President Hinkley, President Monson, and President Faust. Sue Castaneda: Where did you get your training for that? But shortly after entering the school, Princess decided to rebel. Kameron Wixom, son of Hartt and Judene Wixom, writes a childlike faith saved us. In his contribution to the Witness to Miracles book, Kameron writes: I didnt have to see angels, hear them, or even think that their presence might be required that day. Of what you would picture an angel, with the wings and, Mark Junge: Well, if I'm a skeptic, I could say, "Well, that's just the way the flames shot up.". If you are interested in seeing the film, theaters are listed here. [5][10][8], When the bomb detonated, the majority of the explosive force was channeled through loose ceiling tiles into the roof, and open windows acting as vents. And the bathroom was off to the side of it because it was the kindergarten class. Contact us at editor@wyohistory.org for information on levels and types of available sponsorships. The device was set up on afor lack of a better word, I call it a shopping cart. Well, you know how fine that dust is. 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. At 1:00 pm, they pulled up to the Cokeville Elementary School and unloaded a gasoline bomb, along with four rifles and nine handguns. And my children. Several other survivors were there. I mean, not everybody would do this. That's my lucky miracle. where there's only a limited population, that's going to throw the fear of God into everybody. 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. This wasn't a pipe bomb. Students, teachers, staff and visitors frantically exited the building, with teachers helping many of the children escape through the windows. Then, several years later, Jennie Sorensen identified what she thought was a teacher who led her out of the building after the blast. That's what it was designed to do was to go out and be particles and that gasoline was gonna ignite it and blow it up. On May 16, 1986, former town marshal David Young and his wife Doris Young took 167 children and adults hostage at Cokeville Elementary School. I cannot tell you what happened. The miraculous events that followed transformed the lives of hundreds of people, including many who witnessed angels or received heavenly help from deceased ancestors. Seven people in the Chicago area died after ingesting Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. [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. Well, when I arrived at Cokeville, of course they had the roads all blocked off and there was not a lot of people around the school at the time. Im living proof.. 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. On May the 16th , 1986, 1 was in Rock Springs at a basketball game. Mark Junge: Did you find the bullet that killed him, too? Rich Haskell: Yes, I did. That your life could change just at a blink of an eye. When I looked at everyone looking at me (as if I should call on someone to say it) I realized I should call on Allyson Cornia - literally because she was the smartest kid in the class! He had just big rings of perspiration. The Wyoming History one may be the best. Both David and Doris had ties to white supremacist groups, including the Posse Comitatus and the Aryan Nations. They have a lot of first-person histories of the actual event, teachers, investigators and students. I'm not saying all of 'em were bombs, but why did God cut out Cokeville and say nobody's going to get hurt in this? When the thing went off, when the bomb exploded, they just started chuckin' people out the windows. I think it was still in his body. Because it was sittin' low enough and the kids were low enough that it would have done it. Do you think this is a historical event? Where's he running? It became a story of a miracle rather than a tragedy. It's a little basket that has different layers on it. What should people know going into the film? Rich Haskell: No, I don't think it exited. And knew what they could do? Because in the bus, everything was solid in the school bus. Mark Junge: Which means you had to be doing over a hundred miles an hour! It was not a teacher, but her ancestor. He hadn't had anything to eat and she finally convinced him to get something to eat, and he let her be in charge of that bomb. Peterson, Carol. And then what? On May 16, 1986, when former town marshal David Gary Young and his wife Doris Young took 154 children and thirteen 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 within the first few weeks that the Hartley boy was explaining his witness. It was there for a long time, all that support. How has that experience shaped your life? I'm currently the Sheriff of Sweetwater County. David became increasingly agitated, and decided to leave the room. May 16, 1986, will never be forgotten by the residents of Cokeville, Wyo. I'm portrayed as the little red haired kid with glasses that asks about the AK-47. ", All told, 79 of the hostages suffered injuries, mostly second-degree burns, smoke inhalation, and other injuries from the exploding bomb. Rich Haskell: Sure. Used with permission and thanks. The couple corralled a large group of students and teachers into a single classroom. For me, what has impressed me about the film is not necessarily the story of Angels (which are remarkable), but that the majority of the 154 hostages chose to see God's hand in their lives that day. Cokeville had so little crime that many folks didn't bother to lock their doors. ", Mark Junge: So it took you three days, three and a half days. In the tiny classroom, they watched movies, played games, prayed. Rich Haskell: If it would have went off like it was supposed to have gone off, it would have lifted the roof off of that school. Number one, that's where he worked. Mark Junge: Well, you've been blessed in a lot of ways. May 12, 2011, 2:30am PDT. He did it right. Mark Junge: How many actual bombs have you had experience with? They had to come and get my car and get me another one. Hi MadreDeUnMono! Cokeville Trying to Rebuild A Normal and Secure Life.. Now, 28 years later, Conger and more than a dozen other survivors are reliving . Contact us at editor@wyohistory.org for information on levels and types of available sponsorships. 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. One of 'em was in Cokeville and one was in the bus that he did the experiment with. 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. I was still trying to make sense of it all! It was suggested we say a group prayer and I thought it was a great idea, so I helped gather a group of us together. Sue Castaneda: Carla said that some people were mad that we were there. Do you ever think about that? I immediately went into rendering safehe had brought in several devices with him to place in different places in the room, and there was a lot of ammunition, a lot of guns out in the hallway, and I immediately started rendering all those safe, making sure that those were safe and they could move them out of the building. 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. You start messing with the kids, now you're going to have yourself a war. After being fired for misconduct, he moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he married Doris Young. Rich Haskell: Were above the level of the kids, yeah. SHARE Cokeville miracle marking 25 years. He knew what the community was all about. Sept. 21, 2010. Whenever they would come to Wyoming I would be part of their security team. So if it can happen there it can happen anywhere in the United States. 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. WyoHistory.org welcomes the support of the following sponsors. On May 16, 1986, an elementary school in the tiny town of Cokeville, Wyoming, was held hostage by a married couple with a bomb. Now you've got problems. I think you should know that it can be difficult to watch - but that it has a very rewarding outcome. Too many of 'em to try to remember their birthdays. And that was their whole intent of coming to Cokeville. Cokeville Elementary School is located at 205 N. Sage St. in Cokeville. Totally destroyed it! 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. In 2006, the Cokeville Miracle Foundation compiled a book of recollections about the day from parents, emergency workers and former hostages. On that Friday afternoon in their quiet, rural town, a deranged couple entered the community's elementary school, took those inside hostage and detonated a bomb in a first grade classroom. She acknowledges these students for assisting her in researching her contributions to the WyoHistory.org web site. It was in their Tucson home that David came up with what he considered the Biggie, a plan to get rich quick and create a Brave New World. This plan involved Davids longtime friends, Gerald Deppe and Doyle Mendenhall, who believed by investing in Davids scheme they would get rich. David returned to the restroom and killed himself, ending the hostage crisis. Details: At 1:20pm on Friday, May 16, 1986, forty-three-year-old David Young and his forty-seven-year-old wife, Doris, wheeled a shopping cart containing a homemade gasoline-filled bomb into Cokeville Elementary School in Cokeville, Wyoming, just after the lunch hour recess. The first chapter is titled A Town of Trust.. Read more Okay? Casper Chapter, Wyoming Archaeological Society, June Frison chapter, Wyoming Archeological Society. By Jamie Armstrong May 22, 2015 09:35 AM MDT. All the hostages escaped, though 79 were hospitalized with burns and injuries. Young was a former Cokeville town marshal who had been living in Arizona for several years. Cokeville Public Library. Jessica Clark, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of history and political science at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, Wyo. I had just cracked a little joke with a toy tank of legos as I drove it "across the death line" or the masking tape square on the floor. No, this is something that people need to know about. It's made me, I think, more open-minded to things and don't take so much for granted anymore. Unexplained Mysteries: Angel Files. Season 1, Episode 20. They lived in a mobile home with Princess, Davids youngest daughter from his first marriage. I had the chance to watch the pre-screening of the film and it was very emotional. David attached the bomb trigger to his wrist and threatened the group that he might, at any time, move his arm and ignite the bomb. Rich Haskell: Approximately three and a half days. I remember seeing the wide eyes on my band teacher as he collapsed with the EMTs afterward. 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. Virginia Tech, it wasn't that way. "Move!" At about 9:30 a.m., the bomb disposal squad used a robotic device to shoot out the end caps of the device, remove the . Mark Junge: So it would have gone upward, but would it have killed the kids? Cokeville seems like a pretty small town. Doris accidently triggered the bomb by motioning to her hostages with her arms. She was a divorce who earned money working as a waitress and singer in a local bar. Encircled it. "[6] The two men eventually refused to participate in the event. Well, he had put wooden shelves for layers. The detonation didn't do it, it was cut. (Laughs) But as I was passing through Kemmerer I stayed in radio contact. Then he went to the restroom, which was attached to the classroom. She is a trained rural historian who specializes in oral history, childhood history and memory studies. I've been involved with law enforcement since 1977 in Sweetwater County. On May 16, 1986, David and Doris Young took 154 people hostage at the Cokeville Elementary School in tiny Cokeville, Wyo. That's what David Young forgot to realize just how important families were. Used with thanks. Sue Castaneda: Did you look at (unintelligible). By Deseret News. Trent Toone, Mormon Times. He instructed Doris and Princess, by now a young adult, to handcuff them inside his van. The two died after the bomb. Many of the children who stated they saw angels were of various faiths. over there. In Cokeville, Nowhere, Wyo. When Deppe and Mendenhall finally got wind of his plans moments before the hostage crisis unfolded, they refused to participate. And we allthere was three of us there. They did a good job telling this story. Returning, David Young shot his wife, then himself. Just before implementing the Biggie, David Young had also sent a copy of the document to President Ronald Reagan, the president of Chadron State College and numerous media outlets. In addition, national reporters began arriving within hours of the explosion. Witnesses later testified that just before the explosion David Young had connected the explosive to his wife. And if I had been a little less of a jokester I may have seen something in that strange light. The Cokeville hostage crisis began the afternoon of May 16, 1986, David and Doris Young took 154 children and adults hostage at the Cokeville Elementary School in tiny Cokeville, Wyo. Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis, "Radical Right Link Suggested in Hostage Case", "Cokeville Elementary School Bombing | WyoHistory.org", "Couple take over school but die after bomb blast", "Couple in School Blast Linked to Extremist Group", "Certified Bomb Technician Rich Haskell on the 1986 Bombing of Cokeville Elementary School | WyoHistory.org", "Lead Investigator Ron Hartley, Father of Four Student Survivors, on the 1986 Bombing of Cokeville Elementary School | WyoHistory.org", "Secretary Tina Cook on the 1986 Bombing of Cokeville Elementary School | WyoHistory.org", "A projectile killed Dorris Young, not bomb blast, police in Cokeville say", "In 1986, 154 children and teachers survived the bombing of Cokeville Elementary School", "Emergency Management Coordinator Kathy Davison on the 1986 Bombing of Cokeville Elementary School | WyoHistory.org", University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Liberty Point International Middle School, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, "'No Way to Prevent This', Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens", List of school shootings in the United States by death toll, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cokeville_Elementary_School_hostage_crisis&oldid=1139490391, Improvised explosive device bombings in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 11:55.
