What happened to the right front door of the Mount Carmel Center? That's a recurring question in Waco: The Aftermath, a five-episode Showtime drama built around the 1994 trial of Branch Davidians who had survived the lethal 51-day federal siege near Waco, Texas, the previous year.
The mysteriously missing steel door, which should have withstood the fire that consumed Mount Carmel, could have helped resolve the issue of who shot first when agents dispatched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) descended upon religious leader David Koresh's followers at the beginning of the standoff. It is a powerful symbol of the government's attempts to evade responsibility for the horrifying outcome: The siege resulted in the deaths of 82 men, women, and children who lived at Mount Carmel, including 76 who died during the final assault.
