On May 18, 1927, a series of explosions tore through Bath Township, Michigan, killing forty-four people and injuring dozens more in what remains the deadliest act of school violence in American history.

This episode traces the full arc of the Bath School Disaster-- from the conditions that allowed it to happen, to the devastation that followed, to the stories that were shaped in its aftermath.

Along the way, we look closely at Andrew Kehoe’s carefully constructed narrative of grievance, the failures of oversight that gave him access and proximity, and the lives that were forever altered-- including the life of his wife, Nellie Kehoe, whose death came before the bombing and was largely absorbed into the disaster that followed.

The Bath School Disaster is often reduced to a single morning of violence. But understanding how it happened requires looking earlier-- at silence, at power, and at the stories that are allowed to stand unchallenged.

Content note: This episode contains discussion of mass violence, domestic murder, and the deaths of children.

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