Stuff You Should Know - The 1993 Waco Siege

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

One of the darkest days in the history of American law enforcement came on April 19, 1993, when the FBI’s 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian religious sect’s compound in Waco, Texas ended with a fire and 75 men, women, and children dead inside.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You probably know me from NYPD Blue, The Longest Yard, or Spike Lease Black Klansman. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Titoro, I deliver pizza to a new guest. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing, my belt? To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tuturo. It's called Happiness, Delivering Happiness.

And many, many more. Open your free High Heart Radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Totoro. And listen now. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of IHeart Radio. And welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. And this is stuff you should know.

And if you're going to do it, do it right. Do it with us. Is that a song? Yeah, it's a George Michael's song. Okay. I don't remember the song. He's like, baby, I'm your man. Don't you know I am?

I think that's wham, isn't it? Maybe. Could be. They're virtually interchangeable. Sorry, Andrew. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Did you know George did everything with last Christmas?

I mean, he wrote it all, he composed it, and he played the instruments? No, I didn't know that. I didn't know he played instruments, and I even saw a documentary on him. I didn't either, but I saw that somewhere. I didn't follow up about it. Now I'm sweating that it's not true. Well, hopefully at the end of this episode, no one will remember talking to George Michael's Christmas song. Great point, Chuck, because this episode is,

much more serious than George Michael's heart that he gave away foolishly last Christmas. This is about one of the darkest moments in American law enforcement history. Yeah. And very maddeningly, one that the federal government just basically walked away from, like, just kind of dusting off his hands, like, yeah, we got out of that one. There hasn't really ever been any real accountability for Waco, despite attempts. Like there were tons of like hearings and stuff like that. But really like overall, there just wasn't any huge reckoning over it.

And there should have been because it was an American tragedy, even if in some ways the Branch Dividian group were, you know, at least partially responsible for their part two. Yeah. Like I hope that comes across in this episode because I know we're going to get a little probably riled up here and there about. like how it was handled but I'll go ahead and just say my takeaway at the beginning you know you can't you can't hole up and and be a pedophile in a house and you can't

illegally like collect and sell and modify guns into machine guns and sell those like no one's disputing that stuff right I think the the issue is is the way this all went down in the end when it could have probably gone down with the loss of zero lives yeah much less the loss of, what was it, 86 people total? Yeah, including 20 kids. Yeah, so that's sort of the issue at hand for me personally. Yeah, I think that hits it on the nose. Well, let's talk about the Branch Davidians, eh?

Yeah, let's. Because I, up until two days ago, I thought that Davidians came from David Koresh. I thought they got that name from him as their leader, just because I didn't. know a ton about it, aside from, you know, kind of following it as it happened when I was in college on the news. But the Branch Davidians, they got that name because in 195, a guy named Benjamin Rodin started a branch, a new sect of Seventh-day Adventist, a Davidian sect, which had, you know, to do with the monarchy of Israel under King David. It had nothing to do with David Koresh's David. Right. He retrofitted his name. He was actually born Vernon

Wayne Howell, and he's like, you know, I could probably get a lot further trying to become the leader of this sect if I change my name to the same name as the name of the sect. Yeah. So, yes, they actually split. They were a branch, but then they split fully from the Adventist Church because they started to predict the date of, you know, end times, started to follow leaders as prophets. And the Seventh-day Adventists were like, we did that. at like a century ago, we don't do that anymore. You guys go away. And so the teachings, though,

of the people before David Koresh, when he came in, there was a woman named Lois Rodin, they attracted dozens of people. At any given time, there were probably somewhere around 100 people who were living and working and worshipping, I guess, at what was called Mount Carmel, their compound outside of Waco. The branched Divideans were pretty, well suited for the Waco, Texas area. They were into guns. They were into religion. They interacted with the rest of the community.

They were free to come and go. They didn't believe that David Koresh was God. Like, it wasn't like a cult in the way that it's often portrayed or that we generally think of cults. But at the same time, they were millennialists. They thought that end times was coming and that essentially what they were doing and what the ATF was doing to them was bringing about judgment. Day. That's what was going on with these guys. And they were such believers that they were willing

to dig in and sacrifice their own lives to help bring judgment day sooner, I guess. Yeah. But some of them fully believed he was the Messiah, by the way. That's... Really? Yeah. Did you watch the documentary? No, I didn't see the documentary. I saw just the stuff I read basically was that they believed he was the lamb, which is the person who can interpret the Seven Seals. that will bring about Judgment Day. But beyond that, he wasn't like God or anything like that. He was a prophet of sorts, but not like a Messiah. That's what I saw.

Yeah. Well, he said with his own mouth, I am the Messiah. And there are Davidians that are still alive that believe he was the Messiah. Well, there goes me. Another thing I didn't know is that that Mount Carmel had been active since 1935. So it had been around a long, long time. about 13 miles northeast of Waco, Texas. And so they had been around for a long, long time.

And in 55 is when that official split came. And then 59 was when, and I think that's why they were like, hey, don't predict these second comings, because when they don't happen, you end up looking kind of dumb. Exactly. And that happened in 1955. The second coming did not happen. And so they ended up there with that last group, like you said, about 100 people. Koresh had been around since he was in his early 20s.

he got off to a kind of a rocky start there because he had had an affair with Lois Rodin, who I guess was Benjamin Rodin's wife. Yes. If the math checks out. She was in her 60s and he was in his 20s and he got into a squabble with her son about who was going to become leader and ended up shooting him. And like he was arrested and everything. And it was a hung jury.

So he never had to serve time for that shooting. Right. So he took over. Like after that he was. pretty much the undisputed leader. One of the first things he did was he married a 14-year-old member of the church, and her parents consented and said, yeah, sure, be married to our 14-year-old daughter, who you're 10 years older then, which made it legal in Texas at the time.

That was, you know, sign number one. But if you rewind a little bit before he showed up at the Branch Dividian compound, he had actually been defa fellowshiped, is what it's called, where the Adventists kick you out, because he had seduced, which I think means that he sexually assaulted and actually successfully sexually assaulted, a 15-year-old daughter of one of the church's elders. Yeah, you know, he had a pretty rough upbringing before that. Like you said, he was born in Houston. He was reportedly had suffered sexual abuse of his own at the hands of older boys. He had dyslexia and did not do well in school. I think he failed first grade a couple of times and was a dropout by the time he was in middle school.

And yeah, so, you know, that was his sort of rough childhood. For sure. And over the years he kind of got into guns. He really got into the Bible. Like that was one of the things that I think people were drawn to about him at the branch of the Diviniate. the divinian sect was, like, he knew what he was talking about. He was also very charismatic, and he could essentially run Bible studies that ran, you know, 10, 12 hours at a length, and people weren't getting fatigued. Like, they were still just jazzed the whole time. So he

definitely knew what he was talking about. He wasn't just making stuff up off the top of his head. Like, he very much understood the book of revelations in particular. Yeah, for sure. One of the, first things he did once he was in charge was he said, God has told me that I need to bear a lot of children and I need to have multiple wives in order to do that. I think he was supposed to, God told him to have, or at least he said, God told them to have 24 children and they would be sort of the rulers in the future kingdom. And so at first he started with the single women of the group and then that wasn't enough. And he was having a lot of kids. I think he had some, 17 in the end. Then he moved on to the married women and separated the couples out and said,

all right, you can no longer be with your husband. I'm the only one here. I'm the only male here who was allowed to have intercourse. All the other guys have to remain celibate. And they all went along with it. And, you know, this included taking children up, girls. There was this one woman, Kathy Schroeder, who was very disturbing because she still believes all this stuff, but she was interviewed who said that like they were all trying to stay awake. All the girls. at the end of these marathon Bible studies, even though they were exhausted, so he would pick them to go back to his room

and have sex with them. And she also, it was really hard to watch, but she still to this day was like, they weren't children. We weren't children. Sure, some of them were as young as 10, but they were adults in our culture. Yeah.

Man, you know how the world found out about that too, Chuck? About which part? Well, about a... him sexually abusing minors, children. It was a current affairs show. Well, first, the Waco Tribune Herald did a series of articles on it. So that caught the local attention, but a current affair show called A Current Affair, the Australian version back in 1992, went and interviewed David Koresh.

And this was before anybody knew who David Koresh was. So they had a lot of foresight, and they went and investigated it because this is a I mean, obviously, it's a really big deal that there's a, essentially what everyone thought of at the time and still do in a lot of ways. A cult leader who is sexually abusing the children of his sect. That's definitely worth investigating. That's not what the ATF investigated him for them. No, they're the ATF. They don't dabble in that kind of stuff.

What they do dabble in is guns and firearms. And that is what got them. You know, I mentioned early on they were illegally. collecting and buying and selling and retrofitting, basically making machine guns and then selling those illegally at gun shows. And so that's what caught their attention. And, you know, they were collecting these guns and supposedly like more than, like close to two million rounds of ammunition. Wow. Training everyone there to use, like including the kids, to use these weapons, they were preparing for, you know, the end days. Yeah, exactly. And they were going to go out with guns blazing.

Yeah, well, which is what they did. Allegedly, the thing that initially caught the ATF's attention, they were already aware that there was such a thing as the Branch Civilians and that they had a business selling guns at gun shows. But the thing that really caught their attention was apparently a UPS driver was delivering a box. And I guess the box fell open and a bunch of grenades. shells fell out. And the UPS driver thought, that's odd. Like, who gets 50 grenade shells delivered to their compound?

And I guess alerted the federal authorities. And that's when they really started investigating the branch civilians. I say we take a break and talk about how well that investigation was conducted. How about that? Yeah, we'll be right back. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus. From $94 a month,

price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo roer to go from California to

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Women's Sports on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, The Chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning,

breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic. characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guestars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Chryssel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. I thought he was going to write.

I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. I think I snickered when we left because you, Riley said, we'll talk about how that went. Because it did not go well for a while. In fact, none of this went well.

Before the raid ultimately happened, there were a lot of just kind of stupid moves from the ATF. One time they were like, hey, we need to keep an eye on this. So there's a house, sort of nearby. I think it was like 70 acres, the whole compound. But there was a house about a half a mile away. And they said, let's suppose as college students, they're like renting this house. But they come in there. I feel like any time like these people try to go undercover like that, like, let's pose

as kids out having a good time. And it just never goes well. And it didn't. They had suitcases. They had rental cars, like new rental cars. They eventually were like, I think they're on to us. So let's have a party. And one of the Branch Divideans came to the party.

And I'm sure they were like, hey, would you like a brusky? And the Branch DeVidion went back in like, by the way, those are definitely not college students. Right. Right. Don't you hate mortgages too, fellow young person? I saw they also carry briefcases as well rather than backpacked and stuff. So, yeah, it wasn't the best undercover operation. They sent another undercover agent to pose as a UPS employee,

and he did all sorts of stuff that UPS employees don't do. Like he insisted that they branched of Vidians let him use the phone in a bathroom, and then he went to another part of the compound and tried the same thing, and they met him at the door with a roll of toilet paper. And then another guy, Robert Rodriguez, he actually managed to successfully embeds, himself in the branch of Vidians. He showed up as a student and follower and started attending Bible studies. And it was successful in that, like, he was never kicked out.

But it was unsuccessful in that they knew that he was a federal agent almost from the outset. Right. And later on, I think during these negotiation talks, the FBI was like, well, if you knew he was undercover, why didn't you kick him out? And I don't remember who said it. One of them said, we liked him. we saw it as core. He was a good guy and we liked being around and we came to like him. So why would we kick him out? So it was really weird. Like they were almost toying with the feds

because they knew the feds were investigating them and it was so clumsy that they didn't feel particularly threatened at this point. But the whole thing started in May 1992 and by February 1993, I guess the ATF was like, we have enough information that we're going to carry out a raid. We're not just going to show up. and ask them to come out, we're going to carry a hard-hitting raid. Why did they do that, Chuck? Well, I mean, they got a warrant, so they had enough information to at least get a, like, a legal warrant to search everything. Their goal initially was to just get those illegal weapons, arrest David Koresh, who, by the way, and I think you found this, was that, like, he had a

relationship with the local sheriff, and at any point, the local sheriff could, and I think did say, like, hey, man, once you come in and, like, talk to us about what's going on, and that happened. So, like, none of this seemed to have been completely necessary. Right. I think they also were the end of the impression that, like, they were bunkered in and, like, he never left the compound. But upon further investigation, they found that he kind of regularly would leave the compound, and they probably could have lured him out.

Yeah. But they, you know, they were kind of bungling this from the beginning. So they planned a surprise, kind of raid. warrant serving where they would force entry and they were like, we're going to catch them off guard, they won't have time to arm themselves, and it's going to go great. They had a lot of bad intelligence, too, that this raid was based on. One, I don't know where they got this, but they were under the impression that all of the weapons were kept under lock and key, and that you only access those with Koresh's direct permission. That's not true at all.

The weapons were all over the compound, and basically everybody walking around the compound knew how to use them and was prepared to, right? That's a really big intelligence failure when you're planning a raid. Another is there was a pit that they assumed that most, if not all, of the men would be working in. And apparently during the surveillance, the most Ben that had ever been seen there at one time was 13. So that was a bad assumption. And then like you said, they were like, he never leaves the compound. So we have to raid them.

There's one other thing about the raid. So the ATF was conducting the raid. At the time, the ATF reported to the Treasury Department, and they planned this raid based on the element of surprise, right? The whole thing was supposed to have the element of surprise. And later on, there would be a lot of disagreement about whether this was said or not. But supposedly, the higher ups of Treasury were like, if there's no element of surprise anymore, if you lose it, you don't do the raid. And that's not what happened. No, and you know, part of this makes me wonder if they were feeding that informant bad information too.

Oh, yeah. I didn't ever see anything about that, but like, I've seen enough movies to know if they kept inviting this guy back to Bible study. Then they may have been saying, like, you know, all the guns here are under lock and key or whatever. But who knows? That is Chuck's speculation, so don't quote me on it. It seems like it could be. But, yeah, so the raid is, is blizzard. because of another just, this wasn't so much a blunder by the ATF.

It was just a blunder by the media. Yeah. Because it was a cameraman named Jim Peeler and a reporter. He was, he's all over this documentary. He stopped on the way out there because he was tipped off. They don't know who, maybe a sheriff's deputy or somebody tipped him off that this is going to be going down. So he wanted the scoop. So he couldn't find the compound.

And he stops a mail truck, a friendly mail carrier. It's like, hey, where's this branched-de-dibidian compound? I think there's a raid going on, and I want to cover it. And that mail carrier was a branched dividian. So he highted it back there and was like, we're about to get raided, you guys. Yeah. And so when he tells David Koresh this, we're about to get raided. Robert Rodriguez, the undercover student who had embedded himself as a follower, who they knew was a Fed,

he's standing right there talking to David Koresh when the mail carrier, David Jones, runs up and tells them they're about to get rated. So, knowing that the element of surprise has been blown, Robert Rodriguez runs back to the safe house to call his superiors, gets in touch of them, and apparently is like, the surprise is blown, we need to call off the raid, and the, I guess the superiors were like, oh, bad connection, I can't hear you see you, we're going to go raid them now.

And that's essentially what happened. They carried on with the raid, knowing full well that Koresh knew they were coming, and that apparently gave them a sense of urgency that hadn't even been there before. And then on top of that, one of the reasons why they planned the raid in the first place, this big whiz-bang forced entry raid with like a tactical team going in, was that they were up for budget review, congressional budget review,

and they wanted something splashy to get the attention of Congress and be like, see, this is what you give us money for. So they had every incentive to go in unnecessarily roughly. Yeah, for sure. So on February 28th, there were 76 armed agents that came up from Fort Hood. They were obfuscated in cattle trucks. They had canvas thrown over the back of these trucks hiding. Of course, Koresh and them knew they were coming anyway, so it's not like that mattered. And at the very beginning of this thing, David Koresh comes to the front door. And it's on video, like all of the stuff you can watch happen. And eventually you were watching it in real time as it. played out, but it's it's all over this documentary. Like Koresh comes to the front door and opens it and says, hey man, there's a bunch of women and kids in here. You don't want to, you don't want to do this, kind of quickly shuts the door and goes back in and all hell breaks loose. And from the descriptions I saw and just sort of watching it, like rewatching it, I guess, it was a war, like thousands and

thousands of rounds being exchanged. Yes. And there is a lot of disagreement still today. Who was the first one to shoot, right? Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is, and again, later with the fire, you still get two completely conflicting stories from each side. Right. So the Branch Devidians say that the Fed's fired first, and the feds obviously say the Branch Davidians fired first.

The thing that supports the Branch Davidians claim is that there was a... an ATF agent who was part of the raid, who apparently told an investigator right after the raid, that they may have shot first because one of the agents shot a dog as they were coming into the compound and that that would have set off all of the shooting in general. He apparently later retracted that when asked about it, but apparently the Branch Savidians also say that their dogs were shot too. So it's entirely possible that that's when the shooting started. It's also possible to Branch Divideans. started shooting first.

Yeah, because on their side, at least this is what they say, they said that the first rounds that they heard is the ATF speaking were from an M60 and a 50-Cal rifle, and those are guns that they didn't have. And I'm just reminded, didn't they shoot the dogs at Ruby Ridge, too? Yeah. Yeah. So like you said, this was like a war, people died here. Like, I think four agents.

Yeah, four agents. Four agents died during this raid. I mean, the Branch Divideans had, like, massive firepower. And I think six Branch Divideans were killed in the exchange as well. A bunch more were wounded. David Koresh was wounded. And all of a sudden, this raid had been so thoroughly botched that it became day one of a 51-day siege where the ATF and then eventually the FBI surrounded Mount Carmel

and we're trying to get the Branch Civilians to come out and the Branch Civilians were like, no, we're not coming out, you guys go away. Yeah, and they also had the superior ground. I think one of the guys that was like, you know, when we pulled up on this place, we were all of a sudden a little shaken. He said it was full of windows. He said it was the high ground. And he said this is not the kind of like,

Like, we were immediately at the, what do you call it, when you're at a disadvantage. Sure. That's the worst. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like a siege of a castle up on a cliff. You're not in the best position unless you're in the castle. Yeah.

And it also had a tower. That's where Koresh's bedroom was. Oh, yeah. It was also made almost entirely of, like, plywood, right? There was some concrete to it, but wasn't the most part, wasn't it wood? Yeah. I mean, it was huge, but it was definitely one of those things that was kind of built by hand over many years. Yeah, for sure.

I think it was a three-hour gun battle. And eventually there was a call from the inside to the outside where David Koresh gets on the phone with an officer Lynch. And he says, he says, he's Officer Lynch. And Koresh says, that's kind of a funny name. And then he says, this is David Koresh, the notorious. And he said, what did you guys do that for? Yeah, I think that's the thing, Chuck. Like, I'm so conflicted about this.

is like he was genuinely a bad person for sexually abusing kids. They were preparing for the end of days, but at the same time, he was aware enough of what they must have looked like to outsiders, like a crazy cult or something like that, that he wasn't just like, he wasn't out of his mind, it seems like, at any given point in time. He was just kind of like an average dude

who had kind of worked his way into this really unique situation and then abused it in many, many different ways. But he wasn't crazy. He wasn't some religion. It wasn't like talking to Charles Banson. Like, imagine trying to negotiate with Charles Banson. It was nothing like that. It was like negotiating with somebody who had different views with you than you that were so far out as far as religiousness goes that even a religious negotiator wouldn't have common ground in that sense, right?

So they seemed crazy to the FBI, even though they weren't crazy people. It's really hard to get that across and not sound like an apologist or like I'm crazy myself. Yeah, for sure. We should point out that Koresh was wounded in this initial gunfight and the religious imagery was not lost on his followers because he was shot through the wrist and he was shot through the side. Wow. You know, those were the wounds Jesus suffered on the cross. And he was 33 at this point. And I think most people think that's how old Jesus was when he was crucified.

So they all think this is like, you know, supreme, like religious symbolism happening. Right. Do you want to take a break and come back and start talking about the siege and the negotiation attempts? Yeah, sure. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94. month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details

and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist, Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving

us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo roer to go from California. to Hawaii? My first thought is, like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments to take over your

entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. Naomi Osaka, showing out, she beat Sabalinka. Shout out to you, Naomi. You get the palm, Naomi. You get the palm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened.

We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken.

We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning. Breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea?

We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysler, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. Well, I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song.

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Chuck, so like I said, the raid very quickly turned into a 51-day siege, which makes it very ironic that one of the ATF agents was so confident that the raid would be over and done with very quickly. he had set up a tea time for the same afternoon as the raid. And he missed the tea time, obviously, because like I said, it turned into a siege. At first, so the FBI was on the scene almost immediately because when a federal agent is killed, the FBI investigates.

And they're like, well, we might as well stick around since this is now a siege. We're going to take over from the ATF. So basically on day one, the FBI took over this. And their negotiators started getting to work. apparently they had trouble finding the phone number for the compound, but I think the Branch Divideons called them first. Is that correct? I mean, I know that during the shootout they called out,

but I'm not sure about afterwards. Okay. Well, at any rate, they were in communication on the phone very quickly, I think maybe even the same day. Yeah, and things were going pretty well. Like negotiations were going well at first. I mean, I think four front. in everyone's mind was, let's get these kids out of here

because they knew there were a lot of children inside. And so they were trying to get, you know, Koresh to agree to get the kids out. He said, yep, we can do this two by two, is what he said. And he said, in return, I want to broadcast this hour-long sermon on the Christian Broadcasting Network, and that'll be the swap for the kids. And so they're working on this.

They're trying to get everybody. out basically in surrendering. And on March 2nd, it was almost there. Like, everybody was about to come out and they were relenting. And then Koresh said, nope, I got a message from God. And he told me to wait. Yeah. And I'm sure the FBI negotiator pinched the bridge of his nose harder than he ever has in his life. Yeah, for sure. So that was, that kind of did that. I think more children were released after that, 21 total between the first day and the 5th of March, that left about 20 still remaining in there. And they started negotiating for milk. I guess Kathy Schroeder, who you mentioned earlier, she was on the phone with the FBI negotiators saying, hey, we need a bunch of milk for

the kids. And they're like, all right, you send out some kids and we'll give you some milk. And she's like, what are you talking about? Our little kids need some milk. Just give us some milk. This isn't a bargaining chip. They ended up bringing them, I think, six gallons of milk three times. And I guess the Branch Divideans gave them proof of health and wellness by sending videotapes of the kids. Yeah. And I think the other thing those videotapes did was it sort of sent a chill through the FBI because it was really clear when you watch these vide tapes that no one was being held hostage. Nobody was being held against their will. They all were believed that what they were doing was right and was God's plan.

In the end, like Janet Reno never saw those tapes. So there's a lot of speculation on what information she was being fed because she'd had been on the job for like a week or two. Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. And so they are basically saying like, no, they kept those tapes from her because it showed a different picture of what was going on inside. And he was painted to her as like, you know,

a sex offender illegally selling guns, they killed four of ours. And it's a cult that's holding, like he's kind of holding all these people hostage inside, which apparently was never the case. Yeah, and that was the general consensus among law enforcement. This was a crazy cult, just like all the other crazy cults. And that just did not fit into that whole paradigm, right? And so that kind of undermines a lot of what you're trying to do. And there was a lot of undermining going on within the FBI itself, because essentially it was almost like two different branches of the multiverse that were this event layered over one another at once in one reality. Because you had the FBI negotiators who were trying to negotiate and get this resolved peacefully. And simultaneously, you had the FBI's hostage rescue team, which is like the FBI's version of the SWAT team.

Yeah. Like, let's just go in there and get this guy and we'll just end it like that. And there was like just this tension, like the negotiators would make some progress. And then the hostage rescue team would do something to tick off the branch of idiots. And so that would put a kibosh on those recent negotiations. And it just kept going like that. Yeah, it was, they weren't communicating well either. It was just a real mess.

At one point, a very sort of legendary criminal defense attorney in Texas was called by Koresh's mom and said, I need you to go get my son out of there and, like, do this in court. And so he went out there. He managed to talk the FBI into letting him walk up and knock on the front door. And he went inside. He's the only one who ever got inside and met with Koresh. And it was like, hey, listen, man, I'm a criminal defense attorney. My job is to look after you and see that you and everyone here gets out alive and that we handle this in court.

He said, because between you and me, they haven't done this right. and like, you know, you've got a lot going in your favor. And Koresh was like, all right, I trust you. But what I need to do is stay in here until I write, God told me to write my own version of like an updated book of Revelation, basically. And when I deliver that manuscript, I'll willingly come out. Yeah. And that was thanks to two Bible scholars, Philip Arnold and James Taber, Tabor, who had been following this like everybody else, at least in the United States on CNN and everything. news network. It was just constant, wall-to-wall coverage. You could just get up in the middle of

night and watch what was going on at the siege in Waco for weeks, right? These guys had seen it, and it became clear to them that, like, the FBI had no idea, no touchpoint with what the Branch Davidians believed, and that they were just talking over each other. They just couldn't grasp who they were dealing with. And these guys were like, we can. We're Bible scholars. We understand what's going on. So I guess they went on TV. and we're talking about what the Branch Devidians believed. Koresh saw it, and that's when he was like, I need to write down my interpretation of revelations

and give it to these two who can actually do something with it that are trustworthy for safekeeping. So that lawyer, like you said, negotiated that. And Koresh was like, sure, I will come out. And there's, I read a transcript of him talking to negotiators. And they're like, what does that mean, though? What does it mean you're going to come out? Like, you can come out guns blazing?

You can come out in two weeks, 10 days, one day. Like, when are you going to come out? And he's like, I'm going to come out right after I'm done. What is that? Like two weeks. What does it mean you're going to come out? He's like, I'm going to come out and go into a jailhouse. So it was very clear that he was willing to come out after this.

The FBI was like, we don't believe you. Like, we've already missed deadlines left and right. This is just a stalling tactic. Yeah, for sure. So they're hearing one thing from the FBI negotiators, like trying to get them out peacefully. In the meantime, on the news and with their own eyeballs out the windows,

they see them pulling up with Bradley fighting vehicles, like clearing obstacles and setting up a perimeter. So they see some of the kids get let out and immediately, like, are kind of jumped on and having all their stuff searched right in front of them. They see Kathy Schroeder leave and get arrested and, like, see her in an orange jumpsuit on the news.

And so they're getting all these mixed messages. Eventually, they see two, Abrams tanks pull up. That's the mother of all, I think it's the largest war vehicle in the U.S. fleet is an Abrams tank. And they, at one point, one of the guys was bragging, he's like, you know, I could take one of these tanks and drive through this house from one end to the other. And the FBI negotiator said, why would you do that? Yeah. Like, what are you even talking about? So it just kind of puts a pin on, like, how in conflict they were. Right. And the FBI in general was just treating this like a normal hostage situation. But again, the branch of Indians weren't hostages. They were there on purpose. And I guess when you have a normal hostage situation, you have demands. And then you also are slowly, or maybe even not that slowly, increasing like your tactical presence, like showing up with tanks. I think there were 14 other combat vehicles on site. Basically showing like there's no way out of this, except you can.

coming out if you want to do this peacefully. And they also did a lot of tactics that had been used before in normal hostage situations, which was basically you keep everybody inside from being able to sleep, from being able to think, from being able to hear themselves. And you do that with really bright lights all night and loudspeakers playing all sorts of annoying stuff. Yeah, for sure. Like they were, I think on March 21st, they were close to having this resolved again. I think Koresh was in the final stages of his book of revelation, and they were negotiating like fairly successfully to get more people out. I think they got five people out on March 21st. The guy in the documentary said a two dozen more were set to be released, and that's when the

hostage, the HRT team started unilaterally just making decisions, like playing that music. They played these boots are made for walking 24 hours a day. They just as a complete show of power, they ran a tank over David Koresh's antique Ford Ranchero vehicle in full view of everybody. So they're doing this stuff to like, they're purposely agitating them. These people that are already, and one of the Divideans is like,

we were already like, like you think this is going to solve anything to agitate us further with this music and by keeping us a week, awake, he's like, this could only lead to tragedy. Yeah. And so since the FBI started buying the idea that his agreement, Koresh's agreement, to come out after he finished his book of revelations interpretation, was just stalling. They went to Janet Reno and they're like, look, we have this plan to go in with gas.

It's not lethal gas. They're not going to like it, but it'll make them come out and just sign off on this. But that was essentially like the premise of them going. going in. And they basically did what you said that one guy was talking about. They drove a tank through the wall, at least one wall, of the compound. For sure. But yeah, they called in and said, hey, we're not shooting. We're not coming in, but we're placing tear gas in the house. Like, that's what we're doing. I know you see it's coming to the house. All we're doing is placing tear gas in there. It's not going to kill you. It'll just irritate your eyes and skin because we're trying

to get you guys out so we can get this resolved without any more bloodshed. So they fully announced they were doing this. They fill the house up with tear gas. There were a lot of high winds, so they think it was like kind of blowing the tear gas away. So that's when they rammed the tank through because they thought they were kind of huddled in this bunker where the tear gas couldn't get to them. And they also had gas masks. So they're ramming this thing with the tank at this point.

And all of a sudden, you know, hell kind of breaks loose again. Yeah. The place starts to catch on fire. very importantly, this is about four hours after the tear gas was used, right? So just remember that. Once the place caught fire, that was essentially it. We kind of talked about how it was made mostly of wood, and it was kind of made slipshod. It was, it went up really fast, not just because it was made of wood, but also they had like

blocked entrances with hay bales and mattresses and stuff like that. So there were Coleman lanterns everywhere. There was a lot of fuel and accelerant for the fire. So it went up pretty quick. Yeah, and I think what I took from listening to the people, like all the agents and everyone, was they all to a person said, we thought, all right, they got to come out now. Like, they just kept waiting. Like any second now, people are going to come pouring out of there and we're not going to lose any more life. And that didn't happen.

I mean, I think a handful of people came out, but everyone basically stayed in there, and it's sort of anyone's guess what happened in there. I know Koresh was found dead from a single bullet to the head, forehead, and there's a lot of speculation that his number two, Steve Schneider, kind of realized he was a fraud and shot him in the head and then killed himself. But no one knows what bullet ended up in David Koresh's forehead. Yeah, I think you said some people, just a few people rushed out of the building. There were nine people who left while this building was on fire, right? Like imagine like your dedication to your beliefs that you're like, no, not going to leave this burning building. There were 75 other people inside. At least 20 were kids. And I think 13 of the adults were found to have fatal gunshot wounds. Two, most were to the head. Two were in the back, which is. very awful to think what was going on with that. And then three kids were shot to death. And I think six women and children were deemed to have died of blunt force trauma. And the narrative that was created around that was that they were beating each other to death. Apparently, later on, it was determined that they died of blunt force trauma when the FBI came through with their tank

and a bunch of concrete fell on these women and children and killed them. That was where, the trauma came from. But that's not to say that they didn't do other unspeakable things. Like we said, three kids were shot. One boy died of a stab wound to the chest. Like, there's just no other way to interpret that, you know? Like, you don't accidentally stab a three-year-old to the chest when the FBI's coming through your door, you know?

Yeah, and I think that's where all the speculation comes from is, like, what was going on inside there. I know one of the guys was, like, shot in the stomach and asked to be. be put out of his misery by his own people, which they did. So, yeah, it's just, I mean, I can't imagine what was going on inside that place. Yeah. It's horrific to think about. And, I mean, all this happened in minutes, you know.

Yeah, once that fire started, it was pretty quick. The thing is, you know, there are plenty of accusations by the branch of Davidians and there's supporters and critics of the federal government that the FBI actually started this fire. The FBI said right off the bat, we didn't use any incendiary tear gas canisters. And then three years later, they're like, well, we use some incendiary tear gas canisters. Despite that, it does not seem that the fed started this fire. Remember, they used tear gas and the fire didn't start for four more hours. It started in three different places, none of which coincided with where tear gas was used.

So the tear gas almost certainly didn't do it. They also had, I guess, they had like monitoring, like listening devices inside. Is that right? I don't know. I saw somewhere that they had monitoring. Like they were monitoring them over audio and that they had heard them talking about, like previously talking about lighting the place on fire. So it's almost 100% certain that the branched Davidians set the place on fire. Yeah.

And, you know, the surviving Davidians say that absolutely did not happen. and it was all framed to look that way. So it's, and then the guy comes on right after and says, well, he's a liar. So it's definitely one of those things where they're both still digging in. The thing that got me, Chuck, this really upset me, was after all this was done, after the fires were put out and everything was like starting to get calm, somebody raised the ATF flag on the compounds flagpole. Yeah. They had just been conquered. And I found that really awful.

Yeah, it's pretty awful. And like you mentioned earlier, no one from the government side was brought up on charges or anything. The FBI and the Clinton administration was clear of wrongdoing in 2000. There was a report in 1993 that was, you know, they didn't say they did it right. It was a pretty damning report about the ATF raid. And that became like, you know, a teaching moment for any new. ATF students coming in there like, hey, look how bad things can go when you really screw things up. And the one big result from this was it really inspired and galvanized the militia movement

and right-wing anti-government radicals. Like there's video footage of Timothy McVeigh there. He went to Waco during the 51-day siege and was like selling anti-government bumper stickers and talking about how awful this was. And then, of course, you know, on the same day, on April 19th, two years later, carried out the Oklahoma City bombing. Yeah, killed 168 people and 19 children in as payback for Waco. And yeah, I remember very clearly throughout the 90s, like that whole New World Order, Black helicopter, FEMA concentration camps, conspiracy theories. And that was, I mean, Waco to people who believed in that,

This was like proof positive that, yes, if you had guns and you were religious, the government would send a tank through your house and set it on fire and kill you. So this really helped. That and Ruby Ridge both really fed into this end of the millennium paranoia that I think the X-Files rode so high on. Oh, yeah. I mean, this was less than a year after Ruby Ridge. So I'm not that guy at all, but I remember being in college and all this stuff, going on and it was just a real uneasy feeling in time for sure it really was for sure um the branch dividians are still around too chuck did you know that although they they have changed their name

to branch the lord our righteousness but they're still at mount carmel yeah for sure uh nine of them were convicted nine of the the nine survivors that is uh five on voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges i think if you got weapons charges and one other i don't know what the charge, but it just says a lesser charge. But they're all out. They've all been out since at least 2007. And, you know, at least the two surviving members that stayed till the end, or I guess the one was arrested, they were, they're still believers and still think David Koresh was the Messiah and that they were doing God's will and they don't have any regrets. The one woman who got out as she was one of the children that was released,

just really, really all of her interviews were just devastating because she's just a lost person now, you know? Yeah, she lost both of her parents, right? Well, her mom split once they said, separate and I'll start impregnating you. Her mom left him in the middle of the night, but they removed her from her father, basically, and said, you can't even be with them in the compound anymore. Man, that whole story is just rough from beginning. to end, huh? Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's nobody won, you know. No, no, definitely not. There's a lot more that you can read about this stuff if you're interested. Be very, very careful

who you believe in where your sources are because there's a lot of conspiracy theories out there. And then, of course, there's a lot of cover-up associated with it, too. But there's a lot more to read. This is basically just the tip of the iceberg. Oh, tell them about Madonna. You've got to tell them about Madonna. So apparently, David Koresh, he had a picture of Madonna taped to his motorcycle, and he had told one of the Branch Davidian members that God had told them, I will give Madonna onto the. So basically he was just waiting for God to have Madonna come hang out at the compound, and he'd get to impregnate her too.

Yeah. So we started out talking about George Michael, and we ended up talking about Madonna. Right. Who knew? The funny thing is, is under different circumstances, like, you know, he might have had a shot with early 90s Madonna. He might be right. You got anything else? I got anything else.

Okay. Well, then that's it for Branch Divideons as far as we go, and that means it's time for listener mail. You know, I don't have a listener mail prepared, so we just want to remind everyone, once again, that if you are interested in getting aboard the valiant lady, of Virgin Voyages and spending a little time with us out at sea, you can do that this fall. Yeah, October 2nd to 7th. We're going from New York City to Bermuda and then back to New York City. And we're going to be doing a live show, stuff they don't want you to know is going to be doing a live show. There's going to be a lot of podcast-centric fun on this voyage the whole time. That's right. And just go to virgin voyages.com slash stuff. And we'll see on the high seas.

Yeah. And in the meantime, if you want to send us in email, can do that. Send it off to StuffPodcast at iHeartRadio.com. Stuff you should know is a production of IHeartRadio. For more podcasts, My Heart Radio, visit the Iheart Radio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I'm Nick Totoro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, The Longest Yard, or Spike Lease Black Klansman. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza to a new guest. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. in my belt to Bill Burr.

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