Yahoo Autos Netflix Exposes the Pedophile Cult Leader Who Went to War With the FBI
Nobody came out of the 1993 Waco tragedy looking good. Not David Koresh, the messianic religious/cult leader who stockpiled illegal weapons and married underage girls in order to spread his seed for a coming apocalypse. Not the ATF, which went ahead with its raid on Koresh’s Branch Davidian compound despite knowing that they were expected, eliminating any element of surprise. And not the FBI, whose hostage rescue and negotiation teams were constantly at odds over both means and ends. In the end, 86 people – 82 Davidians and four ATF agents – were killed.
The new three-part Netflix docuseries Waco: American Apocalypse tells this story from seemingly every side, drilling deep into the specifics if not always the bigger picture. But the specifics are important here. The story has been analyzed and argued over ad infinitum, especially in the midst of the 30th anniversary. The societal impact, particularly the surge of often violent anti-government fervor that grew from the events in Waco, is vitally important; this is the focus of Showtime’s upcoming dramatic series, Waco: The Aftermath. American Apocalypse director Tiller Russell (Netflix’s Nightstalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer) is after something different. Through interviews with all parties and never-before-seen footage, he wants to explore the facts, through all the fog of war and vehement disagreement. And he succeeds more often than not.
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The first part of the series sets the stage, introducing a man who claimed to be the son of God and the people who believed him. Koresh new the Bible inside and out, and he could lecture on it for hours on end. Two surviving Davidians, David Thibodeau and Kathy Schroeder (more on her later), face the camera and lay out the appeal of life at Mount Carmel, the Davidians’ home base. They describe a nurturing environment ruled by a holy man. That holy man was also hard at work illegally converting semiautomatic weapons into the automatic kind, stockpiling artillery for what he saw as the approaching battle with the forces of Babylon — or the outside, secular world. Koresh and his troops were preparing for war. American Apocalypse could use some additional context in this area. In eschewing experts, aside from journalists who were there, the series stays on the ground, where the action was. But it also asks those who were closest to that action to provide levelheaded analysis, and they aren’t always the best people for that job. They have skin in the game.
