congenitaldisease:

Many residents of the rural town of Cokeville, Wyoming, believed that this town was a safe place to raise children. That was until 16 May, 1986, when 43-year-old former town marshal, David Young, and his 47-year-old wife, Doris Young, entered the only elementary school of the town, Cokeville Elementary School, armed with an arsenal of weapons and a gasoline bomb. They took 136 children and 18 adults hostage inside one classroom. It was Doris who rounded many of the students up under the pretence that they were required for assembly. Many of the children were so young that when they entered the room and saw David standing in the middle of the room armed with weapons and a bomb, they believed the assembly was going to be about weapons. Sadly, they were wrong. Once everybody was in the classroom, David began to hand out his manifesto which was entitled “Zero Equals Infinity.” Inside this manifesto he wrote how he wanted to reign over intelligent children and was very well aware of the above average achievement scores from Cokeville’s education system. David also sent a copy of this manifesto to President Ronald Reagan and demanded a ransom. The teachers attempted to keep the young children calm and entertained by playing games and even praying. One child was celebrating his birthday and the class, including the hostage takers, sang him happy birthday. The bomb, which was being held by David, contained a trigger mechanism attached to a shoelace tied around his wrist. He explained he couldn’t make any sudden movements due to this. After two and a half hours, David gave Doris the bomb as he went to the bathroom. While in the bathroom, Doris suddenly moved her hand, causing the bomb to explode. David burst through the bathroom door after hearing the explosion and saw his wife, writhing in pain. He shot her dead, shot a teacher, John Miller, who was attempting to escape, and then shot himself. Everybody, except for David and Doris Young, managed to escape.