Those of you who have never heard of the Branch Davidians
and WACO should probably not read my whole review, there
are a few spoilers. If you have never heard this story,
you should read this book. If you have heard the story,
you should read the book. Everyone should read this book.
The behavior of our government will shock you.
At the time David Thibodeau met David Koresh, he was in
a band in LA with some friends. His initial draw to
Koresh was the possibility of playing music and hitting
it big. However the more time he spent with Koresh and
the Branch Davidians the more he understood Koresh's
teachings and conformed to their way of life. Thibodeau
had never been religious, his life was his music. He had
no intention of following anyone, but Koresh's teaching
of the Seven Seals spoke to him and he like so many
others became a member of the Branch Davidians.
Everyone was shocked the day the ATF attacked the
Davidians compound. Come to find out they didn't even
have a no knock warrant. If they would have knocked or
arrested Koresh when he was out on one of his many runs
the siege and deaths would have never happened. But the
ATF choose to attack with choppers, armored vehicles, and
SWAT teams. Of the almost 100 people inside, Koresh was
the only one they had a warrant for. The other men, women,
and children were completely innocent.
David Thibodeau tells the story from his point of view.
He described how he became a member, what drove him to
follow Koresh and how he grew to love all the people who
lived there. The more I read the story of the siege the
more angry I became. Our government used tanks,
helicopters, armoured personnel carriers, and light and
sound torture on innocent men, women, and children. In the
end they also used CS gas on them. CS is a gas on the
list of chemical weapons that the United States signed an
international treaty stating that they would not use, yet
they used it on their own citizens. There are plenty of
previous case in the US alone that show CS gas use by
police has caused fires. Yet they used so much, it is
beyond belief. Not everyone died from fire, many of the
children suffocated to death from the gas.
WACO is a must read, the six hour mini series based on the
book is also worth watching. David Koresh was not the
Messiah, he was just another charismatic leader who
people followed. While he was certainly a criminal, his
people weren't and those twenty-one children murdered by
our government under the guise of protecting them, most
certainly weren't. WACO is the heart pounding story of a
51 day standoff between the ATF, FBI, and a group of
religious believers who were different and that was their
crime.
As a tie-in to the upcoming Paramount Network miniseries
starring Michael Shannon, Taylor Kitsch, and Melissa Benoist
(starting in January 2018) and commemorating the 25th
anniversary of the siege at Waco, TX, comes the critically
acclaimed WACO by Branch Davidian survivor, David Thibodeau.
The book and miniseries have recently been featured in a
20/20 two-hour documentary special, Variety
Magazine, interviews on NPR, and stories in
Entertainment Weekly, TIME, Deadline, and the
Boston Globe.
For the first time ever, a survivor of the Waco massacre
tells the inside story of Branch Davidians, David Koresh,
and what really happened at the religious compound in Texas.
When he first met the man who called himself David Koresh,
David Thibodeau was drumming for a rock band that was going
nowhere fast. Intrigued and frustrated with a stalled music
career, Thibodeau gradually became a follower and moved to
the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. He remained
there until April 19, 1993, when the compound was stormed
and burnt to the ground after a 51-day standoff.
In this book, Thibodeau explores why so many people came to
believe that Koresh was divinely inspired. We meet the men,
women, and children of Mt. Carmel. We get inside the
day-to-day life of the community. Thibodeau is brutally
honest about himself, Koresh, and the other members, and the
result is a revelatory look at life inside a cult.
But Waco is just as brutally honest when it comes to
dissecting the actions of the United States government.
Thibodeau marshals an array of evidence, some of it never
previously revealed, and proves conclusively that it was our
own government that caused the Waco tragedy, including the
fires. The result is a memoir that reads like a thriller,
with each page taking us closer to the eventual inferno.