April 14, 2025 • 54 mins
The Bath School Massacre of 1927 stands as the deadliest school attack in US history, yet remains largely forgotten in American memory. Andrew Kehoe, fueled by financial troubles and anger over increased school taxes, meticulously planned and executed a devastating bombing that claimed 45 lives, including 38 children.
• Andrew Kehoe's troubled life included his mother's death, a severe head injury, and strained family relationships
• After suffering financial hardships and facing farm foreclosure, Kehoe blamed rising property taxes for his problems
• Despite serving on the school board, Kehoe harbored growing resentment toward the Bath community
• Over several months, Kehoe secretly planted explosives throughout the school building
• On May 18, 1927, Kehoe detonated explosives at his farm, killed his wife, then targeted the school
• A second cache of 500 pounds of explosives failed to detonate, potentially saving many lives
• Kehoe completed his attack with a suicide bombing that killed several rescuers
• The community demonstrated remarkable resilience, rebuilding the school within a year
• Despite being America's deadliest school massacre, the incident received limited historical recognition
• The attack shares disturbing parallels with modern mass violence events, highlighting our continued struggle to identify warning signs
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Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome back to another episode of Deviant
Criminology.
I'm Richard.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Heather, we'll just get the names out of the way.
So today the case we're goingto talk about is one that I have
been heavily interested in andresearched since about 20 years
ago when I first started doingactive shooter instructing and
especially looking at thingsthat had to do with school
violence.
So this episode we're talkingabout, a little known mass
(01:05):
killing that occurred in 1927,so a little before the Great
Depression.
But this kind of leads intosome of the issues that we saw
in the Great Depression ofovertaxation, farms not
producing what they should haveand, of course, the cost of
medical care, especially at thattime.
So what we're talking about isthe Bath School Massacre.
(01:25):
It was one that is again justalways kind of stuck in my head.
It was such a horrific eventand still is the most deadly
school attack by an individualin United States history.
It was all caused by a man whowas angry over taxes and what he
saw as government overreach.
So this was all fueled by angerand hatred towards the
(01:47):
community that he lived in, sohe targeted the Bath community
school.
So this week we're talkingabout Andrew Cohey and the Bath
school massacre.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So, going back to Andrew Cohey, he was born on
February 1st 1872 in Tux Tuxema,I think is how you say it
Michigan and he's one of 13children, which of course is a
very large family, and hisparents were Philip Cohey and
Mary McGovern.
13 kids to me is just crazy.
(02:21):
I can't imagine having 13 kids.
No, 13 kids to me is just crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I can't imagine having 13 kids.
No, and it's very interestinggoing back and looking at some
of these, because even at thistime, when we looked at the
Lawson family massacre, that wasseven children.
So, like these big familiesnowadays, I have one Like I
would never want more.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
It's crazy yeah, 13 is crazy.
But Philip, his father.
He was a successful farmer,which of course you'd have to be
in order to support 13 children, and he had immigrated to the
United States from Ireland atthe age of eight.
Philip initially married andhad three daughters with his
first wife, who passed awayafter a long illness.
This, unfortunately, would bethe first tragic death of
(03:06):
spouses for Philip in a stringto come, and you really have to
feel sorry for this man afteryou hear everything that's
happened to him.
Philip is the tragedy, and thenAndrew's reaction to those
tragedies just furtherimplicates and affects and
impacts more and more people.
But it makes me wonder, withsome of these things that
(03:27):
happened, if they hadn'thappened in that sequence, if
Andrew would have been on adifferent course.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, especially the event in St Louis.
I think that's one that reallyhas in the death of his mother,
which we're about to get to.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yes, so in 1866, philip married Mary McGovern,
which is Andrew's mother, andthey had nine more children,
including Andrew, which madeAndrew the favorite child
because he was the oldest sonthat Philip had.
And, of course, during thosetimes, being a boy was much more
important than it is now,because you carried on the
(04:01):
family name and you were the onewho took on all the
responsibility for the family,whereas the girls kind of just
got married off and left.
The boys were the ones whoactually were important.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah and so kind of, with the patriarchy of that time
period.
Mary managed the household andhelped raise this large family,
while Philip worked the farm andof course farming was a big
part of the agricultural sectorof Michigan at that time period.
Their home life was typical ofrural family America at the time
(04:37):
.
While all family memberscontributed to farm and
household duties, of course themales, especially Andrew and
Philip, would have carried a lotof the heavy burden.
Andrew was reportedly favoredas the firstborn son in his
father's second marriage.
However, his upbringing kind ofbecame turbulent after his
mother's death in 1890 when hewas 18 years old.
(04:58):
We were not able to really findspecific causes of her death.
We know his first wife died ofillness and of course, being in
this time period, it probablyhad something to do with an
illness.
So following her passing,philip remarried a lady by the
name of Frances Wilder she was amuch younger widow herself
which brought the Cohey familyto 13 total siblings after
(05:23):
Francis had a child, a daughter,with Phillip.
So again, this 13 childrenthing drives me to a place that
I don't want to imagine.
Raising one was hard enough.
I couldn't imagine raising 13,especially in this time period.
But again.
You would need that for thatbig farm.
It was not uncommon.
(05:43):
So again I had two siblings.
I couldn't imagine growing upwith like 12 and sharing that
space Like he's 18 and then hasan infant sister.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Just not just the space, but the attention too.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, like how much individual time did they get
with their parents?
So I don't know, just seemsvery insane to me to have that
family.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Right and unfortunately for Andrew, it
seemed that Francis and Andrewdid not get along.
Their relationship was strainedand this comes into play later
in Andrew's life when he'strying to connect with his
father and return to hisfather's home and again like
that attention piece once hismom was gone.
(06:30):
Then this other woman steppedin and he had this adverse
relationship with her, so thatimpacted his relationship to his
father.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
So it was almost like he lost both parents at least
to some degree, at once when hewas 18 too, at least to some
degree at once, when he was 18too, and going back to just
Phillip losing two wives andthen now he's got a third wife
having to deal with thedifferent children, and that
makeup of a step-parent comingin so late in somebody's life
and the respect that she wouldhave expected but probably
(06:59):
wasn't given, being that she wasconsiderably younger.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
But kind of going back to Andrew's early life,
he'd attended to come see highschool and, though not specific
numbers, were not able to findabout class sizes or anything it
is notable that during thistime the school he attended
underwent major expansionsbecause of the growth that that
area was seeing.
So again and this is kind of agrowing, booming area Farms are
(07:28):
successful.
There's a need for a largerschool, and that comes into play
into this conversation.
Once he graduates he goes on tostudy electrical engineering at
Michigan State University,which is now well.
At the time it was MichiganState College, now it's known as
Michigan State University.
Andrew had an interest inmechanical and electronic
(07:49):
engineering.
It is said that he did reallywell in physics and had a knack
for machinery.
So it was during this timeperiod he met a young lady named
Ellen, nellie Price, and Nelliewould go on to become a major
part of Andrew's development inlife.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
After college, andrew moves to St Louis Missouri
where he works as an electrician.
During that time he suffers asevere head injury in 1911.
And after that fall he's leftin a coma for several weeks, and
I think this would be a goodtime to talk about head injuries
in general and also how theymight have impacted Andrew.
(08:29):
We discussed before Nanny Dossand she had some type of a head
injury injury, or TBI, as aserious risk factor for
aggressive and antisocialbehavior, with studies
highlighting its prevalenceamong violent offenders,
including serial killers andmass murderers, and it's
(08:52):
something too we talk about nowwith the NFL, and you can see in
the NFL they have higher ratesof domestic violence than in
other professional sports.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, and like with Nanny Doss, like she had that it
was a young age where she hither head off of the bar on the
train and then with here we'reseeing he's a little bit older,
but this is such a severe headinjury that he goes into a coma
from it.
A 2020 research study foundthat 77.5% of young violent
(09:25):
offenders reported at least oneTBI in their life, often linked
to increased aggressionbehaviors and sometimes linked
to substance use disorders.
Meta-analysis has revealedincarcerated individuals have
higher rates of TBIs compared tothe general population, with
head injuries often localized tobrain regions involving
decision-making impulse control,such as the orbital frontal
(09:49):
cortex or the temporal lobes andthe frontal lobes, especially
where we know there's a lot ofthings dealing with social
aspects, the ability to noticesocial cues from individuals and
stuff.
We see this in multiple,especially serial killers and
violent offenders, namelyRichard Ramirez.
He was known for sufferingseveral head traumas as a child.
(10:11):
You brought up the NFL.
Aaron Hernandez was known tohave had a severe head injury
from a hammer hit that he tookto his head when he was a child,
let alone all the concussionshe had over his career.
You had Robert Card, who was amass shooter.
That occurred in 2023, and apost-mortem analysis of him
showed that he had suffered asignificant TBI from blast
(10:35):
exposure during military service.
And then, finally, one knownone, henry Lee Lucas.
He sustained a head injury,also at a young age, at seven,
from his mother, resulting in acoma that had damaged his
prefrontal cortex.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So of course, with that last one, him suffering
that head injury from his mother, then it makes you wonder, like
is it nurture nature If she hassome predisposition to violence
, does he?
And again, like you said, howmuch did that injury contribute
to where he ends up?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, and Henry Lucas especially was one of those
that had a lot of other stuffgoing on.
Maybe we'll talk about him oneday.
There are some neurologicalissues Again.
Damage to the orbital frontalcortex really has to do with
decision-making area.
You've got the temporal lobes,which are emotional regulation,
and that's another common injurythat you see with comas, with
(11:32):
TBIs Wow English today and thatwill later be seen with Andrew,
where you have this emotionalregulation issue that he has and
sometimes these angry outlashes.
And then TBI survivors oftenexhibit these impulsivities,
these mood disorders.
The substance use disorder is alittle bit less linked, but
some people have seen that thatcould be a totally different
(11:54):
thing about self-medicating.
So contributing factors andlimitations like to what we're
talking about.
Tbi's frequently interact withenvironmental risks as well,
such as childhood abuse, familyissues as well.
So we can't just say the headinjury, but there is a lot of
research that substantiates thatthere is especially emotional
regulation and mood disordersthat come from severe head
(12:17):
injuries Shows that a TBI is amodified risk factor for violent
behavior, particularly whencombined with psychosocial
stressors which we are seeingdevelop in Andrew's life the
divorce, the loss of his mother,the remarriage, a lot of
(12:38):
children going off gettinginjured and then we'll have to
see here in just a moment thathe comes back and has to move
back to his father's because theseverity of his injuries.
He comes back and has to moveback to his father's because the
severity of his injuries.
So we can take away from thisinformation about Andrew's
incident that it was severe headtrauma when taking into account
that's put him into a coma forseveral weeks and negatively
impacted his life and his job,causing him to leave his job and
(12:59):
the city that he was living inat the time.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
And then, of course, that incident marks a
significant period in his life.
He eventually returns toMichigan to live with his father
, but of course his mother hadalready died and his father had
that new wife, frances Wilder,and she was a widow herself and
significantly younger, andbecause of those various factors
which we already talked about,andrew disliked his stepmother
(13:25):
and they had a very strainedrelationship.
And then there was anothertragic incident that occurred in
1911 for poor Philip, whenAndrew's stepmother, whom he
really didn't like, died fromburns that were caused by an oil
stove explosion, died fromburns that were caused by an oil
(13:46):
stove explosion.
On September 17th of 1911,frances suffered fatal injuries
when the family's oil stoveexploded while she was
attempting to light it.
The explosion caused the fuelto soak her body, which then
caught fire.
Andrew was present and heattempted to extinguish the
flames by throwing water on her.
However, because the fire wasoil-based, the water exacerbated
(14:11):
the flames instead of dousingthem, and Frances succumbed to
her injuries shortly thereafter.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It kind of should be noted that some said Andrew may
have caused this.
I mean, he was good atmechanics, he was good with
engineering and stuff.
He didn't like his stepmother,but there's no proof of that.
But related to this, though, isthe water on oil.
That wasn't really somethingthat was common knowledge before
(14:33):
this time period, butespecially not until 1911, when
the first fire extinguishersdesigned specifically for oil
and liquid fires was patented,utilizing carbon tetrachloride.
So it just happens to be, whenI did the research this year,
the year she died in those oilfires, the same year that they
created these oil fighting fireextinguishers.
(14:55):
So it may not have been commonknowledge, even if he was good
at physics and chemistry.
There was just maybe a lapse inknowledge.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Or sometimes you just react like you know there's a
fire, there's an emergency.
What do I do?
You grab the water and you'renot thinking about.
Oh shit, this is the wrongthing to do.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Well, my dad did that .
So when he was much younger I'mpretty sure it was before I was
born he was working at acoating plant and one of the
pieces went to go into an acidbat and he just instinctively
reached for it, grabbed it andhis hand went into this acid bat
and it burned his whole forearmand everything else to the
(15:33):
point that he had to go to thehospital.
I think it was every day for alittle while to get it scrubbed
out to try and limit scar tissueand infections and everything.
But you know, very intelligentman, very knowledgeable, but
just that instinct of oh crap,I've got to do something.
And this very much may havebeen that situation where he
just she's on fire, throwsomething on it, not realizing
(15:56):
that it would exacerbate thesituation.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And then I can only imagine how much this furthers
his own psychological problems,at least in my mind.
I can't imagine being there,seeing somebody that anybody
burned to death, let alonesomebody that you know, somebody
you know your father caresabout and you know, maybe he
tried to stop it.
It's hard to say, but I can'timagine living through that
(16:21):
experience and coming out theother side not scathed or
scarred by it.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
And I can't again imagine Philip like this is his
third wife now that has departedto from what looks to be
illnesses, and then the thirdone in this tragic accident and
he's just lost every time andfrom what I saw in the research
like I couldn't find anythingwhere he got remarried after
(16:46):
this.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So, despite his father's horrible luck with
wives, the next year, in 1912,andrew marries Ellen Nellie
Price, and she's the daughter ofa wealthy Lansing family.
Nellie, whose real name isEllen Agnes Price, was born in
1875 to Patrick Price and MaryWilson Price, a wealthy and
(17:09):
prominent family, with herfather, patrick, being an
entrepreneur and philanthropistwho amassed a considerable
amount of wealth through hisinvolvement in the automobile
industry.
He apparently is the co-founderof the REO Motor Car Company,
which I'm not familiar with, andit was also alongside REO
(17:33):
REOles after Olds sold his stockin the Oldsmobile Company,
which, of course, I know thatone Oldsmobile, but the other
ones I'm not familiar with.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
There were so many small car companies in that time
period after the model a cameout, like the Ford company,
there were a lot of little ones.
My dad talks about this and wekind of saw that going back to
um Dillinger there were a lot ofcars and car companies that he
liked that when I was doing theresearch I was like I've never
heard of any of these whatsoever.
(18:03):
But a lot of them got bought upand then kind of became Ford,
oldsmobile, chevy and that.
But yeah, back in the day therewere like dozens of these
little car companies in Michigan, Indiana, illinois.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
It makes a lot of sense because then, as they get
their process more streamlined,it's more difficult to compete
and more motivation to sell out,more motivation to sell out.
So Patrick, which again isNellie's father, also makes
significant contributions to thecommunity, including funding
and construction of the SparrowHospital in Lansing, which
(18:35):
ironically, later providesemergency care for the victims
of the Bath School disaster.
Nellie grew up in an affluentenvironment, benefiting from her
family's financial success andsocial standings.
The Price family's wealth wasnot only supporting her
lifestyle but also allowed themto engage in philanthropic
endeavors and of course that hadmassive impacts on Lansing's
(18:57):
development.
This was the background of thewoman that Andrew married, the
background of the woman thatAndrew married, and you know, as
we know, it doesn't sound likehe was extremely well off as
Nellie was.
You know, 13 kids and living asa farmer.
So it seems kind of odd thatthe two of them ended up
together.
And one other particular thingthat stands out is that with
(19:20):
their entire marriage of 15years they never have any
children.
So I don't know if Andrew waslike I'm sick of kids.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
That is something that I kind of took away from it
, because they go to farming, hebecomes a farmer, they have a
farm, but no kids of their own,and there is part of me it's
like no, I grew up with 12siblings.
I'm done.
I don't want any kids.
I didn't find a lot on herbackground of how many siblings
she had or anything, and some ofthat goes into like.
These stories are interestingwhen we look at these historic
(19:49):
ones because they're ones peoplehaven't heard about.
But the flip side of that is alot of information from the
government side of statisticsweren't there.
There weren't a lot of vitalstatistics, but also information
about certain people thatdidn't commit these like heinous
crimes.
There's not a lot ofinformation about them.
Last night, sidebar the lastnight, I was looking up more on
(20:12):
the Lawson family and I wasinterested in how many families
between 1929 and 1939 during theGreat Depression, how many
family massacres were there andannihilations, because we knew I
just know anecdotally thatthere were quite a few, but just
Google searching and everything, the Lawson family is the only
one that kept coming up.
It was like there were probablyothers, but this was the only
one that we can definitely findanything about and I was like
(20:35):
that's very interesting becausewe know there were more, because
just the market's crashing andfarms going under.
So it's kind of this as well,where we weren't seeing a lot of
information about individualsexcept Andrew.
Because of what?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
And I think that goes back to the news coverage too
Like other than this person wasborn and this person died and
having the obituary, you didn'thave a whole lot of other from
them.
If you have the right securitytype details in place, if
(21:15):
somebody doesn't have theirprofile locked down, you can
learn all kinds of things aboutthem.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
And a lot of these smaller communities probably
haven't digitized their oldnewspapers.
I mean, this is 1911, 1912.
There probably wasn't the 1929,1930.
In that time period the GreatDepression there was just a lot
of stuff that wasn't happening.
Newspapers didn't have fundingand stuff like that, but also
(21:39):
dillinger, bonnie and clyde,organized crime, prohibition was
kind of dominating theseconversations.
So even if you had an incidentlike this the next day, there
would be some bank robbery thatwould take attention away from
this, because this suspectaffected a small community and
wasn't glamorous like those bigbank robberies were.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
So the couple purchases.
Like you said, they went tofarming.
They get an 185-acre farm nearBath Township in 1919 for
$12,000, which is the equivalentto about $390,000 in today's
money.
They paid half in cash and tookout a mortgage for the
(22:19):
remainder and despite theirinitial stability, the couple
faced financial struggles.
Over time Nellie developedchronic tuberculosis which
required frequenthospitalizations and drained
their funds.
At that time there were noantibiotics or specific
treatments for tuberculosis andmost of the methods were
experimental, includingheliotherapy, which was
(22:42):
basically sunbathing to try toaddress vitamin D deficiencies,
or artificially collapsing alung to allow it to rest, called
an artificial pneumothorax.
But sadly, most of the commontreatments that came back to
care in a sanatorium, notsanitarium, which of course
(23:03):
those things were not cheap andthey lasted months to years.
So interestingly enough, wewent to Mammoth Cave last summer
and there was a section ofMammoth Cave that summer and
there was a section of MammothCave that they used for these
purposes yeah, and tuberculosis,hey, I think people forget that
it's still around, it's still alot.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
one of the weirdest things when I was in EMT was
going to like hospitals and Ismoked at the time.
You would go outside thesmoking section and there were
people out there with theiroxygen machines smoking and had
tuberculosis and you're justlike.
I don't think any of this isright, but at the time there
were no treatments for it.
So, like Doc Holliday went toArizona and went into a
(23:41):
sanitarium and they weresupposed to, really it was like
air, fresh air.
Louisville had a massivesanitarium that's now like a
haunted house or something.
But there were a lot of thesefacilities that got built or
were being utilized but theywere expensive.
And this comes into play withpoor Andrew here.
(24:03):
I don't really like saying poorAndrew, but at this time he
hasn't done anything bad yet.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Unless you count his stepmother.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
But we don't know that he did that.
It's innocent until provenguilty.
At this time period in historyat least, yeah, by mid-1920s,
andrew goey hay had stoppedmaking mortgage payments, uh,
and insurance payments on thefarm.
And again I kind of wonder youhave this 185 acre farm, no kids
but yourself, so how are youlike?
(24:32):
We know it took these bigfamilies and hired hands and
stuff.
So he blames a lot of stuff onthese taxes that come in.
But to me, being able to work afarm that massive with that few
people himself and his verysick wife take care of her, I
think there were other financialthings that were going on and
he was just looking for a targetto blame.
(24:54):
So again he stopped makingpayments.
They start foreclosureproceedings which come from the
lender.
This specifically would be amajor catalyst to his crime.
There are a lot of variablesabout his personal life, his own
personality, social life, hisslight political life and family
dynamics that we want todiscuss before getting into the
(25:17):
Bath school incident itself.
So Andrew kind of gained thisreputation amongst his neighbors
as being very intelligent, andI mean he showed that his
degrees, his barrier withengineering, and he was very
quick to anger.
He was meticulous aboutcleanliness and enjoyed
tinkering with machinery morethan actually doing the farming
(25:38):
itself.
So we're kind of starting tosee little things of why he may
have had financial problems, butalso this kind of quick mention
of he was known to have angerissues.
So he was also known, besideshaving anger issues, to have
this cruelty towards animals anderratic behavior.
He was known to have beat ahorse to death when it failed to
(26:00):
meet his expectations.
Working on the farm he also hadkilled a neighbor's dog.
The neighbor recalled that herdog had wandered onto Coey's
property and was annoying him bybarking.
And then later Andrew admittedto killing the dog without any
hesitation and showed no empathyor disregard for the animal's
(26:22):
lives or the feeling of theneighbors.
Just like, hey, your dog cameover, it bothered me, I killed
it.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Shit on the dog for you on the dog for you, and with
the horse it sounded like thehorse collapsed from exhaustion
because it was working so hardwithout being given any time to
rest and because of that that'swhen he beat it to death, which
you know again.
It's just crazy, extremeviolent tendencies, with no
(26:50):
compassion towards any of thoseanimals.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
No, and he admits to his neighbor like oh yeah, it
fell, I beat it to death.
No regret, no remorse.
So we're kind of starting tosee going back again to what we
saw with head traumas and stufflike this kind of impulsivity,
this lack of emotionalregulation, and in general
neighbors frequently describeCey as harsh and cruel in his
(27:14):
treatment, not only of farmanimals but abusive behavior
towards other people.
These incidents were seen as anextension of his broader
personality traits of beingimpatient.
Again his anger and then thatlack of compassion, the abuse
and animal killings as well.
It's kind of like this markerwe see a lot in mass murders and
serial killers.
(27:34):
Mass murders we don't talk aboutas much but the signs have been
there in multiple that I'vestudied.
But this act is a strongindicator of, again, the lack of
empathy.
The animal abuse always seemsto kind of be a triggering start
for that.
Many times this all starts frompower and control.
He has power over the animal,he has control of it.
When it doesn't do what hewants, he lashes out and reacts
(27:56):
towards it.
So this is just kind of againone aspect of his personality
that's really important toremember when we get to the
event itself.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
And of course those factors with animal abuse also
relate to domestic violence andI kind of wondered on some to
some extent, like what Nellie'slife might have been like living
with him, given all of theselittle things that we know about
how he treated the farm animalsand the neighbor's dog and the
suspicions of what happened withhis stepmother and the fact
(28:25):
that she came from wealth.
Part of me wondered if at anypoint she was like forget you,
I'm going to go to mom's house,I'm done.
But it seems like that neverhappened.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
And the other thing that kind of is again is some of
this anger maybe coming fromloving his wife and watching her
suffer and everything, and he'sjust so.
I mean there's so many thingswe don't know.
We don't have any writings fromhim, we just have his actions
and reports after the fact.
But I mean he's got so manytragic things that are happening
in his life and it sounds likehe's lashing out at everybody
(28:56):
around him and everything aroundhim.
So I don't know if he loved heror not or anything like that,
but just looking at all thestuff he's been through, it
doesn't justify anything he'sabout to do.
But you can start to see wherethe paranoia, the anger and the
rage develops from him onmultiple fronts.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
So at this point he's financially strapped, he's
embittered, because there'sproperty taxes that are going up
and those are mostly to try tofund a local Bath consolidated
school.
Because of these taxes, andrewbecomes increasingly resentful
of the community and because ofthese taxes, andrew becomes
increasingly resentful of thecommunity.
(29:36):
Specifically, this consolidatedschool was established in 1922
after the voters approved a bondto create a modern school
district and that decisiondoubled the property taxes in
Bath Township in order to fundthe construction and operation
of the new school, of the newschool.
(30:00):
In 1922, the school tax was$12.26 per $1,000 of property
valuation.
So for Andrew, whose farm wasvalued at $10,000, this meant
his annual tax bill of $198.
So by that 1926 tax rate itrose $19.80 per thousand dollar
(30:21):
evaluation.
So this is, you know, today'smoney, his taxes in 20,.
I'm sorry, his taxes would havebeen prior to the school, about
$2,300.
And then after the school in1926, it would have gone up to
$3,500.
So it's about a third more andit's a significant amount of
money.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, and especially when he's already having
problems Like he's alreadyhaving financial problems before
kind of this stuff starts goinginto effect.
So this just exacerbates thoseproblems.
But now he has a target forthat rage.
It's not the farm failing, it'sthe taxes.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Right the final straw .
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, and he believes these taxes were excessive and
unjustified, particularly as hewas facing on his own these
mounting financial difficultiesA due to the failing of the farm
, b his wife's medical expensesand his inability to maintain
mortgage payments.
He frequently protested that hewas paying far too much in
taxes and even attempted to havehis property valuation reduced
(31:26):
to lower his tax liability, andhis resentment just continued to
grow as he blamed the schoolboard and township officials for
what he saw as kind of likethis unnecessary financial
burden.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
And he gets so angry over taxes and how they're
compounding his financialstruggles that in June 1926,
when he's notified of theforeclosure proceedings on his
farm that had begun because hestopped making his mortgage
payments, he reportedly told thesheriff who was serving the
foreclosure notice quote if ithadn't been for that $300 school
(31:57):
tax I might have paid off thismortgage.
And allegedly he told Mrs Price, who was the widow holding his
mortgage quote if I can't livein that house, no one else will.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
He's going to live up to that.
So Andrew's financial troublescoincided with his involvement
in local politics.
So he was elected treasurer ofthe Bass Consolidated School
Board in 1924.
But again his anger and temper.
He clashes with other membersover tax issues and accuses the
superintendent specifically ofmismanagement.
(32:31):
The superintendent specificallyof mismanagement.
So as a member of the BathConsolidated School Board from
1924 to 1926, serving as bothfirst trustee and then treasurer
, andrew Coey became known forhis obstructionist behavior in
opposition to nearly everyexpenditure they put across,
which makes sense.
He's angry about taxes.
He thinks they're wasting money.
It's costing him a lot of money.
(32:52):
So of course he's going to putback on every dime that they're
trying to spend to show thatthey didn't need to raise these
taxes.
He repeatedly clashes withSuperintendent Emery Huckey,
h-u-y-c-k for those accusing himof financial mismanagement
without providing substantialevidence.
So he's making all these claimsbut he's got no documentation
to show that there's this waste,fraud and abuse.
(33:13):
But he's just saying it.
And if he says it then it's gotto be true in his mind.
So Andrew Coey often refuses toapprove spending on essential
items for the school and arguesagainst what he considers
unnecessary costs.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Although I do have to recognize that he, at least on
some level, went about thisinitial grievance process
correctly.
He ran for school board, he gotelected, he went through the
official channels.
He said I'm challenging theseexpenses, I'm not going to
approve them, as one of thepeople who is a fiduciary on
this board.
So at least on some level hetried to do the right thing in
(33:49):
that 1924 to 1926 time frame inregards to the school district,
even though he had no children.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yes, I mean, he's getting involved, he's
advocating, he's getting intopolitics, he's going about what,
from a social work perspective,we would say, hey, like this is
how you properly do this.
And he got elected.
He also had this brief timewhere he served as the Bath
(34:19):
Township clerk, but he lostre-election in 1926, which, like
those dates are weird to me,like a one-year position, but I
don't know, it's not my job tojudge but this was a public
defeat that reportedly deepenedhis grievances against the
community.
He blamed them for losing thiselection.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
So in 1927, Andrew has ceased working on his farm
entirely and he begins to planwhat ends up being this
catastrophic attack that turnsinto the Bath School disaster.
And his bitterness over hisfinancial struggles, his
personal losses, his perceivedinjustices fuel his actions
(34:59):
leading up to the tragedy, andaround the loss of the election,
Andrew starts trying to come upwith this plan as to how he's
going to punish the communityfor all of these things
happening.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
So Andrew begins purchasing explosives shortly
after losing the Township Clerkelection in April of 1926.
And while he's facingforeclosure on his farm.
So neighbors reported hearingexplosions on his property.
This is probably him testingdifferent combinations of
explosives, earning him thenickname the Dynamite Farmer of
explosives earning him thenickname the Dynamite Farmer.
(35:37):
So he had acquired pyrotol,which is a World War I era
incendiary explosive.
He was buying dynamite, andboth commonly were used by
farmers at the time to clearland, so this wouldn't have
raised a lot of suspicions.
So over time he amasses over aton of explosive material, some
of which were stolen from anearby bridge construction site.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Now Andrew's rage is focused on the community, but
specifically it's on the BathConsolidated School system for
these increased taxes.
As the treasurer of the BathConsolidated School, andrew had
unrestricted access to thebuildings and during the summer
vacation of 1926, he used hisposition to plant explosives in
(36:21):
the school's basement and walls.
He concealed dynamite invarious items, including lengths
of ease trough pipe, bamboofishing rods and windmill rods
embedded in the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
So, leveraging his background in electronic
engineering, andrew wired theschool with a timed detonation
system.
So I mean he's doing this overa very long period of time, so
there's no turning back Like.
He was very determined to makethis happen.
So he installed an alarm clockin the basement of the North
Wing, set to trigger theexplosives.
(36:56):
At 8.45 am on May 18th 1927.
A secondary cache of 500 poundsof dynamite in the South Wing
just happened to fail to explodeduring the attack due to a
short circuit caused by theinitial blast.
So he'd set them for twodifferent times the first blast
goes off and cuts the second onefrom happening.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yes.
So Andrew also rigged his farmbuildings with homemade pyrotol
firebombs and wired them toexplode simultaneously with the
school blasts.
He also converted his Fordtruck into a mobile shrapnel
bomb by loading it with metaldebris such as nails and scrap
metal.
To maximize casualties, heinstalled new tires to ensure
(37:38):
reliability during transport andconcealed dynamite inside the
vehicle.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Which is, I mean, that's a ton of planning.
He spent months on this.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
It's a lot of planning, but also, as we're
getting into this, it's reallyimportant to remember this is
1927.
This isn't modern times Likethis is almost a hundred years
ago that he's put this level ofplanning into this mass attack
that he's about to carry out.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
So let's talk about our timeline for the school
disaster.
It happens on May 18th 1927.
And at 8.45am Andrew detonatesthe explosives at his farm,
destroying the buildings andkilling his wife Nellie, whose
body was later found charred inthe ruins.
Simultaneously, a timed alarmclock trigger the massive
(38:36):
explosion in the north wing ofbath consolidated school.
That blast collapsed thestructure, killing 38 children
ages 7 to 12 and six adultswhich were teachers and staff.
First grade teacher bernicesterling described the scene as
resembling an earthquake, withchildren and debris hurtled into
the air.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
So between 9 to 9.15 is when rescue efforts begin.
So parents and volunteers rushto the school, trying to claw
through rubble to search forsurvivors.
Rescuers then discover theunexploded ordnance of 500
pounds of dynamite in the southwing, which had again failed to
detonate due to this shortcircuit.
Had it exploded, the entireschool would have been destroyed
(39:17):
.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
About 9.30, Andrew rolls up in his truck and he
drives to the school in thatFord truck that's loaded with
dynamite and shrapnel, includingnails and scrap metal.
He summons the superintendentover to his vehicle which, if
you remember, that's the onethat he's having all of the
disagreements about spendingEmery Huke.
(39:39):
Huke yeah, how do we say it,superintendent Huke?
And there's some type of astruggle and during that
struggle, andrew fires a rifleinto the truck's explosives.
The resulting blast killingAndrew, superintendent Huke, a
retired farmer, nelson McFarren,postmaster Glenn O Smith and
(40:00):
eight-year-old Chloe Clayton,who had survived the initial
explosion.
This explosion injures dozensof bystanders and ignited cars
nearby.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
The aftermath of this is you have 45 dead, which
includes Andrew Coey, and 58injured.
Victims include 39 children intotal, aged 4 to 14, and six
adults in the school blast, plusthe four killed in the truck
explosion.
There was a temporary morguethat was set up, with victims'
bodies were laid in theschoolyard, while ambulances
transported the survivors to theLansing Hospital that we
(40:34):
discussed earlier.
So final death fourth graderBeatrice Gibbs died on August
22nd 1927 from complications ofhip surgery, bringing the total
fatalities for this horrificattack to 45.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Which, when I read that one, that one, I mean they
all got to me, but that onereally got to me, because I
can't imagine being her parents.
You see all this death anddestruction and your child lived
and you're relieved, thankgoodness, my child's okay.
Only to what is that fourmonths later, lose them?
I can only imagine how crushedthose parents would have been.
I can only imagine how crushedthose parents would have been.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
It's sad to me also, like when we think about this
events.
This was only four months, butI was recently reading about the
last victim to die fromColumbine, and they died in 2025
.
Right, columbine happened in1999, but the last victim
technically died in 2025 frominjuries sustained during that
(41:33):
attack.
So it's just, you know, wealways think of the initial
events that happen and thethings that we discuss, but
sometimes, especially when weget into these type of mass
events, we don't talk about thelong-term effects that it has on
people's health, their bodiesand the injuries that they
sustained during them.
Long-term effects that it hason people's health, their bodies
and the injuries that theysustained during them.
The initial immediate responseand relief efforts you had
emergency aid.
(41:54):
The American Red Crossestablished operation centers at
what was the Crum Drugstore,coordinating medical care,
burial costs and donations.
They got over $5,284, whichwould have been almost $96,000
today which was raised,including $2,500 from the
Clinton County Board ofSupervisors and $2,000 from the
(42:18):
Michigan legislature.
And then it also garnerednational attention.
Hamburg's transatlantic flightelicited a global outpouring of
sympathy, which included lettersfrom Italian schoolchildren and
financial support from acrossthe US.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
And, of course, this had a massive impact on the
community.
There was local grief andsolidarity because of this event
, because residents held massfunerals for the victims,
burying all of the deceasedwithin days.
The community prioritizedrebuilding with repairing the
school and opening it back in1928.
(42:57):
There were over 100,000vehicles that descended on Bath
in the days following the attack, which created mixed feelings
in the community.
Some people saw the visitors asintrusive, while others viewed
them as a show of nationalsupport and solidarity.
Because of these events, theydid create a memorial statue
(43:18):
called Girl with a Cat, whichwas donated in 1928 by Michigan
Children.
Currently, girl with Catresides in the Bath School
Museum, which is located in theauditorium lobby of Bath Middle
School on Webster Road in Bath,michigan, just in case anybody
wants to go check it out.
The museum preserves artifactsand memorabilia related to the
(43:42):
history of Bath schools,including items connected to the
1927 disaster.
Visitors can view the statue,along with other exhibits that
commemorate this tragedy and itsimpact on the community.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
So there's also the James Kozer Memorial Park that
was built in 1975, and itfeatures the original school,
coppola and a bronze plaquelisting all the victims' names.
There's also some unmarkedgraves of victims like Emily
Bromund and Robert Bromund,which received tombstones in
(44:21):
2008 through community-fundedefforts.
So again, almost 80 years later, and we're just recognizing
victims and getting themheadstones and stuff.
So just the time and the impactthat events like this have on a
community can last 100 years ormore.
It's pretty tragic, but somepolicy and structural changes
(44:44):
did come out of this.
So again, the rebuilt BathConsolidated School incorporated
reinforced steel, concrete,fire alarms and emergency exits,
which were innovations at thattime.
And then also Michigan SenatorJames Kozins funded
reconstruction, emphasizing andwanted to emphasize resilience,
(45:04):
which was the push to try andget it rebuilt in a year try and
get it rebuilt in a year.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
And then, of course, just like we have now, every
time something like this happens, there was a mental health and
threat assessment awareness,because this tragedy highlighted
the need for addressing mentalhealth issues and financial
stressors which impacted Andrew,and they wanted to make sure
that there were formal policiesthat would be put in place,
because they were lagging inaddressing those types of issues
(45:33):
, just like they do today.
There were discussions aboutidentifying at-risk individuals
and trying to find ways toanalyze situations to identify
them, which even today we talkabout, we still struggle with,
because every time there's aschool shooting, we say why
didn't somebody see these signs?
And in hindsight, people lookfor red flags.
But it's well impossible, Iwould say, to predict when these
(45:58):
things are going to happen.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Well, I was just saying a lot because that is
literally one of my areas ofresearch as an academic is mass
violence, mass murders, andspecifically I started with
schools.
Columbine was kind of the thingthat set me off on that path.
But yeah, I mean, every timewe're like why, you know, why
didn't we see this coming, whydidn't we know or see the
warning signs?
(46:19):
And we're like they were allthere, like this wasn't hidden,
like his acts, everything thathe did.
There were clear signs, youknow.
But even up until the OklahomaCity bombing, a lot of the same
chemicals that Cohe used wereused in Oklahoma City because
they weren't regulated, becausewhile farmers used them so
(46:42):
amassing them wasn't seen asabnormal, and it wasn't until
policy and regulations saw that.
You know, we kind of have anissue when you can just get mass
amounts of these explosives,set them aside, and then you
know, here you have this massiveevent that kills 45 people.
So it also did leave a longterm legacy.
So there are some historicalrecognitions.
(47:03):
So a Michigan State historicalmarker again was installed in
1991 at that Memorial Park andagain you have the Bath School
Museum to preserve kind of thememory and keep people, I guess,
remembering again, but keep itin people's minds that these
events happen and we have to payattention and we have to be
aware and we can't forget aboutthe victims, which is always
(47:24):
kind of.
You know, heather, and I'sbiggest focus on these is
remembering the victims morethan the people that commit the
atrocities.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
There's also been cultural impacts, as there's
been authors and scholars suchas Arne Bernstein, who wrote the
Bath Massacre, america's FirstSchool Bombing, which it frames
the event as a precursor tomodern domestic terrorism, which
I think you can argue.
It absolutely is, just like youmentioned Oklahoma City bombing
(47:55):
.
A lot of that you know similarideas, similar chemicals, same
type of methodology in order toreach the result that they got
to.
And then the disaster is citedin academic journals as the
largest pediatric terrordisaster in US history.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
And again this goes back to, like my research area
and everything Like not only doyou have the same like
methodology of this massive bomb, but targeting a government
facility, and a lot of the angeris aimed towards the government
.
It's the government's fault.
His farm failed.
(48:33):
It's the government's fault.
His wife was sick and it was soexpensive.
It was the taxation that led tothe foreclosures and everything
else.
Same thing we saw with OklahomaCity, ruby Ridge and everything
else was this anti-governmentsentiment and it's the
government's fault for my blight.
So I'm going to make an exampleby attacking the government
(48:53):
through bombs or some othermeans.
And they do do an annualcommemoration.
The community holds ceremoniesto honor the victims, including
the 90th anniversary panel,which was done in 2017.
So I would assume here in twoyears you'll see the 100-year
anniversary, which I think willbe important to bring attention
(49:14):
to this in modern times thatwe're still dealing with these
events.
There were a couple books aswell that were written.
We're not going to get into allthose.
There was one documentary thatI could find, called Forgotten,
which is America's DeadliestSchool Massacre, and that's a
three-part documentary.
But again, you can find allthose and we'll put them on the
(49:34):
website as well.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
So I mean it's to me the most tragic part of this
whole thing is the fact that ahundred years later, we still
don't have these things figuredout, and you would think, with
all this experience and all ofthis time that we've had, we
could figure some type of asystem out to try to identify
these people Because, just likeyou said, after the fact you
look back you say, well, there'sall these red flags, why didn't
we figure this out?
But it seems like we don't havea good screening process to try
(49:59):
to list or score those redflags in advance to say these
individuals are at risk and weneed to try to help catch them
before something like thishappens.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
And I think even what makes it weirder is that we are
in this digital technology ageand so much of it, even since
Columbine because Columbinethere was online records and
things that Eric and Dylan hadput up about making explosives
and videos of them shooting gunsand everything that.
Here we are, 27, 28 years, 26years later from Columbine,
(50:31):
almost 100 years from this event, and we still can't identify
those trigger warnings.
Or if we do, it's always toolate and I think there's a lot
that goes into that and we coulddo a whole episode on just the
lack of education amongst lawenforcement about the signs and
signals against society, theparental blindness that well,
that's not my child, my, youknow, my child wouldn't do that,
(50:53):
my father wouldn't do that.
You know there was a book Iread by BTK's daughter who
talked about her normal lifewith her father who on the side,
was a serial, torturous,sadistic serial killer, but she
never saw any of that.
So you know, looking back,there were signs, but it was
just that blindness to well,this person's not going to do
that.
They're all talk, they're allhype.
(51:15):
So I think in the aftermath ofthis horrific event still stands
as the deadliest schoolmassacre in US history, with 45
dead and 58 injured.
I think the most horrific partof that is 38 of them being
children aged 4 to 14.
So the Bath School disastercatalyzed grassroots resilience.
(51:41):
It memorialized and createdincremental safety reforms that
were still far from where Ithink we should be.
And while direct policy changeswere localized, its legacy
persisted in discussions aboutschool security, mental health
and community solidarity.
So this tragedy still kind ofremains a somber lesson in
addressing societal grievancesbefore they escalate into
(52:02):
violence.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
So hopefully you know again, we haven't figured out
anything in the last hundredyears.
Maybe in the next hundred yearswe can figure out how to
prevent some of these things.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
And I mean at the least keeping this alive,
because I've talked to a lot ofpeople in law enforcement and
the study of these things thathad never heard of this incident
.
And if we can not only keep thememory of the victims alive but
what happened, combine thatwith the things we've learned in
the hundred years since, andmaybe it will inspire, as it did
(52:34):
me as a researcher, to try andlook into ways to at least
minimize, or the overall Godgoal of hoping that we could one
day stop, these type of events.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
We'll just have to wait and see what happens, I
guess.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
I guess so, and hopefully, if you're listening,
you enjoyed this episode and welook forward to next week.
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(53:11):
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(53:55):
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good week.
Welcome back to another episode of Deviant
Criminology.
I'm Richard.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Heather, we'll just get the names out of the way.
So today the case we're goingto talk about is one that I have
been heavily interested in andresearched since about 20 years
ago when I first started doingactive shooter instructing and
especially looking at thingsthat had to do with school
violence.
So this episode we're talkingabout, a little known mass
(01:05):
killing that occurred in 1927,so a little before the Great
Depression.
But this kind of leads intosome of the issues that we saw
in the Great Depression ofovertaxation, farms not
producing what they should haveand, of course, the cost of
medical care, especially at thattime.
So what we're talking about isthe Bath School Massacre.
(01:25):
It was one that is again justalways kind of stuck in my head.
It was such a horrific eventand still is the most deadly
school attack by an individualin United States history.
It was all caused by a man whowas angry over taxes and what he
saw as government overreach.
So this was all fueled by angerand hatred towards the
(01:47):
community that he lived in, sohe targeted the Bath community
school.
So this week we're talkingabout Andrew Cohey and the Bath
school massacre.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So, going back to Andrew Cohey, he was born on
February 1st 1872 in Tux Tuxema,I think is how you say it
Michigan and he's one of 13children, which of course is a
very large family, and hisparents were Philip Cohey and
Mary McGovern.
13 kids to me is just crazy.
(02:21):
I can't imagine having 13 kids.
No, 13 kids to me is just crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I can't imagine having 13 kids.
No, and it's very interestinggoing back and looking at some
of these, because even at thistime, when we looked at the
Lawson family massacre, that wasseven children.
So, like these big familiesnowadays, I have one Like I
would never want more.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
It's crazy yeah, 13 is crazy.
But Philip, his father.
He was a successful farmer,which of course you'd have to be
in order to support 13 children, and he had immigrated to the
United States from Ireland atthe age of eight.
Philip initially married andhad three daughters with his
first wife, who passed awayafter a long illness.
This, unfortunately, would bethe first tragic death of
(03:06):
spouses for Philip in a stringto come, and you really have to
feel sorry for this man afteryou hear everything that's
happened to him.
Philip is the tragedy, and thenAndrew's reaction to those
tragedies just furtherimplicates and affects and
impacts more and more people.
But it makes me wonder, withsome of these things that
(03:27):
happened, if they hadn'thappened in that sequence, if
Andrew would have been on adifferent course.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, especially the event in St Louis.
I think that's one that reallyhas in the death of his mother,
which we're about to get to.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yes, so in 1866, philip married Mary McGovern,
which is Andrew's mother, andthey had nine more children,
including Andrew, which madeAndrew the favorite child
because he was the oldest sonthat Philip had.
And, of course, during thosetimes, being a boy was much more
important than it is now,because you carried on the
(04:01):
family name and you were the onewho took on all the
responsibility for the family,whereas the girls kind of just
got married off and left.
The boys were the ones whoactually were important.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah and so kind of, with the patriarchy of that time
period.
Mary managed the household andhelped raise this large family,
while Philip worked the farm andof course farming was a big
part of the agricultural sectorof Michigan at that time period.
Their home life was typical ofrural family America at the time
(04:37):
.
While all family memberscontributed to farm and
household duties, of course themales, especially Andrew and
Philip, would have carried a lotof the heavy burden.
Andrew was reportedly favoredas the firstborn son in his
father's second marriage.
However, his upbringing kind ofbecame turbulent after his
mother's death in 1890 when hewas 18 years old.
(04:58):
We were not able to really findspecific causes of her death.
We know his first wife died ofillness and of course, being in
this time period, it probablyhad something to do with an
illness.
So following her passing,philip remarried a lady by the
name of Frances Wilder she was amuch younger widow herself
which brought the Cohey familyto 13 total siblings after
(05:23):
Francis had a child, a daughter,with Phillip.
So again, this 13 childrenthing drives me to a place that
I don't want to imagine.
Raising one was hard enough.
I couldn't imagine raising 13,especially in this time period.
But again.
You would need that for thatbig farm.
It was not uncommon.
(05:43):
So again I had two siblings.
I couldn't imagine growing upwith like 12 and sharing that
space Like he's 18 and then hasan infant sister.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Just not just the space, but the attention too.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, like how much individual time did they get
with their parents?
So I don't know, just seemsvery insane to me to have that
family.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Right and unfortunately for Andrew, it
seemed that Francis and Andrewdid not get along.
Their relationship was strainedand this comes into play later
in Andrew's life when he'strying to connect with his
father and return to hisfather's home and again like
that attention piece once hismom was gone.
(06:30):
Then this other woman steppedin and he had this adverse
relationship with her, so thatimpacted his relationship to his
father.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
So it was almost like he lost both parents at least
to some degree, at once when hewas 18 too, at least to some
degree at once, when he was 18too, and going back to just
Phillip losing two wives andthen now he's got a third wife
having to deal with thedifferent children, and that
makeup of a step-parent comingin so late in somebody's life
and the respect that she wouldhave expected but probably
(06:59):
wasn't given, being that she wasconsiderably younger.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
But kind of going back to Andrew's early life,
he'd attended to come see highschool and, though not specific
numbers, were not able to findabout class sizes or anything it
is notable that during thistime the school he attended
underwent major expansionsbecause of the growth that that
area was seeing.
So again and this is kind of agrowing, booming area Farms are
(07:28):
successful.
There's a need for a largerschool, and that comes into play
into this conversation.
Once he graduates he goes on tostudy electrical engineering at
Michigan State University,which is now well.
At the time it was MichiganState College, now it's known as
Michigan State University.
Andrew had an interest inmechanical and electronic
(07:49):
engineering.
It is said that he did reallywell in physics and had a knack
for machinery.
So it was during this timeperiod he met a young lady named
Ellen, nellie Price, and Nelliewould go on to become a major
part of Andrew's development inlife.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
After college, andrew moves to St Louis Missouri
where he works as an electrician.
During that time he suffers asevere head injury in 1911.
And after that fall he's leftin a coma for several weeks, and
I think this would be a goodtime to talk about head injuries
in general and also how theymight have impacted Andrew.
(08:29):
We discussed before Nanny Dossand she had some type of a head
injury injury, or TBI, as aserious risk factor for
aggressive and antisocialbehavior, with studies
highlighting its prevalenceamong violent offenders,
including serial killers andmass murderers, and it's
(08:52):
something too we talk about nowwith the NFL, and you can see in
the NFL they have higher ratesof domestic violence than in
other professional sports.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, and like with Nanny Doss, like she had that it
was a young age where she hither head off of the bar on the
train and then with here we'reseeing he's a little bit older,
but this is such a severe headinjury that he goes into a coma
from it.
A 2020 research study foundthat 77.5% of young violent
(09:25):
offenders reported at least oneTBI in their life, often linked
to increased aggressionbehaviors and sometimes linked
to substance use disorders.
Meta-analysis has revealedincarcerated individuals have
higher rates of TBIs compared tothe general population, with
head injuries often localized tobrain regions involving
decision-making impulse control,such as the orbital frontal
(09:49):
cortex or the temporal lobes andthe frontal lobes, especially
where we know there's a lot ofthings dealing with social
aspects, the ability to noticesocial cues from individuals and
stuff.
We see this in multiple,especially serial killers and
violent offenders, namelyRichard Ramirez.
He was known for sufferingseveral head traumas as a child.
(10:11):
You brought up the NFL.
Aaron Hernandez was known tohave had a severe head injury
from a hammer hit that he tookto his head when he was a child,
let alone all the concussionshe had over his career.
You had Robert Card, who was amass shooter.
That occurred in 2023, and apost-mortem analysis of him
showed that he had suffered asignificant TBI from blast
(10:35):
exposure during military service.
And then, finally, one knownone, henry Lee Lucas.
He sustained a head injury,also at a young age, at seven,
from his mother, resulting in acoma that had damaged his
prefrontal cortex.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So of course, with that last one, him suffering
that head injury from his mother, then it makes you wonder, like
is it nurture nature If she hassome predisposition to violence
, does he?
And again, like you said, howmuch did that injury contribute
to where he ends up?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, and Henry Lucas especially was one of those
that had a lot of other stuffgoing on.
Maybe we'll talk about him oneday.
There are some neurologicalissues Again.
Damage to the orbital frontalcortex really has to do with
decision-making area.
You've got the temporal lobes,which are emotional regulation,
and that's another common injurythat you see with comas, with
(11:32):
TBIs Wow English today and thatwill later be seen with Andrew,
where you have this emotionalregulation issue that he has and
sometimes these angry outlashes.
And then TBI survivors oftenexhibit these impulsivities,
these mood disorders.
The substance use disorder is alittle bit less linked, but
some people have seen that thatcould be a totally different
(11:54):
thing about self-medicating.
So contributing factors andlimitations like to what we're
talking about.
Tbi's frequently interact withenvironmental risks as well,
such as childhood abuse, familyissues as well.
So we can't just say the headinjury, but there is a lot of
research that substantiates thatthere is especially emotional
regulation and mood disordersthat come from severe head
(12:17):
injuries Shows that a TBI is amodified risk factor for violent
behavior, particularly whencombined with psychosocial
stressors which we are seeingdevelop in Andrew's life the
divorce, the loss of his mother,the remarriage, a lot of
(12:38):
children going off gettinginjured and then we'll have to
see here in just a moment thathe comes back and has to move
back to his father's because theseverity of his injuries.
He comes back and has to moveback to his father's because the
severity of his injuries.
So we can take away from thisinformation about Andrew's
incident that it was severe headtrauma when taking into account
that's put him into a coma forseveral weeks and negatively
impacted his life and his job,causing him to leave his job and
(12:59):
the city that he was living inat the time.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
And then, of course, that incident marks a
significant period in his life.
He eventually returns toMichigan to live with his father
, but of course his mother hadalready died and his father had
that new wife, frances Wilder,and she was a widow herself and
significantly younger, andbecause of those various factors
which we already talked about,andrew disliked his stepmother
(13:25):
and they had a very strainedrelationship.
And then there was anothertragic incident that occurred in
1911 for poor Philip, whenAndrew's stepmother, whom he
really didn't like, died fromburns that were caused by an oil
stove explosion, died fromburns that were caused by an oil
(13:46):
stove explosion.
On September 17th of 1911,frances suffered fatal injuries
when the family's oil stoveexploded while she was
attempting to light it.
The explosion caused the fuelto soak her body, which then
caught fire.
Andrew was present and heattempted to extinguish the
flames by throwing water on her.
However, because the fire wasoil-based, the water exacerbated
(14:11):
the flames instead of dousingthem, and Frances succumbed to
her injuries shortly thereafter.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It kind of should be noted that some said Andrew may
have caused this.
I mean, he was good atmechanics, he was good with
engineering and stuff.
He didn't like his stepmother,but there's no proof of that.
But related to this, though, isthe water on oil.
That wasn't really somethingthat was common knowledge before
(14:33):
this time period, butespecially not until 1911, when
the first fire extinguishersdesigned specifically for oil
and liquid fires was patented,utilizing carbon tetrachloride.
So it just happens to be, whenI did the research this year,
the year she died in those oilfires, the same year that they
created these oil fighting fireextinguishers.
(14:55):
So it may not have been commonknowledge, even if he was good
at physics and chemistry.
There was just maybe a lapse inknowledge.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Or sometimes you just react like you know there's a
fire, there's an emergency.
What do I do?
You grab the water and you'renot thinking about.
Oh shit, this is the wrongthing to do.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Well, my dad did that .
So when he was much younger I'mpretty sure it was before I was
born he was working at acoating plant and one of the
pieces went to go into an acidbat and he just instinctively
reached for it, grabbed it andhis hand went into this acid bat
and it burned his whole forearmand everything else to the
(15:33):
point that he had to go to thehospital.
I think it was every day for alittle while to get it scrubbed
out to try and limit scar tissueand infections and everything.
But you know, very intelligentman, very knowledgeable, but
just that instinct of oh crap,I've got to do something.
And this very much may havebeen that situation where he
just she's on fire, throwsomething on it, not realizing
(15:56):
that it would exacerbate thesituation.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And then I can only imagine how much this furthers
his own psychological problems,at least in my mind.
I can't imagine being there,seeing somebody that anybody
burned to death, let alonesomebody that you know, somebody
you know your father caresabout and you know, maybe he
tried to stop it.
It's hard to say, but I can'timagine living through that
(16:21):
experience and coming out theother side not scathed or
scarred by it.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
And I can't again imagine Philip like this is his
third wife now that has departedto from what looks to be
illnesses, and then the thirdone in this tragic accident and
he's just lost every time andfrom what I saw in the research
like I couldn't find anythingwhere he got remarried after
(16:46):
this.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So, despite his father's horrible luck with
wives, the next year, in 1912,andrew marries Ellen Nellie
Price, and she's the daughter ofa wealthy Lansing family.
Nellie, whose real name isEllen Agnes Price, was born in
1875 to Patrick Price and MaryWilson Price, a wealthy and
(17:09):
prominent family, with herfather, patrick, being an
entrepreneur and philanthropistwho amassed a considerable
amount of wealth through hisinvolvement in the automobile
industry.
He apparently is the co-founderof the REO Motor Car Company,
which I'm not familiar with, andit was also alongside REO
(17:33):
REOles after Olds sold his stockin the Oldsmobile Company,
which, of course, I know thatone Oldsmobile, but the other
ones I'm not familiar with.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
There were so many small car companies in that time
period after the model a cameout, like the Ford company,
there were a lot of little ones.
My dad talks about this and wekind of saw that going back to
um Dillinger there were a lot ofcars and car companies that he
liked that when I was doing theresearch I was like I've never
heard of any of these whatsoever.
(18:03):
But a lot of them got bought upand then kind of became Ford,
oldsmobile, chevy and that.
But yeah, back in the day therewere like dozens of these
little car companies in Michigan, Indiana, illinois.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
It makes a lot of sense because then, as they get
their process more streamlined,it's more difficult to compete
and more motivation to sell out,more motivation to sell out.
So Patrick, which again isNellie's father, also makes
significant contributions to thecommunity, including funding
and construction of the SparrowHospital in Lansing, which
(18:35):
ironically, later providesemergency care for the victims
of the Bath School disaster.
Nellie grew up in an affluentenvironment, benefiting from her
family's financial success andsocial standings.
The Price family's wealth wasnot only supporting her
lifestyle but also allowed themto engage in philanthropic
endeavors and of course that hadmassive impacts on Lansing's
(18:57):
development.
This was the background of thewoman that Andrew married, the
background of the woman thatAndrew married, and you know, as
we know, it doesn't sound likehe was extremely well off as
Nellie was.
You know, 13 kids and living asa farmer.
So it seems kind of odd thatthe two of them ended up
together.
And one other particular thingthat stands out is that with
(19:20):
their entire marriage of 15years they never have any
children.
So I don't know if Andrew waslike I'm sick of kids.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
That is something that I kind of took away from it
, because they go to farming, hebecomes a farmer, they have a
farm, but no kids of their own,and there is part of me it's
like no, I grew up with 12siblings.
I'm done.
I don't want any kids.
I didn't find a lot on herbackground of how many siblings
she had or anything, and some ofthat goes into like.
These stories are interestingwhen we look at these historic
(19:49):
ones because they're ones peoplehaven't heard about.
But the flip side of that is alot of information from the
government side of statisticsweren't there.
There weren't a lot of vitalstatistics, but also information
about certain people thatdidn't commit these like heinous
crimes.
There's not a lot ofinformation about them.
Last night, sidebar the lastnight, I was looking up more on
(20:12):
the Lawson family and I wasinterested in how many families
between 1929 and 1939 during theGreat Depression, how many
family massacres were there andannihilations, because we knew I
just know anecdotally thatthere were quite a few, but just
Google searching and everything, the Lawson family is the only
one that kept coming up.
It was like there were probablyothers, but this was the only
one that we can definitely findanything about and I was like
(20:35):
that's very interesting becausewe know there were more, because
just the market's crashing andfarms going under.
So it's kind of this as well,where we weren't seeing a lot of
information about individualsexcept Andrew.
Because of what?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
And I think that goes back to the news coverage too
Like other than this person wasborn and this person died and
having the obituary, you didn'thave a whole lot of other from
them.
If you have the right securitytype details in place, if
(21:15):
somebody doesn't have theirprofile locked down, you can
learn all kinds of things aboutthem.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
And a lot of these smaller communities probably
haven't digitized their oldnewspapers.
I mean, this is 1911, 1912.
There probably wasn't the 1929,1930.
In that time period the GreatDepression there was just a lot
of stuff that wasn't happening.
Newspapers didn't have fundingand stuff like that, but also
(21:39):
dillinger, bonnie and clyde,organized crime, prohibition was
kind of dominating theseconversations.
So even if you had an incidentlike this the next day, there
would be some bank robbery thatwould take attention away from
this, because this suspectaffected a small community and
wasn't glamorous like those bigbank robberies were.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
So the couple purchases.
Like you said, they went tofarming.
They get an 185-acre farm nearBath Township in 1919 for
$12,000, which is the equivalentto about $390,000 in today's
money.
They paid half in cash and tookout a mortgage for the
(22:19):
remainder and despite theirinitial stability, the couple
faced financial struggles.
Over time Nellie developedchronic tuberculosis which
required frequenthospitalizations and drained
their funds.
At that time there were noantibiotics or specific
treatments for tuberculosis andmost of the methods were
experimental, includingheliotherapy, which was
(22:42):
basically sunbathing to try toaddress vitamin D deficiencies,
or artificially collapsing alung to allow it to rest, called
an artificial pneumothorax.
But sadly, most of the commontreatments that came back to
care in a sanatorium, notsanitarium, which of course
(23:03):
those things were not cheap andthey lasted months to years.
So interestingly enough, wewent to Mammoth Cave last summer
and there was a section ofMammoth Cave that summer and
there was a section of MammothCave that they used for these
purposes yeah, and tuberculosis,hey, I think people forget that
it's still around, it's still alot.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
one of the weirdest things when I was in EMT was
going to like hospitals and Ismoked at the time.
You would go outside thesmoking section and there were
people out there with theiroxygen machines smoking and had
tuberculosis and you're justlike.
I don't think any of this isright, but at the time there
were no treatments for it.
So, like Doc Holliday went toArizona and went into a
(23:41):
sanitarium and they weresupposed to, really it was like
air, fresh air.
Louisville had a massivesanitarium that's now like a
haunted house or something.
But there were a lot of thesefacilities that got built or
were being utilized but theywere expensive.
And this comes into play withpoor Andrew here.
(24:03):
I don't really like saying poorAndrew, but at this time he
hasn't done anything bad yet.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Unless you count his stepmother.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
But we don't know that he did that.
It's innocent until provenguilty.
At this time period in historyat least, yeah, by mid-1920s,
andrew goey hay had stoppedmaking mortgage payments, uh,
and insurance payments on thefarm.
And again I kind of wonder youhave this 185 acre farm, no kids
but yourself, so how are youlike?
(24:32):
We know it took these bigfamilies and hired hands and
stuff.
So he blames a lot of stuff onthese taxes that come in.
But to me, being able to work afarm that massive with that few
people himself and his verysick wife take care of her, I
think there were other financialthings that were going on and
he was just looking for a targetto blame.
(24:54):
So again he stopped makingpayments.
They start foreclosureproceedings which come from the
lender.
This specifically would be amajor catalyst to his crime.
There are a lot of variablesabout his personal life, his own
personality, social life, hisslight political life and family
dynamics that we want todiscuss before getting into the
(25:17):
Bath school incident itself.
So Andrew kind of gained thisreputation amongst his neighbors
as being very intelligent, andI mean he showed that his
degrees, his barrier withengineering, and he was very
quick to anger.
He was meticulous aboutcleanliness and enjoyed
tinkering with machinery morethan actually doing the farming
(25:38):
itself.
So we're kind of starting tosee little things of why he may
have had financial problems, butalso this kind of quick mention
of he was known to have angerissues.
So he was also known, besideshaving anger issues, to have
this cruelty towards animals anderratic behavior.
He was known to have beat ahorse to death when it failed to
(26:00):
meet his expectations.
Working on the farm he also hadkilled a neighbor's dog.
The neighbor recalled that herdog had wandered onto Coey's
property and was annoying him bybarking.
And then later Andrew admittedto killing the dog without any
hesitation and showed no empathyor disregard for the animal's
(26:22):
lives or the feeling of theneighbors.
Just like, hey, your dog cameover, it bothered me, I killed
it.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Shit on the dog for you on the dog for you, and with
the horse it sounded like thehorse collapsed from exhaustion
because it was working so hardwithout being given any time to
rest and because of that that'swhen he beat it to death, which
you know again.
It's just crazy, extremeviolent tendencies, with no
(26:50):
compassion towards any of thoseanimals.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
No, and he admits to his neighbor like oh yeah, it
fell, I beat it to death.
No regret, no remorse.
So we're kind of starting tosee going back again to what we
saw with head traumas and stufflike this kind of impulsivity,
this lack of emotionalregulation, and in general
neighbors frequently describeCey as harsh and cruel in his
(27:14):
treatment, not only of farmanimals but abusive behavior
towards other people.
These incidents were seen as anextension of his broader
personality traits of beingimpatient.
Again his anger and then thatlack of compassion, the abuse
and animal killings as well.
It's kind of like this markerwe see a lot in mass murders and
serial killers.
(27:34):
Mass murders we don't talk aboutas much but the signs have been
there in multiple that I'vestudied.
But this act is a strongindicator of, again, the lack of
empathy.
The animal abuse always seemsto kind of be a triggering start
for that.
Many times this all starts frompower and control.
He has power over the animal,he has control of it.
When it doesn't do what hewants, he lashes out and reacts
(27:56):
towards it.
So this is just kind of againone aspect of his personality
that's really important toremember when we get to the
event itself.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
And of course those factors with animal abuse also
relate to domestic violence andI kind of wondered on some to
some extent, like what Nellie'slife might have been like living
with him, given all of theselittle things that we know about
how he treated the farm animalsand the neighbor's dog and the
suspicions of what happened withhis stepmother and the fact
(28:25):
that she came from wealth.
Part of me wondered if at anypoint she was like forget you,
I'm going to go to mom's house,I'm done.
But it seems like that neverhappened.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
And the other thing that kind of is again is some of
this anger maybe coming fromloving his wife and watching her
suffer and everything, and he'sjust so.
I mean there's so many thingswe don't know.
We don't have any writings fromhim, we just have his actions
and reports after the fact.
But I mean he's got so manytragic things that are happening
in his life and it sounds likehe's lashing out at everybody
(28:56):
around him and everything aroundhim.
So I don't know if he loved heror not or anything like that,
but just looking at all thestuff he's been through, it
doesn't justify anything he'sabout to do.
But you can start to see wherethe paranoia, the anger and the
rage develops from him onmultiple fronts.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
So at this point he's financially strapped, he's
embittered, because there'sproperty taxes that are going up
and those are mostly to try tofund a local Bath consolidated
school.
Because of these taxes, andrewbecomes increasingly resentful
of the community and because ofthese taxes, andrew becomes
increasingly resentful of thecommunity.
(29:36):
Specifically, this consolidatedschool was established in 1922
after the voters approved a bondto create a modern school
district and that decisiondoubled the property taxes in
Bath Township in order to fundthe construction and operation
of the new school, of the newschool.
(30:00):
In 1922, the school tax was$12.26 per $1,000 of property
valuation.
So for Andrew, whose farm wasvalued at $10,000, this meant
his annual tax bill of $198.
So by that 1926 tax rate itrose $19.80 per thousand dollar
(30:21):
evaluation.
So this is, you know, today'smoney, his taxes in 20,.
I'm sorry, his taxes would havebeen prior to the school, about
$2,300.
And then after the school in1926, it would have gone up to
$3,500.
So it's about a third more andit's a significant amount of
money.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, and especially when he's already having
problems Like he's alreadyhaving financial problems before
kind of this stuff starts goinginto effect.
So this just exacerbates thoseproblems.
But now he has a target forthat rage.
It's not the farm failing, it'sthe taxes.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Right the final straw .
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, and he believes these taxes were excessive and
unjustified, particularly as hewas facing on his own these
mounting financial difficultiesA due to the failing of the farm
, b his wife's medical expensesand his inability to maintain
mortgage payments.
He frequently protested that hewas paying far too much in
taxes and even attempted to havehis property valuation reduced
(31:26):
to lower his tax liability, andhis resentment just continued to
grow as he blamed the schoolboard and township officials for
what he saw as kind of likethis unnecessary financial
burden.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
And he gets so angry over taxes and how they're
compounding his financialstruggles that in June 1926,
when he's notified of theforeclosure proceedings on his
farm that had begun because hestopped making his mortgage
payments, he reportedly told thesheriff who was serving the
foreclosure notice quote if ithadn't been for that $300 school
(31:57):
tax I might have paid off thismortgage.
And allegedly he told Mrs Price, who was the widow holding his
mortgage quote if I can't livein that house, no one else will.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
He's going to live up to that.
So Andrew's financial troublescoincided with his involvement
in local politics.
So he was elected treasurer ofthe Bass Consolidated School
Board in 1924.
But again his anger and temper.
He clashes with other membersover tax issues and accuses the
superintendent specifically ofmismanagement.
(32:31):
The superintendent specificallyof mismanagement.
So as a member of the BathConsolidated School Board from
1924 to 1926, serving as bothfirst trustee and then treasurer
, andrew Coey became known forhis obstructionist behavior in
opposition to nearly everyexpenditure they put across,
which makes sense.
He's angry about taxes.
He thinks they're wasting money.
It's costing him a lot of money.
(32:52):
So of course he's going to putback on every dime that they're
trying to spend to show thatthey didn't need to raise these
taxes.
He repeatedly clashes withSuperintendent Emery Huckey,
h-u-y-c-k for those accusing himof financial mismanagement
without providing substantialevidence.
So he's making all these claimsbut he's got no documentation
to show that there's this waste,fraud and abuse.
(33:13):
But he's just saying it.
And if he says it then it's gotto be true in his mind.
So Andrew Coey often refuses toapprove spending on essential
items for the school and arguesagainst what he considers
unnecessary costs.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Although I do have to recognize that he, at least on
some level, went about thisinitial grievance process
correctly.
He ran for school board, he gotelected, he went through the
official channels.
He said I'm challenging theseexpenses, I'm not going to
approve them, as one of thepeople who is a fiduciary on
this board.
So at least on some level hetried to do the right thing in
(33:49):
that 1924 to 1926 time frame inregards to the school district,
even though he had no children.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yes, I mean, he's getting involved, he's
advocating, he's getting intopolitics, he's going about what,
from a social work perspective,we would say, hey, like this is
how you properly do this.
And he got elected.
He also had this brief timewhere he served as the Bath
(34:19):
Township clerk, but he lostre-election in 1926, which, like
those dates are weird to me,like a one-year position, but I
don't know, it's not my job tojudge but this was a public
defeat that reportedly deepenedhis grievances against the
community.
He blamed them for losing thiselection.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
So in 1927, Andrew has ceased working on his farm
entirely and he begins to planwhat ends up being this
catastrophic attack that turnsinto the Bath School disaster.
And his bitterness over hisfinancial struggles, his
personal losses, his perceivedinjustices fuel his actions
(34:59):
leading up to the tragedy, andaround the loss of the election,
Andrew starts trying to come upwith this plan as to how he's
going to punish the communityfor all of these things
happening.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
So Andrew begins purchasing explosives shortly
after losing the Township Clerkelection in April of 1926.
And while he's facingforeclosure on his farm.
So neighbors reported hearingexplosions on his property.
This is probably him testingdifferent combinations of
explosives, earning him thenickname the Dynamite Farmer of
explosives earning him thenickname the Dynamite Farmer.
(35:37):
So he had acquired pyrotol,which is a World War I era
incendiary explosive.
He was buying dynamite, andboth commonly were used by
farmers at the time to clearland, so this wouldn't have
raised a lot of suspicions.
So over time he amasses over aton of explosive material, some
of which were stolen from anearby bridge construction site.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Now Andrew's rage is focused on the community, but
specifically it's on the BathConsolidated School system for
these increased taxes.
As the treasurer of the BathConsolidated School, andrew had
unrestricted access to thebuildings and during the summer
vacation of 1926, he used hisposition to plant explosives in
(36:21):
the school's basement and walls.
He concealed dynamite invarious items, including lengths
of ease trough pipe, bamboofishing rods and windmill rods
embedded in the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
So, leveraging his background in electronic
engineering, andrew wired theschool with a timed detonation
system.
So I mean he's doing this overa very long period of time, so
there's no turning back Like.
He was very determined to makethis happen.
So he installed an alarm clockin the basement of the North
Wing, set to trigger theexplosives.
(36:56):
At 8.45 am on May 18th 1927.
A secondary cache of 500 poundsof dynamite in the South Wing
just happened to fail to explodeduring the attack due to a
short circuit caused by theinitial blast.
So he'd set them for twodifferent times the first blast
goes off and cuts the second onefrom happening.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yes.
So Andrew also rigged his farmbuildings with homemade pyrotol
firebombs and wired them toexplode simultaneously with the
school blasts.
He also converted his Fordtruck into a mobile shrapnel
bomb by loading it with metaldebris such as nails and scrap
metal.
To maximize casualties, heinstalled new tires to ensure
(37:38):
reliability during transport andconcealed dynamite inside the
vehicle.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Which is, I mean, that's a ton of planning.
He spent months on this.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
It's a lot of planning, but also, as we're
getting into this, it's reallyimportant to remember this is
1927.
This isn't modern times Likethis is almost a hundred years
ago that he's put this level ofplanning into this mass attack
that he's about to carry out.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
So let's talk about our timeline for the school
disaster.
It happens on May 18th 1927.
And at 8.45am Andrew detonatesthe explosives at his farm,
destroying the buildings andkilling his wife Nellie, whose
body was later found charred inthe ruins.
Simultaneously, a timed alarmclock trigger the massive
(38:36):
explosion in the north wing ofbath consolidated school.
That blast collapsed thestructure, killing 38 children
ages 7 to 12 and six adultswhich were teachers and staff.
First grade teacher bernicesterling described the scene as
resembling an earthquake, withchildren and debris hurtled into
the air.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
So between 9 to 9.15 is when rescue efforts begin.
So parents and volunteers rushto the school, trying to claw
through rubble to search forsurvivors.
Rescuers then discover theunexploded ordnance of 500
pounds of dynamite in the southwing, which had again failed to
detonate due to this shortcircuit.
Had it exploded, the entireschool would have been destroyed
(39:17):
.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
About 9.30, Andrew rolls up in his truck and he
drives to the school in thatFord truck that's loaded with
dynamite and shrapnel, includingnails and scrap metal.
He summons the superintendentover to his vehicle which, if
you remember, that's the onethat he's having all of the
disagreements about spendingEmery Huke.
(39:39):
Huke yeah, how do we say it,superintendent Huke?
And there's some type of astruggle and during that
struggle, andrew fires a rifleinto the truck's explosives.
The resulting blast killingAndrew, superintendent Huke, a
retired farmer, nelson McFarren,postmaster Glenn O Smith and
(40:00):
eight-year-old Chloe Clayton,who had survived the initial
explosion.
This explosion injures dozensof bystanders and ignited cars
nearby.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
The aftermath of this is you have 45 dead, which
includes Andrew Coey, and 58injured.
Victims include 39 children intotal, aged 4 to 14, and six
adults in the school blast, plusthe four killed in the truck
explosion.
There was a temporary morguethat was set up, with victims'
bodies were laid in theschoolyard, while ambulances
transported the survivors to theLansing Hospital that we
(40:34):
discussed earlier.
So final death fourth graderBeatrice Gibbs died on August
22nd 1927 from complications ofhip surgery, bringing the total
fatalities for this horrificattack to 45.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Which, when I read that one, that one, I mean they
all got to me, but that onereally got to me, because I
can't imagine being her parents.
You see all this death anddestruction and your child lived
and you're relieved, thankgoodness, my child's okay.
Only to what is that fourmonths later, lose them?
I can only imagine how crushedthose parents would have been.
I can only imagine how crushedthose parents would have been.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
It's sad to me also, like when we think about this
events.
This was only four months, butI was recently reading about the
last victim to die fromColumbine, and they died in 2025
.
Right, columbine happened in1999, but the last victim
technically died in 2025 frominjuries sustained during that
(41:33):
attack.
So it's just, you know, wealways think of the initial
events that happen and thethings that we discuss, but
sometimes, especially when weget into these type of mass
events, we don't talk about thelong-term effects that it has on
people's health, their bodiesand the injuries that they
sustained during them.
Long-term effects that it hason people's health, their bodies
and the injuries that theysustained during them.
The initial immediate responseand relief efforts you had
emergency aid.
(41:54):
The American Red Crossestablished operation centers at
what was the Crum Drugstore,coordinating medical care,
burial costs and donations.
They got over $5,284, whichwould have been almost $96,000
today which was raised,including $2,500 from the
Clinton County Board ofSupervisors and $2,000 from the
(42:18):
Michigan legislature.
And then it also garnerednational attention.
Hamburg's transatlantic flightelicited a global outpouring of
sympathy, which included lettersfrom Italian schoolchildren and
financial support from acrossthe US.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
And, of course, this had a massive impact on the
community.
There was local grief andsolidarity because of this event
, because residents held massfunerals for the victims,
burying all of the deceasedwithin days.
The community prioritizedrebuilding with repairing the
school and opening it back in1928.
(42:57):
There were over 100,000vehicles that descended on Bath
in the days following the attack, which created mixed feelings
in the community.
Some people saw the visitors asintrusive, while others viewed
them as a show of nationalsupport and solidarity.
Because of these events, theydid create a memorial statue
(43:18):
called Girl with a Cat, whichwas donated in 1928 by Michigan
Children.
Currently, girl with Catresides in the Bath School
Museum, which is located in theauditorium lobby of Bath Middle
School on Webster Road in Bath,michigan, just in case anybody
wants to go check it out.
The museum preserves artifactsand memorabilia related to the
(43:42):
history of Bath schools,including items connected to the
1927 disaster.
Visitors can view the statue,along with other exhibits that
commemorate this tragedy and itsimpact on the community.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
So there's also the James Kozer Memorial Park that
was built in 1975, and itfeatures the original school,
coppola and a bronze plaquelisting all the victims' names.
There's also some unmarkedgraves of victims like Emily
Bromund and Robert Bromund,which received tombstones in
(44:21):
2008 through community-fundedefforts.
So again, almost 80 years later, and we're just recognizing
victims and getting themheadstones and stuff.
So just the time and the impactthat events like this have on a
community can last 100 years ormore.
It's pretty tragic, but somepolicy and structural changes
(44:44):
did come out of this.
So again, the rebuilt BathConsolidated School incorporated
reinforced steel, concrete,fire alarms and emergency exits,
which were innovations at thattime.
And then also Michigan SenatorJames Kozins funded
reconstruction, emphasizing andwanted to emphasize resilience,
(45:04):
which was the push to try andget it rebuilt in a year try and
get it rebuilt in a year.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
And then, of course, just like we have now, every
time something like this happens, there was a mental health and
threat assessment awareness,because this tragedy highlighted
the need for addressing mentalhealth issues and financial
stressors which impacted Andrew,and they wanted to make sure
that there were formal policiesthat would be put in place,
because they were lagging inaddressing those types of issues
(45:33):
, just like they do today.
There were discussions aboutidentifying at-risk individuals
and trying to find ways toanalyze situations to identify
them, which even today we talkabout, we still struggle with,
because every time there's aschool shooting, we say why
didn't somebody see these signs?
And in hindsight, people lookfor red flags.
But it's well impossible, Iwould say, to predict when these
(45:58):
things are going to happen.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Well, I was just saying a lot because that is
literally one of my areas ofresearch as an academic is mass
violence, mass murders, andspecifically I started with
schools.
Columbine was kind of the thingthat set me off on that path.
But yeah, I mean, every timewe're like why, you know, why
didn't we see this coming, whydidn't we know or see the
warning signs?
(46:19):
And we're like they were allthere, like this wasn't hidden,
like his acts, everything thathe did.
There were clear signs, youknow.
But even up until the OklahomaCity bombing, a lot of the same
chemicals that Cohe used wereused in Oklahoma City because
they weren't regulated, becausewhile farmers used them so
(46:42):
amassing them wasn't seen asabnormal, and it wasn't until
policy and regulations saw that.
You know, we kind of have anissue when you can just get mass
amounts of these explosives,set them aside, and then you
know, here you have this massiveevent that kills 45 people.
So it also did leave a longterm legacy.
So there are some historicalrecognitions.
(47:03):
So a Michigan State historicalmarker again was installed in
1991 at that Memorial Park andagain you have the Bath School
Museum to preserve kind of thememory and keep people, I guess,
remembering again, but keep itin people's minds that these
events happen and we have to payattention and we have to be
aware and we can't forget aboutthe victims, which is always
(47:24):
kind of.
You know, heather, and I'sbiggest focus on these is
remembering the victims morethan the people that commit the
atrocities.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
There's also been cultural impacts, as there's
been authors and scholars suchas Arne Bernstein, who wrote the
Bath Massacre, america's FirstSchool Bombing, which it frames
the event as a precursor tomodern domestic terrorism, which
I think you can argue.
It absolutely is, just like youmentioned Oklahoma City bombing
(47:55):
.
A lot of that you know similarideas, similar chemicals, same
type of methodology in order toreach the result that they got
to.
And then the disaster is citedin academic journals as the
largest pediatric terrordisaster in US history.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
And again this goes back to, like my research area
and everything Like not only doyou have the same like
methodology of this massive bomb, but targeting a government
facility, and a lot of the angeris aimed towards the government
.
It's the government's fault.
His farm failed.
(48:33):
It's the government's fault.
His wife was sick and it was soexpensive.
It was the taxation that led tothe foreclosures and everything
else.
Same thing we saw with OklahomaCity, ruby Ridge and everything
else was this anti-governmentsentiment and it's the
government's fault for my blight.
So I'm going to make an exampleby attacking the government
(48:53):
through bombs or some othermeans.
And they do do an annualcommemoration.
The community holds ceremoniesto honor the victims, including
the 90th anniversary panel,which was done in 2017.
So I would assume here in twoyears you'll see the 100-year
anniversary, which I think willbe important to bring attention
(49:14):
to this in modern times thatwe're still dealing with these
events.
There were a couple books aswell that were written.
We're not going to get into allthose.
There was one documentary thatI could find, called Forgotten,
which is America's DeadliestSchool Massacre, and that's a
three-part documentary.
But again, you can find allthose and we'll put them on the
(49:34):
website as well.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
So I mean it's to me the most tragic part of this
whole thing is the fact that ahundred years later, we still
don't have these things figuredout, and you would think, with
all this experience and all ofthis time that we've had, we
could figure some type of asystem out to try to identify
these people Because, just likeyou said, after the fact you
look back you say, well, there'sall these red flags, why didn't
we figure this out?
But it seems like we don't havea good screening process to try
(49:59):
to list or score those redflags in advance to say these
individuals are at risk and weneed to try to help catch them
before something like thishappens.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
And I think even what makes it weirder is that we are
in this digital technology ageand so much of it, even since
Columbine because Columbinethere was online records and
things that Eric and Dylan hadput up about making explosives
and videos of them shooting gunsand everything that.
Here we are, 27, 28 years, 26years later from Columbine,
(50:31):
almost 100 years from this event, and we still can't identify
those trigger warnings.
Or if we do, it's always toolate and I think there's a lot
that goes into that and we coulddo a whole episode on just the
lack of education amongst lawenforcement about the signs and
signals against society, theparental blindness that well,
that's not my child, my, youknow, my child wouldn't do that,
(50:53):
my father wouldn't do that.
You know there was a book Iread by BTK's daughter who
talked about her normal lifewith her father who on the side,
was a serial, torturous,sadistic serial killer, but she
never saw any of that.
So you know, looking back,there were signs, but it was
just that blindness to well,this person's not going to do
that.
They're all talk, they're allhype.
(51:15):
So I think in the aftermath ofthis horrific event still stands
as the deadliest schoolmassacre in US history, with 45
dead and 58 injured.
I think the most horrific partof that is 38 of them being
children aged 4 to 14.
So the Bath School disastercatalyzed grassroots resilience.
(51:41):
It memorialized and createdincremental safety reforms that
were still far from where Ithink we should be.
And while direct policy changeswere localized, its legacy
persisted in discussions aboutschool security, mental health
and community solidarity.
So this tragedy still kind ofremains a somber lesson in
addressing societal grievancesbefore they escalate into
(52:02):
violence.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
So hopefully you know again, we haven't figured out
anything in the last hundredyears.
Maybe in the next hundred yearswe can figure out how to
prevent some of these things.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
And I mean at the least keeping this alive,
because I've talked to a lot ofpeople in law enforcement and
the study of these things thathad never heard of this incident
.
And if we can not only keep thememory of the victims alive but
what happened, combine thatwith the things we've learned in
the hundred years since, andmaybe it will inspire, as it did
(52:34):
me as a researcher, to try andlook into ways to at least
minimize, or the overall Godgoal of hoping that we could one
day stop, these type of events.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
We'll just have to wait and see what happens, I
guess.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
I guess so, and hopefully, if you're listening,
you enjoyed this episode and welook forward to next week.
I want to thank you all so muchfor listening to our little
podcast.
This is created with love andpassion for criminal justice and
true crime.
So if you're enjoying thepodcast, please follow us, like
or rate us on whatever systemyou're listening to us on,
(53:11):
subscribe to our podcast anddownload episodes.
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(53:33):
If you're interested in learningmore, you could visit our
website atwwwdeviantcriminologycom.
There you'll find some stuffabout our backgrounds,
references, show notes for eachepisode.
You can also follow us on ourFacebook page at Deviant
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(53:55):
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