The town of Cokeville, Wyoming is just like any other small sleepy American town. Located in a sparsely populated state and with a population of only about 540 people, it isn’t surprising that everybody knows everybody and life usually moves at a snails pace. Though it may appear unlikely that anything noteworthy could happen so far from anywhere and amongst so few human beings, but back in the May of 1986 something remarkable came to pass:
On one fateful day, the deranged David Young and his demented wife Doris entered the town elementary school with BAD intentions: the sinister couple held the entire school full of innocent drooling children and underpaid teachers hostage. Their conditions were modest: they wanted $300 Million and an audience with President Reagan.
The fear that day amongst the faculty and young student body was palpable, it could be seen in all the nervous darting eyes and uncontrollable stress-induced sobs. Almost everyone was paralyzed with fear. Then, the despicable David Young did the unthinkable: he directed his derelict wife Doris to light the gasoline bomb inside the small room of 300 boys, girls and teachers. They would all be obliterated. Blown to bits for no reason at all. Young raised her arm in a slightly cocked motion and lit herself on fire, with the trigger to the bomb attached to her wrist.
But it didn’t go off as the two criminals must have anticipated…
Instead of erupting into a ball of fury and fire to consume every man woman and child present, Doris was a dud. The bomb didn’t go off. But Doris was still on fire. So her loving, rat-bastard husband shot her to death and then shot himself. Their plan had been foiled! The captives were shortly released and luckily, the villains were the only two who perished in the hostage crisis.
Years later, among the compelling accounts of the children present that day, many vividly described a white, shadowy figure appearing just before when the bomb should have ignited. The amazing story is being showcased in a new movie, called the Cokeville Miracle, which was released last June 5th. The film offers a religious explanation for the “Miracle” of Doris the Dud.
Whether you believe it was the work of a guardian angel, or the miscalculations of a psychopathic couple of idiots this is a pretty incredible story. And it is amazing that none of the children have PTSD after having watched something so horrific happen. Maybe that’s the real “Miracle” here…