1986 Cokeville Elementary School Hostage Crisis

On Friday, May 16, 1986, former Cokeville town marshal David Young, 43, and his wife Doris Young, 47, entered Cokeville Elementary School in Cokeville, Wyoming, carrying ten firearms and an improvised gasoline bomb. David had previously served as the town's only police officer for six months in 1979 before being fired for misconduct. According to journal writings, his motive appeared linked to a philosophy referencing Brave New World and a desire to control what he viewed as an unusually intelligent, close-knit community, rather than direct revenge for his firing.

Doris moved from classroom to classroom, luring 136 children and 18 adults—teachers, staff, a job applicant, and a UPS driver—into a first-grade classroom under false pretenses, assembling a total of 154 hostages. David distributed a manifesto titled "ZERO EQUALS INFINITY" and declared "This is a revolution!" He demanded a ransom of two million dollars per hostage and an audience with President Ronald Reagan, having also mailed a copy of his manifesto to the President. Two men David had initially planned to involve, identified in the source only as his cousin and a hunting companion, refused to participate and were not charged; David's adult daughter from a prior marriage also declined to take part and left to alert town officials, and she likewise was not charged.

The bomb was rigged with a dead man's switch tied by string to a hostage-taker's wrist, wired to a gasoline jug and secondary incendiary components intended to spread shrapnel and fire. During the roughly two-and-a-half-hour standoff, teachers negotiated for books, art supplies, and a television to occupy the children, and created a taped-off "safety square" around David as he grew increasingly agitated. David transferred the trigger to Doris's wrist before leaving the room; when Doris raised her hand to her head, the device detonated prematurely, filling the room with smoke and fire. Teachers pushed children into the hallway and through windows. David returned, fatally shot Doris, wounded music teacher John Miller as he tried to flee, then shot himself.

All 154 hostages survived the incident, though 79 required hospital treatment, primarily for second- and third-degree burns and smoke inhalation, with many injuries described as severe. Investigators later noted unresolved questions, including cut wires on two of three blasting caps that prevented full detonation, and conflicting reports about the Youngs' alleged ties to white supremacist groups such as Posse Comitatus and Aryan Nations, which a local sheriff later expressed doubts about. The event has since been covered in books, television programs, and film dramatizations.