David Koresh fathered most of the 25 children that died in the suicidal fire set by the Davidians ten years ago today.
But three Koresh children did not perish. All boys, they are now teenagers.
Two brothers live in Hawaii, while another resides in Southern California.
The tenth anniversary of the Waco Davidian standoff has generated some curiosity and press coverage. Reporters for interviews located the three boys and their families.
The Hawaiian boys are the sons of Dana Okimoto, who was one of Koresh’s “20 wives.” Okimoto now sees her Davidian involvement as “another life,” apart from her current existence. Her sons never knew their father, reports Hawaii Channel.com.
Koresh’s son in California was taken out of the compound as a baby before the standoff began and brought back to his mother Robyn Bunds. She still suffers psychologically from abuse experienced while a Davidian, reports the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
Bunds and her son would not speak with reporters, but her father did. He said his grandson also never knew his father. And added, “I didn’t like Koresh. He was too arrogant for me.”
This seems like an accurate appraisal of the man who once claimed he was both the savior of humanity and the “Lamb of God.”
Okimoto seems disillusioned with organized religion and says she no longer attends church. “I was young and idealistic and I had a very black-and-white view of the world,” she explained.
Some have observed that this Davidian “black-and-white” mindset was the result of “brainwashing.” Okimoto says her subsequent work as a psychiatric nurse helped her alleviate the after-effects.
Very few of Koresh’s former followers that survived the standoff remain faithful. Some still cling to the notion that the dead leader will somehow return to fulfill his failed prophecies. But only a mere handful ever meet for religious services.
Like so many cults historically, without the personality that drove and defined their group, they have fallen apart.
David Koresh’s once dreamt of re-establishing the “Throne of David” through a dynasty carried forward by his many children.
But the few that remain don’t consider that delusion seriously and have no memories of their father.
To his remaining children the cult leader’s legacy is something strange and approached with mixed emotions.
One son in Hawaii said, “Sometimes I think he’s this nice guy and sometimes I think he’s this big freak. My mind keeps shifting on images of him.”
However, history’s view of David Koresh is far less ambivalent. The apparent psychopath, who led his followers to destruction and death, carved out a distinct niche for himself historically.
But it is not amongst a pantheon biblical heroes.
Instead, it is alongside a cult villains such as Jim Jones and Charles Manson.
No doubt his progeny will struggle with that image for a lifetime.
Replies
Citations of your article..........where did it come from?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh
Mug Shot of Koresh
August 17, 1959
Houston, Texas, U.S.
Outside Waco in McLennan County, Texas, U.S.
David Koresh (August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993), born Vernon Wayne Howell, was the leader of a Branch Davidian religious sect, believing himself to be its final prophet. Howell legally changed his name to David Koresh on May 15, 1990. A 1993 raid by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the subsequent siege by the FBI ended with the burning of the Branch Davidian ranch outside of Waco, Texas, in McLennan County. Koresh, 54 adults and 21 children were found dead after the fire.
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[hide][edit] Early life
Koresh was born in Houston to a 14-year-old single mother, Bonnie Sue Clark.[1] His father was a 20-year-old man named Bobby Howell. Before Koresh was born, his father met another teenage girl and abandoned Bonnie Sue. Koresh never met his father and his mother began cohabiting with a violent alcoholic.[1] In 1963, Koresh's mother left her boyfriend and placed her 4-year-old son in the care of his maternal grandmother, Earline Clark. His mother returned when he was seven, after her marriage to a carpenter named Roy Haldeman. Haldeman and Clark had a son together named Roger, who was born in 1966.
Koresh described his early childhood as lonely, and it has been alleged that he was once gang raped by older boys when he was 8.[1] A poor student who was illiterate and diagnosed with dyslexia, Koresh dropped out of Garland High School in his junior year. Due to his poor study skills, he was put in special education classes and nicknamed "Vernie" by his fellow students,[2][not in citation given] but by the age of 11, he had memorized the entire New Testament.[1] When he was 22, Koresh had an affair with a 15-year-old girl who became pregnant.[1] He claimed to have become a born-again Christian in the Southern Baptist Church and soon joined his mother's church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There he fell in love with the pastor's daughter and while praying for guidance he opened his eyes and allegedly found the Bible open at Isaiah 34, stating that none should want for a mate; convinced this was a sign from God, he approached the pastor and told him that God wanted him to have his daughter for a wife. The pastor threw him out, and when he continued to persist with his pursuit of the daughter he was expelled from the congregation.[1]
In 1981 he moved to Waco, Texas, where he joined the Branch Davidians, a religious group originating from a schism in the 1950s from the Shepherd's Rod, themselves disfellowshipped members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 1930s. They had established their headquarters at a ranch about 10 miles out of Waco, which they called the Mount Carmel Center (after the Biblical Mount Carmel), in 1955.
Koresh played guitar and sang in church services at Mt Carmel; his band did play a few times at clubs in Waco; former members (such as David Thibodeau) have written that he recruited them through music. His status as a "rock singer" was very localised.[3]
[edit] Ascent to leadership of the Branch Davidians
In 1983 he began claiming the gift of prophecy. It is speculated that Koresh had a sexual relationship with Lois Roden, the prophetess and leader of the sect who was then 76 years old, eventually claiming that God had chosen him to father a child with her, who would be the Chosen One.[1] In 1983, Roden allowed Koresh to begin teaching his own message which caused controversy in the group. Lois Roden's son George Roden intended to be the group's next leader and considered Koresh an interloper. When Koresh announced that God had instructed him to marry Rachel Jones (who then added Koresh to her name), there was a short period of calm at Mount Carmel, but it proved only temporary. In the ensuing power struggle, George Roden, claiming to have the support of the majority of the group, forced Koresh and his group off the property at gunpoint. Disturbed by the events and the move away from the philosophy of the community's founders, a further splinter group led by Charles Joseph Pace moved out of Mount Carmel and set up home in Gadsden, Alabama.
Koresh and around 25 followers set up camp at Palestine, Texas, 90 miles from Waco, where they lived under rough conditions in buses and tents for the next two years, during which time Koresh undertook recruitment of new followers in California, the United Kingdom, Israel and Australia. In 1985 Koresh traveled to Israel where he claimed he had a vision that he was the modern day Cyrus. The founder of the Davidian movement, Victor Houteff, wanted to be God's implement and establish the Davidic kingdom in Palestine. Koresh also wanted to be God's tool and set up the Davidic kingdom in Jerusalem. At least until 1990, he believed the place of his martyrdom might be in Israel, but by 1991 he was convinced that his martyrdom would be in the United States. Instead of Israel, he said the prophecies of Daniel would be fulfilled in Waco and that the Mount Carmel Center was the Davidic kingdom.[4]
At the Palestine, Texas camp, Koresh "worked it so that everyone was forced to rely on him, and him alone. All previous bonds and attachments, family or otherwise, meant nothing. His rationale was if they had no one to depend on, they had to depend on him, and that made them vulnerable."[5] By this time, he had already begun to give the message of his own "Christhood", proclaiming that he was "the Son of God, the Lamb who could open the Seven Seals."[4]
Lois Roden died in 1986.
By late 1987, George Roden's support had withered. To regain it, he challenged Koresh to a contest to raise the dead, going so far as to exhume a corpse to practice on it. Koresh went to authorities to file charges of corpse abuse against Roden, but was told he would have to show proof (such as a photograph of the corpse). Koresh returned to Mount Carmel in camouflage, with seven armed followers. All but one - who managed to escape - were arrested by the local police, who had been alerted by the sound of gunfire.[1] When deputy sheriffs arrived, they found Koresh and six followers firing their rifles at Roden, who was also armed. Roden had already suffered a minor gunshot wound and was pinned down behind a tree at the Compound. The sheriff called into the chapel by telephone and talked Koresh into surrender.[6] As a result of the incident, Koresh and his followers were charged with attempted murder. At the trial, Koresh testified that he went to Mount Carmel to uncover evidence of corpse abuse by George Roden. Koresh's followers were acquitted, and in Koresh's case a mistrial was declared.
In 1989 Roden murdered Wayman Dale Adair with an axe blow to the skull after Adair stated his belief that he (Adair) was the true Messiah.[7] Roden was convicted of murder and imprisoned in a mental hospital at Vernon, Texas. Because Roden owed thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, Mount Carmel was placed for sale. Koresh and his followers raised the money and purchased the property, which he subsequently renamed "Ranch Apocalypse".[1] Roden continued to harass the Koresh faction by filing legal papers while imprisoned. When Koresh and his followers reclaimed Mt. Carmel, they discovered that tenants who had rented from Roden had left behind a methamphetamine laboratory, which Koresh reported to the local police department and asked to have removed.[8][9]
[edit] Name change
Vernon Howell filed a petition in California State Superior Court in Pomona on May 15, 1990, to legally change his name "for publicity and business purposes" to David Koresh. On August 28, 1990, Judge Robert Martinez granted the petition.[10]
The name Koresh is a transliteration of the Persian name of Cyrus (Modern Persian: کوروش, Kurosh), the Persian king who allowed the Jews who had been dispersed throughout Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar to return to their homelands. During the siege, Koresh would explain to the FBI negotiators that (in Koresh's mind at least) "koresh" had a deeper meaning:
[edit] Accusations of child abuse and statutory rape
Koresh himself denied all allegations of polygamy and child abuse in public interviews. The popular media, disaffected Davidians, and spokespersons for the US government, however, tell sordid tales of Koresh's personal life.
It has been alleged that Koresh advocated polygamy for himself, and asserted that he was married to several female residents of the small community.[1][6] Some former members of the cult also alleged that Koresh felt he could claim any of the females in the compound as his.[1][6]
The 1993 U.S. Department of Justice report sets out allegations of historical child sexual and physical abuse. ATF Special Agent David Aguilera had interviewed former Branch Davidian Jeannine Bunds, who claimed that Koresh had fathered at least fifteen children with various women and young girls at the compound. According to Bunds, some of the girls who had babies fathered by Koresh were as young as 12 years old. She said she had personally delivered seven of these children. Bunds also claims that Koresh would annul all marriages of couples who joined his cult. He then had exclusive sexual access to the women. He would also have regular sexual relations with young girls.[12] In his book, James Tabor states that Koresh acknowledged on a videotape sent out of the compound during the standoff that he had fathered more than 12 children by several "wives", some of whom were as young as 12 or 13 when they became pregnant.[13] On March 3, 1993, during negotiations to secure the release of the remaining children, Koresh advised the Negotiation Team that: "My children are different than those others," referring to his direct lineage versus those children previously released.
At the time, in Texas, the age of parental consent for a minor to marry was 14, as was the age for consent to engage in sexual relations. In the documentary film, Waco: The Rules of Engagement (long version), Jack Harwell, Sheriff of McLennan County, stated: "You have to have proof to go into court . . . Keep in mind, too, that most of the girls who were involved were at least 14 years old and 14 year olds get married with parental consent. So if their parents were there and letting things happen in the way of sexual activities and what have you with their 14 year old kids, you have common law husbands and wives. Uh, I don’t say that I agree with that and that I approve of it. But at the same time, if parents are there and they’re giving parental consent, we have a problem with that in making a case."
Kiri Jewell, daughter of Branch Davidian Sherri Jewell, claimed in testimony before Congress in 1995 that she was sexually molested at the age of 10 by Koresh, who then read to her from the Bible. She originally related the incident in a 1992 custody battle, and the judge ordered that she be kept away from Koresh and Mount Carmel.[14]
[edit] Raid and siege
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2010)
On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) raided Mount Carmel. The raid resulted in the deaths of four agents and six Davidians. Shortly after the initial raid, the FBI HRT (Hostage Rescue Team) took command of the federal operation, since FBI has jurisdiction over incidents involving the deaths of federal agents. Contact was established with Koresh inside the compound. Communication over the next 51 days included telephone exchanges with various FBI negotiators.
As the standoff continued, Koresh, who was seriously injured by a gunshot wound, along with his closest male leaders negotiated delays, possibly so he could write religious documents he said he needed to complete before he surrendered. His conversations with the negotiators were dense with biblical imagery. The federal negotiators treated the situation as a hostage crisis despite a two hour video tape sent out by the Davidians in which the adults and older children/teens appeared to explain clearly and confidently why they chose of their own free will to remain with Koresh.
The 51-day siege of Mount Carmel ended when U.S Attorney General Janet Reno approved recommendations of veteran FBI officials to proceed with a final assault in which the Branch Davidians were to be removed from their building by force. In the course of the assault, the church building caught fire. The cause of the fire was later alleged by the "Danforth Report", a report commissioned by The Special Counsel, to be the deliberate actions of some of the Branch Davidians inside the building.[15] However this hypothesis is disputed in the documentary Waco: The Rules of Engagement which argues that the fire was deliberately set when the FBI fired an incendiary device into the building after loading the building with CS gas.[16] At the subsequent trial of the surviving Branch Davidians, the jury listened to edited parts of a tape-recording from hidden microphones inside Mt. Carmel during the final attack and fire of April 19. These consisted of sounds of static during which one could faintly hear a voice saying ". . . fire . . . ". A government expert testified that through electronic enhancement, he had reconstructed some clearly incriminating comments, even if the jury could not hear them.[17] It later transpired that the FBI, when meeting Koresh's demands that milk be sent in for the children's wellbeing, also sent in tiny listening devices concealed inside the milk cartons and their styrofoam containers.[18]
Barricaded in their building, seventy-six Branch Davidians, including Koresh, did not survive the fire. Seventeen of these victims were children under the age of 17. The Danforth Report claims that those who died were unable, or unwilling, to flee and that Steve Schneider, Koresh's right-hand man, probably shot Koresh and committed suicide with the same gun. Autopsy records indicate that at least 20 Branch Davidians were shot, including 5 children. Waco: The Rules of Engagement claims that FBI sharpshooters fired on, and killed, many Branch Davidians who attempted to flee the flames. While the few Branch Davidians who did successfully flee the fire supported this claim, the Danforth Report concluded that the adults who died of gunshot wounds shot themselves after shooting the children. Independent third party investigations refute the Danforth Report. On the final day of the Branch Davidian siege in 1993, aerial FLIR film was shot by the FBI that seemed to show automatic weapons fire directed into the burning buildings. Former Senator John Danforth, under the direction of Acting Attorney General Eric Holder, conducted a 14-month, $17-million investigation that exonerated the government of any wrongdoing.
[edit] Aftermath
David Koresh is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery, Tyler, Texas.
Several of David Koresh's albums were released including: David Koresh Voice Of Fire in 1994. Waco: Playing With Fire (The Actual Voice of David Koresh) was released in 2000.
The Mount Carmel raid and the 1992 Ruby Ridge incident were cited by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols as motivations for the Oklahoma City bombing. The terrorist act, on April 19, 1995, was timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the Waco siege.
eIn 2004, Koresh's 1968 Camaro with a 427c.i. swap, which had been damaged by the military during the raid, sold for $37,000 at auction.[19]
On January 23, 2009, Koresh's mother, Bonnie Clark Haldeman, was stabbed to death in Chandler, Texas. Her sister, Beverly Clark, was charged with the murder.[20]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
[edit] External links
Categories: 1959 births | 1993 deaths | Adventism | Apocalypticists | Branch Davidians | Christianity conspiracy theorists | Deaths by firearm in Texas | Former Seventh-day Adventists | People from Houston, Texas | People from Garland, Texas | People from Waco, Texas | Perpetrators of religiously motivated violence in the United States | Prophets | Self-declared messiahs | Waco Sieg
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Note: Have to agree with Kukuna that your post is "mis-placed"........................
Koresh should have been removed from the building along with all the INNOCENTS.........it was wrong for the U.S. to kill them............
Significant Issues: http://www.culteducation.com/waco.html
"A frustrated and exhausted FBI subsequently attempted to end the standoff by gassing the compound. Koresh, then forced to choose between his compound Kingdom and certain criminal prosecution, opted to end not only of his own life, but that of his followers as well." (Note: the FBI became prosecutor, Judge, terminator at their whim......)
David Koresh was a man many mental health experts were inclined to describe as a likely "psychopath." (Note: he was ill.)
"Vernon Wayne Howell was born in Houston, the son an unwed mother (Note: biased view of unmarried mothers having children----disregarding the fact that his mother was both mother and father). He grew up in Dallas (Note: Texas approves of gun carrying citizens) and according to his grandmother "was dyslexic."" (Note: he had learning disabilities..........)
"David Koresh "was building an arsenal" (note: red flags here, failure of the Police, etc. to monitor bulk purchases, etc.) and "preparing for a battle with someone."According to financial records Koresh spent $199,715.00 (note: red flags here......) on weapons and ammunition......."
Still remember the horrifying news capturing the KILLING/TERMINATION/PLANNED DEATHS of those in WACO, TEXAS....Modern Day Shootout..................BARBARIC.........................A United States PLUNDERING UPON INNOCENTS ..........the PLANNED KILLING OF THEIR OWN BY GUN TOTING, SELF DECLARED FBI PERSONNEL ACTING AS JUDGE, JURY, BARBARIANS!
WICKED! BEYOND WICKED!......also desensitizing MURDERING ACTIVITIES TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC IN THE U.S., ABROAD, AND IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS..........TEACHING, yes TEACHING People the disrespect for others because the event was blasted all over for people to see............a SHOCK AND AWE.........certainly spoiled many good people's dinner..............
Your Post
Am clueless as to your connecting this material and applying it to Hawaiian Nationals and find it interesting that you suggest that anyone here would be in alignment with such, and appears that the point of our being a neutral, non-violent, friendly status doesn't figure in your current mindset..................hmmmm....................perhaps a vacation is needed? or maybe a talk with human rights people, peace activists, etc.
Comments that are unpopular:
Alignment with the U.S. occupation.................supporting the Hawaiian Homestead Act...... disregarding the piracy(ies) promoted by propaganda, etc..................trying to implicate people here or pin them with something.........hits against those you've known for umpteen years (Pomai for example).........many are watching.............................
Good Stuff
aside from that, it's good to see the ongoing support services to the homeless, opposing the depleted uranium, pointing out the slaves issues, toxins, etc.
aloha.
p.s. guess the point of your post was that it was not O.K. to lump Bin Ladin and Queen Liliuokalani on the same page.............. must admit did not agree with some of the comments made by Pomai.......about Bin Ladin and simply did not post anything......
Bin Ladin did not come from a neutral, friendly, non violent nation...........the thing he had in common was that their government was Monarchy based. His history shows that they defeated their enemies.........and Iraq had one of the four largest militaries in the World........read some of the interesting history books on the Middle East, etc.......
We need to take care of ourselves and maintain some sense of Independence from 'cult' leaders.
But, it takes education and the need to want to do right by ones family, culture and our ancestral lands.
In otherwords, learn from past experiences and move on even if it means telling the 'psyco' paths to take a hike!
The forum are places where we can debate the issues until we get it right!
The forum should not run a muck with wanna be wives and stupid drug minds!
We need to move on and work with as well as for our people. I may not have all the answers or even questions, but I sure as hell know a sick psyco and his cult follow worshipers when it presents itself 24/7 with a mantra of three words or three fragmented sentences.