The New Christ: "A Sinner Without Equal"

Vernon Howell, or David Koresh

In 1987, a man named Vernon Wayne Howell decided that he had been chosen as the son of God and that the Second Coming was nigh. He took the name David Koresh after joining a religious sect known as the Branch Davidians and wresting control away from the previous leader, George Roden. Koresh believed that his position as the leader of the Branch Davidians gave him the right to take up to 140 wives, including underage girls. He fathered over a dozen children, including with girls aged 12 and 13.

The Branch Davidians stockpiled automatic weapons and took potshots in the air. In 1992, automatic gunfire alerted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and they began to consider conducting a raid. A UPS driver reported that a package he delivered to the Mount Carmel Center, where Koresh was holed up, had broken open. Grenade casings, guns, and black powder had fallen out.

On February 27, 1993, the Waco Tribune-Herald published a series of articles about Koresh and his questionable practices:

If you are a Branch Davidian, Christ lives on a threadbare piece of land 10 miles east of here called Mount Carmel. He has dimples, claims a ninth-grade education, married his legal wife when she was 14, enjoys a beer now and then, plays a mean guitar, reportedly packs a 9 mm Glock and keeps an arsenal of military assault rifles, and willingly admits that he is a sinner without equal.

—"The Sinful Messiah", Waco Tribune-Herald 

First Raid

The Branch Davidian flag

On February 28, 1993, one day after the Waco Tribune-Herald published the article about Koresh, the ATF commenced the raid on the Mount Carmel Center. ATF agents wrote their blood type on their arms and necks in case they needed immediate transfusions. Then they went in.

The raid hinged on the idea that no Branch Davidians would know of the impending ATF action. A local TV van, hoping to get coverage of the raid, asked a USPS driver for directions. The driver was David Koresh's brother-in-law, and he immediately contacted Koresh to inform him of the coming raid. All hope of surprise was lost because of this blunder.

At 9:45 in the morning, the first gunshots rang out across the Mount Carmel Center. The ATF may have been the first to fire. Or it might have been the Branch Davidians. Nobody knows for sure, but once those shots were fired, all hell broke loose. The National Guard flew three helicopters over the Mount Carmel center as a distraction. All were fired upon, and in the chaos, David Koresh was shot twice—once in the hand, once in the stomach.

The raid lasted two hours. According to an ATF agent, "We were running out of ammunition. The Davidians, however, had plenty." A local sheriff department negotiated a ceasefire, and both the ATF and the Branch Davidians withdrew.


Siege

The FBI took control of the situation after the ceasefire was negotiated. They were led by FBI Hostage Rescue Team Commander Richard Rogers, who had been criticized for his leadership during a very similar situation at Ruby Ridge less than a year before.

The February raid had destroyed two of the three water tanks in the compound, and eventually, the denizens of the Mount Carmel Center had to live off military MREs—"Meal Ready to Eat" packets—that they had stockpiled, collecting rainwater to drink.

David Koresh conducted phone interviews with local news stations until the FBI cut his communication with the outside world. He told the FBI that he would surrender if they broadcast a message on national TV. They did. Then Koresh said that God had told him to wait in Mount Carmel. Despite this failed negotiation, the FBI did manage to get 19 of the 42 children in the Center released. 51 days passed as the situation inside the Mount Carmel Center gradually deteriorated. Koresh negotiated for more and more time to finish writing religious documents. Finally, the FBI decided that the siege had too much potential to go bad. They thought a second Jonestown mass suicide might happen, so they decided to end the siege.

Second Raid

ATF agents take shelter behind an M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle during the final shootout of the siege. April 19, 1993.

Mount Carmel Center during the siege

The final raid began April 19. 1993, at 5:50 AM. Ten minutes later, at 6 in the morning,  the FBI heard a man inside the compound saying "Things are poured, right?" The "things" turned out to be cans of kerosene fuel that were used to start massive fires around noon.

The FBI pumped in tear gas and deployed tanks to try and take the compound. The fires that broke out at noon burned this gas and turned it to cyanide, killing around 20 people. Many killed each other so that they wouldn't burn to death; victims included children as young as 3.

Mount Carmel Center after the second raid

At 3:45, David Koresh's second-in-command shot the religious leader and then turned the gun on himself. Koresh's reign had come to a brutal end. 76 people total died in the final raid. There were only 12 survivors.

Two years later, Timothy McVeigh, citing the Waco siege as motive, blew up an FBI building in Oklahoma City.

Sources:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/waco/stonerpt.html

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Report_on_David_Koresh

https://archive.org/details/eventssurroundin00unit/page/130
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/31/sacred-and-profane-4