A siege, a massacre, a tragedy – call it what you will, the great shootout dominated the nightly news for two months of 1993 and seared itself into American history, attaining mononym status in the bargain.
Waco, as the catastrophe is best known, was not actually in Waco. It took place 13 miles east of the central Texas town, at the putty-colored Mount Carmel Center compound presided over by David Koresh, a cult leader with cherubic curls and an enthusiasm for firearms. Under his auspices, the rambling structure was home to a vast reserve of weapons, and over a hundred followers who believed in their leader’s claims about the coming apocalypse. (There was also a bus that had been buried underground, ready to serve as a bunker.)
