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The Waco siege, also known as the Waco massacre, was the siege by U.S. federal government and Texas state law enforcement officials of a compound belonging to the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians between February 28 and April 19, 1993.
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- David Koresh
- Branch Davidians
- Koresh and The FBI
- Fire Engulfs Waco Compound
- Legacy of The Waco Siege
- Sources
On February 28, 1993, some 80 agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided a religious compound at Mount Carmel, near Waco, Texas, after receiving reports that the Branch Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, were violating federal firearms regulations. After four ATF agents and six Davidians were killed in the gun ...
In the 1930s, a disgruntled member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church named Victor Houteff had broken away and founded the Davidian movement. After Houteff’s death, Ben Roden led an offshoot of the movement known as the Branch Davidians, who took control of Houteff’s original settlement at Mount Carmel, near Waco, by 1962. Believing the Bible is l...
In his negotiations with the FBI during the Waco siege, Koresh claimed he was a messianic figure prophesied in the Bible and that God had given him his surname. He threatened violence against those who would attack him and his family, but asserted that the Davidians weren’t planning a mass suicide. To the Branch Davidians, Koresh was “the Lamb,” th...
In mid-April, after religious scholars reached out to Koresh through a radio discussion of the teachings of Revelation, Koresh sent a message through his lawyer announcing he had received word from God and was writing his message on the Seven Seals; he would come out with his followers when he was finished. The FBI, unconvinced, decided to act to e...
From the beginning, the government’s handling of the Waco siege (which played out in the national and international media) was heavily criticized. Reno took responsibility for the botched raid, later admitting there was no evidence of ongoing child abuse within the compound (which had been one of the justifications for ordering the gas attack). Tho...
Waco: The Inside Story, PBS Frontline. James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher, Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America. Malcolm Gladwell, “Sacred and Profane,” The New Yorker(March 31, 2014).
Waco siege, a 51-day standoff between Branch Davidians and federal agents that ended on April 19, 1993, when the religious group’s compound near Waco, Texas, was destroyed in a fire. Nearly 80 people were killed.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 24, 2018 · The siege left 75 people – including children – dead and changed the way some Americans felt about the federal government.
- 1 min
Mar 22, 2023 · The Waco siege, the subject of the new Netflix docuseries “Waco: American Apocalypse,” was 30 years ago. These firsthand accounts explain the deadly clash.
- colin.mcevoy@hearst.com
- 3 min
- Senior News Editor, Biography.Com
Apr 19, 2018 · A new Netflix documentary premiered this week, recounting one of the strangest and most tragic incidents in American religious history just before its 30th anniversary next month: the bloody...
Jan 3, 2018 · Life inside apocalyptic religious sect involved in 1993 Waco siege. The siege began on Feb. 28, 1993, when 76 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrived at the Mount Carmel Center compound with a search warrant to look for illegal weapons.
