As rescue efforts began, Kehoe drove up to the schoolyard in his shrapnel-filled truck and triggered a second explosion, killing himself and four others, as well as injuring bystanders.

[12] Andrew Philip Kehoe was born in Tecumseh, Michigan, on February 1, 1872, into a family of thirteen children and attended the local high school.

After graduating he studied electrical engineering at Michigan State College in East Lansing and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as an electrician for several years.

Kehoe threw a bucket of water on her, but the fire was oil-based and his action spread the flames more rapidly, which engulfed and immolated her body.

[12][22] Following the disaster, the local sheriff who had served the foreclosure notice reported that Kehoe had muttered, "If it hadn't been for that $300 school tax I might have paid off this mortgage".

Ellsworth speculated that this defeat triggered Kehoe's desire for "murderous revenge", using the bombings to destroy the Bath Consolidated School and kill the community's children and many of its members.

[2][3] In Bath Massacre - America's First School Bombing, Arnie Bernstein cites Robert D. Hare's Psychopathy Checklist and says that Kehoe "fits the profile all too well".

[13] There is no clear indication of when Kehoe had the idea of massacring the schoolchildren and townspeople, but Ellsworth, who was a neighbor, thought that he conceived his plan after being defeated in the 1926 clerk election.

[25] After the disaster it was reported that Michigan State Police investigators had discovered that a considerable amount of dynamite had been stolen from a bridge construction site and that Kehoe was suspected of the theft.

[27] Kehoe purchased a .30-caliber Winchester bolt-action rifle in December 1926, according to the testimony of Lieutenant Lyle Morse, a Michigan State Police investigator with the Department of Public Safety.

[13][24][e] Prior to the day of the disaster, Kehoe had loaded the back seat of his truck with metal debris capable of producing shrapnel during an explosion.

First-grade teacher Bernice Sterling told an Associated Press reporter that the explosion was like an earthquake: ...the air seemed to be full of children and flying desks and books.

In no time more than 100 men at work tearing away the debris of the school, and nearly as many women were frantically pawing over the timber and broken bricks for traces of their children.

Charles Rawson testified at the coroner's inquest that he saw the two men grapple over some type of long gun before Kehoe detonated the explosives stored in his truck,[40][g] immediately killing himself, Huyck, retired farmer Nelson McFarren, [43] and Cleo Clayton, an 8-year-old second-grader.

The truck explosion spread debris over a large area and caused extensive damage to cars parked a half-block away, with their roofs catching on fire from the burning gasoline.

Eventually, thirty-four firefighters and the chief of the Lansing Fire Department arrived, as did several Michigan State Police officers who managed traffic to and from the scene.

[45] During the search for survivors and victims, rescuers found an additional 500 lb (230 kg) of dynamite which had failed to detonate in the south wing of the school.

The search was halted to allow the state police to disarm the devices, and they found an alarm clock timed to go off at 8:45 a.m. Investigators speculated that the initial explosion may have caused a short circuit in the second set of bombs, preventing them from detonating.

State troopers had searched for Nellie Kehoe throughout Michigan, thinking that she was at a tuberculosis sanatorium, but her charred remains were found the day after the disaster, among the ruins of the farm.

[3] Investigators found a wooden sign wired to the farm's fence with Kehoe's last message stenciled on it: "Criminals are made, not born".

[12] The American Red Cross set up an operations center at the Crum drugstore and took the lead in providing aid and comfort to the victims.

The Lansing Red Cross headquarters stayed open until 11:30 that night to answer telephone calls, update the list of dead and injured, and provide information and planning services for the following day.

Another Italian class wrote: "We are praying to God to give to the unfortunate mothers and fathers, the strength to bear the great sorrow that has descent on them, we are near to you in spirit".

[62] Kehoe's body was claimed by one of his sisters and was buried in an unmarked grave in the pauper's section of Mount Rest Cemetery in St. Johns, Michigan.

[68] Governor Green quickly called for donations to aid the townspeople and created the Bath Relief Fund with the money supplied by donors, the state, and local governments.

Lansing architect Warren Holmes donated construction plans, and the school board approved the contracts for a new building on September 14.

[73] The coroner arrived at the scene on the day of the disaster and swore in six community leaders that afternoon to serve as a jury investigating the death of Superintendent Huyck.

It was also the jury's verdict that the school was blown up as part of a plan and that Kehoe alone, without the aid of conspirators, murdered 43 people in total, including his wife Nellie.

Arnie Bernstein, author of Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing said that it "resonates powerfully for modern readers and reminds us that domestic terrorism and mass murder are sadly not just a product of our times".

[93] Harold Schechter, who wrote Psycho USA and Maniac, called the disaster "a horrendous act of terrorist mass murder".