Crimes of the Century (2013–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - The Siege at WACO - full transcript
A religious zealot...
God speaks to me.
In Waco, Texas... He claimed
that he was the lamb of God.
They truly believed
that he was the messiah.
Leading his
followers to Armageddon.
It's God's word.
All I am is the voice.
He reportedly believes
he is Jesus Christ.
I had a radio mike in one ear with
an agent pleading for his life,
and I had this guy on the phone
who thought he was God.
David Koresh was dangerous,
irrational, and probably insane.
David, you have had
your 15 minutes of fame.
You are under arrest.
This standoff is over.
It went horribly.
It was a total disaster.
The siege at Waco.
Next.
Waco, Texas, is a quiet, modest city,
surrounded by sprawling cattle ranches.
Located halfway between Dallas and Austin, it's
an unlikely place for a modern-day Armageddon.
It was an epic debacle in United
States law-enforcement history...
A deadly shootout, followed by a 51-day siege
that ended with more than 70 people dead
in a raging inferno...
all caught on live television,
with the whole world watching.
Two questions rise from the
ashes of this American tragedy.
Who shot first...
and who started the fires?
It began innocently enough.
In 1935, a small religious group
moved to Waco.
An offshoot of the Seventh-Day
Adventist church,
they eventually called
themselves the Branch Davidians.
They had pretty stable
leadership for a lot of years,
and they were known in town
as a somewhat bizarre,
but benign religious group that
pretty much kept to themselves.
The Davidians
bought property about 10 miles
east of town, built a compound,
and named their sanctuary
Mount Carmel after the sacred
biblical site in Israel.
But in the early 1980s, a new member
appeared who would change everything.
His given name...
Vernon Wayne Howell.
Handsome and magnetic, he convinced his followers
he would one day be reborn as Jesus Christ.
Church members would come to
worship him as David Koresh,
"Koresh" being the Hebrew name
for "Cyrus,"
the legendary Persian king
and conqueror of Babylon.
He began to present the ideas that he had, and
I'd say 99% of the leadership of the church
that were living at Mount Carmel accepted
him as having a message from God.
Clive Doyle is a Branch Davidian survivor,
and, to this day, a believer in David Koresh.
David was constantly talking to God... "God
told me to do this, God told me to do that."
And we accepted that.
God speaks to me.
I have a message to present.
To outsiders, Koresh soon transformed
the Davidian church into a cult.
The most important element
of the cult is the leader.
And they're always described the
same way... as being charismatic.
I mean, there are some things that God has
concealed in his written word that are to be
brought to do right before
the end of times.
Koresh preached end-of-days philosophy
to his followers... a belief system
that was centered around an apocalyptic battle
against evil armies led by a messianic leader
who was the second coming.
And his role was to open
the seven seals
that are mentioned in the Book
of Revelation.
In Revelation, the seven seals represent
the apocalypse, the biblical end of days.
In the Bible, only the lamb
of God can open the seals.
Koresh preached that he had
that power.
But by January 1992, disturbing rumors about
the self-styled prophet had surfaced.
The local newspaper,
the Waco Tribune-Herald,
began to investigate Koresh and
his hold over the Davidians.
He had what was called
his "new light revelation,"
and that was that, as the messiah, he
should generate a new population of people
to inherit the kingdom of God,
and to do that, all of the women
in the group belonged to him.
As part of his New Light prophecy, Koresh
dissolved all existing marriages in the group.
The men in the group would
choose to become celibate.
If they were married, they would, you know,
not have any more relations with their wives.
It's true I do have
a lot of children,
and it's true I do
have a lot of wives.
But Koresh
apparently did not stop there.
When David first
started teaching,
he began to show that God asked
prophets to do
what we might consider strange
things a lot of times.
We had evidence that he had sexually
abused girls as young as 12.
Is it my great, wonderful looks,
something that just women can't resist?
We also discovered that that
had been going on for a couple
of years and law enforcement had not done
anything really to prevent it or stop it.
But a field agent from the regional ATF
office was doing something... secretly,
though his investigation
had nothing to do
with the abuse allegations.
His name is Davy Aguilera.
This is the first time he has
talked publicly about the case.
It's very difficult for me
to do this.
You know, I've been bottling
this up for the longest time.
I try to put it behind me,
but it never goes away.
In the summer of 1992, Agent
Aguilera got a tip from U.P.S.
that a box delivered
to the compound had accidentally
broken open, revealing a stash
of grenade hulls.
That tip began a seven-month
investigation to determine
if the Branch Davidians were
stockpiling illegal weapons.
They had acquired hundreds of weapons, rifles,
pistols, shotguns, grenades, grenade launchers,
almost 2 million rounds
of ammunition.
I was discovering a lot
of AR-15s.
They were converting these weapons from
semi-automatic to automatic weapons.
A fully automatic rifle is, of
course, illegal to possess.
It's not against the law
to buy firearms.
It's not against the law to buy
anything that they sell at a gun show.
People don't even realize
they've turned from a commune
into an armed camp, and the weapons
become very much a part of their life.
They've engaged in now
paramilitary training.
I was outraged, and I was
able to go out and get enough
probable cause to make sure that, you know,
I'm gonna get my warrant for this guy.
In January 1993, the ATF rented a house
across the road from the compound
and began undercover surveillance, with
agents posing as college students.
We had an undercover agent,
Special Agent Robert Rodriguez,
who actually had interaction
and met with David Koresh.
Koresh was not shy about his
arsenal or his intentions.
He says, you know, "I don't
care what the ATF says or does.
This is my right to bear weapons, and
nobody is ever gonna take me down."
That's a red flag.
When you couple a belief
system of an apocalypse
with a cult leader who is prepared
to die and take everyone with him,
giving him the tools to do so
was a recipe for disaster.
Shortly after the undercover operation
began, Koresh stopped leaving the compound,
fearing he might be arrested.
We knew pretty much from day one
that we were being watched.
After just over
a month of surveillance,
Agent Aguilera secured warrants to search the
Davidian compound and arrest David Koresh.
The warrants would be served
on Sunday, February 28th.
The day before, the Waco Herald-Tribune
would finally run its story...
a detailed exposé of Koresh
titled "The Sinful Messiah."
The paper also found out
about the raid.
One of our reporters had
gotten a tip from a confidential
informant who told him that
they were gonna do something.
So we made plans to have people out
there to cover whatever it was.
The ATF plan called
for a "dynamic entry."
Around 75 agents, many hidden in cattle trailers,
would rapidly descend on the compound,
serve the warrants, arrest Koresh, search
the property, and seize the weapons.
I thought the plan, had it not
been compromised, would've worked.
But the plan was compromised.
That morning, a local news cameraman got lost
trying to find the Branch Davidian compound.
He asked a mail carrier for directions and
indicated there might be some kind of raid.
The mailman was
a Branch Davidian.
Undercover agent Robert Rodriguez was at the
compound when Koresh received the warning.
Robert immediately excused himself...
"Look, I have to leave."
David said, "No, stay."
Robert says, "No, I got to go."
And as Robert tells me, he walks
out the door, and he says,
"I was just waiting for them
to put a bullet in my back."
Agent Rodriguez
went straight to his commanders.
He said, "They're looking at us,
they know we're coming.
You need to call this off."
But the impetus to act had
already reached critical mass.
In the next few hours, events
at Waco would transfix
the nation, and David Koresh
would become a household name.
I knew that they were coming.
You know? I knew they were coming
before they knew they were coming.
On Sunday morning, February 28th,
the ATF launched its ill-fated raid
on the Branch Davidian compound
outside Waco, Texas.
The ATF called it
"Operation Showtime."
Those that made
the initial entry,
their concern were the children.
They had candy bars in
their pockets to give out.
Chocolate for the kids.
Wow.
An ATF agent named
Roland Ballesteros was assigned
the dangerous job of actually
serving the warrants.
He never even made it
to the front door.
A barrage of gunfire just
went right through the door.
He got his thumb shot off.
Christ, how could these guys
just start shooting at us?
The morning of February 28,
1993, I will never forget.
Crisis negotiator Byron Sage is the
first FBI agent on the scene...
arriving some 75 minutes
after the shooting started.
And I got there a little
after 11:00.
The gun battle was still raging,
which was significant.
The average gun battle in law
enforcement lasts about 2 seconds.
This was a gun battle that had
raged now for well over an hour.
Geez.
Certainly there were some
that shot back.
We're not denying that.
'Cause they weren't trusting us, and we
weren't probably too trusting of them
because they were continuing
to shoot.
Bullets were coming out of every
window within the compound.
FBI agent Bob Ricks would become the face of
the government's effort to end the standoff.
When he arrives,
the ATF agents are in shock.
They had the look of defeat, the look
of despair, look of despondency.
They had gone through a horrible day and were
forcibly required to retreat from that scene.
Our top priority right from the start
was to get a lid on the violence
and then to bring
their emotionality down.
As the shootout rages,
ATF agent Jim Cavanaugh is already on the phone
with the Davidians, trying to gain a cease-fire.
We were taking an awful beating.
So many men were hurt and wounded and were laying
down there, and I called into the compound.
It was Steven Schneider.
Steven Schneider
was Koresh's top lieutenant.
And he started screaming through the
phone that we had no right to be there,
to get off
the property immediately.
I tried to stay calm.
I said, "Steve, we have to talk.
We have to work this out.
You and I have to work this out.
People are dying,
people are hurt.
We need to stop the shooting."
Soon Cavanaugh is talking
directly with David Koresh.
I had a radio mike in one ear with
an agent pleading for his life,
and I had this guy on the
phone who thought he was God.
Checking now our top stories
on "Prime News."
In Waco, Texas, at least four
federal agents are dead
and 14 are injured in a shootout
with members of a religious cult.
It takes negotiators 2 1/2
hours to gain a cease-fire.
After that, the top priority is
to retrieve the wounded and dead
ATF agents from around
the compound.
The whole scene has the look
of a war zone.
When I first got there, it was a very
tense, uncomfortable environment.
Within hours, FBI agents are pouring
into Waco from around the country.
Special Agent Randy Parsons is
dispatched from Washington, D.C.
But parsons and his colleagues
aren't there simply to assist.
The FBI is taking over.
It's a critical turning point.
It was an uncomfortable situation because
the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
felt a great sense of loss.
It was their own men, their own
agents who were down and were gone.
Shortly thereafter, they were told that
we were gonna be taking over the handling
of the response to the events on that day,
and that was crushing for them, as well.
At the time, you know,
it's personal.
You have some animosity.
I felt a little, you know, "Hey, someone's
coming in and taking away what I started."
But, you know, it was for the best, because you
never know, because of what we just went through,
what we could have done.
Get that camera out
of here! Get out of here!
Get that shit out of here!
Out!
Get it out of here!
Let go of my camera!
What's the matter with you?!
Get out of here!
Go, go, go!
I need help!
News of the shootout immediately
spreads from coast to coast.
The national press swarms into
Waco, looking for answers.
And from the start, one question
dominates all others...
When we drove up, the
Davidians opened fire.
And I am sickened
by any other assertion.
But in a CNN phone interview after the
shootout, David Koresh says otherwise.
They started firing at me, and so then what
happened was some of the young men and stuff
started firing on them.
They fired on us first.
We didn't shoot first.
We didn't.
They shot first.
And if I thought that an ATF agent would
drive up in front of a structure and shoot,
I'd throw my badge
in the garbage.
It didn't happen.
Probably the only person who will ever know who
actually shot first is the person who shot first.
No one could know that the shootout
was just a hint of what was coming...
a tense 51-day standoff that would escalate
into a conflagration of biblical proportions.
What started as a carefully planned ATF raid on
the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas,
quickly turned into
a horrible debacle.
Four ATF agents are dead, 16 wounded,
with an unknown number of casualties
inside the compound,
including David Koresh.
At this hour, FBI agents are
negotiating with the cult leader.
He reportedly believes
he is Jesus Christ.
Mr. Koresh,
how are you doing?
Uh, fair to middlin'.
I understand
you've been wounded.
Would you describe
your condition?
Weakening.
Are you shot, sir?
Uh, y-Yes, I am.
Well, communications
opened up pretty quickly.
He loved to talk.
He loved to hear himself talk.
How's God gonna talk to me
in the latter days?
- Through the word of God.
- So there'll be no excuses!
So there was no
lack of communication.
There was a lack of
productive communication.
There's a lot of children here.
I've had a lot of babies
these past few years.
Is it true, David,
that one of the children,
a 2-year-old, is dead?
Yeah, it's true.
He was so calm to a point
where you begin to immediately
start questioning what kind of
personality are we dealing with?
Koresh and the Davidians were
well-supplied for a long siege.
In addition to their arsenal, they
had stockpiled military MRE's.
What we ultimately had come to realize is
that we have well over 100 individuals
inside of a heavily fortified
compound that were there voluntarily
because they had backed what
they felt was their messiah.
What'd you think
about all this, huh?
- I don't know.
- You don't know?
Getting the children
out is the top priority,
but Koresh uses them as pawns to get
what he wants... airtime on the radio.
I gave them a message for the radio so that the
public can listen to where I'm coming from,
and I explained that every time they played
it, I would send two of the children out.
The message is played several
times over the next few hours.
And remember the most fearful
warning ever given to man
in scripture is the warning
found in Revelation 22.
And, sure enough, we started getting
children out late that afternoon.
Over the next several days, more than a dozen
children will be released, along with some adults.
But the standoff continues.
On the third day of the siege, Koresh
makes another deal with negotiators.
If they will play a one-hour
sermon on national television,
he will come out peacefully
with all his followers.
If they'll show me and show the
world what the Seven Seals are
and where they're at in the
prophecies, then I'll be satisfied,
and then we'll all
come out to you.
The FBI agrees.
That tape was played
in the afternoon about 3:00,
went for about an hour, and then
the clock starts ticking.
We're all waiting.
We're anticipating.
We had buses lined up
to receive everybody.
In subsequent contacts with Koresh, he stated
that he had received a message from God,
instructing him to wait.
Any doubts about who was calling
the shots is suddenly gone.
Now we knew when we had
a person who said he was
speaking directly to God and God had told him
to wait, that this was not going to be normal.
That was one of the first and more significant
glimpses of the disingenuous nature of how David
was dealing with us as far as
promises and truthfulness.
I believe that was our last best
chance to get him to ever come out.
He was fatigued, he was wounded, he was hurt,
we'd been working on him for three days,
but at the very last moment,
he couldn't do it.
If I say I'm Christ, the proof is
if I can open up the Seals or not.
He couldn't leave this place where he
was God with unlimited sexual favors
and walk out
to a cold jail cell.
He tricked us.
He fooled us.
He played with us.
On Day 6 of the standoff, another
child comes out of the compound
with a note pinned
to her jacket.
It says, "Once the children are
out, the adults will die."
We never got another child out.
We got a total of 21, and I
will be eternally grateful
for the fact that we were able
to accomplish that.
27 children
remained inside the compound.
We continued to press
David on that.
David finally became very upset with
the negotiator, and he stopped him.
He yelled at him.
He said "Hey.
You don't understand.
The rest of these children
are mychildren.
They're not coming out."
The battle of Armageddon was on.
Tension is high in Waco, Texas.
Four federal agents and at least
10 cult members are dead.
From the outset of the standoff
at the Branch Davidian compound,
law enforcement's primary concern
was the welfare of the children.
We really wanted to talk to as many of the
children as we could, to see their faces,
and maybe talk to the mothers, if possible...
see if they were being held against their will.
To accomplish this, the FBI concealed microphones
in milk cartons sent into the compound.
They also gave David Koresh a video
camera to record pictures of the children
and any statements
anyone wanted to make.
Hello.
We were trying to determine what was the
nature of the people inside the compound.
Were they healthy?
Were they suffering?
We learned very rapidly that these
people came from all walks of life...
some of them very bright people.
We as negotiators had to step
back and realize, good Lord.
How much control does this guy actually
exercise over everybody inside there?
On the tape,
Koresh even shows his wounds.
Almost two weeks into the siege, Janet Reno was
sworn in as Attorney General of the United States.
Briefed on the situation in Waco, she
endorsed the FBI's plan to be patient
and wait out the crisis.
As the siege entered its third
week, the FBI turned up the heat.
But waiting did not
mean doing nothing.
Authorities bombarded the
compound with noise and light...
And sometimes cut the
electricity and phones
for hours at a time.
Then another major turning point...
the FBI tactical team deployed tanks
as a physical show of force.
Now I'm like, "Wow.
This looks like a war zone."
It seemed like during the siege,
if we did what they asked,
the next thing the guys on the ground,
the tactical team, smashing up vehicles
and bulldozing the trees down.
It's like every time we did comply with them,
they were punishing us in one way or another.
As the tension mounted and the press coverage
grew, the siege drew both curious onlookers
and protesters... many of them
gun-rights supporters.
One was a young disenfranchised
Army vet named Timothy McVeigh.
Two years later, he would bomb the
Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
McVeigh said he did it, in part, because
of the government action at Waco.
16 days into the standoff, David Koresh
agrees to let two of his followers
meet with government negotiators
face-to-face.
He had selected Steve Schneider, his
number-one lieutenant, and Wayne Martin,
their Harvard-educated attorney, to come
out and talk to our representative.
The tension was extremely high.
You could quite literally feel the cross hairs
on you from the Branch Davidian compound,
as I'm sure Steve Schneider and Wayne Martin
could... could feel from our tactical teams
that had everybody covered.
The meeting is positive.
The FBI negotiators arrange
to meet again in two days
and deliver written assurances
requested by Koresh.
But Schneider abruptly cancels
the second meeting.
He indicated that David
didn't think it was necessary.
So I said, "Wait a minute.
You don't want to come out or David
doesn't want you to come out?"
He says, "Well, David doesn't
think it's necessary."
For agent Sage,
a heated phone conversation
that follows provokes a crucial
realization about Koresh.
At one point, he's talking
about my salvation, and I said,
"David, I am absolutely confident in my
salvation as a Christian, and you, partner,
are not in a position
to judge me."
Now, that was a very calculated move,
because stop and think about it.
If this individual was delusional and
thought that he was Jesus Christ,
who's in more of a position to judge
me as a Christian than Jesus Christ?
But in my mind, it had resolved
a very critical question,
and that is, I did not feel
that he was delusional
or felt that he was
the second coming of Christ.
I think that he was a con man, and
his chosen area of con was religion.
46 days into the Branch Davidian
standoff, FBI negotiators are stymied.
There's still no progress.
In a concession to Davidian leader, David Koresh,
the FBI lets him speak with his attorney
from inside the compound.
I'm hopeful that this is
some real progress
and that we can bring this thing
to an end real quickly.
After the attorneys went in, David said
that he was gonna write his manuscript
of the meanings
of the Seven Seals.
Supposedly, the manuscript will be
Koresh's proof that he is the lamb of God.
At first, Koresh says it will take him
two days to write about each Seal.
Then it becomes two weeks, and
then he says it will take a year.
Had there been serious preparation of
the manuscripts, we would have waited.
There was none.
On the 49th day of the siege,
Attorney General Janet Reno
approves the Bureau's plan
for a tactical solution...
the insertion of tear gas
into the compound.
I approved the plan,
and I am responsible for it.
I advised the president, but I did
not advise him as to the details.
It's one more
major turning point,
though Reno leaves it to the FBI
to decide when to take action.
We went 27 days with nobody
being released.
David Koresh became more violent
in his rhetoric.
He has made such statements
as, "We are ready for war.
Let's get it on."
Finally, on about the 18th of April, the
decision was made that we've had enough delays,
we've had enough disingenuous lies
coming from these individuals.
It was time to exercise
a tactical resolution.
On day 51 of the siege at Waco, the FBI initiates
its tactical plan to end the standoff.
David, individuals inside
the Branch Davidian compound...
we are in the process of placing
tear gas into the building.
I learned of the gas that day.
I didn't know that they were
gonna do that.
And I thought, "Wow.
Well, they're gonna
gas them out."
Exit the compound now.
Submit to the proper authority,
David.
You are under arrest.
This standoff is over.
I don't think we, the FBI,
ATF, anybody else ever had any
control over how this
was gonna end.
I think the only control we truly
had was whenit was going to end.
Koresh had his playbook
already decided in advance...
that he would destroy his
followers rather than to give up
to the evil armies of
the federal government.
Believe me,
it will not get any better.
It will only get worse.
David, you have had
your 15 minutes of fame.
It's time to leave the building.
We banked on the fact that a parent,
if they found their children exposed
to that kind of discomfort, would move Heaven
and Earth to get them to a position of safety.
And we were wrong.
The beginning of the end
comes just after 12:00 noon.
A wisp of smoke floats
from a compound window.
My instructions over the loudspeakers went
from... instructions to, "Please. David...
don't do this."
David, don't do this
to your people.
All of a sudden you see
bursts of flames.
I'm like, "My God. I hope they
allow the children to leave."
This is not the way to end this.
Lead your people out, David.
Be a messiah, not a destroyer.
I will never forget the exact thought that
went through my head when I saw the flames:
"Thank God. Those mothers will
bring their children out now."
And we waited and waited and waited, and
they didn't bring their children out.
The entire scene unfolds
before a live TV audience.
Look at this!
This is gorgeous!
They threw tear gas in there, and
it caught on fire or something.
The exuberance of a control-room producer is
tempered by the reality of the situation.
It was quick.
Didn't last very long.
The structure, or the building, was
very shoddily made of plywood.
I mean,
it's like a wooden match.
We never stopped
our negotiation efforts.
We continued right up until I turned off the
speakers on that last day at 12:35 in the afternoon.
Everyone was in tears.
We could all see the faces
of the children.
We all knew who they were.
We'd seen them.
And that's what we were dedicated to doing was
trying to rescue those kids out of there.
And that had all gone up in smoke, and
we knew that they were all dying,
and there was nothing
we could do about it.
To recap for those viewers who
may just be tuning in to CNN...
It is day 51 of the siege near Waco,
Texas, and the standoff between the FBI
and the Branch Davidian religious cult that now
seems to be coming to an explosive and fiery end.
I did not think that he
would fulfill his prophecy.
That's what he did.
April 19, 1993.
The siege at Waco has come
to a fiery end.
This hour we have no word still specifically on
the fate of David Koresh and specific followers.
But how in the world could they
have done that to their kids?
Nine people came out.
Not one of them brought a child.
Clive Doyle is one
of the nine who did get out.
But he left his 18-year-old
daughter inside.
She had been one of Koresh's
child brides.
You beat yourself up and say, "Well,
why didn't I go looking for her?
Why didn't I rescue her?
Why didn't I save anybody?"
I've kicked myself ever since.
People do strange things
in fires.
I was not just shocked
but just horrified.
I mean, to think that these
children had perished
in the fire... and women,
and I started asking questions,
and like, why did this happen?
Who started the fire?
It almost became common belief that...
that the FBI had shot the people in there
or that the FBI had perhaps
started the fire.
I'm not saying the FBI did
everything right or that ATF
did everything right,
but we did not set the fires.
We did not murder anybody.
Infrared photography
taken by helicopters
above the building shows the fire igniting in
three different places inside the compound.
All of the indications are
that the fire was set from
within, presumably by some of
David Koresh's followers.
Nine Branch Davidians exited
that compound that last day.
There's a person jumping,
hanging from that window.
Seven of the nine had
accelerants on their clothing.
Whether anybody actually deliberately lit a fire
in there, I don't know, but my question would be,
uh, even if they did,
whose fault is it?
Is it our fault because we were bent on dying,
or is it the FBI's fault for taunting David?
In the smoldering wreckage of the compound,
investigators recover at least 78 bodies...
including David Koresh.
It appears as though his second in command,
Steve Schneider, shot David Koresh in the head
with a pistol, and then Schneider
turned the pistol on himself.
The children themselves
were mostly executed.
They were either beaten to death,
stabbed to death, or shot.
David Koresh was never going to walk
out of that place on our terms.
It was doomed from day one that that place,
which went by the name of Ranch Apocalypse,
was destined to end up
in flames.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, "Not another
Waco" became a rallying cry for the ATF.
The agency improved intelligence-gathering
and reporting methods,
and changed policy regarding who makes
on-the-ground incident decisions.
The FBI made changes, as well... forming a
crisis-response group to ensure complete coordination
between its negotiators
and tactical teams.
I made the decision, I'm
accountable, the buck stops with me,
and nobody ever accused me
of running from a decision
that I made based on the best
information that I had.
Waco was an early test for
Attorney General Janet Reno.
Though she came under intense criticism for her
decisions, she remained in office until 2001.
As for the Waco Tribune-Herald, it was named
a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize
in Investigative Reporting.
Today three memorials stand at
the Branch Davidian compound.
One is in memory of those
who perished in 1995
at Oklahoma City.
A second memorial is dedicated
to all the Branch Davidian
members who died
that horrible day in April.
The third, the smallest stone of all,
remembers the four ATF agents who perished
on February 28, 1993.
Robert John Williams...
Todd McKeehan...
Steve Willis... and
Conway Lebleu.
They were heroes.
When I hear "Taps" or when I hear, um,
the bagpipes... I just break down.
I'll take this to my grave.
God speaks to me.
In Waco, Texas... He claimed
that he was the lamb of God.
They truly believed
that he was the messiah.
Leading his
followers to Armageddon.
It's God's word.
All I am is the voice.
He reportedly believes
he is Jesus Christ.
I had a radio mike in one ear with
an agent pleading for his life,
and I had this guy on the phone
who thought he was God.
David Koresh was dangerous,
irrational, and probably insane.
David, you have had
your 15 minutes of fame.
You are under arrest.
This standoff is over.
It went horribly.
It was a total disaster.
The siege at Waco.
Next.
Waco, Texas, is a quiet, modest city,
surrounded by sprawling cattle ranches.
Located halfway between Dallas and Austin, it's
an unlikely place for a modern-day Armageddon.
It was an epic debacle in United
States law-enforcement history...
A deadly shootout, followed by a 51-day siege
that ended with more than 70 people dead
in a raging inferno...
all caught on live television,
with the whole world watching.
Two questions rise from the
ashes of this American tragedy.
Who shot first...
and who started the fires?
It began innocently enough.
In 1935, a small religious group
moved to Waco.
An offshoot of the Seventh-Day
Adventist church,
they eventually called
themselves the Branch Davidians.
They had pretty stable
leadership for a lot of years,
and they were known in town
as a somewhat bizarre,
but benign religious group that
pretty much kept to themselves.
The Davidians
bought property about 10 miles
east of town, built a compound,
and named their sanctuary
Mount Carmel after the sacred
biblical site in Israel.
But in the early 1980s, a new member
appeared who would change everything.
His given name...
Vernon Wayne Howell.
Handsome and magnetic, he convinced his followers
he would one day be reborn as Jesus Christ.
Church members would come to
worship him as David Koresh,
"Koresh" being the Hebrew name
for "Cyrus,"
the legendary Persian king
and conqueror of Babylon.
He began to present the ideas that he had, and
I'd say 99% of the leadership of the church
that were living at Mount Carmel accepted
him as having a message from God.
Clive Doyle is a Branch Davidian survivor,
and, to this day, a believer in David Koresh.
David was constantly talking to God... "God
told me to do this, God told me to do that."
And we accepted that.
God speaks to me.
I have a message to present.
To outsiders, Koresh soon transformed
the Davidian church into a cult.
The most important element
of the cult is the leader.
And they're always described the
same way... as being charismatic.
I mean, there are some things that God has
concealed in his written word that are to be
brought to do right before
the end of times.
Koresh preached end-of-days philosophy
to his followers... a belief system
that was centered around an apocalyptic battle
against evil armies led by a messianic leader
who was the second coming.
And his role was to open
the seven seals
that are mentioned in the Book
of Revelation.
In Revelation, the seven seals represent
the apocalypse, the biblical end of days.
In the Bible, only the lamb
of God can open the seals.
Koresh preached that he had
that power.
But by January 1992, disturbing rumors about
the self-styled prophet had surfaced.
The local newspaper,
the Waco Tribune-Herald,
began to investigate Koresh and
his hold over the Davidians.
He had what was called
his "new light revelation,"
and that was that, as the messiah, he
should generate a new population of people
to inherit the kingdom of God,
and to do that, all of the women
in the group belonged to him.
As part of his New Light prophecy, Koresh
dissolved all existing marriages in the group.
The men in the group would
choose to become celibate.
If they were married, they would, you know,
not have any more relations with their wives.
It's true I do have
a lot of children,
and it's true I do
have a lot of wives.
But Koresh
apparently did not stop there.
When David first
started teaching,
he began to show that God asked
prophets to do
what we might consider strange
things a lot of times.
We had evidence that he had sexually
abused girls as young as 12.
Is it my great, wonderful looks,
something that just women can't resist?
We also discovered that that
had been going on for a couple
of years and law enforcement had not done
anything really to prevent it or stop it.
But a field agent from the regional ATF
office was doing something... secretly,
though his investigation
had nothing to do
with the abuse allegations.
His name is Davy Aguilera.
This is the first time he has
talked publicly about the case.
It's very difficult for me
to do this.
You know, I've been bottling
this up for the longest time.
I try to put it behind me,
but it never goes away.
In the summer of 1992, Agent
Aguilera got a tip from U.P.S.
that a box delivered
to the compound had accidentally
broken open, revealing a stash
of grenade hulls.
That tip began a seven-month
investigation to determine
if the Branch Davidians were
stockpiling illegal weapons.
They had acquired hundreds of weapons, rifles,
pistols, shotguns, grenades, grenade launchers,
almost 2 million rounds
of ammunition.
I was discovering a lot
of AR-15s.
They were converting these weapons from
semi-automatic to automatic weapons.
A fully automatic rifle is, of
course, illegal to possess.
It's not against the law
to buy firearms.
It's not against the law to buy
anything that they sell at a gun show.
People don't even realize
they've turned from a commune
into an armed camp, and the weapons
become very much a part of their life.
They've engaged in now
paramilitary training.
I was outraged, and I was
able to go out and get enough
probable cause to make sure that, you know,
I'm gonna get my warrant for this guy.
In January 1993, the ATF rented a house
across the road from the compound
and began undercover surveillance, with
agents posing as college students.
We had an undercover agent,
Special Agent Robert Rodriguez,
who actually had interaction
and met with David Koresh.
Koresh was not shy about his
arsenal or his intentions.
He says, you know, "I don't
care what the ATF says or does.
This is my right to bear weapons, and
nobody is ever gonna take me down."
That's a red flag.
When you couple a belief
system of an apocalypse
with a cult leader who is prepared
to die and take everyone with him,
giving him the tools to do so
was a recipe for disaster.
Shortly after the undercover operation
began, Koresh stopped leaving the compound,
fearing he might be arrested.
We knew pretty much from day one
that we were being watched.
After just over
a month of surveillance,
Agent Aguilera secured warrants to search the
Davidian compound and arrest David Koresh.
The warrants would be served
on Sunday, February 28th.
The day before, the Waco Herald-Tribune
would finally run its story...
a detailed exposé of Koresh
titled "The Sinful Messiah."
The paper also found out
about the raid.
One of our reporters had
gotten a tip from a confidential
informant who told him that
they were gonna do something.
So we made plans to have people out
there to cover whatever it was.
The ATF plan called
for a "dynamic entry."
Around 75 agents, many hidden in cattle trailers,
would rapidly descend on the compound,
serve the warrants, arrest Koresh, search
the property, and seize the weapons.
I thought the plan, had it not
been compromised, would've worked.
But the plan was compromised.
That morning, a local news cameraman got lost
trying to find the Branch Davidian compound.
He asked a mail carrier for directions and
indicated there might be some kind of raid.
The mailman was
a Branch Davidian.
Undercover agent Robert Rodriguez was at the
compound when Koresh received the warning.
Robert immediately excused himself...
"Look, I have to leave."
David said, "No, stay."
Robert says, "No, I got to go."
And as Robert tells me, he walks
out the door, and he says,
"I was just waiting for them
to put a bullet in my back."
Agent Rodriguez
went straight to his commanders.
He said, "They're looking at us,
they know we're coming.
You need to call this off."
But the impetus to act had
already reached critical mass.
In the next few hours, events
at Waco would transfix
the nation, and David Koresh
would become a household name.
I knew that they were coming.
You know? I knew they were coming
before they knew they were coming.
On Sunday morning, February 28th,
the ATF launched its ill-fated raid
on the Branch Davidian compound
outside Waco, Texas.
The ATF called it
"Operation Showtime."
Those that made
the initial entry,
their concern were the children.
They had candy bars in
their pockets to give out.
Chocolate for the kids.
Wow.
An ATF agent named
Roland Ballesteros was assigned
the dangerous job of actually
serving the warrants.
He never even made it
to the front door.
A barrage of gunfire just
went right through the door.
He got his thumb shot off.
Christ, how could these guys
just start shooting at us?
The morning of February 28,
1993, I will never forget.
Crisis negotiator Byron Sage is the
first FBI agent on the scene...
arriving some 75 minutes
after the shooting started.
And I got there a little
after 11:00.
The gun battle was still raging,
which was significant.
The average gun battle in law
enforcement lasts about 2 seconds.
This was a gun battle that had
raged now for well over an hour.
Geez.
Certainly there were some
that shot back.
We're not denying that.
'Cause they weren't trusting us, and we
weren't probably too trusting of them
because they were continuing
to shoot.
Bullets were coming out of every
window within the compound.
FBI agent Bob Ricks would become the face of
the government's effort to end the standoff.
When he arrives,
the ATF agents are in shock.
They had the look of defeat, the look
of despair, look of despondency.
They had gone through a horrible day and were
forcibly required to retreat from that scene.
Our top priority right from the start
was to get a lid on the violence
and then to bring
their emotionality down.
As the shootout rages,
ATF agent Jim Cavanaugh is already on the phone
with the Davidians, trying to gain a cease-fire.
We were taking an awful beating.
So many men were hurt and wounded and were laying
down there, and I called into the compound.
It was Steven Schneider.
Steven Schneider
was Koresh's top lieutenant.
And he started screaming through the
phone that we had no right to be there,
to get off
the property immediately.
I tried to stay calm.
I said, "Steve, we have to talk.
We have to work this out.
You and I have to work this out.
People are dying,
people are hurt.
We need to stop the shooting."
Soon Cavanaugh is talking
directly with David Koresh.
I had a radio mike in one ear with
an agent pleading for his life,
and I had this guy on the
phone who thought he was God.
Checking now our top stories
on "Prime News."
In Waco, Texas, at least four
federal agents are dead
and 14 are injured in a shootout
with members of a religious cult.
It takes negotiators 2 1/2
hours to gain a cease-fire.
After that, the top priority is
to retrieve the wounded and dead
ATF agents from around
the compound.
The whole scene has the look
of a war zone.
When I first got there, it was a very
tense, uncomfortable environment.
Within hours, FBI agents are pouring
into Waco from around the country.
Special Agent Randy Parsons is
dispatched from Washington, D.C.
But parsons and his colleagues
aren't there simply to assist.
The FBI is taking over.
It's a critical turning point.
It was an uncomfortable situation because
the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
felt a great sense of loss.
It was their own men, their own
agents who were down and were gone.
Shortly thereafter, they were told that
we were gonna be taking over the handling
of the response to the events on that day,
and that was crushing for them, as well.
At the time, you know,
it's personal.
You have some animosity.
I felt a little, you know, "Hey, someone's
coming in and taking away what I started."
But, you know, it was for the best, because you
never know, because of what we just went through,
what we could have done.
Get that camera out
of here! Get out of here!
Get that shit out of here!
Out!
Get it out of here!
Let go of my camera!
What's the matter with you?!
Get out of here!
Go, go, go!
I need help!
News of the shootout immediately
spreads from coast to coast.
The national press swarms into
Waco, looking for answers.
And from the start, one question
dominates all others...
When we drove up, the
Davidians opened fire.
And I am sickened
by any other assertion.
But in a CNN phone interview after the
shootout, David Koresh says otherwise.
They started firing at me, and so then what
happened was some of the young men and stuff
started firing on them.
They fired on us first.
We didn't shoot first.
We didn't.
They shot first.
And if I thought that an ATF agent would
drive up in front of a structure and shoot,
I'd throw my badge
in the garbage.
It didn't happen.
Probably the only person who will ever know who
actually shot first is the person who shot first.
No one could know that the shootout
was just a hint of what was coming...
a tense 51-day standoff that would escalate
into a conflagration of biblical proportions.
What started as a carefully planned ATF raid on
the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas,
quickly turned into
a horrible debacle.
Four ATF agents are dead, 16 wounded,
with an unknown number of casualties
inside the compound,
including David Koresh.
At this hour, FBI agents are
negotiating with the cult leader.
He reportedly believes
he is Jesus Christ.
Mr. Koresh,
how are you doing?
Uh, fair to middlin'.
I understand
you've been wounded.
Would you describe
your condition?
Weakening.
Are you shot, sir?
Uh, y-Yes, I am.
Well, communications
opened up pretty quickly.
He loved to talk.
He loved to hear himself talk.
How's God gonna talk to me
in the latter days?
- Through the word of God.
- So there'll be no excuses!
So there was no
lack of communication.
There was a lack of
productive communication.
There's a lot of children here.
I've had a lot of babies
these past few years.
Is it true, David,
that one of the children,
a 2-year-old, is dead?
Yeah, it's true.
He was so calm to a point
where you begin to immediately
start questioning what kind of
personality are we dealing with?
Koresh and the Davidians were
well-supplied for a long siege.
In addition to their arsenal, they
had stockpiled military MRE's.
What we ultimately had come to realize is
that we have well over 100 individuals
inside of a heavily fortified
compound that were there voluntarily
because they had backed what
they felt was their messiah.
What'd you think
about all this, huh?
- I don't know.
- You don't know?
Getting the children
out is the top priority,
but Koresh uses them as pawns to get
what he wants... airtime on the radio.
I gave them a message for the radio so that the
public can listen to where I'm coming from,
and I explained that every time they played
it, I would send two of the children out.
The message is played several
times over the next few hours.
And remember the most fearful
warning ever given to man
in scripture is the warning
found in Revelation 22.
And, sure enough, we started getting
children out late that afternoon.
Over the next several days, more than a dozen
children will be released, along with some adults.
But the standoff continues.
On the third day of the siege, Koresh
makes another deal with negotiators.
If they will play a one-hour
sermon on national television,
he will come out peacefully
with all his followers.
If they'll show me and show the
world what the Seven Seals are
and where they're at in the
prophecies, then I'll be satisfied,
and then we'll all
come out to you.
The FBI agrees.
That tape was played
in the afternoon about 3:00,
went for about an hour, and then
the clock starts ticking.
We're all waiting.
We're anticipating.
We had buses lined up
to receive everybody.
In subsequent contacts with Koresh, he stated
that he had received a message from God,
instructing him to wait.
Any doubts about who was calling
the shots is suddenly gone.
Now we knew when we had
a person who said he was
speaking directly to God and God had told him
to wait, that this was not going to be normal.
That was one of the first and more significant
glimpses of the disingenuous nature of how David
was dealing with us as far as
promises and truthfulness.
I believe that was our last best
chance to get him to ever come out.
He was fatigued, he was wounded, he was hurt,
we'd been working on him for three days,
but at the very last moment,
he couldn't do it.
If I say I'm Christ, the proof is
if I can open up the Seals or not.
He couldn't leave this place where he
was God with unlimited sexual favors
and walk out
to a cold jail cell.
He tricked us.
He fooled us.
He played with us.
On Day 6 of the standoff, another
child comes out of the compound
with a note pinned
to her jacket.
It says, "Once the children are
out, the adults will die."
We never got another child out.
We got a total of 21, and I
will be eternally grateful
for the fact that we were able
to accomplish that.
27 children
remained inside the compound.
We continued to press
David on that.
David finally became very upset with
the negotiator, and he stopped him.
He yelled at him.
He said "Hey.
You don't understand.
The rest of these children
are mychildren.
They're not coming out."
The battle of Armageddon was on.
Tension is high in Waco, Texas.
Four federal agents and at least
10 cult members are dead.
From the outset of the standoff
at the Branch Davidian compound,
law enforcement's primary concern
was the welfare of the children.
We really wanted to talk to as many of the
children as we could, to see their faces,
and maybe talk to the mothers, if possible...
see if they were being held against their will.
To accomplish this, the FBI concealed microphones
in milk cartons sent into the compound.
They also gave David Koresh a video
camera to record pictures of the children
and any statements
anyone wanted to make.
Hello.
We were trying to determine what was the
nature of the people inside the compound.
Were they healthy?
Were they suffering?
We learned very rapidly that these
people came from all walks of life...
some of them very bright people.
We as negotiators had to step
back and realize, good Lord.
How much control does this guy actually
exercise over everybody inside there?
On the tape,
Koresh even shows his wounds.
Almost two weeks into the siege, Janet Reno was
sworn in as Attorney General of the United States.
Briefed on the situation in Waco, she
endorsed the FBI's plan to be patient
and wait out the crisis.
As the siege entered its third
week, the FBI turned up the heat.
But waiting did not
mean doing nothing.
Authorities bombarded the
compound with noise and light...
And sometimes cut the
electricity and phones
for hours at a time.
Then another major turning point...
the FBI tactical team deployed tanks
as a physical show of force.
Now I'm like, "Wow.
This looks like a war zone."
It seemed like during the siege,
if we did what they asked,
the next thing the guys on the ground,
the tactical team, smashing up vehicles
and bulldozing the trees down.
It's like every time we did comply with them,
they were punishing us in one way or another.
As the tension mounted and the press coverage
grew, the siege drew both curious onlookers
and protesters... many of them
gun-rights supporters.
One was a young disenfranchised
Army vet named Timothy McVeigh.
Two years later, he would bomb the
Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
McVeigh said he did it, in part, because
of the government action at Waco.
16 days into the standoff, David Koresh
agrees to let two of his followers
meet with government negotiators
face-to-face.
He had selected Steve Schneider, his
number-one lieutenant, and Wayne Martin,
their Harvard-educated attorney, to come
out and talk to our representative.
The tension was extremely high.
You could quite literally feel the cross hairs
on you from the Branch Davidian compound,
as I'm sure Steve Schneider and Wayne Martin
could... could feel from our tactical teams
that had everybody covered.
The meeting is positive.
The FBI negotiators arrange
to meet again in two days
and deliver written assurances
requested by Koresh.
But Schneider abruptly cancels
the second meeting.
He indicated that David
didn't think it was necessary.
So I said, "Wait a minute.
You don't want to come out or David
doesn't want you to come out?"
He says, "Well, David doesn't
think it's necessary."
For agent Sage,
a heated phone conversation
that follows provokes a crucial
realization about Koresh.
At one point, he's talking
about my salvation, and I said,
"David, I am absolutely confident in my
salvation as a Christian, and you, partner,
are not in a position
to judge me."
Now, that was a very calculated move,
because stop and think about it.
If this individual was delusional and
thought that he was Jesus Christ,
who's in more of a position to judge
me as a Christian than Jesus Christ?
But in my mind, it had resolved
a very critical question,
and that is, I did not feel
that he was delusional
or felt that he was
the second coming of Christ.
I think that he was a con man, and
his chosen area of con was religion.
46 days into the Branch Davidian
standoff, FBI negotiators are stymied.
There's still no progress.
In a concession to Davidian leader, David Koresh,
the FBI lets him speak with his attorney
from inside the compound.
I'm hopeful that this is
some real progress
and that we can bring this thing
to an end real quickly.
After the attorneys went in, David said
that he was gonna write his manuscript
of the meanings
of the Seven Seals.
Supposedly, the manuscript will be
Koresh's proof that he is the lamb of God.
At first, Koresh says it will take him
two days to write about each Seal.
Then it becomes two weeks, and
then he says it will take a year.
Had there been serious preparation of
the manuscripts, we would have waited.
There was none.
On the 49th day of the siege,
Attorney General Janet Reno
approves the Bureau's plan
for a tactical solution...
the insertion of tear gas
into the compound.
I approved the plan,
and I am responsible for it.
I advised the president, but I did
not advise him as to the details.
It's one more
major turning point,
though Reno leaves it to the FBI
to decide when to take action.
We went 27 days with nobody
being released.
David Koresh became more violent
in his rhetoric.
He has made such statements
as, "We are ready for war.
Let's get it on."
Finally, on about the 18th of April, the
decision was made that we've had enough delays,
we've had enough disingenuous lies
coming from these individuals.
It was time to exercise
a tactical resolution.
On day 51 of the siege at Waco, the FBI initiates
its tactical plan to end the standoff.
David, individuals inside
the Branch Davidian compound...
we are in the process of placing
tear gas into the building.
I learned of the gas that day.
I didn't know that they were
gonna do that.
And I thought, "Wow.
Well, they're gonna
gas them out."
Exit the compound now.
Submit to the proper authority,
David.
You are under arrest.
This standoff is over.
I don't think we, the FBI,
ATF, anybody else ever had any
control over how this
was gonna end.
I think the only control we truly
had was whenit was going to end.
Koresh had his playbook
already decided in advance...
that he would destroy his
followers rather than to give up
to the evil armies of
the federal government.
Believe me,
it will not get any better.
It will only get worse.
David, you have had
your 15 minutes of fame.
It's time to leave the building.
We banked on the fact that a parent,
if they found their children exposed
to that kind of discomfort, would move Heaven
and Earth to get them to a position of safety.
And we were wrong.
The beginning of the end
comes just after 12:00 noon.
A wisp of smoke floats
from a compound window.
My instructions over the loudspeakers went
from... instructions to, "Please. David...
don't do this."
David, don't do this
to your people.
All of a sudden you see
bursts of flames.
I'm like, "My God. I hope they
allow the children to leave."
This is not the way to end this.
Lead your people out, David.
Be a messiah, not a destroyer.
I will never forget the exact thought that
went through my head when I saw the flames:
"Thank God. Those mothers will
bring their children out now."
And we waited and waited and waited, and
they didn't bring their children out.
The entire scene unfolds
before a live TV audience.
Look at this!
This is gorgeous!
They threw tear gas in there, and
it caught on fire or something.
The exuberance of a control-room producer is
tempered by the reality of the situation.
It was quick.
Didn't last very long.
The structure, or the building, was
very shoddily made of plywood.
I mean,
it's like a wooden match.
We never stopped
our negotiation efforts.
We continued right up until I turned off the
speakers on that last day at 12:35 in the afternoon.
Everyone was in tears.
We could all see the faces
of the children.
We all knew who they were.
We'd seen them.
And that's what we were dedicated to doing was
trying to rescue those kids out of there.
And that had all gone up in smoke, and
we knew that they were all dying,
and there was nothing
we could do about it.
To recap for those viewers who
may just be tuning in to CNN...
It is day 51 of the siege near Waco,
Texas, and the standoff between the FBI
and the Branch Davidian religious cult that now
seems to be coming to an explosive and fiery end.
I did not think that he
would fulfill his prophecy.
That's what he did.
April 19, 1993.
The siege at Waco has come
to a fiery end.
This hour we have no word still specifically on
the fate of David Koresh and specific followers.
But how in the world could they
have done that to their kids?
Nine people came out.
Not one of them brought a child.
Clive Doyle is one
of the nine who did get out.
But he left his 18-year-old
daughter inside.
She had been one of Koresh's
child brides.
You beat yourself up and say, "Well,
why didn't I go looking for her?
Why didn't I rescue her?
Why didn't I save anybody?"
I've kicked myself ever since.
People do strange things
in fires.
I was not just shocked
but just horrified.
I mean, to think that these
children had perished
in the fire... and women,
and I started asking questions,
and like, why did this happen?
Who started the fire?
It almost became common belief that...
that the FBI had shot the people in there
or that the FBI had perhaps
started the fire.
I'm not saying the FBI did
everything right or that ATF
did everything right,
but we did not set the fires.
We did not murder anybody.
Infrared photography
taken by helicopters
above the building shows the fire igniting in
three different places inside the compound.
All of the indications are
that the fire was set from
within, presumably by some of
David Koresh's followers.
Nine Branch Davidians exited
that compound that last day.
There's a person jumping,
hanging from that window.
Seven of the nine had
accelerants on their clothing.
Whether anybody actually deliberately lit a fire
in there, I don't know, but my question would be,
uh, even if they did,
whose fault is it?
Is it our fault because we were bent on dying,
or is it the FBI's fault for taunting David?
In the smoldering wreckage of the compound,
investigators recover at least 78 bodies...
including David Koresh.
It appears as though his second in command,
Steve Schneider, shot David Koresh in the head
with a pistol, and then Schneider
turned the pistol on himself.
The children themselves
were mostly executed.
They were either beaten to death,
stabbed to death, or shot.
David Koresh was never going to walk
out of that place on our terms.
It was doomed from day one that that place,
which went by the name of Ranch Apocalypse,
was destined to end up
in flames.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, "Not another
Waco" became a rallying cry for the ATF.
The agency improved intelligence-gathering
and reporting methods,
and changed policy regarding who makes
on-the-ground incident decisions.
The FBI made changes, as well... forming a
crisis-response group to ensure complete coordination
between its negotiators
and tactical teams.
I made the decision, I'm
accountable, the buck stops with me,
and nobody ever accused me
of running from a decision
that I made based on the best
information that I had.
Waco was an early test for
Attorney General Janet Reno.
Though she came under intense criticism for her
decisions, she remained in office until 2001.
As for the Waco Tribune-Herald, it was named
a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize
in Investigative Reporting.
Today three memorials stand at
the Branch Davidian compound.
One is in memory of those
who perished in 1995
at Oklahoma City.
A second memorial is dedicated
to all the Branch Davidian
members who died
that horrible day in April.
The third, the smallest stone of all,
remembers the four ATF agents who perished
on February 28, 1993.
Robert John Williams...
Todd McKeehan...
Steve Willis... and
Conway Lebleu.
They were heroes.
When I hear "Taps" or when I hear, um,
the bagpipes... I just break down.
I'll take this to my grave.