Waco

In 1993, federal agents besieged the Branch Davidian Compound at Mount Carmel, 12 miles from Waco, Texas. More than 80 people, including women and children, perished during the lengthy standoff. For the far-right militia movement, Waco became a rallying cry, akin to the Alamo.

David Koresh had become leader of the Branch Davidians, an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church that believed in Christ's Second Coming after an apocalypse. Koresh declared himself the “father” of all the Davidian children, insisted on Spartan living conditions, armed the compound, and began daily paramilitary training as a defensive measure to prepare for the apocalypse.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) believed Koresh had stockpiled illegal weapons, and on February 28, 1993, agents raided Mount Carmel. Four ATF agents and six members of the cult died in the ensuing gun battle, and many others, including Koresh, were wounded. It was the beginning of a 51-day siege.

In the first week of March, 37 people left the compound, 21 of whom were under 18. A 9-year-old girl reportedly wore a note pinned to her jacket in which her mother wrote that once the children were gone, the adults would die. Federal agents continued negotiations for weeks. By mid-April, FBI agents began to clear the ground around the compound. On April 19, federal agents in armed tanks pumped teargas into the compound. The subsequent fire, either set by the Davidians themselves or caused by the teargas, burned the compound to the ground.

Many on the right saw the ensuing investigation as a sinister cover-up by the government. Indeed, Waco seemed to justify the militia movement's growing fears about government abuse of power and to give weight to conspiracy theories claiming that the government was systematically disarming its public to prepare for a U.N.-led invasion, which would result in the New World Order. These speculations sprang, in part, from the 1992 government-initiated siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Federal agents had issued a warrant for illegal possession of firearms for Randy Weaver, a white separatist living in rural Idaho. Federal marshals tried to arrest Weaver for failing to appear in court on the weapons charges. In the ensuing confrontation, Weaver's teenaged son and William Degan, a federal officer, were killed. Subsequently, an FBI sharpshooter killed Weaver's wife as she stood in the doorway of her home. Much as Ruby Ridge reinforced the militia movement in Idaho, Waco, which was televised, inflamed anti-government sentiments across the country.

On the second anniversary of Waco, the Northeast Texas militia of Texarkana erected a granite headstone as a memorial. It read, “On February 28, 1993, a church and its members known as the Branch Davidians came under attack by the A.T.F. and the F.B.I. For 51 days, the Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, stood proudly.” Three hundred miles away, in Oklahoma City, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was still smoldering from a 9 A.M. bombing that took 168 lives. The trial of the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, would later reveal that the first disaster spawned the second.

McVeigh had stopped to observe the siege at Waco while selling survivalist materials on the gun circuit. By 1993, he was already a part of an antigovernment [Page 398]movement. In the following months, McVeigh watched conspiracy-laden videos about Waco, including Waco: The Big Lie and Day 51, which reinforced and deepened his antigovernment beliefs.

McVeigh was not the only one who committed violence in the name of Waco. In 1997, authorities received a letter taking responsibility for bombings at an abortion clinic and gay club in Atlanta, Georgia, which mentioned retaliation for the siege at Waco. (Although it was signed “Army of God,” authorities now believe the letter was from Eric Rudolph.) In 1999, prison officials intercepted letters from members of the Aryan Circle, a prison gang, that pledged violence in the name of Waco and Oklahoma City. Many government officials and agencies are more vigilant each April 19.

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