He was the self-proclaimed messiah who looked
like a rock star. A mesmerizing personality and passionate Bible
knowledge combined to allow him to gain ascendancy over a small group of followers, to manipulate
them, use them for his sexual desires and to prepare them for his own version of Armageddon. Early Life
Vernon Wayne Howell, the child who would become David Koresh, was born on August 17th, 1959
in Houston, Texas. His mother, Bonnie Clark, was just 14 at the
time, while his father, carpenter Bobby Howell, was a twenty-year-old drifter who abandoned
his pregnant girlfriend when another girl caught his eye. Bonnie soon took up with a man who was a violent
drunk. They were married, with the union lasting
for just two years. They proved to be tortuous years for the infant,
who would often recall in later life how his step father mistreated him. When the marriage was dissolved, Vernon was
taken in by his maternal grandmother, Earline Clark. He grew into a likeable, mischievous child
who was highly active. In fact, he was given the nickname ‘Sputnik’
due to his boundless energy and in recognition of the Soviet satellite. At age six, Vernon was taken back in by his
mother. Bonnie had just married a man by the name
of Roy Haldeman. When he moved in with his mother she was pregnant
again and, in 1966, she gave birth to Vernon’s younger brother, Roger. Vernon struggled in school, unable to keep
up in elementary school to the extent that he was placed in a remedial class. The other kids in his school soon had a nickname
for him – ‘Mr Retardo’. Years later, Vernon recalled the effect that
this ostracism had on his self esteem . . . I mean, you’re, you know, ‘here comes
the retarded kids.’ And its like I stopped in my tracks. It is believed that one of the main reasons
that Vernon struggled academically was that he suffered from dyslexia, a condition which
was little recognized at the time. He was also a stutterer. It was clear, however, that the boy wasn’t
stupid. He had a natural mechanical ability and loved
nothing more than pulling gadgets apart and then putting them back together again. By the time he was a pre-teen, Vernon’s
affinity with mechanics had morphed into a love for cars. It also led him, in a round -about way, to
music. Finding an abandoned, broken guitar in a barn,
he fixed it up and began teaching himself to play. A Religious Bent Vernon’s other great interest was in religion. His family were Seventh Day Adventists and
his grandmother often had him accompany her to church. He was reared within the moral confines of
that way of worship, which meant no chasing after girls, taking drugs or going to teen
parties. While his peers were engaged in these activities,
Vernon was busy reading the Bible and watching everything religious he could find on TV or
read in books and magazines. By the age of ten, he was able to recite long
passages of scripture and was giving his own mini sermons at home. As a pre-teen, Vernon was still a stutterer. He combined his passion for scripture with
his efforts to overcome this speech impediment by listening to powerful sermons on the radio
and then reciting the preacher’s words. He would study and emulate the vocal skills
of the speaker, discovering that, when he did so, his stutter disappeared. Vernon’s formal schooling finished when
he dropped out during his junior year at Garland High School. The eighteen-year-old gained work as a carpenter
in Garland. It was there that he began a relationship
with a 15-year-old girl. When she fell pregnant, the girl’s father
became enraged. He forced his daughter to break off the relationship
and warned Vernon to stay away. Vernon was in love with the girl, but saw
no option but to heed the father’s advice. By now his family were living in Tyler, Texas. It was there that he approached his local
Seventh Day Adventist elders and revealed his dilemma to them. He told them that he felt a moral obligation
to marry the girl. He was surprised, however, when the elders
tried to persuade him against doing so. He attempted to reason scripturally with them,
only to find that they were getting angry with him. In the end, they ordered him to leave the
church. Finding the Branch Davidians As a result of Vernon’s situation not only
he, but his entire family, were excommunicated from the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Thoroughly disgusted with that organization,
he began looking around for an alternative church. He was told about a group called the Branch
Davidians who were based in Waco, Texas. The Branch Davidians are an off-shoot of an
off-shoot of the Seventh Day Adventist. The original group was founded in 1929 by
a Bulgarian immigrant to the US named Victor Houteff. Originally called The Shepherd’s Rod, the
sect was set up in Waco, Texas. The group were convinced that the Apocalypse
was to occur in 1959. When it didn’t, a group broke away under
the leadership of a man named Benjamin Roden. He called this group the Branch Davidians,
in recognition of their holding to the coming restoration of the Davidic Kingdom of Israel. In 1978, Roden died and his wife, Lois, assumed
leadership of the church. Vernon Howell arrived at the Branch Davidian
compound in 1980. The twenty-year-old had long flowing hair,
a charismatic personality and a self-effacing manner. He appeared to be extremely spiritual to those
he met at the compound, holding to a strict moral code and judging himself as chief among
sinners. He turned up with his guitar and a desire
to use his music to reach young peole with the message of the Lord. Lois Roden was immediately taken with Howell
and she invited him to move into the compound. Before long the two became romantically involved,
despite the fact that she was in her sixties. Lois began to give Vernon growing prominence
as a teacher at the compound. She would give him time at the pulpit so that
he could expound his scriptural interpretations to the congregation. Vernon’s preaching style was very different
to what church goers were used to experiencing. He wore a t-shirt and jeans and spoke with
illustrations that were often startling in their directness. On one occasion he likened sin to snot on
a person’s finger that he just can’t get off. Above all, he acknowledged himself as imperfect,
weak and sinful. Vernon’s natural charisma, his unkempt looks,
the down to earth style and his deep scriptural knowledge were a potent mix. He purposefully positioned himself in the
light of Jesus in opposition to the staid, formulaic and hypocritical Pharisees of mainstream
religion. His status was elevated even further when
he began to proclaim the gift of prophesy. A few months after Vernon had moved in, Lois
made the bombshell public announcement that she was pregnant with his child. She told her followers that this was all part
of God’s divine arrangement. However, she would go on to miscarry the baby. Still, she elevated Vernon as her spiritual
heir and the next leader of the Branch Davidians. Battling for Control Many in the congregation were in agreement
with Lois’ consecration of Vernon as her successor. But there was one who definitely was not,
Lois’ son, George. George viewed Vernon as a dangerous usurper
who had shamefully manipulated his way into his mother’s good graces and was now poised
to take over the leadership that was rightfully George’s to inherit. Over the next three years a power struggle
was to play out between Vernon and George, with the congregation split between the two. Tensions came to a peak in 1984 when George
and his armed supporters forced Vernon and about twenty-five of his followers to leave
the compound at Mt Carmel. For the next two years, this group was situated
at Palestine, Texas, some 90 miles away, where they had to live in buses and tents. During this time, Vernon put his skills into
building up his base of followers. Through his music and the power of his personality
he was able to attract new members from far and wide. In 1985, he travelled to Israel with his pregnant
wife, Rachel Jones, who was one of the congregation members. It was while in the Holy Land that he became
convinced that he was the modern-day incarnation of King Cyrus of Persia. He had been tasked, he claimed, with opening
the Seven Seals of the Book of Revelation and proclaiming them to the world. Back at Mt Carmel, George Roden was acting
increasingly erratically, which was causing his following to decline rapidly. Many in the compound openly supported Vernon
Howell and longed for his return. Lois Roden had died in 1986, and George was
determined to eliminate the threat that Vernon posed to his leadership. He decided to call Vernon out by challenging
him to a resurrection competition. The man that could successfully raise a dead
person would be the acknowledged leader of the church. In order to achieve his ends, a now clearly
psychotic George had a body exhumed. When Vernon heard about this, he went directly
to the authorities and laid a complaint that George had been tampering with a dead body. He was told that the authorities could do
nothing unless they had photographic evidence. In order to obtain the needed proof, Vernon
led seven armed supporters into Mt Carmel. Before they could find the exhumed body, however,
they were discovered by George’s followers and a gunfight broke out. In the skirmish, Roden was wounded. The police broke up the battle and Vernon
and his followers were arrested and put on trial for attempted murder, only to be acquitted
of all charges. Over the next couple of years, as Vernon’s
following at Palestine grew, back at Mt Carmel, George became ever more irrational. When one of his supposed followers challenged
him, claiming to be the messiah, George lost control and killed the man with an axe. This act saw him being sent to a hospital
for the criminally insane. Enter David Koresh With George now well and truly out the way,
Vernon and his followers re-entered the Mt Carmel compound. He was now the undisputed leader of the Branch
Davidians. Not long after his return, he had his name
legally changed to David Koresh. The word Koresh is the Hebrew name for Cyrus,
who David was convinced he was the modern day incarnation of. With his new name came the conviction that
Koresh was more than a prophet – he was the modern-day messiah and the words that
he spoke were of divine origin. As the 1990’s dawned, David Koresh was a
thirty-year-old self- proclaimed messiah with a young wife and two children. He presided over more than a hundred faithful
adherents who lived together in a single large building. Having mastered the fusion of religious music
and inspirational proselytizing, Koresh’s marathon sermons could last all day – and
all night. Still, the believers would hang on to his
every word. Koresh began using his position as the revealer
of God’s will to announce supposedly divine decrees that were increasingly to his personal
advantage. One of the most controversial was that all
of the women in the complex were to be available at any time for his sexual pleasure. This included all married women. Koresh did not confine his sexual liaisons
to adult women. Girls as young as twelve became his sexual
partners. These ones had been convinced that to give
themselves over to God in the form of Koresh was the greatest privilege that they could
attain to. The men at Mt Carmel, including those who
were married, were to remain celibate. This was because there was only one seed that
was holy, and it flowed from Koresh. As a result, the majority of the children
at the complex were his. At the time of his death, he was father to
15 sons and daughters. While the majority of the Branch Davidians
accepted this arrangement as the will of God, there were a handful of dissenters who left
the church because of it. Some of those who left were Australian. After returning Down Under, they made a beeline
for the American Embassy where charges of child abuse were laid. Back in the United States, other defectors
made similar charges. In response to the allegations, Child Protective
Services sent investigators to the Mt Carmel complex. Their specific brief, however, was to assess
the validity of an accusation that children had access to firearms. Koresh showed the agents that the firearms
were all under lock and key and Child Protective Services closed the case. In the wake of the defections, Koresh became
increasingly angry and violent towards his followers. When one woman expressed a desire to take
her child and leave, he denied her permission and, to teach her a lesson, raped her. He then went on to recount the incident as
a warning to the congregation. At the same time, his sermons became darker,
with a constant theme of the coming day of judgment. He told his followers that Armageddon was
going to be initiated right there at Mt Carmel and that they had to be prepared to give up
their lives in order to usher in the Davidic Kingdom. Arming the Fortress By 1992, Koresh had imbued a siege mentality
into the minds of his followers. The governmental authorities were the agents
of the Devil and they were preparing for a cataclysmic showdown with the true followers
of God who were holed up at Waco. By divine inspiration, Koresh revealed that
he had been instructed to stockpile weapons at the compound. David soon discovered that the trading of
guns was a lucrative business, providing much needed funds for the ongoing costs associated
with the compound. He would have members buying up cheap weapons
and then selling them at gun trade shows. Any excess fund would be used to build up
their arsenal. Meanwhile the information about the presence
of weapons at Mt Carmel had been passed on by the agents who had visited from Child Protective
Services to the FBI who had, in turn, given it to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The ATF now began surveillance of the property. The situation went up a notch when a UPS delivery
package was seen by agents to contain hand grenades, which were illegal. This discovery led to an 8-month investigation
which revealed a trail of everything from grenade launchers to assault weapons ending
up at Mt Carmel. By early November, 1992 the ATF had amassed
enough evidence to take Koresh into custody. They were worried though that his followers,
who sincerely belived that he was the messiah, would fight to stop them taking him away. They could have arrested him when he was in
town buying supplies but, for some reason, chose not to. Instead they placed some undercover agents
in a small cabin that was situated right in front of the entrance to the compound. One of the agents, Robert Rodriguez, managed
to befriend members of the group and get himself invited to a Bible study class where he could
observe Koresh up close. The ATF concluded that Koresh was an imminent
danger to society who could unleash his followers and their lethal force upon any target at
any time. They decided that the best course of action
was to stage a raid on the complex. The date was set for February 28th, 1992. An hour before the raid was scheduled to go
down, undercover agent Rodriguez went into the compound and showed Koresh tht morning’s
copy of the local paper with its blazing headline ‘The Sinful Messiah’ alongside a picture
of Koresh. Koresh, who had already been informed that
there was a build-up of law enforcement and media around the area, told Rodriguez that
he knew that the ATF were about to attack. Upon exiting Mt Carmel, Rodriguez tried to
warn his ATF bosses that Koresh already knew about the surprise raid. But it was too late; fully armed agents were
already closing in on the compound. To this day it remains unclear as to which
side fired first, but within minutes a fierce firefight was underway. More than 70 ATF officers were secreted around
the building while army helicopters circled above. Inside, Branch Davidian members poured fire
on the invaders who had come to take away their messiah. The shooting lasted for more than sixty minutes. Koresh was hit in the wrist, while six of
his followers were shot dead. Four ATF agents were also killed. As the fighting continued, Koresh made a phone
call to the local police department, urging that the raid be stopped. The request fell on deaf ears, and he hung
up and proceeded to go upstairs. It was then that he was wounded a second time,
this time more seriously. The bullet penetrated his hip, confining him
to the floor. When the shooting ended, the ATF had multiple
casualties and no David Koresh. Their handling of the raid was roundly condemned,
leading to the intervention of the FBI. With worldwide attention now focused on Waco,
the new men in charge were determined to end the stand off as quickly as possible. The Siege The final battle that Koresh had been proclaiming
for so many years was now upon his followers. With him were 117 of the faithful, including
46 children. Nobody wanted to leave, but Koresh sent out
14 children, none of which were his offspring, in the days after the raid. Koresh’s main pre-occupation during the
siege, which was to last for 51 days, was to get his message about the Seven Seals out
to the world. The raid had created a media frenzy and he
belived that he could capitalizes on the publicity to get the word out. For hours on end he proselytized over the
phone to FBI negotiators. Three days after the raid, Koresh agreed to
bring out all of his followers if he could get one of his sermons aired on the radio. This was duly complied with but Koresh failed
to live up to his side of the bargain, claiming that God had told him to hold off until he
received further instruction. After two weeks, food, water and milk for
the young children was running dangerously low inside the compound. Koresh told his slowly starving followers
that the hardship they were facing was a direct test of their faith in him. Things got worse when the FBI cut off all
power to the complex and began playing loud music and shining blazing lights throughout
the night to prevent the Branch Davidians from sleeping. Still the people inside would not budge. Koresh had been letting out a trickle of people
thus far but now he angrily declared that no one else would leave Mt Carmel so long
as the government kept up the torment. An increasingly frustrated FBI now brought
in Abrams tanks which proceeded to smash and destroy all property outside the compound,
including vehicles. With the pressure tactics falling flat, the
FBI allowed a defense attorney, hired by Koresh’s mother, to go in and talk to his client. Koresh told the lawyer that he knew that the
government would not let him live. Even though the FBI had offered to arrange
for a worldwide television broadcast of his message if he promised to come out, his trust
in them was shattered and he refused the offer. There was a breakthrough of sorts on April
14th when Koresh announced that God had instructed him to write down the entire message of the
Seven Seals of Revelation. When this majestic work was completed he promised,
the siege would be over and the Branch Davidians would come out. The seven seals offer, however, was never
passed on to US Attorney General Janet Reno who, on April 17th, authorized a plan to use
tanks and tear gas to bring the siege to an end. End Times The end began at 6am on April 19th when an
FBI agent phoned Koresh and told him that tear gas was being placed in the building
by mechanical arms attached to tanks. He stressed that it was not an assault and
urged the Davidians not to fire their weapons. The tank smashed into the building as it delivered
CS gas. Inside the people were in agony, unable to
breath and feeling as if their throats and lungs were on fire. Still nobody came out. After six hours, a fire erupted which quickly
got out of control. Now, surely, onlookers reasoned, those inside
would come out. But it wasn’t to be. The fire raged through the building, killing
79 people including 22 children. Koresh had made his way to the chapel. With the flames closing in he died of a gunshot
wound to the head. Nobody knows whether or not he claimed his
own life.
