Word: koresh
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...they had to rely more on the hours of conversations and the letters Koresh occasionally dictated to be sent out to the besieging forces. The FBI brought these to a team of experts they recruited, who drew a psychological portrait of an ever more menacing figure, one who believed himself invincible...
Over the weekend of April 10, Koresh sent the FBI two letters from God, which Time has obtained, neatly penned on lavender notepaper by one of his 19 wives. "I AM your God," he wrote, "and you will bow under my feet. Do you think you have the power to stop my will?" The ominous letters persuaded the psychologists that Koresh would come out only on his own terms, probably violent ones. "It is hard to believe that Koresh will abdicate his godhood," the experts concluded, "for a limited notoriety and time behind bars...
...seemed at times that Koresh was playing with them. His mother had hired a fancy lawyer for him, and just as the feds were deciding they had to move, Koresh was deciding that he was eager to talk. Dick DeGuerin is a renowned defender of infamous Texans, a lean, boyish-looking ex-prosecutor known among defense lawyers as "Clint Eastwood" for rescuing high-profile figures from impossible fixes. He has a gift for winning his clients' trust, and it seemed to be working with Koresh. They talked for hours inside the compound, sharing chicken a la king and apple juice...
...best way to go? On Wednesday night she called in members of the Army's elite Delta Force to ask their opinions. Her questions always came back to the children. FBI officials explained that the longer the siege lasted, the more the children would suffer. "Children are like hostages," Koresh had told one negotiator, "because they're too young to make decisions...
...indeed he seemed prepared to treat them that way. When negotiators asked him to send out videotapes to show the youngsters were safe, Koresh was happy to oblige. The tactic worked brilliantly for him. Agents were wrenched by the pictures, and even more profoundly engaged after Koresh began putting the children on the telephone. "Are you coming to kill me?" a tiny voice would ask. "Those kids' faces, you can still see them," says FBI agent Bob Ricks. "They are precious, innocent children, controlled by a madman...