Today marks 25 years since a flawed and deadly raid on a religious sect near Waco, Texas, started a tense 51-day siege which would end in many more fatalities.
The raid and siege of the ‘Branch Davidian’ compound would dominate international headlines for almost two months and bring to notoriety the name of the religious cult’s leader, David Koresh.
The Branch Davidians were a sect that broke away from the more mainstream Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1955. They had been established at the compound 13 miles from Waco for many years and the roots of the conflict there went back at least a decade. Their founder, Benjamin Roden, established the sect’s Waco headquarters (officially called the Mount Carmel Center), but when he died in 1978 his widow, Lois, took control.
Their son, George Roden, was expected to take over when Lois died, but she considered him unfit for the role of the sect’s leader, or ‘prophet’. Instead she favoured a charismatic young man called Vernon Howell, who turned up at the Mount Carmel ranch in 1983. Despite the considerable age gap, he began an affair with Lois, who died in 1987.
By now there were two factions competing to lead the Waco sect, one led by George Roden and the other by Vernon Howell, who would later change his name to David Koresh. Roden managed to expel Howell and his group from the Waco site, but their power struggle continued and became increasingly bitter, especially after Howell claimed to be ‘the Lamb’ from the book of Revelation.
In response, Roden dug up a body from the Davidians’ cemetery and challenged Koresh to resurrect the corpse. Instead Howell reported Roden to the police for illegally exhuming the body. When the police and prosecutors refused to get involved without evidence, Howell and seven of his followers went armed to the Mount Carmel site. They claimed to have gone to photograph the corpse for evidence, but a gunfight ensued in which Roden was wounded.
Howell and his companions were arrested and put on trial for attempted murder, but seven were acquitted and the jury failed to reach a verdict in Howell’s case. During the proceedings Roden was also jailed for contempt of court, which gave Howell and his group the opportunity to move back to the Mount Carmel site. He was finally able to take full control after Roden got involved in a fight with another sect member and, after killing him with an axe, was committed to a secure metal hospital.
In 1989 Howell claimed he had been told by God to procreate with women in the group as his children would be descendants of God. It included married women, whose husbands were separated from them and told they must become celibate. Howell also claimed he was told to build an “Army of God” in readiness for the end of days. The following year he changed his name to David Koresh.
Some disillusioned sect members walked away and stories leaked out about the goings-on inside Mount Carmel, including the stockpiling of weapons. This led to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) taking a close interest and even embedding an undercover agent in the community. With the rumours of illegal weapons confirmed, and other reports that girls as young as 12 were among Koresh’s harem of “wives”, it was decided to mount a raid on the site and a warrant was obtained for Koresh’s arrest.
Unfortunately, news of the imminent raid reached the Branch Davidians and they were armed and ready for it. Even when the lead ATF agents became aware of this, they decided to go ahead anyway, approaching the compound in an 80-vehicle convoy which stretched for a mile. The raid began at 9-45am on Sunday February 28th, 1993, and soon descended into an all-out gun battle. By the end of the day four ATF agents and six sect members were dead, with many more wounded, including Koresh. The agents had failed to occupy the compound and instead a tense stand-off began.
It would last for 51 days until President Bill Clinton granted approval for a full-blown assault on the complex, this time carried out by the FBI. Some sect members had left during the siege, but a large number remained, convinced they were fighting a holy war. Thirty-three of the sect members during the siege were British nationals.
The final assault was launched on April 19th, but went badly wrong when three separate fires started in different parts of the compound, quickly spreading to engulf most of the buildings. Later reports suggested they were deliberately started by the Davidians. Seventy-six sect members died, including 24 British nationals. The dead included women and children, with only nine Davidians making it out alive. Among the dead was Koresh, apparently shot in the head by his leading disciple, who then killed himself with the same gun.