BRANCH DAVIDIANS. On February 28, 1993, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) staged a raid on the home and church of a millennialist, sectarian group outside of Waco, Texas. The thoroughly bungled attempt to serve a search warrant took the lives of four ATF agents and six members of the millennialist group and led to a fifty-one day siege that climaxed with a devastating fire that claimed seventy-four more lives. Although many of the people within the Mount Carmel Center simply saw themselves as students of the Bible, particularly the apocalyptic message of the book of Revelation, they became known to the public as Branch Davidians and followers of the self-proclaimed messiah, David Koresh.

Beginnings

The group that gathered around Koresh had a long history in the Waco area, and an even longer history before that. With only a few exceptions, Koresh's disciples had...