Koresh imposed his new power by taking “spiritual wives” – in the form of adult women and girls as young as age 12 – that would give him the future leaders of the world. He told the jury that they went to the compound to find evidence of the exhumed body and shot at a tree on the property. They went on trial for attempted murder, but were acquitted, according to PBS News. In 1987, Koresh and seven of his followers stormed Mount Carmel and shot George. Koresh, who had entered into a romantic relationship with Lois in previous years, disliked the new leader and claimed he was exhumed a body on church grounds in attempts to resurrect it. She eventually passed away and lost control to her son George in 1986, according to the Los Angeles Times. When Benjamin died in 1978, Lois took the lead and began preaching that the Holy Spirit was feminine in nature. Benjamin then told his followers that Christ would come for them once they matured. Her prediction was a bust, and led to the Davidians being split into the Branch Davidians by Benjamin and Lois Roden. The title “Davidian” referred to Houteff’s first publication, “The Shepherd’s Rod”, in which he wrote that the term derived from biblical King David and dedicated to “bringing forth the restoration of David’s kingdom in antitype, upon the throne of which Christ, the son of David, is to sit.” Essentially, he believed that Christ would come to earth and establish a divine kingdom.Īfter Houteff died in 1955, his wife Florence took over the Davidian sect and gathered hundreds of followers at Mount Carmel for judgement day. In the 1930s, Bulgarian immigrant Victor Houteff broke away from his community of Seventh-Day Adventists to start the Davidian movement at Mount Carmel. Here, everything you need to know about Branch Davidians, David Koresh and what went down 25 years ago in Waco. They watched the initial shootout between the two parties evolve into a 51-day standoff, and the botched negotiations that ended with images of citizens willing to arm themselves and fight to the death against a tyrannical government. People across the country tuned into national news stations to see agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and FBI descend upon the Branch Davidian compound called Mount Carmel in search for illegally amassed weapons. Most died in the smoke and fire, with their beliefs that the world would end. Federal agents rammed armored vehicles into the fortified building as flames engulfed religious cult leader David Koresh and over 75 of his men, women, and child followers.
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