"That day was terrifying, but so was learning how to live with the aftermath in my life. Were you portrayed in the movie at all? Mark Junge: We were worried, Sue and I, that people would take offence, right? David was a diabetic. Many reported not being able to recognize anyone, as the students were covered in black soot. Lori recounted several miracles from that day. She was on fire! 154 of us were held hostage for almost 3 hours in a 30x32 room when the bomb actually detonated - all 154 hostages survived. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Prayer and Miracles: Cokeville Bombing Lessons Told to a Columbine Survivor As a society we tend to talk around or mock prayer and having faith in God. I was a little bit nervous, of course. We're in a conference room here on the main floor. While he was writing his philosophy, Zero Equals Infinity, Doris took part-time jobs including housekeeping and waitressing to support their meager lifestyle. Mark Junge: And what happened? To go off to the side? Educated at Chadron State College in Nebraska, he had earned a degree in criminal justice, and was hired as Cokevilles town marshal in the 1970s. Doris accidently triggered the bomb by motioning to her hostages with her arms. David attached the bomb trigger to hi Doris had a migraine headache that day, in talking with the other folks, and she was complaining about that, and asked David if she could open the windows because the gas fumesevidently the gas was leaking from the incendiary and he finally consented to let 'em open the window. I cannot tell you what happened. Cokeville officially has only536 people in it and two LDS wards that meet in the same chapel. We'd all do well learning to see God's hand in our lives. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. My parents were so thankful we survived that we didn't spend time EVER talking about David and Doris Young or why they would do this horrible act. However, Young clearly understood the nature of his planned crime, as he only revealed the plan to Deppe and Menenhall on the way to Cokeville Elementary. The kids couldn't have cut it. I contacted my sheriff, and that was Jim Stark at the time, and he said, "Definitely! Box 37, Cokeville, Wyoming 83114. Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, Cheyenne. You should also know that TC basically just wove a storyline into and between the facts and witness testimonies. 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. But David refused to reveal his plans entirely until moments before they unfolded. He shot and killed her. Dr. Clark is the faculty advisor of the Sweet Memories: Research Group at Western. Now you are a bomb technician. 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. The heat of the summer day made the crowded room feel even smaller, and fumes from the gasoline bomb made everyone sick. Do you think this is a historical event? She lifted her hand up to rub her forehead and when she did that pulled the pin out and detonated the bomb. (Laughs) Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but it was. Rich Haskell: Well, as we were talking before we started recording, because of my knowledge with the explosives and with the law enforcement and everything else, I've had many opportunitiesbecause of the explosivesI've been with Vice President Cheney when he was here in Wyoming up in Pinedale. The Cokeville Miracle. T.C. At the same time, parents and authorities gathered on the opposite side of 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. As a result, the events of that May 16th not only showed the dark depths of humanity but also the bright potential of faith. June 3, 2015 A woman came into Kam Wixom's six grade classroom in Cokeville, Wyoming on May 16, 1986 telling him and his classmates that she had a surprise for them waiting in room 4. I think it's because of the ages of the kids, to start with. These are designed to just spread out the particles all over the air. Rich Haskell: No. Wyoming has a lot of money as far as the state is concerned. 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. According to survivor accounts, Doris enticed many into the first grade room by announcing that their presence was required for a school assembly. It was perfect! That much I know. Investigators found that the bomb had been - perhaps miraculously - broken. Yeah, we didn't get a lot of sleep. 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. Mark Junge: Where at? They wanted to get involved as extras in the making of "The Cokeville Miracle." You know, the kids have forgot about it, let's let 'em move on. As Davids youngest child, Penny, still lived with them, they quickly sought a new home in a trailer park. He just said just go do it. This is actually the first time I have heard of this. President Hinkley, President Monson, and President Faust. But we knew what our story was, and that it could help offer hope. They had a circle of tape around the device itself and they said, "Do not come inside of this circle. Mark Junge: With bombs? By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. This week, Michael Marshall joins us for an atheist review of The Cokeville Miracle; a movie that will try to sell the bombing of an elementary school as a miracle, even though the only miraculous thing is that we managed to find jokes to tell about it. Parentheses ( ) are used for incidental non-verbal sounds, like laughter. She tied the string around her wrist. Blasting cap wires had been cut before detonation, a gasoline leak prevented explosive powder from setting the air on fire, and, despite a great deal of shrapnel, no one had been hit. Accessed May 28, 2013 at. I was up there as part of his protection team. I can't explain it. 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. But it still sent flames all over in the room and you can see where all the flames were in that room. 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! ", Kam's lessons from Cokeville are profound:1.Bad things can happen anywhere, anytime.2.Not all men in beards are bad, but the eyes can tell you.3.God does intervene when men use their freedom to ask for His help.4.I need to pray.5.Miracles are real.6.Angels are real, and evidently our relatives are among them.7.Being super intellectual is not necessarily an advantage, but children praying with childlike faith is a super power.8.God lives. This school is being taken hostage! Mark Junge: You'd been tested, though. 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. That's why I have a computer. So there's doubt in your mind that there was divine intervention? The couple corralled a large group of students and teachers into a single classroom. 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. 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. Edit: Thank you so much for your questions! David emerged from the bathroom to find his wife in excruciating pain. She has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals on the history and heritage of Germans from Russia on the Northern Plains. Contact us at editor@wyohistory.org for information on levels and types of available sponsorships. Even though the majority of the townspeople are LDS, there are lots of people of a variety of faiths in the room that day. David Youngs journals and writings reveal that he was a troubled man who spent many years grappling with deep philosophical questionsabout mans existence, the afterlife and spirituality. You could walk across the street and get run over as far as that's concerned, but I don't know if my wife has any more gray hairs because I've chosen this profession. Young was a former Cokeville town marshal who had been living in Arizona for several years. 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. And screaming, I can't imagine the screams that she was making. Rich Haskell: I'm Rich Haskell. I don't know ifI just felt an emptyactually I could just see a hundred-sixty people dead! Rich Haskell: Well, I like to think I'm a better person because of it. Cokeville Elementary School teachers and staff tried to keep kindergarteners through sixth graders calm and entertained. It's just something that you just have to stay on top of. May 16, 1986, will never be forgotten by the residents of Cokeville, Wyo. I said, "What on earth happened there?" Rich Haskell: I took pictures of it. You can ask me anything about this today between 1-2pm. Shortly after their wedding, David and Doris left Cokeville and headed to Tucson, Ariz. During their time in Tucson, according to Doris daughter Bernie Petersen, David became increasingly reclusive, focusing on his philosophical readings and writings. I mean, we're talking about from kindergarten kids up to 10-, 11-, 12-years old. What is sacred to some, is smeared by others - even after we hear eye-witness accounts of miracles. 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 actually have a pretty clear memory of the events that day, being 12 years old. "God can heal even the deepest of wounds and the most difficult sorrows. Sheriff Ron. He did it right. Sept. 21, 2010. I learned that angels are real and that they are very much involved in our lives when necessary. We had people from ATFAlcohol, Tobacco and Firearmsand there was another bomb technician that came up from Evanstonhe was studying to be a bomb technicianand we all looked at that and said, "That wire's been cut." 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. Mark Junge: Did you help bring the body out? Rather than driving this community apart, the Youngs attack had only brought them closer together. Edit: Also, were you at that early screening? Why? I mean, what it was supposed to do? Sep 29, 2015. During my years here in Wyoming I have refereed both basketball and football on the high school and the junior high school level, and I was watching the ball game at that time. Mark Junge: Do you think he took up thatwanted to take that up because of you? 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. "I remember coloring a picture, wondering what would become of us, and then suddenly being blown back against the wall," Lori said. The town has worked to be as respectful as possible to the multitude of experiences that day. You just do whatever you have to do and get up there." You HAVE to find the positives or the negatives can eat you up the rest of your life. Blu-Ray. "I don't experience too many panic attacks anymore because I have learned to breathe through the anxiety and focus, but the thing that distinctively changed my PTSD is when my own children began elementary school as first graders. Interesting stuff to me! Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. 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. Is This The Most Sinister Ghost Picture Ever Taken? Mark Junge: And you're sheriff in Sweetwater? 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. At that time all of the different agencies was pretty much on the same radio frequency and I was stayin' in touch with them, lettin' them know what my location was and they were in turn telling me what was taking place. When they asked pointed questions like "what did the angels look like?" Rich Haskell: No. Do you ever think about them? Upon entering the classroom, children saw an arsenal of weapons, a grocery cart and an unfamiliar manDavid Young. It was just shootin' everywhere. Katherine Payne recalled her dead grandmother telling her to listen to her brother, who then instructed her to wait by the window shortly before the bomb blast. it is VERY LDS, and yet there are at least 3 other churches in town: Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist (and sometimes a non-denominational church). Then, shortly after 1 PM, mother, father, and daughter abandoned the van and walked through the schools front doors. 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