Late at night, I was flipping through the more "obscure" channels with my remote, (at least "obscure" to my viewing habits) and was captured by an author simply describing his recent book on America's first school bombing. I confess, I had never heard of it. History repeats itself, and the Virginia Tech tragedy no doubt prompted people take a look back in time . . . past the violence of a man slaughtering children in a one room Amish schoolhouse . . . past Columbine . . . past the other 25 school shooting incidents in the space of the last several decades . . . clear back to the year 1927.
How easy it is to delude ourselves into nostalgia and believe that in earlier days of small town rural life people were simpler somehow; our beloved America less violent. There were no disturbing video games, no violent television to influence anyone to unleash outlandish rage on masses of innocents.But the lesson I gained from Arnie Bernstein's carefully researched work via town records and discussions with the few remaining survivors of this tragedy was that always, always, regardless of outside influences, regardless of the times, such incidents stem from the tormented inner workings of a mind that has somehow slipped into a very dark place.
Published by the University of Michigan Press, this exactly 200 page book (inclusive in that 200 pages are the extensive notes of reference, Mr. Bernsteins writing is objective, factual, and easy to understand. It is simple, yet deceptively so, for as he brings the reader closer to the actual events of that May morning, the style of writing is unnervingly shifted to short, two or three sentence paragraphs that jump from the first-hand experience of one child to the next - from the actions of the crazed Andrew Kehoe's methodical but deadly behavior, to the reactions of neighbors - the entire event becomes so real that it carries a terrible emotional punch, and of course, that is exactly what is needed for history to come alive.
(**SPOILER ALERT**)
In summary, a well-respected farmer named Andrew Kehoe in a small town called Bath, Michigan secretly and over a period of time, masterminded a plot to completely wire with explosives a two-story schoolhouse, as well as his own home and barn and property. After murdering his wife and setting his own house on fire, a timer set off successfully the school building where thirty-eight children and 6 adults were murdered. Many more were injured. Kehoe then drove his truck to the school to view the devastation, and when the principal approached his truck, he muttered something to the effect of "I'll take you with me, then," and detonated the dynamite inside the vehicle, killing himself and the principal as well. In the almost immediate aftermath, it was disgusting to read that the general public from miles away drove to Bath and blocked the roads into and out of the tiny town wanting to "gawk" at the event - even taking gruesome souvenirs such as a piece of intestine of Andrew Kehoe himself, wrapped around the steering wheel of his self-exploded truck. They slowed down ambulances from making the trip to Lansing, Michigan, where the hospital was located, and created so much noise that some family members attending memorial services in their own homes had to strain to hear the words of the Pastor's attempting to deliver words of comfort.
In the end, the State government and a generous private benefactor, along with thousands of school children from around the world sending in pennies and other donations, enabled the school to be rebuilt, and today a memorial plaque stands in a lovely park on the grounds of the old schoolhouse. But each year a memorial service is held and the descendants of those affected who still live in Bath find that years may have passed, but the emotions remain fresh and tragic.
This book is not a psychological profile of Andrew Kehoe. But I found it interesting that psychology was in its heyday in the 1920's, and mostly Freudian in nature. Psychiatrists apparently felt that Kehoe could not have been labeled paranoid. Some asserted he was Bipolar. But the author points out that the term "Psychopath" was probably the most appropriate, and to me, the most frightening. There was no hallucination or paranoia or insanity demonstrated by Mr. Kehoe. No mood swings of a drastic nature, or grandiosity. He was not schizophrenic and had no previous history of mental health problems. Instead, he was a highly functioning, highly intelligent member of the school board; a husband, neighbor, and property owner. The true answers to what was going on inside the head of this man were buried with him. Diagnosis can explain behavior, but it does not lessen the impact or devastation felt by the families of the victims. No matter how great the temptation is to blame violent media or outside sources, most often the people that commit such atrocities are spurred on by ideas and violence that come from within. I highly recommend Arnie Bernstein's work as a difficult to read but important coverage of this first of American school bombings. It is devoted to covering the impact of the victims and their families, and does not focus on an in depth psychological hypothesis of Andrew Kehoe, which makes the book a fitting tribute to the innocent.
Thank you for reading,
Melissa Hempe
("hempem" on Epinions.com)
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