Remembering The 51 Day Standoff In Waco, Texas – 25 Years Later

The Waco siege was a 51-day standoff between federal agents and religious zealot David Koresh along with his followers known as the Branch Davidians. The siege lasted from February 28 to April 19, 1993, near Waco, Texas. It resulted in a fire within the Branch Davidians compound that left 76 men, women, and children dead, and very few questions answered. Take a deeper look at the story of David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and the events that unfolded which made the Waco siege one of the most debated and precarious domestic events in the United States Government’s history.

Just exactly who were the Branch Davidians?

The Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists

Although the Branch Davidians were a new religious group founded by Ben Roden in 1955, it was originally an offshoot of the Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Church after the death of its founder Victor Houteff. Houteff had established the original Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Church in 1930 and based it on a prophecy of apocalypse following the second coming of Jesus Christ. As Houteff’s movement grew, they established themselves to a hilltop a few miles east of Waco, Texas, which they named Mount Carmel. After a few years, the group moved once again to an even larger site east of Waco which they named the Mount Carmel Center.