Watching People Burn
Chapter 9: The World Comes to Bath
EXT. BATH TOWNSHIP ROAD – MORNING
The street is literally bumper-to-bumper. Cars honk.
ON-SCREEN TITLES
22 May 1927
Four Days After
The camera pans, showing cars stretching to the horizon.
EXT. BATH TOWNSHIP CEMETARY – DAY
A minister is leading a sermon for a couple laying a child to rest. Various friends and family are in attendance, including Dr. Crum and his wife, as well as a huge number of visitors, who have come to share their respects for a stranger.
Elsewhere in the cemetery, we see several other such funerals ongoing.
The nearby streets are filled with cars, somewhat disturbing the services.
MINISTER
I know that we are all asking how God could let a thing like this happen. But God did not do this. An evil man, whose name does not deserve our mention here, did this. We can only thank God that it was not worse. And indeed, we saw miracles on that day. The failure of the second bomb. The low attendance. And such profound kindness, not only from our neighbors but from across the state. People, friends and strangers, offering whatever they could. Even our governor took bricks from the rubble. But let us not forget the sign of the cross, formed miraculously from boards, dangling over the wreckage, a reassurance that He is with us, even in this unspeakable horror. Let us pray. Lo, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil…
EXT. BATH TOWNSHIP CEMETARY – DAY – LATER
Dr. Crum and his wife walk to their car.
MRS. CRUM
I thought it was a nice service.
J. A. CRUM
It was offensive. All this talk about providence. You and I know what nonsense that is. Ever since the war.
MRS. CRUM
I didn’t say it was true.
J. A. CRUM
I was thinking about those boys, in the war. Not that much older than the victims at the school. And they were torn up just as bad… ground up in trenches and in swamps, by commanders who didn’t even know what the conditions were like.
MRS. CRUM
I remember.
J. A. CRUM
You see too many of their eyes go dim, no fire behind them at all, and you know there is no God. These people…
MRS. CRUM
I know. You don’t have to tell me.
J. A. CRUM
I’m sorry. It just angers me. That business with the cross in the wreckage. Anytime you blow something up, you’re going to get a plank or a beam or something straight that happens to cross something else that’s straight. It’s so infuriating. You don’t see God carving other religious messages into things. The debris doesn’t fall in the shape of a prayer from Psalms. Now that would be a miracle.
Dr. Crum and his wife get into their car.
INT. CRUM CAR – CONTINUOUS
Dr. Crum and his wife pause a moment to finish the conversation, before starting the car.
MRS. CRUM
What are you angry about?
J. A. CRUM
Nothing. All of it. That it happened. That they’d lie to themselves about it.
MRS. CRUM
Let them have their consolation, if it helps. Let them see their miracles. What does it matter?
J. A. CRUM
It doesn’t.
MRS. CRUM
You know they’d say you’re angry at God. But I know you’re just angry at yourself.
J. A. CRUM
For what?
MRS. CRUM
You did the best you could.
J. A. CRUM
I know. I know that.
MRS. CRUM
The world’s not a good place. We know that. Let children be children and believe that it is.
J. A. CRUM
Yeah. Now we have to get through all this traffic.
Dr. Crum starts the car.
INT. BATH GENERAL STORE
The store is crowded with visitors from out of town, buying newspapers and items of all sorts. All the headlines are still about the disaster.
Mr. MacDonald walks in.
STORE OWNER
Mr. MacDonald. How are you holding up?
MR. MACDONALD
Like Hell. It’s the wife I’m worried about. She hasn’t been out of bed in three days, except for the funeral. Thank God we did that yesterday, before the rabble came to town.
STORE OWNER
Oh, don’t knock them, Mr. MacDonald. They’re mostly just expressing their grief. They’d have come sooner, except it’s Saturday, so they’re all off from work. I can’t tell you how many have cried about it, just talking to me.
MR. MACDONALD
What do they know of grief?
STORE OWNER
I’m sorry, Mr. MacDonald. I don’t pretend to understand what you’re experiencing.
MR. MACDONALD
Well, it’s madness out there. There must be ten thousand cars in our little town. Ten thousand cars!
STORE OWNER
They’re guessing there’ll be a hundred thousand, over the whole day.
MR. MACDONALD
Took me forever and a day to get here. Still, it’s not bad for business, eh?
STORE OWNER
You know who’s really making money? The flower shop.
(sees that Mr. MacDonald is upset)
Were you looking for anything in particular?
MR. MACDONALD
I was actually looking for a newspaper. Is it true about the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan?
STORE OWNER
Yeah, they said Kehoe did it on account of he was Catholic. And he thought the school was a godless, Protestant school.
MR. MACDONALD
Do you think it’s true?
STORE OWNER
I doubt it. But I’ve been wrong before. Who knows what the Hell Kehoe thought?
MR. MACDONALD
Well, he’s in Hell now, thank God. Anyways, I want one of those papers, with the Klan story. Give me something to do, reading that.
The store owner takes down one of the relevant papers and hands it to Mr. MacDonald.
STORE OWNER
Here you go. On the house.
MR. MACDONALD
Truth is, I really just wanted to get out of the house. Probably better to have stayed there, though, all this traffic.
STORE OWNER
I understand perfectly, Mr. MacDonald.
MR. MACDONALD
Well, thanks.
Mr. Macdonald exits awkwardly, as if trying to think of a reason to stay.
EXT. BATH CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL – DAY
The streets are filled to choking with cars, and people cover almost every inch of soil.
A view from the northwest. (From Monty Ellsworth’s 1928 The Bath School Disaster.)
A rear view of the Bath Consolidated School after the bombing. (From Monty Ellsworth’s 1928 The Bath School Disaster.)
Mourners toss wreaths and flowers on a giant pile, in front of the school.
A group of three tourists gather, around other tourists, at the collapsed area. One points upwards, at a cloakroom, visible through a destroyed interior wall. Inside the cloakroom, children’s coats are still hanging, undisturbed. An apple, also undisturbed, sits on the cloakroom’s top shelf.
TOURIST #1
(pointing upwards)
Look, the cloakroom. You can sill see the little coats, where the children hung them. They’re still there.
TOURIST #2
A lot of those same children must have been killed. We’re looking at the coats left by dead children.
TOURIST #3
It’s awful. Just awful.
TOURIST #1
Look, there’s even an apple in there, on the shelf, undisturbed by the blast.
TOURIST #3
Eerie.
A separate group of two tourists point out the intact windows, in an intact section of standing brick, amidst all the
rubble.
Another rear view of the Bath Consolidated School after the bombing. (From The Toledo Blade.)
TOURIST #4
See those windows? Why didn’t they shatter, but windows broke for blocks away?
TOURIST #5
Explosions are like that. You can never tell.
EXT. ELLSWORTH FARMHOUSE – DAY
Monty Ellsworth stands on his property, looking out at the throngs of thousands that have invaded the Kehoe farm, some of which spill onto his property. The streets are clogged with cars.
A reporter with a cameraman walks over to Ellsworth.
REPORTER
I’m sorry to bother you, sir. You were Mr. Kehoe’s neighbor, I take it?
MONTY ELLSWORTH
I don’t want to talk to anyone.
REPORTER
But surely, you must have some stories. What was he like?
MONTY ELLSWORTH
Please, it’s bad enough you people are on my property.
REPORTER
I can pay you, if you have something you haven’t told anyone else. It might ease your grief.
INT. ELLSWORTH FARMHOUSE – AFTERNOON
Monty Ellsworth sits with the reporter and the photographer. Mrs. Ellsworth serves coffee and keeps the children out of the way.
MONTY ELLSWORTH
I could see both rows of his teeth, all white and grinning.
REPORTER
This is some really great material, Mr. Ellsworth, and you tell a story very well.
MONTY ELLSWORTH
Thank you.
REPORTER
In fact, I don’t have room to print it all. Have you thought about writing a book?
MONTY ELLSWORTH
I don’t know. I’m not a writer.
REPORTER
But you were an eyewitness to Andrew Kehoe, as his neighbor. And you were there at the school.
MONTY ELLSWORTH
I can’t imagine…
REPORTER
Look out there, Mr. Ellsworth. There are hundreds of thousands of people here, all because they’re moved by this… this disaster. And only you have the whole story, as Andrew Kehoe’s neighbor.
MONTY ELLSWORTH
I don’t know.
REPORTER
I hate to say it, but you’d better strike while the iron is hot. Not to be crass, Mr. Ellsworth, but this story won’t be popular forever.
Chapter 10: And Under Lindbergh, the World Keeps Spinning
EXT. BATH GENERAL STORE – MORNING
The traffic is a pale imitation of the day before.
ON-SCREEN TITLES
23 May 1927
Five Days After
Mr. MacDonald pulls up and goes inside.
INT. BATH GENERAL STORE – CONTINUOUS
The store, picked over from the day before, has far fewer customers. The store owner greets Mr. MacDonald.
STORE OWNER
Well, you got your wish.
MR. MACDONALD
About the traffic? Yes, thank God. You think they got bored with little Bath?
STORE OWNER
You haven’t heard?
MR. MACDONALD
Heard what? What are you talking about?
STORE OWNER
We’re finally off the front pages.
The store owner shows Mr. MacDonald the newspapers, all of which are shouting about Charles Lindbergh having completed the first solo transatlantic flight.
MR. MACDONALD
Lindbergh did it!
STORE OWNER
Yeah, and to make matters worse, he’s from Michigan. Most of the traffic today’s probably from out of state.
MR. MACDONALD
Let me get a copy of this.
INT. TOWNSHIP HALL – DAY
A crowd is gathered as the coroner’s inquest is about to get underway. The Clinton County Prosecutor oversees the proceedings, while the investigative jury that the coroner swore in (at the school, after the bombing) sits as the jury.
ON-SCREEN TITLES
The Week After
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
I hereby convene the coroner’s inquest into the events of the 18th of this month. As prosecutor for Clinton County, I will oversee the proceedings. I want to emphasize, at the outset, that Andrew Kehoe’s guilt is not in dispute. What we wish to determine includes the following… Did he act alone? And was the school board or its employees guilty of criminal negligence in allowing Andrew Kehoe to plant his bombs?
INT. TOWNSHIP HALL – DAY – LATER
The local police chief is testifying, with a large audience in the room.
POLICE CHIEF
We pulled about 600 pounds of explosives from under the south wing of the school.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
And were you able to determine why they didn’t explode?
POLICE CHIEF
No. The timer was set for 9:45 am, the time of the other blast. Presumably, it was the same sort of timer as the other bomb, which worked.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
Do you have any speculation?
POLICE CHIEF
We think that the other explosives detonated a couple seconds earlier, and the force of the explosion… it may have caused a short in the other bomb’s wiring.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
Could Kehoe have simply miswired the bomb?
POLICE CHIEF
It’s possible. But he was known as an expert electrician.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
Could the mechanism have been faulty in some way?
POLICE CHIEF
Again, sir, it’s possible. But given that the other bomb exploded, the simplest explanation is that the other bomb somehow upset the delicate wiring. That they weren’t perfectly in synch.
A family sits in the audience, consisting of a mother, a father, and their young son between them.
AUDIENCE MOTHER
(to her husband)
We know why the other bomb didn’t go off.
She pays attention to her young son, who we see has some bruises and small cuts, presumably from being in the school.
INT. TOWNSHIP HALL – DAY – LATER
Monty Ellsworth is testifying. His family is in the audience.
MONTY ELLSWORTH
He was a highly intelligent man, but he could be impatient, if you disagreed with him.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
Was he an angry man?
MONTY ELLSWORTH
Normally, he was nice as could be. But he had a temper. And he was cruel with the animals. I once saw him beat a horse to death.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
Did you know the bank had started foreclosure proceedings against his farm?
MONTY ELLSWORTH
No, but it doesn’t surprise me.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
Why is that?
MONTY ELLSWORTH
He was an odd sort of farmer. He never farmed it as other farmers do, and he tried to do everything with his tractor. He was in the height of his glory when fixing machinery or tinkering. He was always trying new methods in his work. For instance, hitching two mowers behind his tractor. This method did not work at different times, and he would just leave the hay standing. He also put four sections of drag and two rollers at once behind his tractor. He spent so much time tinkering that he didn’t prosper.
INT. TOWNSHIP HALL – DAY – LATER
The school board leader is testifying, again with an audience.
SCHOOL BOARD LEADER
He was always going on about those property taxes. That and superintendent Huyck, God rest his soul.
INT. TOWNSHIP HALL – DAY – LATER
School bus driver Warden Keyes is testifying, again with an audience.
WARDEN KEYES
He said, “My boy, you want to take good care of that check as it is probably the last check you will ever get.” I thought I was going to be fired. I’m sorry… I never thou
ght…
INT. TOWNSHIP HALL – DAY – LATER
Teacher Bernice Sterling is testifying, again with an audience.
BERNICE STERLING
He said, if I wanted a picnic, I had better have it at once.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
And what did you think of that remark?
BERNICE STERLING
I didn’t know what to make of it. But it’s like so many remarks… you put them out of your mind and get on with the business of the day. Only later do you think…
INT. TOWNSHIP HALL – DAY – LATER
A crowd is gathered to hear the inquest’s final ruling. A town leader, standing with the jury, delivers the jury’s conclusions.
ON-SCREEN TITLES
Two Weeks After
TOWN LEADER #1
We find that Andrew Kehoe acted alone, without the aid of conspirators. We find that he murdered 43 people, including his wife Ellen. In the manner of his own death, we rule that it was suicide, bringing the total dead to 44. We have not endeavored to count the injured, which surely exceeds that number.
CLINTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR
And in the matter of criminal negligence?
TOWN LEADER #1
We find that Andrew Kehoe conducted himself sanely and concealed his operations so that there was no cause to suspect any of his actions. And we further find that the school board and Frank Smith, the school’s janitor, were not guilty of any negligence in not discovering Kehoe’s plan.
INT. NELLIE’S AUNT’S HOUSE – DAY
Nellie’s aunt, now very old, sits talking on the phone.
NELLIE’S AUNT
Yes, I’d like to arrange to transport someone for burial.
INT. CORONER’S OFFICE – CONTINUOUS
The town coroner is on the phone.
CORONER
What’s the name of the deceased?
INT. NELLIE’S AUNT’S HOUSE – CONTINUOUS
NELLIE’S AUNT
Ellen Price.
INT. CORONER’S OFFICE – CONTINUOUS
The town coroner checks his records.
CORONER
I’m sorry. We don’t have anyone by that name.
INT. NELLIE’S AUNT’S HOUSE – CONTINUOUS
NELLIE’S AUNT
You may have her under her married name.
INT. CORONER’S OFFICE – CONTINUOUS
The town coroner realizes who’s being talked about.
CORONER
Oh, yes, right. Of course. And may I ask who you are?
INT. NELLIE’S AUNT’S HOUSE – CONTINUOUS
NELLIE’S AUNT