May 18, 1927: The Bath School Disaster

Trigger warning for murder, child death, and terrorism.

As on May the 4th, the following is an episode of Jennifer Matarese's Disaster Area podcast to correspond with the anniversary of a historical disaster. 

On May 18, 1927, local school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe (you may remember him from this book) rigs explosives inside the Bath Township, Michigan elementary school to explode. He murders his wife and sets his house and barn on fire. Kehoe also fills his automobile with nails and explosives, detonating it and killing himself and sending shrapnel flying. The local mail carrier loses a leg when the vehicle explodes and later dies from his injuries.

A plaque commemorating the Bath School disaster, located in Memorial Park, Bath, MI. Image owner: kennethaw88. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

As a result of the school explosion and detonation of the vehicle, 38 children and a total of five adult victims are killed. The exact reason for Kehoe’s rampage is unknown, but he may have been upset about losing a local election and his wife’s increasingly poor health.

Here is the episode:

And now, because I happen to be in between day jobs at the moment, please enjoy the following affiliate audiobook link.

Bummer May 4: The Bazar de la Charité Fire

Happy Star Wars Day; May the 4th be with you. I come to you today to talk about something remarkably much less pleasant than Star Wars. Namely, a historical fire. But really, I just wanted an excuse to highlight an episode from a podcast that I particularly enjoy.

May 4, 1897: On the second day of a charity bazaar set up by Catholic charitable organizations in Paris, aristocratic women shop in a wooden warehouse set up to look like a Medieval market. Decorations of cardboard, cloth, papier-mache, and wood help achieve this effect. As an extra attraction, an early movie projector called a cinematograph is set up with ether lamps as a light source.

The projection equipment catches fire. With flammable materials all around and little to no signage marking the exits, the largely female crowd is trapped inside. 126 people die; 200 more are injured. Many of the dead were so badly burned that they could only be identified by their clothing, jewelry, or expensive dental work. 

Listen to the episode of Jennifer Matarese's Disaster Area podcast:

 

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Fire at the Bazar de la Charité (Le Petit Journal). Artist: Osvaldo Tofani. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.