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Jump chumpacasino 22 00:00:56.119 --> 00:00:56.640 dot com. 23 00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:57.719 No PA's necessary weight. 24 00:00:57.759 --> 00:00:59.479 We're going hitt by eighteen plus terms and conditioned to 25 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:00.439 placey ytails. 26 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:11.159 You are now listening to True Murder, the most shocking 27 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:14.280 killers in true crime history and the authors that have 28 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:21.640 written about them. Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker BTK. Every 29 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:25.359 week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and 30 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:29.959 infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, 31 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:33.480 journalist and author Dan Zupanski. 32 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:44.599 Good Evening. The new edition of this misgan notable book 33 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:48.400 includes a new introduction and stories from interviews with two 34 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:54.319 additional survivors, Rna Gates Colter and Ralph Witchell, which took 35 00:01:54.439 --> 00:01:57.719 place after the first edition was published in two thousand 36 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:02.799 and nine. On May eighteenth, nineteen twenty seven, the small 37 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:07.079 town of Bath, Michigan, was forever changed when Andrew Kehoe 38 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:11.120 set off a cache of explosives concealed in the basement 39 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:15.000 of the local school. Thirty eight children and six adults 40 00:02:15.080 --> 00:02:19.479 were dead, among them Keyho, who had literally blown himself 41 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:22.960 to bits by setting off a dynamite charge in his car. 42 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:26.479 The next day, on Keyho's farm, what was left of 43 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:30.599 his wife burned beyond recognition. After Keyho set his property 44 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:34.039 in buildings ablaze, was found tied to a hand cart, 45 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:39.400 her skull crushed. With seemingly endless stories of school violence 46 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:44.960 and suicide bombers filling today's headlines, Bath Massacre serves as 47 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:49.479 a reminder that terrorism and large scale murder are nothing new. 48 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.360 The book they were featuring this evening is Bath Massacre, 49 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:58.560 new edition, America's first school bombing, with my special guest, 50 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:02.479 journalist and author Arnie Bernstein. Welcome back to the program, 51 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:05.520 and thank you so much for this interview. Arnie Bernstein, 52 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:06.159 Thank you for. 53 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:06.840 Having me back. 54 00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:10.680 Thank you so much, thank and congratulations on this new 55 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:18.120 edition and always always timely considering all the school shootings 56 00:03:18.199 --> 00:03:25.719 and mass shootings at schools. Let's talk about as you 57 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:31.560 do in the introduction you had originally in your two 58 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:35.919 thousand and nine release of this book, Bath Massacre, you 59 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:41.120 had four of the survivors that you were able to 60 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:45.120 interview for the book. In this new edition. Tell us 61 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:47.800 about what is in the new edition. 62 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:52.520 Well after the original came out, I was contacted by 63 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:56.919 a couple of other survivors, Ralph Witchell, who at the 64 00:03:56.960 --> 00:04:00.680 time lived in Nebraska, and we're in a Gates culter. 65 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:02.919 She was Murna Gates when she was at school who 66 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:07.400 lived in Windsor, Canada. They both have since passed. She 67 00:04:07.639 --> 00:04:10.400 lived to I think one hundred and one and he 68 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:14.080 lived to ninety three, and which I find interesting because 69 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:16.519 a lot of the survivors lived the ripe old ages too. 70 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:20.240 Josephine Cushman lived to one hundred, a few others. In fact, 71 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:26.160 there's another one, Irene, I mean Dunham. There's another Irene 72 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:29.800 Dunham who is just turned one hundred and fourteen. Believe 73 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:31.600 it or not, she's one of the oldest people in 74 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:36.240 the world. Absolute delight too. But in any event, both 75 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:40.800 Rna and Ralph contacted me independently of each other, and 76 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:44.439 I interviewed them just for the record, you know, just 77 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:46.839 so that we would have their stories on the record. 78 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:51.120 And I gave the CDs of those interviews to the 79 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:56.279 Bath School Museum for their archives. And I always had 80 00:04:56.279 --> 00:04:58.000 in the back of my mind that someday I would 81 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:02.240 return to the book and time was ripe, and I 82 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:07.000 took the material I got from them, which was considerable, considerable, 83 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:10.160 and it gave shade to some of the stories. It 84 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:13.519 filled out some of the stories that I had, and 85 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:19.120 it also gave me new stories, new elements that I 86 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:22.639 think really deepened the book and gives a larger picture 87 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:24.560 of what happened on that terrible day. 88 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:29.240 You included early on in the book A Horrible Moments, 89 00:05:29.639 --> 00:05:35.399 as you mentioned, or A horrible week. December fourteenth, twenty twelve, Connecticut, 90 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:40.120 Sandy Hook Elementary School. What happened in regards to Bath massacre, 91 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:46.800 this book and the twenty twelve Newton, Connecticut Sandy Hook shooting. 92 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:51.000 That was a day. That was a day. One of 93 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:53.839 the first things I did actually was called a friend 94 00:05:53.879 --> 00:05:56.160 of mine in Bath who's one of the museum committee members, 95 00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:00.759 and I said, this looks really bad. This looks really bad, 96 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:04.519 and this looks really a lot like Bath. And I thought, 97 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:06.600 so after the you know, the oh my god, horror 98 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:10.079 moment realizing that was happened, I thought, I think I'm 99 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:13.399 going to be busy, which is unfortunately what happened. I 100 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:16.480 got a lot of calls that week from radio stations 101 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:20.759 and TV that wanted me on to talk about it, 102 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:24.120 and I but what really hit home. I had a 103 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:27.439 friend in Connecticut who was a minister, and I emailed her, 104 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:29.279 I said, do you know what's going on? I didn't 105 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:32.120 know where she was in relation to it, and she said, yeah, 106 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:34.360 I lived five miles from there. I've been ministering to 107 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:36.680 some of the families, and I was in the firehouse 108 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:38.399 when they told them that their kids weren't coming home. 109 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:38.879 Wow. 110 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:43.240 And it was like one of those moments where you, 111 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:47.160 just like I said in the new introduction, God doesn't 112 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:50.399 roll dice with the universes, Einstein said, for some reason, 113 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:53.720 I was the fulcrum of these two terrible, terrible things. 114 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.680 And so I talked to my friends in Bath. I said, look, 115 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:00.800 you guys know better than anyone how this feels. Maybe 116 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:03.639 you can send a letter to the people in Newtown. 117 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:07.680 And they wrote a beautiful letter and sent it via 118 00:07:07.720 --> 00:07:09.720 my friend and it was published actually in the local 119 00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:12.759 Newton paper. And my friend wrote a letter back on 120 00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:15.720 behalf of Newton, you know, saying thank you, thank you, 121 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:20.480 thank you, And it was profound. There was now every 122 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:25.600 spring in May, actually at the like this Saturday, closest 123 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:29.040 to the commemoration of the bombing, they have a luncheon 124 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:32.199 from It's called the school Reunion luncheon, and they honored 125 00:07:32.199 --> 00:07:35.360 the fiftieth graduating class, you know, at the at the 126 00:07:35.399 --> 00:07:38.879 luncheon at that year, Sandy Hook was weighing on everybody's mind, 127 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:41.720 and every every speaker who got up said something about 128 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:45.879 Sandy Hook, myself included. And the two letters were read, 129 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:48.319 and there were survivors too in the audience too, and 130 00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:51.199 it was it was a moment. 131 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:51.920 I mean it was. 132 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:53.680 There was not a dry eye in the houses. The 133 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.079 cliche goes, but it was. It was one of the 134 00:07:56.360 --> 00:08:00.600 most moving moments of my life. That was honored to 135 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:02.839 be a part of. It was my you know, I 136 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:06.040 it's one of those moments where you wonder, you realize 137 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:07.839 there's some you know, sometimes you realize, you know, I 138 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:10.480 don't want to get all ethereal or anything, but sometimes 139 00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:12.879 you wonder why you're here. And I think that was 140 00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:15.319 one of those moments where I realized maybe this was 141 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:18.480 my purpose, was to connect these two communities. 142 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:19.680 It was a day. 143 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:23.160 It was a day, and it was and there's there's 144 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:25.319 so many and I want to get to a far 145 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:27.480 off Sandy Hook and Sandy Hook and Bath. But there 146 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.240 were a lot of similarities, mostly that they lost a 147 00:08:30.279 --> 00:08:31.319 whole generation of children. 148 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:36.559 You also talk about a brave teacher in both stories, yes, 149 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:41.639 and in the Bath story, a new teacher, Hazel Weatherby 150 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:46.200 and there was she was a new teacher, and heroically 151 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:49.200 she was found up to her waist in bricks with 152 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:52.759 the two children beside her. Before we get into you, 153 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:56.559 you spoke to Josephine Cushman Vale. You interviewed her. She 154 00:08:56.679 --> 00:08:59.399 was in her mid nineties. Right at the time, she 155 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:02.279 was fourteen, and her brother that was killed was seven 156 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:05.720 years old, right, and you say she recalled everything with 157 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:09.320 grizzly detail and two interviews with her. Let's get to, 158 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:15.120 of course, the event May eighteenth, nineteen twenty seven. But let's, 159 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:19.720 as you do once again, let's get to somehow trying 160 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:23.120 to find out the why, because in this book you 161 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:27.480 really do have the complete story of who this person 162 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:32.480 was and really their development and what really happened to 163 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:38.960 create this bath massacre. Talk about him growing up, his 164 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:41.399 father and his early interests. 165 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:45.960 Well, Andrew Keiho, he's an enigma. He is a very 166 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:49.559 normal life, as it were. The why I'll get to 167 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:52.320 that in a minute, such that I can he I 168 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:54.759 believe is to come side. Don't remember off hand, but 169 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:58.639 he grew up there. He was something of a boy 170 00:09:58.759 --> 00:10:01.639 genius with electricity, was always creating these little gadgets and 171 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:07.840 things participated in the school plays, things like that regular guy. 172 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:11.159 Then he went to Michigan State College now Michigan State 173 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:15.200 University and Lansing studied electricity, which at the time, in 174 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:19.120 the late eighteen hundreds early early nineteen hundreds, excuse me, 175 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:23.000 was relatively new learning how to study that at the time. 176 00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:26.240 He met a woman named Nelly Price, and then he 177 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:30.120 went out to further his studies at further his educational 178 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:33.159 electricity at a school in Saint Louis. Now at some 179 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:36.000 point we don't know exactly what happened, but he got 180 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:40.919 zapped and fell and was in a coma for two weeks. 181 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:43.559 Did this affect him? Who can tell it? 182 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:43.840 Could? 183 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:46.000 It may not have, There's just no way to know. 184 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:49.000 Eventually he recovered. He worked his way around the Midwest, 185 00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:52.559 worked as a power alignsman in Iowa for a while, 186 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.720 and then moved back to Michigan. And his mother had 187 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:58.960 died and his father, who was an older man, had 188 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:06.159 been married and his new wife friend was actually a 189 00:11:06.279 --> 00:11:08.360 couple of years older than Andrew, old enough to be 190 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:13.360 a sister, not uncommon for the time, but Andrew deeply 191 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:18.759 resented this, and in fact they had had a little 192 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:21.960 girl who was his half sister. Now his father at 193 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:25.440 that point was getting was older and needed the help 194 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:27.399 of a couple of canes to get around the house. Now, 195 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:30.200 one day friend Keho and again she and Andrew had 196 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:34.559 a contentious relationship. She was going to light the oven 197 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:38.039 it required. It was a gas stove. One counts as 198 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:41.039 it was operated by gasoline and other says oil. Either way, 199 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:44.840 it was petroleum based. And she lit the stove to 200 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:48.240 turn it on and a woosh of flame came out 201 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:51.320 and she was engulfed in flame. He was in the 202 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:56.559 kitchen and he threw water on her. Now you don't, 203 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:00.559 I mean everybody know, you don't throw a trollum fire. 204 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:04.679 You don't throw water because petroleum spreads the fire. You 205 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.879 throw a flour, baking powder or something like that to 206 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:11.200 call the fire. Well, this only made the situation worse 207 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:13.559 and they managed to get her into a bed. She 208 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:18.200 was just horribly burned and in absolute agony. He and 209 00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:21.759 his little sister went next door. They didn't have a phone, 210 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:24.600 the Keiho family, so he went next door and knocked 211 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:26.559 on the door and said, could I use your phone? Friend, 212 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:28.600 he's been burned. Made it sound like you know, a 213 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:31.080 pot of boiling water, it'd fallen on her foot or something, 214 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:33.840 and he said, oh, by the way, call a priest. 215 00:12:34.519 --> 00:12:37.279 And she lay in agony for a few more hours 216 00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:40.000 and then died. Now, the question this did not come 217 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:43.759 up until years later. It was more or less forgotten, 218 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:46.919 and came up years later after the bombing, of course, 219 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:51.080 and people wondered did he do it. Well, he had 220 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:54.720 the mechanical know how to do something like this, but 221 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:57.480 did he do it? There's no way to know. Certainly 222 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.919 his behavior was strange, you know, throwing water on her, 223 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:03.159 you know, saying, oh, Frank, he's been burned. To a 224 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:06.120 borrow the phone, called a priest. Very I mean, there 225 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:08.080 was no sense of urgency. 226 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.080 You said there was a motivation, Yeah, certainly a motivation, 227 00:13:11.240 --> 00:13:14.799 it seems seemingly a motivation with the with the estate 228 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:18.200 his father was ailing. Yeah, now suddenly he has competition 229 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.200 with a young bride and and a three year old exactly. 230 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:26.399 But there's no way to know in the court of law, 231 00:13:26.440 --> 00:13:29.200 which just wouldn't stand up without you know, something. 232 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:33.639 Like circumstantially, retrospectively, circumstances or substantially could have pulled it off. 233 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:36.200 Certainly could have said it to go off. We just 234 00:13:36.519 --> 00:13:40.519 don't know, and the what would be deemed psychopathic response 235 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:43.759 in light of the injury next door with the neighbor. 236 00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:48.480 Sure is again some circumstantial, not right actual evidence, but 237 00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:52.720 certainly yeah, a harbinger of things will say it could be. 238 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:54.440 Yeah if I were, If I were, you know, I 239 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:56.360 won't say that he did it. But if I were, 240 00:13:57.480 --> 00:13:59.679 off the record say and I'm not off the record 241 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.120 if I were, if they were, got to say, yeah, 242 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:04.399 he did it, But again, no way to know. After that, 243 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:08.960 he eventually makes his way. He reintroduces himself to Nellie 244 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:13.000 Price right, and they ended up getting married and moving 245 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:15.799 to her childhood home in Bath. He buys it and 246 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:19.240 they you know, it's a nice three story home too. 247 00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:22.440 And everybody remembers Nelly from when she was a child 248 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:24.360 because she kind of grew up in that house. Her 249 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:26.960 mother died and she had been raised by her uncle, 250 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:28.919 who was well known in the area. He was a 251 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:31.480 politician and a very well known man in the area. 252 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.559 They had an opportunity to buy the home as a 253 00:14:34.679 --> 00:14:38.759 result of her uncle dying, so there was an agreement 254 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:40.720 for him to put a down payment down and then 255 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:45.960 terms of payment. They moved to this new eighty acres 256 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:49.480 this land. What about those payments? 257 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:52.960 He didn't make him I mean that simple. He stopped 258 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.159 paying the mortgage. There was you know, there were various 259 00:14:56.159 --> 00:14:57.799 attempts to get him to pay the mortgage and he 260 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:01.320 just refused. Now there was no danger of them to 261 00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:04.600 us seeing him out because the family owned owned the house, 262 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:07.000 and he was paying off the mortgage to Nelly's family, 263 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.320 So they never would have been kicked out of the house. 264 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:11.679 They never would have were closed in. And did he 265 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:13.159 know this in the back of his mind that that 266 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:17.159 would have happened. I don't know. Possibly, but he just 267 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:18.600 refused to pay his mortgage. 268 00:15:19.159 --> 00:15:23.080 You talk about his character though, and his father was 269 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:26.639 a big influence in terms of his father hated taxation 270 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:31.840 and had an idea that farmers should share in the 271 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.919 wealth of their crops by managing them and maybe even 272 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:38.519 holding them back in the market exactly. So he had 273 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:42.679 some radical ideas. He was a well known figure in 274 00:15:42.759 --> 00:15:49.559 the area, and despite Andrew not starting off in that regard, 275 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:52.759 he seemed to be influenced by his father and picked 276 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:56.000 up some of the same messages and was involved in 277 00:15:56.039 --> 00:16:00.399 the same kind of discussions with farmers and these roles 278 00:16:00.440 --> 00:16:06.600 that cropped up, right pun intended, I guess regarding management 279 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:07.360 of their farms. 280 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:12.039 Exactly what both his father and you know, Andrew Kiho 281 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:14.919 believe was that the farmer again, as you say, should 282 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:18.080 control his product, and in doing so, he let his 283 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.720 his farm go to seed. You know, pardon the pun 284 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:23.799 on my part, but I mean he let the crops rot, 285 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:27.360 and he thought, you know, his feeling was why should I, 286 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:30.159 you know, why should I grow my crops and sell 287 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:32.879 them when and everybody else can sell them if we stop, 288 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.679 if we hold back, we can control our price and 289 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:38.480 we can make more money. It's not a sound way 290 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:42.919 to farm, but that's what was his that was his belief, 291 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:45.960 and he told others that this is what you should do. 292 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:50.679 Now you write about this interest in electricity morphs into 293 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:55.080 him being sort of a go to guy expert on 294 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:58.559 this new fledging electricity. But also he was a handyman, 295 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:01.879 and he was also wanting to be involved in the 296 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:05.200 school board. Right, So tell us about his involvement in 297 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:09.319 the school board and just his behavior in that right right. 298 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:11.759 Yeah, Now, he had one of the most modern farms 299 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:15.319 in the area. He had a steam powered tractor and 300 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:18.640 which people are a guess powertractor, excuse me. And people were, 301 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:22.559 you know, quite fascinated with all these technical things that 302 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:24.799 he had on the farm that nobody else did. And 303 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:29.240 he also, he felt and there was nothing crazy about this. 304 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:32.359 Though he and Nelly didn't have children. He felt when 305 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:35.240 they were building the new school, well, he paid taxes, 306 00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:37.960 and his feeling is that, you know, as a taxpayer, 307 00:17:38.039 --> 00:17:40.240 he should have say and so he ran for the 308 00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:43.079 school board. Nothing wrong with that, and he was elected 309 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:46.200 treasurer of the school board. Now, he had a very 310 00:17:46.279 --> 00:17:50.759 contankerous relationship with Emery Hike, who was the superintendent, and 311 00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:54.119 they would often fight back and forth about what things cost. 312 00:17:54.279 --> 00:17:57.960 You know what. Andrew didn't want anything that was, you know, 313 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:01.359 he felt was an unreasonable us. Things that were needed 314 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:05.400 for the school, new desks, new books, art for the walls, 315 00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:08.319 a playground, equipment, stuff like that. Now, I've been in 316 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:11.119 education for a long time and I've attended many, many 317 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:15.000 school board meetings. There was nothing outlandish about this behavior. 318 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:18.319 When I would friends of mine read the book, they said, well, 319 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:21.359 you must have based their arguments on you know, this 320 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:23.319 person in that person. I said, well, they certainly helped 321 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:26.960 inform me of you know, there was nothing unusual about 322 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:29.480 that kind of behavior. When things didn't go his way, 323 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:31.920 he would often try to shut down the meetings. He 324 00:18:31.960 --> 00:18:34.440 would go to a journey the meeting didn't always work, 325 00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:38.759 but that was his feeling. I'm a taxpayer, I should 326 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:42.640 be involved. And he and Emery Hike were just oil 327 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.039 and water, and Hike often said, I think this guy 328 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:47.839 is out to get me. He didn't know, of course 329 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:49.839 how deep he was out to get him, but he 330 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:52.079 felt that Andrew Killo was out to get him. Now. 331 00:18:52.599 --> 00:18:56.440 Andrew Killo, as you know I've said, was new electricity, 332 00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:00.119 was a handyman, excellent repairing things. So because he was 333 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.319 a school trustee, they felt, you know, they would save 334 00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:05.960 money on you know, handyman, you know, hiring somebody to 335 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:08.480 fix things. So he was given complete access to the 336 00:19:08.519 --> 00:19:11.000 school to fix things when something broke down, when the 337 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:13.799 generator broke down, they didn't have electricity in Bath at 338 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:16.359 this point, I like say, the Roaring twenties roared right 339 00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:19.839 pass Bath right, it was because they were just getting 340 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:23.519 electricity actually the weak of the bombing and there was 341 00:19:23.559 --> 00:19:25.480 a generator and he would fix the generator. He had 342 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:27.519 a generator on his farm too, one of the few 343 00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:30.400 people in town who had an electrical generator, but he 344 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:32.000 would fix that. He would fix the boiler when it 345 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:34.440 was broke. There was an incident where there were there 346 00:19:34.519 --> 00:19:37.559 was a beehive. Apparently some bees built a hive next 347 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:40.599 to the furnace, and when it warmed up in the winter, 348 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:43.960 the school was infested with bees. And they tried one thing, 349 00:19:44.039 --> 00:19:46.119 and then they tried another thing, and then they said, Andrew, 350 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:48.039 can you do this? And he went down there and 351 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:51.640 nobody knows what he did, but the infestation was gone. 352 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:56.240 He stopped the bees. And interestingly, as an aside, the 353 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:59.279 school's nickname today the team name is the Bees. And 354 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:01.759 there was groomed. It was because of what happened with 355 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:04.319 Kio finding the bees, but it was not that it 356 00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:08.039 was some kid. His father ran a beehive or something 357 00:20:08.119 --> 00:20:10.319 like that, and so he named suggests to name the bees. 358 00:20:10.759 --> 00:20:15.039 What when you talk about Keiho. At this time as well, 359 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:17.559 there was some of the work that he would do 360 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:21.680 on his father's farm was blowing up stumps and removing 361 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:25.759 boulders and using dynamite. Further along in this story a 362 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.920 little bit, we we talk about a year's eve in 363 00:20:30.119 --> 00:20:31.759 nineteen twenty six. 364 00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:35.720 Right and twenty six into twenty seven, Right. What was the. 365 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:39.359 Situation in terms of the relationship with Nelly. What was 366 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:40.519 her health like? 367 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:44.440 Well, Nelly was Nellie was sick. She was often sick. 368 00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:46.119 She was often in and out of the hospital. She 369 00:20:46.200 --> 00:20:49.440 had some kind of lung issues, might have been tuberculosis, 370 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:53.359 but she was she was thinned, she was constantly coughing. 371 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:57.319 She was quiet, and he took care of her. They 372 00:20:57.440 --> 00:20:59.480 was you know, whenever they were at ten meetings or something, 373 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:01.400 she would say next to him, and she was very quiet. 374 00:21:01.480 --> 00:21:03.960 She was quite dependent on him. As far as the dynamite. 375 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:06.759 He was the go to guy in town for dynamite. 376 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:10.119 And it sounds strange, but for the time, there was 377 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:12.920 nothing wrong with it. There would if you had a stump, 378 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:15.559 old tree stump in your field, or a giant boulder 379 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:18.160 or something. You couldn't have a you know, your horse 380 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:19.839 drag it out. You'd kill your horse, or you know, 381 00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:22.559 you'd wreck your automobile your truck trying to pull it out, 382 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:24.839 so you would blow it up. And that was a 383 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:29.200 dangerous proposition. You needed to know exactly how to wire 384 00:21:29.319 --> 00:21:31.759 the dynamite and where to stand in all these things, 385 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:34.960 and he had this knowledge, so he was the go 386 00:21:35.160 --> 00:21:36.960 to guy for blowing up stumps. It was known as 387 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:40.480 stump blasting. Today they used enormous grinders to get out 388 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:42.839 stumps and boulders, but back then you just blew them 389 00:21:42.920 --> 00:21:45.279 up standard thing. People came to him all the time, 390 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:46.839 you know, could you blow up a boulder? Here, blow 391 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:49.079 up one. They're sure happy to do it. And he 392 00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:52.240 would often go to Lancing to pick up more dynamite 393 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:55.920 and pyratol, which was a worst surplus World War One 394 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:59.400 surplus explosive that was also common for the era. On 395 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:02.960 New Year's twenty six and twenty seven, at midnight, there 396 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:07.400 was enormous explosion at key Hoost Farm that people heard 397 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:11.359 from miles around, and people you know asked, you know 398 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:13.839 Nelly later, you know, when she was questioning about it, 399 00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:16.039 she said, oh, though, the boys just having some fun. 400 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:19.599 What I think happened was he said it on a timer. 401 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.160