The Deadman's Switch Hostage Crisis | Tales From the Bottle

I still sometimes have nightmares I'm back in school or college and I'm doing an exam that I haven't studied for it's a bit annoying knowing my brain could concoct an endless amount of imagine scenarios but yet keeps putting me back to events I experienced hundreds of times in real life but thankfully my experience in education was notably lacking in any real nightmares for me anyways I witnessed plenty of things that were definitely psychologically scaring for other kids but um oh well who cares it builds character I had my fun and that's all that Myers but for people who live in EM let's just say other parts of the world where mass violence in schools is a little more common things might not be as easy to shake off take for example the 136 kids held hostage in an elementary school by two loons with a bomb set to blow up if they're incapacitated our story takes us to 1986 Wyoming USA to the town of Koch Ville is many a night have visited there myself David Young 43 who was then living in Arizona but had been coke fills town marshal in the past had become a recluse focusing on his philosophical readings and writings during this time he had devised a scheme to create what he called a brave new world the scheme which he referred to as the biggie also involved a get-rich-quick plan which is how he enticed longtime friends Gerald's Depp and Doyle Mendenhall to become invested in his idea that was until the day came to carry out the biggie and they learned what was involved David planned to bring an arsenal of guns on a homemade bomb to Kok Ville elementary school where he would take the kids hostage and demand a two million dollar ransom for each Gerald and Doyle refused to participate in this but David couldn't risk them going to the authorities with his plan so he took them captive at gunpoint and handcuffed them in the back of his rented van he still wasn't alone though by his side he had his wife Doris and his daughter from a previous marriage princess calling his daughter princess should have been the first clue that this guy was a nut calling your child some [ __ ] like miracle or angel or gift or any of that bonkers crap should get you automatically thrown in prison don't take chances with these people they had a very simple task of naming their child and they [ __ ] it up they think their offspring are better than everyone else on the planet well put me in a boxing match with your baby and we'll see whose bearer even princess herself recognized her father's insanity and aborted the plan shortly after arriving at Kok Ville Elementary School around 1:00 p.m. on Friday May 16 to 1986 taking the van with Gerald and Doyle in it to the town hall she alerted the authorities that David and Doris were going to take the elementary school hostage even with princess abandoning the plan David and Doris were undeterred and entered the school hauling a number of rifles and pushing a shopping trolley carrying a homemade gasoline bomb David takes the weapons to an empty classroom while Doris cools class the class luring teachers and students to the room David is occupying by telling them there is an assembly in total they rounded up 136 children and 18 adults David hands out his philosophical manifesto entitled zero equals infinity and announces this is a revolution and other delusional statements he had also sent the manifesto to President Ronald Reagan and various other authorities and media outlets parked in the center of the room David stood over the shopping trolley bomb the circuit to which was interrupted by a piece of wood which was attached by a piece of string to David's wrist should David pull away from the bomb the wooden piece would dislodge and complete the circuit detonating the bomb this meant that not only could David detonate the bomb at any time but it was also sort of a Deadman switch if David were to be killed or incapacitated the bomb would be detonated as he fell to the floor this was understandably a stressful situation for everyone involved and the 136 kids packed into the room became a restless which agitated David the teachers tried to calm the kids down by playing games watching movies and saying prayers but even then they were too rowdy for David's liking which just goes to show you can't expect a group of kids to shut the [ __ ] up for more than two minutes even if their lives depend on it from his nonsensical ramblings to the sweat pouring off of him it was obvious to the teachers that David was unhinged and liable to fly off the handle on a moment's notice to stop the kids from violating David's pace a very annoying thing the kids are want to do the teachers use masking tape to mark an eight-foot square around him this was the magic square that was not to be passed and it worked the kids stopped getting too close to David however enthralled by the magic square many sat down outside it and watched David which seemed to make him nervous eventually David decided to go to the bathroom and hand over the bomb to Doris who then attached the string to her wrist the continued distress from the children was still an issue made worse by the fact that part of David's bomb had sprung a leak dripping gasoline and filling the room with fumes this gave many present headaches including Doris situation was about to unravel seeking to relieve the pain from the throbbing headache Doris lifted her hand to rub her forehead in doing so accidentally detonating the bomb the room was instantly engulfed in a fireball when David re-enters the room it is completely burnt survivors are escaping through the windows and parents are breaking the police line to get to their children Doris is badly charred but still alive in agony David puts her out of her misery he then opens fire on an escaping teacher John Miller and hits back with his plan in ruins David returns to the bathroom and shoots himself in the head putting an end for the hostage crisis many of the survivors are severely burnt and the 79 injured need to be triaged in multiple hospitals across Wyoming and Idaho however no one but David and Doris is killed even John Miller survives his gunshot Princess jeralds Depp and Doyle Mendenhall were never charged in relation to the incident due to their refusal to participate which is maybe an unexpected outcome considering they all had some involvement princess went to the school with them which she maybe didn't have a choice in given she was David's daughter and she did alert the police as soon as she got away but I can't help but think if I had backed out of a bank robbery at the last second and told the police I probably wouldn't get away scot-free and Gerald and Doyle were either down to commit some level of crime or just the two dumbest [ __ ] people on the planet how did they become so invested in this get-rich-quick scheme that they apparently had no details of could they not tell that David was disturbed it was called the biggie at best that sounds like a bank heist what did they think it was many of those present that day have since gone on to claim divine intervention saved the hostages many of the kids claim to have seen or heard angels in the room that day and the event is often described as a miracle well let's see deranged madman and wife take over 100 elementary school children hostage before accidentally setting everyone on fire and killing themselves oh yeah a textbook miracle there straight out of God's playbook I can see the Christmas movie now a miracle on coke Ville I'm just taking a piss but there is actually a movie based on this called the coke Ville miracle it certainly is extraordinary that everyone survived but I think this whole narrative of angels and all of this has been blown out of proportion you may be saying can you really discount that narrative when so many made separate claims of seeing or hearing angels well yeah there were kids in a packed room inhaling gas fumes I'm sure many of them probably did see angels and all manner of other things well anyway if it helps sleep at night what harm does it do I'm happy for them it's quite a tragedy for david and doris who definitely needed help before they got to this point but it could have been a much bigger tragedy and if you liked the video I have many others that you can watch and you can always subscribe to see more in the future I also have a second channel cukes or two where I do highlight reels for my streams over on Twitch and if you'd like to keep up to date with my antics you can follow me on Twitter or join my discord if you'd like to support me you can buy a t-shirt or donate over on patreon all the links will be in the description and pinned comment Thanks and until next time adios [Music]

Channel: Qxir

Views: 1,336,919

Keywords: cokeville elementary, hostage crisis, situation, bomb, school, explained, animated, drawn, funny, children, kids, wyoming, david young, doris young, rescue

Id: E2ltIkWNy_8

Length: 9min 7sec (547 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020