Followers of cult leader David Koresh still under his spell 25 years after Waco inferno

Followers, known as Branch Davidians, will hold special prayers on Wednesday, the 25th anniversary of the so-called Waco siege, one of the darkest and most disputed chapters of US law enforcement history. 

An attempt to arrest Koresh at his headquarters in Mount Carmel, eight miles from Waco, Texas, ended in a bloodbath when four US agents and six Branch Davidians died in a gunfight.

An ensuing siege ended two months later when tanks attacked the wooden compound, triggering an inferno which killed 80 Branch Davidians, including 26 Britons, some of them children.

Bible-obsessed Koresh, a Texan rock guitarist turned preacher, had persuaded more than 30 Britons, mostly Seventh-Day Adventists, to join him in Texas during trips to Manchester, Nottingham and Bracknell in Berkshire. 

Among them was Londoner Renos Avraam, who took up arms against the US agents. 

He escaped the inferno and was deported to Britain in 2006 after serving 13 years in prison.  

He has now taken a group of devotees to British Honduras while still under the influence of the teachings of his religious hero. 

Australian-born Clive Doyle, 77, another inferno survivor who still lives in Waco, said: “I understand he is toting himself as a prophet to a group of followers with him in Honduras. 

“He made a prediction that the Yellowstone National Park was going to erupt and cover the US in lava, so he advised them to go to South America. 

“Those people don’t keep in contact with anyone so I don’t know where they are. 

“I don’t know if he is dangerous.” 

This week Branch Davidian Livingstone Fagan, 66, will say prayers for his wife Yvette and his mother who perished in the inferno as he prepares for the “resurrection” of Koresh, who died aged 33, the same age as Jesus. 

Mr Fagan, who spent 14 years in US jails, is convinced that the spirit of Houston-born Koresh lives on. 

He talks frankly about February 28, 1993, the fateful day when 80 heavily armed law enforcement agents ringed the compound where he lived with his family.

They had come to arrest Koresh for firearms offences after he had amassed an arsenal to protect the community. 

“We were engaged in morning worship as usual,” said Mr Fagan, from his flat in Nottingham. 

“An undercover agent called Rodriguez joined us for bible studies. 

“We all knew what he was doing but David was in the business of saving souls and that is what he was attempting to do.” 

Mr Fagan said Koresh was aware he was being investigated and had even invited agents to meet him to discuss their concerns about his guns. 

“They already had their agenda and we were the prey,” claims Mr Fagan, who as a young man had taken part in live firing at Salisbury Plain when he was in the British Territorial Army. 

“They figured David would be an easy kill to boost their reputation.”

It was known that Koresh frequently left the compound in a black car and was regularly seen in Waco, where he could have been arrested. 

However, the agents persisted with their raid, even when they had lost the element of surprise. Davidians saw them massing on the fringe of their property in cattle trucks. 

Mr Fagan recalled: “I heard shots and the sound of helicopters. David’s father-in-law was shot and so was he.  

“I remember seeing a terrified child and sought to comfort him but we were coming under fire. 

“There were helicopters at the back firing. 

“One bullet hit a friend from Nottingham, Winston Blake, and took him out. A direct hit on the head. We realised we were being killed. We couldn’t let them come in because we believed that they would have shot indiscriminately. We took them on and I was part of that. 

“I don’t like to go into details. We were defending ourselves. We fired back when we were fired on.” 

At the end of the gun battle four agents were dead and many injured. 

Six Branch Davidians were also killed with many injured, including Koresh who was shot in the wrist and the side. 

The agents were forced to withdraw because of heavy fire. 

The job of ending the siege was then passed to the FBI, who brought in a team of negotiators and an army of 1,000 armed agents with tanks. 

During the tense 51-day siege which followed a variety of tactics were used, including stopping food and milk supplies, and blasting music light shows in the middle of the night to destabilise the group through sleep deprivation. 

Survivors said the impact on the children was horrendous. 

They felt they were being subjected to psychological torture. 

On March 23, 1993, Mr Fagan left the compound with his two young children as Koresh wanted him to witness from the outside what was about to unfold. 

He left his wife and mother behind in the compound and was immediately arrested. 

His wife, Yvette, and mother, Doris, were killed in the later fire. 

Released in 2007 from a US jail, he returned to social work in Nottingham, but left after bosses discovered his role in the siege. 

He says he is waiting for the next chapter in the unravelling of the Seven Seals from the book of Revelations in the Bible.  

Koresh convinced his followers he was the Lamb, the one who could unlock the mysteries of the seals. 

In Guyana in 1978, cult leader Jim Jones persuaded hundreds of his followers to commit mass suicide. 

The FBI feared Koresh was pursuing a similar end. 

However, Mr Fagan said the narrative portrayed by US authorities was a deliberate ploy to portray them as a “sexually deviant, suicidal death cult” to let the authorities get away with “religious persecution” and mass murder of men, women and children”. 

At one stage negotiators said they would allow milk in to the compound if four children were released, without their parents. Many felt this was blackmail. 

Towards the end of the siege Koresh said they would all come out peacefully once he had written an explanation of the Seven Seals but he was not believed. 

When the offer was made an FBI negotiator said: “Are you saying that when you finish your manuscript you’ll be out? That could mean a lot of things, David.’’  

On April 16, Koresh said he would finish his work in two weeks.

However, three days later impatient FBI chiefs sent in the tanks. 

Attorney General Janet Reno approved a plan to pipe CS gas into the compound. 

If no one came out in 48 hours then the buildings could be dismantled. 

But no incendiary materials were to be used, she insisted, because of the risk of fire. 

However, the armoured vehicles with metal pipes punched massive holes in the compound, collapsing the gym within a few hours. 

Mr Doyle recalled: “Everything they did harmed the children.  

“Where was the bravery of the agents? Why didn’t they come in and rescue the kids. They wouldn’t even allow the fire brigade to come in and put out the fire. 

“My best friend went out the back and was shot. Then he was bulldozed into the building to make it look like he died in the fire. 

“They used the gas to get people to leave, but some women who tried to leave were shot.”

Embarrassing footage has emerged of gunfire coming from an FBI helicopter and from two government agents on the ground. 

Spent cartridges were also found in outbuildings where government snipers insisted they had held fire. 

It has also emerged that incendiary CS gas canisters were fired into the building, which could have caused fires.  

Mr Doyle said: “I didn’t see any of us starting fires or shooting out. There were only tanks out there. You could shoot all day at a tank. 

“Women and children sought sanctuary in a safe room with a concrete roof. They wanted to survive. There was no suicide plan. 

“They used a bomb to blow a hole in the roof of the safe room – nobody could have survived.” 

Charred bodies of many children were found later. 

Mr Doyle said: “The FBI goaded David with threats all the time. They wanted him to do something crazy. Shortly before the end they asked if he had a fire extinguisher. 

“When we said we only had one they said we had better get some fire insurance. It was a sick joke. 

“David didn’t want any women or children to have guns. He was trying to protect them and didn’t want another firefight. 

“We thought we were getting out. We thought it was coming to an end. I ran out through a gap in the building but there were bullets flying all around. 

“So many English people died, but their government didn’t seem to care about them. I think that was because a lot of them had dual nationality. The British government dropped them all.” 

He said no one came forward to claim the bodies of one English woman and her young daughter, who were given paupers’ graves. Mr Doyle said victims would be remembered and prayed for on the anniversary. 

“We’ll never forget those good people who just wanted to worship in peace,” he said. 

There is no trace of the church at Mount Carmel, but a small visitors’ centre gives an account of the siege. Koresh was buried in an isolated corner of Texas.