Andrew Kehoe

"Criminals are made, not born." -Kehoe's message left for authorities on his farm fence.

Andrew Philip Kehoe was a school bomber responsible for the 1927 Bath School bombings, the deadliest act of mass murder in U.S. history committed by a lone individual and the deadliest attack on an American school. Despite the fact that many bomb explosions have happened in schools in the United States since then, none have had such massive casualties as the Bath bombings.

Background
Born on February 1, 1872, Kehoe was one of thirteen children, with his parents coming from western New York. While he was five, Kehoe's mother passed away and his father remarried; however, Kehoe didn't get along well with his stepmother and both were known for their arguments. While Kehoe was fourteen, his stepmother caught fire when an activated stove exploded right in front of her. Kehoe watched her burn for a few minutes before putting out the flames, but it was too late, for the sustained injuries were fatal. Though it has never been confirmed, neighbors believe Kehoe might be behind the stove explosion, as it was caused by a malfunction.

Kehoe later attended Tecumseh High School and, after graduating, became a student at Michigan State University (then called Michigan State College). There, he met his future wife, Ellen "Nellie" Price. In 1911, Kehoe suffered a severe head injury after a fall, and drifted in and out of a coma for a course of two months. After recovering, Kehoe returned to Michigan and married Ellen. Since Ellen was the member of a wealthy family, she and Kehoe were able to purchase an 185-acre farm outside the village of Bath Township.

Kehoe was a strange man, always quick to help others but also prone to angered criticizing whenever his ways aren't met, intelligent and articulate but also impatient. He was also known for his neat and clean habits, as well as his affinity for tinkering with machinery. Quite disturbingly, Kehoe displayed animal cruelty numerous times, once beating a horse to death. Whether or not these personality traits are positively attributed to his 1911 head injury and subsequent coma is currently unknown.

Establishing a reputation for his thriftiness, Kehoe became treasurer for the Bath Consolidated School board because of this. Campaigning for lower taxes, he admitted this was because the taxes were causing him financial hardship. Eventually, Ellen fell chronically ill with tuberculosis and began visiting the local hospital frequently, thrusting Kehoe further into debt. Kehoe finally stopped paying his mortgage and began blaming the Bath Consolidated School for all of his troubles. He formulated a revenge scheme and began planting explosives around Bath School for months without being noticed.

The Bath School Bombing
Finally, on May 18, 1927, Kehoe snapped and murdered Ellen by bludgeoning her head with an unspecified heavy object. He then set the barn on fire using homemade "firebombs", so as to leave nothing for Ellen's relatives to inherit, before leaving off for Bath School in his pickup truck. People noticed the farm explosion and began rushing to the scene to aid any potential victims. The explosion was so large that some of the debris even landed on a neighboring farm; no one was injured. Meanwhile, Kehoe arrived at the school, upon which he detonated the explosives he set around the school, setting off two explosions that obliterated the structure, mostly the northwest wing, killing dozens of children and two teachers. Just like the farm explosion, people flocked around the school ruins to help survivors out of the wreckage.

Less than half an hour later, Kehoe drove up to the scene, having loaded the back of his truck with dynamite and crude shrapnel. Calling over Superintendent Emory Huyck, Kehoe told him that he was the perpetrator of the bombings before picking up a Winchester rifle, firing a single shot into the dynamite, and blowing the truck up, killing himself, Huyck, and four other bystanders, and also wounding many more. Even after Kehoe's suicide attack did the town continue to get attacked by him: Kehoe's Pyrotol continued to explode periodically, the original explosions left rows of parked cars ablaze, and people actually began to faint from the bloody carnage. The police and fire departments arrived and were met with a terrifying scene that witnesses have described as "a battle zone from a world war". A woman living near the Bath School soon found Kehoe's remains, with them his driver's license and papers from a bankbook from the Lilley State Bank of Tecumseh.

As authorities cleared the wreckage of the school away in search of more bodies and survivors, they discovered many pounds of undetonated explosives still in what was left of the structure. Police were able to dismantle all of them and found that Kehoe planned to kill hundreds: had the undetonated explosives gone off, the death toll would've been sitting in those numbers.

Modus Operandi
Kehoe killed his wife by beating her to death before setting his barn on fire with her body still inside, presumably to cover his tracks. When he attacked the Bath School, he used dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol, an inexpensive post-World War I explosive, which were planted all around the school by him for a course of months. These explosives were triggered to detonate with a handheld detonator.

Fatalities

 * ?, 1886: His unnamed stepmother
 * May 18, 1927:
 * Ellen Kehoe, 52
 * The Bath School bombings:
 * The first explosions:
 * Arnold Bauerle, 8
 * Henry Bergan, 14
 * Herman Bergan, 11
 * Emilie Bromundt, 11
 * Robert Bromundt, 12
 * Floyd Burnett, 12
 * Russell Chapman, 8
 * F. Robert Cochran, 8
 * Ralph Cushman, 7
 * Earl Ewing, 11
 * Katherine Foote, 10
 * Marjorie Fritz, 9
 * Carlyle Geisenhaver, 9
 * George Hall, Jr., 8
 * Willa Hall, 11
 * Lola Hart, 12
 * Percy Hart, 11
 * Vivian Hart, 8
 * Blanche Harte, 30
 * Gailand Harte, 12
 * LaVere Harte, 9
 * Stanley Harte, 12
 * Francis Hoeppner, 13
 * Cecilia Hunter, 13
 * Doris Johns, 8
 * Thelma MacDonald, 8
 * Clarence McFarren, 13
 * J. Emerson Medcoff, 8
 * Emma Nickols, 13
 * Richard Richardson, 12
 * Elsie Robb, 12
 * Pauline Shirts, 10
 * Hazel Weatherby, 21
 * Elizabeth Witchell, 10
 * Lucile Witchell, 9
 * Harold Woodman, 8
 * George Zimmerman, 10
 * Lloyd Zimmerman, 12
 * Kehoe's suicide attack:
 * Emory Huyck, 33
 * G. Cleo Claton, 8
 * Nelson McFarren, 74
 * Glenn Smith, 33
 * Beatrice P. Gibbs, 10

Injuries

 * May 18, 1927: The Bath School bombings:
 * Lloyd Babcock
 * Norris Babcock
 * Vera Babcock
 * Ruth Barnes
 * Anna Braska
 * Gertrude Burnett
 * Earl Chapman
 * Willis Cressman
 * Wilma Cressman
 * Arthur Delau
 * Ida Delau
 * Marcia Avis Detluff
 * Bob Dickinson
 * Adabelle Dolton
 * Josephine England
 * Iva Eschtruth
 * Marion Eschtruth
 * Raymond Eschtruth
 * James Foster
 * Althea Frederick
 * Francis Fritz
 * Richard Fritz
 * Dorothy Fulton
 * Kenneth Geisenhaver
 * Eva Gubbins
 * Leona Gutekunst
 * Perry Hart
 * Helen Hobert
 * Ralph Hobert
 * Carlton Hollister
 * Donald Huffman
 * June Huffman
 * Florence Hunter
 * Pauline Johns
 * Lester King
 * Florence Komm
 * Helen Komm
 * Lee Mast
 * Nina Matson
 * Pauline McCoy
 * Willis McCoy
 * Harold McKenzie
 * Thelma Medcoff
 * Ottelia Nichols
 * Ruth Nichols
 * Mrs. Joe Perrone
 * Earl Proctor
 * Ralph Proctor
 * Lee Reasoner
 * Lillian Reed
 * Martha Richardson
 * Virginia Richardson
 * Oral Riker
 * Jack Rounds
 * Norman Sage
 * Ivan Seeley
 * Gail Stebleton
 * Steve Stavinske
 * Lester Stowells
 * Ava Sweet
 * Dean Norman Sweet
 * Lillian Wildt
 * Ardis Wilson
 * Kenneth Witchell
 * Cecelia Zavistoski

On Criminal Minds
While Kehoe hasn't been mentioned or referenced in Criminal Minds so far, Kehoe is somewhat similar to Randy Slade in the sense that both successfully bombed the schools they were personally connected to and took many lives from said bombings; their bombings also gained a notable amount of recognition. He also resembles Greg Phinney, as both had bad relationships with their stepmothers.