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The government dismissed the charges against one of the 12 Branch Davidians according to a plea bargain. After a jury trial lasting nearly two months, the jury acquitted four of the Branch Davidians on all charges.
- David Koresh
- Branch Davidians
- Koresh and The FBI
- Fire Engulfs Waco Compound
- Legacy of The Waco Siege
- Sources
On February 28, 1993, some 80 agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided a religious compound at Mount Carmel, near Waco, Texas, after receiving reports that the Branch Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, were violating federal firearms regulations. After four ATF agents and six Davidians were killed in the gun ...
In the 1930s, a disgruntled member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church named Victor Houteff had broken away and founded the Davidian movement. After Houteff’s death, Ben Roden led an offshoot of the movement known as the Branch Davidians, who took control of Houteff’s original settlement at Mount Carmel, near Waco, by 1962. Believing the Bible is l...
In his negotiations with the FBI during the Waco siege, Koresh claimed he was a messianic figure prophesied in the Bible and that God had given him his surname. He threatened violence against those who would attack him and his family, but asserted that the Davidians weren’t planning a mass suicide. To the Branch Davidians, Koresh was “the Lamb,” th...
In mid-April, after religious scholars reached out to Koresh through a radio discussion of the teachings of Revelation, Koresh sent a message through his lawyer announcing he had received word from God and was writing his message on the Seven Seals; he would come out with his followers when he was finished. The FBI, unconvinced, decided to act to e...
From the beginning, the government’s handling of the Waco siege (which played out in the national and international media) was heavily criticized. Reno took responsibility for the botched raid, later admitting there was no evidence of ongoing child abuse within the compound (which had been one of the justifications for ordering the gas attack). Tho...
Waco: The Inside Story, PBS Frontline. James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher, Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America. Malcolm Gladwell, “Sacred and Profane,” The New Yorker(March 31, 2014).
- Laura Barcella
- 5 min
- Experts still debate whether the Branch Davidians were, in fact, a ‘cult.’ Though the dominant narrative at the time of the siege was that Koresh was a sketchy cult leader, there has never been consensus about whether the group was a legitimate cult.
- David Koresh (that wasn’t his real name) was mocked during childhood. David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell in Houston, Texas in 1959. His mother was 15 when she gave birth to him, and Koresh’s grandparents ended up raising him.
- Not everyone thinks the government acted appropriately during the standoff. “There are a whole bunch of unknowns [when it comes to Waco],” says Reavis.
- David Koresh once went to trial for attempted murder. Koresh joined the Branch Davidians when he was 22 years old and soon became enmeshed in an affair with the group’s president, Lois Roden, then in her 60s.
Sep 16, 2024 · Waco siege, a 51-day standoff between Branch Davidians and federal agents that ended on April 19, 1993, when the religious group’s compound near Waco, Texas, was destroyed in a fire. Nearly 80 people were killed.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 24, 2018 · On Feb. 28, 1993, federal law enforcement agents came face-to-face with the Branch Davidians, a controversial group whose followers described themselves as “students of the Bible,” outside...
- 1 min
Apr 13, 2018 · On March 1, 1993, FBI agents took control of the property, and ended up presiding over what became a 51-day siege. On April 19, the siege ended in a second tragedy when FBI agents carried out...
Aug 23, 2024 · Branch Davidian, member of an offshoot group of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Church that made headlines on February 28, 1993, when its Mount Carmel headquarters near Waco, Texas, was raided by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF); four federal agents were killed in the assault. A lengthy standoff between the group and ...
