy Hook to Parkland, Bath Massacre resonates powerfully for modern readers and reminds us that domestic terrorism and mass murder are not just a product of our times.
Updated & Expanded Edition
Winner of State Library of Michigan
Notable Book Award
Some illustrations in the book have not been seen in over 80 years. Bolstered by cooperation with survivors and their descendants, Bath Massacre includes exclusive interviews with the people who lived through that terrible day in 1927. (University of Michigan Press)
Links & Resources
Bath Massacre Book Trailer
The Forgotten Children of Bath: Media and Memory of the Bath School Bombing of 1927 by Amie M. Jones