Manic by Harold Schechter

Harold Schechter, Amazon Charts bestselling author of Hell’s Princess, unearths a nearly forgotten true crime of obsession and revenge, and one of the first—and worst—mass murders in American history.

In 1927, while the majority of the township of Bath, Michigan, was celebrating a new primary school—one of the most modern in the Midwest—Andrew P. Kehoe had other plans. The local farmer and school board treasurer was educated, respected, and an accommodating neighbor and friend. But behind his ordinary demeanor was a narcissistic sadist seething with rage, resentment, and paranoia. On May 18 he detonated a set of rigged explosives with the sole purpose of destroying the school and everyone in it. Thirty-eight children and six adults were murdered that morning, culminating in the deadliest school massacre in US history.

Maniac is Harold Schechter’s gripping, definitive, exhaustively researched chronicle of a town forced to comprehend unprecedented carnage, and the triggering of a “human time bomb” whose act of apocalyptic violence would foreshadow the terrors of the current age. 

MY REVIEW: 4.5 Stars ⭐️ 

For the love of God! This man, Andrew P. Kehoe, was a twat-ass-bastard-piece of sh*t! 



I didn’t know anything about this man until this book...or maybe I did and chemo brain fogged the history. 

This one man was the greatest mass murderer of children in American history!! Not to mention animals and adults he killed! He deserved to be quartered and set on fire but I digress. He took care of himself at any rate. 

This man would have killed more people if some of his plan didn’t go awry. Can you even imagine!! 

I felt like the author did a wonderful job of finding out as much information as he could with what was given. 

Kehoe destroyed the Bath Consolidated School and it was horrific. Everything he did was horrific and I must say there are graphic scenes in the book. 



The author also filled in other tidbits of history inside this story. 

I’m going to leave with a quote. They had a special ceremony years later and invited the 9 surviving members of the massacre. 

Fifty years after Andrew Kehoe perpetrated his unspeakable act-the greatest mass murder of children in America history-nine elderly women and men who had lived through that calamitous day walked up to the stage and received their diplomas.

Yeah, I cried!! 

*Thank you to Netgalley and Little A for a digital copy of this book. 

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾