David Thibodeau

Twenty-five years after the 51-day standoff and deadly siege on David Koresh and the Branch Davidian compound, new details and survivor revelations come to light.

In one of the most tragic face-offs in the history of law enforcement, the deadly debacle at Waco pitted the Branch Davidian sect against the FBI in an all-out war. This documentary makes the most of footage and recordings to examine how the events that led to the tragedy of April 19, 1993, unfolded, and how the FBI's unrelenting approach made what was already a bad situation much worse.

The Branch Davidians believed they were living in a time when Biblical prophesies and divine judgment was coming were imminent ahead of Christ's second coming. A headquarters was first established near Waco in 1935, by a Bulgarian immigrant Victor Houteff, Victor Houteff. At its height, 900 people moved there awaiting a sign from God. Following Houteff's death in 1955, the segment of the group loyal to Houteff continued as the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, led by his wife Florence. She gathered hundreds of faithful followers together at their Mount Carmel Centre near Waco in 1959. Later Benjamin Roden formed another group called the Branch Davidians and succeeded in taking control of Mount Carmel. David Koresh rose to power as a young man in the 1980s, in part by taking its leader, Lois Roden, a woman in her 60s, as a lover. When she died in 1986 at 70, there was a power struggle between her son George Roden and Koresh.

Au mois de février 1993, l'ATF (le Bureau fédéral des alcools, tabacs, armes à feu et explosifs), dépendant du ministère de la Justice des États-Unis sous la Présidence de Clinton, livre une première attaque contre la petite communauté de Waco, au Texas qui se procure illégalement tout un arsenal d'armes. Menés par leur leader David Koresh, Les Davidians, comme se surnomment les membres de la secte, se retranchent dans leur propriété durant un siège de 51 jours qui s'achève par un assaut meurtrier du FBI.