David Koresh

How many wives did Branch Davidians cult leader David Koresh have? His 'bride' Kiri Jewell was just 10, legally married to Rachel Jones.

[NPR](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/07/348021773/janet-reno-first-female-u-s-attorney-general-dies-at-78?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=movies&utm_term=artsculture&utm_content=202707) that she regretted how the situation was handled: “We’ll never know whether it was a mistake or not, in one sense. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) was then notified that a UPS driver had a package broken open on delivery to the Branch Davidians revealing around six grenades within. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission from the sale. The Branch Davidians set several fires and around noon that day, gunfire was heard from inside the compound. Attorney General Janet Reno gave permission for the FBI to raid the compound. In negotiations leading up to the fire, FBI agents managed to persuade Koresh to release 21 children from the compound in engage for milk. As the leader of the Branch Davidians, Koresh was groomed to be the successor of the group by the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association’s founder’s wife, Lois Roden. “Basically David would be having the children with some of the wives,” added former follower David Thibodeau. Inquiries into the Branch Davidians’ activities began on February 27, 1993, after the Waco Tribune-Herald began publishing The Sinful Messiah, a series of articles written by Mark England and Darlene McCormick, that reported Koresh was physically and sexually abusing children from within the Mount Carmel compound. “David was 100 percent in charge of those people.” Here’s how many so-called “wives” Koresh took during his time as a cult leader. “So yeah, being a member of the ‘House of David’ was a privilege,” he said. he’s the one that had the power, he’s the one that had the authority to ‘give the seed,’” Bunds said, adding that if he had sex with a woman, Koresh would say she was in the ‘House of David’.

In Waco: American Apocalypse, Netflix explores the rise of David Koresh in the Branch Davidians. The three-part docuseries also looks into the outcome of ...

Zimmermann told the publication that Rachel "was polite and pleasant and very quiet." He added that he had seen her on April 4, around a fortnight before the siege ended. Reporters spoke to people who knew her and her family, and explored what Koresh's influence on the family was. When federal agents attempted to end the siege on April 19, 1993, fires broke out in the compound and at least 75 Branch Davidians died. The event saw four agents and five members of the Branch Davidians lose their lives, one of whom was Rachel's 66-year-old father, Perry. In Waco: American Apocalypse, Netflix explores the rise of David Koresh in the Branch Davidians.

The story behind the events that led to the siege — and what went so horribly wrong — is now the focus of the Netflix series Waco: American Apocalypse. The ...

Koresh also reportedly annulled the marriages of his followers, demanded all the men were celibate and took the women as his own wives. Survivors of Waco claim they were neither brainwashed by Koresh nor held against their will at the compound. The leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh was born Vernon Howell in Houston on August 17, 1959. It's believed that Koresh fathered at least 14 children who lived at the Mount Carmel Center in Waco. The ATF agents arrived at the compound on February 28, 1993 to serve the warrant, but Koresh and his followers had been tipped off that they were on their way. He certainly challenged her son, George Roden, for leadership of the group — a move that led to Howell setting up a rival camp in Palestine, Texas, around 90 miles from Waco. The siege wore on for weeks, and the FBI became divided as to how to proceed. Koresh's time as leader of the Branch Davidians wasn't without controversy, however. Timothy McVeigh, the terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, was in the crowd at the Waco siege, handing out pro-gun rights bumper stickers and material. However, federal authorities had received reports that Koresh was amassing a large number of weapons that were being hidden at the compound. Over the first few days, progress seemed to be made and 19 children were released to agents. Thus, the decision was made that the ATF would serve a warrant to Koresh and search Mount Carmel Center for guns.

Tiller Russell discusses finding humanity in 'David Koresh's apocalyptic vision' in his Netflix docuseries.

Each of the people involved was marked and haunted by this forever, and I think America is marked and haunted by this tragedy forever. My hope is that they understand the complexity and the nuance to the story, and that it is a restoration of the humanity. For us it seems just absolutely like insanity to hear it, but at the same time, I didn't want to shy away from it because the truth of the matter is, David Koresh was a pedophile who was having sex with underage girls. By putting something that's provocative in there, it puts it back on the audience to make their own judgments and reactions to this. It was so unexpected the kind of humanity of all of these people — that ended up becoming the guiding force for me. It's easy to sit back and quarterback, in hindsight, the failures and mistakes — and it's important to articulate those, as well — but I felt rather than pointing fingers, I wanted to try to capture the humanity of all of the people involved, and to let them have their say. I found that repeatedly with all of the people that I engaged with. What I found in connecting with the people that lived it — from David Koresh's drummer, to the sniper, to David Koresh's attorney or the ATF special agent who watched his colleague get shot — was this intense and profound humanity of all the people involved. When the cameraman is walking through that gauntlet of people in the aftermath of the shootout, that's the kind of stuff that is never released because it doesn't fit tidily into a cut news package, but to me it was the most revelatory because it shows the intense human experience of everybody involved. I wanted to approach it with empathy rather than judgment, to understand the human experience of it. The interview with Heather Jones was particularly, intensely emotional because you look at this woman who was nine years old at the time, and you think, "Maybe she's blocked all this out and doesn't remember it." Then the research process was similar to what I do for anything, which is read everything that's ever been written on the subject, to pore through the previous tellings of the story.

Here's everything you need to know about cult leader David Koresh, who headed up the Branch Davidians and was at the centre of the 1993 Waco seige.

For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to [The Radio Times Podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). Koresh died by a gunshot wound to the head during the Waco Siege in 1993. In 1981, Koresh moved to Waco, Texas and joined the Branch Davidians – a religious sect and offshoot of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists. While at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Koresh is said to have become infatuated with the pastor's daughter and after reading a passage in the bible, he took it as a sign that God wanted him to have her for a wife. [Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month](https://www.netflix.com/gb/). Koresh had an affair with the sect's much older prophetess, Lois Roden, who was in her 60s when their relationship began. He initially took single girls, but then he began dissolving the marriages of other Branch Davidians and taking their wives, too. Along with his followers, Koresh built an 'Army of God; by stockpiling weapons in preparation for said apocalypse. His apocalyptic Biblical teachings, including interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the Seven Seals, attracted many followers. When he died in 1978, Koresh competed for dominance with another leader, Benjamin Roden's son George. Before David was born, his father left Bonnie Sue, who began living with a violent alcoholic. This then prompted the 51-day Waco siege, which started on 28th February and ended on 19th April, which saw Koresh wounded by ATF forces.