On
this date, April 19, 1995, the 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building
outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die. I
will post information about David Koresh from Wikipedia and other links.
David Koresh
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Born
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Died
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April 19, 1993 (aged 33)
Mount Carmel Center McLennan County, Texas, U.S. |
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Cause of
death
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Gunshot
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Body
discovered
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Branch Davidian ranch
McLennan County, Texas, U.S. |
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Resting
place
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Memorial Park Cemetery
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Residence
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Elk, Texas, U.S.
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Occupation
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Religious leader of Branch
Davidians
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Known for
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Spouse(s)
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Rachel Jones
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Children
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Parent(s)
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David
Koresh (born Vernon Wayne Howell; August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993) was the
American leader of the Branch Davidians religious sect, believing himself to be
its final prophet.
Coming
from a dysfunctional family background, Koresh claimed to become a Christian in
the Seventh-day Adventist Church, before joining a splinter group, based at the
Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas, which took the name Branch Davidians.
Here he competed for dominance with another leader named George Roden, until
Roden was jailed for murdering another rival. Koresh was then accused of
seducing a 13-year-old girl, apparently with her parents’ consent, a
relationship that he sanctified as a ‘spiritual marriage’. But it was the
serving of arrest and search warrants by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives as part of an investigation into illegal possession of firearms
and explosives that provoked the historic 1993 raid on the center. Four ATF
agents and six Davidians were killed during the initial two-hour firefight,
both sides claiming the other side fired first. The subsequent siege by the FBI
ended with the burning of the center, where Koresh and 79 others were found
dead after the fire.
Early
life
Koresh
was born Vernon Wayne Howell on August 17, 1959 in Houston,
Texas, to a 14-year-old single mother, Bonnie Sue Clark (September 8, 1944
– January 23, 2009). His father was Bobby Wayne Howell (August 3, 1939 – July
16, 2008). Before Koresh was born, his father met another teenage girl and
abandoned Bonnie Sue. Koresh never met his father, and his mother began cohabitating
with a violent alcoholic.
In
1963, Koresh's mother left her boyfriend and placed her 4-year-old son in the
care of his maternal grandmother, Earline Clark. His mother returned when he
was seven, after her marriage to a carpenter named Roy Haldeman. Haldeman and
Clark had a son together named Roger, who was born in 1966. Koresh described
his early childhood as lonely, and it has been alleged that he was once
gang-raped by older boys when he was 8. Due to his poor study skills and
dyslexia, he was put in special
education classes and nicknamed "Vernie" by his fellow students.
Koresh dropped out of Garland High School in his junior year.
When
he was 22, Koresh had an affair with a 15-year-old girl who became pregnant. He
claimed to have become a born-again Christian in the Southern Baptist Church and soon joined his
mother's church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There he
fell in love with the pastor's daughter and while praying for guidance he
opened his eyes and allegedly found the Bible open at Isaiah
34, stating that "...none should want for her mate..."; convinced
this was a sign from God, he approached the pastor and told him that God wanted
him to have his daughter for a wife. The pastor threw him out, and when he
continued to persist with his pursuit of the daughter he was expelled from the
congregation.
In
1982, he moved to Waco, Texas, where he joined the Branch
Davidians, not to be confused with the original Davidian Seventh-day Adventist
group. A man named Ben Roden originated the Branch group. Roden had studied
under Victor Houteff but upon the death of Houteff in 1955, he formed his own
group with new teachings that were not connected with the original Davidians.
Koresh played guitar and sang in church services at Mount Carmel Center. His
band played a few times at clubs in Waco, and former members (such as David
Thibodeau) have written that he recruited them through music. Koresh also tried
pursuing his own record company but because of lack of funds and support was
not successful.
Ascent
to leadership of the Branch Davidians
In
1983, Koresh began claiming the gift of prophecy. It
is speculated that he had a sexual relationship with Lois Roden,
the prophetess and leader of the sect, who was then 65 years old, eventually
claiming that God had chosen him to father a child with her, who would be the
Chosen One. In 1983, Lois Roden allowed Koresh to begin teaching his own
message, called "The Serpent's Root," which caused controversy in the
group. Lois Roden's son George Roden intended to be the group's next leader
and considered Koresh an interloper. When Koresh announced that God had
instructed him to marry Rachel Jones (who then added Koresh to her name), there
was a short period of calm at Mount Carmel Center, but it proved only
temporary. In the ensuing power struggle, George Roden, claiming to have the
support of the majority of the group, forced Koresh and his group off the
property at gunpoint.
Disturbed
by the events and the move away from the philosophy of the community's
founders, a further splinter group led by Charles Joseph Pace, a Branch
Davidian since 1973, moved out of Mount Carmel Center and set up a home church
called Living Waters Branch of Righteousness in Gadsden,
Alabama.
In
1985, Koresh and around 25 followers set up camp at Palestine,
Texas, 90 miles (140 km) from Waco, where they lived under rough
conditions in buses and tents for the next two years, during which time Koresh
undertook recruitment of new followers in California, the United Kingdom,
Israel and Australia. That same year Koresh traveled to Israel where he claimed
he had a vision that he was the modern day Cyrus.
The founder of the Davidian movement, Victor
Houteff, wanted to be God's implement and establish the Davidic kingdom in
Palestine. Koresh also wanted to be God's tool and set up the Davidic kingdom
in Jerusalem. At least until 1990, he believed the place of his martyrdom might
be in Israel, but by 1991 he was convinced that his martyrdom would be in the
United States. Instead of Israel, he said the prophecies of Daniel would be
fulfilled in Waco and that the Mount Carmel Center was the Davidic kingdom.
After
being exiled to the Palestine camp, Koresh and his followers eked out a
primitive existence. When Lois Roden died in 1986, the exiled Branch Davidians
wondered if they would ever be able to return to Mount Carmel Center. But
despite the displacement, "Koresh now enjoyed the loyalty of the majority
of the [Branch Davidian] community". By late 1987, George Roden's support
was in steep decline. To regain it, he challenged Koresh to a contest to raise
the dead, going so far as to exhume a corpse to demonstrate his spiritual
supremacy. Koresh went to authorities to file charges against Roden for
illegally exhuming a corpse, but was told he would have to show proof (such as
a photograph of the corpse). Koresh seized the opportunity to seek criminal
prosecution of Roden by returning to Mount Carmel Center with seven armed
followers attempting to get photographic proof of the crime. Koresh's group was
discovered by Roden and a gunfight broke out. When the sheriff arrived, Roden
had already suffered a minor gunshot wound and was pinned down behind a tree.
As a result of the incident, Koresh and his followers were charged with
attempted murder. At the trial, Koresh explained that he went to Mount Carmel
Center to uncover evidence of criminal disturbance of a corpse by Roden.
Koresh's followers were acquitted, and in Koresh's case a mistrial
was declared.
In
1989, Roden murdered Wayman Dale Adair with an axe blow to the skull after
Adair stated his belief that he (Adair) was the true messiah. Roden
was convicted of murder and imprisoned in a mental hospital at Big Spring,
Texas. Since Roden owed thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes on Mount Carmel
Center, Koresh and his followers were able to raise the money and reclaim the
property. Roden continued to harass the Koresh faction by filing legal papers
while imprisoned. When Koresh and his followers reclaimed Mount Carmel Center,
they discovered that tenants who had rented from Roden had left behind a methamphetamine
laboratory, which Koresh reported to the local police department and asked to
have removed.
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If the Bible is true, then I'm
Christ.
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/802550]
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Name
change
Vernon
Howell filed a petition in California State Superior Court in Pomona on May 15,
1990, to legally change his name "for publicity and business
purposes" to David Koresh. On August 28, 1990, Judge Robert Martinez
granted the petition. Koresh is the Persian name of Cyrus
the Great (کوروش, Kurosh), a Persian king who is named a Messiah for
freeing Jews during the Babylonian Captivity. His first name, David, symbolized
a lineage directly to the biblical King David, from whom the new messiah would
descend. By taking the name of David Koresh, he was "professing himself to
be the spiritual descendant of King David, a messianic figure carrying out a divinely
commissioned errand."
Accusations
of child abuse and statutory rape
The
child abuse and sexual abuse claims have been widely circulated in the press
coverage though it is often difficult to separate the purported claims from the
evidence. Koresh's doctrine of the House of David did lead to
"marriages" with both married and single women in the group and with
at least one underage girl. The underage girl was Michelle Jones, the younger
sister of Koresh's legal wife Rachel and the daughter of lifelong Branch
Davidians Perry and Mary Belle Jones. Koresh had sex with Michelle when she was
thirteen, evidently with the consent of the Joneses. This means Koresh was in
violation of state law and could have been prosecuted for statutory rape in
Texas. A six-month investigation of child abuse allegations by the Texas Child
Protection Services in 1992 failed to turn up any evidence, most likely because
the Branch Davidians concealed the spiritual marriage of Koresh to Michelle
Jones, assigning a surrogate husband (David Thibodeau) to the girl for the sake
of appearances. A second allegation involved an underage girl, Kiri Jewell, who
testified in the Congressional hearings in Waco in 1995. She claimed that,
beginning from when she was ten years old, Koresh forced her to perform sexual
acts.
Regarding
the allegations of child abuse, the evidence is less sure. In one widely
reported incident, ex-members claimed that Koresh became irritated with the
cries of his son Cyrus and spanked the child severely for several minutes on
three consecutive visits to the child's bedroom. In a second report, Koresh was
said to have beaten the eight-month-old daughter of another member for
approximately forty minutes until the girl's bottom bled. In a third incident,
a man involved in a custody battle visited Mount Carmel Center and claimed to
have seen the beating of a young boy with a stick. Finally, the FBI's
justification for forcing an end to the 51-day standoff was predicated on the
charge that Koresh was abusing children inside Mount Carmel Center. In hours
following the deadly conflagration, Attorney General Janet Reno
told reporters that "We had specific information that babies were being
beaten." But FBI Director William Sessions publicly denied the charge and
told reporters that they had no such information about child abuse inside Mount
Carmel Center. A careful examination of the other child abuse charges found the
evidence to be weak and ambiguous, casting doubt on the allegations.
The
allegations of child abuse stem largely from detractors and ex-members. The
1993 U.S. Department of Justice report cites allegations of child sexual and physical
abuse. But despite the merits of the charges, legal scholars point out that the
ATF had no legal jurisdiction in the matter of child protection and it appears
that these accounts were inserted by the ATF to inflame the case against
Koresh. For example, the account of former Branch Davidian Jeannine Bunds is
reproduced in the affidavit. She claimed that Koresh had fathered at least
fifteen children with various women and that she had personally delivered seven
of these children. Bunds also claims that Koresh would annul all marriages of
couples who joined the group, had exclusive sexual access to the women, and
would also have regular sexual relations with young girls. There is no question
that Koresh had multiple children by different women in the group. His House of
David doctrine based on a purported revelation involved the reproduction of 24
children by chosen women in the community. These 24 children were to serve as
the ruling elders over the millennium after the return of Christ. In his book,
James Tabor states that Koresh acknowledged on a videotape sent out of the
compound during the standoff that he had fathered more than 12 children by
several "wives". On March 3, 1993, during negotiations to secure the
release of the remaining children, Koresh advised the Negotiation Team that:
"My children are different than those others", referring to his
direct lineage versus those children previously released.
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I am more willing
to come out when I get my message from my commander.
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/996463]
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Raid
and siege by federal authorities
Main
article: Waco
siege
On
February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided Mount Carmel Center. The raid resulted in
the deaths of four agents and six Branch Davidians. Shortly after the initial
raid, the FBI HRT (Hostage Rescue Team) took command of the
federal operation, since the FBI has jurisdiction over incidents involving the
deaths of federal agents. Contact was established with Koresh inside the
compound. Communication over the next 51 days included telephone exchanges with
various FBI negotiators.
As
the standoff continued, Koresh, who was seriously injured by a gunshot wound,
along with his closest male leaders, negotiated delays, possibly so he could
write religious documents he said he needed to complete before he surrendered.
His conversations with the negotiators were dense with biblical imagery. The federal
negotiators treated the situation as a hostage crisis.
The
51-day siege of Mount Carmel Center ended on April 19 when U.S. Attorney
General Janet
Reno approved recommendations of FBI officials to proceed with a final
assault in which the Branch Davidians were to be removed from their building by
force. In the course of the assault, the church building caught on fire in
circumstances that are still disputed. Barricaded inside the building, 80
Branch Davidians, including David Koresh, did not survive the fire; 22 of these
victims were children under the age of 17. According to the FBI, Steve
Schneider, Koresh's right-hand man who "probably realized he was dealing
with a fraud," shot and killed Koresh and then committed suicide with the
same gun.
Legacy
Koresh
is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery, Tyler,
Texas in the "Last Supper" plot/section. Several of David
Koresh's albums were released, including Voice Of Fire in 1994. In 2004,
Koresh's 1968 Camaro, which had been damaged during the raid,
sold for $37,000 at auction.
The
Mount Carmel Center raid was cited by Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols as motivations for the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995—timed
to coincide with the second anniversary of the Waco assault.
On
January 23, 2009, Koresh's mother, Bonnie Clark Haldeman, was stabbed to death
in Chandler, Texas; her sister, Beverly Clark, was
charged with the murder.
Several
documentary films have been made about the siege, including different versions
of Waco: The Rules of Engagement and
Waco: A New Revelation.
The
American rapper Rick Ross referenced Koresh in his song "Sanctified"
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