The FBI's Most Controversial Operation | Tales From the Bottle

if you've been following me for a while you may have seen my video on Ruby rage the unbelievable story of an FBI siege on a man's home the poor handling of which resulted in the death of his wife and child but less than a year later the FBI would lead another siege on a much grander scale and with an even more tragic ending an event that has tarnished the FBI's reputation ever since it occurred two decades ago I'm talking about the Waco Siege in the 1930s Victor hot F split from the seventh-day Adventist Church forming the religious group known as the Davidians so named after the biblical King David and buying a plot of land in Waco Texas that he named Mount Carmel the Davidians believed that the apocalypse was soon approaching and you know when the story starts with people anticipating the end of the world some crazy [ __ ] is about to happen any time I'm watching a documentary or a video here on YouTube and the narrator tells me there's a religious group who believed the end is nigh I get chills ooh boy were in for it now after Victor hoteth died in 1955 one of his followers Benjamin Roden took control of part of the group forming the Branch Davidians Benjamin himself died in 1978 leaving his wife Lois as the head of the sect and their son George as presumed successor in 1981 a man in his early 20s arrived at Mount Carmel Vernon Howell he quickly became a popular member of the Branch Davidians and it was rumored he began an affair with Louis Roden as his influence grew she would have been in her 60s gross how was growing support was contested by George who evicted Harold from the Mount Carmel property Vernon Howell left with a small number of followers and set up his own camp elsewhere in Texas Louis died in 1986 leaving George as the de facto leader of the Branch Davidians but his support was not complete in 1987 George Rowton exhumed a female body from the church's cemetery and was supposedly trying to resurrect it upon learning this Vernon Howell decided it was time to make a surprise visit to the Mount Carmel site supposedly his aim was to sneak into the compound to get photographic evidence of the casket that he could present to the authorities some say this is not the case and Howell was only going to start a fight which is supported by the fact that he was accompanied by seven camouflage men with over a dozen weapons Howell claims that this was to protect themselves in the event that they were accosted in their mission to take a photo of the body which had been exhumed for the purposes resurrection this is already [ __ ] insane as you can probably imagine very little photography was performed on this day and the site erupted into a gun battle between George Rowton and Vernon Halley's followers George was wounded but the firefight was ultimately broken up by the sheriff's deputies Howell and his followers were charged with attempted murder his followers were all acquitted and Vernon Howells case ended in mistrial George Rowton had his own legal difficulties after murdering a man with an axe in 1989 with Roden out of the picture Howell moved back into Mount Carmel and took over becoming the leader of the Branch Davidians but it turned out Roden had not been paying taxes on the property so Howell and his followers were able to pay off all the back taxes and took legal control of Mount Carmel so there you go learned from George's mistake the tax man did what a armed men couldn't he can get into trouble with the Mafia militias terrorists or cults but don't [ __ ] with the taxman there was probably enough content there for a separate video but that's just the background honestly there's enough in the entire story for at least three videos but I'm putting it all in one I'm either a very generous content creator or a particularly unsaved a businessman I should take example from Peter Jackson of the Lord of the Rings and hobbits films three books equals three movies one book equals three movies the math seems questionable until you realize six movies equals six money's over the next few years Vernon Howell became a cult of personality as the leader of the Branch Davidians and a messianic figure changing his name in 1992 David Koresh David being a reference to King David and Koresh being Hebrew for Cyrus another biblical King he took multiple wives some of which were allegedly underage had multiple children by them and preached the Davidian belief of impending doom under David's leadership the group is often described as a cult over a hundred people lived on the compound many of them families and many people meant many guns the Branch Davidians had hundreds of guns on site which is a surefire way to bring the attention of the feds in 1992 the ATF began an investigation into the Davidians owning illegal firearms they believed they were modifying weapons to be capable of automatic fire On February 28th in 1993 the ATF plans to raid Mount Carmel and search for illegal weaponry and arrest David Koresh a TV reporter had been tipped off about the raid and was on his way to film he stops to ask for directions from a mailman informing him of what's about to happen unbeknownst to him the mailman was a Davidian and rushed back to the compound to warn the rest of the Davidians of the impending raid about an hour later the ATF makes their move on the compound heavy gunfire breaks out it's hotly contested which side fired first the situation evolves into the ATF firing into the building attempting to breach it the Davidians firing out trying to prevent them helicopters performing aerial diversion take fire and need to be grounded agents bring out ladders and climb onto the roof with the intent of coming through the windows and securing the armed storage on the west side agents receive heavy fire from the window one is killed on the east a group of agents break in with a flashbang they fight their way into the room where one is killed and more are wounded a Branch Davidian is killed and the agents reportedly discover a cache of weapons but are forced to retreat under heavy fire as they make their escape and agent lien covering fire hits and kills the Davidian now retreating from the building an agent is killed the ATF hunkers down and exchanges fire with the Branch Davidians one is killed by fire from a water tower after two hours of shooting the ATF is running out of ammo the Sheriff Department negotiates a ceasefire the Branch Davidians allow the dead and wounded to be evacuated from Mount Carmel at the end of the day for ATF agents are dead and over a dozen more are wounded six Branch Davidians are dead and several wounded including David Curry himself by the first of March the FBI takes over on the siege of Waco begins nearly 900 agents surround Mount Carmel with military vehicles including combat engineering vehicles and even tanks a team of negotiators establish a line of communications with David Koresh over the next 51 days the negotiators treat with the Davidians offering them food and supplies in exchange for letting children out of the compound with so many kids in the compound and the unstable nature of Koresh's followers the negotiation team saw the operation as a delicate one on a sort of hostage rescue they feared the Davidians might turn to mass suicide as had happened in 1987 in Jonestown they came into conflict with the FBI's tactical teams who often undermined their efforts by cutting power and water to the Davidians crushing their cars with military vehicles and shining intense lights into the building and blaring music to the private 'm of sleep understandably this annoyed the negotiators son obviously pissed off the Davidians to making it harder to negotiate with them and really why were you trying to use psychological warfare on people who you think are crazy what's the wind state here but we've got what is essentially a heavily armed cult-like militia holed up with a bunch of children what's the best way to approach this situation oh I know better drive from [ __ ] mad internally the siege only strengthened David Koresh's beliefs he was the Lamb of God the end was upon them and they were forced to defend their holy kingdom to the death for the Davidians the siege was marked with a lot of prayer time and in negotiations David's demands were often for media broadcasts of his religious messages he allows unwilling followers to surrender and permits children to be evacuated as part of the negotiations but many more stay by his side after a while it seemed to the FBI that the negotiations were going nowhere and cited signs of abuse from released children as a reason to act now they were given the go-ahead to use CS gas to force the Davidians out of the compound they would later admit there was no evidence of ongoing child abuse on the morning of April 19th the FBI's combat engineering vehicles begin to rhyme the compound and pump in gas the FBI claims the vehicles take fire but they are well protected the FBI does not shoot back for over six hours the compound is flooded with over 400 canisters of gas many davidians are equipped with the gas masks unknown leaves and then the fires breakout officially the fires were deliberately started by Koresh and his followers although some maintain that that is not the case years later was found that some of the gas the FBI used was flammable under certain conditions but FBI bugs had recorded the Davidians talking about spreading fuel during the siege so it seems likely it was a deliberate fire there was no attempt made to rescue those in the building only nine Davidians emerged from the flames the building burned to the ground 76 Davidians were found dead in the rubble many of them children causes of death ranged from suffocation to crushing x' from falling rubble to gunshot wounds it's speculated these arose from suicide or execution or even mercy killings as the fire blazed on with no way out David Koresh was among those fatally shot the Waco Siege resulted in investigations Davidian survivors being incarcerated lawsuits against the government most of which were dismissed and a permanent stain on the FBI and ATF legacies President Bill Clinton said of the incident I do not think the United States government is responsible for the fact that a bunch of fanatics decided to kill themselves and what an awful conclusion to come to there are around 20 children killed in a fire any situation that results in that kind of catastrophic tragedy is poorly handled how could you ever regard a standoff with a group of armed people and their children a success when the resolution is that they're all dead the place has been razed to the ground especially when saving the children was it just a fire for taking action not exactly delicate handling is it but when your only tool is a Hammer Every Problem looks like a nail even respecting the authorities decision to come after the Davidians who they saw as a doomsday occult impossible militia potentially stockpiling illegal weapons and potentially abusing kids it's understandable they'd intervened suspecting them of this but even if all those things are true you can't really argue with the results it's unjustifiable you have a hard time raising the flag of victory on a mound of ashes that used to be smiling children many today still point to the sieges of Waco and Ruby Ridge which happened within a year of one another has evidence of a tyrannical government I don't know if I go that far but they're certainly not evidence of a utopian government one of these critics was Timothy McVeigh seeking revenge against the government for Waco and Ruby Ridge McVeigh went on to commit the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history but that's a video for another time we because we lost our lonesome where you come Hardy was made you can't point guns but in the direction of my wives and my kids dammit I'll meet you through any time and I'm sorry some of you guys got shot but uh hey dog let's sort out our only

Channel: Qxir

Views: 898,360

Rating: 4.9315624 out of 5

Keywords: waco siege, david koresh, branch davidians, explained, netflix, footage, FBI, ATF, siege, operation, raid, cult, cults, bust, texas, fire

Id: asuU2TmA4-Y

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/vk059]

Oklahoma City bombing should be his next video