Before Sandy Hook, there was Virginia Tech. And before it all, there was Bath Consolidated School where 42 were killed, including 38 children. This was the worst school killing ever to occur in the United States, contrary to the popular misconception that Virginia Tech was.
So, what are the worst school massacres in the United States? Here are the other top two school massacres across the nation.
A large portion of the United States has touted the Virginia Tech slay as the biggest school massacre. With 32 minors shot by student Seung Hui Cho at Blacksburg, Virginia university grounds, national papers dubbed the killing as the "worst school massacre," as per Washington Post.
Virginia Tech fatality toll is not being undermined, but the deaths in Bath Consolidated School deserves not to be forgotten in vain. The slaying in Virginia comes only second to it.
In May 1927, students at Bath Consolidated School in Michigan were having their final exam until a school board member blasted the school, leaving teachers and children injured and dead. Apparently, the angry school board member, Andrew Kehoe, dynamited the school because of his excessively large taxes.
Before he blasted the school, he killed his wife. He then blew his car with him onboard after he took the lives at Bath Consolidated School. At his home, plastered on a fence, a sign read "Criminals are made, not born."
Following the horrific ordeal in Michigan in 1927 and Virginia Tech in 2007, the Sandy Hook killings come third in terms of death. The shooting in 2012 occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children were gunned down by Adam Lanza, per CNN.
Lanza, who had a fascination over gun-shooting, possessed four contrabands. The perpetrator used two weapons in his shooting spree, a semiautomatic .223-caliber rifle and two handguns. Authorities discovered another semi-automatic shotgun in his car.
Similar to what Kehoe did 90 years ago, Lanza took the life of one of his beloved. The 20-year-old gunned down his mother before going after the Sandy Hook children. After the killings, he took his own life as well.
So, what do you think the three mass murderers have in common, aside from taking lives of innocent people? The authorities found out they have disorganized mental health. Kehoe was described to be a "madman" in a 1927 New York Times report, while Lanza and Seung had a deteriorating mental health.