The standoff has been going on about 45 minutes now. The alcohol and tobacco people apparently have telephone contact with somebody in the compound.

My name is David Koresh. David Koresh. My name is David Koresh.

To his followers, David Koresh was a Messiah.

God speak to me.

Manifestation of God in the flesh.

We believe this man had the truth.

But to the US government, David Koresh was a threat. Machine guns and explosive devices. In 1993, they went to war in Waco.

This ain't America anymore when the ATF has that power.

It ended in catastrophe. Eighty-six people dead, including at least 24 children.

There had been nothing like this before. The siege was new and unique in American law enforcement history.

If you distrust the government, Waco is going to be symbolic to a lot of people. Of what they really fear.

I'm talking to you. Somebody's going to get hurt.

If he asked God for some sign and God gives it, what does that mean?

Every Saturday morning, Clive Doyle and Sheila Martin study the Bible.

Behold the Lord God will come with a strong hand. His arm shall rule for him. Behold...

They are about all that's left in Waco of the Branch Davidians.

And he's basically over the king.

An offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The religious community went back generations. It even issued its own currency during the Great Depression. David Koresh came to the faith and its Texas commune in 1981. Who was he back then? To you.

Just a bum.

Former Branchdividuans Koresh, Davidian Kathy Jones and her husband, David, had seen religious visionaries come and go.

God speaks to me.

This time was different. Koresh would preach his way to power.

I remember in the beginning, everybody was like, Oh, he's crazy. He's this and that. Now, that's all I heard. And all of a sudden, people were like, Well, we're listening to him. He has a message.

One, two, three, four.

The message was spellbinding account of Revelation, the New Testament's final book. Koresh claimed that he alone could explain the book's mysterious verses about a final battle between the armies of God Almighty and Satan.

I mean, there are some things that God has concealed in his written word that are to be brought to view right before the end of time. I confronted him, yes.

Branch Davidian Charles Pace says he warned church elders in 1984 that Koresh was a disaster waiting to happen.

Are they going to follow God or are they going to follow a man?

The elders chose Koresh.

God's a rock of offense and a stone of stumbling.

The scriptures just flowed out of his mouth.

Peter says, For those who believe not the word.

He just seemed to know so many things and knew how to explain them.

Take it from Isaiah, referring to Messiah. I, that children, Lord, give me in for signs and wonders in Israel.

My children learned how to swim in this pool.

Sheila Martin came to the 77 acre compound in 1985. Her husband, Wayne, was a Harvard law graduate. They brought their six children.

I thought at first it was just going to be a sunny day. To just walk into the Kingdom one day and bring my family and we'll live forever through eternity, believing in the scriptures and doing the things that God wanted.

When it comes to religious matters, you're always learning Clive Doyle came to Waco on his way from Australia to Israel.

He ultimately stayed to study scripture with David Koresh.

As his message developed, we came to see him as more than just a prophet.

A Messiah.

Right. Manifestation of God in the flesh.

Koresh added a twist to his message in 1989, declaring only he could have sex. All the other branched Davidian men would be celibate, even married men. Koresh, however, could have multiple wives. In this home video that he would later send to federal agents during the siege.

Am I a mean person, nigga? No.

Koresh linked his blend of spirituality and sex.

The rumor is true.

With the purity of the Garden of Eden.

He was showing it in the Bible, this passage I would say, we were just alone to each other.

Some beautiful custom work.

Koresh had sex with underage girls, and with his various wives, he fathered at least 13 children.

So you should be having another one here in about a month, huh?

It wasn't so much this is a man who's doing something that we don't approve of. This is my little one, Holly. As much as he was teaching us greater things.

He's my love baby, right? Is my great, wonderful looks, something that just women can't resist.

I saw a lot of people around me having babies, and I knew that that meant my time was coming.

Cathy Jones's husband, David, was okay with it. Kathy was not, and she left.

If I had stayed there, I would have had children by David Koresh. That's when I really, really got scared.

Because God's in control.

Over time, Koresh attracted a diverse group from as far away as Australia, England, Jamaica, the Philippines, about 130 in all.

Trust God, we Use your Bible.

Know what you're talking about. What are you doing with your life? What do you do every day with your life? Is it something God approves of? The Branch Davidians supported themselves in part by buying guns to resell at gun shows.

It's not a It's not against law to buy a firearms. It's not against law to buy anything that they sell at a gun show.

But by 1993, the federal government believed Koresh was illegally converting rifles into machine guns. Armyed with arrest and search warrants, 76 agents piled into two cattle trailers for a surprise raid. It would be the largest armed assault in the history of American law enforcement..

The council of three and a half.

911, what's your emergency?

February 28, 1993. This is Lynch.

Hello.

This is how the war in Waco began.

Yeah, this is Lieutenant Lynch. May I help you? Yeah, there's 75 men around our building, and they're shooting at us.

The caller was Wayne Martin, Sheila Martin's husband.

Our children were down on the floor, but we had been standing up, we would have been hit.

Tell them there are children and women in here, and to call it off. All right. Hello? I hear a gun fire. Oh, shit.

It was a raid by the Bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.Hello.Calling off.

Who is this?

Atf agents trying to arrest David Koresh and search the Branchdividian compound. The operation that winter morning was the culmination of an eight-month investigation. The feds believe Koresh was illegally converting semi-automatic AR-15s like this one into the fully automatic machine guns soldiers use. The federal agents had rented a house across the street, posing as college students, trying to buddy up to Koresh, but he never bought the act.

We knew we were being watched from across the road. We knew there were some government agents over there.

Atf planned a military-style raid, what they call Dynamic Entry. It hinged on the element of surprise. Hide 76 agents in innocuous-looking cattle trailers and strike while the DaVidian men were outside, away from their guns.

We practiced for it.

They drilled over and over again. The pressure for federal agents to act rose when the local newspaper published an exposé about Koresh's multiple wives and sex with underage girls. With this sidebar, the law watches but has done little.

And so as ATF is preparing, the media is finding out and trying to make its own preparations in order to cover the raid.

On that Sunday morning, a local TV station sends a photographer out to the Branch Davidian compound to stake it out. He gets to this road about a mile away and realizes he's lost. The cameraman sees a mail carrier, explains who he is, and asks directions.

The mailman, very friendly, told a guy how he could find the property, and then turned around and went to go ask to talk to David Koresh.

The mailman is Branch Davidian David Jones. And when Jones speaks to David Koresh, one of the ATF College students is right there.

David and them told him, We know who you are and what's fixing to happen. May God bless you, in effect.

The ATF agent races to the undercover house across the street, warns commanders the element of surprise was lost.

He told them, Please don't do this. He told them, They know we're coming. Call it off. Beg them to call it off.

But instead of calling it off, the ATF commanders load up and rush in.

You come point guns in the direction of my wife and my kids. Damn it, I'll meet you at the door anytime.

Each side blames the other for firing first.

I hear the shots. I go, Oh, my God. There's going to be a blood bath.

Top federal officials would later call the decision tragically wrong.

Let's settle this now before anybody gets hurt. Is anybody hurt in there, Wayne?

Oh, no.

A man's screaming. What? A man is screaming. Wayne. I'm on the fire.

In the middle of the gun battle, David Koresh also calls 911.

Yeah, this is Lynch. Hey, Lynch? Yeah. That's a funny name there. Who am I speaking with? This is David Koresh. Okay, David. He's an autoreist.

Koresh, calm, wants to talk scripture.

Now, there's some things in that Bible that have been held as mysteries- Yes, sir. About Christ. Yes, sir. Now, when it says in Revelation 22, Behold, I come quickly, my reward is with me. The statement is, what reward did Christ receive in heaven from his Father? He received a book with seven hills. Can I interrupt you for a minute? Sure. All right. We can talk theology, but right now- This is life. This is life and death. The theology was your life and death. Yes, sure.

Finally, after 90 minutes, a ceasefire.

I kept hearing that, and I kept saying, Oh, God, this is over. It's over.

Inside, Koresh and others had been wounded.

Want to see one of the holes here? Here's one of them.

Six Branch Davidians are dead. Outside, ATF looks like an army in retreat. More than 20 agents wounded, four agents are dead. When you realize that not only were they shooting at you, but now you had dead federal law enforcement officers outside.

It was a whole different ball game from that point on. We're looking to God to indicate how we play this.

The war in Waco has just begun. When ATF agents raided the Branch DaVidian compound in February 1993, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Law enforcement had never dealt with anything like this before. As many bad guys as they take down, they've never been faced with this firepower and people willing to use this firepower.

With four federal agents dead... Get that camera out of here. Get her out of here. It Emotions are running high. Many of the agents that are wounded want to go back in there and say, Let's do it. Let's get this thing over with. Cooler heads prevail. Authorities seal off the area. And ATF begins negotiating with Koresh, the overriding concern to get the children out of the compound.

That everything's okay if you and me are talking, and that's the main thing. Because you care for people, and then you're concerned and honest. The feds are worried about another Jonestown, where more than 900 members of a religious cult died in a suicide pack in 1978 with cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.

A serious concern when Koresh quotes the Book of Revelation with its prophecy of violence in the final days.

Here we are in the day of the Lord. All the prophets talk about the great and dreadful day of the Lord, when God will make imposition for blood. What's going to be today, David? Oh, it is.

Trying to find common ground, the agent talks about the Davidians' huge stockpile of meals ready to eat, MREs.

What's your favorite one? I ate one of those yesterday. These two. These two? I like that apple sauce. Oh, yeah. That's good. That's not bad, isn't it? Apple nut cake. Yeah.

Surreal, considering the bloodshed. But some children are being sent out, including Sheila Martin's three youngest.

I said, Life is never going to be the same. We are this whole The situation had changed our whole life.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the ATF debacle, the US Justice Department sends in the FBI. There are two teams, a heavily armed tactical unit with armored personnel carriers and negotiators, armed with a phone and their wits.

I teach negotiators that the very first thing you have to have is self control.

Gary Nesner is the Bureau's chief negotiator. When you got there, When you were brief, what were you dealing with?

Well, I think in the context of ATF, where there clearly was anger, the predominant emotion I was seeing or behavior was devastation, almost like walking zombies, he's.

Nesner's team wants to understand Koresh's personality.

And it's just something that this whole nation is going to have to learn, whether they're going to learn by being sober and listening, or they're going to learn the hard way.

I believe everything he did almost throughout the entirety of the ordeal was ambivalence, was part of me wants to live, part of me wants to die.

They look for clues in this TV news report about Koresh and Branch DeVille Avidians from Australia.

His tongue is the pin of a...Penny right. How's God going to talk to me in the latter days? And who's going to bring that book? So there'll be no excuses.

They were sending agents literally all over the world trying to scramble and find out anything they could, any former Dividdi, and anybody who knew anything about these people.

Within days, FBI profilers will send this report up the chain of command. Koresh has characteristics associated with psychopaths. His followers have low self-esteem, are unable to act or think for themselves, and are easily manipulated. What does that tell you about the FBI?

They have a low estimation He's got a explanation of us.

Sincere in their beliefs, the Davidians are looking to God for guidance. Tell me, how is God telling you what to do? God says, pack a lounge.

We look to David for God to tell us. David was the medium through which God spoke to us.

So you listened to David, believing David was receiving his messages from God? Correct. And David was initially telling-If you didn't think God was talking to him, you wouldn't have been there. By the end At the end of day two, negotiators have a breakthrough. Koresh promises to lead his disciples out if the feds put his Bible lecture on the radio nationwide.

I, David Koresh, agree upon the broadcasting of this tape to come out peacefully with all the people.

Clive Doyle thinks life for him and his 18-year-old daughter, Sherry, will soon return to normal.

When they're talking about us coming out, I go pack a lunch. Tell my daughter, we're going to go out. We sit on the grass while they search the bill. I'm still thinking a search warrant. I don't know how long it'll take. We might get hungry. We'll sit out there. When it's through, we'll come back home.

What we're trying to present today- At 1:30 PM, the sermon airs. We see that God has a book.

One hour on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

And remember, the most fearful warning ever given to man in scripture is the warning found in Revelation But after the broadcast, the surrender plan changes.

Koresh says he's gotten a message. When you confer with God, you can't turn away from him. God says to wait.

We want to resolve this as much or more so than you do.

After promising federal negotiators that he would lead his followers out, David Koresh says God told him not to.

My God told me to wait, and that's all I'm doing.

Koresh also has an earthly concern, being raped in prison if he surrenders.

Hopefully, if I'm notorious, they won't put me with no buggers. There's a lot of buggers that they They want to molest you if they think you molest children.

Feeling duped, the FBI commander orders the armored personnel carriers closer to the building to tighten the noose, but it only seems to antagonize Koresh.

Your organization in this United States of America is a liar. You're saying peace with your mouth, but your words are words of a dragon. Him.

As a negotiator, I would have preferred to go back to Koresh again and again, trying to get him to live up to what he had promised to do rather than taking an action that only gave him ammunition to be more angry at us.

The negotiators are now fighting on two fronts, trying to calm David Koresh.

You're just smoothing me. Try and trying to use psychology on me.

And trying to talk their own bosses out of overreacting.

Sometimes there's this compelling thing we call action imperative, where authorities feel they have to do something to be seen as decisive and in charge. And when you're compelled to do that, you often end up doing the wrong thing.

Koresh isn't making it easy. He claims to have weapons that can penetrate the armored personnel carriers, which he calls little buggies, and threatens to blow the government's little buggies to pieces.

That's when The decision was made by the tactical guys. Let's go get us a really big tank. They got in an M1 Abrams tank.

The military armor is supposed to protect the tactical guys who are up close. Even with the big guns removed, it's a show of strength to intimidate the Branch Davidians. Instead, it strengthens the Davidians' faith and intensifies their distrust.

It's A guy who is directing David?

Ophelius Antoia.

I believe it.

What do you think is going to happen in the next few days?

I don't care.

What do you believe is going to happen? What?

You guys are going to kill us.

Koresh himself looks to the Old Testament Prophet Nahum, who says God's enemies will come in chariots with flaming torches. To Koresh, The FBI is fulfilling a prophecy.

The chariot's with flaming torches that make noise like thunder. We know what that really is, don't we? Tanks.

Despite the threatening heavy armor, the negotiators settle into a routine with Koresh.

David, where are you again now? We're here at Chapter 26 of Isaiah. Okay. Hold on for just a minute here. Let me catch up with you a little bit. 26, nine.

There seems to be a rapport, and Koresh praises his favorite negotiators for their friendly tone.

Now, the reason why we've talked to Henry is because Henry, like yourself, he knows how to be a waitress, and that's what you people are, your professional waitresses. And professional waitresses that are really good get tipped good.

The tip is the release of children, 21 kids in the first six days.

When these beautiful little kids came in the negotiation room and sat on our laps, it was a constant reminder to all of us what was at stake here.

The negotiators are based at this airfield, 13 miles away. As children arrive, they put them on the phone with their parents.

Are you okay? Yeah.

Florisita Sonobi talking to Mark, one of the children.

They didn't treat you good, dad? No, they treated me good. What did they do to you?

They put me in that tank and took me down on the road further down in He put me in a van and brought me here.

Parents are parents the world over. And while they had an extraordinary allegiance to David Koresh, we certainly wanted to tug at those parental heartstrings.

Hey, Mark. I love You be good boy, okay?

Okay.

And if you see some of the kids, tell them I love them.

Okay.

Mark also talks to Koresh's oldest son, Cyrus. I'm at I was in the airport.

There's lots of planes out front. You see any taken off? No. Sir, so I went in a tank. Were you nervous? No. It was bumpy.

That was the only thing.

Come on out when you can, if you can. I think I can.

Well, there was plenty of doubt, but I was pleased with the progress of our strategy. I mean, over those first several days, we had, I don't know, a dozen or so children come out. Anyway, you look at that, that's a positive indicator.

But many Davidians will not budge, including Clive Doyle. Did you ever consider leaving?

Why should I? I haven't committed a crime, and this is where I live. Why do I need to come out?

Hey, David. Sir. Are you a patient person? Yeah, I'm really patient. You're going to see patience because the only thing that we're going to do is sit and wait.

Despite the negotiator's promise, their counterparts, the tactical team with tanks, is losing patience. The war in Waco is about to escalate.

So you guys, you can do it your way, I do it my way. David Koresh, pick up the phone. The negotiator wanted to speak with you.

After six days, the flow of children out of the Branch Davidian compound stops.

Most of the kids, all but a half dozen, who stayed inside were the biological children of David Koresh.

These children that I have are for a reason.

They were to grow up and be part of the jury that would judge the world in the end times. And so these were like sainted kids.

You want to go out? You want to leave? How come? Because. What's why? Because I want to stay with you. You want to stay with me? Yeah.

The standoff is at a turning point. Nearly 100 branch Davidians remain inside, including 24 children. And the FBI is divided over what to do.

The negotiators wanted to continue talking, and the tactical people wanted to get it over with.

There was great tension and a big desire to get those people out of there. The question was, how are you going to do it without further loss alive?

Siding with the tactical team, the FBI commander turns up the pressure, cutting electricity to the compound, blasting it with floodlights, and cranking up the loudspeakers.

They bombarded the house with the sounds of dying rabbits.

Tbitten monk chants, Buddhist chants.

The sound of a telephone being off the hook.

The FBI also plays a Nancy Sinatra song. A song with an implied threat.

Those kinds of actions that agitate are counterproductive to relationship building. We know that. We knew that then. We know it now.

It was emotionally driven.

It was emotionally driven. It was driven out of frustration.

They were not driving a wedge between us and David. What they were doing was creating attitudes between us and them.

Hardening your position.

A lot of times, yeah.

If anything, the FBI's get tough approach seems to confirm Koresh's apocalyptic message.

I know we are in the last day.

I look around and I can see where if this is not the end of time, I don't know when.

Koresha's disciples taped this message for their family.

Remember that I taught, and I taught you that prophet has to be fulfilled, and the time has come. I'm serving a true and living God that sits on the throne, and if you do so, you can't die.

They believe they were on something like Noah's Ark. Now, if you're on Noah's Ark, you ain't leaving the boat.

Three weeks into the standoff, 12 more adults have come out, including Sheila Martin. But she leaves behind her husband and her four oldest children.

They believed in God for themselves. They used to tell me that no matter what the situation, if I chose to leave, they wanted to stay.

The war in Waco is now a stalemake.

It was costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. There were hundreds of FBI personnel.

I mean, this was a national International.

International. International embarrassing TV show that was going on too long. It was. The FBI is a proud organization, and the FBI, I think, felt uncomfortable now being in a situation which was being driven by perhaps a madman. And feeling powerless and vulnerable.

As negotiators talk, the tactical team is moving in again, bulldozing vehicles in front of the compound, destroying them.

If you're a David Koresh, are you going to believe what the nice negotiator is telling you, or are you going to look out your window and be more influenced by more aggressive actions that you may feel threaten you?

I mean, your work was being undercut, plain and simple.

Clearly, it was. And that was beyond frustrating.

Frustrating and frightening to those inside the compound, like Clive Doyle's daughter, Sherry.

She made a statement to me. She said if they attacked and she got mangled or shot and was in a bad way, she said, Don't let me suffer. And all I said, Don't worry about it, Sherry. I said, It's all going to work out. God's in control.

On day 46, the standoff takes It could be a major turn. Koresh says he wants time to write down his final message on the Book of Revelation, and if he gets it, he promises to lead everyone out.

I can go on paper here and say David Koresh told me that as soon as he finishes this manuscript-I'll be splitting out his place. I'm so sick of MREs.

Sick of MREs and no longer worried about being raped in prison.

Can I say that I think that's one of your big concerns is Mr. Buba? I'm not worried about Buba.

People were packing back. People were all excited. It's over. All of this situation is about to come to an end.

David, frankly, I'm eagerly awaiting this manuscript. And I tell you what, it's going to blow your socks off.

But the FBI doubts his intentions and has a plan to force him out. Koresh sees the heavy armor clearing a path out front.

You're doing wrong before God, before man. You are doing wrong.

His response is prophetic.

All I can say is that if you want to place this in the history books as one of the saddest days in the world, you're fixing to step across the ribbon.

Within hours, David Koresh and Most of his disciples will die.

It's time for you to exit the compound in an orderly fashion.

April 19, 1993, just before dawn, over the FBI's loudspeakers.

David, individuals inside the Branch Davidian compound. We are in the process of placing tear gas into the building.

The feds are out of patience and ready to make arrests for the murder of the four ATF agents 51 days earlier.

Exit the compound now. Submit to the proper authority, David.

The tear gas is inserted from booms on specially modified tanks and fired from grenade-like canisters.

You are under arrest. This standoff is over.

When the DaVitians shoot at the tanks, the FBI intensifies the gas.

Believe me, It will not get any better. It will only get worse.

After two hours, the FBI begins ripping holes in the building. Exit routes, they say.

You go, If we step out of this hole, they're going to shoot us? Are they so angry because ATF agents are dead or because we've made them wait so long.

David, you have had your 15 minutes of feign.

It's time to leave the building. An hour later, Here, there's smoke and fire.

We can work through this. Don't lose control of this, David. Don't lose control of this.

Flying above the complex, an infrared camera records the fire as a bright plume.

David, don't do this to your people.

Within minutes, there's a second fire, then a third.

This is not the way to end this. Lead your people out, David. Be a Messiah, not a destroyer.

After 45 minutes, the building is engulfed. Only Nine people would make it out.

I came out, basically driven out by the fire.

Sheila Martin, who had come out three weeks earlier, is watching the drama on television, terrified for her husband and her four oldest children.

You're thinking, if they were in the hallway alone, were they running? Did the fire catch them? It's just very horrible to think.

Fanned by 25-mile-an-hour winds, this is doomsday. Critics Critics blame the fire on the FBI's tear gas. But an independent special counsel ultimately found David Koresh ordered the fire set with accelerants.

I blame David Koresh, but Because I believe he's to blame does not mean we, the FBI, did everything right or we did not make mistakes, because certainly we did.

You believe patients would have provided many more survivors?

No question in my mind. I believe that a A successful negotiation is not necessarily getting everyone out alive. It's getting everyone out alive that we can, in my judgment. We did not get out all the people, potentially all of them, that we could have. And for me, that's a failure.

Autopsies found Sheila Martin's family died from smoke and fire. You still cry?

Yes. I think the middle of the night is the worst. When you wake up and you think about things and you see a picture and see their smile. You can't remember the way they sounded. You can't remember their voices.

At least 20 deaths were from gunshots. They were suicides and mercy killings. Among them, David Koresh and Sherry Doyle.

And I believe that because of her either giving her life or having it taken from her violently like that, I believe that she is going to be saved.

In all, 76 Branchdividians died that day, including 24 children. That night, attorney general Janet Reno, who had approved the FBI raid, said it was intended to prevent the children inside from being harmed by David Koresh.

At the time, we made the best decision I think that we could based on everything that we knew. Based on what we know now, it was obviously wrong.

There were aftershocks. To extremists like Timothy McVeigh, Waco was a call to arms. He would bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City exactly two years later, killing 168 people.

His feeling was, this is a war between the people and the government. The government won at Waco, but we won bigger at Oklahoma City.

Remarkably, neither Clive Doyle nor Sheila Martin blamed the FBI. To them, the fire, the deaths, their grief, it was all part of a bigger plan by a much bigger power.

God permitted it to work out the way it did. He didn't stop it.

We don't want to feel that something horrible is something good. But that was what we were supposed to have that faith, that if something happens, you trip If you fall, you do. You trust God has a reason for it.

I guess Sheila is the fact that something horrible did happen, and I'm not seeing the good.

The Bible says that all things work together for good for those that love the Lord.

Today, there is a new chapel on the 77 acres and a new spiritual leader. Charles Pace, the man who challenged David God Koresh in 1984, says God chose him to take charge.

Yeah, that's what I think. That's what I believe.

Are you the prophet? Are you a prophet?

I believe that I'm enlightened. Let me put it that way.

With a few followers, Pace is clearing debris, getting ready for what he believes will be the gathering of the faithful.

Tom, do you think it's too windy?

It will come at the end of time, he says, foreshadowed by the collapse of major government governments around the world. Perhaps soon.

These English-speaking Protestant nations are going to be swallowed up by the one-world government, and it's all going to be Central Bank. You understand what I'm saying? They're all going to be call it up by the one world order.

And what will be here when that happens?

God's Kingdom.

Clive Jones and Sheila Martin don't buy it, not Pace's vision.

One, two, three, four.

They believe that David Koresh, not Charles Pace, will lead the world through the final days.

I feel even stronger as a result of what has happened.

Faithfully, patiently, they are waiting for the resurrection. David Koresh, Messiah.

What can I say? They call me a rambling man, don't they? Anyway, God bless, and we'll sign off.