A Michigan Farmer Is America’s First Mass Murderer

Being upset with election results and mass killings at schools has unfortunately become a norm in today's society, but one Michigan man's election anger led to 44 murders.

Who is Andrew Kehoe?

I have lived in Michigan most of my entire life and never heard of Andrew Kehoe, and after learning about the Tecumseh, Michigan, born man, I wish I never did.

What looks like a typical male in the 1920s sitting at a desk is far more sinister when you learn about his actions.

Kehoe was one of 13 children. He went to Michigan State University where he studied electrical engineering. While in Lansing, he met his wife, Ellen Price. The couple moved to St Louis Missouri where Kehoe worked as an electrician but suffered a terrible fall that left him with a head injury. That injury brought him back to Michigan.

Kehoe and his wife then purchased a 185-acre farm near Bath, Michigan, but neighbors spoke of him as impatient and angry if you disagreed with him. Neighbors also spoke of Kehoe's cruelty to farm animals. I guess when you beat a horse to death, killing is in you and not a far leap to humans.

Read More: Convicted Killer of 3 Mich. Women Running a Ride Share Service? 

Michigan's Andrew Kehoe Became America's First Mass Murderer

Kehoe had a very odd sign hanging on the fence at his farm that said, "Criminals are made, not born." That is a strange sign to hang up when he became the Bath Township Clerk. This was a short-lived job and the very next year he was defeated in an election for the position and this is when everything went south for Kehoe.

Neighbors speculated Kehoe began planning his revenge while others thought he might commit suicide seeing how he no longer worked his farm. The neighbors turned out to be right on both accounts.

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On May 16, 1927, Kehoe murdered his wife and during the next two days set up timed explosives to blow up his house, barns, and a new school building in Bath on May 18. In total, Kehoe killed 45 people including himself. 38 of those killed in the school explosion were students between the ages of 7 and 14. 58 additional students and faculty were also injured making this event the deadliest mass killing at a school in American history.