An Old Timey Podcast - 63: The Bath School Disaster (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

It was unspeakable. Unthinkable. In 1927, a school board member set off a series of explosions that killed 38 children, 6 adults, and injured at least 58 others. That act of domestic terrorism became known as the Bath School disaster. It rocked the small farming community of Bath Township, Michigan, and left people wondering how a seemingly “normal” man like Andrew Kehoe could have done something so terrible.Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from: Bath School Museum. Bath School Museum. https://bathschoolmuseum.org/.Bernstein, A. Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing; The University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 2009.Schechter, H. Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer; Little A: New York, 2021.Are you enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Then please leave us a 5-star rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts!Are you *really* enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Well, calm down, history ho! You can get more of us on Patreon at patreon.com/oldtimeypodcast. At the $5 level, you’ll get a monthly bonus episode (with video!), access to our 90’s style chat room, plus the entire back catalog of bonus episodes from Kristin’s previous podcast, Let’s Go To Court.

Hear ye, hear you. You are listening to an old-timey podcast. I'm Norman Caruso. And I'm Kristen Caruso. And in this series, I'll be talking about the bath school disaster. Oh, ooh. Oh, uh-oh. Okay, here's a thing.

The word bath sounds fun. But school disaster. You do love taking baths. That's true. I do. Yeah, I know it's controversial. Some people think it's disgusting and should be banned. But, you know, we don't have time for that, okay?

Bath school disaster. Mm-hmm. You know, Norm, last week, I brought a fairly fun tale about disco. Yes. And you're talking school disasters. I am. And I'm not going to give away my next series, but holy hell, are we about to be depressed for a while on this podcast? The melancholy will be setting in strong for our listeners.

Sad Girl Summer. I'm in my trying to grow a mustache summer, as you can see. Oh my gosh, you're in your insecure about it, summer. Okay. What does that mean? What do you mean? What does it mean? You've been growing this mustache for a couple days now.

Yeah. And every day you talk about how bad it looks and how you should just shave it and you can't grow facial hair. Right. And it's a whole thing. Right. And I have occasionally giggled when you say this stuff. And then last night, you tried to. reverse uno, this whole thing.

And you were like, well, you think I should shave off my mustache because you think it sucks. And I was like, I have not said a word about that little catapillar. Yeah. See, this is why you got to get on that $10 tier because you can see the progress of my cute little caterpillar. Right now I look like I should be 90 feet away from a school. But I'm working on it, folks. Sir, we'd prefer 120. Keep it moving.

Is this an appropriate thing to talk about before whatever fresh hell you're bringing us with this school disaster? Probably not. Yeah. Okay. Let me just do a quick plug for our Patreon. How about that? Hey, folks, are you enjoying this independent, sexy podcast? Are you wanting to see real-time footage of Norm trying to grow the chia pet above his upper lip?

Well, have I got an offer for you? Head on over to patreon.com slash old-timey podcast. Once there, you will find a variety of things. Video episodes, ad-free episodes, monthly bonus episodes. Trivia. My God, the trivia. Just a cornucopia of stuff. You're going to want all of it.

What is a cornucopia? Is that that like horn? Is that like the horn with all the stuff in it? Is that a cornucopia? You know what? You and I are picturing the exact same thing. It's in kind of a burnt orange color. Yeah, yeah.

And it's for Thanksgiving only. Right. Let's not Google this. Or Christmas. No, just strictly Thanksgiving in my head. Okay. I've got a very hallmarky image and I really don't want it shattered. Anyway, for that cornucopia of stuff, which you can get any time of the year, head on over to patreon.com.

Slash old-timey podcast. Join the community. Oh, that's it. Great job, Kristen. Thank you. Now imagining a cornucopia. full of stickers and cards and history home merchandise and little figurines of us, you know. It's a beautiful thought.

A big slab of pig butter in there. Absolutely. You're going to want to get that chilled right away. Otherwise, it's going to be a mess. Oh, you'll be on the toilet fighting like hell if you eat that warm pig butter. Oh, okay. I see what you mean. You're thinking they would get the cornucopia and the pig butter would be melted and they'd just drink it.

They would just start, yeah. And then, you know, 24 to 48 hours later, they'd be hurting. I'll let you get back to your story here. Yeah, let's get into this story, this series, which I know you're all looking forward to. We love terrible tales, especially when the rest of the world is going great. We need something to bring us down. Yeah. It is a very sad story, one that I was not familiar with at all.

I'm not really familiar with. familiar with this either, which is why I think I'm being so lighthearted about it. Yeah, it's pretty bad. And I'm actually shocked more people don't know about this. But anyway, let's get into it, shall we? Okay, they're going to know now. Kristen, on April 19, 1995, at around 9 a.m., 26-year-old Army veteran Timothy McVeigh parked a rider rental truck filled with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Two minutes later, the truck exploded. The blast took the front face of the building completely off. And in what seemed like an instant, 168 people were dead, including 19 children who were playing in the daycare center on the second floor. Hundreds of others were injured. After his arrest, Timothy McVeigh, a professed white supremacist and anti-government militants,

said he carried out the bombing in retaliation for what he considered government overreach and brutality against U.S. citizens. He cited events like the Ruby Ridge Standoff, the Waco siege, and the invasion of Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. To this day, the Oklahoma City bombing remains the deadliest homegrown terrorism act in United States history. In the aftermath of the bombing, people scrambled for answers. How could someone do something so horrible? It seemed unheard of. Sadly, it was not unheard of. Not for some people.

Like 84-year-old Ava Nelson. When she saw the news of the Oklahoma City bombing, she sobbed. She knew exactly how those victims were feeling. That's because, 68 years earlier, Ava Nelson was a sixth grader at the Bath Consolidated School in Bath, Michigan. And on the morning of May 18th, 1927, a massive explosion went off in the basement of the school.

It sent children flying out of windows. Walls crumbled down. Teachers scrambled to protect their students. Ava Nelson was trapped under rubble for hours, screaming for help. Eventually, she was rescued, but others weren't so lucky. That day, 45,000. people died, and 38 were children.

Oh. It was an unspeakable tragedy in the quiet town of Bath, and it was shockingly carried out by one man, a local farmer and school board member named Andrew Kehoe. To this day, his motivations for doing what he did remain somewhat hazy. Sadly, the Bath school disaster had mostly been forgotten. After the Oklahoma City bombing, there was a little. renewed interest. NBC's Dateline ran a story entitled Bloodbath. Still, you really don't hear about the Bath school disaster too much, even though it holds a grim record as the deadliest school

massacre in U.S. history. Still? Still. Worse than Columbine, worse than Sandy Hook, worse than Parkland. Wow. So in this series, we'll be taking a look at the Bath School Disaster. Who did it, why it happened, and how a small farming community came together to make sense of it all. Wow. Norm, you're taking me back to my true crime days. That's right, baby. I can show you true crime. Oh, boy.

Horrible, awful feelings. I want to get off the magic carpet. That's enough, thanks. How do you feel about Dateline titling their episode Bloodbath? I had feelings about it. Yeah, I do too. Yeah. And I had a true crime comedy podcast, and I've got feelings about it.

Yeah, it feels gross and okay, yeah, the cute pun is there, alliteration, whatever. But, like, we're talking about a horrible, horrible tragedy, like. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I mean, I obviously. think with my background, like, even in the darkest times we can find stuff to laugh about and that that isn't wrong at all. Yeah. But yeah, there's something about, oh, let's title this in a cute way. Let's do a pun that I'm just like, oh, why? Well, and the focus is on the carnage and the death when you title it Bloodbath. Oh, see, I don't have a problem with that. It's the pun. It's the pun. It's.

It's like, why? Why? Why? TV, baby? I don't think they'd do that again. Oh, no. Well, that came out in 1996, so I don't think they would do it again either. We've grown since the 90s. Yeah. Menkowitz would never. Right.

Picture it, Kristen. It was the year 1872, and things were a happening in the United States of America. For example, Yellowstone National Park was officially established as the world's very first National Park. Oh. In the South, reconstruction continued seven years after the end of the American Civil War.

How'd it go? Not great. Listen to my series on Robert Smalls to learn more. In New England, the Boston Globe newspaper released its first issue, and it quickly became

the largest newspaper in the region. And in the presidential election, Republican incumbent and Civil War hero, Ulysses S. Grant defeated Horace Greeley. In a strange turn of events, Greeley died. after the popular vote,

but before the electoral college cast their votes. It's never happened before. Electors were forced to choose a different candidate, but ultimately it didn't matter because Ulysses S. Grant won the election. I just thought that was interesting.

Was it murder for hire? Do we need to go on a whole new tangent? Do we need to investigate this? Oh, you're... Justice for Horace! You're thinking Horace Gurley was murdered? Yeah. I don't think so.

I think he was just, he was kind of old and sick. Sure. Yeah. A likely story. And he had, he was like bald on top. Sure. And then had the long. Oh, I hate it.

Hair. No. It's a look. And I'm kind of thinking about maybe, you know, with the mustache. You can pick a little mustache or a ponytail. He was like an old-timey Hulk Hogan. But between all the hustle and bustle, every day American families were living their everyday lives. And one of those families were the key.

The Kihoes were an Irish Catholic farming family that lived in the small town of Ticomza, Michigan, near the Michigan, Ohio border. You're familiar with Ticumza? No, should I be? Yeah, he was like a Native American leader and warrior. Oh. Are you familiar with General Sherman? You know, Sherman's march through Georgia or whatever. Yeah.

His middle name was Ticumza. Shit, okay. He's like a very respected leader. Anyway, future topic? I was waiting for you to say future topic. Okay, yes. Maybe, maybe. The patriarch of the family, Philip Kehoe, was an immigrant from Ireland.

He'd come over to the United States in 1850 during the Irish potato famine. Future topic? Oh, God. Just depress the shit out of everybody. At the young age of 22, Philip Kehoe had ventured into Michigan for cheap land and opportunity. And boy, howdy, did he find it, Kristen. Philip Kehoe lived out the American dream. He initially worked as a hired hand on a farm, saved up his money,

and eventually bought 80 acres of wooded land in Ticombsa, Michigan. Goodness. Those 80 acres eventually turned into a massive 490-acre farm full of crops and cattle. Neighbors described Philip Kehoe as shrewd, industrious, civic-minded, a family man. Totally not a murderer. The epitome of the immigrant success story, a valuable, citizen. Want proof? Philip Kehoe once served as the town's drain commissioner. What's that? A drain commissioner is responsible for surface water drainage systems.

And Kristen, I can't believe you asked me what that is because... Is that what your grandpa was? My grandfather... Oh, shoot! Was the drain commissioner of Sue St. Marie, Michigan back in the day. Yes, he was. That's right. Do you want to tell the story? What's the story? What do you mean? What's the story?

Your grandpa didn't get that position because he was just obsessed with drains. That's true. By the way, drain commissioner is an elected position in Michigan. And it's like a very Michigan thing. I couldn't really find other states that had drain commissioners. Maybe they go by other names. No one gives a shit about drains anywhere else, but in Michigan. No, I just think they handle it differently.

But anyway, tell me the story because I'm still. kind of jumbling. Your family history, but okay, here I go. You have a bigger noggin than I do. Oh, sure, sure. I'm known for my great memory. No, wasn't your grandpa was a professor and he was trying to start a union. True.

And the higher-ups retaliated, fired him. But the students and faculty rallied around him because he needed a job. And so there was a selection for a fucking drain commissioner. and he got that elected position. He, I regret to inform you, Norm and the listener, I don't think he had a passion for drains. I think it was just like I need a job. And anyway, he got a new job as a professor.

Everything worked out fine. It did work out for my grandfather. He was very civic-minded. Mm-hmm. So I think he was very proud of his Drain Commissioner position. He had his certification framed. Hell yeah. And we still have it. It's very cool.

I can't believe I had to tell you about it. I guess I don't remember the story quite like that, but we'll roll with it. Okay. Anyway, let's get back to Philip Kehoe, please. All right, fine. On February 1st, 1872, that year we just talked about, Philip Kehoe, his wife Mary, and their six daughters, my God. Welcomeed a new member of the family.

It was a boy, their very first. and they named him Andrew. Daddy Kehoe was thrilled. Finally, a boy, a male heir to my vast farm. As the first son in the family, Andrew Kehoe had a lot on his shoulders. He was given a ton of expectations. Hold on. I'm forgetting.

Who's our mass murderer here? It's the son? Andrew Kehoe. Okay, great. The brand new baby boy, I'm telling you about. Andrew's father. taught him the value of hard work, the value of church, the value of being a good member of the community. Philip Kehoe was very strict. He was kind of a my way or the highway kind of guy.

As a child, Andrew Kehoe worked on the farm, but when he wasn't working, he went to school and he learned the basics, reading, math, geography. Andrew really likes school, but what he really loved was this new technological wonder called electricity. You see, Andrew Kehoe grew up during the so-called age of electricity. Eggheads like Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison were changing the world with things like light bulbs and electrical power systems. These inventions filled children like Andrew with wonder and excitement. The possibilities seemed endless. Inspired, Andrew Kehoe would tinker with electrical gadgets on the farm. Now, he was no boy genius.

He was just like a hobbyist who liked to mess around. But this curiosity translated to good grades in the classroom. Andrew became known for his mechanical skills, and he was the top student in his high school physics class. Things seemed to be going really well for Andrew. But while finishing up high school, the Kehoe family experienced loss. When he was 18 years old, Andrew's mother, Mary, passed away.

She had been sick for a while, bedridden, completely paralyzed. Oh. It's not really clear what she had. It was only described as a, quote, disease of the nervous system. It hit the Kehoe family pretty hard. Philip was a widower. Again, his first wife had actually died giving birth.

Oh, geez. Mary was his second wife. Were they both named Mary? They were both named Mary. Are you serious? Yes. Okay. I wasn't going to interrupt,

but when you said his mom's name was Mary, I was like, was it the law back in these times? every woman was named Mary. Yes, it was. And every man was named James. Anyhow, continue. Philip Kehoe was now in his 60s. He had nine children.

Well, goodness. Two from the first marriage? Two from the first. Okay, I can do math. He was also developing arthritis, which made it really hard to get around. So after finishing high school, Andrew didn't leave home. He stuck around to work on the farm. He probably felt like he had to.

Meanwhile, Andrew's father wasn't going to let arthritis stop him from finding love. And sure enough, he found himself a new lady, Kristen. A much younger lady, you'll be happy to hear. Love it. How young. Her name was Francis Murphy Wilder. She was the daughter of an Irish Catholic immigrant, a widow with children of her own, and she was 25 years younger. Oh, my God.

I said you were going to say 25 years old. I mean, oh, my gosh. I mean, almost. She's probably in her early 30s. Yeah, yeah. So they're going to Brady bunch this up. Okay. It's a yours, mine, and hour situation.

Blended family, baby. I'm way too young and cool for that reference, but I'll go with it. I'm not sure why you're claiming that because a remake of that film came out in like 2005, so you should be very familiar with yours, mine, I was born in 2007, so. Oh. So you're claiming. You're 18.

That's right. That's right. Barely legal, buddy. Quite a stretch. Quite a stretch. Folks on the $10 tier, tell us what you think. Don't you dare, fuckers. Could Kristen pull off a never-been-kissed and show up at a high school?

I'm the new girl in town. Oh, hi. I've definitely not been out of high school for more than 20 years. Yeah, yeah, no cap. Philip Kehoe and Francis Wilder got married. Andrew was not a fan of his new mother because she was closer to his age than his father's. And I guess Andrew said, eh, I'm not going to stick around here anymore. So not long after they got married, Andrew Kehoe left home.

The next eight to ten years of Andrew's life are kind of mysterious. In 1900, he appeared on the census as a dairy man living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I guess that's a fellow that delivers milk or... Or works at the dairy. Or squeezes milk out of cows. Okay, that's a farmer. All right. Mokes the cows.

S squeezes milk out of cows. Yeah, I mean, that's basically what they're doing, right? Yeah, we all understand that you're technically correct. We just never wanted to hear it put that way. I speak for the people, Norm, don't give me that look. Okay, fair enough. Andrew also claimed he enrolled at Michigan State Agricultural College, later known as Michigan State University.

He said he majored in electrical engineering. Why are you saying he said he did it? He claimed... Is he full of shit? Will you let me talk, please? I guess so. I'm not done with my sentence. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

He said he majored in electrical engineering, his passion, although the school has no records of him ever attending. Andrew Kehoe later appeared in Iowa, working as a lineman, setting up electrical poles. and running wire to homes and businesses. At one point, he enrolled at an electrical school in St. Louis, Missouri, and worked as an electrician for the city. According to his siblings, Andrew Kehoe suffered a terrible accident

while he was working in St. Louis. They said that Andrew had a, quote, severe fall that left him semi-conscious for nearly two months. There aren't any other details on the accident, and after the Bath school disaster, Andrew's sister claimed that that fall really messed him up. It changed him, and that was the reason he bombed the school. Knowing what we know now about CTE and the effects of severe trauma to the brain,

it's not hard to believe. However, we have no way of knowing for sure. Yeah. You watched that documentary on Frontline, right, about CTE? Oh, yeah, a long, long time ago. I hope you're not trying to squeeze knowledge out of it. out of me like I'm a cow. No.

With my milk. The knowledge milk. Yeah. No, I was just curious if I think we watched that together. That was very good. If anyone has not seen it. Frontline did a documentary on CTE and how the NFL tried to cover it up and all that. Good stuff.

I wish I could tell you more, but I have played a lot of football since I watched that documentary. Sorry, that was a tacky joke. That was a very tacky joke. Almost as tacky as Dateline's title for that. You know what? I have to rescue you from that one. Okay. I don't think that's going to rescue me. You're going to be like the old-timey comedian on stage and a cane comes out and grabs you by the neck and pulls you off stage.

No. The true old-timey comedian is like someone who makes a joke like that. And then they're like, what? Shut up. You can't say anything these days. No, woke comedy. I can't say a thing. After Andrew Kehoe recovered from his fall, he worked various jobs.

around the Midwest, but nothing seemed to stick. So, he returned home to his father's farm in Ticumse, Michigan. Census records from 1910 show him living there as a farm laborer. His father, Philip, was approaching 80 years old. Goodness. He had to walk around using two canes. He could barely do anything, which left a lot of work for Andrew. His stepmother, Francis, was still around, and Andrew still hated her.

Well, what did she ever do? Two canes. Don't you mean a walker? I would think two canes. Two canes. Two canes. Two canes. That's exactly what I was thinking, actually. And I was really trying to mean a walker. And I was really trying hard not to do that because, you know, of my terrible CTE joke, I didn't want to keep making terrible jokes.

Listen, that's why we have the rim shot, okay? You can make whatever joke you want. You can say anything you want on this podcast. Wow. And the rim shot will save you. Okay, so why does he hate his stepmom? So much. It's not clear. All right.

And, you know, we can only guess, you know. Sure, your new stepmom is very, very young. There was speculation that Andrew was worried when his father died. He would leave everything to the stepmom and nothing to him. Sure. This is starting to make sense. Okay. By the way, Andrew also had a new little sister.

Yes, Philip was still getting it on. God. I'm an old man. So the new little sister was named Irene. Come on, Irene. All right. You're 30 years younger than me. Andrew was 30 years older than his little sister.

Yes. That was a good joke, wasn't it? Not really. I came up with that off the dome. I could tell. And also, there's something about that joke when delivered by a man with like a really, a really struggling mustache that I'm like, I just can't even giggle. I might need to shave mid-recording. Just shave half of it off.

Just the right or left. Your choice, buddy. Speaking of shaving half a mustache off, we've been watching Love Island. I've noticed some of these boys shave the top half of their mustaches. And I'm wondering, what's with that? I don't know. I feel like you and I are old and we're isolated because, you know, we work from home. So we are not keeping up with the trends at all,

unless they come across our TV screen. So you and I were both rocked by that weird facial hair. I'm sure the majority of people just look at it and they're like, yeah, the mustache should be a weird, thin little line right above your lip. That's what's hot. Yeah, I saw one guy and I was like, yeah, I think if he had a full mustache, it would look better. But, you know, hey, you do you, boo. Okay. Life on the Kehoe farm was pretty routine, day in and day out, kind of monotonous.

Andrew was now almost 40 years old, and I can only assume he wasn't happy. I mean, just imagine you're finally able to go out on your own and try to pursue your passion. You have this horrible accident. Nothing seems to be working out for you. You have to move back home. You have to go back to a place you really don't want to be. I can only assume he maybe felt pretty bad about that. Yeah.

And I assume he didn't have any romantic interests. Not at this time, no. Okay. But on Sunday, September 17th, 1911, a horrific accident changed everything for the Kehoe family. That afternoon, Francis and her youngest daughter, Irene, were at home getting ready to make lunch. Francis was going to cook something up on her fancy new gasoline stove. Oh, no. Early gas stoves had a tank stored above that kind of fed fuel into the appliance.

Mm-hmm. And people really love it. because they were way easier and way more convenient than a wood or a coal burning stove. But gas stoves were much more dangerous. They caused an untold number of deaths across the country from fires or accidental explosions. Or your stepson being a big creepy murderer. Interesting, Kristen. I'm just guessing.

Interesting, you brought that up. Yes. Francis had used her gas stove probably hundreds of times without issue until that day when she lit a match to light the burner, a flame exploded, and it set Francis on fire. She screamed, stumbling and flailing around the kitchen, trying to put the fire out. Philip Kehoe, who could barely stand, watched helplessly as his wife struggled to survive. Andrew heard the commotion and ran into the kitchen. And thinking fast, he grabbed a pitcher of water, and he tossed it onto his stepmother. But water and gas do not mix. And so that water only caused the fire.

fire to spread. Oh. Eventually the Kehos were able to put the fire out, but the damage had been done. A, quote, hellish stench permeated the house. Francis Kehoe's skin was black. Some parts were roasted down to the bone. Oh. She moaned in agony as she was taken to a nearby bedroom.

Francis needed medical help very quickly, but the keyhose did not have a phone. Yeah. And so Andrew ran to a neighbor's house, the Murphy, for help. And so he knocked on their door. Hedy Murphy was making lunch for her family when she heard that knock. And she dusted off her hands and opened the door and there was Andrew. And despite the urgency of the situation, Andrew seemed totally chill, totally calm. And he just simply asked, would you call the doctor? Hedy Murphy wondered why. She was like, oh, is somebody sick? And Andrew replied, no, Franny got burned.

Would you call a priest, too? Oh, God. Hedy Murphy quickly phoned for help. But when the doctor arrived at the Kehoe residence, there was nothing he could do. A priest delivered the last rites, and later that afternoon, Francis Kehoe died. That's a terribly painful way to die. That's horrible. Yes.

I can't even imagine. A very slow, painful death. Yeah. Her death was ruled accidental. Or was it? In hindsight, probably not. Yeah, so after the Bath School disaster, a lot of people looked back on that incident a little differently. Yeah.

Rumors spread that Andrew hated his stepmother so much that he rigged the stove to explode in order to kill her. And, you know, he was very good mechanically. He would know how to do something like that. Of course, those are all rumors. Well, and it wouldn't be hard to do that, right? Probably not. So it doesn't take a genius. Yeah.

I just think sometimes we give people a lot of credit when it's like, he's a dummy who did something we could all do if we were evil enough. That's true. That's true. After Francis Kehoe's death, Philip never married again. Well, I mean, who's got the time? He's about to croak, right? He's 90.

He's old. He's 80. Yeah. Andrew was now the de facto head of household. He's probably the only able-bodied man to run the full. farm, but Andrew's life began to change when he started dating a woman from Lansing, Michigan. Ooh, okay. Named Ellen Price, but everyone knew her as Nellie.

No, poor Nellie. Let's not give her the welcome. Let's tell her to run away. I know. Wish we could. I almost put in a Nelly joke there. What do you mean? Like the rapper Nellie.

I was going to play like a clip from a Nellie song. Unnecessary. Yeah. The creative juices were really flowing. Yeah, absolutely. Nellie Price was also Irish Catholic and a somewhat prominent one too. Her uncle, Lawrence Price, was kind of a big deal, Kristen. What was his deal?

He was a Civil War hero, prominent businessman. He had businesses in groceries, dry goods, lumber, hardware stores, and this fancy new invention called the automobile. Oh. Lauren's Price even ran for the U.S. Senate one time. He did not win, but still, that's a big deal. Yeah, absolutely. In other words, the Price family was very wealthy.

Allegedly, Andrew and Nellie had met years earlier when they both attended Michigan State. But again, there are no records of either of them ever attending Michigan State. How old is she? Nellie was the same age as Andrew. like two years younger, I think. Interesting. Right. And she had never married before?

No. Ah. At this point in time, that had to be highly unusual. What was that one story? Suspicious. Was it suspicited? No, that was if you were divorced. Yeah.

Suspicious woman. Yeah. Jaycee Penny's first wife was divorced. And they said she was suspicious. Yeah. Yeah. No. As far as I know, Nellie had never been.

married before. And apparently they met at Michigan State. No records of them ever going to that school. But anyway, they were now rekindling their romance. They had a lot in common. They were both Irish Catholics. They both lost their moms at a young age. They both grew up on a farm. And they both felt pressured by their families to be successful. And perhaps they could make things happen as a couple on May 14th, 1912. One month after the Titanic sank, by the way, Andrew Kehoe and Nellie Price got married. Do you like that little fact I threw in there? What role did the Titanic play at this wedding?

Absolutely nothing. Perhaps someone, you know, had a moment of silence. Sure. Said one month ago, the Titanic sank, a moment of silence before we cut the cake. Okay, so not in the ceremony. Because that'd be too much. Maybe a little too much. You know, it's their special day.

Sure, absolutely. Right. After the wedding, the newlyweds settled back at the Kehoe Farm and to come. They continued working on the farm while taking care of Andrew's father, Philip, who was now permanently in a wheelchair. About three years later, on January 8, 1915, Philip Kehoe passed away at the age of 81, and he left his massive farm to Andrew. Without Philip watching over them, Andrew and Nellie Kehoe settled into their new life in Ticumse. They were regulars at the local Catholic Church. Well, at least Nellie was a regular.

an incident occurred that made Andrew stop going to church. You see, the Catholic Church had built a new sanctuary, and they were soliciting donations to help cover the costs of that sanctuary. And when they knocked on Andrew's door for a donation, he flat out refused to give them any money. He thought the church was trying to take advantage of him. He was so offended that he stopped going to church. What?

And wait, there's more, Kristen. Andrew Kehoe also had a beef with neighbors, literally beef. Because one time he purchased eight steers from a neighbor and put them in his pasture. But that particular pasture was a bad location because it was full of wet clover. Two of the steers ate and eight and ate all that wet clover. It caused cattle bloat and it killed two steers. But rather than admit that he fucked up, Andrew believed he had been sold bad cattle.

Uh-huh. So he marched back to the neighbor. and he demanded half of his money back. Give me a break. The neighbor refused and was like, dude, those cattle were perfectly healthy when I sold them to you. Right. You set them up at the all you can eat buffet and didn't monitor them. Right.

Also, the golden clover. The thing about church, had this man ever been to church before? Had you ever heard of church? Yes, I think, and we'll see this later on in the story. He's not charitable. Right. He has no empathy. And in my opinion, probably thought that new sanctuary was completely unnecessary and now you're

asking for money to pay for it. And why should I have to pay for it when I didn't even want this new sanctuary? See, I'm more latching on to the theme I'm hearing in those two stories of people are out to get me. They're trying to take advantage of me, which I think is a weird conclusion to jump to. in both of those stories, but especially the church one. Because again, I think if you've ever been to church a day in your life, ever even heard of church, you know that they pass the offering plate. And yeah, there's always going to be some renovation or some building project.

And obviously, if you're a guy with a million acres, they're going to come ask you for a donation. And one option you always have in life is to just politely say no. No, thank you. Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, he was a very, like, bitter man. He held grudges, and so he felt he had been very wronged by this. And so, yeah, he stopped going to church.

Cool. And apparently he tried to get Nellie to stop going to. Of course he did. But she kept going. So back to this cattle story. You know, he went to the neighbor and was like, I want half off the price, because you sold me too bad cattle. And the neighbor was like,

hell no, those cattle were perfectly fine. Right. Well, Andrew stormed off and he never spoke to that man again. Sometimes the trash takes itself out. Ain't that the truth? I want to mention that these two stories

I just told you about the church and the cattle. It came from a pamphlet that was hastily written after the Bath School disaster. Okay. And this pamphlet was sold to tourists, tourists who were like flowing into bath by the thousands. Gross. So I do want to mention that because the source is a little sketchy, but I still wanted to mention it.

You know, I am inclined to believe both of those stories just because they're not that sensational. If you're going to make something up, I feel like go bigger. Right. And that's why I wanted to mention them because as a historian, you have to look at these. And determine, yes, I do think that's a possibility or no, that's way out of line. So this pamphlet, it's interesting because it was written by his neighbor. And so it's an incredible source. It was written right at the time of the disaster. He knew him very well.

Yeah. But also his motivations for writing were to make a bunch of money. And of course you want to sensationalize that to sell as many as possible. Anyway, if those stories are true, it's the beginning of a pattern of very odd behavior from Andrew Kehoe. He was growing paranoid. He felt like people were always trying to take advantage of him, and his actions would only get worse. The Keohos lived in Tecums in Michigan for a couple of years until another life-changing event put them on the move. On February 12th, 1917, Nellie's uncle, the famous Lawrence Price, passed away, and he left a considerable estate behind, including an 80-acre farm in the small town of Bath, Michigan.

Bath is located about 12 miles northeast of Lansing, Michigan. It was a beautiful piece of property. It had a three-story farm home with bay windows and a big, shady porch, had a nice-sized barn. and had a chicken coop, plenty of good soil for crops, and had a beautiful wooded area that changed all sorts of colors in the fall. When I read about Bath, I thought, man, next time we go to Lansing, we are going to Bath. Yeah.

I had no idea it was so close to Lansing. Yeah. But again, I'd never heard of this story, so why would I know about Bath, Michigan, you know? The opportunity to live on the farm was extremely appealing to the keyhose. For Nellie, she had actually grown up on that. farm. So she had a lot of great memories there. And she could also be closer to her family who lived in Lansing. For Andrew, he could leave behind all those bad memories in Ticomza and get a fresh start in Bath. So the keyhole decided they were going to take the farm. Of course, it belonged to

the price estate. They wouldn't be able to just get it for free. And so the farm was valued at around $12,000. Adjusting for inflation, $300,000. Okay. Pretty good for an 80-acre farm. And so the keyh- You mean that's a good deal for an 80-acre farm? Very good deal. Okay, I was going to say.

Very good deal, yes. So the keyhose worked out a deal with the estate. They would make a down payment of $6,000, and then the remaining $6,000 would be paid back with monthly mortgage payments of $360 a month. In order to make that down payment, though, the keyhose had to sell the farm in Tacombson. So Andrew took out ads in the paper. He offered up a farm for sale with, quote,

a brick dwelling, 14 rooms, steam-heated, oak interior finish, a chicken house, woodshed, tillable land, excellent water, soil, roads, three miles from Tacumza, priced right. How much was that price? $8,000. Adjusted for inflation, about $200,000. So it seemed like an easy sell. I mean, you're getting a ton of land, good deal. But it took Andrew Kehoe quite a while to sell that farm. It's not clear why it took so long.

One theory was that Andrew was very difficult to work with. Uh-huh. I was going to say, I've got a theory. Good grief. He thinks everyone's out to get him. He thinks everyone's trying to rip him off. And here he's trying to sell everything his family built. Yes.

It's not going to go well. Well, he did find a buyer. One source says the buyer was the guy who sold him the cattle. No way. That one, I was like, that seems to... Also, why would Andrew sell the house to him? Yeah, he seems like the guy who, like, I'm not selling to you, no matter what. No, he holds grudges.

So, anyway, Andrew Kehoe found a buyer. But then after they made a deal, Andrew noticed a stack of firewood on his farm. And he was like... He was like, well, he's not entitled to this firewood. He's only buying the property. He can't have the contents of the property. And so he went to the new owner of the farm. And he was like, you have to pay me for this firewood.

Oh, my God. And the new owner, who I can only assume looked around and saw all the trees and laughed, said, yeah, I'm not interested in buying that firewood. You can take it with you. I love that. Andrew was very stubborn. And he did not stop. until he found someone to buy his firewood.

He went around to neighbors and to Cumsay saying, will you buy this firewood? Oh, my God. But again, it's just, it's hilarious to me because it's like, dude, this is a wooded farming community. Do you really think they need firewood? Well, here's the thing.

There's always got to be a market for like, okay, yeah, I'm cooking, I'm working on this other thing. If you've got the wood chopped up, sure. It's a convenience thing. But in a situation like this where you've sold someone in the house, good God, dude, cut your losses or give the firewood away to another neighbor. But he just has to have his little thing. The normal thing to do for something like firewood is you leave it for the new owner.

Of course. Enjoy the home. Here's firewood. Right. Don't even mention it. Because it's freaking firewood. Instead, he's trying to sell water to a well. Right.

You know. Mm-hmm. Well, anyway, finally in the spring of 1919, two years after the Kiho's agreed to move to Bath, they finally moved into their new farm home. Oh, my God. Let's talk about Bath, baby. Let's talk about you and me. Oh, my. Let's talk about all the good things going on in Bath, Baby.

Let's talk about Bath. It's so sad. to think that, ugh. You getting a little melancholy over there? Yeah, just thinking about what's to come. Listen, you better enjoy this episode because part two is the worst. Okay, okay. Let's give me that buildup, baby.

Bath, Michigan was named after the town of Bath in New York, which was named after the town of Bath in England, which got the name Bath because of all the Roman baths in the area. So there you go, Kristen. Thank you. The more you know. Bath was a quiet little farming town just outside of Lansing, Michigan. People raised cattle, sold dairy, grew vegetables like corn, soybeans, sugar beets.

The town itself was built around a train depot on the Michigan Central Railroad, and the population was slowly but surely increasing. Two main roads intersected the town center. There was a tavern, grocery store, a hotel, a bank, schools, hardware store, auto repair shop, pharmacy, post office, sawmill, brick factory. Oh my God, Norm, okay. Hey, I need you to know what was in this town. I don't think we need every building.

Small town, but growing. Great place to raise a family, Kristen. Yeah, except for this jackass just moved to town. And hey, if there was anything Bath didn't have, Lansing, the state capital, was just 12 miles down the road. When the Kehose moved in, many residents of Bath remembered Nellie from when she was a child. And they were like, oh my gosh, Nellie, welcome back. They were happy to have her.

And then there was her husband, Andrew. He was new, kind of weird, but he seemed nice enough. Right. People said Andrew was very neighborly. He seemed always eager to help. Said one neighbor, quote, any favors we asked of him he was perfectly willing to do. Another neighbor said, quote, there couldn't be a better neighbor than him. Hmm.

The local butcher said that Andrew Kehoe was a whiz with mechanical stuff and even helped him install a new boiler system at his business. He said, quote, I would always call Kehoe and he would come right up and fix it and would never take any money for his work. Was Andrew testing out a new personality? Is this like, I'm going to summer camp, so I'm going to try to be a whole new person. I'm going to be popular here. Is that what's happening? It's hard to say. You know, he was probably looking for a fresh start and Bath was that fresh start.

His father was very civic-minded and, you know, help your neighbors and maybe he was, you know, trying to. Trying something new. Trying something new. Okay. Don't know. The Kiho's became acclimated to the Bath community. Nellie joined the Ladies Friday afternoon club. Oh.

Andrew joined the local farm bureau where they discussed proper farming techniques. Andrew was especially helpful, thanks to his knowledge of farming machinery. Many of the bath farmers were still old school. They used horse and plow. But Andrew advocated for machinery to make their lives easier, and he regularly offered to lend his equipment to neighbors. Yep, the Kiho seemed to be fitting right in. Well, most of the time, anyway.

Andrew Kehoe seemed nice and friendly and helpful, but he exhibited some behaviors that turned people off. For example, during social gatherings when they played card games, Andrew was very strict about the rules. He would often chew other players out if they broke a rule or they made a mistake. And people were always like, whoo, dude, chill, it's just a card game. We're just playing for fun. Right. Neighbors also had to get used to Andrew's farming techniques.

Specifically, he really liked to clear his fields by blowing things up. Well, that would be startling. Now, to be fair, this was a somewhat common practice at the time. After World War I, there was a huge surplus of an explosive called pyritol. And farmers really liked pyrotol because it did a great job of clearing things like boulders and tree stumps. It was relatively safe to use, and it was cheap. Okay. So if Andrew Kehoe was plowing his feet,

and he found a tree stump or a boulder, nothing a little dynamite and piratol couldn't fix. But oftentimes residents would get spooked by the explosions. But people eventually got used to it, and they were like, oh, yeah, that's just Andrew Kehoe. He's probably just clearing his fields. Yeah. These types of behaviors weren't that big of a deal.

Andrew just seemed quirky, maybe a little odd. Mm-hmm. But people really started to see him differently after they went. His cruelty to animals. In March of 1920, a neighbor's fox terrier dog went missing. The neighbor asked Andrew if he had seen her dog. And he apparently replied that the dog, quote, was bearing a bone beside my road fence, and I shot the damn nuisance.

Oh. No remorse. Wow. The neighbor stayed away from Andrew after that. No kidding. Well, and interesting, not just that he did that, But that he wanted her to know he'd done it. Mm-hmm.

So he wanted to not just kill something, but to see the pain it caused someone. Yeah. Another time, a neighbor noticed Andrew Kehoe hauling away a horse carcass. And the neighbor was like, whoo, I see you've had some bad luck with your horse. Yeah. Andrew replied, yeah, damn him. He should have been killed years ago. He didn't pull.

And we had a mix up. And when I got through with him, he was dead. In other words, Andrew Kehoe had beaten his horse to death after it struggled to pull a manure spreader. This was alarming behavior. But despite that, the Keohos were still welcomed. They were still active in the community. And in 1921, big news swept up the town of Bath. A brand new school was being built.

A school that would serve every single child in the area from kindergarten. garden all the way through high school. So you might be wondering, why was a new school such a big deal in Bath, Michigan? Let's get a little slutty, Kristen, and look at some context. Ooh! Had they not had a school before this? Or maybe it was just a sad little one-room nothing thing? You're on to that. Okay. The first school in Bath, Michigan, opened in 1840. It was a one-room log cabin with seven students. But the community quickly outgrew it. Over the next 50 years,

12 more schools opened up. And they were scattered all over the area. And they were usually built within like a mile of people's homes. The curriculum was basic. Reading, writing, math, geography, history. Kind of an old school type of education. But by the beginning of the 20th century, educational reform was sweeping across the nation.

Students needed to be more prepared for a rapidly changing world filled with new industry, science, and technology. Secondary education was becoming more accessible as well, where people could specialize in certain job fields. But educational reform proved to be difficult in Bath. It's hard to get all those little schoolhouses on the same page. Right. There needed to be some sort of standardization across the area. And that's when the idea of a consolidated school popped up. A consolidated school was one big-ass school for every single kid. It would have a full staff. It would have bus transportation to and from school, higher standards of education. And kids would really like it too because now they

would have the same classmates every single year. I mean, you get more classmates. More people your age, probably. Parents liked it because it was also safer, you know, with the buses. because before all the kids walked to school. Right. You know, it seemed like a really good idea, but, you know, not everyone in Bath was for this idea. Some parents thought, hey, my kids are being educated just fine in those one-room cabins, you know. It was a farming community, so it's like, what more do my kids need to learn?

Well, there's always the parent who's like, if it was good enough for me, it's good enough for them. So sure. Some parents wondered how one school could support all these kids. You know, where are we going to hire all these teachers? And the biggest question, who's going to pay for all this? The answer to that question was a new property tax. Ultimately, it would be up to the people of Bath to decide on a new school. On July 22nd, 1921, a state education official held a town meeting to make the case for a consolidated school.

And all the benefits it provided the community. Three days later, the town voted and it passed. Bath was going to get a brand new, big-ass school. There was a lot of work to do. The town formed a school board to oversee the school. They picked out a location. It was a hill near the town center. Author Arnie Bernstein poetically described the new school as, quote,

a shining landmark overlooking the town, symbolically representing a higher ideal and bright future. Yeah. To save money on construction, the town reused an existing schoolhouse. A two-story brick building. And they moved the building to its new location and then added on to it to make it bigger. I always think it's so funny when people do that. Yes.

Okay. When I read about this, I was just like, okay, was this just a thing back then? And it was. It was cheaper to move buildings than to build a new one. I mean, people still do this sometimes. I mean, not very often. Future topic? No.

What? It always reminds me when we were house shopping, we looked at a house in Westport, Kansas City. It's the neighborhood in Kansas City. And I remember it was an old house and the foundation was just absolutely fucked. It was awful. Pure garbage, yep. And I was just like, what happened? Come to find out, it was an old farmhouse that somebody moved into.

Kansas City. And it's like, well, no wonder the foundations messed up. That was the other thing was we really liked the look of the house. Yes. And we thought it was so different from everything around it. It was. Yeah. Oh, there's a reason it's so different.

It did not belong here. Yeah. Yeah. It's just fascinates me. So, yes, future topic. Oh, God. It's going to happen. How?

What? People moved buildings? End of topic. Yeah. We'll make it a 10-minute bonus episode. Great. So anyway, Bath forms a school board. They start construction.

The next task is to hire a superintendent, a leader for the new school. And they got a great recommendation from Michigan State. It was a graduate named Emery Hike. Emery Hike seemed like the perfect person for this position. He was young and ambitious. He was 28 years old. He had a ton of potential, though. He was a World War I veteran.

He oozed leadership qualities. He was a gifted teacher along with his wife, Ethel. The school board fell in love with him. Yeah. So in April of 1922, Emery Hike was hired as the superintendent with an annual salary of $2,300. The justice for inflation, $41,000. Okay. Six months later, in October of 1922, the Bath Consolidated School officially opened with 236 students.

Modern education was now available to the children of Bath, Michigan, and Emory Hike led the way. He enforced strict academic standards in the classroom, and within a few years, the school received accreditation, which gave the school federal and state financial aid opportunities. Hike was also a strict disciplinarian to both students and staff, ensuring everybody was treated with respect. He also took on multiple roles. Emery Hike not only led the administration, but he taught. classes and he was the coach of the school's poultry judging team. What? That's right, Kristen.

You know, the poultry judging team. Obviously, I understood that this guy would wear a lot of hats. It's a really small place. There's a lot to do. I did not think that that would be one of the hats, but here we are. I imagined, you know, him in multiple roles and I thought, oh, coached the baseball. team. Right. Did not expect poultry judging team. And I had to remind myself, oh, this is Bath, Michigan, farming community. Of course they have a poultry judging team, which I learned as a thing.

According to Google, a poultry judging team evaluates and ranks poultry. I didn't know, so I'm going to read it, okay. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. Poultry judging team in a rural farm community. Yeah. What did you think that meant? I had no idea. If not judging chickens. You can't judge me. I'm judging you. You cannot tell me you were confused. Listen, okay, here's what I pictured in my head. I pictured like a model runway and a chicken walks down the runway and there's people scribbling notes.

They'd be walking, there'd be squawking and, you know, you'd be looking at the feathers and stuff, I'm sure. I just saw it as like which chicken is the sexiest. I'm about to bust. I don't know that that was a category. on the scoring sheet. I'm sure they would call it, you know, glamour or something. They wouldn't use that word.

Here I can read to you what was on the scoring sheet. What? Breed characteristics, production quality, and market readiness. So good thing I looked that up, huh? Thank goodness. I'm about to bust.

Thanks to Emery Hikes keen eye for sexy chickens. The Bath Consolidated Schools poultry judging team kicked ass and even won a regional competition. Good for them. It seemed like the entire town was quite smitten with their new superintendent. Emery Hike received a two-year extension with an annual raise of $200. Just for inflation, he got a $4,000 raise every year.

Okay. Emory Hike was love and life. Fellow bath resident, Andrew Kehoe, was not. Farming was not going well. It's unclear why. Neighbors mentioned that Andrew Kehoe had strange work habits. He could be seen wearing suits and puffing cigars while riding his tractor. And he always seemed very clean.

Apparently whenever he got even slightly dirty or sweaty, he would change his clothes. Very odd behavior for a farmer. Sure. A neighbor claimed that one summer, Andrew Kehoe just didn't harvest his corn crop. It rotted in the hot sun. Of course, another reason Andrew Kehoe may have been struggling was that farmers across the country were struggling. after World War I demand for crops plummeted, and that meant the price of crops plummeted. Farmers who had taken out massive loans to keep up with demand during the war were now facing financial ruin.

And Andrew Kehoe was furious about the situation. He complained about so-called experts on farming and how they always seemed to give impractical advice to get through the hard times. The real solution, he thought, was that farmers should be setting the price. price of crops. They should control the market. He thought the current setup was totally unfair. The Kiho's farming struggles led to money problems. By 1922, they had stopped making mortgage payments.

Andrew wrote to the attorney of the price estate, Joseph Dunback, and explained the situation. Joseph Dunback understood he was a patient man, and he wanted to work with the Kiho's. After all, Nellie was family. Right. So Joseph Dunback replied, hey, no problem, we'll give you an extension. And that provided some temporary relief for the keyhose. But then the Bath Consolidated School Property Tax Bill came to their door. Okay.

The price, $12 per $1,000 of property valuation. So for the keyhose, that was $150 a year. Adjusted for inflation? $2,300 bucks. Yeah, that sting. Mm-hmm. Especially when you don't want to work. What was Nellie thinking for all this?

We don't really know. That is a shame. I am kind of fascinated by Nellie because a woman at this point in time, she's 38 years old before she gets married. And she's from a family with money. Mm-hmm. And she wants to get married? Yeah.

Something's up, right? Well, and as we'll learn in this story, it seemed like she did what she could to have some agency. Of course. With what was going on. But, you know. No, she doesn't have a lot of power. That's for sure.

I'm just kind of wondering how what the factors were for her getting into all this. But okay, continue. So this tax bill comes and Andrew handles it just fine. He gets a property tax bill and he's fuming. He claimed he was, quote, being taxed into the poor house. He questioned why he should have to pay taxes on a school when he didn't even have any kids. I hate it when people do that shit.

Why should I have to pay taxes on this thing? I don't like it. It's like we pay taxes for everything. It goes into a big pot, you know. Why should I have to pay taxes for the fire department? My house is not on fire right now. I agree. Andrew Kehoe also had a big problem with how the school operates.

Oh, sure. Specifically, he was not a fan of the school board. They frequently gave out contracts to friends and family. For example, the bus route contract was awarded to the school board secretary's son. Keeho also didn't like that the board sometimes held meetings in private. Nepotism. Wasteful spending. Secrecy. Something had to change. Okay, so here's the thing. How big is Bath? It's tiny. Exactly. So I understand we don't want there to be a lot of nepotism, favoritism, blah, blah, blah. But if there's 12 people in your town, yeah, probably all 12 of you are going to get a job for the school district. I really tried to find out how many people are living in Bath at this time. I'm going to guess a little over a thousand. Yeah. Yeah. So again, yeah, you don't want stuff to be unfair, but you don't have much choice. who you hire when there's not that many people living there. Exactly. Yeah. And we're a bunch of board meetings secret. Were some of them secret? Just some. Well, that's pretty standard. I hate to tell

Andrew. Oh, there's a lot of things Andrew doesn't understand about the school board. But he's convinced there's a problem. There's a problem. And he is the man to fix the problem. You don't have kids, weirdo. Why are you running for school board? In July of 1924. a seat on the school board was up for election. And Andrew Kehoe threw his hat in the ring. He campaigned on fiscal responsibility. We have to cut spending. Okay.

And that message seemed to resonate with the citizens of Bath. Of course it did. Plus, Andrew Kehoe was smart guy. He was always helping neighbors. They probably thought, well, he'd probably be a good addition to the school board. Andrew Kehoe received the majority of votes, 55, to be exact. And he was elected for a three-year term. Okay, I realized I just said something perhaps controversial.

What did you say? I said, you don't have kids. Why are you running for school board? You weirdo. Yeah, I guess it was. No, I see where you're coming from, where it's like you have to have some, maybe you're looking for more perspective if you're going to be on the school board. And if you don't have kids, how would you know about?

Well, I mean, it's like he had no, like, teaching background or like anything like that. I guess my thing when someone's running for school board is, why? And it could be, hey, I'm a retired teacher. I've been in education or, you know, here's all these things that demonstrate my passion for education. I've got, you know, three kids in this district, you know, blah, blah. I don't think it necessarily has to be that you've got kids in the district.

but there's got to be a compelling reason to run for school board. And it can't be, I got a tax bill and I sure hated it. His compelling reason is my tax bill was way too high. It should be lowered. F these kids, it should be lowered. This school is costing all of us money. Yeah, schools tend to do that. They tend to not be completely free.

Sorry. Kristen, he's got equipment to buy. He's got to buy farming. machinery. He's got to buy explosives. Harvest your damn crops, loser. Damn. Also, you're a middle-aged man who had

a whole farm handed to you by your dad. Because you murdered your stepmom. We're pretty sure. That's just a rumor. We are not claiming he did that on an old-timey podcast. I'm kind of claiming it, though. I'm pretty sure. Well, Kristen,

like I said, Andrew Kehoe received 55 votes, which Made him the winner of the school board election. How many people were on the board? Don't know. That is critical information. Big hole in your research. You researched poultry judging.

I sure did. But you didn't research how many other people were on the board? No. Wow. Okay. I'm guessing 11. We'll say 11. That's way too many people in a town with like a thousand people.

Two. This is not. Okay, continue. Anyway. So he's on the school board. Yes, he's elected to the school board, and during his first meeting, he is named the treasurer of the school board. Oh, my God. You know, he campaigned on fiscal responsibility.

He's the guy. No, he has no money. Don't put him in charge of the money. If only they knew about his personal finances. Right. Andrew Kehoe wasted no time. He went full doge on the back consolidated school. How much ketamine was he taking?

Well, the first thing he did was he wanted to cut the janitor's salary. Why? What? By $60. Adjusted for inflation, $1,000. Wait, cut his annual salary. Annual salary. Wow.

And people were like, why the janitor? Why? And Andrew Keough was like, because he only has one arm. Which was true. The janitor only had one arm. Probably because he was. went to war or something, right? And, well, I can only assume this was, again, small town.

Mm-hmm. This guy with one arm becomes the janitor. Uh-huh. And, yeah, it's like, yeah, that's a job he can do when you're disabled with one arm. Andrew Kehoe saw it as he can barely do his job with one arm. Why are we paying him? Like, this is insane. Yeah.

This is completely nuts. Yeah. You've got one arm, therefore I'm... You should be paid less, yeah. Oh, my God. And then Andrew combed through the accounting books. Uh-huh. And he was like, what the hell is all this spending?

New encyclopedias, a fireproof safe, playground equipment. Who the hell approved all of this? And the school board was like, these are recommendations by the accreditation board and superintendent emery hike right it's a school yes stuff is in it it's it's a building with stuff i'm sorry this is bringing up in it this is bringing up a lot of emotions for me norm didn't you used to cover school board meetings okay at your old newspaper reporter job? Yeah, I was an education reporter, sat through a lot of school board meetings, covered a lot of school board elections, and I was about to bring up my own shit. I realize it

doesn't actually apply to this story right here. But, you know, I've kind of started this story, and do I have the self-control to shut up? Spill the damn beans. You know, it would piss me off. One of my biggest pet peeves about the whole school board thing was I would cover people who, Like, at the time, school lunches were a real topic. In a way that they kind of aren't now, but it was like, healthy school lunches. Healthy school lunches are important. This was during Michelle Obama's healthy lunch campaign. Which, of course.

Yeah. Healthy food, great. I hate it. But yes, it's good. I would hate it too. Pizza and fries every day for me, baby. And they would just, you know, campaign, campaign, campaign. campaign, got to get these healthy lunches, got to do it, got to do it. And so then the administration

of the school district would then, you know, research ways to make it happen. And of course, it costs money. Yeah, no shit. No shit. And the thing that drove me nuts about it was it was actually not a lot of money. Yeah. But obviously, if you're going to replace the friars with something else and if you're going to make these changes, yeah, it's not going to be free. And then those same fucking school board members would be up in arms. What? Well, no. We can't make, they realized, I'm sorry, I'm getting so into this. It's okay.

But we love to see you fired up, Kristen. They would see, you know, the headlines being written in their brains. And they're like, uh-oh, this will be unpopular with the people who just elected me. because they'll have to pay 12 cents more for lunches. And I remember, I remember administrators trying to be like, hey, if you're worried about what parents are paying, you know, we do have free and reduced lunches. You know, here's what it would actually. And then they'd grandstand about that. Politicians.

Sorry, I had to go through that, Kristen. It was really trying for me. Yeah. So I'm guessing Andrew Kehoe's crusade is. striking a nerve with you. You know what it is. It's running for school board and not giving a damn

about schools, about kids, about the about any of it, not genuinely caring about it. And getting in there on this whole fiscal responsibility thing, which yet nobody wants you to just blow all the money

on bullshit. So in theory, fiscal responsibility sounds good. Yes. Yeah. But then you get in there and you just want to gut everything. This is what happens when we elect people who truly do not give a shit. Yeah.

Lack of empathy. And lack of basic interest in what they're running. Yeah. Lack of basic understanding. A lot of that going around. We haven't even gotten to the horrible part of this story and I'm already fired up. She's already. You know what?

Not enough people get mad about what a bad school board member he was. The true monster. So yeah, back to our story. He's going through the books. Yeah. And he's like, new encyclopedias, playground equipment, a fireproof safe. Who is approving all this shit? And the school board was like, hey, this is just what the accreditation board recommends, along with Superintendent Hike.

Right. And Andrew Kehoe was a little confused. He was like, you mean the school board? does not have any involvement with these recommendations. We're the ones that have to approve all the spending. We should be in those meetings. And the school board was like, dude, these are recommendations. We have the final say on if we buy this stuff or not.

Right. But Andrew Kehoe did not see it like that. He saw this whole thing as a power struggle. Sounds like someone's struggling for power. Oh, my God. someone is certainly struggling for power. In Andrew Kehoe's mind, the real problem with the Bath Consolidated School was Superintendent Emery Hike.

How? Why? Because he had both arms and he was doing too much. He was doing this. Sorry, for those of you who don't have the video, I did a really cool move. You looked like Squidward during the Krusty Crab talent show. He did an interpretive dance. How dare you?

Squidward was the least sexy. character on that show. He is my favorite character on that show. And that is why I married you because you look and remind me of Squabord. Oh my God. Do I have kind of a Squidward personality sometimes? When you're talking about school boards, yes, absolutely. Andrew Kehoe felt extremely threatened by Emery Hike, in my opinion.

Yes. He was young, handsome, war veteran, respected career, beloved in the community. Oh, yeah. Hey, hold on just a fudge in minute. Why didn't Andrew go off to war? Well, let's see. World War I, he would have been, he was too old. Oh, he was a crusty crap.

He was in his 40s. Okay, okay. I think Andrew Keogh had a little bit of an inferiority complex. He was very jealous. From that point on, a silent feud grew between the two men. Oh, Lord. One resident claimed, quote, Kehoe and Hike openly loathed one another.

Yeah. Andrew Kehoe looked for any opportunity he could to assert his own power and take away Emery Hike's power. So first, during a school board meeting, he motioned for Emery Hike to stop attending school board meetings. What? Yes. The superintendent? The superintendent should not be at school board meetings.

He was like, Hike doesn't need to be here. The school board is in charge of everything. He is not. And the school board was like, dude, he has to be here. Andrew Kehoe was like, says who? And the board was like, a state law requires him to be here. Even without state law. What about the law of common sense?

Why wouldn't you want the superintendent there? Yeah. Well, the motion was denied. Yes. Then Andrew Kehoe argued against Emery Hikes' annual raise. Oh, come on. He was like, $200 is way too much. We are hemorrhaging money here.

And how come he gets a two-week paid vacation in the summer? We're paying for this guy to go on vacation? Absolutely not. What an asshole. First of all, it's in the contract. Yes. Contract is signed, done. Signed, sealed.

delivered. I'm yours. Oh yeah. You can't be bitching and moaning about a contract that has been done. Well, he's bitching and moaning, Kristen. Also, you're just jealous. We know you're jealous, bitch. We know you want to go on a little vacay to Canada. You must go to Mackinnell Island. He sure does. Yep. That fudge is out of this world, folks. Other members of the school board. Accused Andrew Kehoe of bringing up these changes simply because he didn't like Emory Hike. Yes. And Andrew Kehoe denied it. He was like, I'm just trying to save money for the town of Bath.

You almost said that like a sheep, and it was really cute. Bath. But, okay, not only do you have a clear grudge against this man who is younger, sexier, and cooler than you, and it's embarrassing. We're all embarrassed for you, my dude. Also, you're bringing up stuff that cannot be acted upon right now. I'm getting so fired up about this shit. Well, you're not going to like this, Kristen. Uh-huh. What?

Andrew Kehoe was so adamant about this. He was so persistent. Yeah. The board begrudgingly came up with a compromise. So Emory Hikes' annual raise was reduced to $100 a year. Give me a break. And instead of a two-week paid vacation, he only had a one-week paid vacation. Oh.

Mm-hmm. Oh. Oh, man. This is really getting Kristen fired up. The power struggle continued. Norm, I really wish we knew how many other people were on that damn board. I'll find out for you and I'll tell you in the next episode in my mistakes of shame. Yes, yes.

This is quite shameful. Huge mistake. Huge mistake. When you've got a complete asshole running amok and you give in to them. You've got someone else here who's great at his job. Yep. You've given this person a nice raise because you want to keep them in your little community. And this, this Andrew fella is annoying you a little.

Maybe you're a little intimidated and you give in and you think, oh, maybe he'll be happy now. He won't. Yeah. He was definitely described as overbearing. Yeah, I bet. Now, I will say they were struggling with money. The school. Sure.

But yeah, there's got to be other ways to save money rather than... Now, struggling how? They didn't have enough money to, you know, fund everything. Well, sure, because people like Andrew weren't paying their taxes. Hey, you're right. The reason I ask is because sometimes people are really, really dumb. True. And sometimes they think that schools should be,

somehow generating money? The government should operate like a business. I don't know if you've heard of this concept. Yeah. Boy. It's very interesting. Schools are things we pay for. We pay for them.

Right. They're not going to generate money. That doesn't mean we want the money that goes to them to be used poorly or wasted or whatever, obviously. Yeah. But goddamn. It's not a money-making venture. these public schools.

Nope. It's a damn shame. You and Andrew get it. Do not compare me to this power struggle. Kept going on. Of course it did. One time at the end of the school year, Emery Hike asked the board to not renew the contract

of the home economics teacher. My name was Ruth Babcock. Apparently Ruth Babcock and Emory Hike did not get along. Emery Hike said she was rude and disrespectful, and he did not agree with her teaching methods. Okay. Well, guess who came to Ruth Babcock's defense?

Andrew Kehoe. He has a new best friend. This is my best friend, Ruth. Yeah, I've decided she's actually the best teacher we have. And Andrew said, we need a full investigation into this whole matter. Okay. And so the school board was like, okay, let's hear out Ruth Babcock's side of the story. Yeah, that's, God damn it. I agree with Andrew. Sure. Let's look into this before we let this lady go.

So they brought Ruth Babcock in. She gave a little presentation for the school board, told her side of the story, talked about her teaching methods, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They looked at all the evidence, and the board ultimately said, eh, we're with Emery Hike on this one. We will not renew her contract. Ruth Babcock was let go. Andrew Kehoe fumed. What was wrong with her teaching methods? Unclear. Damn it, Norm, I want to know. Like, was she having to make tear in a suit? I want to know, too.

We all want to know. Yeah. This thing with history, we don't always know. As opposed to everything else where we know all the things. Like, for example, we know what a poultry judging team is now. Thank goodness. Mm-hmm. Because, honestly, I thought it was a wet t-shirt contest until you read the definition.

Big old chicken boobs. We call them chicken breasts, Norman. Oh, I'll take a chicken boob. Grilled chicken boob. Yeah, I'm trying to eat healthy. Just got my broccoli, my brown rice, and my chicken boobs. Yeah, barbecued chicken boobs. Yummy.

If you season them, they're not bad. Not bad at all. Andrew Kehoe also tried some other tactics in his war against Emory Hike. Some passive-aggressive things. No, you're kidding. Yeah. For example, as the treasurer, Andrew Kehoe was responsible for handing out paychecks to teachers.

Oh, God. And oftentimes he would forget to give Emery Hike his paycheck. Give me a break. Mm-hmm. Oh, guess you'll have to track me down. He he he he he. He went even further by trying to cement himself into the school system. Oh, like with a permanent job?

Because he wanted money. So here's what he did. he kind of became the handyman of the bath consolidated school. Yeah. He did all sorts of odd jobs. He cleared a bee's nest from the basement one time. He retiled a bathroom. He fixed the boiler system.

This was not a paid gig. Mm-hmm. But I think he just wanted to feel like they had to rely on him. Yeah, he wanted power. He wanted power. This new role as the handyman gave Andrew Kehoe access to the school day or night to fix issues. and it became very familiar with every single square inch of that building. Yeah.

Helping is the sunny side of controlling, Norm. Who said that? I read it in a book once about codependency. And it really rocked my world. Yeah, that's a good quote. Now, even with all this crazy power struggle war going on, Andrew Kehoe was a pretty good treasurer as far as bookkeeping goes, because they were immaculate.

He recorded everything, down to a penny. Okay? Who was checking his work? I'm guessing the other board members or, well, and as we'll soon learn, another person, but hang on. He was so good at being a treasurer that when the Bath town clerk unexpectedly passed away, Andrew Kehoe was chosen to serve out that term. Oh, dear God.

As Andrew Kehoe worked to undermine Emory Hike and grow his influence in the town of Bath, things were falling apart behind the scenes. In the year 1926 proved to be the breaking point. By then, Kehoe's overbearing, tight-fisted ways were becoming too much for everybody. In March of 1926, he was informed that he would not be the nominee for the town clerk position. And that really worried Andrew Kehoe

because he was like, my days on the school board are probably numbered. Yeah. Their money troubles got worse. Even as Nellie Kehoe received legacy payments from her uncle's inheritance, they had still not paid on their mortgage. Estate attorney Joseph Dunbeck was now getting concerned, and he decided to try a new strategy. In March of 1926, when Nellie was awarded a $500 legacy payment, Dunback took it upon himself to just apply it to the mortgage. Yeah.

Did he give him a heads up about that? I believe so. Nelly said, absolutely, it should go to the mortgage. Yeah. What else are you going to say? Andrew. Oh, here we go.

Said, how dare you? He immediately hired an attorney, and he demanded that the price of state pay them the $500 directly. He thought Joseph Dunbeck had no right to dictate how they spent their money. Okay, I realize this is very uncontroversial to say about a mass murderer, but I fucking hate this guy.

I hope there was... Kristen, so quick to judge. Well, that is... The story's not over. Often true, yes. But I am also wondering, what did the rest of Nellie's family think of this? They're allowing this couple to live in the home. Mm-hmm.

And they're just not making payments at all. Yeah. I really do wonder what this relationship was like and... how they felt about him. They hated him. Yeah. I know. I, in a way, was there because I've got an imagination.

Yeah. Okay, so he hires an attorney. With what money, we're not sure. Yeah, he hires an attorney. He demands a $500. And ultimately, a probate judge sided with Andrew Kehoe. Yeah. The judge said, although what Joseph Dunback did was in the best interest of everybody.

Yeah. The law said the Kihoes were entitled to the money. Nellie was given the check for $500. None of it went to the mortgage. Things got worse in the summer of 1926 when Nellie Kehoe became sick. She had severe headaches, coughing, little to no color in her face. She was struggling to breathe. And eventually she was admitted to St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing, Michigan.

Located at... Oh. 1210 West Saginaw. Okay. You might have to move down the street a little bit. It's by L.S. Teco. Yes. It's a big, beautiful old hospital building.

Hang on. And also, I realize we haven't explained our love for Michigan in this episode. If this is someone's first episode, you want to explain it? Sure. My grandparents lived in Michigan. They lived in Lansing, to be specific. So Kristen and I have taken many, many trips to Lansing.

Okay, well, this is kind of a shitty building, Norm. Which one are you looking at? Does it say sparrow on it? Sure does. No, go down the street a little bit. Oh, okay. And there's a big building behind it. It looks like a big old Art Deco building.

Oh, yeah. You see that one? Yes. That was St. Lawrence Hospital. Okay, okay. Still in use today, by the way. Also, my apologies to the other building that I just insulted. It is a shitty building.

Well, it is, though. My grandma, I think, had some medical work done at that building. Oh. Not the cool old building, the shitty one. And she hated it. Sure, because the building was so ugly. That was probably why, yeah. Definitely.

So Nellie's in the hospital. Doctors aren't really sure what's going on. Some thought it was... Cyanide poisoning? Tuberculosis. Oh, a word that Norman says very well. Mm-hmm. That was the same disease that killed Nellie's mother.

So she was really nervous. Other doctors believed Nellie had asthma. But either way, this was the beginning of a long string of hospital visits for Nellie. And bills continued to pile up. By the fall of 1926, the mortgage had not been paid for almost five years. The gall. The absolute gall. Clearly, this is me guessing,

Nellie's family was stepping in and saying, no, do not evict the couple from the property. Absolutely. And it was her sister specifically. Yeah. And freaking Andrew went and hired an attorney to get the $500. But her family had the class to say, no, don't evict. Don't foreclose. Let them live there.

And I can only assume that this was an abusive relationship. Of course. it was. Of course it was. The mortgage had not been paid for five years. Estate attorney Joseph Dunback decided he had to do a little bit of a scare tactic. So he sent the Keohos a foreclosure notice. But when Nellie's sisters found out about that, they begged him, rescind that notice. They said Nellie is very sick. Something like that is just going to make her condition way worse. Please rescind this notice. But unfortunately, it was too late. The county sheriff had already delivered it to Andrew Kehoe.

Upon receiving it, Kehoe apparently muttered, If it hadn't been for that school tax, I might have paid off the mortgage. Okay, okay. If I hadn't hurt my ankle junior year, I'd be in the NBA right now. We all know this guy. All right. Tale as old as time, Kristen. It's unclear when Andrew Kehoe decided to plan out

his horrific attack on the Bath Consolidated School. But many neighbors believe it was during this tumultuous year. Andrew Kehoe was losing his political positions. His wife was sick. Bills were piling up. So in secrecy, Andrew Kehoe plotted. No one suspected anything. Not even when a neighbor, a farmer named Job Slate,

helped Andrew Kehoe with an unusual favor. You see, Andrew Kehoe wanted a ride to, pick up some supplies. Job Slate was one of the few people in Bath that owned an automobile. Kehoe had always been helpful to him, so Slate replied, yeah, sure, where do you need to go? Andrew Kehoe replied, Jackson, Michigan. Job Slate was a little surprised by the request. Jackson, Michigan was a 100-mile round trip from Bath, but he agreed. He was like, well, what do you need in Jackson? Pyretol, replied Andrew Kehoe. I got to blast some old tree stumps on the west side of my farm. We're going to go a hundred miles together for some dynamite.

You're questioning this. So was Job Slate. He was a little confused. You know, Piratol was available at the local Farm Bureau. Why would you go all the way to Jackson to Jackson to buy this stuff? Right. But Slate did not question it. He wanted to be a good neighbor. And so he drove Andrew Kehoe to Jackson, Michigan, where he purchased an astonishing, 500 pounds of piratol, along with blasting caps to set off the explosives. During the drive home, Andrew Kehoe was like, hey, if you know anyone who needs piratol, I'd be willing to sell any extra that I don't need. And Job Slate was like, oh, good to know.

That would, it would make you think, oh, does this idiot think he's going to turn this into a business somehow, reselling this stuff? Yeah, like he could make a little profit off. Well, and this is another thing. Why would you ever assume what he was actually going to do? You would never. You would never. Never.

Especially in this time period. In 1927, in a tiny farming town. Yeah, you wouldn't. Why else would you use Piratol for? You use it to clear your fields. Well, even still, what I'm saying about, even with the amount, your brain's never, never going to go to, this guy's going to blow up a school. No, your brain goes to, who, he must have a lot of boulders and tree stumps in his field.

Or also, this dude is a weirdo idiot, and he thinks he's going to get on old-timey-Kregs list and make, you know, a couple bucks off of this. Sure. Okay. Old-timey Craigs list. Bartholomew's scroll. Bartholomew's bulletin. You know, it just be the bulletin board. Bartholomew's bulletin.

Great idea, Kristen. Thank you. So yeah, Andrew Keogh was like, hey, if you know anyone who needs some piratol, have them come to me. You know, I'll sell my extra. Right. And Job Slate was like, okay, good to know. So he helped Andrew Kehoe unload the boxes into his barn and then he went home. Later, a friend of Job Slate mentioned, ooh, I could really use some piratol.

And that's when Job Slate remembered Andrew Kehoe's offer. And so he stopped by Andrew Kehoe's house and he was like, hey, I got a buddy that needs some piratol. can I buy some from you? Mm-hmm. But Andrew Kehoe was like, oh, I don't have any piratol left. I used it all. Job's, like, couldn't believe it. He was like, who, I guess Kehoe had a lot of tree stumps and boulders.

See, I feel like I'm at a disadvantage because I have no idea how much of this stuff do you need for your average boulder. But, I mean, this must have been like 10, 20 times. What? So, Pyotol is a powder. Right. So 500 pounds. of Pirat Hall is a lot. It is an absurd amount.

I'm shocked he was allowed to buy that amount. So that's what I'm trying to wrap my head around is like, should I be thinking Job's a dumb dumb for not raising some alarms here? I don't think so. Okay. I don't, as far as I know, there were no limits to how much Pirate Hall you could buy. Clearly not. Yeah.

And again, very common for farmers to buy this stuff. So. But weird in this amount. Okay. So yeah, Job Slate was a little shocked that he had used 500 pounds of pirate all. But in reality, Andrew Kehoe was saving that pirate all for something far more sinister. On the next episode of an old-timey podcast, a horrific tragedy unfolds at the Bath Consolidated School. Boy, we are all looking forward to that episode.

No, this has been interesting. It's just, again, when I was researching it, the whole time I just kept thinking, how have I never heard of this? How has this never been mentioned in, you know, the United States is kind of known for massacres and, you know. We hate to brag, but we are known for a couple things. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, how come I've never. heard of this one. Yeah. This was like one of the first ones. It's funny. I, I kind of like that you started with the Timothy McVeigh of it all. Talk about similarities. Disgruntled, angry dude who

thinks that everyone's against him. Well, and like this, this Bath School explosion is considered domestic terrorism, just like what Timothy McVeigh did. Yeah. So yeah, next episode, we'll How do we stop these dudes? How do we find them? What are the warning signs? The answer is we do whatever they want. No! Such as cutting the superintendent's salary.

Oh, my God. No, I'm just kidding. It is interesting, though, a lot of these guys. Like, I'm thinking of BTK, buying torture, kill. Oh, the guy in Wichita, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you find stuff out, and then all these stories come out. and wasn't he a dog catcher at one point for the city? For the city, yeah.

And he was accused of having people's dogs put down for no reason. It's almost like a stereotype, the cruelty to animals, but... Kind of a sign of a disturbed... Of something to come, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kristen, do we have anything to talk about before we wrap up this episode? Norm, are you wanting me to do some serious heavy lifting here to lighten this up? Yes, I am.

Boy, I don't know. We could talk about our vacation in Wyoming. We did go to Wyoming for the Pitts family annual vacay. Yes, and confirmed it was Wyoming. I remember in earlier episodes, I wasn't exactly sure where the family vacate was. Literally the episode before we went on the vacation, you were like, where are we going again? Yeah, I was like, I think we're going to South Dakota, which was kind of close. Kyla was telling everyone we were going to Montana, so I don't think anybody knew.

No one had any idea. But we showed up at a lovely time. Yeah, very beautiful state. I have to tell everyone something cute that you didn't find cute in the moment, but I'm hoping now it's been some time, so maybe you'll find it cute. Everyone, so we were in a cabin in Wyoming, very beautiful, blah, blah, blah. Norm did get a cold. Okay.

I did. Halfway through the vacation, I contracted a disease known as the cold virus. Yeah, it was very serious, real touch and go. But he did survive. So you spent about two days just kind of hanging out in the cabin, chilling, recovering. Yeah, I watched the new season of the bear. Yes, enduring your disease. And then on the second day, you were like, okay, yeah, I've got to get out of this cabin. I've got to get out of this cabin. I've got to get out of this cabin and I, I was thrilled. I was like, oh my God, light bold moment. I was like, you've got to get out of here because you have cabin fever. Literally. And I, man, everybody, I lit up like a Christmas tree. It's enormous. As I coughed and sneezed. And you really, I was like, you get it, you get it. And you did get it. And you weren't that interested. I understand. Yeah. Well,

Anyway, I hope some of you enjoyed that and thought, wow, that would be kind of cute. Wow, that made the whole vacation worth it. Absolutely. No, it was a good time. Got to go to the Little Big Horn National Monument. That was very interesting. It was very interesting. Future topic?

That would be very good. Our nephew, Henry, said something absolutely hilarious. He is six years old. And when he found out we were going to the Battle of Little Bighorn, he was not excited. Not at all. And he said, that doesn't make any sense! Yeah. He did not understand the oxymoron of it all.

Yeah. Little Bighorn. And thought maybe we just should skip it. Yeah, he thought, you know, maybe we just stay in the car and eat turkey mayo sandwiches until we get home. Yeah, why not? What's the problem? Anyway, should we wrap up this episode, Kristen? Let's wrap it up.

You know what they say about history hoes, Norm? We always cite our sources. That's right. For this episode, I got my information from The Books, Bath Massacre, America's First School Bombing by Arnie Bernstein, and Maniac, the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer by Harold Schechter. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to an old-timey podcast.

Please give us a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts. And while you're at it, subscribe. Support us on Patreon. at patreon.com slash old-timey podcast. Join the Reddit community, our slash old-timey podcast. Follow us on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram at Old Timey Podcast.

You can also follow us individually on Instagram. She is the beautiful Kristen Pitts-Karuso. I go by Gaming Historian, and until next time, Tudaloo, Tata, and Cheerio. Goodbye.