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The Branch Davidians


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The Branch Davidians

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One of the most tragic and controversial incidents in Texas history occurred in 1993 at a compound known as Mt. Carmel on a ranch near Waco. The compound was occupied by the Branch Davidians, a heavily armed religious cult led by a charismatic guru named David Koresh. Spurred by allegations of child abuse inside the compound, federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempted to serve a warrant on February 28, 1993, only to find themselves in a massive firefight, during which several agents and Davidians were killed. A fifty-day siege ensued, culminating on April 19 with a nationally televised assault on the compound with armored vehicles and tear gas. During the assault, a fire consumed the entire compound, killing 74 people, 23 of whom were children.

 

In 1997, an Emmy award-winning documentary, Waco: The Rules of Engagement,called into question the government’s version of events and the poor judgment that led to the standoff and the eventual disaster. A subsequent investigation by former U.S. Senator John C. Danforth determined that the fire had been set by the Davidians themselves, though his report was also critical of the decision-making by federal authorities as well as the lack of candor in the aftermath of the tragedy.

 

The disaster at Mt. Carmel became a rallying cry for some of the far-right of the political spectrum; Scissors-32x32.pnghttp://www.texasmonthly.com/topics/branch-davidians

 

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The Fire That Time

 

On April 19, 1993, the world watched as the Branch Davidian compound, outside Waco, burned to the ground after a 51-day standoff. Fifteen years later, witnesses and participants—from federal agents to loyal followers of David Koresh—remember what they saw during the deadliest law enforcement operation in U.S. history.

BY PAMELA COLLOFF Scissors-32x32.png

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/fire-time

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David Koresh: Millennial Violence

BY Katherine Ramsland

Both Sides Prepare A number of people, both witnesses and historians, have tried to accurately document the facts of what happened on February 28th, 1993 in Waco, Texas in the clash between law enforcement and a religious group known as the Branch Davidians. No one seems able to write about those events in an unbiased manner, since it seems that the whole thing was preventable. fEven the academics appear to have a cause, so it's difficult at times to piece together what actually happened and who was to blame. Was Koresh a manipulative psychopath who exploited an opportunity, as many FBI agents claim, or was he just a deluded religious leader whose private play was suddenly exposed on the world's stage? Perhaps we'll never know.

 

Hostage negotiator Christopher Whitcomb, writing in Cold Zero, and true crime writer Clifford Linedecker in Massacre at Waco, Texas both present a chronology of the facts on that momentous Sunday morning. Scissors-32x32.png

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/not_guilty/koresh/1.html

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