Crimes of the Century (TV Mini Series)

The Siege at Waco (2013)

Erik Thompson: Self - Narrator

Quotes 

• Himself - Narrator : On day six of the standoff, another child comes out of the compound, with a note pinned to her jacket. It says "Once the children are out, the adults will die."

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : We never got another child out. We got a total of twenty-one, and I will be... eternally grateful for the fact that we were able to... to accomplish that.

  Himself - Narrator : Twenty-seven children remained inside the compound.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : We continued to press David on that. David finally became very upset with the negotiator, and he stopped 'em. He yelled at 'em. He said "Hey, you don't understand. The rest of these children are my children. They're not coming out." The battle for Armageddon was on.

• Himself - Narrator : Sixteen days into the standoff, David Koresh agrees to let two of his followers meet with government negotiators face to face.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : He had selected Steve Schneider, uh, his number one lieutenant, and Wayne Martin, their, uh, Harvard-educated attorney, to come out and talk to our representative. The tension was extremely high. You could, quite literally, feel the crosshairs on you from the Branch Davidian compound, as I'm sure Steve Schneider and Wayne Martin could... could feel from, um, our tactical teams that had everybody covered.

  Himself - Narrator : The meeting is positive. The FBI negotiators arrange to meet again in two days, and deliver written assurances requested by Koresh. But Schneider abruptly cancels the second meeting.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : He indicated that David didn't think it was necessary. So I said "Wait a minute. You don't want to come out or David doesn't want you to come out?". He says "Well, David doesn't think it's necessary."

  Himself - Narrator : For Agent Sage, a heated phone conversation that follows provokes a crucial realization about Koresh.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : At one point, he's talking about my salvation. And I said "David, I am absolutely confident in my salvation as a Christian, and you, partner, are not in a position to judge me." Now, that was a very calculated move, because stop and think about it; if this individual was delusional and thought that he was Jesus Christ, who's in more of a position to judge me as a Christian than Jesus Christ? But in my mind, it had resolved a very critical question, and that is I did not feel that he was delusional or felt that he was the second coming of Christ. I think that he was a con man, and his chosen area of con was religion.

• Himself - Narrator : As the tension mounted and the press coverage grew, the siege drew both curious onlookers and protestors, many of them gun rights supporters. One was a young disenfranchised Army vet named Timothy McVeigh. Two years later, he would bomb the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. McVeigh said he did it, in part, because of the government action at Waco.

• Himself - Narrator : On the 49th day of the siege, Attorney General Janet Reno approves the Bureau's plan for a tactical solution: the insertion of tear gas into the compound.

• Himself - Narrator : The beginning of the end comes just after 12:00 noon. A wisp of smoke floats from a compound window.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : My instructions over the loudspeakers went from instructions to pleas. "David, don't do this."

  Himself - Assistant SAC, ATF : And all of a sudden, you see bursts of flames. I'm like "My god, I hope they allowed the children to leave."

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : I will never forget the exact thought that went through my head when I saw the flames: "Thank god. Those mothers will bring their children out now." And we waited, and waited, and waited. And they didn't bring their children out.

• Himself - Narrator : The entire scene unfolds before a live TV audience. The exuberance of a control room producer is tempered by the reality of the situation.

  Himself - Assistant SAC, ATF : It was quick. Didn't last very long. The structure, or the building, was shoddily made of plywood. I mean, it's like a... wooden match.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : We never stopped our negotiation efforts. We continued right up until I turned off the speakers on that last day at 12:35 in the afternoon.

  Himself - SAC, FBI : Everyone was in tears. We could all see the faces of the children; we all knew who they were, we'd seen them. And that's what we were dedicated to doing, was trying to rescue those kids out of there. And that had all gone up in smoke, and we knew that they were all dying, and there was nothing we could do about it.

• Himself - Narrator : April 19th, 1993, the siege at Waco has come to a fiery end.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : But how in the world could they have done that to their kids? Nine people came out, not one of 'em brought a child.

  Himself - Narrator : Clive Doyle is one of the nine who did get out. But he left his eighteen year old daughter inside. She had been one of Koresh's child brides.

  Himself - Branch Davidian Survivor : You beat yourself up and say "Well, why didn't I go looking for her? Why didn't I rescue her? Why didn't I save anybody?". I've kicked myself ever since. People do strange things in fires.

• Himself - Special Agent, FBI : I'm not saying the FBI did everything right, or that ATF did everything right. But we did not set the fires, we did not murder anybody.

  Himself - Narrator : Infrared photography taken by helicopters above the building shows the fire igniting in three different places inside the compound.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : Nine Branch Davidians exited that compound that last day. Seven of the nine had accelerants on their clothing.

  Himself - Branch Davidian Survivor : Whether anybody actually deliberately lit a fire in there, I don't know. But my question would be "Even if they did, whose fault is it? Is it our fault because we had been intent on dying or is it FBI's fault for taunting David?".

• Himself - Narrator : In the smoldering wreckage of the compound, investigators recover at least 78 bodies, including David Koresh.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : It appears as though, um, his second in command, Steve Schneider, um, shot David Koresh in the head with a pistol, and then Schneider, um, turned the pistol on himself.

  Himself - SAC, FBI : The children themselves were mostly executed. They were either beaten to death, stabbed to death, or shot. David Koresh was never going to walk out of that place on our terms. It was doomed from day one that that place, which went by the name of Ranch Apocalypse, was... was destined to, uh, end up in flames.

  Himself - Narrator : In the aftermath of the tragedy, "not another Waco" became a rallying cry for the ATF. The agency improved intelligence gathering and reporting methods, and changed policy regarding who makes on-the-ground incident decisions. The FBI made changes, as well, forming a crisis response group to ensure complete coordination between its negotiators and tactical teams.

• Himself - Narrator : Waco was an early test for Attorney General Janet Reno. Though she came under intense criticism for her decisions, she remained in office until 2001. As for the Waco Tribune-Herald, it was named a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting. Today, three memorials stand at the Branch Davidian compound. One is in memory of those who perished in 1995 at Oklahoma City. A second memorial is dedicated to all the Branch Davidian members who died that horrible day in April. The third, the smallest stone of all, remembers the four ATF agents who perished on February 28, 1993.

• Himself - Special Agent, FBI : The morning of February 28, 1993, I will never forget.

  Himself - Narrator : Crisis negotiator Byron Sage is the first FBI agent on the scene, arriving some seventy-five minutes after the shooting started.

  Himself - Special Agent, FBI : And I got there a little after 11:00. Gun battle was still raging, which was significant. The average gun battle in law enforcement lasts about two seconds. This was a gun battle that had raged, now, for... well over an hour.