Word: koresh
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Dates: during 1993-1993
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...fire, the tales of life in Mount Carmel come mostly out of the mouths of babes. As stories from survivors, former Davidians and a psychiatric report on the children confirmed last week, the Ranch Apocalypse experience was one of deprivation and fear. Denied traditional family bonds and exposed to Koresh's warped teachings, the children became compliant playthings, expected to live by every word issuing from the mad messiah of Waco...
When young Davidians strayed from his commands, their punishment was severe (though one survivor insisted such redress was basic "Christian discipline"). Disobedience frequently brought out the "helper," a paddle often wielded by Koresh's "mighty men" in the "whipping room" just off the first floor. The instrument left circle-shaped lesions, an inch across, on the children's buttocks. Koresh's son Cyrus, when he was three years old, once refused a command and, according to a former cult member, was starved for two days and forced to sleep on a garage floor where Koresh told him large rats prowled...
...Washington that the progression from shock to anger was most obvious. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen admitted to being "deeply troubled" at conflicting statements on whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms knew Koresh had been tipped off before its initial February raid; ATF head Stephen Higgins promptly expressed a willingness to resign. And during a hearing in the House, Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. exploded at Attorney General Janet Reno, calling the government's actions "a profound disgrace to law enforcement" and implying she was trying to "rationalize" the deaths. With emotion, Reno responded, "I feel more strongly about...
...April 19 blaze, since it flared up in at least two places at once and too late to have been caused by a government tank toppling a kerosene lamp. Working the same grisly ground, other experts said 72 people died that day, 14 fewer than suggested by figures Koresh provided before the fire. Autopsies performed so far were reported to reveal that bullets to the head killed 12, indicating either suicide or murder...
...DAVID KORESH WASN'T A REAL MESSIAH: HE COULDN'T TURN water into wine, and perhaps that's why he so valued his private stash of Scotch whisky. TIME has learned that three Branch Davidian cultists who left Ranch Apocalypse before the conflagration and surrendered were forced to leave by Koresh for getting into the would-be prophet's Scotch cache. At first Koresh punished the three -- Kevin Whitecliff, Brad Branch and Oliver Gyarfas -- by ordering them to bury a rotting corpse. Finally the Scotch-drinking cult leader had them thrown out. The trio are being held in jail...