The Branch Davidians and the Waco Siege

The Branch Davidians were heirs to one of the great American traditions of prophecy. The Seventh-day Adventist Church grew from the Millerite movement of the 1840s and taught that Christ’s return was near. In the 1920s and 1930s a Bulgarian-born Adventist teacher in California, Victor Houteff, argued that the church had become worldly and that God would gather a purified remnant before the end. Expelled for his views, Houteff led his followers, who became known as Davidians, to a property near Waco, Texas, in 1935, which they named Mount Carmel.

After Houteff’s death in 1955 the movement split. His widow predicted that the end would come in 1959, and when it did not, most followers left. A rival leader, Benjamin Roden, had founded a faction called the Branch, and in the 1960s his group took over Mount Carmel, now on a new site east of Waco. After Benjamin’s death in 1978, his wife Lois led the community and taught, among other things, that the Holy Spirit was feminine.

Such groups are often labelled cults. Scholars of religion usually prefer the term “new religious movement”, because “cult” is a contested label that can shape how outsiders, including the authorities, respond to a group. The debate over that word is central to the story of Waco.

In 1981 a young man from Texas named Vernon Howell joined the community. He had a remarkable memory for scripture and won Lois Roden’s support, which brought him into conflict with her son George. In 1987 the rivalry ended in a gunfight at Mount Carmel; Howell and several followers were tried for attempted murder, the others were acquitted and the jury could not agree on Howell. By 1988 his group controlled the property, and in 1990 Howell changed his name to David Koresh, after King David and Cyrus, the Persian king the Bible calls God’s anointed.

Koresh’s teaching centred on the Book of Revelation, and especially on the scroll sealed with seven seals that only the Lamb can open. He taught that he was the figure chosen to open them in the last days, and that the community would face a final confrontation with Babylon, the forces of the world, before the kingdom of God. His Bible studies could last for many hours, weaving together passages from across the Bible.

Daily life at Mount Carmel combined Adventist customs, such as the Saturday Sabbath and food rules, with the leader’s growing authority over every part of life. From 1989 Koresh taught what he called the New Light: he alone could have children in the community, who would form the House of David, and married men were to live celibate lives. Justice Department reviews and testimony before Congress in 1995 described sexual abuse of under-age girls by Koresh, although a 1992 Texas child welfare investigation had closed without action. The group also ran businesses, including trading in guns and military supplies at gun shows, and stockpiled weapons for the end they expected.

In 1992 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms began investigating reports that the community was illegally converting weapons. On 28 February 1993 more than seventy agents raided Mount Carmel to serve search and arrest warrants. The community had been warned, and the ATF went ahead although its commanders knew that the element of surprise had been lost. A gun battle followed in which four agents and six Davidians were killed, and many on both sides were wounded.

The FBI took over and surrounded the property. Over the next 51 days negotiators spoke with Koresh and his deputies by telephone, and 35 people, including 21 children, came out. Koresh promised to surrender after broadcasting a sermon, then said God had told him to wait. In April he said he would come out once he had written his interpretation of the Seven Seals. Meanwhile the FBI used pressure tactics such as cutting power, floodlights and loud noise at night. Inside the FBI, negotiators and the tactical teams disagreed over strategy, and later reviews found that the pressure tactics undercut the negotiators’ efforts to build trust.

On 19 April 1993, with the approval of Attorney General Janet Reno, the FBI began inserting tear gas into the building using armoured vehicles, which also breached its walls. Around noon, fire broke out in several places and spread quickly. Nine people escaped. About 76 died, including Koresh and some 25 children; investigators found that some of them had been killed inside the building by other Davidians rather than by the fire, a finding critics also contest.

Waco produced a series of official reviews. In 1993 the Treasury Department criticised the ATF’s planning and its decision to go ahead with the raid, and the Justice Department reviewed the FBI’s actions. Congress held hearings in 1995. In 1994 a federal jury in San Antonio acquitted eleven Davidians of conspiracy to murder federal agents, but convicted several of voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges. A civil suit brought by survivors and relatives against the government was rejected in 2000.

Doubts about the government’s account grew in 1999, when it emerged that the FBI had fired a small number of pyrotechnic tear gas rounds early on 19 April, at a structure some distance from the main building, and had not disclosed this. The special counsel John Danforth concluded in 2000 that government agents had not started the fire or fired on the Davidians that day, while criticising the failure to disclose. Critics, including some scholars and survivors, still dispute parts of these findings.

Scholars such as James Tabor and Eugene Gallagher argued that negotiators failed to understand the religious language Koresh spoke, and that taking his biblical framework seriously might have ended the siege differently. Waco became a symbol for very different groups: for some, of a dangerous sect; for others, of government overreach. Small successor groups exist, and a church has been built on the site.