Poe Elementary School bombing

On the morning of September 15, 1959, Paul Harold Orgeron, a 47-year-old tile-setter and ex-convict, attempted to enroll his seven-year-old son, Dusty Paul, in second grade at Edgar Allan Poe Elementary School in the Boulevard Oaks area of Houston, Texas. School staff denied the enrollment because Orgeron lacked birth and health certificates for the boy. He left, telling staff he would return with the documents the next day.

Minutes later, around 10:00 a.m., Orgeron and his son approached teacher Patricia Johnston on the playground as she gathered her second-grade class. Carrying a brown suitcase, Orgeron handed her two illegible handwritten notes and spoke about "having power in a suitcase," the will of God, and needing to "get to the children." Johnston noticed a doorbell-style button on the suitcase and moved to get students back inside, sending two children to fetch principal R. E. Doty and custodian James Montgomery, the school's only adult male staff member. When Doty and Montgomery arrived and Doty ordered Orgeron to leave, Orgeron detonated the suitcase, which contained an estimated six sticks of dynamite.

The explosion killed six people: Orgeron; his son, Dusty Paul Orgeron, 7; teacher Jennie Katharine Kolter, 54; custodian James Arlie Montgomery, 56; and students William Sterrett Hawes Jr., 7, and John Cecil Fitch Jr., 8. Eighteen others were injured, including Doty, who suffered a broken leg, and two children who each lost a leg. Jennie Kolter was pronounced dead by her own son, William Kolter, then chief resident at Hermann Hospital.

Police found a six-inch-deep hole in the asphalt playground and recovered only small body parts of Orgeron, including a hand later used to identify him via fingerprints from prior convictions. His station wagon nearby contained additional explosives and a receipt, dated August 25, for detonators and 150 sticks of dynamite purchased in Grants, New Mexico. Authorities noted his prior safe-cracking convictions may explain his familiarity with explosives. Because officials were initially uncertain whether the bomber had died in the blast, the Texas National Guard was called out to protect other elementary schools in the area.

Deciphered notes found at the scene, written by Orgeron, warned of additional explosives set to detonate and referenced wanting to speak about God. Family members said Orgeron had recently described "finding God" despite not previously being religious.

The school reopened the next day with roughly half of students attending, with attendance increasing over following days. Houston ISD later named two new elementary schools, Kolter Elementary and Montgomery Elementary, after victims of the bombing.