David Koresh (born Vernon Howell) is unusual. We will introduce this review of his life with these words from the Waco Tribune-Herald:

"If you are a Branch Davidian, Christ lives on a threadbare piece of land 10 miles east of Waco called Mount Carmel.

"He has dimples, claims a ninth-grade education, married his legal wife when she was 14, enjoys a beer now and then, plays a mean guitar, reportedly packs a 9mm Glock [handgun] and keeps an arsenal of military assault rifles, and willingly admits that he is a sinner without equal."-Waco Tribune-Herald, February 27, 1993.

Vernon Howell was born in Houston, Texas, in 1959. His mother was 15-year-old Bonnie Clark, a single mother; his father was Bobbie Howell, then 20, a carpenter. The couple split up when Vernon was 2, his paternal grandmother, Jean Holub, said, because her son started seeing another woman. His mother ultimately married Roy Haldeman and moved to the Dallas area, where young Howell grew up. He neglected his school studies, but spent a lot of time studying the Bible and memorizing passages. He also played the guitar.

His maternal grandmother, Earline Clark of Chandler, Texas, said that he was dyslexic in school and unable to learn well. After going to a special school for a year or so, he still could not grasp his studies. So, in the ninth grade, Howell gave up on school.

Dropping out, he improved his guitar playing and imaginatively dreamed up strange ideas from Bible passages.

For a time, he hoped to become a rock guitarist superstar and even went out to Hollywood for a time, in the hope of finding stardom. In 1979, at the age of 18, Howell moved to Tyler, Texas, not far from Chandler, where he joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But his grandmother, Earline Clark, says the local church disliked his long hair, casual clothes, peculiar ideas, and wild music. Two years later he was disfellowshipped for conduct inappropriate for an Adventist. The local church said they did it because his conduct was damaging to the young people of the church.

Howell promptly joined the Branch Davidians. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Waco to be with Roden's group, which, in their publications, called themselves "The Branch."

When Howell arrived, he found a power vacuum. Lois' control over the group was already waning. Some did not like her "feminine Holy Spirit" theory while others thought that her son, George, should be the leader. Still others did not like George, and were waiting for a new leader to come along.

As for George Roden, he was certain he was his father's true successor. George was a large man with a barrel chest, thick black hair, and a menacing presence. Few on the compound considered him an inspirational type. Then Howell arrived, and the two began clashing. In contrast with young Howell, a ninth-grade drop-out with a lot of Bible in his head, George came across as crude, clumsy, and somewhat confused.

(Interestingly enough, by 1976 George Roden already had grandiose ideas. That year he ran for president of the United States with Perry Jones, Howell's future father-in-law, as his campaign treasurer. His planks were the promise of 2 percent home loans for aging parents, and elimination of inflation by cutting wages and prices by 40 percent. But no one at the democratic convention gave him a second look, and his campaign died before it got started.)

Young Howell was only 23 years old when he came to Waco in 1983. Grasping the situation, he quickly made Lois a close friend. She was 67 by then. Branch followers say that she felt sorry for him because, when he arrived, he confessed to being preoccupied with masturbation. At any rate, the friendship grew strong enough that they eventually tried to have a child together. Howell was very willing to admit this union later. He said it was done' in order to fulfill Isaiah 8:3." But Lois carried the baby only a short time and then miscarried. Vernon had a marvelous way of taking all kinds of scripture passages and applying them to himself.

Soon he was preaching to the group. He knew so many Bible passages, and had such a way with words, that young Howell could go for hours preaching about his favorite theme: the aggressors who were soon to come from without the walls to destroy them. Eventually, when the federal agents did come, Howell had his followers prepared for their arrival.

As always, the younger members of the group quickly gravitated to 5' 11" Vernon because of his easy-going smile, flowing brown hair, wire-rim glasses, and his passion for rock music. The older ones were astounded by his wide range of Biblical theories.

HIS FIRST MARRIAGE

In 1984, at the age of 24, Howell married Rachel Jones, the 14-year-old daughter of two Roden followers. Her father, Perry Jones, was an influential Davidian at the center who quickly became a strong supporter of Vernon. Rachel bore him a son, Cyrus (now 7), and a daughter, Star (now 5).

After he married Rachel, he told Lois that she needed to get her son, Goerge, off the place. But when she did not do this, Howell shunned Lois and began proclaiming himself the true successor to Benjamin Roden and Victor Houteff.

As soon as Howell began having relations with his mother, George determined to get rid of the young man. Accusing Howell of raping his mother, he threatened to kill him. After several fist fights with Howell, George began wearing a gun as he walked around the place. Sometimes he also carried a semi-automatic Uzi as he made his rounds. Although the Shepherd's Rod, turned Davidians, turned Branch Davidians had always taught that they would eventually slay Seventh-day Adventists-and anyone else who got in their way, -some later said that George's guns were the first ones openly seen at the Waco center.

Soon there would be more.

That same year, 1984, the big split came, as some sided with George while, by far, the larger part were loyal to Howell. In 1985, the rivalry between Howell and George Roden culminated in a major clash, in which Howell's group were forced off the property at gunpoint.

Vernon Howell would remember this: If he had had guns, this would not have happened.

TO PALESTINE, TEXAS

Howell took his group about 80 miles east to Palestine, Texas, where they lived for a time in tents and 8-foot by 10 foot plywood packing crates. He probably selected the place for its Biblical-sounding name. The next year, Lois died. In a will, which was later invalidated, she left the entire acreage, called Mount Carmel, to her son George. But she left him little else.

George may have retained possession of the compound, but he had lost most of his followers. They had moved off the place with young Howell. In 1987, determined to settle the matter and win his group back, he went to the cemetery on the Mount Carmel property and dug up the body of Anna Hughes, an 85-year-old former member. Storing the casket inside a shed, Roden then issued a challenge to Howell: The man who raised Hughes from the dead would be the Branch Davidians' true prophet!

About now, you may think that George was crazy. Others thought so too.

Howell and his followers were to live in Palestine, Texas, from 1984 to early 1988.

THE NEW MESSIAH

One day at Palestine, Howell told his group that God had told him he was the antitypical Cyrus, and that he would destroy modern Babylon, as well as the antitypical David. In ancient times Cyrus became king of Persia and conquered the kingdom of Babylon. Howell applied that historical incident to himself, and said he would become conqueror of the world, and rule as the "antitypical David."

In his fevered thinking, Howell also announced that he was the messiah to come, who would deliver all the righteous and all who refused to submit to his leadership would be destroyed.

A later spin-off of this thinking was to be his neurotic concern to amass as many high-power weapons as possible, so he could use them in the coming crisis.

The next year, 1986, Howell added another remarkable theory to his collection: He said he was the second intercessor for mankind, and that Christ had only died for those who lived prior to His death on the cross. Nothing was sacred to Howell; not even basic teachings about Jesus Christ.

In 1985-1986, Howell first began taking overseas trips to recruit more followers. Most of his converts were teenagers or young adults, who were fascinated by his long, flowing white robes and his high-speed sermons.

It was about this time that Howell first began occasionally using the name, "Vernon Jezreel" ("Vernon, the avenging god").

THE 1987 SHOOT-OUT

Learning that Roden had disinterred the corpse of Anna Hughes, quick-thinking Howell saw in this an opportunity to take back the Mount Carmel property. Delivering an impassioned sermon to his followers, he declared that Roden had defiled the body and they must immediately return to Waco, reclaim the property, and kick out Roden.

It was the morning of October 31, 1987. Denise Wilkerson, a Waco prosecutor, was told by sheriff's deputies that Vernon Howell wanted to prosecute George Roden for "corpse abuse." Since it was Halloween, she thought it was a practical joke. However, she told the deputies that, without evidence-a corpse in a coffin-she could not file charges.

Three days later, early in the morning of November 3, Howell and seven heavily armed friends climbed into vehicles and drove west from Palestine to Mount Carmel. Dressed in camouflage fatigues, they approached the compound. Later claiming that they were only trying to obtain a picture of the corpse for the sheriff's office, they waited until many of the adults and children at Mount Carmel had left for work and school in nearby towns. Then, quietly, the eight men went from building to building and warned members to leave because trouble might develop.

But one of those warned-immediately went to George Roden and warned him. Wilkerson later said that Roden grabbed his Uzi. Who fired first? The evidence is not clear.

For twenty minutes, a gun battle raged between George, standing behind a tree, and the other men. Along about that time, a neighbor living off the property, tiring of the ruckus, called the sheriff. When he arrived, the shooting stopped. No one had been killed, but Roden had been slightly wounded in his hand and chest.

All of those involved in the action were arrested and taken to town. Howell and his aides were charged with attempted murder, then released on bond.

But Roden turned out to be his own worst enemy, for, before the case came to trial, Roden was jailed for contempt of court in an unrelated case, after he filed "some of the most obscene and profane motions that probably have ever been filed in a federal courthouse," said Wilkerson. Among other things, in his "legal brief," Roden had asked God to inflict AIDS and herpes on the judges of the Texas Supreme Court.

Howell was quick to recognize his opportunity. Immediately, he tried to move his followers back to the Mount Carmel center, but found that $68,000 were owed to the county in back taxes. Howell found someone willing to give him that amount. Once paid, he was able to move in with his followers. He was back at Mount Carmel again!

Triumphant, he sat down and wrote a new hard rock song about George, the first words of which were these: "There's a madman living in Waco. Pray to the Prince of Hell. " You would not want to hear the rest of the lyrics. With the help of his compound band, he later taped the wild, screaming song. The present writer heard part of it on a radio news broadcast. It makes you want to run screaming from the house.

Were those words prophetic of more to come?

Immediately, Vernon Howell set to work to fortify the place.

THE 1988 TRIAL

The eight were charged in November, but the case did not come to trial until early 1988. During the trial, Howell claimed he was only aiming at a tree, although he admitted shooting in Roden's direction. As for his friends, they testified under oath that they were merely firing their guns into the air in the hope of frightening Roden into giving up.

There was no getting around the fact that 18 bullet holes were found in the tree that George was standing behind during the shoot-out. But, somehow, this was not enough to convince the jury.

Yet it must be remembered that the prosecution, under the then local district attorney Vic Feazell, had a fatal flaw in their case: Their chief witness was George. He came to the courtroom straight from the county jail, where he was serving a six-month sentence for filing those weird motions against the State Supreme Court. In the eyes of the jury, his appearance and presentation contrasted strongly with the youthful vigor and demeanor of Howell.

Howell's followers packed the third floor hallway of the McLennan County Courthouse that morning, and, when the trial began, filled the balcony of the courtroom.

It was then that Judge Herman Fitts noted the power of Howell over his followers. Before the trial started, he asked if there were any witnesses in the courtroom who needed to be sworn in. All were silent. At this, Howell's attorney, Gary Coker, intervened. With the permission of the court, he urged that anyone who might have testimony to give would please stand. He asked a second time. No one arose.

Then, smiling slightly, Howell stood up. Turning to the spectators and looking up at the balcony, he said, "It's all right; you've done nothing wrong. Stand." Immediately, everyone at the compound who had seen anything of the shoot-out arose to their feet.

When Vernon took the stand, he held his small daughter, Star, in his arms. Speaking with emotion, he spoke of his child and his endangered people. Then he wept. Some of those in the jury felt like weeping, too.

When George took the witness stand, he stolidly told of trying to raise Anna Hughes from the dead, and forthrightly said that he ended his prayer, "In the name of George B. Roden, amen." Jury members later said Roden frightened them.

Howell's accomplices were acquitted by the jury, but his own trial ended in a hung jury. A mistrial was declared. Later, recalling that day, Wilkerson remarked, "After the verdict was announced, a couple of jurors came over and hugged Vernon because they found him to be a very sympathetic character." Then, showman that he ever was, as the spectators were filing out of the courtroom Howell invited everyone, including the jury, to come out to Mount Carmel for an ice-cream social. Charges against him were later dropped.

Soon after the charges were dropped, Howell's attorney at the trial, Gary Coker, backed his Bronco up to the sheriff's department, and deputies loaded it with shotguns and semiautomatic rifles. All the weapons confiscated at Mount Carmel after the 1987 shoot-out were returned. Coker drove them over to the place and Howell's men unloaded them.

This gave Howell a tidy little cache of weapons to build upon. He lost no time setting to work. Letters were written and phone calls were made; gradually more and more shipments arrived. He even wrote a New Jersey firm, inquiring about the possibility of purchasing a military tank!

A few months later, George Roden, who had been jailed on contempt of court charges, was released. Under the watchful eyes of sheriff's deputies, he moved his things out of the compound. Piling them in a car, he drove to Odessa, Texas, and rented a house. In 1989, he got into an argument with a 56-year-old Odessa man and, according to the available evidence, killed him. In December of 1990, Roden was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sent to Vernon State Hospital in the far north part of the state, near the Oklahoma border, where he remains today.

After the shoot-out with federal agents on February 28, 1993, a reporter went to the mental institution and interviewed Roden. Looking tired, George said, "I've been trying to warn people about Vernon for years."

Although Howell and his associates were free, the trial had revealed that the Waco group was already well-armed, with at least a dozen firearms, including shotguns and .22 cal. rifles.

But, don't worry about those 22s; no one at Mount Carmel looks twice at them any more. They have bigger stuff now.

THE HOUSE OF DAVID

In 1986, while still living amid tents and packing crates in Palestine, Texas, Howell claimed to have received a vision in which he was told he must reestablish the throne of David. And, since King David had many wives, Howell must have them too.

The next several years were preoccupied with, first, getting rid of Roden and retaking the Waco compound, and then, second, collecting wives and more followers, disciplining his children, and keeping the men at bay-whose wives he was soon to start taking.

With Roden out of the way, Howell became undisputed master of the Branch Davidians in Waco. Now he set himself to work in earnest collecting more wives and more followers. He also concerned himself with preparing the compound so it could resist an army.

First, there were the wives. Two years after marrying Rachel, Howell began taking more "wives" (actually concubines). One was Robyn Bunds, then 17. Later he took her mother, Jeannine who was 50, as another wife. On and on it went. Robyn says Howell fathered her 4-year-old son, Shaun. She later fled when he took her mother also. Both women are now living in California.

Howell also selected Archly younger sister, Nickelled Jones for his harem. Howell first forced himself on Michelle when she was only 12, and for several years kept her as another "wife." According to Texas State records, her first baby, a girl, was born on February 3, 1989, when she was 14. Former members know of several under-age girls that Howell took into his harem.

Each "wife" that Howell took was given a Star of David pendant, as a sign that she had been especially chosen by the king. Each wife was promised that her children would one day soon reign in Jerusalem with King David as joint heirs with him in his kingdom.

The ex-husband of one Branch Davidian learned that his 10-year-old daughter was wearing a six-pointed star pendant, given her by Howell. Enraged, he sued for custody and took the child to his home in Michigan. More on that later.

THE NEW LIGHT

Howell kept inventing new theology. On August 5, 1989, at a meeting, he told the assembled group about his "new light." What he said to them that day was a blockbuster which shocked the entire colony. It was already well-known that he regularly slept with a variety of women in the compound. But now, after about four hours into the sermon, he declared that no longer could the married men on the place live with their wives! All the women were only for Howell. He announced that every marriage of Davidians, other than his, was annulled. In fact, he extended the prohibition to the whole world! He said that, henceforth, only he had the God-given right to procreate and produce children for the coming kingdom.

If you think George was crazy; well, Vernon was his successor.

Howell said that all women were henceforth appointed for him alone "because he was the lamb of Revelation." As for the men, if they faithfully remained celibate, they would receive new wives when they arrived in Jerusalem and took the kingdom.

Howell enticed the women by assuring each one that she, along with her children by him, would became part of "the House of David." They would later reign with him as kings and queens in Jerusalem.

This announcement caused a number of couples to leave the compound, yet many remained. From that time on, Howell taught this new doctrine wherever he went-in America and even overseas. After this, Howell would harshly rebuke husbands in the compound who tried to maintain contact with their wives. As one former "wife" put it:

"'I've had his child. He's [Howell's] slept with my mother,' Robyn Bunds said. 'I can't think of anything weirder. He doesn't even try to justify it. It's against the Levitical law in the Bible. Did you know that? It's against Levitical law to have a woman and her mother or a woman and her sister. He uses that law when it backs up something he has to say. But when it doesn't, he explains it away."-Waco Tribune-Herald, March 1, 1993.

As usual, Howell was cunning. When he fathered a child, he would have the mother leave the father's name blank on the birth certificate. In this way, the state could not come after him. Nor could he be legally held for child support. In recent months, a paper trail of birth certificates without father's name, by women at the compound-reveals that he sired children with at least 15 different women. But there were probably more.

Later, according to Jeannine Bunds, Howell began ordering the women not to register the births of the babies. That is a statuary misdemeanor. It would also mean the children were not U.S. citizens. But Howell cared not for anyone, as long as his desires were satisfied and his person protected.

CHILD ABUSE

But there was more. Charges of child abuse were filed against Howell with the Texas State welfare office. Followers claimed that he beat even very young children until they were bruised and bleeding. But Howell denied these claims, and visitations by child-welfare workers turned up no evidence. However, it was said he was secretly given advance notice of each unannounced visit.

Former members reported that Howell taught that babies as young as 3 months old should be whipped forcefully. Two women said he hit their babies until their bottoms bled. Howell even banished his then 3-year-old son, Cyrus, to a garage in Pomona, California, for the night, said James Tom, a former Branch Davidian. Howell reportedly told the boy there were rats in the garage who liked to gnaw on children. The boy lay on a board bench all night in an agony of fear.

CONTROLLING THE MIND

Then there was the continual search for more followers including pretty young girls. With George out of the way, Howell was even more free to travel around and recruit believers. With a few select helpers, he toured America, Britain, and Australia. From Hawaii, Britain, Australia, and all over North America, fresh new recruits began coming. Most brought their money with them, and presented it to Howell. They did this because they sincerely believed he was their passport to heaven.

And when they came, Howell controlled them! One man, whose family had joined the group, while he himself never did, could not understand what the others saw in Howell. "At one time, I wondered if he put something in the water," he remarked. "Why do they think God gave them brains if they're going to listen to someone and let him make all their decisions?"

"Branch Davidians didn't depend on Howell just for spiritual guidance. They depended on him for everything. And he had an opinion on everything, from what they wore to what they ate, former cult members said. When Howell first be came their prophet, Branch Davidians could buy extra food and juice drinks. Howell forbade any changes in the prescribed diet.

"He regularly checked people's living quarters to confirm his followers' obedience, according to former cult members. A family was thrown out of the Palestine camp after a search revealed they had bought French fries in town against Howell's wishes, Lisa Gent said. One Branch Davidian was banished from Mount Carmel for eating chocolate chip ice cream.

"Howell's edicts were completely arbitrary. Once, Howell ordered followers not to eat any fruit except bananas, Breault said. Then Howell would not let anyone eat oranges and grapes at the same meal. They could, however, eat oranges and raisins. It was hard to keep up with the changes.

" 'He was the only one allowed to eat meat,' Breault said. 'Then he was the only one allowed to drink Coke. Then he was the only one allowed to drink beer. The thing I noticed about Vernon was that whatever he was tempted with, eventually God would get around to saying it was all right for him to do.' "-Waco Tribune-Herald, March 1, 1983.

Rick Ross, a cult deprogrammer who works in Phoenix, Arizona, has deprogrammed one Waco cult member, and has spoken with several others. In the process, he learned quite a bit about Howell, his teachings and methods. "He controls everything and everyone in that compound, period."

Ross has been involved in more than 200 destructive cult cases, and he compares the Mount Carmel group with Jonestown, a settlement of American cultists in South America's Guyana led by Jim Jones. On November 18, 1978, more than 900 people killed themselves by drinking cyanide or were murdered by Jones' men. Ross believes that Howell practices mind control, and does it by breaking them down to the point where they have little or no sense of self-worth or individuality. He conditions them to be passive and obedient.

Ross says that Howell transfers their trust in God into a total trust in him. By the time they discover things that they know are not right, they no longer have confidence in their own ability to make correct judgments. In order to further weaken their decision-making ability, Ross learned that Howell would severely restrict their diets at times. Sometimes they would labor all day on an empty stomach.

"A former member, Robert Scott of Colorado, said Howell's group could recruit anyone. 'I don't care who you are, you could be the strongest person in the world,' Scott said. 'I don't care who you are because all they need is a foothold.'

"Scott said Howell freely admitted the group was a cult. But Scott said he never perceived the use of mind control. 'Does the spider ever say to the fly, he's going to eat him?' he asked."-Waco Tribune-Herald, March 1, 1993.

Many of Howell's followers were highly educated. Wayne Martin was an attorney. Don Bunds, a design engineer; his wife Jeannine, a nurse. Marc Breault earned a master's degree in religion in 1988. Yet they, along with so many others, fell under the masterful power of this man who offered them the moon.

Australian James Tom recalls Howell asking him one day, "How far are you prepared to go?" When Tom looked puzzled, Howell asked, "Which of your two children are you prepared to sacrifice?"

TRIP TO AUSTRALIA

Marc Breault left the cult in 1989, and in May asked for a visa to immigrate to Australia. Once there, he began working on Howell's followers there, and gradually showed them from the Bible the foolishness of Howell's teachings.

Howell traveled to Australia early in 1990 in an effort to reclaim his group there. Each night he would hold meetings which would last until all was weary, for they had worked all day, but Howell was fresh since he slept in every morning. One afternoon, Howell, through an intermediary, challenged Marc Breault to a verbal showdown at the home of James Tom. Breault, knowing what a dangerous man Howell could be, before leaving that evening to keep the appointment, asked his brother-in-law to call the police if he and his wife, Elizabeth, were not home by 10 p.m.

During the face-off, Howell said he, himself, was the man on the white horse in Revelation. He said he was also the lion of the tribe of Judah because he was born in the month of the constellation Leo (an astrological symbol which, of course, has nothing to do with the Bible).

In response, Breault ridiculed his claim, for, said he, since Howell also claimed to be the man on the black horse with a pair of scales in his hand, did that also mean he was a Libra?

Very angry at this, Howell began talking as if he were not merely the sinful messiah of today, but also the pure Jesus of the New Testament! Breault and his wife were so disgusted, they left.

Shortly afterward, there was a knock at the door. It was past 10 p.m. A voice said the police were coming. (It was merely Marc's brother-in-law announcing that he had fulfilled Breault's request.) Howell, who had just claimed to be the incarnation of Christ, turned ghastly pale, ran out the backdoor, grabbed a nearby bicycle, and began pedaling away. The next day, without stopping to talk to anyone, he hurriedly took a flight back to America. The entire experience cost Howell nearly all his Australian following.

HOWELL BECOMES KORESH

In 1990, Vernon Howell legally changed his name to David Koresh, the name we will hereafter call him by. (He told the court he was doing it "for publicity and business purposes.") In Isaiah 45:1, he found that the Hebrew word for "Cyrus" was "Koresh. " So that was the name he took. And, of course, he selected "David" as the first name. Was he not the head of the Davidians, and the new King David?

Cyrus in ancient times had been a Persian king who allowed the people of God to return to Israel after their captivity in Babylon. Over a hundred years before Cyrus' birth, Isaiah had predicted that Cyrus would conquer Babylon and free God's people (Isaiah 45). Like his chosen namesake, Koresh promised his followers that he too would lead the last-day people of God to Jerusalem, where they would be able to rule the world for a millennium.

This, of course, was merely a retake of Houteff's theory, developed back in the late 1920s and early 1930s. But, even before changing his name, Koresh decided it was time to switch over to a different Jerusalem theory. In the early 1980s, he had actually gone to Israel, visited Jerusalem, and looked the situation over. Deciding that it was not the place for him, he restructured Houteff's theory: Instead of traveling to old Jerusalem, he declared to his followers that they were to stay in Texas; the Waco property was to be their "Jerusalem" until the end of the world. Here they would await the coming of the enemy. When he arrived, they would meet him in battle. During that battle, God would step in by sending the Second Advent. The victorious Davidians would then-and not before-journey to old Jerusalem, where they would begin their millennial rule.

Well, that may sound fine. But it does not work too well when the enemy turns out to be U.S. Government agents, determined to collect a stockpile of illegal weapons.

INVESTIGATIONS BEGIN

By mid-1992 federal agents in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) were beginning to quietly amass evidence about Koresh' activities. They began tracking frequent shipments of firepower, that they say amounted to 8,000 pounds of ammunition and enough parts to assemble hundreds of automatic and semiautomatic weapons. In the fall of 1992, a package addressed to the compound split open before it could be delivered by the United Parcel Service. The contents were hand grenades.

In June 1992, the Waco Tribune-Herald had begun its own investigation. Apparently, for a time, neither investigative team knew the other was also ferreting information. But their efforts would suddenly bump into each other on a cold, dreary weekend near the end of February 1993. The Tribune-Herald investigation involved numerous interviews with more than 20 former Mount Carmel cult members, as well as a review of court records and statements by law enforcement officials.

AUSTRALIAN DETECTIVE GOES TO WACO

In 1990, several former members of the Waco compound, who had left and gone to Australia, decided that they would spend whatever it took to get Koresh behind bars.

Pooling their money, they hired an Australian private detective, Geoffrey N. Hossack for $6,000. His mission was to warn local, state, and federal authorities in America about Koresh's activities at his Texas headquarters and his place in California.

Hossack met with federal, state, and local law enforcement officials in Waco on September 18, 1990. He brought with him nine signed affidavits notarized by a U.S. consul in Australia, which laid out the charges.

Officials at the meeting, held in the federal building in Waco, included the Assistant U.S. Attorney, two men from the McLennan County District Attorney's office, an investigator with the Texas Department of Public Safety, and a member of the McLennan County Sheriff's Department. But the officials felt that no hard evidence had been given, and none of the people involved had personally appeared to state their case.

Hossack was frustrated, and told the folk back in Australia that the Americans would probably do nothing until someone had been killed.

One of the officials present at that meeting, Ralph Strother with the McLennan County District Attorney's office, later recalled:

"Oh, it got my attention. I could see this sort of thing happening. To tell you the truth, the thing that went through my mind is you've got a cult like Jonestown."

He added, "We did not have anything we could rely on to make an arrest. As I recall, none of these people on these affidavits ever came in or would come in to actually tell us these things."

But Hossack disagrees. He said that his people were willing to fly over from Australia and appear in any court anywhere and give evidence against Koresh.

THE MICHIGAN CUSTODY CASE

Three of the former members (an American, Marc Breault; his Australian wife, Elizabeth Baranyai; and Jean Smith, also an Australian) later flew to America to appear in a child custody case in St. Joseph, Michigan.

David Jewell, who had never been a cult member, was trying to get custody of his then 11-year-old daughter, Kiri. The girl, along with her mother, Sherri Jewell, were at the Waco compound. After hearing three days of testimony (which included those same nine affidavits), Judge Ronald Taylor, on February 28, 1992, ordered that Kiri Jewell be kept from Koresh.

ROBYN GOES TO THE POLICE

Robyn Bunds had first joined the House of David when she was 17, about the time of the shoot-out with George Roden. Gradually, with each passing year, she became more and more disgusted. Then, when Koresh took Robyn's mother, Jeannine, from her husband - Robyn's father and began laying with her, Robyn was certain that Koresh was just a pervert. For a time she, and a number of other women, from Waco were in a harem house he had set up in La Verne, California, so they would be available when he preached in southern California. But when she tried to leave, so she could start life over anew, Robyn made the mistake of telling Koresh what she was planning to do. It was August 1990, and Robyn was 21.

The next day, after she got off work (she was a receptionist for a videotape duplication company), she returned to the La Verne house-and found all her belongings gone. Koresh was as much as telling her, "See if you can make it on your own." But- worst of all-her son, Shaun, was also gone. With his usual cunning, Koresh thought this would bring Robyn back to Waco to continue as one of his wives.

But, although Koresh had fathered the boy, Koresh's name was missing from the birth certificate. The child was legally Robyn's- and no one else's. Seething with anger, Robyn immediately went to the La Verne Police Department. She told them everything-every detail, and she knew plenty of them. Horrified, they sent Detective Ron Ingels and several other policemen to accompany her to the harem house, located at 2707 White Avenue.

Arriving at the two-story white stucco dwelling, Ingels had a warrant to search for her young son. Once inside, they found the house set up like a dormitory. One room had a single bed, but all the other rooms had bunk beds. Upstairs they found about 20 women and one man. His name was David Koresh.

Ingels later commented, "The women indicated that they were dedicated and loyal to Howell and would do anything he said. It was a strange situation. All the men stayed in Pomona. All the women stayed with Howell [in La Verne]."

Robyn had earlier told the police about Koresh's many wives, and that one of them was an underage, 14-year-old Australian girl who had become a "wife" a year earlier. She told them that Koresh must have kidnapped her son, Shaun, who was then less than two years old, and sent him to the Waco compound in Texas.

When confronted, Koresh paled and admitted to the police that he had, indeed, sent the boy to Mount Carmel. Sgt. John Hackworth and the other police officers noticed that Koresh's voice was trembling. He hardly seemed a foreboding figure, a prophet with the might of Heaven behind him. He was no longer in control of a situation, and he did not know what to do about it. Worse still, his followers saw him in this condition. For this one day, he was a mere mortal.

Deciding that Koresh needed a scare put into him, La Verne police gave him 48 hours to bring that boy back to his mother- or face kidnapping charges. The media would also be alerted, police said.

Jeannine Bunds, Robyn's mother (50 years old), was La Verne harem house at the time. She left the cult a few months later and joined her daughter in southern California. The mother is now working and helping her daughter, Robyn, take a pre-law course. Jeannine said that, after the police and Robyn left that afternoon, Koresh walked around "like a zombie." He couldn't believe that Robyn had gone to the authorities. Two days later, Shaun Bunds was back home with his mother. Unfortunately, Don Bunds, Jeannine's husband and Robyn's father, decided to stay with the Waco cult. He told them that, if he left, he would burn in hell.

Recalling her years with Koresh, Robyn said, "He has totally changed. He was really nice. He was humble. He was very well-mannered. Over the years, though, he's lost a lot of those qualities. He's become this obnoxious, foulmouthed, pushy person because of the power he has over these people."

After leaving the cult, Robyn's mother Jeannine, made an interesting comment:

"Jeannine Bunds said she now thinks Howell had another reason in mind when he took all the wives in the cult than just building the House of David. It came to her when Howell separated the married men and women.

" 'It gave him more control,' Jeannine Bunds said. 'He's big on control. If you're married, you talk, you discuss things. But if you're not with your mate at night, you can't talk, you can't put Vernon down. You don't have anybody. You're isolated.' "-Waco Tribune-Herald, March 1, 1993.

That August 1990 incident in California involved two raids on the house and the issuance of three warrants for statutory rape. However, nothing more was done about the matter after Shaun was returned to his mother.

PREPARING FOR THE ATTACK

"This compound was built with a siege in mind," said Sgt. Ronnie Turnbough of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office."

Repeatedly, Koresh had predicted that the end of the world was near-and that the end would begin on the day that an attack was made against Koresh's compound near Waco. With this in mind, he set to work. When George Roden was hauled off to jail, he left a decrepit pile of little buildings behind. Everything was in disarray. The tiny houses lining the dirt road into the property had fallen into disrepair. Junk cars were scattered about. A lot of cleanup needed to be done. But more important: The place had to be rebuilt around a central compound which could withstand the predicted assault from the world.

Using money given him by his followers, Koresh transformed the Mount Carmel settlement, once a collection of old cottages scattered around 78 acres of scrub pasture and woods, into a compact fort the size of a city block.

In the process, Koresh built an underground bunker, into which he gradually piled an enormous stockpile of food and weapons. Part of this underground bunker was an old bus his men buried several years ago. Among other things, the storage facilities contained a great quantity of grains and beans. Then there was the armory; it was slowly filled with high-power weapons of various kinds. By the time of the 1993 raid, the group had stockpiled enough water, canned goods, grain, and ready-to-eat meals to last several months. Even if the electricity were later cut off, emergency generators would be ready for action.

NOISE BLAST

The intensity of sound at Mount Carmel was frequently terrific. From time to time Koresh continued giving guitar and singing rock concerts to his group. Tapes of his earlier performances blasted through the halls at various times. Perhaps the incessant din kept his followers from thinking too much. Posters of the wild man rock guitarist, Ted Nugent, and the heavy-metal band, Megadeth, along with others, were posted on the walls throughout the compound. As usual, when Koresh preached in the chapel, he would go on for hours- and no one dared leave for a bite of food. Some of these preaching sessions went 16 hours straight. Frequently, his preaching sessions lasted far into the night.

To psychologically equip his people for what was ahead, Koresh played and replayed videos of his favorite movies about the Vietnam War: Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, and Hamburger Hill. The women were assigned various emergency duties they were to do when the inevitable attack came. As for the men, they were put through weight-lifting, military style drills, and obstacle-course runs. Of course, target practice was a favorite with them. Koresh always had lots of ammunition for them to practice with.

NIGHT PATROLS

Each night, the central watchtower, with lookout windows facing all directions, was manned by men while others patrolled the grounds with rifles. It is not yet certain how many night-vision goggles they had. One law enforcement officer called the compound "a fort." As for Koresh's group, months before the February raid, they considered calling their place "Ranch Apocalypse. " Actually, everyone on the place was required to take his turn at guard duty-including the women. Frequently, nighttime would find a woman out walking around doing sentry duty, carrying a gun, with a child holding onto her skirt. Koresh frequently warned his followers that the attack might eventually come because the world was jealous of his many wives.

Early one day in 1988, in the pre-morning darkness, a newspaper carrier arrived with that morning's copy of the Waco Tribune-Herald. Pulling up to the mailbox, he was inserting the paper into the newspaper slot- when a dozing guard was awakened by the flash of his headlights. Jumping up in alarm, he fired a shotgun into the air. Although the guard quickly apologized profusely, the newspaper demanded that the paper slot be moved farther down the road, some distance from the entrance to Mount Carmel.

HARSH LIVING FOR THE FOLLOWERS

In spite of the rock music and posters, living continued to be Spartan in the compound. To acquaint them with future famine, Koresh decreed that they must eat a strictly rationed vegetarian diet. Daily life was a harsh mix of work and attendance at Koresh lectures. The men worked on various construction projects in and around the place while the women carried on the household chores and taught the children. Television was forbidden, children were never permitted off the place, women dressed very modestly. Koresh required special diets for the women, such as popcorn and fruit. This kept them thin, just the way he liked them.

Some of the cult members held jobs in Waco or other nearby towns. They donated their paychecks to Koresh who doled out the rations sparingly. Older members gave their Social Security checks. Those on food stamps, handed them over.

Each morning the Branch Davidians got an early start. At 5:30 a.m., the men arose and, in the summer, were forbidden to drink water. "He felt that not drinking water during exercises in hot weather was a sign of toughness," said Breault. Then they exercised, and ran an obstacle course laid out by Koresh. While they ate breakfast, the women exercised and ran. Then the day's work of getting Mount Carmel ready to meet the guns of the enemy began once again. Early evening brought sermons by Koresh. Then Koresh spent much of the rest of the night with whomever he might select from his harem. The next day, he would arise at about 2 p.m. Marc Breault, later recalled that the Bible sermons generally began about the time that everyone was tired and Koresh was ready to go.

It could get pretty wild around that place. One former cult member, who feared to give his name, later said, "You don't have time to think. He doesn't give you time to think about what you're doing. It's just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang." As if that was not enough, Koresh sometimes felt sleepless at night, and would begin practicing on his guitar, at full electronic volume, until 2 or 3 a.m. Sometimes he would then demand that everyone get up at that time-the middle of the night- for a Bible lecture that might last until 5 or 6 in the morning.

EASY LIVING FOR KORESH

Yet, amid all the turmoil of preparation and investigation, Koresh continued to live a regular life. In spite of the active preparations for an all-out end-of-the-world gun battle, Koresh regularly jogged around the place, visited gun shops and pawn shops in Waco, and, in the evenings, went to pubs in town. He would turn up at local clubs to listen to live music. Brent Moore, manager of the Chelsea Street Pub, says he last saw Koresh a month before the 1993 shoot-out. Koresh arrived with a man and a woman in their early 20s, and sat, watching the musical performers, as they chowed on bean and cheese nachos, sloshed down with iced tea. Many have wondered why the ATF did not grab Koresh when he was jogging or visiting in town. Surely, this would have dispirited all in the compound. The reply has been given that the ATF was fearful lest, without their leader, the Mount Carmel group might immediately commit suicide.

Was the ATF right? We will never know.

Koresh managed to do very well for himself. He regularly had beer, meat, and the only television and MTV in the compound. Kiri, who now lives with her father, David Jewell a disc jockey in Michigan, was only 12 when taken as one of Koresh's "wives." Kiri says that Koresh often spent the night playing his guitar, watching MTV and fantasizing about Madonna. "He thought Madonna was put in the world for him," she said.

He also had his pick of the women each night. All men were required to sleep in quarters separate from the women. So the women's section became Koresh's harem. It was well-known that he preferred the younger ones. Some of his "wives" were single, others were already married to men on or off the place; still others were children as young as 10 to 12. Marc Breault, a former member of Koresh's Waco cult, later commented, "He was fixated with sex and with a taste for younger girls." Elizabeth Barabya, another former member, added: "He said that God believed it was necessary to send him down to be a sinful Jesus so that, when he stood in judgment on sinners on Judgment Day, he would have experience of all sin and degradation." To excuse his conduct, Koresh said that God wanted him to be a "sinful messiah."

PREACHING THAT CAPTIVATED BY ITS CONFUSION

While planning the layout of the compound, Koresh arranged that the arsenal of weapons was next to the chapel. In this way, if the predicted attack came while they were engrossed in one of his marathon preaching sessions, they could quickly run for their armaments.

Part of his astounding control over the group came from his sermon presentations. Koresh knew vast amounts of passages and Bible references. He would speak rapid-fire, jumping from one point to a totally unrelated one. Few could catch what he was talking about, and feared to ask whether it might be true- or question what he might even be talking about. Every so often, Koresh would fire off a barrage of rhetorical questions. Everything happened so fast, his followers were unsure what had been said. But, through it all, his voice always exuded complete self-confidence. One point ran into another, switching quickly past several to still more, and no one could afterward say what they had heard. But the sense of urgency and apocalyptic vision that they sensed in Koresh's presence kept them with him.

Karl Hennig, a schoolteacher from Vancouver, British Columbia, stayed with the cult for two months in 1987. He later told the press that Koresh's power over his followers was based on the fact that no one could figure out what he was talking about:

"What struck Hennig most about cult members was their numbing fear of never understanding Howell. They couldn't just turn to the Bible and read for themselves. As Howell had shown time after time in studies, the Bible's language was much too dense for them to interpret. They were lost without Howell. He was the fulcrum of the Branch Davidians' belief.

" 'I don't think anyone ever knew what his understanding was, honestly,' Hennig said. 'If you had given them pencil and paper, I don't think they could have written down his message. They might have a piece here and there.'

"The Branch Davidians, though, had become convinced that they would not get to heaven unless Howell showed them the way. They came to believe Howell and not the Bible, said Lisa Gent [a former believer, now living in Australia]. He had almost become their god."-Waco Tribune-Herald, February 28, 1993.

Another fear that Koresh instilled was the fear of hell-fire. Sometimes in his sermons he would let out a long-drawn blood-curdling scream, then tell his listeners that that was what hell would feel like. "it is worse than someone flaying off your skin with nail clippers," he told them. One message Koresh made very clear: If they left him, they were doomed to hellfire. But, since they could not understand what his message actually was, they dared not consider the possibility of rejecting it.

Koresh told his followers that he, as Cyrus, was the lamb that Revelation said would reveal the seven seals. And he promised them that, if they would stick with him, he would open those seals, give them that knowledge, and lead them into a millennial reign in Jerusalem.

All that was needed was for the enemy to come and attack them. That would hurl the whole world into the end of time. But somehow, on February 28, 1993, it did not work out that way.

WARNING FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE

Shirley Burton, Director of Communications for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, which is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, says that, the early spring of 1992, she warned government authorities that something terrible was going to happen at the Waco compound. She told them to go there and do something. Here are two reports, both of which originated in her office:

"February, March, and April, 1992: Wild rumors began to circulate in the media in California and Australia. I began soliciting and accumulating information on the group after a panic call very early the Saturday morning before Easter Sunday. Australian media had reported that Howell / Koresh / Jezreel had called for a suicide / martyrdom on Easter morning as a supreme sacrifice to God. Media exposure and law enforcement awareness seemed to have thwarted the plans. There was no apparent news of them thereafter."-Shirley Burton, "To Media Inquirers, " March 2, 1983.

"The morning before Easter last year, Shirley Burton, spokeswoman for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said she got a terrifying phone call. On the line was a church official in Australia, relaying a warning that the next day, an explosion of violence would occur in a Waco, Texas, cult that included dozens of former Adventists. The man got the warning from parents of a cult member.

" 'The parents had just had word that there would be a `suicide-massacre,' Burton said, adding that her mind filled with images of the 1978 murder-suicide of Jim Jones and 900 of his followers in Guyana.

"Church authorities tipped off Waco police and Easter passed without incident. But peace came to a bloody end this past Sunday, when sect members began a shoot-out with federal agents."-Washington Post, March 3, 1993.

It is of interest that both investigation teams began their work in 1992, within a month or two after the General Conference alerted federal, state, and local authorities.

"Last spring officials of the Seventh-day Adventist Church heard from colleagues in Sydney that the Branch Davidians were planning a mass suicide for Easter Sunday. About the same time the State Department got word from sources in Australia that Koresh's group was stockpiling arms and planning suicide. State passed it on to ATF, which began its investigation in June."-Newsweek, March 15, 1993.

PILING UP THE WEAPONS

In mid-1992, a neighbor telephoned the sheriff's office that "there is an awful lot of shooting" at the Waco compound. To deflate any concerns and answer this complaint, some of Koresh's men took some weapons in and showed them to the sheriff's office. They were equipped with "hellfire switches." Attached to a semiautomatic weapon, this electronic device enables it to fire almost as fast as a fully automatic weapon-yet hellfire switches are legal in Texas. A hellfire switch for one gun can be purchased for $40.

When later asked about it, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston said that the people of Texas can own as many weapons as the want, as long as they are legal. "It's not against the law to have assault-type weapons," he said. "But it is against the law to have assault-type weapons without having them properly registered."

When this was mentioned to an ATF representative in Washington, D.C., he said that "gangster-type" weapons, such as machine guns, silencers, and explosives must be registered with the bureau to be legal.

Now comes the punch line: When asked about the matter, McLennan County Sheriff Jack Harwell said that, to his knowledge, no ATF registration papers have ever been received or approved for Koresh or his group.

One former cult member, who was too fearful to give his name, said the group has .50-caliber weapons, AK-47s, AR15s, Israeli assault rifles, 9mm handguns, and one or more starlight filters for night patrol.

Another former member said those in the compound had outfitted their semiautomatic AR-15s (the civilian version of the military's .223-caliber M-16 assault rifle) with hellfire switches, transforming them into the near-equivalent of fully automatics.

A trained rifleman can squeeze off up to 30 aimed shots a minute from a semiautomatic rifle. A fully automatic rifle can fire from 150 to 600 shots per minute, depending on its rate of fire.

Another former follower of Koresh's described the collection at the compound in this way: a variety of 9mm handguns, sporting rifles of various calibers, shotguns, and even a .50-caliber heavy machine gun-a fully automatic weapon with a range of about 8,200 feet. Such a weapon would be able to penetrate lightly armored vehicles up to a distance of about 5,900 feet and would be a serious threat to helicopters flying below 3,000 feet. There was no apparent news of them thereafter."-Shirley Burton, "To Media Inquirers," March 2, 1983.

Former members recall the frequent use of the underground firing range. "We were thought of as God's marines," one of them said. "If you can't die for God, you can't live for God."

As the investigators worked and watched, they saw the compound gradually enlarged. Small houses, scattered here and there around the acreage, were torn down. The central compound kept getting bigger.

A POSSIBLE SUICIDE PACT

But government agents, trying to decide what to do next, also had another fear: Word had gradually trickled in from former members that Koresh not only was preparing his followers for armed conflict, but he had also been preparing them for possible mass suicide.

The following sample of such reports was printed after the 1993 shoot-out occurred:

" 'We've learned from members of the cult that he [Koresh] has trained the cult members to kill themselves both with weapons and with poison,' he [Fowler] said, 'He's actually run training sessions in that.' "-Rod Fowler, educational psychologist at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, quoted in Chattanooga News-Free Press, March 16, 1993.