Menasha Public Library (Elisha D. Smith)

Waco rising, David Koresh, the FBI, and the birth of America's modern militias, Kevin Cook

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-254) and index

illustrationsportraitsplates

index present

non fiction

Waco rising

bibliography

1346622612

Kevin Cook

David Koresh, the FBI, and the birth of America's modern militias

"A news-making account of the war between David Koresh's Branch Davidians and the FBI, and how their standoff launched today's militias"--, Provided by publisher"In 1993, David Koresh and a band of heavily armed evangelical Christians took on the might of the US government. A two-month siege of their compound in Waco, Texas, ended in a firefight that killed seventy-six, including twenty-five children. America is still picking up the pieces, and we still haven't heard the full story. Kevin Cook, who revealed the truth behind a mythic, misunderstood murder in his 2014 Kitty Genovese, finally provides the full story of what happened at Waco. He gives readers a taste of Koresh's deadly charisma and takes us behind the scenes at the Branch Davidians' compound, where "the new Christ" turned his followers into servants and sired seventeen children by a dozen "wives." In vivid accounts packed with human drama, Cook harnesses never-reported material to reconstruct the FBI's fifty-one-day siege of the Waco compound in minute-to-minute detail. He sheds new light on the Clinton administration's approval of a lethal governmental assault in a new, definitive account of the firefight that ended so many lives and triggered the rise of today's militia movement. Waco drew the battle lines for American extremists--in Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's words, "Waco started this war." With help from sources as diverse as Branch Davidian survivors and the FBI's lead negotiator during the siege, Cook draws a straight line from Waco's ashes to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and insurrections yet to come. Unmissable reading for anyone interested in the truth of what happened in Texas three decades ago, Waco Rising is chillingly relevant today. Here is the spark that ignited today's antigovernment militias." -- Publisher's description

Wandering bonehead -- A new religion -- Sleeping with a prophetess -- Madman in Waco -- Planet Koresh -- The sinful messiah -- Deadline pressure -- Showtime -- Cease-fire -- David and Goliath -- Wait -- A gathering storm -- Hard bargains -- Testimony -- Tightening the noose -- T-shirt hill -- Signals and noise -- Regime change -- Breakthrough -- Pending judgment -- "This is not an assault" -- Apocalypse -- Out of the ashes -- Forensics -- Weaponizing Waco -- Survivors

adult

David Koresh, the FBI, and the birth of America's modern militias