The Waco Siege Ended 22

officials climbed the walls of the Branch-Davidian compound on Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, breaking windows and throwing grenades inside the buildings, all for arresting Vernon Wayne Hall, A.K.A. David Koresh. Koresh was the leader of the Davidians, who believed that Koresh was a god who lived in this religious community on Mount Carmel.

Waco is where The Branch Davidians were founded; their prophet was David Koresh. David Koresh isn’t his birth name. His real name was Vernon Wayne Howell. David wasn’t born into a wealthy family. He told the FBI that he was raised by his grandparents until he was old enough to be on his own. Koresh never knew his father, and experienced a very lonely childhood when being raised by his mother (in his earlier childhood). He had dropped out of school and joined his mother's Seventh-Day Adventist church. In 1981, David joined The Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel, where he then began studying under Lois Roden. David gained control over the Davidians. Changing his name to “David Koresh” gave him the power of calling himself King David, from the Bible. His last name of “Koresh” comes from the Hebrew language meaning “Cyrus”, dating all the way back to the ancient Persian king. Being the leader of the Branch Davidians, he was accompanied by various spiritual wives- adults, with the youngest being twelve year old females. The spiritual wives would then give David the future leaders of the world. He told the rest of the Davidians that he could interpret the seven seals from the Bible, the testimony of Revelations, to determine the secrets as to when the world was going to

A man by the name, Victor Houteff was “defellowshipped from a Los Angeles Seventh- day Adventists church” (CRI) in 1929 and 1930. Due to his unforeseen spiritual movement, Waco Texas in 1993 experienced a 51 day biblical event like never before seen or experienced since the first coming of Christ. The Branch Davidians along with the infamous David Koresh came to be because of Houteff “sharing his “Divergent Views” with other church members” (CRI). It was five years after he was ostracized from the church that Houteff along with twelve others who believed that the Holy Ghost proclaimed him to be the Lamb of God, went to Mt. Carmel Texas. Their purpose was to have a location in which “144,000” could gather in order to fulfill requirements

The bomb was set off by Timothy McVeigh, a Persian Gulf Veteran. He was a right wing radical linked to anti-government, white-supremacist, survivalist and militia groups. The events at Waco and Ruby Ridge influenced Timothy McVeigh, prompting him to take action against the United States government (“FBI”, The Oklahoma City Bombing: 20 Years After). Right wing ideology, as in the Turner Diaries, led him

By this time Klebold and Harris had both taken their life and at least 75 police officers were surrounding Columbine High School. About two hours later, the SWAT team entered the east side of the building finding injured victims waiting for assistance. Teacher David Sanders was shot and had been bleeding for three hours before getting help (Kohn). “Sanders was the last of 15 people to die at Columbine that day. Twenty-three wounded were taken to hospitals. Six had brain or spinal injuries. Several nearly bled to death. Doctors at six hospitals worked on wounded children all through the night, and saved every one of them.” (Kohn).

On April 19th, 1995 a homemade bomb made of a concoction of agricultural fertilizer, fuel, and other dangerous chemicals was left in a truck parked outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. At 9:02 in the morning, it’s blast damaged over 300 buildings surrounding the vehicle and even flattened a third of the federal building. (Strom, 2015) The bomb took the lives of 168 people, including 19 children. It was found that two men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Lynn Nichols were the ones who planted the device. Both men were found to be associated with a radical militia movement that sought revenge for a siege in Waco, Texas two years prior. The siege killed 82 Branch Davidians, of whom, multiple were related to the militia movement.

On the morning of April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder rental truck packed with explosives outside of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building more than ready to commit a mass execution that would change the state of Oklahoma forever. Until September 11, 2001 the Oklahoma City Bombing was the most vicious terrorist attack to happen in the United States. As rescue operations were finalized the death tolls were high including 19 children.. The explosion blew off the entire north wall and either destroyed or damaged buildings as far as three blocks away. McVeigh was “anti-government” and wanted revenge against the federal government for what had

-A giant explosion in Oklahoma City in 1995, killed 168 lives, was a retribution for a

As Gunn says, there was little shooting between the two sides after the first couple of days and the majority of the standoff was spent negotiating (650). Marcovitz states, after not much other progress the federal agents decided to flush out the compound with tear gas; it forced a few people out but a majority of them stayed in the compound, setting fires and even shooting themselves (70). Marcovitz also states, on April 19, 1993 the siege was concluded and the body count reached eighty-five, including Koresh who was shot (70). This event, especially so close to the Ruby Ridge incident, sparked even more outrage among white supremacists and they called for retaliation against all the agents and anyone else involved in the siege. As Gunn says, McVeigh who was freshly out of the army and who was slowly spiraling decided to throw himself into the passion he felt towards the anti-government groups (647). If the federal government hadn’t used such excessive force than the public backlash would have been less severe and would possibly have stopped radicals like McVeigh from seeking revenge. The author states, “Investigators later learned that McVeigh hated the government for its raid on the Branch Davidian Compound on April 19, 1993 in Waco, Texas, as well as the incident at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992” (Gephardt

In the weeks and months that passed groups of men began arriving from other towns. All debating whether or not they should go after the captives and retake them. All agreed that if they did this they would surly kill all especially the Reverend and his family.

When the Oklahoma City bombing happened, it remained the largest terrorist attack to happen on American soil until the attack on 9/11. On April 19, 1995, a rental truck was loaded up with 4,800 pounds of explosives and detonated just after 9:00 am (Krung, Nixon, & Vincent, 1996). The attack was focused on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. This tragic event killed one hundred sixty-eight people and also injured hundreds more (Nacos, 2016). A dare care facility was also located within the building and nineteen children perished in the attack (Nacos, 2016). There were hundreds more victims which were treated by area hospitals and private doctor offices. This explosion was so large, a shockwave was sent across the city which damaged or destroyed an additional 300 buildings in the immediate area (History, 2009). Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nicholas were the two men responsible for this devastating attack.

At 9:03 a.m. a massive bomb resting inside a rented Ryder truck destroyed half of the nine story federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. It also claimed the lives of 169 men, women, and children, while injuring hundreds

Farming was the way of life for a majority of Texans up until the Great Depression. Life was simple and cyclical—planting, waiting, harvesting, and selling. This cycle, broken only by racial violence, was all Texans knew. However, as Texas grew increasingly connected to the modern world, through technology, a global economy, and an expanding role for the United States Federal government, that simple life began to change, and not necessarily for the better. All three books show this shift and the effect on the life of everyday Texans. In the case of The First Waco Horror, increasing connectivity to the United States and even the world helped to begin to change the view of Lynching and the anti-lynching movement gained

These groups had a great deal of influence over public administrators for a number of reasons. One reason is that this event had national attention and the hearts of all Americans went out to all of those who lost loved ones. Because public administrators were in the spotlight, they had to consider the needs of those involved. Also, because these groups were very well organized, they not only demanded attention, they commanded it. And how could any public administrator simply ignore them or turn their backs on them? The main source of disagreement was whether or not to focus on quickly unbuilding the site or to tediously search for the bodies of each firefighter that was lost in this tragedy in an effort to provide their families with closure. This case centered around the firefighters because they were involved in the daily search missions, received consistent media attention, and ultimately organized a huge protest consisting of “nearly a thousand” members which ultimately turned violent (Stillman, 2010). Although their desire to find their comrades was understandable, it was also a bit selfish because they only seemed genuinely concerned about their own even though the biggest loss of all were the innocent citizens in both of the buildings. The loss of the firefighters only amounted to a small percentage compared to the total loss of life.

The ultimate goal here is to challenge the writer find a definitive reason for the downfall of King David who is said to be a man after God’s own heart.