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. 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. Is there a news article that I could read to get a better idea of what happened? Many of the children who stated they saw angels were of various faiths. Rich Haskell: Yeah, there was some people ready to just shoot him right where he was sitting. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Morning News. Mark Junge: So it would have gone upward, but would it have killed the kids? The Cokeville Town Hall is located at 110 Pine St. For more information, visit the website of the Cokeville Chamber of Commerce at http://www.cokevillewy.com or call (307) 459-4195. "My brother came over and told my sister and me to go sit by the window. In addition, national reporters began arriving within hours of the explosion. What is sacred to some, is smeared by others - even after we hear eye-witness accounts of miracles. Rich Haskell: No. Mark Junge: And the explosion went straight up? Cokeville Bombing. Undated scrapbook. In Davids writings, he explained that the imaginary world of Zero Equals Infinity felt like his and the Cokeville childrens last resort. I really did not even want to walk inside that building because I was just afraid that I'd see kids all over the place. And it was a perfect trajectory up into the ceiling where that bullet was. Mark Junge: Had you seen anything like what took place in this classroom before? The only two fatalities were David and Doris Young. cokeville miracle debunked. Well, he had put wooden shelves for layers. I'm portrayed as the little red haired kid with glasses that asks about the AK-47. You can't think, well, maybe something could happen, because yes it could. They had both been married before and had children one daughter for Doris and two for David. I mean, Columbine, it wasn't that way. Rich Haskell: Pretty sophisticated guy is what he was. Blu-Ray. One of 'em was in Cokeville and one was in the bus that he did the experiment with. . Lori recounted several miracles from that day. If I deleted an entire phrase, I have inserted ellipses . I was a little bit nervous, of course. 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. Rather than driving this community apart, the Youngs attack had only brought them closer together. In the end, though, the only casualties were David and Doris Young. David returned to the restroom and killed himself, ending the hostage crisis. Wyoming has a lot of money as far as the state is concerned. The town has worked to be as respectful as possible to the multitude of experiences that day. The tuna fish cans with the two floury would be spread out in the air likehave you ever seen a grain elevator explosion? . The heat of the summer day made the crowded room feel even smaller, and fumes from the gasoline bomb made everyone sick. They wanted to do this for me. How did you determine how everything looked when this went up in smoke itself. Which is hard to believe, but a positive experience in that they learned something. You should also know that TC basically just wove a storyline into and between the facts and witness testimonies. Soon enough, though, he was dismissed from the position after a 6-month probationary period. Midnight Hour: 7 Paranormal Games to Play in the Dark Tonight, 30 Scary Two Sentence Horror Stories To Read In The Dark, True Crime: The 10 Most Infamous American Murder Mysteries, Urban Legend: 25 People Share the Scariest Stories from their Hometowns, The Haunting Stories Behind Six Strange and Unusual Graves, Campfire Stories: 13 Terrifying Accounts of Paranormal Encounters in the Wilderness. Peterson, Carol. Contact us at editor@wyohistory.org for information on levels and types of available sponsorships. He came out of the bathroom, is what we figured. Is This The Most Sinister Ghost Picture Ever Taken? Jessica Clark, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of history and political science at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, Wyo. You could see that the roof tiles had been lifted out of their brackets. And it burned some children. Did this shake the faith of some people, or would you say it strengthened it in most? Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, http://www.cokevillemiracle.com/movie.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cokeville_Elementary_School_hostage_crisis. If I cant get answers I'll probably leave the church. They believed in reincarnation, which probably led, in part, to the creation of Davids Brave New World idea. Mark Junge: Oh, really! After earning a degree in criminal justice at Chadron State College in Nebraska, he was hired as Cokevilles town marshal in the 1970s. So I went to Huntsville, Ala., to Redstone Arsenal. Any sincere petition to God is powerful. Sue Castaneda: Carla said that some people were mad that we were there. "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. Rich Haskell: Well, I like to think I'm a better person because of it. Certified Bomb Technician. The gasoline bottle was leaking. 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. She acknowledges these students for assisting her in researching her contributions to the WyoHistory.org web site. Rich Haskell: Well, I didn't know a lot about 'em and I still don't know a lot about 'em. When they asked pointed questions like "what did the angels look like?" For me, the choice to believe in God, seek His hand and learn from the experience seemed the obvious choice. I just stayed right there and we processed the scene and did the scene. 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? The newly married Youngs then left Cokeville for Tucson, Arizona. May 16, 1986, will never be forgotten by the residents of Cokeville, Wyo. 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. 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. Transcriber's notes: I have added some reference footnotes to this transcript where I thought appropriate. On May 16, 1986, an elementary school in the tiny town of Cokeville, Wyoming, was held hostage by a married couple with a bomb. 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. Rich Haskell: Well, you know, that's a really good question. That your life could change just at a blink of an eye. Now this is just for my own information and it doesn't have anything to do with this case, but whenever I read about a bomb threat in the paper, I think to myself, "Oh, no! Upon entering the classroom, children saw an arsenal of weapons, a grocery cart and an unfamiliar manDavid Young. I explained that she was the teacher that led me out when the bomb went off. I was still trying to make sense of it all! Mark Junge: They don't want it brought up again. I mean, not everybody would do this. Upon entering, though, Penny hesitated and dashed back to the van to report her fathers plans at Cokeville Town Hall. We didn't know if the blasting caps were in therejust exactly what was in there. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Mark Junge: And that's the lesson we learn. How much interaction did you have with the director/producers of the movie? Now you've got problems. 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. The kids could just go to the bathroom right from their classroom. Cursed by Spirits: The Strange Tale of the Winchester Mystery House, Inferno: 7 People Who Claim Theyve Been to Hell and Back, Divine Suffering: 7 People Who Claimed to Have the Stigmata. Mark Junge: Well, and it burned some of the kids. Virginia Tech, it wasn't that way. I went from within two feet of the bomb to right near the door within ten minutes before the bomb went off. Rich? It was a great movie, very well directed and acted. You know, the kids have forgot about it, let's let 'em move on. When I walked inside of the classroomit was a kindergarten classroom which meant that the desks were smaller, everything was smaller because of the smaller children. They lived in a mobile home with Princess, Davids youngest daughter from his first marriage. Katie has always . He did deliver our salvation that day. 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! I had the chance to watch the pre-screening of the film and it was very emotional. Upon entering, many realized something was amiss, especially as David began distributing and reading from his manifesto. Where's he running? 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. 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." Thank you for sharing your witness that God is real and that He knows about tiny wounds in mortal souls that need a balm of healing. Mark Junge: Which means you had to be doing over a hundred miles an hour! You can also read about it on [Wikipedia] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cokeville_Elementary_School_hostage_crisis). We just focused on being grateful. Janel Dayton, Wyoming State Archives photo. We know he built two of 'em. I think exploring this question can continue to offer healing to those pieces in us we don't fully recognize are hurt. Rich Haskell: Because of the response and because of the emails and everything that took place. Mark Junge: Well, I want you to know that we think you're courageous for doing this with us. Mark Junge: What were they designed to do? 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