The Branch Davidians and the Politics of Power and Intimidation

Abstract

If you were a Branch Davidian prior to April 19, 1993, you thought that Christ lived on a threadbare piece of land ten miles east of Waco, Texas, called Mount Carmel. Actually, it was nowhere near the size of a mountain; instead, it was more of a slight swelling of the earth on the horizon. He had dimples, claimed to have had a ninth-grade education, married his legal wife when she was 14, enjoyed a beer now and then, willingly admitted to being a sinner without equal, played a mean guitar, packed a 9mm weapon, and kept an arsenal of military assault rifles. He had changed his legal name from Vernon Howell to David Koresh in order to enhance his musical career.Psychologist Michael Langone, executive director of the anticult American Family Foundation, describes the Branch Davidians as constituting almost a textbook case of how a fringe group drifts into violence. The hallmark of a cult is manipulation to serve the interests of the leader. If the leader loses it, the group loses it. The leader establishes psychological dependency by claiming infallibility, thereby fostering an us-versus-them mentality. As a consequence, the group rejects all critics as enemies and issues dire warnings against leaving the group (England and McCormick A1, A13).This phenomenon was evident in the case of Samuel Henry of Manchester, England. One Sunday evening, his wife, Zilla, said that she and the children were leaving for America in order to seek salvation in the teachings of Vernon Howell. This act would be Samuel Henry's final humiliation. His close-knit family, well respected in the community, was about to be torn apart.The first family member to succumb was the oldest child, 23-year-old Diana. She was a devout Seventh-Day Adventist and recent college graduate with degrees in both sociology and psychology. It was at Diana's urging that the rest of the family, including Zilla and the other three children, traveled 180 miles to London to meet the self-anointed messiah, David Koresh. Only Samuel stayed behind. In 1989, they began to tumble like dominoes until Samuel, desperate to learn more about the cult leader who possessed such power over his family, followed. He resisted and, having been unsuccessful in his efforts to convince them of this group's evil, eventually returned to England leaving his entire family behind. His family would not listen to him even though he begged, pleaded, and even tried to bribe one son with a car to keep him from staying with the Branch Davidians.This essay examines the ways in which the politics of power and intimidation were manifested by David Koresh over his followers in the Branch Davidian sect during the years leading up to and during the 51-day siege of the so-called Ranch Apocalypse, which began on February 28, 1993. The initial raid of the compound by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms ignited an hour-long shootout that resulted in the deaths of 4 FBI agents, the wounding of 16 others, and the deaths of at least 10 cult members.A final assault of the Mount Carmel compound by the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in the deaths of 80 of the estimated 95 people inside the compound. Many questions have been raised in the aftermath of the fiery holocaust that ended the siege as to how one individual could so totally control the actions of others through the use of power and intimidation that would cause them to act in such a way that they would bring about their own deaths in such a violent manner. This paper will examine the strategies that were used by David Koresh in order to obtain the unwavering allegiance of male followers through power and intimidation techniques exercised by way of female familial influences.The ProphetBorn on August 17, 1959, Vernon Wayne Howell, who would later change his name to David Koresh, did not become aware of the true identity of his mother until he turned 5 years old. Bonnie Clark had been just 14 years old when she became pregnant by her boyfriend, Bobby Howell, who was the son of a carpenter. …