Waco Tragedy

            
             The Waco tragedy is a story that might be well known to some but unknown to others, the truth about the situation is -it resulted in a catastrophe which will be known for all time. The Branch Davidian Waco crisis in 1993 was a disaster due to the intention of Koresh and its followers and the resolution of the situation by the FBI.
             David Koresh was born "Vernon Wayne Howell" (Thibodeau 38). His mother, Bonnie was only fourteen or fifteen when he was born in 1959" (Thibodeau 38). He never knew his father, " Bobby split when he was a baby" (Thibodeau 38). Koresh described his childhood as lonely. David was "slightly dyslexic couldn't keep up in school, and the other kids with typical cruelty, dubbed him "Mr. Retardo"" (Thibodeau 38). Vernon had dropped out of high school "unable to bear the constant humiliation" (Thibodeau 39). However, he had a musical ability and a strong interest in the bible. When he was "20, Koresh turned to the Seventh-day Adventists, his mothers church (Cole 15). When David first came to "Mount Carmel in 1981, he was a confused twenty-two-year old beset by visions" (Thibodeau 45). Two years earlier he"d been baptized in his mothers church, but was expelled for being a bad influence on young people" (Thibodeau 45). 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" (Cole 23). At one time, it had more than "14,00 members" (Cole 23). Koresh had an affair with then-prophetess "Lois Roden [who] was in her sixties" (Thibodeau 46). Once Lois Roden died "in 1986, her son George vied with Howell for Command" (Haught 1). The leadership was granted to "Roden, temporarily" (Haught 1). In 1987, Howell returned to Waco "To challenge Roden for leadership" (Haught 1). By 1990 Koresh had become the leader of the Branch Davidians And "legally changed his name to Koresh, Hebrew for Cyus, the Persian king who allowed the Jews to return to Israel after their captivity in Babylon" (Bonfante, Lacayo 2).