DYNAMITE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19845, 20 May 1927, Page 7

DYNAMITE

A DIABOLICAL ACT Forty-Two Killed When Schoolhouse Blows Up heartrending scenes SUSPECTED PERPETRATOR DEAD. [By Telegraph—Per Press Assn.—Copyright.] (A. & N.Z.) NEW YORK, May 18. A message from Bath (Michigan) states that a manaic dynamited the village school and killed over 40 chil, dren, as well as the headmaster and another man, and may have killed himself. The authorities suspect Andrew Kehoe, treasurer of the school board, who was blown to atoms while sitting in an automobile near the school building. Kehoe was allegedly bitter regarding school taxes, and it is believed ne brooded until he was insane. Kehoe’s farm buildings were dynamited only two hours before the school explosion. The pupils were assembled for thuir morning studies when a terrific explosion wrecked the west wing. Villagers flocked to the building and found firemen and volunteers dragging the little bodies from the ruins. Doctors and nurses were rushed to the scene, immediately after the explosion. Many of the victims were pitifully injured, and these were hurried to hospitals in the town. Frantic mothers and fathers gathered round the building, somp seeking their children, and others being hysterical and only able to weep. Kehoe was reported to have been seen running away from the school at the moment of the explosion to an automobile which was standing near by. The explosion blew him to atoms. Troopers searching the premises two hours after the disaster discovered ten sticks of dynamite with the slow fuse still burning under another wing of the building, and but for their fortunate discovery this portion of the school would also have been destroyed in a very short time. The latest messages state that 42 are dead, most of whom are children, and 49 were injured, some of whom are expected to die.

FORTY-ONE BODIES FOUND KEHOE’S DEATH. MOTIVE FOR MURDEROUS DEED. Received May 19, 9 p.m. (A. & N.Z.) NEW YORK, May 19. Searchers in the ruins of the school house at Bath were forced to desist by darkness. By Wednesday evening they had recovered the bodies of 41 victims, including 35 pupils. Andrew Kehoe himself was killed. It is believed tnat he dynamited the building to revenge himself on the trustees, who had refused to reduce the mortgage they held on his farm.