Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing

Eleven - In the Matter of the Inquest as to the Cause of Death of Emery E. Huyck, Deceased

Chapter 11 IN THE MATTER OF THE INQUEST AS TO THE CAUSE OF DEATH OF EMERY E. HUYCK, DECEASED William Searl, prosecuting attorney for the county, initially planned the inquest for Thursday morning at nine o’clock, just twenty-four hours after the bombing. He quickly realized this would be a terrible mistake. The dead were not yet buried. Potential witnesses undoubtedly would be consumed with grief and suffering from physical exhaustion.1 Yet an informal hearing—what the Lansing State Journal referred to as “John Doe proceedings”—was held late Thursday afternoon.2 Six men, chosen from the hasty pool Searl compiled on Wednesday, were sworn into service as jurors: Alton Church, Wilmer Coleman, Edward Drumheller, Ishmell Everett, Clarence Tolman and Burt Wilcox. They were selected in part for their highly respected status within the community . Additionally, each man had no children. While the men certainly mourned for their family and friends, none would be swept by the grief of losing a son or daughter. Theoretically the six would have open minds when sifting through the evidence presented to them.3 Of‹cially the jurors were responsible for a single task: learn all the de138 tails leading up to the death of Superintendent Huyck. Everything up to and following Kehoe’s murder-suicide, including motivation, wiring the school, setting ‹re to his property, and killing Nellie, were part of the process. Deriving an account of what led to May 18 and how the day played out was an unspoken goal of the inquest. As farmer-cum-coroner, C. E. Lamb was dependent on Searl to run the proceedings. County coroner was an elected position with duties that included death investigations caused by unusual circumstances. But Lamb was a farmer, not a legal scholar. With so many dead under such extraordinary conditions, he faced an inquest that was simply unprecedented. With Searl in command, Lamb surely felt considerable relief. The proceedings were held in the ballroom of the Community Hall. Normally a gathering place for dances or amateur theatrics, the space was out‹tted with two tables in front of the ballroom stage. One table was for jurors, the other for called witnesses. It was a stark setting, lit only by a few bare bulbs dangling off wires strung from the ceiling. Small windows on either side of the ballroom provided a little more illumination, but overall the setting re›ected the sober nature of the gathering.4 Relatively few witnesses appeared at the preliminary investigation. Janitor Frank Smith gave brief testimony. Six weeks previously he’d found the broken lock on the school door. Yes, he said, Kehoe had a key to the building for access anytime he needed it. And over the past week doors within the basement, normally shut, were found open.5 Although the initial proceedings went unrecorded, Chief Charles Lane spoke with the press afterward, providing a hint of what was to come during the of‹cial hearing, now scheduled for Monday morning. No evidence, he said, was presented suggesting that anyone but Kehoe was behind the bombing. The wiring, while not completely examined , conceivably could have been accomplished by one man. For now, people would have to wait for answers.6 To some, the proceedings were senseless. Nothing could bring back the children; at best, the hearing might cauterize a psychic wound by explaining Kehoe’s actions. For many still deep in shock, such a prospect offered little—if any—comfort.  Fifty-‹ve witnesses were called over two days, a cross section of students, school employees, board members, rescue workers, attorneys, and Kehoe ’s neighbors (the term “Kehoe’s friends” didn’t seem apt). Glenn Inquest as to Cause of Death of Emery E. Huyck 139 Whitman, a talented court reporter, took down each word spoken by Searl and the witnesses. They told their stories in simple, unadorned English . There was no need for embellishment. The tale unfolded in bits and pieces. Kehoe’s strange behavior on Wednesday morning. The ‹rst sounds of an explosion at the school. How the ground trembled. What people saw, what people did. Children ’s low moans and high screams emerging from the rubble. A ›edgling rescue effort. Huyck’s devotion to duty, seemingly everywhere in those early moments, running from the school to triage to deathbeds and back to the school. The ‹re at Kehoe’s farm. Its rapid spread. Kehoe in his machine, emerging from...