BIOGRAPHY: David Koresh

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DAVID KORESH https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/waco/davidkoresh.html BIOGRAPHY: David Koresh David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell in Houston, Texas in 1959 to a 15-year old single mother. He never knew his father and was raised by his grandparents. In his late night conversations with FBI agents during the siege, Koresh described his childhood as lonely. He said the other kids teased him and called him "Vernie." He was dyslexic, a bad student, and dropped out of high school. However, he had musical ability and a strong interest in the Bible. By 12, he had memorized large tracts of it. When he was 20, Koresh turned to the Church of Seventh Day Adventists, his mother's church. But he was expelled for being a bad influence on the young people. Sometime during the next couple of years, Koresh went to Hollywood to become a rock star but nothing came of it. Instead, in 1981 he went to Waco, Texas where he joined the Branch Davidians, a religious sect which in 1935 had settled 10 miles outside of Waco. At one time, it had more than 1,400 members. Koresh had an affair with then-prophetess Lois Roden who was in her late sixties. The two travelled to Israel together. When Lois Roden died, a power struggle began between Koresh and Lois Roden's son George. For a short time, Koresh retreated with his followers to eastern Texas. But in late 1987 he returned to Mount Carmel in camouflage with seven male followers, armed with five .223 caliber semiautomatic assault rifles, two .22 caliber rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition. During the gunfight, Roden was shot in the chest and hands. He and his followers went on trial for attempted murder. The seven were acquitted and a mistrial was declared in Koresh's case. (Koresh told the jury he and his men went to Mount Carmel to find evidence of corpse abuse by Roden and their shots were aimed at a tree.) By 1990 Koresh had become the leader of the Branch Davidians and legally changed his name, saying on the court document that the change was "for publicity and business purposes." He said the switch arose from his belief that he was now head of the biblical House of David. (Koresh is a Hebrew transliteration of Cyrus, the name of the Persian king who allowed the Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Israel.) .

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The Branch Davidians
STATEMENT DD025 THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS On February 28, 1993 at approximately 9:30 a.m., 100 lawmen from the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms division of the United States Treasury Department descended on a religious compound owned and operated by the Br anch Davidian cult 10 miles east of Waco, Texas. Their objective was to serve a search warrant for illegal firearms and explosives, and arrest the cult’s leader, David Koresh, on weapons charges. Unfortunately, Koresh and his group had been tipped off and were waiting as authorities approached. Without warning, gunfire erupted and law enforcement officials found themselves facing cult members armed with explosive devices, military assault rifles, and other semi - automatic weapons. The sound of massive firepower echoed in the compound for 45 minutes, ending only after law enforcement personnel had retreated to safety. When the violent confrontation was over, two federal agents lay dead, and 19 others lay injured; two with gun shot wounds so severe they would d ie within hours at nearby hospitals. How It All Began The way David Koresh’s cult came into existence is a long and sometimes complicated story. It began with a man named Victor Houteff, who in 1929/30 was disfellowshipped from a Los Angeles Seventh -day Adventist church for sharing “divergent views” with other church members. 1 Houteff, a self-proclaimed messenger of God,2 responded to the expulsion by crystallizing his “divergent views” and presenting them to the public in The Shepherd’s Rod Vol. 1 (published in 1930) and The Shepherd’s Rod Vol. 2 (published in 1932).3 The purpose of Houteff’s first book was “to reveal the truth of the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 7” and “bring about a reformation among God’s people.” 4 He described his second volume as “a complete symbolic revelation of the entire world’s history, both civil and religious.” 5 These two works served as the basis of Houteff’s theology, hence, the original name of his group — the Shepherd’s Rod Seventh-day Adventists.
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Bibliography 4 Agents Slain in Cult Raid
Bibliography 4 Agents Slain In Cult Raid - 16 Officers Wounded in Failed Assault. (1993, March 1). The Chicago Tribune, pp. 1. A Jury Judges Waco. (1994, March 1). The New York Times, pp. A22. Adventists Disavow Waco Cult. (1993, ). The Christian Century, 110, pp. 285. After Passover, the End? (1993, April 5). New York Times, pp. A10. Agent Points to Cultist as Attacker And Creates Rift in Defense Team. (1994, January 20). The New York Times, pp. A16. Agent Says Raid on Cult Had Flaws. (1994, January 19). The New York Times, pp. A12. Agents of the Apocalypse. (1993, 7 May). Commonweal, 120, 3. Agents Say Sect Members Started Deadly Fire. (1994, February 9). The New York Times, pp. A14. Alter, J. (1993, 25 October). The Buck Stops Where? Newsweek, 122, 33-. Ammerman, N. T. (1993). Report to the Justice and Treasury Departments Regarding Law Enforcement Interaction With the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, Recommendations of Experts for Improvements in Federal Law Enforcement After Waco, Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice. Ammerman, N. T. (1995). Waco, Federal Law Enforcement, and Scholars of Religion. In S. A. Wright (Ed.), Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict, (pp. 282-296). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. An Army Of the Faithful. (1993, May 16). The New York Times, pp. 12. Anderson, G. T. (1986). Sectarianism and Organization 1846-1864. In G. Land (Ed.), Adventism In America, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Rerdmans Publishing Co. Annin, P., et. al. (1993, 17 May). Children of the Cult. Newsweek, 121, 48.
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