Vernon and his group were arrested for attempted murder but at the trial neither he nor his compatriots were convicted.
INSIDE THE MIND OF DAVID KORESH
By 1990, Vernon Howell had become leader of the Branch Davidians and it was in this year that he legally changed his name to David Koresh. On the legal document the reason for his name change was stated as being ‘for publicity and business purposes’. But his main reason was from his belief that he was now the head of the biblical House of David. Koresh came from the Hebrew translation of Cyrus, the name of the Persian king who allowed the Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Israel. David Koresh believed he was the new Messiah sent by God to spread the word.
Once in control of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist group, Koresh embarked on annulling the marriages of members stating that only he, as leader, could be married. Several members left following this announcement but many followed his orders. Koresh then declared that due to his status he was owed at least 140 wives and was entitled at any time to claim any of the females in the compound young or old. Girls as young as 12 were soon to fall pregnant and forever be in his grasp.
Elizabeth and March Breault broke out of the group at this point as they were not happy with his teaching. They wrote many letters to their friends alerting them that the teachings of the man that called himself David Koresh were false and inaccurate. Their campaign did some good and by the summer of 1990 the majority of all Australian and New Zealand members had broken away from Koresh.
Koresh was seen as a man of many sides, a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character, full of contradictions. He could be funny but also extremely serious, he was loved but at the same time feared. His students would see him at times as a loner, deep in communication with God, and then on the flip side part of the crowd taking part in group activities.
PREPARATION FOR THE END?
Control of his students got more and more intense, Koresh even dictated what and when they could eat. He would enforce strict rules, and then moments later break them. He could basically do what he liked as he was a prophet sent by God.
By the the winter of 1990 Koresh had become more and more volatile and aggressive, he started to instruct his followers to watch violent war videos on a regular basis and had begun purchasing firearms. They were accumulating weaponry stock as part of a seemingly legal selling trade, solely for the purpose of making money.
They were also building up an impressive larder of food that could have seen them through a whole year if the need was to arise.
Even though it is believed by many people (apart from the FBI and government) that the weapons were only there as a means of making money, it does seem on the other hand that the Branch Davidians were beginning to obtain a militaristic mentality. According to some ex-members, Koresh wanted to know how far his followers would go in standing up for the faith that they believed in.
Koresh is reported to have said around this time that the Apocalypse would begin when the American army attacked their Mount Carmel compound. They even buried a school bus which was to be used as a bunker if the situation arose.
By 1991 there had been multiple reports made to the local authorities by ex-members of the Branch Davidians who were unhappy with the way life seemed to be going at the compound. Investigations started to take place due to allegations that Koresh was mentally and physically abusing the children in the congregation.
INVESTIGATIONS
In the spring of 1992 two parallel investigations of the Mount Carmel compound began. The first was the Waco Tribune Herald which, with the help of some former Davidian members, began in-depth research into the Davidians with the notion of publishing a seven part article at the beginning of 1993. At the same time The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) launched an investigation into Koresh and his followers.
On February, 1993, the Waco Tribune Herald published the first installment of its piece on Koresh and the Davidians. This was the beginning of the mess that was to come over the next 51 days. The newspaper article, built mostly on accusations from the disaffected members, portrayed Koresh as being a potentially aggressive, sexual deviant and his followers as brain-washed and deluded people who had forgotten how to be rational human beings.
It is also declared that three of the people who were interviewed by the paper were also working closely with the ATF, and the paper had also discussed the article with the bureau before going to press.
As the article went out and was read by locals the ATF planned a raid for the following day in order to arrest Koresh on charges of possessing unlicensed firearms and illegal explosives in order to protect the local community from impending danger.
Bizarrely enough, at the end of 1992 Koresh had invited the ATF agents to the Mount Carmel compound in order to examine his weaponry stash and its corresponding paperwork but the ATF had declined this offer.
The bureau were intent on going ahead with their February 28 raid but due to lack of planning and over eagerness, by the time they arrived all 131 Branch Davidians and a couple of local television news crews were already there to greet them. Without thinking through the situation, and without foreseeing what could happen, the ATF stormed straight in, carelessly and unnecessarily.
The major problem was that it was more than just a case of a siege against David Koresh. There were children within the compound, innocent people whose lives should have been made priority over the search warrant on Koresh – but they weren’t.
As the ATF stormed Mount Carmel there was a retaliation, gun shots were heard and soon it became apparent that six Branch Davidians and four ATF officers had been shot dead. Many others on both sides of the battle were injured.
The FBI came in at this point and they were clearly not aware and failed to understand why David Koresh and his followers were refusing to back down and walk out. It appears that as soon as the ATF arrived on the fateful February day, Koresh believed that this was the beginning of the end – as he had foreseen time and time again. Koresh believed that the attack was in some way related to the Fifth Seal of the Revelation – the last major event before the end of the world. The confusing thing to Koresh was that he had not expected the Fifth Seal to arrive until 1995.
The FBI and the ATF did not understand anything to do with the Branch Davidians or the Bible extracts that Koresh was reciting therefore they were totally lacking in the knowledge and understanding needed to diffuse the situation peacefully, without endangering the people within the compound.
Whether or not Koresh was a deluded, mentally unstable person will never be known for sure, but throughout the 51-day siege he believed that he was dealing with acts of God together with overthrowing the godless people of the world in the form of the US government and law enforcement agencies and this belief was to overshadow the initial reason for attacking the compound. There could have been many more than ten deaths on that day if the Davidians had been intent on attack rather than self-defence.
Between March 1 and April 18, around 14 adults and 21 children left the compound by their own choice, but that meant over 100 people stayed with David Koresh, in order to see the situation until the end.
PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS
When the FBI took over the raid after the shoot out, they were toying with the idea of using what was dubbed as ‘psychological torture’, that they believed would eventually break the Davidians into giving themselves up.
Igor Smirnov from the Moscow Institute of Psycho-correction was the chief advisor in this campaign and he had spent ten years developing a device that could allegedly implant thoughts into a subject’s mind. In this instance the FBI wanted this tool to be used to implant the voice of God into David Koresh’s mind, telling him to surrender. And the voice they were going to use as God’s – none other than that of the actor Charlton Heston.