Part 2: WACO
February 28th, 1993. A day in history that no one will ever forget. The start of a siege or as some say a war, that would last until April 19th, 1993. Lives lost. 82 to be exact. Men, women, and children. Most Innocent. Once again, the ATF, FBI, Police screwed up. I guess they never did learn from what happened on Ruby Ridge. Even though they said they did.
Who was David Koresh aka Vernon Wayne Howell? David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell on August 17, 1959, in Houston, Texas, to a 14-year-old single mother, Bonnie Sue Clark, and 20-year-old father Bobby Wayne Howell. Before David was born, his father met another teenaged girl and abandoned Bonnie Sue, who began living with a violent alcoholic.
In 1963, Koresh's mother left with her boyfriend and placed her four-year-old son in the care of his maternal grandmother, Earline Clark. His mother returned when he was seven, after her marriage to a carpenter named Roy Haldeman. Bonnie Sue and Roy had a son together, Roger, who was born in 1966. Koresh did not meet his father until he was 17.
Koresh described his early childhood as lonely. Due to his poor study skills and dyslexia partially caused by poor eyesight, he was put in Special Ed classes and nicknamed "Vernie" by his fellow students. Koresh dropped out of high school in his junior year.
When he was 19 years old, David had an illegal sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl who became pregnant. He claimed to have become a born again Christian and soon joined his mother's denomination, the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There, Koresh became infatuated with the pastor's daughter; and while praying for guidance, he opened his eyes "allegedly" and in the bible he saw Isaiah 34:16, stating that "none should want for her mate". Convinced this was a sign from God, Koresh approached the pastor and told him that God wanted him to have his 12-year-old daughter, a child, for a wife. I will never understand people who read the bible and interpret it in such a twisted way. The pastor threw him out, and when he continued to pursue his daughter, he was removed from the congregation.
In 1981, when he was 22, Koresh moved to Waco, Texas, where he joined the Branch Davidians (splinter group of Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Church). In layman's terms, this is a more "fanatical" group. Benjamin Roden, who died in 1978, had originated the Branch group in 1955 with new teachings that were not connected with the original Davidians.
In 1983, Koresh began claiming the gift of being the Prophet. David Thibodeau, in his 1999 book, A Place Called Waco, speculated that he had a sexual relationship with Lois Roden, the widow of Benjamin Roden and leader of the sect, who was then in her late 60s. Old enough to be his grandmother. Koresh eventually began to claim that God had chosen him to father a child by Lois, who would be the "the chosen one". In 1983, Lois allowed Koresh to begin teaching his own message, called "The Serpent's Root", which caused controversy in the group. Lois's son George Roden, intended to be the group's next leader, considered Koresh an interloper.
When Koresh announced that God had instructed him to marry Rachel Jones (who then added Koresh to her name), a period of calm ensued at the Mount Carmel Center, but it proved only temporary. Mount Carmel was the name of the massive compound in which David and the Branch Davidians lived.
Vernon Howell filed a petition in California State Superior Court in Pomona on May 15, 1990, to legally change his name "for publicity and business purposes" to David Koresh. On August 28, 1990, Judge Robert Martinez granted the petition.
By taking the name of David Koresh, he was "professing himself to be the spiritual descendant of King David, a messianic figure carrying out a divinely commissioned errand."
Mt Caramel was full of different people. Some came from Australia. Some from England. They all believed that David had the imprint of the bible in his head and was the true Messiah. Everyone hung on his every word. Everyone believed the words that came from his mouth. What no one knows is why?
Koresh was alleged to have been involved in multiple incidents of physical and sexual abuse of children. His doctrine of the House of David did lead to "marriages" with both married and single women in the Branch Davidians. This doctrine was based on a revelation that involved the birth of twenty-four children by chosen women in the community. These twenty-four children were to serve as the twenty-four ruling elders over the millennium after the return of Christ. These women which were chosen through this doctrine, included at least one underaged girl, Michelle Jones, who was the younger sister of Koresh's legal wife Rachel and the daughter of lifelong Branch Davidians Perry and Mary Belle Jones. David would allow couples at Mt. Caramel, but he would often separate them and take other men's wives as his own.
In addition to allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct, Koresh and his followers were suspected of stockpiling illegal weapons. In May 1992, Chief Deputy Daniel Weyenberg of the McLennan County Sheriff's Department called the ATF to notify them that his office had been contacted by a local UPS representative concerned about a report by a local driver.
The UPS driver said a package had broken open on delivery to the Branch Davidian residence, revealing at least half a dozen grenades. He also noted that the compound had been receiving packages from an arms dealer for months, "thereby calling for a high degree of oversight" from both Houston and headquarters. The documentary Inside Waco claims that the investigation started when in 1992 the ATF became concerned over reports of automatic gunfire coming from the Carmel compound. This is starting sound a little like Ruby Ridge, isn't it? I am not saying that the siege wasn't necessary or that David was a good person, I am however, saying that the way it was gone about, was NOT RIGHT. On July 30, ATF agents David Aguilera and Skinner visited the Branch Davidians' gun dealer Henry McMahon, who tried to get them to talk with Koresh on the phone. Koresh offered to let ATF inspect the Branch Davidians' weapons and paperwork and asked to speak with Aguilera, but Aguilera declined.
Sheriff Harwell told reporters regarding law enforcement talking with Koresh, "Just go out and talk to them, what's wrong with notifying them?" The ATF began surveillance from a house across the road from the compound several months before the siege. Their cover was noticeably poor (the "college students" were in their thirties, had new cars, were not registered at the local schools, and did not keep a schedule that would have fit any legitimate employment or classes). The investigation included sending in an undercover agent, Robert Rodriguez, whose identity Koresh learned, though he chose not to reveal that fact until the day of the raid.
The ATF obtained a search warrant on suspicion that the Davidians were modifying guns to have illegal automatic fire capability. Former Branch Davidian Marc Breault claimed that Koresh had "M16 lower receiver parts"; combining M16 trigger components with a modified AR-15 lower receiver is, according to ATF regulations, "constructive possession" of an unregistered machine gun, regulated in the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986.
The McLennan County sheriff was notified in May and June of that year that two cases of inert grenades, black gunpowder, 90 pounds of powdered aluminum metal, and 30–40 cardboard tubes. Also, the sheriff noticed another shipment of sixty AR-15/M-16 magazines, to which Aguilera made the statement, "I have been involved in many cases where defendants, following a relatively simple process, convert AR-15 semi-automatic rifles to fully automatic rifles of the nature of the M-16" to justify the ATF's involvement in the case.
The ATF had planned their raid for Monday, March 1, 1993, with the code name "Showtime". The ATF later claimed that the raid was moved up a day, to February 28, 1993, in response to the Waco Tribune-Herald's "The Sinful Messiah" series of articles (which the ATF had tried to prevent from being published). The paper had given David a head's up that people were coming for him and his followers. Beginning February 1, ATF agents had three meetings with Tribune-Herald staff regarding a delay in publication of "The Sinful Messiah". The paper was first told by the ATF that the raid would take place February 22, which they changed to March 1, and then ultimately to an indefinite date. ATF agents felt the newspaper had held off publication at the request of the ATF for at least three weeks. In a February 24 meeting between Tribune-Herald staff and ATF agent Phillip Chojancki and two other agents, the ATF could not give the newspaper staff a clear idea of what action was planned or when. The Tribune-Herald informed ATF they were publishing the series, which included an editorial calling for local authorities to act. Personnel of the Tribune-Herald found out about the imminent raid after the first installment of "The Sinful Messiah" had already appeared on February 27.
Although the ATF preferred to arrest Koresh when he was outside Mount Carmel, planners received inaccurate information that Koresh rarely left it. Inaccurate information seems to always be a common denominator, doesn't it?
The Branch Davidian members were well known locally and had cordial relations with other locals. The Branch Davidians partly supported themselves by trading at gun shows and made sure to have the proper paperwork to ensure their transactions were legal. Branch Davidian Paul Fatta was a federal firearms licensed dealer, and the group operated a retail gun business called the Mag Bag. When shipments for the Mag-Bag arrived, they were signed for by Fatta, Steve Schneider, or Koresh. The morning of the raid, Paul Fatta and his son Kalani were on their way to an Austin gun show to conduct business.
The Raid
The ATF attempted to execute their search warrant on Sunday morning, February 28, 1993. The local sheriff, in audiotapes broadcast after the incident, said he was not aware of the raid. Despite being informed that the Branch Davidians knew a raid was coming, the ATF commander ordered that it go ahead, even though their plan depended on reaching the compound without the Branch Davidians being armed and prepared. The blind leading the blind.
Any advantage of surprise was lost when a KWTX-TV reporter who had been tipped off about the raid asked for directions from a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier who was coincidentally Koresh's brother-in-law. Koresh then told undercover ATF agent Robert Rodriguez that they knew a raid was imminent. Rodriguez had infiltrated the Branch Davidians and was astonished to find that his cover had been blown. The agent made an excuse and left the compound, alive shockingly. When asked later what the Branch Davidians had been doing when he left the compound, Rodriguez replied, "They were praying." Branch Davidian survivors have written that Koresh ordered selected male followers to begin arming and taking up defensive positions, while the women and children were told to take cover in their rooms. Koresh told them he would try to speak to the agents, and what happened next would depend on the agents' intentions. The ATF arrived at 9:45 am in a convoy of civilian vehicles containing uniformed personnel in SWAT-style tactical gear.
ATF agents claimed that they heard shots coming from within the compound, while Branch Davidian survivors claimed that the first shots came from the ATF agents outside. When watching the documentary, Waco: Madman or Messiah, in my personal opinion, the ATF started it. A suggested reason may have been an accidental discharge of a weapon, possibly by an ATF agent, causing the ATF to respond with fire from automatic weapons. Here we are again with the ATF not knowing what the hell they were doing. Other reports claim the first shots were fired by the ATF "dog team" sent to kill the dogs in the Branch Davidian kennel. Why the fuck would you go and kill dogs in a kennel? They couldn't get to the FBI and ATF so why just shoot them? Three helicopters of the Army National Guard were used as an aerial distraction, and all took incoming fire. During the first shots, Koresh was wounded, shot in the hand and the stomach. Within a minute of the raid's start, Branch Davidian Wayne Martin called emergency services, pleading for them to stop shooting. Martin asked for a ceasefire, and audiotapes record him saying, "Here they come again!" and "That's them shooting! That's not us!" Maybe the ATF was trigger happy? Maybe they were under the impression that no one would ever blame them. I do. I blame them for the innocence lost that day. Especially the children.
The first ATF casualty was an agent who had made it to the west side of the building before he was wounded. Agents quickly took cover and fired at the buildings while the helicopters began their diversion and swept in low over the complex, 350 feet away from the building. The Branch Davidians fired on the helicopters and hit them, although none of the crewmembers were injured; in response, the helicopter pilots chose to pull away from the compound and land. On the east side of the compound, agents brought out two ladders and set them against the side of the building. They then climbed onto the roof to secure it to reach Koresh's room and the location where they believed weapons were stored. On the west slope of the roof, three agents reached Koresh's window and were crouching beside it when they came under fire. One agent was killed and another wounded. The third agent clambered over the peak of the roof and joined other agents attempting to enter the building. Can we stop for a minute and imagine all of the noise this caused? How scared these little babies and children were. Some even seeing their parents murdered right in front of them. The window was smashed, a flashbang stun grenade was thrown in, and three agents entered the armory. When another tried to follow them, a hail of bullets penetrated the wall and wounded him, but he was able to reach a ladder and slide to safety. An agent fired his shotgun at Branch Davidians until he was hit in the head by return fire and killed. Inside the armory, the agents killed a Branch Davidian and discovered a cache of weapons, but subsequently came under heavy fire; two were wounded. As they escaped, the third agent laid down covering fire, killing a Branch Davidian. As he made his escape, he hit his head on a wooden support beam and fell off the roof but survived. An agent outside provided them with covering fire but was shot by a Branch Davidian and killed instantly. Dozens of ATF agents took cover, many behind Branch Davidian vehicles, and exchanged fire with the Branch Davidians. The number of ATF wounded increased, and an agent was killed by gunfire from the compound as agents were firing at a Branch Davidian perched on top of the water tower. The exchange of fire continued, but 45 minutes into the raid the gunfire began to slow down as agents began to run low on ammunition. The shooting continued for a total of two hours. God knows how many Branch Davidians were killed and wounded.
The siege of the Mount Carmel Center ended on April 19, 1993, when U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno (this bitch that should have never been in any form of power) approved recommendations of FBI officials to proceed with a final advance in which the Branch Davidians would be removed from the Mount Carmel Center by force. In an attempt to flush Koresh out of the building, the FBI resorted to pumping CS gas into the compound with the aid of an M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle, which was equipped with a battering ram. In the course of the advance, the Mount Carmel Center caught fire under circumstances that remain disputed and probably will until the end of time. Barricaded inside the building, 79 Branch Davidians died in the ensuing blaze; 21 of these victims were children under the age of 16. This makes me sick. WHY? Why did the government HAVE to do this on this day? WHY did they (knowing that there were innocent babies and women that were going to die STILL decide to invade. SERIOUSLY? I know David Koresh is not a good person. I know he was crazy, and he had a hold over these people, but was all the bloodshed worth it?
Koresh, then 33, died of a gunshot wound to the head during the course of the fire. It is unknown whether he committed suicide or if he was killed. According to the FBI, Steve Schneider, Koresh's right-hand man, who "probably realized that he was dealing with a fraud," shot and killed Koresh and then committed suicide with the same gun. The medical examiner reported 20 people, including five children under the age of 14, had been shot, and a three-year-old had been stabbed in the chest. This just breaks my heart......
I could go into the aftermath, the autopsy reports, the conspiracy theories, but I choose not to. We all know how it ended. We know that the ATF and FBI once again said they would make "significant changes." What most do not know, is WACO led to the Oklahoma City Bombing. When the events at Mt Caramel were going down, a young Timothy McVeigh was on the street, down the road from the siege, selling merchandise and protesting what was going on. In the documentary, you actually see him.
Timothy McVeigh cited the Waco incident as a primary motivation for the Oklahoma City bombing, his April, 19th 1995 truck bomb attack that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a U.S. government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, and destroyed or damaged numerous other buildings in the vicinity. The attack claimed 168 lives (including 19 children under age 6) and left over 600 injured in the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil before the September 11 attacks. As of 2023, it remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history.
Within days after the bombing, McVeigh and Terry Nichols were both taken into custody for their roles in the bombing. Investigators determined that the two were both sympathizers of an anti-government militia movement and that their motive was to avenge the government's handling of the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents. McVeigh testified that he chose the date of April 19 because it was the second anniversary of the deadly fire at Mount Carmel. In March 1993, McVeigh drove from Arizona to Waco to observe the federal standoff. Along with other protesters, he was photographed by the FBI, and McVeigh himself was briefly interviewed by a television reporter. A courtroom reporter also claims to have later seen McVeigh outside the courthouse at Waco, selling anti-government bumper stickers.
Other events sharing the date of fire at Mt. Carmel have been mentioned in discussions of the Waco siege. The April 20, 1999, Columbine High School massacre might have been timed to mark either an anniversary of the FBI's assault at Waco or Adolf Hitler's birthday. Some of the connections appear coincidental. Eight years before the Waco fire, the ATF and FBI raided another compound of a religious cult: The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord. Some ATF agents who were present at that raid were present at Waco. April 19 was also the date from the American Revolution's opening battles.
See what happens when the government is allowed to do whatever it wishes? See the snowball effect? Deaths could have been prevented. Bloodshed. Three major events, probably more, from mistakes that the government states they learned from, but did they really?
Sources:
Waco Seige-Wikipedia
David Koresh-Wikipedia
Waco: Madman or Messiah: Hulu Documentary
WACO-MAX
Comments