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

Vernon Howell Is Named Successor

Following Roden’s death, control of the group fell to his wife Lois, along with the responsibility to appoint a new prophet to lead their followers. Finding her own son George Roden to be unfit for the position, she ultimately groomed and selected Vernon Howell (later known as David Koresh) as her successor. Though, in 1984, a meeting led to a division with Howell taking one group calling themselves the Davidian Branch Davidian and George Roden leading the other half. Roden ended up forcing Howell and his group out of the Mount Carmel Center where they then relocated to Palestine, Texas.