Cult Research - Branch Davidians
Waco: American Apocalypse - Netflix Limited Series from 2023
Episode 1 Notes:
Brief overview
1993 - US Government served a search warrant for machine guns against religious leader David Koresh
Became the largest gunfight on American soil since the Civil War
Was a 51 day standoff that became an international headline
There were 85 members in the cult at the time of the siege. 46 of them were kids.
The compound was a big building in a field with one road in and out. “It’s imposing. It was a very large structure in the middle of a very large nothing.”
Description of the cult from cult members
“It was a bunch of people who truly loved each other”
“it was a very caring environment”
“Someone here is teaching me about the bible”
“David was our Christ giving us the truths from God”
“I can’t worship God the way I want to, they’re taking that away from me. That is an American right”
“We were living and doing God’s will”
“By being there, we were part of God’s plan. I could see this was history happening right in front of me”
“I couldn’t find God the way my mother told me to when I was young. Then I met David, I packed the kids up, and we moved to Texas. We were going to start over and live for God.”
The daughter of this woman was born and raised on the compound. David Koresh was her uncle. “It was like having 100 moms”
Kids were taught how to clean, load, and shoot guns.
They were woken up by a bell when breakfast was ready every morning
They had an expectation to stay out of the way
Compound was called Mt. Carmel Center
Starts with Koresh reading the bible to a group. “Some people find it amazing that I know all 150 psalms in here”
He convinced his followers that he was Christ. They were going to follow him into war to rebuild the new world. He told them to expect the apocalypse on their compound, and that the government would come to them.
He told them they would die in this battle, and God would bring them back to get vengeance and lead the creation of the new world.
This was why they felt they needed so much firepower.
They were making grenades, changing semi automatic guns to fully automatic.
A grenade hull fell out of a fedex package being delivered to the compound and the driver alerted the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms Bureau. 80% of the work they do pertains to firearms.) The ATF had reason to believe that the cult had machine guns.
They got a search warrant to arrest cult members. ATF planned to surprise the group, arrest Koresh, and seize the weapons in the compound.
February 28, 1993 was day 1
The cops set up down the road to the compound
One of the reporters got lost and asked a mailman for directions to Mt. Carmel. The mailman was a cult member. He drove back to Mt. Carmel and warned the cult. Koresh’s response was “the time has come”
The ATF lost the element of surprise and decided to move forward with the plan quickly. Bad idea.
Helicopters were watching the compound in preparation for the raid.
Robert Rodriguez was an undercover agent in the cult. He got out when the warning came to the cult.
The cult members were arming themselves quickly, Koresh said he wanted to try to talk to the ATF first. He came out and told them to get off the property. The police announced “search warrant” and he went back inside and shut the door. “All hell breaks loose. Gunfire like you wouldn’t believe.” The compound did have machine guns, the warrant was valid.
The ATF say they weren’t the first to shoot.
Agents ran towards the compound with ladders. Cult members were shooting through the walls, the ATF agents were able to break windows and get inside but then were shot inside the building. 4 ATF agents were killed. A news reporter who was present called for ambulances, every ambulance in the county was brought to the location.
Quotes from cult members about their thoughts during the attack:
“I was 9. One of David Koresh’s wives came running into the room. She had a gun. She went to the curtain and opened the window and she flew back right beside me. I can’t forget her scream.” / “the worst part of it was just hearing when people were getting shot. You can hear the tone and the change in their voice.” / “I didn’t know what was going on… I just knew people were scared and people were getting hurt.” / “the screaming I heard was my grandfather crawling down the hallway. He was begging for somebody to kill him and they did.” / “They said it was going to be easy because we were all just going to be crouched in the corner holding our bibles”
“I did not want my children killed.”
“50 armed men with black suits jumping out of vehicles and rushing our building”
“I was in the tornado shelter because I didn’t want to get shot. Period.”
“My perception of the ATF when they left was that they couldn’t believe they had lost”
Parents were telling their kids - “Remember what I said. ‘God sits on the throne’.” Their concern wasn’t only their kids’ lives, it was their kids’ eternal souls and living for God.
“Coming out meant giving up everything we believed in.”
“They came in an attacked us, we defended our position.”
You could have dropped a bomb on us, we would not have come out. That’s commitment to your God.”
Someone inside the compound (Wayne) called 911 to ask that the police stop the attack because there were women and children inside.
Koresh ended up talking to the police on the phone. He agreed to allow officers to retrieve an injured agent, neither side sure the ceasefire would be honored. “Negotiating a ceasefire was the only way out”
The raid ended and the ATF brought their wounded to get medical attention.
The FBI was contacted to come in and assist now that 4 ATF members had been killed, they were in charge of investigating the deaths. The only reason it started with the ATF is because the compound had so many guns, the FBI would have been the bureau to handle the cult initially if not for the weapons.
The FBI’s Hostage Refuge Team is called in. The main concern was getting the kids out.
The FBI asked what Koresh really wanted. The answer was that he wanted media attention. He wanted the world to know that he was the second coming of Christ. Every time the FBI gave him airtime for his message to be played on the local radio station he would release 2 kids. (2 at a time - Noah’s Ark)
The cult members believed, though, that the police / ATF / FBI were the devil. He’d been telling them this whole time to expect that the apocalypse would come to their door in the form of an armed forces attack. So the parents in the compound were giving him pushback, they didn’t want their kids to be released through these negotiations. This was the apocalypse they’d be preparing for.
Sunday and Monday they got 12 kids out, Tuesday they got 6 kids out & 2 adults.
Koresh agreed to come out with all of his followers if the media would broadcast a 58 minute recording on the Christian Broadcasting Network, a national outlet.
Koresh would come out first, then the kids, then the men, and Steve Shneider (the second in command) was to come last.
“At any moment it could have turned to another shoot out or a mass suicide”
David assembled his cult members in the hallway to say goodbye. There were ambulances waiting outside for the injured. Steve got on the phone and said that David had received a sign from God that he has to wait.
Observations:
So far this is all about the standoff. It’s really interesting but not something I plan to do with my story.
I need to know things like:
What did they believe
What rules did they live by
What was day-to-day life like
How did they recruit people
What were the things the cult members didn’t like about the cult
See some insight of the children’s perspective and the parents’ perspective. I didn’t realize I needed to learn that stuff too - how a parent would justify raising their child in a cult.
Application to story concept:
Useful to show the extremes cult members are willing to go to defend their beliefs and their leader, definitely establishes the foundation for building an air of fanaticism in a cult community.
Can draw on the dynamic between parents and kids as inspiration for story
Episode 2 Notes:
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Episode 3 Notes:
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