David and Doris both returned to Cokeville on May 16, 1986. On May 16, 1986, David Young, Cokeville's former town marshal, and his wife, Doris, carried five rifles, five handguns and a "dead man's bomb" into the elementary school. On May 16, 1986, when former town marshal David Gary Young and his wife Doris Young took 154 children and 13 teachers hostage at Cokeville Elementary school in Wyoming, and kept them at bay with a shopping-cart sized bomb attached to five hairpin-trigger blast caps, it should have ended in great tragedy - one of the worst in American history. It was a great movie, very well directed and acted. But it didn't. There are several great resources out there. [2] Before leaving the room, David attached the bomb's detonation device to his wife's wrist. Rich Haskell: Okay, I'll buy that! All the kids were saved. Where's he running? Go to school and learn how to do it." I gathered up some of the equipment that I would need and a change of clothes and proceeded to Cokeville. Rich Haskell: The bullet in him was in the bathroom. Because in the bus, everything was solid in the school bus. Rich Haskell: I took pictures of it. It said in there that they had brought blasting caps, ammunition, those types of things in and there was a sealed briefcase that was in the hallway. I cannot explain it! [13], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}420457N 1105719W / 42.08250N 110.95528W / 42.08250; -110.95528. Seven people in the Chicago area died after ingesting Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. Now you've got problems. (Laughs) But as I was passing through Kemmerer I stayed in radio contact. I know it is real. In the movie, it shows the tension building towards the prayer and then shortly after the bomb went off. Rich Haskell: I don't think that they were planningor David was planning on the ceiling tiles in the school. And afteryou look in there and you could see little pockmarks all through on the walls, and after we finished with our investigationit took us three days to totally do the whole entire sceneyou could tell where those pockmarks were bullets from the heat had gone off. Cokeville Miracle Marking 25 Years.. Rich Haskell: Yeah. That dead-man switch is a piece of string that goes around your wrist and it's hooked into a clothespin, the other end of it. David Young had initially planned to involve longtime friends Gerald Deppe and Doyle Mendenhall, who had invested money with him in a get-rich-quick scheme that he had called "The Biggie. In addition, national reporters began arriving within hours of the explosion. Family is the most important thing in a Mormon family. So he did try that device. Witnesses later testified that just before the explosion David Young had connected the explosive to his wife. Mark Junge: Which means you had to be doing over a hundred miles an hour! Mark Junge: Do you think you were cut out to do this job? I'm proud of all my children. Others miracles were reported and some of those are recorded in this compilation.." Mark Junge: Do you think he took up thatwanted to take that up because of you? The miraculous events that followed transformed the lives of hundreds of people, including many who witnessed angels or received heavenly help from deceased ancestors. But it still sent flames all over in the room and you can see where all the flames were in that room. Whenever they would come to Wyoming I would be part of their security team. That's why I have a computer. All the hostages escaped, though 79 were hospitalized with burns and injuries. Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, Cheyenne. She's an avid genealogist, so maybe get involved with that, and maybe go on a mission for the church. This wasn't a simple bomb. Returning, David Young shot his wife, then himself. Mark Junge: You think when we talk to you to bring this up againI know you're emotional about itbut does it hurt you to talk about this? Vengeance for having been fired did not seem to have been the motive, but rather a philosophy recorded in journal entries referring to a Brave New World where he wanted to reign over intelligent children. One thing to mention is that the tension in real life seemed much more present at first, and then once prayers were said the mood really lifted. A Project of the Wyoming Historical Society. who wins student body president riverdale. [7] The mechanism was triggered by a dead man's switch, consisting of a wooden piece separating two metal connectors within the jaws of a clothespin, forming an incomplete circuit. it is VERY LDS, and yet there are at least 3 other churches in town: Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist (and sometimes a non-denominational church). While David and Doris Young were not involved in an organized religion, both were deeply spiritual. On May 16, 1986, an elementary school in Cokeville, Wyoming, was held hostage by a couple with a bomb. I saw an early screening of the film and absolutely loved it. Because in the bus, everything was solid in the school bus. I was still trying to make sense of it all! Totally destroyed it! Teachers were confused and baffled by Young's nonsensical, strange writing. Rich Haskell: That's my oldest boy, Steven. Because it was sittin' low enough and the kids were low enough that it would have done it. I cannot tell you what happened. The children and adults escaped after the bomb exploded. The Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis occurred on Friday, May 16, 1986 in Cokeville, Wyoming, United States, when former town marshal David Young, 43, and his wife Doris Young, 47, [1] took 136 children and 18 adults hostage at Cokeville Elementary School. Words emphasized by the speaker are italicized.~Transcribed by Russ Sherwin, Feb. 27, 2011. There are a select number of people that would do this, so thank you. And it was a perfect trajectory up into the ceiling where that bullet was. Hey, I am not the survivor, but I spent my summers in Cokeville, my family is from there, and I have been helping on publicity for the film. Young was a former Cokeville town marshal who had been living in Arizona for several years. I think it was still in his body. I have no doubt about my friends witness testimonies - even though I saw or heard nothing such as they did. I do think the key is talking about it often and early. ITT: people who want to pick a fight with someone who survived an incredible experience. It's made me, I think, more open-minded to things and don't take so much for granted anymore. So we took the tiles off and went up into the ceiling and crawled up into the upper space up there and found a .45 slug up embedded into the iron girders up in the wall, and thought, okay, where did that come from? Rich Haskell: I was cookin' right along, yes I was! I actually hadn't thought of doing that, yet. When Deppe and Mendenhall finally got wind of his plans moments before the hostage crisis unfolded, they refused to participate. The explosion engulfed her in flames and burned many nearby children. Interview by Mark Junge. So if the state didn't pay him, he figured the Mormon church would pay him because the Mormon church has money also. I don't know ifI just felt an emptyactually I could just see a hundred-sixty people dead! The mood did not lift with the singing and teachers quickly negotiated with the hostage takers to get items from the library to help the kids get their minds off the siege,[8] and help to pass the time. As well as I can. Read more But I walked up to the window and looked inside the window and didn't hardly see anything out of the ordinary except it was all black inside. Mark Junge: We were worried, Sue and I, that people would take offence, right? And he didn't even ask me if I wanted to do that. I remember watching that when I was a younger kid, and when they were interviewing the witnesses, I remember several of them referencing "Heavenly Father " instead of "God," and I knew immediately they were LDS. Many of the children who stated they saw angels were of various faiths. Sue Castaneda: Carla said that some people were mad that we were there. I walked into the bathroom and there was the suspect that had started this whole mess, layin' there on the floor with ahe had a pistol in his hand and you could tell he had shot himself in the head. Now, 28 years later, Conger and more than a dozen other survivors are reliving . Encircled it. Mark Junge: Are you one of the most experienced people in the area? Twenty-five years ago on Monday, a man and his wife pushed a homemade gasoline bomb into Cokeville's sole elementary school and demanded $300 million in ransom. Mark Junge: And your great-grandkids? Contact us at editor@wyohistory.org for information on levels and types of available sponsorships. Mark Junge: In fact, didn't you say you burned up your engine? The first chapter is titled A Town of Trust.. All the hostages escaped, though 79 were later hospitalized with burns and injuries, the majority of which were severe.[3][2]. She fled the building and drove the Youngs vanwith Deppe and Mendenhall still insideto the town hall, where she reported her fathers plan. So I went to Huntsville, Ala., to Redstone Arsenal. Okay? By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. I'm currently the Sheriff of Sweetwater County. You'd had experience? They forget about what happened in Cokeville with a lot more people and the potential of what was there. You have to think about what you're doing right at that particular time so you can stay focused on what you have to deal with. This all happened about 8 months after the bombing. Mark Junge: You had some bullets in the ceiling that you had to investigate, too. Rich Haskell: Not really that often, but every time I think about it I get very emotional. He had been aware of above-average achievement scores from Cokeville's education system. I didn't touch the body at all. They did a good job telling this story. The bomb did detonate and fire, thick black smoke and toxi fumes filled the room. and detonated a bomb inside. Have you seen the Unsolved Mysteries episode that had a segment on this? He knew it was a predominantly Mormon [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] community. Mark Junge: One of the things that Sue and I found out is that people don't regret doing this because they think it's important for history. She is a trained rural historian who specializes in oral history, childhood history and memory studies. Rich Haskell: I think it could be a spiritual experience that I have with church, or being around the kids, I don't know. I just stayed right there and we processed the scene and did the scene. 154 of us were held hostage for almost 3 hours in a 30x32 room when the bomb actually detonated - all 154 hostages survived. And he had to defuse bombs. The Cokeville hostage crisis began the afternoon of May 16, 1986, when David and Doris Young took 154 children and adults hostage at the Cokeville Elementary School in tiny Cokeville, Wyo. She was totally burned. "If you can see the bomb, the bomb can see you," an officer shouted. Mark Junge: And the explosion went straight up? And knew what they could do? May 12, 2011, 2:30am PDT. Peterson, Carol. Do you ever think about them? We figured that he had dropped down on his knee, took his pistol and shot her to put her out of her misery, because when we went out and looked at her, there was a hole up through the bottom of her chin, and it came out the top of her head. I contacted my sheriff, and that was Jim Stark at the time, and he said, "Definitely! You just do whatever you have to do and get up there." I remember seeing the wide eyes on my band teacher as he collapsed with the EMTs afterward. Go to their hands and knees and crawl out. Accessed May 28, 2013 at. In 1986, 154 children and teachers survived the bombing of Cokeville Elementary School. TC is one of my heroes. They attempted to crowd 154 people into one of the two first grade classrooms, a room with a total capacity of 30 students and a teacher. Rich Haskell: Well, I did learn later that the kids saw the angels. Well, with the window being open, with the ceiling tiles being able to lift up and down, I think that absorbed a lot of the explosion of the gasoline bottle. When I looked up to see if David had heard me (which he had, and scowled down at me) I noticed that the florescent white light overhead was not white, but a yellow hazy light. I did open that briefcase remotely like I was taught in school to do. The Cokeville Elementary School was the site of a horrific hostage situation on May 16, 1986 when David and Dorris Young took a homemade bomb inside the school. Angelic Intervention save all 153 in bomb blast - Cokeville Wyoming - Unexplained Mysteries - Angels Brain Boyle 2.05K subscribers Subscribe 928 158K views 11 years ago All 153 Children &. 10 Years Later, Cokeville Just Says: Let Us Be., Pierce, Scott D. Save the Children is Shallow, Exploitative: Focus is on Wacko Bomber Instead of 167 Cokeville Students and Teachers., Troone, Trent. We're in a conference room here on the main floor. Rich Haskell: It's a combustible. He was dismissed, however, from this position shortly after his six-month probationary period. Then when I became a deputy, Sheriff Stark says, "You know, we're going to start finding a bunch of old explosives, dynamite and things. Rich Haskell: Well, by none of the kids bein' hurt that was supposed to be hurt. Mark Junge: No? The incident was detailed in the book The Cokeville Miracle: When Angels Intervene[12] by Hartt Wixom and his wife Judene, published by Cedar Fort, Inc., which formed the basis for a CBS made-for-TV movie titled To Save the Children. We didn't know if the blasting caps were in therejust exactly what was in there. He was asking large amounts of money. The kids couldn't have cut it. David had also sent a copy of the manifesto to Reagan. Two Powell residents, Lenita Moore (a science teacher at Powell High School) and John Miller (a longtime choir director at Powell High School who retired in 2020), remember being in Cokeville during the bombing. Everybody that was inside that room, they just started throwin' them out the windows, out the doors, just anyand she happened to be one they threw out the window. As I got closer to it I could tell it was a body, and of course, you just start thinking about what took place. Rich Haskell: I am. There's a piece of wood in there that separates the jaws of a clothespin and in that clothespin there are two metal connections that the wires were hooked to which made the electrical connection with the bomb. In the classroom, David held the gasoline bomb, with the triggering mechanism attached to a string tied around his wrist. Mark Junge: Do you think you've taken more joy out of life because of it? On May 16, 1986, David and Doris Young entered Cokeville Elementary School with a gasoline bomb, a variety of rifles and handguns, David's philosophical writings and demands for $300 million WyoHistory.org welcomes the support of the following sponsors. I was later told that everybody had been taken to different hospitals, ambulance services from all over, from Utah, from Idaho, from Wyoming was transporting people all over the place and there was only two fatalities. I'd like to think so. Survivor is my Name: Voices of the Cokeville Elementary School Bombing. Produced by Wyoming State Archives for Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, the package includes interviews with 14 people about the events of May 16, 1986. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Is there a news article that I could read to get a better idea of what happened? Rich Haskell: You walk into the door, and I don't know if you got to go into the classroom, but you walk into that door and it opens up into the whole thing. Which is hard to believe, but a positive experience in that they learned something. Excerpt from the book "On This Day In Wyoming History": David young Mark Junge: Did you help bring the body out? He did deliver our salvation that day. David and Doris Young took 167 hostages (150 children, 17 adults and one unlucky UPS driver) at the elementary school. Why? Dozens. Mark Junge: And what happened? Sue Castaneda: Where did you get your training for that? Rich Haskell: There was a reason I was there for some reason. Sue Castaneda: Did you look at (unintelligible). Don't go past this square. On that Friday afternoon in their quiet, rural town, a deranged couple entered the communitys elementary school, took those inside hostage and detonated a bomb in a first grade classroom. That much I know. [4], Prior to the hostage crisis, David had tested a similar bomb in a sealed school bus in Arizona, destroying it.[5]. A compilation project by the Cokeville Miracle Foundation, a 501(c) (3) charity. The subsequent police report states that David opened the door from the connecting bathroom, shot his injured wife in the head and killed her,[9] shot and wounded John Miller, a music teacher who was trying to flee, then closed the bathroom door and killed himself with a shot from a .45 pistol to the head. He just said just go do it. the children began describing things more specifically and that is when the mom was prompted to find the photograph of their grandmother. This is actually the first time I have heard of this. He instructed Doris and Princess, by now a young adult, to handcuff them inside his van. Have you had anything like this, anything close to this happen? To my right is Sue Castaneda who is the Wyoming Oral History Project Director, and across the table from me is Rich Haskell, who is a certified bomb technician. The bomb was an improvised explosive device constructed in a small two-wheeled shopping cart with two baskets, one on top of the other. I never did get to see that untilI think it was two days lateractually what they had taken as far as the paperwork was concerned. It is a touchy topic for us, and could come across the wrong way. Everyone else survived, including the injured John Miller. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. There were plenty who opposed this from Cokeville, not a majority, maybe, but they were vocal and raw with feelings. You should also know that TC basically just wove a storyline into and between the facts and witness testimonies. Do you ever think about that? And they had practiced how to get out of that building. Because of the tiles and the window? Because of the experience and the different classes that I've attended, I know what bombs do to people, to buildings and to all kinds of structures. Mark Junge: And that's the lesson we learn. Healing will come Slowly From Within a Wounded Cokeville. I don't know how many people under the age of 35 know about the Chicago Tylenol murders, but for a few weeks in 1982, it was a national news sensation. David Young. Trauma is trauma and everyone deals with it differently. One teacher was shot when he tried to flee,. He knew what the community was all about. 1 of 7. After a stand-off lasting two and a half hours, the gasoline bomb the couple had brought into the school went off prematurely, badly burning Doris Young while David Young was out of the room. The tuna fish cans, if you can imagine, here's two tuna fish cans sittin' here like this, and a gallon jug of gasoline sittin' above it. Several other survivors were there. The detonation didn't do it, it was cut. Whether or not you believe in God or miracles, show some respect. Accessed May 17, 2013, at, Wyoming Horror: A Fiery Schoolhouse Bomb., A 1986 Hostage Event at a Cokeville, Wyoming Elementary School., Jarvik, Elaine. She has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals on the history and heritage of Germans from Russia on the Northern Plains. Mark Junge: What's been your experiences since then? Number one, that's where he worked.

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