BATH | The Deadliest Attack on a School in American History, And Most People Have Never Heard of It!

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There are two things in life that are certain, death
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and taxes. In the case of the horror that befell
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a Michigan town one spring morning in nineteen twenty seven,
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it was a deranged man's fury over taxes that resulted
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in the deaths of forty five people. On May eighteenth,
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nineteen twenty seven, hell came to the village of Bath, Michigan.
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The community was forever changed when a bomb went off
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in the basement of the local consolidated school, followed by
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a car bomb blast. The explosions killed thirty eight school children,
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two teachers, four other adults, and the bomber himself. The
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deaths still constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in
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a school in American history. The perpetrator was a farmer
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named Andrew P. Keith, who was upset over a property
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tax that had been levied to build the consolidated school.
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He ran for and was elected to the Board of Education,
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where he tried unsuccessfully to get the school portion of
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his property taxes reduced. Soon, the higher taxes, coupled with
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his wife's medical expenses, caused him to lose his farm.
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It was too much for Keyhoe to take and he
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started plotting revenge. With the recent concern over school violence
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in our country, we yearn for the old days, when
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small town life was peaceful and school children were safe
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from harm. The story of the Bath School massacre serves
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as a bitter reminder that the good old days were
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not always so good. I'm Darren Marler and this is
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Weird Darkness. Welcome wirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is
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Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore,
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the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and
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unexplained coming up in this episode. After spending ten years
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in prison, Sam Shephard was acquitted of his wife's murder,
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but for some questions remain. If this stone is real,
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it's the most significant artifact in American history of early
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European settlement, said geologist Ed Schrader. If it's not, it's
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one of the most magnificent forgeries of all time. Could
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the over four hundred year mystery of what happened to
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the colony of Roanoke finally be solved? But first, it's
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the horrors and hauntings of the Bath School massacre In
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eighteen seventy two. Now bult your doors, lock your windows,
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turn off your lights, and come with me into the
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weird darkness. Andrew Kehoe was born in Tecumsa, Michigan, on
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February first, eighteen seventy two, one of thirteen children. He
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had a troubled life. His mother passed away when he
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was very young, and while his father later remarried, Keho
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and his stepmother never got along. One day, when Keiho
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was fourteen, his stepmother attempted to light an oil stove
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in the kitchen. The stove exploded and set her on fire.
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Keo simply stood and watched her burn. After a few minutes,
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he doused her with a bucket of water, which put
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out the fire. Gravely injured, she later died. It would
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later be speculated that Keho had something to do with
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the malfunction of the stove. He attended to come to
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high school and went on to Michigan State College in
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East Lansing, where he met his future wife, Nellie Price.
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He later moved out west for a few years and
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spent some time in Saint Louis, where he suffered a
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severe head injury as the result of a fall in
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nineteen eleven. He was attending electrical school at the time
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of the accident. Keo was in a comma for two months.
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Whether his injury contributed to Keo's madness, we will never know,
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but it certainly does seem possible. His behavior became more
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and more erratic after the fall, even though he physically recovered.
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When Keo returned to Michigan, he married Nelly. She came
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from a rather wealthy family which owned several pieces of
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property in Clinton Township. Eventually, Andrew and Nell bought one
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hundred eighty five acres from an uncle's estate. The property
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was located just outside of the unincorporated village of Bath.
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Keiho quickly gained a reputation for his intelligence, cleanliness, and
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rather odd behavior. He was quick to help people, but
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equally quick to be critical when he didn't get his
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own way. He was intelligent, able to easily articulate his views,
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but had little patience for ideas that did not agree
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with his own. He was habitually neat and often changed
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his shirt twice a day. He liked to tinker with machinery,
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especially with electrical gadgets. He seemed happiest when repairing or
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adjusting the machinery on his farm. New ways of carrying
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out family chores intrigued him, and he was constantly looking
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for ways to improve the farm. But there were troubling
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reports from some of his neighbors that Kho was also
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cruel to his farm animals and once beat a horse
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to Kiho also gained a reputation for being tight with
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a dollar, a trait that helped him get elected to
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the school board in nineteen twenty six. On the board,
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Kiho constantly campaigned for lower taxes because he claimed the
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current taxes were causing him financial hardship. His creditors tried
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to work out a payment plan with him, but were unsuccessful.
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Soon he stopped paying his mortgage and homeowners insurance premiums altogether.
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To complicate matters, Nelly Kiho was chronically ill with tuberculosis.
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She required frequent hospital stays, which wiped out what little
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savings they had left. Keiho was sure that they would
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lose the farm and plunge even deeper into debt. In
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his mind, high property taxes were the source of all
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his financial woes. He saw nothing good come from the
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taxes and believed that many of the town's expenditures were
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wasteful and pointless, but above all without any valid reason.
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He blamed the five year old Bath Consolidated School for
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his troubles. Throughout the country, during this era, most of
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the one room schools where different grades shared the same
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classroom and teacher, were starting to close down. There was
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beginning to be a widespread belief that children would receive
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a better education if all the students from a region
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could instead be educated at a single facility, with these
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students divided by age into grades. After years of debate
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and planning, the local district built a new school called
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the Bath Consolidated School. A school tax was levied to
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pay for the project, and as a result, property owners
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like Andrew Kehoe had to pay. Keho argued against the
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new school and complained constantly about the increase in taxes,
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stating that they were illegal and unfair. He considered at
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least one of his fellow school board members to be
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his bitter enemy, board president Emery E. Huck. Keiho claimed
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that Huck was influencing the other members of the board
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to vote four higher taxes. Keho became obsessed with school
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board politics. Emery Huck and the injustice of property taxes,
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which he believed were ruining his life. No one knows
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for sure when Keho conceived the idea for the bombing,
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but based on the activity at the school and the
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purchase of explosives, his plan had probably been under way
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for at least a year. He probably started working things
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out in the winter of nineteen twenty six, when the
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board asked him to perform maintenance inside the school building.
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Regarded as a talented handyman, he was known to be
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especially good at installing electrical wiring. As a board member
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appointed to conduct repairs, he had free access to the
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building and his presence was never questioned. At some point
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that summer, Keiho began purchasing large quantities of pyratol, an
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incendiary explosive that was first used during World War One.
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Farmers often used it for excavation, so Keho's purchases of
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small amounts of the surplus explosive at different stores on
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different dates did not raise any suspicions. Neighbors reported hearing
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explosions on Keyho's farm, which he explained by saying he
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was removing tree stumps. No one thought this was odd,
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and no one questioned it when he drove to Lansing
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in November nineteen twenty six and bought two boxes of
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dynamite at a sporting goods store. Throughout the spring of
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nineteen twenty seven, Kiel began to transport the pyratol into
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bath school. He did so in small increments, and no
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one noticed anything out of the ordinary. He calculated exactly
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what he needed each day and brought just that amount.
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He volunteered to fix the wiring in the school's basement,
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but instead of repairing things, he wired the explosives throughout
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the basement, connecting various charges of explosives beneath the floors
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and into the basement rafters. He slithered into the sub
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floors and crawl spaces beneath the school, hiding large amounts
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of pyratol behind pipes and beams. Over time, he managed
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to run thousands of feet of wire throughout the building,
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all under the feet of unsuspecting children and teachers. The
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horrific project was completed in early May. Quiho set the
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charges and waited. During this time, he also wired his
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own home in the same manner. In every structure on
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the farm, he rigged a series of fire bombs crude
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devices made from containers filled with gasoline and wired with
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automobile spark plugs attached to a car battery. On May seventeenth,
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he drove his car over to the front of his
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barn and loaded the back seat with metal debris. He
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threw in nails, old tools, pieces of farm machinery, and
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anything else capable of creating shrapnel in an explosion. When
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the back seat was filled with bits and pieces of metal,
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packed dozens of wrapped sticks of dynamite under the front
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seat and placed a loaded rifle on the passenger seat
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next to him. After he completed this grim task, he
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set out on another bloodier one. Records at Lansing's Saint
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Lawrence Hospital revealed that Nelly Kiho had been discharged on
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May sixteenth. On the afternoon of the following day, Quiho
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killed his wife by hitting her over the head with
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a blunt object. The exact nature of the object has
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never been determined because the ever thorough Keiho burned his house, barn,
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and outbuildings to the ground. After killing his wife, Kyo
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dumped her body into a wheelbarrow and pushed it over
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to the back of the chicken coop. Piled around her.
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On the cart were silverware, jewelry, and a metal cash
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box containing the ashes of burned banknotes. After abandoning his
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wife's body, Keiho completed wiring the farm to explode. He
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had placed one of his homemade firebombs in every building,
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and if all went according to plan, his property would
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simultaneously explode and burn to the ground before help could arrive.
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The house, barn, outbuildings, and even the farm animals that
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had been tied in their enclosures would all be destroyed.
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There would be nothing left for the bank to foreclose on.
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On the morning of May eighteenth, the children began arriving
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at the consolidated school at about eight am. To the students,
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it was a day like any other. They laughed and talked,
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pushed and shoved in the hallways, and hurried to their classrooms.
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They had no way of knowing that just inches beneath
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their feet, more than one thousand pounds of explosives waited
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for an electrical current that would start a chain reaction
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that would change their lives forever. Keiho was only getting started,
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and what comes next is even more gruesome than what
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came before. Will continue our story of how hell came
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to Bath, Michigan when weird darkness returns. At approximately eight
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forty five am, two miles from the school, Keiho detonated
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the fire bombs on his farm. The place exploded into flames,
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sending smoke, fire, and debris into the air. Burning streamers
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of flame fell from the sky, raining down on the
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farm across the road. The neighbors, hearing the explosion, ran
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to Kiyo's farm to offer assistance, but as they hurried
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down the driveway, Keiho was already behind the wheel of
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his car. He calmly looked at them through the open
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window and said, boys, you're my friends. You better get
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out of here. You better go down to the school.
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Kiho roared away, leaving his confused neighbors and a farm
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completely engulfed in flames behind him. As KiHa drove away,
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another tremendous explosion, much larger than the first, was heard
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in the distance. The sound, it was later said, was
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heard for ten miles in every direction. The Bath Consolidated
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School had been blown up. O h Buck, who had
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run to the Keiho farm after the first series of blasts,
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heard the massive explosion of the school. He later told reporters,
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I began to feel as if the world was coming
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to an end, And for many it was. Before the
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dust from the explosion had settled, townspeople were already digging
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through the rubble of the school. The sound of children
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screaming and moaning could be heard coming from the ruins.
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Fully half the building, the northwest wing was gone. The
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walls were destroyed, and the roof lay on the ground.
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Bodies of children could be seen protruding from the bricks
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and stone. Little all arms and legs only partially visible.
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Faces covered with blood and dust peered through the broken
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windows and from between splintered beams of wood. Frantic mothers
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ran screaming to the scene, for almost every family in
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town had at least one child enrolled at the school.
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The sobbing of trapped children could be heard as some
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of the mothers fought with rescuers to pull their children
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from the wreckage. Men worked feverishly into the mountain of rubble,
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tossing aside bricks and pushing twisted metal as they searched
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for survivors. Monty Ellsworth, a neighbor of the Keyhos, recounted
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there was a pile of children of about five or
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six under the roof, and some of them had arms
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sticking out, some had legs, and some just their heads
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sticking out. They were unrecognizable because they were covered with dust, plaster,
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and blood. There were not enough of us to move
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the roof. Ellsworth volunteered to drive back to his farm
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and retrieve the heavy rope that was needed to pull
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the stroke off the children's bodies. On his way back
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to the farm, Ellsworth reported seeing a cheery looking Keyho
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driving into town toward the school. Ellsworth said he grinned
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and waved his hand. When he grinned, I could see
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both rows of his teeth. Less than thirty minutes after
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the explosion, Keho arrived on the scene. No one knew
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that his car had been loaded with dynamite and metal
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debris as well. He got out of his car and
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saw his Nemesis board president Emory huck Keiho waved and
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called him over to the car. As he approached, Keho
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picked up the rifle from the seat next to him,
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aimed it at the dynamite, and fired. Another terrible explosion
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rocked the town. A huge ball of flame shot upwards.
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Since shrapnel was sent flying in every direction, ripping apart trees,
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splintering houses, shattering windows, and cutting down everything in its path.
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Emery Huck and town postmaster Glenn Smith were instantly killed.
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Keho was almost totally obliterated himself. An eight year old
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student named Cleo Clayton, still dazed from the first blast,
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was walking along the street when the second explosion occurred.
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He was struck in the stomach by a large piece
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of metal from the blast. He died a few hours later.
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The people working at the rubble of the school were
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panicked and confused. No one understood what had happened, most
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imagining that they were under some sort of military attack.
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Rumors swept through the crowd about more explosions to come.
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In the distance. Keiho's farm was still burning, sending a
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column of black smoke high into the air. Smaller explosions
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could still be heard from the farm as Keihos leftover.
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Pirtl continued to explode across the street from the school. Trees,
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houses and parked cars were on fire from the original blast.
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Pieces of bodies were strown on the grass and in
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the bushes, and many people had fainted or had become hysterical.
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Over one hundred people had been injured, and more injuries
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were being found every minute. At that point, no one
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had any idea just how many had been killed. Minutes
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after Keiho's car exploded, the land seeing fire and police
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departments arrived on the scene. They were followed by the
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Michigan State Police and representatives of the state Department of
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Public Safety. But nothing could have prepared these hardened veterans
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for what they saw. Wrecked and burning cars, downed trees,
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a collapsed school building that was filled with screaming children,
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fires everywhere. It was like a battle scene from some
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distant war, or a taste of hell. Local physician, doctor J. A. Crumb,
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and his wife, a nurse, had both served in World
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War One and had returned to Bath to open a pharmacy.
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After the explosion, the Crumbs turned their drug store into
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00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:56.759
a triage center. Private citizens were enlisted to use their
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automobiles as additional ambulances to take survivors, z and family
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members to area hospitals. A short distance away from Keio's
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destroyed car, Missus Frank Smith stood in front of her home,
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watching in horror as the events took place before her eyes.
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In the corner of her garden, amidst the flowers and shrubs,
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she saw a crumpled mass of bloody clothing. As she
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00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:22.319
looked closer, she saw that it was part of a
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00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:28.079
human body, mangled almost beyond recognition. Protruding from a rear
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pocket of the clothing, she saw some papers and carefully
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removed them. When she looked over the papers, she saw
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that it was a bank book from the Lily State
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Bank of Tecumsa. Andrew Kejo's name was on it. Missus
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Smith ran over to a police officer who was directing
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rescue efforts at the school, and he brought over some
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of Keyo's neighbors to view the body. A positive identification
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00:19:50.759 --> 00:19:54.759
was made. They finally understood Keho's odd words to them
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as he drove away from his burning farm. He had
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urged them to go to the school. They could have
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00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:05.200
never imagined what he had planned there. Hundreds of people
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climbed through the wreckage to try and rescue the children
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pinned underneath. The injured and dying were transported to Sparrow
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Hospital and Saint Lawrence Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. Governor Fred
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Green arrived during the afternoon of the disaster and assisted
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in the relief work. Carting bricks away from the scene.
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The Lawrence Baking Company of Lansing sent a truck filled
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00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:30.640
with pies and sandwiches, which were served to rescuers in
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the township's community hall. As policemen, firefighters, and volunteers searched
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through the rubble desperately looking for survivors, a chilling discovery
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00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:44.519
was made in the ruined basement, a huge cache of
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unexploded dynamite. State police officers, who emerged from the basement
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of the school with a bushel basket filled with dynamite
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00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:55.960
informed everyone that there was even more still inside, still
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00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:59.960
attached to a battery and a clock. The rescue efforts
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00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:02.480
suddenly came to a halt as the area around the
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00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:06.200
school was cleared. Working frantically in the broken beams and
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00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.559
shattered concrete, fearing they could be blown up at any moment,
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police officers carefully dismantled what remained of Keiho's mad plan.
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They carried out five hundred four pounds of dynamite, along
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00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:22.160
with wires and detonating devices. The pirate hall had been
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00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:25.839
divided up into eight different bombs, which were hidden in
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various spots on the south end of the school. Experts
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00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:32.640
later theorized that the first blast had caused some sort
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of short circuit which made the additional bombs malfunction. If
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the rest of the dynamite had gone off, the school
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would have been completely demolished, and the death toll would
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have surely been in the hundreds. Slowly, the bodies of
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the dead were carried out of the ruins of the
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bath consolidated school. They were placed in neat rows on
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the scorched grass and hastily covered up. A short distance
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from this grim scene, Missus Eugene sat in the street
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with her two little dead girls, one in each arm,
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and her son lying dead in her lap. One of
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the police officers at the scene later told newspapers there
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were sights that I hope no one will ever have
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to look at again. The bodies of the children were
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taken one by one to the township hall, which served
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as a temporary morgue. Dazed parents were brought in to
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identify the remains of children, some of whom were horribly
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burned and disfigured by the blast. The following day, police
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and fire officials gathered at the Keiho farm to investigate
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the fires. On May nineteenth, the body of Nelly Kiho
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was found. Her body was so disfigured that she went
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unnoticed by everyone who walked past her. She had been
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burned almost beyond recognition. Her left arm and her right
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leg were both missing. Only the axle and wheels remained
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of the cart on which her corpse had been placed.
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All of the Keio farm buildings had been destroyed, and
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all of the animals that had been trapped in the
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barns were dead. The amount of unused equipment and materials
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on the property reportedly could have easily paid off the mortgage,
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but Keho had been too obsessed with the unfair taxes
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for him to realize that. As officials searched the property
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for clues to the devastation, they found a hand lettered
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wooden sign that Keyiho had wired to a fence that
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bore the short message that he likely imagined would explain
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his actions. Criminals are made, not born. All over the world,
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newspaper headlines announced the shocking tragedy in Bath. The press
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struggled to find reasons for Keyho's rampage, but of course
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there were none. The Bath community was devastated, and the
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loss could not be measured in simply the number of
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children that had been killed. There was no one in
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the community that had not been touched by the tragedy.
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Everyone had lost a relative, a friend, a classmate, or
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a teacher. In addition to the human toll, Bath faced
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financial catastrophe. A new school would have to be built.
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The future now looked bleak. The American Red Cross, which
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00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:19.079
set up operations at the Crumb Pharmacy, did what it
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could to provide aid and comfort for the victims. The
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Lansing Red Cross headquarters stayed open until eleven thirty on
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the night of the disaster to answer telephone calls, update
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the list of the dead and injured, and provide information.
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The Red Cross also managed donations that were sent to
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pay for both the medical expenses of the injured and
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the burial costs of the dead. Over the next few days,
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there was an endless wave of funerals in Bath, with
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eighteen of them being held on Saturday May twenty second alone.
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The last funeral was held on Sunday May twenty third,
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the same day that Charles Lindberg completed the first solo
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trans atlantic flight to Paris. This event shared the newspaper
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space with news of the tragedy in Michigan. Over one
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hundred thousand automobiles passed through Bath that weekend, a staggering
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00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:15.839
amount of traffic for such a small village. Some Bath
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citizens regarded this armada as an unwarranted intrusion into their
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00:25:20.599 --> 00:25:24.000
time of grief, but most accepted it as a show
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of sympathy and support from surrounding communities. Unfortunately, as with
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any other tragedy, heartless curiosity seekers also made their way
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00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:37.440
to the town, as did the headline seekers like the
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00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:41.000
ku Klux Klan, who proclaimed that the actions of Kiho,
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00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:44.200
a Roman Catholic, were the result of his adherents to
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00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:47.279
the stance of the Catholic Church against what they considered
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Protestant or godless schools. A coroner's inquest was held the
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00:25:52.519 --> 00:25:55.680
following week. The coroner had arrived at Bath on the
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00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:59.000
day of the disaster and had sworn in six community
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00:25:59.079 --> 00:26:02.559
leaders to serve as as the investigative jury. The Clinton
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00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:06.559
County Prosecutor conducted the examination, and dozens of Bath citizens
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00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:11.880
and law enforcement personnel testified before the jury. Although there
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00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:14.839
was never a doubt that Andrew Keyho had carried out
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00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:17.799
the bombing. The jury was asked to determine if the
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00:26:17.799 --> 00:26:21.119
school board or any of its employees were guilty of
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00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:25.519
criminal negligence. The testimony lasted for more than a week,
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00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:28.960
and in the end, the jury exonerated the school board
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00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:32.559
and its employees. In the verdict, the jury concluded that
402
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:36.920
Keho conducted himself sanely and so concealed as operations that
403
00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:39.519
there was no cause to suspect any of his actions.
404
00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:42.880
And we further find that the school board and Frank Smith,
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00:26:43.240 --> 00:26:46.119
janitor of the school building, were not negligent in and
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00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:49.039
about their duties, and were not guilty of any negligence
407
00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:53.799
in not discovering Keyhoe's plan. It was determined that Keyho
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00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:56.640
had murdered Emery Huck on the morning of May eighteenth.
409
00:26:57.319 --> 00:26:59.720
They also found that the school was destroyed as part
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00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:02.960
of a plan that was carried out by Keiho alone,
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00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:06.440
without the aid of conspirators, and that he had wilfully
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00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:10.200
caused the death of forty four people, including his wife Nelly.
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00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:14.519
On August twenty second, some three months after the bombing,
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00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.400
Fourth Greater Beatrice Gibbs died following hip surgery It was
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00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:23.799
the final death attributed to the Bath's School massacre. The
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00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:27.319
jury returned a judgment of suicide as the cause of
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00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:31.200
Andrew Keiho's death. His body was eventually claimed by his
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00:27:31.319 --> 00:27:36.119
sister without any ceremony. He was buried in an unmarked
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00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:41.000
grave in an initially unnamed cemetery. Later it was revealed
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00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:44.319
that Keho was buried in the Paupers section of Mount
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00:27:44.359 --> 00:27:48.759
Rest Cemetery in Saint John's, Michigan. Nellie Keho was buried
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00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.240
in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing by her family. Her
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00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.880
tombstone bears her maiden name of Price. The people of
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00:27:56.920 --> 00:27:59.799
Bath were left with no other choice but to move on.
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00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:03.759
Governor Fred Green created the Bath Relief Fund with the
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00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:08.279
money supplied by donors the states and local governments. Scores
427
00:28:08.279 --> 00:28:11.400
of people from all over the country donated to the fund,
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00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:15.039
which eventually allowed for the demolition of the damaged portion
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00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:17.400
of the school and the construction of a new wing.
430
00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:23.119
With the donated funds, school resumed on September fifth, nineteen
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twenty seven, and for the first school year, classes were
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00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:29.799
held in the Community Hall, the Township Hall, and to
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00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:35.240
retail buildings. Most of the students returned. An architect from Lansing,
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00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:38.880
Warren Holmes, donated plans for a new school, and the
435
00:28:38.920 --> 00:28:43.000
school board approved contracts for a new building on September fourteenth.
436
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:48.039
On September fifteenth, Michigan's Republican U S Senator James J.
437
00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:52.359
Cowsens presented a personal check for seventy five thousand dollars
438
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:55.839
to the Bath Construction Fund, and the school's new wing
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00:28:56.079 --> 00:29:00.960
was named in his honor. In nineteen twenty eight, Carlton W.
440
00:29:01.079 --> 00:29:04.680
Angel presented the board with a statue called Girl with
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00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:08.880
a Cat. The statue currently rests in the Bath School Museum,
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00:29:09.119 --> 00:29:12.279
which is located in the school district's middle school, adjacent
443
00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:16.000
to the bombing site. Angels inscription on the piece stated
444
00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:18.559
that it was dedicated to the courage and determination of
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00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:22.079
the people of Bath. The sculpture was funded by donated
446
00:29:22.119 --> 00:29:26.160
pennies from students all over Michigan. According to legend, the
447
00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:29.359
pennies were melted down and used to cast the statue.
448
00:29:30.839 --> 00:29:33.680
In nineteen seventy five, the new school was also torn
449
00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:37.279
down into a small park was created dedicated to the
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00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:40.480
victims of the tragedy. At the center of the park
451
00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:44.400
is the cupola of the original building. The only part
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00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:47.599
that has been preserved at the entrance to the park
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00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:50.400
is a bronze plaque that contains the names of all
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00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:54.680
the children who were killed on that terrible day. The
455
00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:58.839
parents of those children survived the massacre, but their lives
456
00:29:58.920 --> 00:30:02.119
were never the same again. Some of them moved away
457
00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:05.119
from Bath in the years that followed, but it's unlikely
458
00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:09.640
they ever really escaped their horrible memories. For those who
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00:30:09.720 --> 00:30:13.680
stayed behind, the bloody history of that day was always present,
460
00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:17.599
and to many people, the community remains a place where
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00:30:17.640 --> 00:30:20.640
death came calling on what should have been a beautiful
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00:30:20.680 --> 00:30:24.920
spring day. Instead, it became the day when the twisted
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00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:29.000
obsessions of a dangerous man claimed the lives of dozens
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of innocent people and forever stained the landscape of rural Michigan.
465
00:30:35.160 --> 00:30:38.440
With a horrific event such as the Bath's School massacre,
466
00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:42.400
it's no surprise that ghostly tales and legends have sprung
467
00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:46.680
up around the scene of the disaster. According to stories,
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00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:50.480
people claim to have had many experiences at the park
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00:30:50.519 --> 00:30:54.599
where the two schools once stood. Voices are heard, as
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00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:58.039
well as cries for help, and recordings have been obtained
471
00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:02.000
that allegedly contained the eerie voice of the lost, still
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00:31:02.039 --> 00:31:07.240
seeking help after decades have past. Unexplained cold spots are
473
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:11.839
also felt, as well as the strange touch of unseen hands,
474
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:14.240
as if they are reaching out from beyond the grave,
475
00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:19.200
and according to first hand accounts, the massacre site is
476
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:22.720
not the only place in Bath that is haunted. A
477
00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:25.599
funeral home on Main Street, where many of the bodies
478
00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:28.640
of the victims were prepared for burial, was turned into
479
00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:32.519
an apartment house many years after the massacre. A tenant
480
00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:34.880
who moved into the place in the year two thousand
481
00:31:35.400 --> 00:31:39.559
began to experience odd happenings in the house, starting almost
482
00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:42.720
from the night she moved in. As she climbed into
483
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:46.480
bed that night, she felt the unsettling stare of someone
484
00:31:46.640 --> 00:31:50.119
watching her, and things were never the same after that.
485
00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:55.319
She began hearing footsteps going up and downstairs that had
486
00:31:55.319 --> 00:31:58.960
been removed years before, and voices coming from the basement.
487
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.480
The toilets flushed by themselves, water faucets turned on and off,
488
00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:08.039
and she claimed to hear the sobbing and crying of children.
489
00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:11.400
When she heard the sound of breaking glass one night,
490
00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:14.920
she called the police. Officers came to search the house,
491
00:32:15.400 --> 00:32:19.119
but when she unlocked the basement door, both men refused
492
00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:22.480
to go down and look around. When the landlord came
493
00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:25.359
to her the following day and blamed her for damage
494
00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:27.799
that had been done in the basement, she showed him
495
00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:30.480
the police report and he was as puzzled by the
496
00:32:30.519 --> 00:32:34.599
disturbance as she had been. A short time later, she
497
00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:39.559
began seeing the ghosts. The first victim she saw said
498
00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:42.359
that his name was George Hall and that he had
499
00:32:42.359 --> 00:32:44.720
been eight years old when he died at the school.
500
00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:50.200
According to the witness, George's ghost had no legs. The spirit,
501
00:32:50.279 --> 00:32:53.160
she claimed, was a prankster and loved the tenant's cat,
502
00:32:53.319 --> 00:32:56.640
along with other animals. There was also a little girl
503
00:32:56.880 --> 00:32:59.480
who was missing a hand and wanted the tenant to
504
00:32:59.519 --> 00:33:02.440
look for it. The spirit told her that she'd been
505
00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:04.880
wearing a ring that was special to her when she
506
00:33:04.920 --> 00:33:07.400
died at the school, and the ring was still on
507
00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:11.440
one of her missing fingers. During the time she lived
508
00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:14.400
in the house, the tenant stated that the ghostly occupants
509
00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:18.039
were always nearby and seemed to need something from her,
510
00:33:18.640 --> 00:33:22.319
something that she seemed to be unable to give. They
511
00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:25.599
wanted help, she said, but she didn't know how to
512
00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:29.640
help them for reasons that she couldn't understand. The children
513
00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:33.480
were unable to rest, and one has to wonder if
514
00:33:33.519 --> 00:33:37.640
they are still lingering there, unable to find peace after
515
00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:42.680
their terrible deaths, still searching for solace and understanding of
516
00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:54.359
the bitter crime that took them from this earth. Up next,
517
00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:58.319
after spending ten years in prison, Sam Shepard was acquitted
518
00:33:58.359 --> 00:34:02.839
of his wife's murder. Some questions remain. We'll look at
519
00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:06.200
the bizarre twists and turns of the case of Sam Shepard.
520
00:34:06.680 --> 00:34:10.679
Did they have the wrong man? But first, it's been
521
00:34:10.760 --> 00:34:14.199
over four hundred years since the colony yar Roanoke was lost,
522
00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:17.760
with no clue as to why all of the colonists disappeared.
523
00:34:18.480 --> 00:34:21.719
But is it possible the mystery has finally been solved.
524
00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:46.360
That story is up next on Weird Darkness. If this
525
00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:49.719
stone is real, it's the most significant artifact in American
526
00:34:49.800 --> 00:34:54.039
history of early European settlement, said Ad Schrader, a geologist
527
00:34:54.119 --> 00:34:58.000
and president of Brenna University in Georgia. If it's not,
528
00:34:58.199 --> 00:35:01.119
he continued, it's one of the most bad, difficent forgeries
529
00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:05.800
of all time. A recently discovered twenty one pound engraved
530
00:35:05.880 --> 00:35:09.559
stone that based on the results of upcoming testing, could
531
00:35:09.559 --> 00:35:12.960
perhaps solve the mystery behind the Lost Colony of Roanoke
532
00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:18.000
that has puzzled historians for centuries. This mystery involves the
533
00:35:18.039 --> 00:35:21.880
creepy disappearance of more than one hundred English settlers from
534
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:26.440
the colony sometime between fifteen eighty seven and fifteen ninety,
535
00:35:27.119 --> 00:35:32.000
and the stone may finally help explain what happened. The
536
00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:36.320
story of the lost colony begins on July fourth, fifteen
537
00:35:36.440 --> 00:35:40.559
eighty four, when English explorers landed on Roanoke Island in
538
00:35:40.599 --> 00:35:45.760
present day North Carolina. The explorers were unsuccessful in establishing
539
00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:48.599
a settlement, so a larger group, led by a man
540
00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:51.800
named John White, was sent there in fifteen eighty seven.
541
00:35:52.719 --> 00:35:57.119
Among the one hundred seventeen colonists were White's daughter, Eleanor White,
542
00:35:57.280 --> 00:36:02.480
Dare and her Stonemason, husband and annaiist. Eleanor and Annonius
543
00:36:02.599 --> 00:36:06.400
soon had a daughter named Virginia, the first English child
544
00:36:06.519 --> 00:36:10.519
born in the New World. Low on supplies, the group
545
00:36:10.599 --> 00:36:14.800
soon found themselves in a desperate situation. John White then
546
00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:18.679
traveled back to England for reinforcements later in fifteen eighty seven,
547
00:36:19.239 --> 00:36:22.360
but the outbreak of the Anglo Spanish war delayed his return.
548
00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:26.199
When he finally managed to get back to Roanoke more
549
00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:30.119
than three years later in fifteen ninety, the settlement was
550
00:36:30.360 --> 00:36:35.679
entirely deserted, with no remains in sight. The only clue
551
00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:38.360
as to what had happened was a fence post with
552
00:36:38.440 --> 00:36:43.079
the word Croatoan, the name of a neighboring Native American tribe,
553
00:36:43.119 --> 00:36:46.519
carved into it, and that was the last we'd heard
554
00:36:46.559 --> 00:36:51.000
from the colonists of Roanoke until nineteen thirty seven, when
555
00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:54.400
a tourist from California walked into the history department at
556
00:36:54.440 --> 00:36:58.639
Atlanta's Emory University with the massive stone that ad Schrader
557
00:36:58.679 --> 00:37:02.519
and others now though might be the most important artifact
558
00:37:02.599 --> 00:37:06.400
of the Early American period. On one side of the stone,
559
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:09.119
which the tourists said he'd simply found in a swamp
560
00:37:09.159 --> 00:37:13.079
while traveling through North Carolina, the writing appeared to constitute
561
00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:17.360
a grave marker, reading Anonius Dare and Virginia went Hence
562
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:20.960
under Heaven fifteen ninety one. The engraving on the other
563
00:37:21.119 --> 00:37:24.719
side of the stone, however, was much longer. As a
564
00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:28.639
team of Emery scholars deciphered the message, they were shocked
565
00:37:28.679 --> 00:37:32.119
to discover the story that it told, one describing two
566
00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:35.599
years a suffering due to sickness and war with local
567
00:37:35.679 --> 00:37:38.800
Native Americans, which led to the death of virtually all
568
00:37:38.840 --> 00:37:42.840
of the colony's settlers, including the writer's husband and child.
569
00:37:44.119 --> 00:37:47.880
This story referred to John White as father, and sure
570
00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:52.079
enough was signed E. W. D the initials of Eleanor
571
00:37:52.199 --> 00:37:55.920
White Dare. It looked as though Eleanor had left behind
572
00:37:55.960 --> 00:37:59.079
the story of the Roanoke Colony and more or less
573
00:37:59.159 --> 00:38:02.480
settled the mystery of the settler's mass disappearance once and
574
00:38:02.599 --> 00:38:06.480
for all. Indeed, the Emery team initially declared that the
575
00:38:06.519 --> 00:38:11.000
stone was authentic. However, within the next few years, a
576
00:38:11.039 --> 00:38:15.360
Georgia stonecutter found more than three dozen stones also claiming
577
00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:18.519
to have been written by Dare, and which were also
578
00:38:18.760 --> 00:38:23.199
soon deemed authentic. Then, in nineteen forty one, the Saturday
579
00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:28.679
Evening Post ran a devastating eleven thousand word expose debunking
580
00:38:28.760 --> 00:38:32.639
the legitimacy of all stones as a hoax and revealing
581
00:38:32.679 --> 00:38:36.719
the Georgia stonecutter to be a fraud thanks to various evidence.
582
00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:41.400
Just like that, one of the most astounding discoveries was
583
00:38:41.400 --> 00:38:44.679
transformed into a pile of rocks and sent to sit
584
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:49.400
in a basement at Georgia's Brannau University. But then in
585
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:54.239
twenty sixteen and Schrader decided to take the original stone
586
00:38:54.320 --> 00:38:57.519
found in nineteen thirty seven to the University of North
587
00:38:57.559 --> 00:39:02.039
Carolina for analysis. Sliced off one end of the stone
588
00:39:02.079 --> 00:39:06.239
to discover that, in contrast to the darker exterior, the
589
00:39:06.400 --> 00:39:10.840
interior was a bright white. Thus any inscriptions made in
590
00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:15.199
this stone would be that same bright white. However, the
591
00:39:15.239 --> 00:39:19.519
inscription on the stone was much darker in color. Such
592
00:39:19.639 --> 00:39:23.679
darkening takes a very long time to occur, suggesting that
593
00:39:23.719 --> 00:39:26.960
the inscription was made in the approximate era of the
594
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:30.039
Roanoke Colony. It would have been very difficult in the
595
00:39:30.119 --> 00:39:33.920
nineteen thirties to use chemicals to mask the color. But
596
00:39:33.960 --> 00:39:38.840
now Schraeder wants to fund an exhaustive geochemical investigation that
597
00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:42.639
should go beyond the analysis I just described and perhaps
598
00:39:42.760 --> 00:39:46.360
prove once and for all whether the stone is legitimate.
599
00:39:47.159 --> 00:39:51.440
And before that, this coming fall, researchers plan to more
600
00:39:51.559 --> 00:39:55.719
thoroughly analyze the language inscribed on the stone in order
601
00:39:55.760 --> 00:40:00.639
to verify its authenticity. I would surely like to know, said,
602
00:40:00.800 --> 00:40:04.440
whether eleanor White dare had her hands on this stone
603
00:40:04.519 --> 00:40:16.480
about five hundred years ago and left us a message.
604
00:40:16.599 --> 00:40:20.559
With decades passed since Sam Shepherd's death, we may never
605
00:40:20.639 --> 00:40:25.119
know what truly happened in the sleepy town of Bay Village, Ohio,
606
00:40:25.360 --> 00:40:28.920
in the early morning hours of July fourth, nineteen fifty four.
607
00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:32.280
What we do know is that at some point in
608
00:40:32.320 --> 00:40:36.280
the night, Shepherd's wife, Marilyn, who was four months pregnant
609
00:40:36.360 --> 00:40:39.719
at the time of her death, was brutally bludgeoned to
610
00:40:39.880 --> 00:40:42.639
death in the Lake Erie home that she shared with
611
00:40:42.719 --> 00:40:47.760
her neurosurgeon husband and their young son. Marilyn Shepherd's slaying
612
00:40:47.880 --> 00:40:51.400
and the subsequent trial of Sam Shepherd would become one
613
00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:55.880
of the most controversial murder cases in American history. The
614
00:40:55.920 --> 00:40:58.960
Shepherds had been visited by neighbors earlier in the night
615
00:40:59.039 --> 00:41:02.440
of July third, and Sam Shepherd had fallen asleep on
616
00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:05.880
the day bed in the living room while watching strange holiday.
617
00:41:06.679 --> 00:41:10.079
Their guests left shortly after midnight, and no one knows
618
00:41:10.119 --> 00:41:14.159
for sure what transpired between then and five forty the
619
00:41:14.199 --> 00:41:18.159
next morning of July fourth, when a frantic Sam Shepherd
620
00:41:18.159 --> 00:41:21.400
called his friend Spencer Hawke, the mayor of the small
621
00:41:21.400 --> 00:41:26.920
Cleveland suburb, saying I think they have killed Maryland. The
622
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:30.119
following is an excerpt from the book The Wrong Man,
623
00:41:30.239 --> 00:41:33.599
The Final Verdict of Doctor Sam Shepard murder Case by
624
00:41:33.679 --> 00:41:38.440
James Nef. At five forty am on July fourth, nineteen
625
00:41:38.519 --> 00:41:41.639
fifty four, the mayor of Bay Village was awakened by
626
00:41:41.639 --> 00:41:45.159
a telephone call. It was his neighbor Sam Shepard, shouting,
627
00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:47.639
my god's bend, get over here quick. I think they've
628
00:41:47.719 --> 00:41:51.679
killed Marylyn. What oh my God, get over here quick.
629
00:41:52.880 --> 00:41:56.360
Spencer Hawke jumped up and got dressed, waking as wife esther.
630
00:41:57.039 --> 00:41:59.360
She hated to get up early, but she knew something
631
00:41:59.519 --> 00:42:03.400
terrible happened. She pulled on a dress and shoes. They
632
00:42:03.440 --> 00:42:06.800
lived only two houses away from Sam and Maryland, but Spen,
633
00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:09.440
a butcher, had a bad knee, so they got in
634
00:42:09.480 --> 00:42:12.440
the car and drove to the Shepherd's house. They didn't
635
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:16.239
stop to call the police or grab a weapon. Sam
636
00:42:16.280 --> 00:42:19.119
and Spencer had become fairly good friends in the past year,
637
00:42:19.280 --> 00:42:22.039
even though they appeared at first glance to have little
638
00:42:22.039 --> 00:42:25.480
in common. Sam was a decade younger, just shy of
639
00:42:25.559 --> 00:42:29.360
thirty and physically vigorous. He was always water skiing and
640
00:42:29.400 --> 00:42:32.760
playing pick up basketball with the neighborhood boys. With his
641
00:42:32.840 --> 00:42:36.119
bad knee exacerbated by long days on his feet cutting
642
00:42:36.159 --> 00:42:39.519
and selling meat to his bay village customers, Spen had
643
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:42.400
to sit on the sidelines except when they went fishing.
644
00:42:43.400 --> 00:42:46.360
Spen could outfish him any day. Sam didn't have the
645
00:42:46.400 --> 00:42:49.519
patience to fish for lake erie, perch or walleye when
646
00:42:49.559 --> 00:42:51.800
he could be flying across the lake on skis at
647
00:42:51.840 --> 00:42:55.440
thirty miles an hour. Together, they had bought a thirteen
648
00:42:55.480 --> 00:42:59.559
foot aluminum boat and clamped on two powerful outboard engines.
649
00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:03.360
Sam liked to race sports cars and amateur road rallies.
650
00:43:03.800 --> 00:43:06.480
Now he had another grown up toy to satisfy his
651
00:43:06.599 --> 00:43:11.239
need for speed. The hawks found the shepherd's kitchen door unlocked.
652
00:43:11.880 --> 00:43:15.159
It faced Lake Road, a two lane highway along the lake.
653
00:43:16.039 --> 00:43:18.679
Just inside the hallway to the right was the den.
654
00:43:19.880 --> 00:43:22.440
Sam was leaning back on a red leather swivel chair,
655
00:43:22.480 --> 00:43:26.239
holding his neck. Sam Sam, what happened? The mayor wanted
656
00:43:26.239 --> 00:43:30.639
to know. Sam was bare chested, his pants soaked, and
657
00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:33.920
moaning softly, his surgeon's fingers laced like a sling at
658
00:43:33.960 --> 00:43:37.800
the base of his skull. Pull yourself together, Sam, Spen ordered.
659
00:43:37.840 --> 00:43:41.280
What happened. He mumbled that he was asleep on the
660
00:43:41.360 --> 00:43:44.599
couch in the living room and heard Marilyn cry sam
661
00:43:44.840 --> 00:43:47.920
and ran up the stairs to help, and then somebody
662
00:43:47.960 --> 00:43:52.239
clobbered me, he said esther had gone right upstairs. In
663
00:43:52.320 --> 00:43:56.280
the northwest bedroom were twin beds. The far bed was empty,
664
00:43:56.360 --> 00:43:59.599
its quilt it covers neatly turned down, as if waiting
665
00:43:59.639 --> 00:44:02.800
for some one to quietly slide underneath. A spray of
666
00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:07.039
blood flecked the covers and the pillow a few feet away.
667
00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:10.440
On the bed closer to the door, Marilyn's body lay
668
00:44:10.480 --> 00:44:13.159
face up, her legs hung over the foot of the bed,
669
00:44:13.679 --> 00:44:16.679
bent at the knees, her feet dangling a few inches
670
00:44:16.719 --> 00:44:20.559
above the rug. It was an odd position. Her legs
671
00:44:20.559 --> 00:44:23.719
were under a wooden bar that ran from post to
672
00:44:23.840 --> 00:44:26.639
post across the foot of the bed. It looked as
673
00:44:26.679 --> 00:44:29.320
if someone had pulled her legs under the bar, pinning
674
00:44:29.360 --> 00:44:32.760
her like a giant specimen. Her body was outlined by
675
00:44:32.840 --> 00:44:37.400
blood the huge crimson aura. Her face was turned slightly
676
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:40.000
toward the door, as if she'd been expecting someone to
677
00:44:40.039 --> 00:44:45.760
walk in, and coated with stringy, plodding blood. She was unrecognizable.
678
00:44:46.440 --> 00:44:51.920
About two dozen deep ugly crescent shaped gashes marked her face, forehead,
679
00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:55.480
and scalp. Her three buttoned pajama top was pushed up
680
00:44:55.480 --> 00:44:58.880
to her neck, bearing her breasts. A blanket draped her
681
00:44:58.920 --> 00:45:02.800
middle underneath. Her flimsy pajama bottoms had been removed from
682
00:45:02.800 --> 00:45:05.159
one leg and were bunched below the knee of her
683
00:45:05.199 --> 00:45:10.320
other leg, exposing her pubis. Esther, howk steeled herself and
684
00:45:10.400 --> 00:45:15.079
checked Marylyn for a pulse. Nothing. She ran back downstairs
685
00:45:15.159 --> 00:45:17.840
and yelled to her husband, Call the police, Call the ambulance,
686
00:45:17.880 --> 00:45:21.400
call everybody. Esther poured a glass of whiskey in a
687
00:45:21.480 --> 00:45:24.280
kitchen glass and carried it to Sam. You need this
688
00:45:25.239 --> 00:45:28.119
now now, he said, I can't think. I've got to think.
689
00:45:28.920 --> 00:45:32.719
Then he asked about Chip. Was he okay. Esther went
690
00:45:32.800 --> 00:45:36.440
upstairs to check the boy's bedroom door was open. He
691
00:45:36.599 --> 00:45:40.360
was sleeping curled on its right side. From the distance,
692
00:45:40.519 --> 00:45:44.440
sirens wailed, grew louder and louder, then abruptly shut down.
693
00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:49.440
At five fifty seven, a m Bay village policeman, Fred Drinken,
694
00:45:49.679 --> 00:45:52.159
took a radio call that help was needed at two
695
00:45:52.159 --> 00:45:55.159
eight nine two four Lake Road, the home of doctor
696
00:45:55.199 --> 00:45:58.599
Sam Shepard, a friend within a few minutes he was
697
00:45:58.679 --> 00:46:01.840
inside the house. On the hallway floor, he saw a
698
00:46:01.880 --> 00:46:06.079
black leather medical valise opened wide, standing on end, Its
699
00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:09.239
vials and prescription pads spilled out on the wood floor.
700
00:46:10.199 --> 00:46:13.639
Draken found Sam in his den. On the shelves behind
701
00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:17.559
him were two shot guns, two small air rifles, Sam's
702
00:46:17.559 --> 00:46:21.800
beloved record player, and a row of medical textbooks. Two
703
00:46:21.800 --> 00:46:25.280
trophies lay on the floor broken, one of Sam's treasured
704
00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:30.599
high school track trophies and Maryland's bowling trophy. Draken wanted
705
00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:33.880
to know what had happened, and Sam gave him more details.
706
00:46:34.480 --> 00:46:37.840
He woke up, heard his wife shout his name, then
707
00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:41.400
ran upstairs. On the way up, he saw a large
708
00:46:41.440 --> 00:46:44.679
form wearing a white top in their summer bedroom. When
709
00:46:44.679 --> 00:46:46.920
he reached the top of the stairs, or just inside
710
00:46:46.960 --> 00:46:49.719
the bedroom, he was struck from behind and knocked out.
711
00:46:50.559 --> 00:46:54.360
After he came to, he heard a noise downstairs, ran down,
712
00:46:54.800 --> 00:46:58.079
saw something in the dark, A large, dark figure, probably
713
00:46:58.079 --> 00:47:01.760
a man, outlined against the living room windows facing the lake.
714
00:47:02.599 --> 00:47:05.239
He chased him out of the house, thundering down the
715
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:08.119
long flight of wooden steps, caught the figure on the sand,
716
00:47:08.519 --> 00:47:11.760
grappled with him and was knocked out once again. When
717
00:47:11.760 --> 00:47:14.679
he woke up, he was faced down at the water's edge,
718
00:47:14.960 --> 00:47:17.800
his lower half in the water, his head toward the bluff.
719
00:47:18.440 --> 00:47:22.840
Dawn was breaking. Fred Drnken, twenty six, with only three
720
00:47:22.920 --> 00:47:26.639
years of police experience, didn't know what to think. It
721
00:47:26.760 --> 00:47:29.360
was a puzzling story. But if Sam had been knocked
722
00:47:29.400 --> 00:47:33.039
out twice, he would be disoriented and perhaps give an
723
00:47:33.039 --> 00:47:37.719
odd account. Mostly, Dranken enforced traffic laws in a suburb
724
00:47:37.800 --> 00:47:40.519
that was essentially a long, narrow strip of beachfront and
725
00:47:40.679 --> 00:47:44.519
nice haumes bisected by a two lane highway lake road
726
00:47:44.840 --> 00:47:48.679
that connected Cleveland and Toledo. His part time partner this
727
00:47:48.719 --> 00:47:52.239
weekend had never even received training, just pulled on a
728
00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:55.079
blue uniform a year earlier and became one of the
729
00:47:55.119 --> 00:48:00.320
city's cops. Dranken had investigated break ins, but never ahmice side.
730
00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:03.639
As the first policeman on the scene of what would
731
00:48:03.679 --> 00:48:07.480
rapidly metamorphose into a world famous murder case, Dranken would
732
00:48:07.519 --> 00:48:11.360
soon find his life turned upside down. That was an
733
00:48:11.400 --> 00:48:14.920
excerpt from James Neff's book The Wrong Man. You can
734
00:48:14.960 --> 00:48:17.559
find a link to the book itself in the show notes.
735
00:48:19.519 --> 00:48:22.880
Shepherd was never able to describe the bushy haired figure
736
00:48:23.119 --> 00:48:26.079
very clearly that he says he saw, nor even tell
737
00:48:26.079 --> 00:48:28.320
if it was a man or a woman, in at
738
00:48:28.400 --> 00:48:31.559
least one case, describing the person simply as a biped
739
00:48:32.440 --> 00:48:35.840
Shepherd attributed his hazy memory to having been twice knocked Out.
740
00:48:36.599 --> 00:48:40.880
Of course, authorities found his story fishy, as did the media.
741
00:48:41.719 --> 00:48:45.079
Ohio news outlets seized upon the case, with numerous papers
742
00:48:45.159 --> 00:48:49.280
casting a harsh and accusatory light upon Sam Shepherd. One
743
00:48:49.320 --> 00:48:51.920
front page article from a July thirtieth edition of the
744
00:48:51.920 --> 00:48:57.599
Cleveland Press shouted, why isn't Sam Shepherd in jail? Shepard
745
00:48:57.639 --> 00:49:00.920
was eventually arrested for the murder of his wife. The
746
00:49:00.920 --> 00:49:04.559
trial began on October eighteenth, nineteen fifty four, and was
747
00:49:04.559 --> 00:49:08.280
among the most reported upon in American history, rivaling the
748
00:49:08.360 --> 00:49:13.880
Lindberg kidnapping trial. Throughout the media continued its tactics, fanning
749
00:49:13.920 --> 00:49:17.920
the flames of Shepherd's presumed guilt. On December twenty first,
750
00:49:18.079 --> 00:49:21.519
nineteen fifty four, Shepherd was found guilty of the second
751
00:49:21.519 --> 00:49:25.280
degree murder of his wife. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
752
00:49:25.880 --> 00:49:28.440
A string of family deaths followed in the wake of
753
00:49:28.480 --> 00:49:33.039
the trial. On January seventh, nineteen fifty five, Shepherd's mother
754
00:49:33.239 --> 00:49:37.400
committed suicide. Then eleven days later, Shepherd's father died of
755
00:49:37.440 --> 00:49:41.400
a bleeding gastric ulcer and stomach cancer. In February of
756
00:49:41.480 --> 00:49:45.639
nineteen sixty three, Shepherd's father in law would also commit suicide.
757
00:49:46.599 --> 00:49:49.679
While Shepard remained in prison, his legal team fought the
758
00:49:49.760 --> 00:49:53.719
nineteen fifty four ruling. The appeals process advanced to the
759
00:49:53.760 --> 00:49:58.239
Supreme Court. On June sixth, nineteen sixty six, the court
760
00:49:58.360 --> 00:50:02.559
struck down the murder conviction by an eight to one vote. Ultimately,
761
00:50:02.599 --> 00:50:05.719
the Supreme Court ruled that the media had created a
762
00:50:05.760 --> 00:50:10.880
carnival atmosphere of inherently prejudicial publicity around the trial, and
763
00:50:10.920 --> 00:50:13.800
that the judge had failed to control disruptive influences in
764
00:50:13.840 --> 00:50:17.239
the courtroom. Sam Shepherd, who had been found guilty of
765
00:50:17.280 --> 00:50:20.000
his wife's murder in his first trial in nineteen fifty four,
766
00:50:20.760 --> 00:50:25.719
was finally free in nineteen sixty six. Following his release,
767
00:50:25.800 --> 00:50:28.559
Shepherd appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show, co
768
00:50:28.760 --> 00:50:31.239
wrote a book about his trial and his time in prison,
769
00:50:31.719 --> 00:50:34.800
and embarked upon a wrestling career under the name Killer
770
00:50:34.880 --> 00:50:38.960
Sam Shepard. During his brief stint as a wrestler. He
771
00:50:39.079 --> 00:50:41.880
used his knowledge as a doctor to develop a submission
772
00:50:41.880 --> 00:50:45.800
hold called the mandible claw, which would later be popularized
773
00:50:45.800 --> 00:50:50.440
by Mick Foley while wrestling under the name Mankind. Shepherd
774
00:50:50.519 --> 00:50:53.639
died in nineteen seventy of what was initially thought to
775
00:50:53.679 --> 00:50:57.840
be liver failure but was later found to be Wernick's encephalopathy.
776
00:50:58.719 --> 00:51:02.079
The debate about whether or not Sam Shepard killed his wife,
777
00:51:02.159 --> 00:51:06.679
though didn't die with him. Three decades after his death,
778
00:51:07.119 --> 00:51:11.280
Sam Shepherd's son, Sam Rhys Sheppard, helped to bring a
779
00:51:11.320 --> 00:51:16.400
civil suit alleging wrongful imprisonment of his father. DNA evidence
780
00:51:16.440 --> 00:51:18.760
that had come to light only a few years earlier
781
00:51:19.119 --> 00:51:22.079
played a major role in the trial, during which time
782
00:51:22.159 --> 00:51:26.480
the plaintiffs attorney argued that Richard Eberling, a local handyman
783
00:51:26.519 --> 00:51:29.199
who had worked as a window washer at the Shepherd house,
784
00:51:29.599 --> 00:51:33.239
was the one responsible for the murder. According to the argument,
785
00:51:33.280 --> 00:51:36.480
the DNA, which included bloodstains from a third person who
786
00:51:36.519 --> 00:51:39.559
was neither Sam Shepard nor his wife, showed that Sam
787
00:51:39.599 --> 00:51:43.679
Shepard was innocent and indicating that Eberlin had killed Marilyn
788
00:51:43.679 --> 00:51:48.000
Sheppard in nineteen fifty four. At the time Eberling was
789
00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:50.360
serving a life sentence for the murder of ethel May
790
00:51:50.440 --> 00:51:54.320
Durkin in nineteen eighty four. Over the years, several other
791
00:51:54.400 --> 00:51:59.519
women had also died under mysterious circumstances in proximity to Eberling.
792
00:52:00.159 --> 00:52:03.000
At the nineteen fifty nine, while Eberlin was under suspicion
793
00:52:03.079 --> 00:52:05.800
for several robberies which had occurred in the area around
794
00:52:05.800 --> 00:52:09.440
Bay Village, police found rings that had belonged to Marilyn
795
00:52:09.519 --> 00:52:15.039
Shephard in his possession. However, Eberling maintained his innocence in
796
00:52:15.079 --> 00:52:18.559
the Shepherd case, claiming he had stolen the rings several
797
00:52:18.679 --> 00:52:21.400
years after the murder from a box in the house
798
00:52:21.400 --> 00:52:24.840
of Sam Shepherd's brother. At the time of the retrial
799
00:52:24.880 --> 00:52:28.000
in nineteen sixty six, Eberling was dismissed as a suspect
800
00:52:28.360 --> 00:52:31.719
because he passed a polygraph test, though later experts have
801
00:52:31.760 --> 00:52:35.880
called that test's findings into question. To this day, there
802
00:52:35.920 --> 00:52:39.039
are individuals who believe that Sam Sheppard was the one
803
00:52:39.039 --> 00:52:42.119
who killed his wife, while many others believed just as
804
00:52:42.199 --> 00:52:45.440
vehemently that he was wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he
805
00:52:45.519 --> 00:52:49.760
didn't commit. While the media circus surrounding the Shepherd trial
806
00:52:49.840 --> 00:52:53.400
has since been eclipsed by high profile murder cases such
807
00:52:53.440 --> 00:52:56.039
as the O. J. Simpson trial in nineteen ninety five.
808
00:52:56.679 --> 00:53:00.159
There is still no shortage of mystery surrounding Merrill and
809
00:53:00.239 --> 00:53:12.079
Shepherd's end on that fateful July night. Thanks for listening.
810
00:53:12.199 --> 00:53:14.199
If you like the show, please share it with someone
811
00:53:14.239 --> 00:53:18.599
you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters,
812
00:53:18.679 --> 00:53:22.400
or unsolved mysteries like you do. All stories on Weird
813
00:53:22.440 --> 00:53:26.000
Darkness aren't purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and
814
00:53:26.079 --> 00:53:28.320
you can find links to the stories or the authors
815
00:53:28.360 --> 00:53:31.559
in the show notes. Hell Came to Bath, Michigan was
816
00:53:31.599 --> 00:53:34.559
written by Troy Taylor and Renee Cruz from the book
817
00:53:34.679 --> 00:53:38.360
A Pale Horse Was Death. The Mystery of Lost Roanoke
818
00:53:38.480 --> 00:53:41.480
Finally Solved was written by Kara Goldfarb for All That's
819
00:53:41.519 --> 00:53:45.360
Interesting and Sam Sheppard. The Wrong Man was written by
820
00:53:45.480 --> 00:53:48.159
Orin Gray for the Lineup, with an excerpt from the
821
00:53:48.159 --> 00:53:50.920
book The Wrong Man by James Neff also used in
822
00:53:50.960 --> 00:53:56.519
the story. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark copyright Weird Darkness.
823
00:53:57.159 --> 00:53:59.199
And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll
824
00:53:59.280 --> 00:54:02.760
leave you with a little light Matthew four Verse four.
825
00:54:03.519 --> 00:54:06.840
Jesus answered, it is written man does not live on
826
00:54:06.920 --> 00:54:09.599
bread alone, but on every word that comes from the
827
00:54:09.639 --> 00:54:14.840
mouth of God. And a final thought, don't focus on regrets.
828
00:54:15.360 --> 00:54:20.079
Find your inspiration in what you can do now. Catherine Pulsiver,
829
00:54:21.519 --> 00:54:25.400
I'm Darren Marler. Thanks for joining me in the weird
830
00:54:25.519 --> 00:54:26.000
darkness