“If the FBI tries to penetrate the Apocalypse ranch, its agents will be consumed by fire,” threatened David Koresh, leader of the Waco sect and the “reincarnation of Jesus Christ,” after fifty days entrenched with his faithful. That warning was accompanied by a sequence of shots with long-range weapons and the promise that everything would blow up if the authorities did not comply with their demands. That's how it went.
Tanks with tear gas grenade launchers attempted to force the insurrectionists to surrender, but the pastor had a Machiavellian plan in hand: set fire to the farm with all the members inside, including children. The images of the Waco massacre were broadcast on national television, in what was considered the worst induced mass suicide in the country's history. Thirty years later, the controversial intervention of the FBI continues to have its chiaroscuros.
Vernon Wayne Howell - his real name - was born on August 17, 1959 in Houston, into a broken family resulting from the relationship between two teenagers. His mother, Bonnie Sue Clark, was barely fifteen years old, and his father, Bobby Howell, had already turned twenty, but he never wanted to take responsibility and decided to abandon the mother and child two months after the birth.
The situation worsened when Bonnie, overwhelmed by the situation, handed Vernon over to relatives. From then on, her life was marked by sexual abuse and bullying, by a solitary personality with learning problems and fierce religious fanaticism. In fact, at the age of eleven, the little boy knew the New Testament by heart.
He himself revealed that, as a child, God had announced to him: “You are the chosen one. You are my Messiah.” Hence, when he got his high school girlfriend pregnant and had his first child, he saw it as a revelation. From then on, he immersed himself fully in Christianity and began to attend the Seventh-day Adventist Church, to which he belonged until 1981, the year in which he was expelled for trying to have a relationship with the pastor's daughter. major.
That religious fanaticism, that call from God to be baptized as the “reincarnation of Jesus Christ” and his supposed gift of prophecy, led him to move to the Texas town of Waco in 1983. There he joined the Davidians, a religious sect dedicated to interpreting the book of revelations of the Apocalypse.
Five years later, the young man had become the charismatic leader of the Waco Davidians: he served as the Messiah, convinced women to have sexual relations with him because it was “the will of God,” practiced polygamy and had a harem of wives, in addition to committing sexual abuse with the children of the sect and using violence to subdue his faithful followers.
Added to this was the belief of an imminent apocalyptic prophecy, in which the collection and use of weapons was essential. The pastor claimed that the group would be attacked by the United States government and they had to defend themselves. It was the early nineties and Vernon Wayne Howell was already calling himself David Koresh.
However, not all of his followers agreed with the practices of the Messiah. Many fled the scene and publicly denounced the group's irregularities: both pedophilia and polygamy, as well as the acquisition and storage of combat weapons to start a war.
Those who knew David called him “sick and perverted,” as well as a “pedophile.” So much so that one of his former Davidians, David Bunds, even said in an interview: “I wish I had done something. I don’t know what he would have done, but he wishes he would have done something.” However, no one could stop Koresh, not even the authorities.
On February 28, 1993, the United States Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided the Waco facilities, alerted by the alleged presence of illegal weapons. In addition, David Koresh was accused of the crimes of pedophilia and polygamy.
From that day on, the sect entrenched itself and for the next fifty days the authorities tried to dialogue and negotiate with its leader to release the 76 held believers. Thirty-five people, including 21 children, left the ranch. After March 23, no one went out again.
During that time, federal agents surrounded the vast complex and carried out some extreme measures to get the rebels to surrender: they cut off the electricity and even used loud music and bright lights, both day and night, to torment them. But the Davidians, by order of their leader, resisted.
Until tragedy occurred on April 19, a brutal massacre broadcast live on American national television. It all happened when the FBI ignored the pastor's warnings, that he threatened to blow up the compound and responded by shooting at any target that moved.
At six in the morning, the negotiator gave an ultimatum: either they left peacefully or they would enter to liberate the area. Faced with the refusal, an M-728 tank advanced to the ranch, pierced one of the walls and launched grenades with tear gas inside. “Almost immediately the Davidians began shooting at FBI vehicles,” explains a 1996 congressional committee report.
After six hours of siege without anyone leaving, at noon smoke began to come out of the house. “Sit down and simply wait until you see God,” the pastor told his followers while the flames devoured the room and the television cameras captured the horrendous scene and the disastrous police operation.
It took firefighters 45 minutes to reach the area and, when they did, they could not put out the flames in time because the complex's water supply was still cut off following the order from the authorities. Hours later, they found most of the charred corpses and something even worse, an underground bunker with 18 children and 9 women executed by Koresh and his followers.
The Waco massacre is considered by experts to be one of the worst induced collective suicides in history, where the FBI's actions were very controversial and in which there are still unknowns to be resolved after thirty years. An entire nation was shocked to witness this civil tragedy with 59 adults and 23 children dead. Only eight people survived, seven men and one woman.
Among the remains recovered were those of David Koresh, whose autopsy determined that he had been shot in the head, although it was never clear whether one of his followers had executed him or committed suicide. His body was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, in Tyler, Texas. He was 33 years old, the age of Christ. A macabre coincidence.
